I think the assemble it offline and incorporate what's needed is a good approach. I think having some details *does* help -- it sometimes creates a richer story, where you bring in details you otherwise wouldn't have thought of, and avoids bloopers where you never decided if the population is X or 10 times X. But it does feel like it can be wasted, alas.
Yeah, I guess the "wasted effort" bit can be a bit sad, and explains some novels that spend so much time on the worldbuilding they never seem to get to the characterisation or plot and it all gets rather tiresome. But when you're interested in a world and want to make sure the internal logic works, it's definitely nice to have the intricacies worked out. :)
Some of their fuel could be driftwood. As a seaside place, they could also import wood or coal from elsewhere, as long as they have some bargaining commodity (chalk? seaweed?). Not every household needs their own bread-oven; in fact, communal bread-ovens were extremely common around here, and some villages still have theirs today. It must have been similar in other places. Beans and peas love alkaline soils. Sheep sound good, they cover a lot of needs - wool, milk, meat, dung - and more or less take care of themselves. Mattresses can be stuffed with eelgrass, which is apparently also great for thatching roofs...
Yes, a personal Wiki sounds like a good idea. It's so much fun to explore a world, but all the details can bog down a story!
Hahah, yes, thanks. I came up with answers to all the main questions (and wanted a chance to play around with the botany, mix up European and imaginary species, etc. anyway) so I think I'm covered, but your perspective is useful. I did indeed assume communal bread oven after too much time spent hanging around in Viking villages and Swedish outdoor museums, etc.!
You're right about details! So easy to obsess over making sure everything makes sense! (I get really carried away with geography and sizes, too - trying to work out how many people realistically live in a certain town, how many horses might be able to be kept and pastured in the King's stables, and how on earth that would work if the palace is in the middle of a city, and how they'd all get fed and exercised, and where everyone lived, and where the roads went, and if character D decided to go for a walk, where could he go safely, where might he wander by mistake, etc...) Then I understood why some books came with not just a country map, but plans of actual towns and
No problem! (Or rather, sorry!) I figured you'd already answered these questions and only listed them to show how one thing led to another - but it's way too much fun to play even with other people's worldbuilding. >_>
Heh, I tend to be great at details of botany and everyday life, but never stop to consider distances and numbers. Then suddenly the question arises just how many people are going to attend that royal feast and how far/for how long have they travelled? And if character A can ride to the next village over to get to the market, why can't she go the same distance in the other direction? OK, let's remove the big city a big further from character A's homestead... but now an obscure reference in chapter 1 will no longer work and have to be rewritten... if only I had thought about this from the beginning! ;) So although there is such a thing as overthinking stuff, there's also the problem of Not Having Done Your Homework. Better to have a lot of unused material. It can always be used to cobble together A Geography Of X-World (
( ... )
Ovens> intermediate between 'cook at home' and 'buy' is 'assemble at home and use communal oven'; dunno how much that was done.
If you fish you trade fish. Lots of lovely fish. Which must be moved fast, so you have a good road to the nearest market town, or sail them round the coast. You might also sell salt, if you can extract it from the water or if there are suitable deposits.
Sheep'll put up with a lot in terms of shit weather. England in reality has an early and thriving trade with the low countries in cloth (by the 16th century we exported fleece and imported the finest wool cloth...) especially linens. Once serfdom in abolished we have a lot more mobility than anyone ever thinks. Not *far* far (for most people), but not "never leave village of birth" either.
Heh, agreed - thanks for the thoughts. Most of the above musings were rhetorical, largely stuff I'd already (somewhat) sorted by plundering European botany/natural history or inventing additions to it
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I am not really a writery type or a gamery type, but I do think about writing and gaming ;-)
I also drew parallels with Orkney, and other north Atlantic island groups, after reading your post. There, wood wasn't just expensive, it was almost non-existent. But there was driftwood; flotsam and jetsam; the blessed bounty of a wrecked ship; and imports from Scandinavia, up to and including flatpack ships and houses.
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Yes, a personal Wiki sounds like a good idea. It's so much fun to explore a world, but all the details can bog down a story!
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You're right about details! So easy to obsess over making sure everything makes sense! (I get really carried away with geography and sizes, too - trying to work out how many people realistically live in a certain town, how many horses might be able to be kept and pastured in the King's stables, and how on earth that would work if the palace is in the middle of a city, and how they'd all get fed and exercised, and where everyone lived, and where the roads went, and if character D decided to go for a walk, where could he go safely, where might he wander by mistake, etc...) Then I understood why some books came with not just a country map, but plans of actual towns and
Reply
Heh, I tend to be great at details of botany and everyday life, but never stop to consider distances and numbers. Then suddenly the question arises just how many people are going to attend that royal feast and how far/for how long have they travelled? And if character A can ride to the next village over to get to the market, why can't she go the same distance in the other direction? OK, let's remove the big city a big further from character A's homestead... but now an obscure reference in chapter 1 will no longer work and have to be rewritten... if only I had thought about this from the beginning! ;)
So although there is such a thing as overthinking stuff, there's also the problem of Not Having Done Your Homework. Better to have a lot of unused material. It can always be used to cobble together A Geography Of X-World ( ( ... )
Reply
If you fish you trade fish. Lots of lovely fish. Which must be moved fast, so you have a good road to the nearest market town, or sail them round the coast. You might also sell salt, if you can extract it from the water or if there are suitable deposits.
Sheep'll put up with a lot in terms of shit weather. England in reality has an early and thriving trade with the low countries in cloth (by the 16th century we exported fleece and imported the finest wool cloth...) especially linens. Once serfdom in abolished we have a lot more mobility than anyone ever thinks. Not *far* far (for most people), but not "never leave village of birth" either.
Reply
Reply
I also drew parallels with Orkney, and other north Atlantic island groups, after reading your post. There, wood wasn't just expensive, it was almost non-existent. But there was driftwood; flotsam and jetsam; the blessed bounty of a wrecked ship; and imports from Scandinavia, up to and including flatpack ships and houses.
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