Thread by @ellle_em, Ok because the TL is shaping up this way I think we [...]

Ok because the TL is shaping up this way I think we need to talk about the difference between worldbuilding and lore because they're not the same things at all

When you worldbuild, you're trying to make a setting for your characters that is multidimensional and believable. By 'believable' I mean: a setting that feels like it could exist with or without your character; a setting that doesn't feel like a set-piece

There are plenty of ways to do this but some mostly-universal things that create a multidimensional setting are at least mentions of geography, government, culture/entertainment, social standards, religion (if applicable), and history.

And by mentions, I mean just that

Just a few sentences here and there can accomplish a lot. A few side-quest scenes. Some description. Dialogue.

Because, and this is crucial, you're not about a world; you're writing about your characters and what happens to them.

For example: plenty of people across the world have never been to New Jersey. For some, New Jersey is as faraway & fictional-sounding as Gondor or whatever.

But if I wrote a story taking place in New Jersey, you wouldn't expect me to include a glossary of every state governor

You wouldn't expect me to include detailed maps of the Turnpike and the Parkway would you? You wouldn't need me to go into the minute differences between every single town's local pizza place would you?

No. Because that'd be boring. And it wouldn't help my story.

Just a few mentions of the characters being "stuck in traffic" would obviously tell you the highways are super busy. Just a quick scene of dialogue while the characters are stopped in a pizza place would tell you about the food & ambiance

A throwaway message about the NJ Devils would tell you there are Sports here. A humorous scene describing a fight over whether it's a "pork roll" or "Taylor ham" would be good for some added local color

(it's pork roll btw and anyone who says differently is wrong)

All the things I mentioned might, if put together, equal maybe two or three pages of text. And yet it would be incredibly useful in establishing the aesthetics of the world where the characters are having their adventure.

THAT is worldbuilding

Lore, on the other hand, is all the other stuff

Lore is details that, while definitely interesting, are not relevant to the story. Lore is background information that doesn't really impact the characters and their plots. Lore is the stuff ppl who only read the book or saw the movie wouldn't really know

and yet their not knowing doesn't impact their enjoyment of the book/movie as a piece of media in its own right

And this is fine!! Some people really like this stuff!! And authors have a lot of fun releasing like, fake history books regarding their worlds. That's fine!! I'm in no way denigrating this, and I want to make it clear: lore is fine

But lore is not worldbuilding

Man I rag on Harry Potter a lot which you know what? Good for me because it sucks and the author sucks.

But a thing people always say about Harry Potter is "oh the worldbuilding is so great!!!!!"

except it's not. It sucks.

If you take the books completely on their own without any outside information the worldbuilding is lazy. JKR makes things up only to like, never use them again. She solves one problem one way and then refuses to solve similar problems the same way w/o explaining why

She pulls concepts out of nowhere to like, add colorful funderful magical touches to her elitist wizard institutions but never ever once reckons with how those funderful things literally would change her story but don't for some reason

then, when you bring that up, fans of the series are like "No! She explains that in this interview she did back in 2001 I saved it to my livejournal"

That's not worldbuilding that's lore and the main point of lore is that it isn't really necessary to answer main plot questions

Even JRR Tolkien understood this!!!!

You can read his books/see the movies and enjoy them on their own without knowing all the backstory.

Like god, my husband watches all these Youtube videos about Middle Earth history & nothing in them has impacted my feelings about the books

Jeeze, I watched the first three Star Wars movies not knowing a damn thing about Revan the Sith Lord or whoever and while of course Lucas makes mistakes, the movies are still enjoyable on their own

I think it's a big trend--and maybe Harry Potter turned it into a big trend tho it existed before obviously--to want to know literally everything about a fictional world. To have encyclopedias and bird guides and repair manuals and whatever.

Which again. Fine!! People enjoy it!!

But it's not worldbuilding. It's lore.

And it make seem like I'm nitpicking here, that I'm stuck on semantics but I'm not

Because if an author is good at lore, that doesn't mean they're good at worldbuilding. It doesn't mean they can write a narrative that's engaging and interesting and not bogged down in extraneous details.

It doesn't mean I wanna read their books

And it's something for you to think about when you're writing. I know I do it--I ask "is this lore or worldbuilding?" when I introduce a detail and it actually really helps me not get lost in Detail Hell. It makes the process easier in some ways

But hey! Save those details! You never know--you might end up writing an encyclopedia in the future!

Ok please if you can help me help cats I literally have to spay/neuter thirty cats in the next three months https://twitter.com/ellle_em/status/1309999500992405504?s=20