How to Write Worldbuilding: Game of Thrones

Want to learn how to worldbuild like George RR Martin does? Come check out the techniques and decisions he makes use of to bring his story to life!
Below is a link to my 90 page fantasy book, A Heart of Woe. Chapter 1 should be fully available as sample at the Amazon website!
www.amazon.com...
Song: Heir to Winterfell
• 17 - Heir To Winterfel...
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[@savagebooks7482]

Just in case anyone missed it, I recently created a twitter account for channel! twitter.com/BooksSavage If you ever want to chat or tell me something, feel free to tweet, email me, or just comment below. Keep being awesome you guys!

[@Senk8181]

thanks for the video. Would be awesome to hear your take on Hyperion by Dan Simmons. As the world building and storytelling there is something else.

[@Mike.Ivory.Music7]

Isn't also crazy that the whole first book is balanced, in that it starts with Ned Stark beheading someone, then ends with him being beheaded himself...sort of taking what we know of storytelling, and figuratively turning it on its head.

[@TorianTammas]

It is just imitating history in which people imagined to be "good" die of tooth infection or are killed by people imagined as bad. As Martin once said he used the Rose Wars for his stories. So he writes "fictional history".

[@gargoylestories]

"Name drop and move on!" Lol... Simple. I'll use that in my writing. Thanks again.

[@paynepersons6147]

“Does your inner monologue talk about mundane things in detail?” I do that a lot, explaining things to fictional characters that live in my head is fun for me.

[@blablabla55555]

You are not alone

[@Drahko12]

I do it but for scenes and from there I built the world and characters in my mind. 😅

[@oliverworley5162]

I do it out loud to myself, full blown conversations between like 8 people

[@Yvaelle]

You may be joking or not, but this is pretty common. The most effective method to learn something is to try to teach it to someone else, because in order to do that we need to efficiently structure that disparate knowledge in a comprehensible way in our minds first: and then we can communicate and teach it to a novice, even if that novice is a figment of our mind. You're using your ability to teach to better order your own thoughts - so keep talking to yourself, it's a good thing! :D

[@francis7336]

Same 😩

[@urthofthenewsun8465]

Gene Wolfe was the master of "name it, then drop it". The word 'ship' is a really good example. Ships are mentioned throughout the stories, but at a certain point you realise that the narrator is referring to spaceships as well as sea ships. A 'pistol' is also mentioned in the very first chapter, all you know from the first description is that it's a small energy weapon that creates a very bright flash and causes a lot of destruction. By the closing chapters, you're learning about the specific mechanics of the gun and how it has settings that can be dialled back to reduce or intensify the beam as the protagonist uses one on the lowest setting to light a fireplace.

[@WalterLiddy]

This for me is one of the hardest things to achieve, especially for a fantasy/sci-fi setting. You want to give the reader an immediate range of imagery so they can feel immersed in a different world, but you can't belabour it. Martin is masterful at this.

[@micaelagonzalez71]

I love the naming and dropping thing Martin does. I hate it when in a book, a character's inner monologue starts explaining every detail about an event, artifact, person, etc. It feels so forced. Like you said, it's as if I were reading a realist novel and the main character just started explaining what a car is for. Martin does exposition really well too. I've never found his "info dumps" boring (maybe because they don't feel like info dumps). Catelyn's and Bran's chapters have a lot of history and lore in them and it's always interesting to read them. I'm not saying info dumps are wrong or unnecesary, but sometimes some authors just don't integrate them well. Awesome video. I'm so glad I found your channel, ASOIAF is my favorite series ever (and the only fantasy I've read in years!). Have you read Martin's other works (outside ASOIAF)?

[@ThatCreeNative1]

I love it as well. Currently crossing my fingers, but I'm working on completing a few documents and pilot screenplay for my show that a couple of production companies are interested in. That's how I write the first episode. I name drop characters names, locations, and other things as well. If any of them ask why I haven't explained (though, I hope not and they can see what I'm doing), I'll simply say we'll get to know more of what I had mentioned in future episodes and even seasons.

