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PODCAST

Worldbuilding for Masochists

worldbuildingformasochists

A podcast by three fantasy authors who love to overcomplicate their writing lives and want to help you do the same.

arts books

All Episodes

01:12:37

Episode 135: Philosophical Acts of Translation, ft....

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/08/14

What can translation and transmission of ideas and stories over time teach us about a society -- and about storytelling? Guest Ken Liu joins us to talk about the intertwining of philosophy, imagination, and translation. As writers, we can never fully translate the story that plays out in our heads onto the page, because every reader will imagine something a little different. How do we embrace that and celebrate it as a lovely part of the human condition?This plays into how we construct our

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01:18:33

Episode 134: Print The Legend: Weaving Myth and...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/07/31

Where does mythology come from? How does it tie us together? What does one world's mythology tell us about its people, how they view themselves, and their interactions with the divine? We speak to Nalo Hopkinson about myths, mythologies, folklore, and the stories that we tell each other as well as the stories we invent.[Transcript TK] Our Guest: Nalo Hopkinson is the award-winning author of numerous novels and short stories for adults. Nalo grew up in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana before moving to

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01:02:11

Episode 133: The Devil in the Details, ft. M.J. KUHN

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/07/17

A perennial question that our listeners often have is: How do you organize your worldbuilding? Do you have templates to use? Charts to fill out? Once you start imagining all your fantastic choices, how do you keep track of them all and then weave them along with your plot? Well, the answer to all of this, as with so many writing questions, is "do what works for you" -- but how do you even figure out what that is, or if it's the same from one project to the next? In this episode, guest M.J. Kuhn

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01:20:17

Episode 132: Just a Small Town Worldbuild, ft. CHERIE...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/07/03

A lot of the time, fantasy worldbuilding invokes huge maps, spanning civilizations and continents, with characters traversing vast distances on their epic quests. But what about the worldbuilding that happens with a tighter focus on an intimate, even insular location? Guest Cherie Priest joins us to discuss creating small towns just ripe for gothic mysteries, peculiar traditions, and weird, haunting circumstances.What does isolation -- either naturally developing, imposed by larger-scale

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01:09:38

Episode 131: Projects!

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/06/19

It's the start of our sixth season! And we've got some projects going on.The Traveling Light anthology, which we Kickstarted -- with the help of many of you listeners! -- at the start of the fifth season, is now almost complete! We've finished the page proofs and are about to turn this into a Real Book. In this episode, you'll get to hear from the anthology authors about their amazing, exciting, super-creative contributions! And if you missed the Kickstarter, fear not! It will be available for

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01:03:48

Episode 130: Large-Scale Worldbuilding for...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/06/05

Massive worlds require massive worldbuilding -- or do they? Sometimes, a narrower, character-centric scope can create a tight and compelling narrative while still crafting an expansive world. Guest Rebecca Roanhorse joins us to discuss how knowing your characters can help you konw your world.What does it mean to let character lead worldbuilding? How does that define your scope and how much worldbuilding you show the reader? How does this change wth a single versus a multi- POV story? When you let

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01:08:43

Episode 129: Motorcycles and Magic, ft HANA LEE

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/05/22

"Traditional" fantasy novels often hold themselves to a pre-gunpowder/pre-steampower level of tech. So, what’s fun about setting a fantasy world in an era that has anything from the printing press to cell phones? Guest Hana Lee joins us to explore incorporating the technological into the magical world!How can the harnessing of magic be similar to or dissimilar from channeling other kinds of power, like electricity? What story-driving tensions and conflicts can arise from eras of rapid change? And

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01:24:32

Episode 128: The Carousel of Progress

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/05/08

Making fantasy worlds into living, growing worlds means giving them a history of change and growth and shifts in technology and culture, not to mention governments and borders. We talk about building history, historical ages and generational shifts, as well as diving into what are the historical ages in the world of the MNG, and how has it grown? Also! It is Hugo Award voting time! And we would love your consideration for Best Fancast. [Transcript TK]

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01:06:19

Episode 127: Expanding Worlds

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/04/24

It's been a while since we spent some time in the world of the MNG! So in this episode, we apply some topics from recent episodes as well as some worldbuilding staples to the cultures we've been developing in our ongoing co-created world. We play with nifty biology! We consider the monstrous! We think about love and education and phases of growth!How does Mirraden conceputalize and use the Gates? What is courtship like in Fjallanir? What legends scare a Griastan? In this episode, we do some applied

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01:25:35

Episode 126: When Worldbuilding Gets Wild, ft PREMEE...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/04/10

Critters, creatures, and things that crawl -- part of the fun of building a new world is getting to populate it with not just sapient characters, but all the flora and fauna. And sometimes, that means the things you find in the smallest corners and crevices. Guest Premee Mohamed joins us to talk about the role of bugs and other biology in worldbuilding!Bugs are a critical part of our world, performing so many essential functions that we never think about and that writers often neglect -- so, why is

