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Creativity & Worldbuilding: Don't Give Up On Your Ideas
🕑 Added 2020-08-21 13:02:40 +0000 UTC
It's another episode of, ~Worldbuilding with Wak~.
Or apparently the... First episode? Huh, I thought I had other essays about Worldbuilding, or at the very least tagged AS Worldbuilding! Hell, my Land Creation guide is, in a way, literal Worldbuilding. And I've said this word so many times already it's starting to lose its meaning. Great.
Jokes aside, if you're just following me for my Homestuck and general Pop Culture and Social Media analysis stuff, you may not know this, but I don't just TALK about shit all the time with the occasional pretty drawing. I'm actually quite passionate when it comes to design, creation of interconnected systems, lorebuilding and the many, many fun things that make an engaging and interesting world of your own! Whether it be your homebrew D&D Campaign, your most recent AU for a Fandom you're a part of, or a larger-scale project you're working on from the ground up, if you've clicked this essay, chances are you at least have some degree of experience when it comes to coming up with cool, creative ideas.
And yet, sometimes these ideas really don't go anywhere. They stagnate in your mind, or on paper. Your plans to be the DM at some roleplaying session, thrashed due to Timezone and Availability issues. The scope of a project, getting out of control, leaving you unable to finalize it. Self-doubt and anxiety making you discard a piece half-way through, not meeting your standards.
If you've ever experienced anything similar to this, if you've felt the ache of being unable to develop an idea that seemed good in your mind, or have come to a dead-end developing a world that felt engaging and interesting for you, then these words are for you:
Recycle.
Of course, I am not an expert when it comes to creating things. I do like to think I have some experience, that I can make fun, engaging stories, interesting characters, compelling scenarios... So take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. However, what I am trying to convey here comes from a deeply personal place for me, and from seeing close friends of mine struggle with their own ideas, projects and desires.
Creative people are usually very... Drawn towards perfectionism. At least in my experience, we set goals and ideals that are often too hard to reach, too difficult to achieve, or too ambitious for our own good. This is not necessarily bad, of course- Being ambitious and having a dream you want to reach, pushing forward to make your vision come true, that speaks volumes of one's desire to make something good, something others can enjoy, something you can be proud of.
And yet because of how creativity and the desire to make work, this perfectionist lean can be a deeply rooted poison hindering our advance. You come up with some cool, try to develop it, but it doesn't meet your standards. You begin to wonder if you can truly pull something like this off, you become unable to continue, and then, that idea stagnates. You begin to make something new you find interesting, but find no people to share it with. As outside interest wanes, so does your own, and you begin wondering if your story is worth it. And so, the plans you had for it are dropped, left behind.
This isn't necessarily bad. A nuisance, yes, but failure is part of the learning process. Finding out your limits, what you can do and can't. Improving on your skills, so that degrees of complexity that seemed impossible to pull off in the past, become achievable in the future. Learning about tropes, what can work and what can't, and playing with them to your advantage. You become more familiar, not just with the playing field, but with yourself. It can feel discouraging, however, to drop so many things you enjoyed, so many ideas you thought were cool, so many characters you wanted to introduce. Herein lies one of the biggest traps of creativity.
A lot of the time, we're too rigid with our ideas, and too quick to throw them away when they don't work as a whole. We're too afraid of being too similar to something else, because we often have the looming sense of not being AS good as this other thing, that you're creating a cheaper, worse, knock-off version of an inspiration. Time and time again, I've seen friends, and have myself, in the past, fallen for this trap. Something you enjoyed ends up not working. You discard it. Your next work takes a much different route, to make up for the perceived flaws of your previous attempt. You engage in some new Fandom or content that you enjoy, and notice certain things about it leaking into your work. You try to scrub it clean from references to it, so that they may not be compared, so that they may be in different ballparks.
When you desire to make something good, experience is important. Continuing to create, make new things, even if each attempt doesn't go as expected, it's valuable experience that, little by little, shapes and improves how you tackle future creative endeavors. But sometimes, in our desire to make, to measure up to these standards and ideals, we lose so many important things in the way. Why do we make? How do you make? Why did your last attempt not work? How are you going to make up for it next time?
We're quick to discard ideas that we simply think 'won't work'. If our work is too similar to something else, we're fearful of copying too much. If our ideas are too similar to what we did before, we're afraid of ending up at a dead end once again. But our works are similar to other things, because we like those things. Tropes, settings, vibes, we latch onto creative works because we enjoy what they depict, and in turn, our work reflects the things we enjoy. We tried to make something because we wanted to explore a certain route, because we liked what we were trying to make, and even if in the end it couldn't come to fruition, to completely discard what you worked making up in your mind, is ignoring the reason why you tried in the first place.
When flaws begin to pile up, when rotten apples begin to drop, we're quick to assume the entire tree is diseased, and cut it down without a second thought. And that, in my head, is one of many ways to kill creativity.
The setting didn't work, but you were enjoying your characters. You built them up, with their stories and experiences, with their ways they interact with the world around them. So if the world is wrong, the character must be as well. And yet, don't we, in the same breath, create entertaining AUs in our head? Write fanfiction? Twist the scenario characters we like are presented, and imagine how they would act in different situations. What's preventing you from taking these enjoyable characters, what makes them up, and applying them to a completely different project? How would your protagonist interact with the world if it were a Sci-Fi scenario instead of a Fantasy world? What kind of friends would they make when the circumstances they were raised in are so different? And most importantly, how do you reach the same archetype in entirely opposite circumstances?