[@micaelagonzalez71]

@@ThatCreeNative1 That's great! Good luck!

[@ryanratchford2530]

It’s a hard thing to balance.

[@cameronfox4401]

Nightflyers is pretty good.

[@Skye_Writer]

I have to say that I disagree about the info dumps. Maybe it was because Martin waited too long to show us anything about Dorne and Sunspear, but by the time he got there and started dumping all this info on us about the politics there, I lost a lot of interest. I should re-read them and see if maybe the fault was in the fact that he didn't tease it out and make us want to know more about Dorne as the books went on, or if he was just trying to get past all the political machinations there to show us how it was going to tie in to the rest of the story and the characters we already knew. Whatever it was, I was bored out of my mind in those chapters and ended up skimming them more than anything just to get a general idea of what was going on and then get back to the other 6 kingdoms and the conflicts going on there that had been established in 3 books. Everything about Dorne seemed so far removed from the main story that I was thinking, "Who cares?? This doesn't matter at all." Whereas the other chapters in the other books kept me up all night turning pages to get to the next chapter, Dorne put me to sleep. Maybe GRRM didn't do a good job setting it up as some exotic place I could not wait to see explored; maybe the political situation there was just dull. I can't really put my finger on it. I loved Oberyn Martell, so I should have been happy to read about his home and explore his daughters as characters. But maybe because it felt like a political lecture with a ton of information being thrown at me all at once, I just could not get into it.

[@lorenshancock4476]

Now do a video: how to destroy world building

[@thedamntrain]

Oh, that's pretty easy. Just hire D&D to finish your story

[@LadyNicoMura]

just watch the final season(s) of game of thrones

[@nazimouachek2216]

Well , the world building wasn't touched in the final season , not really , only the characters

[@nazimouachek2216]

And writting

[@eyalsi1070]

Easy. Just introduce evil Ice zombies that want to destroy the world Because they are evil.

[@Praiseforhappydyingchildren]

Game of Thrones. The first Fanatsy novels I ever read and what really got me into the genre Also like that Terrible Writing Advice thumbnail

[@mikecl07]

Yuuuki :)

[@UndertakerU2ber]

@Yuno Gasai If you read the novels, then you’d know that they’re called “A Song of Ice and Fire” and not “Game of Thrones.”

[@magnuspeacock5857]

@@UndertakerU2bershut up you bampot. I call it GoT even though I have read the books but not watched the show.

[@UndertakerU2ber]

@@magnuspeacock5857 Oooooh sounds like a struck the nerve of a casual lol

[@magnuspeacock5857]

@@UndertakerU2ber Yes. You did.

[@Zero-ry2rc]

I would also like to add that Martin uses the troupe of "Old Man Exposition" well with the three-eyed raven.

[@alexspogonz]

Trying to understand the eastern side of Essos like Ashai, and researching Sothoryos is like so awesome for me

[@1987palerider]

"Name it and drop it". Lucas did something similar in A New Hope. Characters casually mentioned far flung planets to let the viewers know that yes, this galaxy is huge

[@Gadget-Walkmen]

Which I love feels the world with a bunch action going on and we just get dropped right into the middle of it when the movie starts.

[@fanisvanyar]

It s amazing, to me as a reader to see what 's behind curtains on a writer's mind. All these things make tottally sense now that i read about them , but hadn 't notice them consiously ever! Well done!

[@sirjoey3137]

I get so caught in your videos it's kind of a shock when they just end, I wish they would be longer.

[@Markadown]

So interesting for this video to pop up in my feed. I just finished retyping this chapter (a smidge over 3k words) as practice to analyze his writing style, word choice, sentence structure, how he ends paragraphs and more. Damn, was there so much packed into that chapter. It really made me think. The line that stood out the most was about Ghost being the only one with its eyes open...now, to actually watch your vid and hear what you have to say.

[@celtictarotreadings333]

Never really thought much about how much of the got world George put into the first chapter. Good video will certainly help with my own world building.

