Post B0q5dL5ALhrA9yzs1o by NYSloth@mastodon.online
(DIR) More posts by NYSloth@mastodon.online
(DIR) Post #B0q2kqkIivwWWk7xA0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-02T12:48:50Z
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When reading science fiction or fantasy are you more likely to skip through the action scenes to find out how the world works or are you more often interested in action and bored by exposition?The heart of storytelling is always character. (I say this, as someone is generally more interested in the world building than characters.)
(DIR) Post #B0q2rPmrM0p0wXSF9c by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-02T12:50:01Z
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Good world-building reveals character; it challenges and shapes to people in your story. perhaps what I find lacking in certain fight or battle scenes is a similar connection to character.sometimes the main characters a book on their way to an objective and a problem arises, and it can feel very much like the author has inserted the problem because otherwise it would be boring.
(DIR) Post #B0q2y4fiG5VDTyHrqy by swacknificent@fosstodon.org
2025-12-02T12:51:11Z
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@futurebird I love world-building the most.
(DIR) Post #B0q3O64HgoZdLHBlaq by adardis@mstdn.social
2025-12-02T12:55:52Z
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@futurebird I'm more and more bored with action. Some of these door stop novels ... Currently reading Nicola Griffith's "Spear". So far it's all about the character. There are action scenes, very effective and not long.
(DIR) Post #B0q3ZqDKScNDe91GlM by kimlockhartga@beige.party
2025-12-02T12:57:56Z
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@futurebird Interesting thoughts. I find that if I'm in the mood for it, I gravitate more toward film or streaming for sci fi space battles/space opera, like The Expanse, in which definitely the action is just a vehicle to reveal the characters and move along the plot. In novels, I think I'm the same way. I don't think I skip them, but I dont really remember fight or battle scenes too often in my sci fi, except in Midnight Robber, by Nalo Hopkinson, which I highy recommend. In that book, there is an epic showdown. The whole story is amazing. I love the idea that the only people who escaped Earth to go to another planet were all Carribean.
(DIR) Post #B0q3doszL9rkgaP0qm by Esoteria@social.horrorhub.club
2025-12-02T12:58:29Z
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@futurebird I’ve never really thought about it, but I don’t feel you can have a good story without either one. I don’t really skip anything unless they insert poetry into the story. I can read a poem 20 times and never comprehend what they’re trying to say. Just because I like to share, an excellent fantasy series for both world building and battles is The Malazan series by Steven Erikson.
(DIR) Post #B0q3mnhv5iyJdYVXQe by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-12-02T13:00:22Z
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Sometimes, if you are a world-building focused writer, people will suggest adding “more action” and I think one should always *listen* to advice (what you *do* about it? that’s another matter) When I hear the words “more action,” I think “so add a sword fight??” This is being overly literal. How are your characters in conflict with the world that you are building? How does revealing more about the world complicate expose more of who they are?
(DIR) Post #B0q40rsiMvjYdYGTJo by DamonWakes@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-12-02T13:02:51Z
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@futurebird I find the same thing whenever characters fail to reach for an obvious solution. It almost invariably feels as though the main reason they don't is that the book/film/episode would be too short if they did.Better characters would often solve this too: gritty antiheroes failing to shoot the bad guy mid-monologue make very little sense, determined pacifists looking for any other option are much more interesting.
(DIR) Post #B0q4O4Dgf4wbZ18WeW by NinjaDebugger@mastodon.sandwich.net
2025-12-02T13:07:06Z
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@futurebird I adore worldbuilding, but for me the action is the worldbuilding. I am much more interested in what the characters and how they behave tells me about the world than what the author's exposition tells me about the world, especially because the two frequently disagree.
(DIR) Post #B0q4bUnFAnkJkEAfaK by Sharksonaplane@mastodon.sandwich.net
2025-12-02T13:09:31Z
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@futurebird speaking of character, sometimes I read your name in my head as "myrmeprotagonist"which I guess squares with the belief that more ants should be main characters in story and film
(DIR) Post #B0q4gq55S9h3DQ45qq by maswan@mastodon.acc.sunet.se
2025-12-02T13:10:27Z
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@futurebird I found Le Guin's Always Coming Home to have interesting takes on how narrow (armed) conflict for narrative purposes is.
(DIR) Post #B0q5dL5ALhrA9yzs1o by NYSloth@mastodon.online
2025-12-02T13:21:01Z
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@futurebird I have always found Kurt Vonnegut’s advice worth considering: “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” Maybe you will find it useful, too.
(DIR) Post #B0q6Ct4Jyql7hbYJhg by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-12-02T13:27:31Z
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@futurebird in most cases it is the world-building that I am most interested in. Wally Broecker's _How to Build a Habitable Planet_ is my idea of a great SF novel ... although he wrote it to be a college textbook.
(DIR) Post #B0qA477KmK5GU329b6 by grumpasaurus@infosec.exchange
2025-12-02T14:10:42Z
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@futurebird i think Brandon Sanderson is the epitome of "world building through action" cuz that's like the pop quiz for demonstrating whatever magic system he's drummed up
(DIR) Post #B0qFpbxSQlErW1sjya by nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social
2025-12-02T15:15:20Z
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@futurebird A couple of times I thought I'd try my hand at writing. I suck at it and never got very far, but, putting that aside, in regards to "adding action" I found that I just couldn't even figure out when to have something happen. Like it just never felt natural. And how even to decide what happened?Maybe real writers get better at this, but I'm willing to bet it's tough for even the most experienced. Exactly at what point does a monster jump out of a bush to keep the reader on their toes and what monster is it?
(DIR) Post #B0qh5wATktyrajyw9w by lufthans@mastodon.social
2025-12-02T20:20:48Z
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@futurebird for me, world building and setting"What can this strange device be?"usually with some movement/change/growth"When I touch it, it gives forth a soundIt's got wires that vibrate, and give music"Now the reader/listener has something for their imagination to run withmovement can be action, but doesn't have to be
(DIR) Post #B0s1TTOQaI81XSxyng by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
2025-12-03T11:43:49Z
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@futurebird this reminds me how in "Orthogonal" I was interested in both, but when it came to quantum thermodynamics I just couldn't follow the exposition anymore :/ (at least not when reading this for leisure in a packed suburban train during commute; had I been at the table with pen and paper, things might have worked out better)