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01:26:52

Episode 125: Monstrous Worldbuilding, ft. JOHN WISWELL

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/03/27

From the Minotaur to xenomorphs to the undead, monsters and their ilk have long been a staple of the sci-fi and fantasy genres. But what exactly is it that makes a monster? Guest John Wiswell joins us to discuss how monsters in fiction often reflect not only our primal fears, but also the people that society seeks to Other. When monsters reflect what a real or fictitious society values and doesn't value, what sorts of things do writers need to consider when placing monsters in their world?In this

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01:18:25

Episode 124: Worldbuilding in Review, ft. PAUL WEIMER

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/03/13

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to work with worldbuilding as writers -- but how does a reviewer approach the topic when they're reading works of sci-fi and fantasy? Guest Paul Weimer joins us to share his insights as a prolific consumer and critiquer of speculative fiction! Paul talks about the details that he pays attention to, the things he looks for, and the things that draw his attention, as well as discussing the purpose of reviews and who they're for (hint: it's not the

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01:06:43

Episode 123: Worldbuilding in Your Underpants, ft....

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/02/28

When you're creating your world and bringing it into a story, how much do you let show? Guest John Hartness joins us to discuss balancing the off-page and on-page elements, and how that balance might shift based on what kind of a world you're working in and what sort of a story you're telling. How do you ensure that the worldbuilding serves a purpose and serves the characters?In this episode, you'll also get a peek behind the publishing curtain! John discusses running Falstaff Books, a publisher

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01:06:43

Episode 122: Now Kiss: Building Romance into Your...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/02/14

We've talked before about the difference between aesthetic-driven genres, like sci-fi and fantasy, and structure-driven genres, like mystery and romance. So what happens when you want to build a world just ripe for all your favorite romance tropes? How can your world create the obstacles to your characters getting their happy-ever-after? Guest Gwenda Bond joins us to talk about the love of worldbuilding and worldbuilding for love! A lot of writing romance means dealing with reader's expectations in

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01:05:39

Episode 121: Brave New Worlds, ft. FONDA LEE and...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/01/31

When you've put your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into building a world -- what happens when you then have to leave it behind? Most SFF authors will, at some point, close up their work in one world and start building a new one, but that comes with its own set of challenges! You know the old world so well; it's become comfy and familiar. The new world still has all its work yet to be done, and while it has the shiny lure of new discoveries, it also may seem daunting to start the process of

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01:11:12

Episode 120: World Bibles and the Gospel According to...

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/01/17

When you're creating tomes of information about your world -- spreadsheets of demographics, maps at every level of geography, tomes of lore -- how do you keep tabs on it all? How much can you keep in your head, and how much has to be written down, codified, and carefully tracked? In this episode, we explore our tools of worldbuilding. We use all sorts of different methods and platforms, some of them physical and tangible, others entirely digital. From nebulous notions of "the world is like this" to

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01:15:25

Episode 119: Worldbuilding Philosophy and Practices

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2024/01/03

Why do we worldbuild the way that we worldbuild? The start of a new year seems like a great time to take a zoomed-out view of how we do this thing that we do. In this episode, we consider, contemplate, and cogitate on the major concepts that guide our worldbuilding. Why is it important to us? What parts of it are important for us, and help us find our story and develop our characters? Too, how do we worldbuild in a way that reflects the glorious weirdness of humanity? How do we ensure that our

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01:13:15

Episode 118: Passing the Torch

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2023/12/20

In this final episode of 2023, we have a momentous announcement! Rowenna Miller is stepping down as a full-time co-host of the podcast, because... well, life! It happens to us all sooner or later. But fear not! Rowenna will still be joining us from time to time, and she's still working with us on the Traveling Light anthology. And we're welcoming an amazing, fantastic, glorious new co-host! Please give your attention and accolades to Natania Barron! Who's Natania? Well, listeners may remember her

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01:11:33

Episode 117: More Queries and Quandaries

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2023/12/06

It's another listener Q&A episode! Many thanks to the folks who submitted their questions! In this episode, we tackle some things that can block and stymie your worldbuilding, how to approach research that's not really in your preferred milieu, and some details about how we interact with our guests. Also, learn what your hosts' favorite holiday pies are! No one asked us that, but we're telling you anyway. [Transcript TK]

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54:16

Episode 116: Choosing, Presuming, and Decision Fatigue

Worldbuilding for Masochists ·

2023/11/22

Worldbuilding is great! You get to make all the choices! On the other hand... you have to make all the choices. "Choose, don't presume" has long been our ethos on this podcast, but does choosing always mean making the weirdest possible choice? Does every choice have to Make A Statement? Does an "anything goes" approach to worldbuilding actually make things harder than setting some boundaries for yourself? In this episode, we talk about how we decide where to focus our worldbuilding energy, making

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