On Writing and Worldbuilding - Volume I

By: Timothy Hickson

Narrated by: Larissa Thompson, Merphy Napier

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Writing advice tends to be full of "rules" and "tips" which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

On Writing

• Part I: Prologues
• Part II: The First Chapter
• Part III: The Exposition Problem
• Part IV: Foreshadowing
• Part V: Villain Motivation
• Part VI: Hero-Villain Relationships
• Part VII: Final Battles
• Part VIII: The Chosen One
• Part IX: Hard Magic Systems
• Part X: Soft Magic Systems
• Part XI: Magic Systems and Storytelling

On Worldbuilding

• Part XII: Polytheistic Religions
• Part XIII: Hidden Magical Worlds
• Part XIV: How Empires Rise
• Part XV: How Empires Work
• Part XVI: How Empires Fall

Exclusive Content

• Part XVII: How I Plan a Novel

Dozens of sidenotes and extra thoughts on all these wonderful stories

©2019 Timothy Hickson (P)2020 Timothy Hickson

Do watch the ytube too

very good info!!! i love this guy and his videos are both informative and fun. that and he reuses some of the jokes. nothing more entertaining than your brain inputting the meme when the narrator quotes it.

Modern references to story basics

Every generation needs their own references when it comes to pursuing any craft, this book acts like a screenshot of the current decade referencing media a younger generation is familiar with which then makes the lessons more digestible

Day of Black Sun.

Love the whole thing and am excited for volume 2. But if I never hear about the Day of Black Sun scene from ATLA ever again I will be just fine. 😄

all hail mishka

the content? absolutely amazing. the pronunciation of Javert? "JAH-verT" (instead of "ja-VER). tfw you don't know french so you just go hardcore on the american.

but otherwise, as a writer, this is literally setting off so many plot points that I think is gonna make my book dope af. my favorite is the villain sections, especially with the final battle.

Absolute Must for New Writers

This book does a great job of showing a bird's eye view of elements that must be ironed out for a believable fantasy or science fiction world. I have read some very poorly built worlds (cough, cough, The Dragonslayer, cough cough) that could have been improved by the discussion in this book.
It has also been helpful to me.

Variety, engaging, and beginner friendly

I am an artist, not so much a writer, however I am going to create a comic and I wanted to learn what makes a page turning story. I like the variety of genres and media the author provides examples with—novels to anime to comics to television series.

I feel like I better understand when the author talks about a story I am familiar with, so I appreciate that we consume much of the same entertainment!

The narrators voice is friendly and energetic, I enjoyed listening and will listen again. Thanks for creating!

Excellent Advice

This audiobook provides excellent advice for prospective writers, but the various mispronunciations are quite off-putting.

Very helpful

I really appreciated this book. I’m a fantasy author and while I have five books published in an ongoing series, I’ve felt stuck in writing the next in the series because I was feeling a bit unsure how to structure the story and what Worldbuilding elements I want to include versus what I need to include.

love it

I got back into writing when I was given the chance to have some time off. Every time listen it inspires me to get back into my novel to make it better. highly recommend

Phenomenally helpful!

This book is phenomenally helpful in writing novels, screenplays, teleplays, and more. Tim Hickson (Hello Future Me), is as talented as they come!