The work as a whole is going nowhere, but you enjoy the vibe you created. A D&D Campaign that went nowhere, had an overarching plot about eldritch cultists that didn't get revealed. Why should your next Campaign not have an interesting, overarching plot about cultists? Your cyberpunk dystopia didn't work out like you wanted to, perhaps the style is simply not for you. However, that system you made about cybernetic augments, and how they affect the body? That was fun! Maybe if the vibe was a bit brighter, you'd have a better time messing around with it. Ah, your Fantasy world has a similar vibe to that one anime you like. Academies training monster hunters to protect civilization? What a cliche trope, isn't it? But, you like that, don't you? You enjoy the fighting academies, you enjoy the monster hunting, even if other series pull off a similar concept, what you make with it is unique, shaped by your personal experience, and something you drew from because it keeps you engaged, invested, happy.
We're afraid of making the same mistakes, by using characters, scenarios, vibes, from our previous work. We're afraid of making an inferior version of the things that inspired us. And in doing so, we throw away parts that made us happy, parts that kept us invested in the project in the first place. And if you strip your creations of that sense of wonder and enjoyment, what is left behind? If you repress your own ideas, if you push away your inspirations, if you try to create for the sake of making something 'new' and 'different', if you add change for the sake of being different, instead of working off of the things you actually like... Why are you creating in the first place?
So I am here to say: Recycle.
There are no entirely unique, new stories. Because that's how we Humans work. We draw inspiration from our experiences, and the work around us. We draw inspiration from works we have consumed, and that reflects on what we create. Of course plagiarizing someone's work is a no-go, but rejecting this inspiration, ignoring the things we like in others, defeats the purpose of creation. If you enjoy it, why not create something in that vein? If you feel it resonate with you, why would the fact someone did something similar hinder you? And the same goes for your own work. If you like a character archetype, if you like a potential scenario, if you like a topic, what is stopping you from twisting them around and taking a similar, but new approach to it? Why should the old OC you don't use anymore gather dust in your documents, why not breathe new life into them in your world? Why should the villain from your incomplete campaign go to waste, why not try anew with a new plot, a fresh beginning for them to cause mayhem?
It doesn't matter what it is, if you're spending time developing a world, a campaign, a setting, you make it for a reason. And yes, making it for someone else is a potential reason. But in my reckoning? The best stories are the ones you make for you. The ones you have fun with. Something may not work out, but when you have fun creating, it means there were good ideas that resonated with you. Spot the thing that didn't work, and remove it from your work. And if the work as a whole ends up not working out, pin-point what you DID enjoy, so that you may try anew, not from a blank slate- But from a starting point of enjoyment and interest.
Rigidity can be a similar poison in a way. You're too focused on making things happen a SPECIFIC way, and it blinds you to other possibilities. You end up resenting the work you've created, the world you were enjoying, as you become unable to continue it in a way you like. And yet sometimes the answer lies in changing a little something that you were too stubborn to consider a possibility. Or perhaps your world lacks something, and you know what is, but there's no way you could do something like that, right? Maybe it doesn't match the whole vibe, maybe it breaks the plot you had so carefully planned up until now! But... It still seems like it's missing, right? You still like that idea. What is stopping you from trying? Maybe you will have to change things around. Maybe it won't work out in the end, as you suspected. But why not have fun with it? Try to run with it, see how far it takes you, find the reasoning for something that may initially seem dissonant in its existence.
Creation is an exercise in expression and fun. Not necessarily fun in the sense that you laugh with it, of course. Many create to vent, maybe put out tough to swallow, difficult and heart-wrenching stories. But the end-result should be making something that makes you feel better afterwards. If you don't like expressing something in your work? If it's doing nothing for you? The only thing stopping you from trying to change it, is yourself. If some work has inspired you? Why not incorporate elements from it into yours? Why not explore those avenues that seem so interesting to you?
It's personal. It's intimate. It's a conversation, with yourself, about what kind of world you like, what kind of story what you enjoy. What characters you'd like to hear more about, to write more about.
The act in itself, writing down, drawing a comic, can be tough and sometimes exhausting. You can not feel up to it many, many days. And you can end up losing your mood, pushing what once seemed fantastic, off to the side. But if you truly were enjoying any part of your creation, you will look back on it fondly. And if you look back on it fondly, then it means it wasn't entirely a mistake.
So don't treat your discarded ideas, unfinished documents, and wild dreams, like trashed mistakes with no value.
Learning from your experience is not just about improving mechanically- It's about realizing what you like, and what you don't, and sticking to the things you want to convey.
Tell the story you wish to tell. Don't shame yourself, or be reluctant, because you're reusing old ideas or drawing inspiration. The best works I know of draw from many, many sources, and references others. The most entertaining things I've engaged with, have a characteristic warmth that makes it obvious whoever made it also enjoyed doing it.
Have fun with your work, don't be afraid to simply do things BECAUSE you want to. If you make something that resonates with you, it will end up resonating with others as well. Don't hold back, don't restrict yourself.
When you're excited to make something, and show it to others, when it makes you happy to think of what comes next, you know you've got something special in your hands.
Your creations are yours to make, and your tales, yours to tell.
And as always, thanks for reading! <3
