: Re: Creating An Original World I've been thinking of a few ideas for characters and concepts, and I am aiming to create a massive world: a world with its own deep history and rich lore. However,

@Heady158

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I'm going to take my own advice, and answer your question from a writing perspective, which (I think) boils down to: How original must my setting be, in order for my story to be worthy of readers' time?

To start, try looking at this question and answers. One of the drawbacks of an original setting is that you've got a lot of explaining to do.

Next, consider that many of the most successful books (commercially and/or artistically) do NOT have especially original settings. For example, you could certainly write a book about a world where the speed of light was comparable to the speed of sound, but then you'd have to explain special relativity, and possibly also the grand unified theory. It would be a very strange world. Personally, I'd love a well-done book like that, but I expect your readership would be small.

If you are hoping for commercial success, then what you want (ideally) is a world that seems original (at first glance) but which is easily comprehensible to a modern reader (with some explaining), so that your world is, in fact, not really that original. Examples are LOTR, GOT, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.

Conversely, you could develop a totally unique world for your book, but if you then merely plunk a copy of Romeo and Juliet into it, people will just say, "Meh. Romeo and Juliet. How unoriginal." The originality for which you should strive is to combine many well-known aspects (world, setting, characters, plot, style, etc.) in such a manner, and with such twists from the expected, that the TOTALITY is original.

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