[@koretmulder6316]

Walter Tevis was an absolute master of worldbuilding, sans info dump. Mockingbird is a very short novel, but by the end of the first chapter, without any piles of exposition, you really get the future you are in, evan as the narrative moves forward briskly.

[@HxH2011DRA]

Those first words were hear from Ned really strike me with their OOF factor

[@Rimea]

So I recently found your channel through one of your Bojack videos, and after watching all the other videos your channel had to offer, I couldn't believe how low the number on the subsbcribe button was when I hit it, your videos are of an amazing quality and right up my ally, so keep it up!

[@mudza92]

Well, not many people are interesting in writing which is understandable. How many writers do you know personally, I dont know a single one so its kind of to be expected that there wouldnt be many subscribers interested in this type of content.

[@DrEllert]

This is great, you explain exactly what I mean by lore. It's not about info-dump, it's about giving your world some depth. It's about showing that you put real emotion and thought to the place, time, and character.

[@lordodysseus]

I just realized that I've been doing this naming and dropping thing in my own writing. With a bit exposition dump and there, though, I don't think I have nearly enough world building. I have about 40,000 words and maybe 4,000 of those words, at most, are world building. More likely it's 2,500 words. I might need to add some stuff.

[@10solitare01]

Okay this is completely amazing and so instructive for all aspiring writers (myself included), please please do more!

[@jaimelannister1797]

Honestly Bran I is one of my favorite chapters in the series. It perfectly immerges you into the world

[@JLchevz]

This is why GRRM is my favorite writer and even though I have read a ton of other authors few come close to the immersion and feeling of realism (as in being in the story) that he conveys in his stories.

[@davidleverty234]

This is one the most useful videos I have ever watched on writing. I can't wait to take a deep dive into your videos and use these concepts in my own writing. Keep up the amazing work!!

[@TheDXJC56]

Would absolutely love to see a video covering some of the things that go into world building off the page like in those 300 pages of non-published text you said you had for your fantasy world. Would be a very interesting insight to the other side of the element for people like me curious about it!

[@sonicducktheinoccent]

We were so young 2 months ago

[@patm407]

Loved the little tidbit on Mass Effect in this video! That series has some of the best worldbuilding period. I would love to see a video on it

[@Syt1976]

Bit late to this video, and while I'm not the biggest fan of The Song of Ice and Fire, I agree that it's great how he handles (most of) his exposition. It reminds me of how George Lucas wrote his original Star Wars - inspired by Kurosawa's movies that used tropes and references that would be familiar to Japanese audiences but not to (most) Western viewers, he wanted to replicate that effect of following a familiar narrative in an unfamiliar world, so he included comparatively little exposition. How do lightsabers work? What are the Clone Wars? What's a Moisture Vaporator? What language is Bocce? How do hyperdrives work? What exactly are the Jedi Knights, and how were they destroyed? How does Luke's landspeeder hover? Obviously, much of this has been answered in the meantime, but in the beginning there was this (hinted at) huge, lived in universe with all kinds of weird aliens and technology, but it was treated as part of the characters' everyday mundane world, much like the exposition we get here from Bran. While great, I feel it can be overdone. Based on numerous recommendations, I picked up Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. My Kindle says I got about 1/3 in when I put it aside. I thought the story and world was great, but I felt completely overwhelmed with references to history, events, characters and stories that are rarely explained that I ended up very much lost and alienated from the story. It's a shame, because I hear great things about the series as a whole.

[@emily-grace6246]

I love these videos so much, I’ve learned so much about writing and literature from you in the past week

[@wordseller631]

well explained, you are doing good work.

[@birchnarriv9850]

6:00 - yes.

[@keentotalk2839]

Bro I could listen to you read all day.

[@dante-sparras]

Very good video!

