World-Building from the Inside Out

By: Janeen Ippolito

Narrated by: Kevin Gisi

Go to the heart of your world and build it well!

Memorable world-building enhances story, attracts readers and listeners, and sells books and audiobooks! Find the core of your science fiction or fantasy people and instill your narrative with universal themes and concepts derived from real-world cultures.

• Explore different religions and governments with concise entries that include ideas for plot and character development
• Develop key aspects of your society without getting caught up in unnecessary details
• Learn how the deeper effects of appearance and location can enhance your narrative

World-Building from the Inside Out challenges you to go deep and build fantastical worlds that truly bring your story to life!

©2015 Janeen Ippolito (P)2018 Janeen Ippolito

REAL STUFF with no FLUFF, & only 101 MINUTES!

This short work is packed with good stuff every author should consider before creating a new world for their story! It's dense with things to consider. However, those 101 minutes of material took me a full day to get through while making notes and jotting down comments on what was relevant to my project. The author, Janeen Ippolito, categorically goes through all of the social and political influences, customs, and other factors, that in my view, influence a character's nuanced behaviors as they intuitively and realistically come to life, living the story they have been written into. There's no fluff here. It's a bang for the buck, no-nonsense, fast-paced, comprehensive list of the most important influences on any culture and all the individuals that live in it.

Some of the categories this book covers are;
Society, (with subcategories like technology, naming, customs, gender roles, family structure, traditions, and coming of age)
Religion and Philosophy,
Goverment,
Apperance,
Location,
Health and Medicine,
Military,
and Education. With each category having many sub-categories and brief explanations on their influence within a story.

Even though only a fraction of what this book lays out would actually be communicated within the words of a story, much of it should be decided by the author in advance of the story's creation. The intention being that once the story is in the readers hands, the flow, attitudes, and feel of the culture surrounding the character can be unconsciously perceived by the reader to intuitively fit together, without necessitating dry exposition or long elaboration to establish them.

The author relates in the introduction that the book was written because of the "I wish I would have known" and "wisdom in hindsight" she experienced after years of her own work feeling like it was missing something. I found value in what she has shared and saw it had no reviews, so decided to write this one.

The minimum

Not much here beyond a solid outline builder. Not bad info, but nothing that would generate a powerful "aha moment".