Writer’s Digest Presents: World-Building (Podcast, Episode 5)
In the fifth episode of the Writer’s Digest Presents podcast, we talk about world-building in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including interviews with authors Whitney Hill (fiction) and Jeannine Hall Gailey (poetry).
In this fifth episode of the Writer's Digest Presents podcast, Amy, Robert, Moriah, and Michael discuss what world-building is, examples of their favorite world-building, and more.
Thoughts on World-Building From the WD Editors:
- "I thought of world-building as a full world, and really you have to choose how to contain it somehow." -Amy Jones
- "You could be at the same exact place at the same exact time, but the tone is different for these two different worlds." -Robert Lee Brewer
- "World-building is really just how you tell a story in a way that immerses your audience totally within the story." -Moriah Richard
- "What I find I prefer is a certain level of restraint, because I think a lot of times with world-building less is so much more." -Michael Woodson
Interview With Jeannine Hall Gailey on World-Building in Poetry
After the opening discussion, Robert Lee Brewer talks with Jeannine Hall Gailey (author of Becoming the Villainess, Field Guide to the End of the World, PR for Poets, and more) on world-building in poetry. In addition to reading a couple poems, Gailey discusses writing project-based poetry collections, creating book arcs, promotion for poetry, and more.
From Jeannine Hall Gailey: "When I do workshops for young people, I always say it's a good idea to use fiction writer's toolsets even though we're not fiction writers. Things like dialogue, characters; it's why I have so many poems in persona."
Interview With Whitney Hill on World-Building in Fiction
Moriah Richard talks with Whitney Hill (author of Elemental, Eldritch Sparks, and more) on world-building in fiction. Hill discusses writing fan fiction, laying out rules in fictional world-building, the importance of research, what counts as writing time, and more.
From Whitney Hill: "A lot of times with setting, it's not just sensory details and how do I immerse the reader; it's also thinking about how is this character going to navigate this space?"