[@oldrabbit8290]

I wonder if there's an element of survivor bias in the naming and dropping approach.. ie, this approach is only effective if you are skillful enough, or your book has become well-known enough, for people to have basic ideas about what is going on.. if you are a novice and use this method too frequently, you can make the audience feel alienated and disconnected with your setting.. betting that the reader can be impressed enough to remember these details, or to recognize that these things are important and may return later, is generally easier said than done.. While they aren't novel, i have read some manga that follow this "explain through the story" or "explain later" approach.. It also doesn't help that they start with a battle or something quite important (i guess?).. I have no idea what, how and why they do these things - it's just a whirlwind of confusion. and i'm certainly not impressed enough to read more than a few chapters before dropping..

[@nullion9358]

I believe the overall point made is that if done properly, this name-dropping style is almost unnoticeable. When well done, an info dump is still recognizable. Even if you enjoy it, you’ll know that it’s a method of weaving in exposition. If done well, you don’t notice Martin’s method. Of course it’s easy to do both very poorly, but when done as well as possible, one method comes out significantly cleaner than the other.

[@TorianTammas]

@@nullion9358 I stumbled over his drop and forget about it style every time he used it. It is the may be later I will use it again approach or just forget about it. It is a make believe style one can nicely use in Roleplaying games, but the player characters can then immidìately try to find more about the stuff that caught their interest and forget about the other. In a book I add up question marks. So as the author does not tell us more about he either had no clue himself what it meant or just could not fit it meaningful in a dialogue.

[@raediation3016]

It’s interesting too that the names he drops aren’t a bunch of crazy made up names but are familiar sounding enough that you could guess at it i.e. Night’s Watch. Or, if there is a made up name, it’s paired with something to let the reader know what it is i.e. Valerian steel.

[@samlerf]

I'm a fan of Stephen King's approach to writing ("on writing"). Don't plot, start with an interesting idea and allow the characters to try and solve their problems in their own way. The story itself will tell you what to need to know. So I'm not a fan of those prequels that take place three hundred years ago or something and which are added ont top of the main story. Martin and Tolkien are impressive in that way. But I personally write different.

[@Cyberplayer1337]

There’s two different types of writers. Pantsers and plotters. Pantsers write at the “seat of their pants” and often the story comes along as they write whereas plotters like to plan out story details point by point. Everyone is a bit different. I’m a plotter and enjoy plotting a lot

[@yael9137]

I know this is an old comment, so it’s probably a bit random, but I think it’s interesting that you mention Tolkien in this context. Obviously he’s the pioneer for fantasy world building, largely inspired by the need to create cultures that speak his created languages. But when Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings, he usually found that characters whom he’d never thought of before just came out of dialogue, or showed up to an event because the event itself called for it. He didn’t know where the story was actually going; when he got Frodo to Rivendell he told his publisher he was about halfway… 😬 what Tolkien is a master of, is then the reconnaissance work to provide logical explanations for how those characters fit into the story now, and to the world building at large, without actually needing to change much that he’d already written.

[@digitalwayfarer7404]

Fantastic analysis.

[@shaghayeghtehrani6285]

Tbh i preferred the opening of the harry potter books so much more appealing. I put down this book after 19 pages cause it was so confusing even tho i have watched the tv show. Or the lord of the rings for example. Its a fun, captivating yet chilly first chapter. You wont be able to put the book down even if your life depends on it. This seems like a project for literature class that your snobby teacher is making you read.

[@Ballin4Vengeance]

“Name it and drop it” So... Basically the opposite of what Hugo did in “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

[@rustediron4062]

I get the feeling that Rion Joyce is a bastardization of Jon Royce lol

[@siddhantrasaily4836]

I wanted this video to last 8 seasons long

[@CHLSAroo]

I would love to see videos like these in regards to Stephen King

[@riverground]

Tbh, my inner monologie does sometimes go inte lengthy discussions about mundane objects

[@Thaistickthai]

8:16 I am saying its the right way and the best way but my heart is at odds with itself and I am as grey as they come...

[@sauron7839]

Hahaha. "Watching a man beheaded for breaking his oaths". Foreshadowing in Chapter One, anybody?

