Well, what I really aim for is to keep things as simple as possible. Nothing that's going to feel too cluttered, by history or anything otherwise. I usually avoid anything in space because of this, though I' working on it.
Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.Oh, another rule I have, particularly in superhero stories is KEEP. MUTANTS. TO A MINIMUM.
This is really just my reaction to Marvel and their dependency on making their characters mutants just to save time, before M-Day ofcourse. Really, it just gets annoying.
Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.For a general rule I try to hold my conworlds to the specific traits I first think up about the world without dropping them or distorting them. Beyond that any rules I follow are world specific, usually stemming from my intial thoughts. With my fantasy conworld I first thought how would it be with stone age nomadic people with elemental magic, so I set a rule for that conworld that humans wouldn't get more advanced than the early neolithic and would at the very least be divided into different elemental categories.
My personal credo is simply that a world follow its own internal logic consistently. Whether this logic has anything to do with "real world" logic is irrelevant; in fact, in many circumstances, I prefer my worlds not to run on straightforward, linear reasoning. But no matter how chaotic or dreamlike the architecture of the setting may be, the one rule remains: "Magic A" Is "Magic A".
Of course, if it turns out that the rules themselves have been hidden from the characters... Anything goes. But the author should know that this was the case from the beginning, and therefor make sure that, whether those involved in the story itself know it or not, the basic principles have, in fact, remained consistent.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.I create a different rule set for any particular universe I want to create based on the theme. If it's something I wanted to go wild with, I don't care about breaking believability in terms of technology. If it's a hard sci-fi, I might get hard on science and try to keep it within the realm of the possible (but perhaps not implausible).
I personally dislike ruling out something for all my settings, but I don't mind ruling out something for a particular setting.
Mine is 'No Deus Ex Machinas'. Also, while this is more a preferance thing than a rule, good only beats evil in my stories if it is legitimately as strong, or stronger, and anybody trying to use The Power of Friendship gets to die while one of my characters goes off on a thinly veiled Author Rant about how naive it is to think that evil superbeings can be beaten just by thinking happy thoughts. Yes, The Bad Guy Wins in my stories quite a lot.
edited 28th Jan '11 10:35:01 AM by OmegaKross
Can't think of anything witty, so have this instead...1) no damsels in distress (I hate helpless women)
2) no "love at first sight" BS (you have to KNOW someone in order to love them)
3) no forced soul mates (people are not BORN soulmates, they BECOME soulmates, and it's a choice)
4) never break the rules of your world or what's the point of having them (I'm looking at you Bella and Edward
)
5) never SAY that anyone is bi, even though Everyone Is Bi
7) these are the metaphysical laws of Onori, the world of my Dark Tales: 1) nothing is free; debt attracts bad luck
2) it is bad luck to enter a private place without permission
3) Narrative Causality prevails
a) heroes are always reluctant (and must be motivated by tragedy)
c) every day some god's apocalypse is averted
edited 28th Jan '11 11:33:27 AM by nekomoon14
Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
That was a very oddly-numbered post.
And I think the number one rule in my world-building is that everyone is sensible. There are, ideally, no Idiot Balls, Idiot Plots, or anything like that.
My number one rule, above all else, is to have fun with it. My number two rule is to be entertaining. My number three rule is, always be different. I like to create worlds that I've never seen done before, or, if they have been done before, do it in a different way. But it all really depends on what the story is. Some settings I create have a very rigid set of rules, while others have very few to no rules at all. It all depends on the genre and the effect I'm trying to create.
My Four rules
1. Nobody is stupid, Genre Savvyness 2. be internally self-consistent 3. Minimize use of Applied Phlebotinum. When I do use it, I get the most out of it possible (FTL drive doubling as artificial gravity) 4. The story overrides all.
edited 28th Jan '11 10:08:43 PM by Borkless
I don't always comment, but when I do, expect me to edit the crap outta it.My rules:
* Keep it as realistic as possible (if anyone knows my debating style they know I follow this as canon)
* Flesh it out as much as you can before starting to write
* Keep the focus to small areas to cut down work (a few cities or a few dozen square miles, designing a whole world takes forever)
* Keep it internally consistent (for those bits where modern Physics can't go)
i prefer writing fantasy/scifi so "keeping it realistic" is out of the question. one story i'm attempting involves completely different fundamental forces.
1. fundamental rules of the universe that can't be broken: i keep these to a minimum, like 5 or less.
2. not-so-fundamental rules of society are assumed to be the same as the audience's society unless blatantly stated otherwise.
3. the characters rarely know all the rules.
4. avoid creating new phlebotinum when an old phlebotinum can work just as well.
- whenever introducing a new phlebotinum, never introduce it at its full potential
edited 30th Jan '11 12:27:56 AM by willyolio
"... good only beats evil in my stories if it is legitimately as strong, or stronger, and anybody trying to use The Power Of Friendship gets to die while one of my characters goes off on a thinly veiled Author Rant about how naive it is to think that evil superbeings can be beaten just by thinking happy thoughts... "
Well, personally, I always felt the that power of friendship was not in some abstract number but in the fact you outnumber the enemy in terms of competent people, and friends are far more likely to remain loyal to eachother.
Back on Topic, I genrally try to avert No Conservation of Mass where possible, and look up Required Secondary Powers. I'm not afrind to use Applied Phlebotinum , but I want to give lip service to the laws of physics.
edit: That's another thing in my worlds actually: it's an unwritten (until now) law that any sapient species would carbon-based by default, thus averting some of the problem with No Biological Barriers
edited 13th Feb '11 12:24:26 AM by doorhandle
I write fantasy/scifi too. Although, I think it's a bigger problem with scifi than fantasy. If I'm reading science fiction, I expect the things in there to at least seem consistent with science. Fantasy gets much more leeway. Even so, I find myself gritting my teeth when things like No Biological Barriers show up in fiction.
Be not afraid...- Make it consistent
- Attempt to make it somewhat realistic (I even try to explain how a dragon fires lightning in my game)
- If I can't, make it so that the researchers in said world at least gave it a shot (some deities show themselves to humans in my game, and the researchers will even examine them, leading to the discovery that a deity that looks like an otter is actually a squid of some kind)
- Try to make it so that the creatures actually make sense for the area they live in (for example, you know how the Pokemon games will have Magnemite in the grass west of Ecruteak? With my game, uh, no. They would need a DAMN good reason to be there)
In other words, try to keep anything that I need to handwave to a minimum. I know it is impossible to get rid of all hand waving, and anything I try may eventually have to go to hand waving, but at least I make an honest attempt. Heck, I even try to cover my ass with the deities that can make energy and matter
I wonder what a strip tease from a creature made of souls would be like?My ten rules...
- 1: Always do research.
- 2: People are people.
- 3: Less is more.
- 4: Sex is best left in the dark.
- 5: Magic must bow to basic physics.
- 6: Darkness is relative.
- 7: Write everything down.
- 8: Angst isn't necessary.
- 9: Use what you know.
- 10: Heroes must, eventually, be triumphant.

My rule is to keep it as believable as possible. If it's a fantasy,don't expect mages and all sorts of mythical creatures. There are some,like Dragons,but I rarely use any form of magic.
And superheroes,I'm actually working on breaking the genre free of science fiction. Keep it believable and realistic.
What about you?