[@Bdan11171]

I know it's not spoiling it at this point but when you read it aloud it popped out to me: "Bran I" or Bran won. Digging too much? Maybe...

[@1425363878]

Whenever I use a biased POV, most of my readers lap it up as fact and then get angry at the "contradiction" when it turns out different later on from a different point of view. A tutorial on how to get smarter readers would be useful, I think.

[@MoffatLee]

I'd have to see your actual works to be able to give more concrete advice. That being said, maybe try establishing the existence of POV bias early on with a number of smaller examples. If you don't confirm the existence of POV bias for most of the story until a sudden revelation it can be both a shocking twist and an annoying gotcha moment depending on how the reader takes the reveal. Plus sometimes you have to deal with some people just not liking that style no matter what, or those who do like it not commenting because they don't feel like they need to say anything about what you've created thus far.

[@1425363878]

@@MoffatLee Thanks, that's great advice!

[@matthewparker9276]

Also, remember to foreshadow the twist revelation. This is difficult to do subtly, but if you can pull it off it will make the twist much more satisfying to the reader. Small contradictions within the presented narrative, or between the narrative and the world/other characters, will make the lies feel obvious after the reveal, and that's what makes for a great twist.

[@assasinsjeff]

The greatest world buildings I have seen are ASOIAF, the books and One piece, the manga....The greatest stories are the stories that have the greatest world buildings that do the "Gardener" type storytelling as George explained instead of the architect......imo

[@billyalarie929]

>“No mention of supernatural” >”It was THE NINTH Y E A R of summer” [emphasis mine] Sir?????

[@Tholesline]

Keela se'lai

[@t.h.mcelroy6597]

💛

[@dj2010ap]

Please check out One piece some of the best world building I ever read

[@docstockandbarrel]

👍🏻

[@soritahin1283]

it's hard for writer to name drop and not explain it. it's not a bad way to world build, they usually explain the thing and move on. it's just sometime too many thing in a row, too close to each other. Another time its just spiral, where you explain one thing that lead to another thing, then you explain that thing and its lead to another thing and on and on, and by the end of the explanation, you know everything about the world. And yes, that had happen to me. i don't remember the book but pretty sure it was why i dropped fantasy for awhile.

[@TorianTammas]

It is very simple You drop it and have no answer yourself as the author. This happens in roleplaying all the time as you consider something necessary as a name or a cool sounding weapon so you drop a name and that is it. An author gets away with it and can (if he remembers) elaborate on that. The Gamemaster in a roleplaying game has inquisitive player who can ask him write away.

[@arghonandi6818]

I actually think Brandon Sanderson does it much better

[@veloce5491]

brandon sanderson is the definition of exposition.

[@TorianTammas]

Brandon Sanderson is an artist.

[@SirDehumanized]

Basically just use common sense and don’t shove your exposition down the readers throat.

[@ayourmum8521]

Episode 3 of season 8 ruins so much of grrm world building. Main characters live and the bad guys lose.

[@ebroz3886]

started with bran and ended with bran on the throne

[@UndertakerU2ber]

Game of Thrones is a terrible reference overall when it comes to writing.

[@veloce5491]

nice joke. he's easily one of the best fantasy authors.

[@UndertakerU2ber]

@@veloce5491 People only say that because they are casuals that don't read too many books. It's very clear that GRRM doesn't know how to write a decent plot twist. He tries forcing them time after time to the point where I sometimes think that M. Night Shyamalan wrote the books. People will say "But they're unexpected and he subverts expectations" yeah but Star Wars Episode VIII tried subverting expectations and the consensus was that it sucked because the subversions had no payoff (like GoT) and they made the characters behave out of character. In GoT's case, every plot twist or backstab is done because one person is a sadistic lunatic or is just down right fucking dumb. Absolutely terrible writing. He should at least write characters that resemble real people, and not ones you'd see in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

[@videogamebomer]

GoT > LoTR

[@UndertakerU2ber]

@@videogamebomer I hate both, so it's like comparing a piece of shit to a pile of vomit lol

[@godussop391]

Oda > GRRM