Read the disclaimer if you haven't already.

This chapter is going to be a bit harsher than usual because this topic annoys me more than most.

Today we're here to talk about worldbuilding. I told y'all I'd go more into detail about it, and today we're going to talk about countries.

Your country is not the only country, which means your way of life will not match the way of life from people from other countries. And that's okay.

I'm bringing this up because I have been hosting contests for four years, and over a year on Wattpad, and, naturally, I attract a lot of K-pop fanfic writers. Many times I'll read a book by a K-pop fanfic writer, and their story is set in Korea. Okay, cool. Fine. No problem.

Then, for some reason, it's written more like it took place in another country.

Many times I point out something in the worldbuilding where I say "This doesn't really happen in Korea," and the writer will reply with "Oh, that's how it works in my country." I don't think they're saying that to be defensive, more like just saying they did it because it's what they're so used to, but even though it isn't being used as a defense to criticism, it still makes me sigh.

Why are you writing your book in another country if you're just going to model it after your own?

Not only is that immersion-breaking, but it's irresponsible, especially when you're writing about South Korea. I don't know if there's another country in the whole world that has had its culture and language so blatantly ignored in creative writing, at least in recent years. For example, I've seen many fanfic writers have younger girls call their brothers hyung instead of oppa because, and I quote, they think it's "cringe."

Imagine someone not from your culture calling your honorific system cringe and changing it because they feel like it.

Do you see why that's massively offensive and irresponsible?

Koreans have been begging people online to stop changing their cultural terms. If you go on YouTube and look up if girls can use hyung, some of the first things that pop up are Koreans begging you to stop changing it around because you feel like it, and all the comments are the same way.

There are exception cases where girls say hyung, but it's rare, and that's also not the point. The point is people are changing it because they want to, not because there's a genuine character reason for it. It's irresponsible and offensive.

But let's move away from the stuff that makes me angry. In general, you should not make your story take place in a different country unless you are willing to research it. My stories almost always take place in America or a new sci-fi world because my fanfic is for relaxation, so I don't want to spend 24194823823423 hours researching a new country to have my story set in. I don't want to risk being offensive or irresponsible with my writing. 

There are so, so, so many cases of weird worldbuilding. The most common I see is the Korean education system. Because of the Korean War, the Korean education system has many similarities to the United States education system as they adopted some of our traits after the influx of American life and influence. Of course there are plenty of differences, but also similarities. So, no, Korean university is not just what you feel like it is. It has many layers and pieces of history you can incorporate into your work.

In general, college is one of the things I see written the most incorrectly. College kids can tell when you're not a college kid writing about college because it is such a vastly different experience from high school, and I've read many fics that make college identical to high school.

Obviously every country does it differently, and there are many ways college is handled, but there are some more universal things that colleges have that writers write inaccurately.

College is not high school, so stop writing it like it is.

Like I said, every country does it differently, but many times I see this with Korean colleges. If I had a dollar every time I saw a writer inaccurately write the Korean college system, I'd be able to pay for American college.

But moving on from just college, let's give some general tips for making your work more accurate to the place you're writing in.

If you're making your story take place in a different country you are not familiar with, I would strongly suggest doing deep dives to discover more about this place you're writing—watch videos from those living in the country, look at official tour guides from the country, research their celebrities and pop culture, research their slang, research how they go about daily life, etc. 

Don't assume.

It may not seem like a big deal, but the little things matter. Your world is going to be more immersive if it's accurate to how people living in that area live.

For example, if you have a story taking place in New York City, feel free to mention the subway system and how smelly and disgusting it is. The last time I took the subway, I almost died. Like, actually. I almost got smooshed to death because of how crowded the subways get. I felt like I was going to get robbed, and no one had any respect for my personal space.

Those little details can make the world feel more realistic and interesting.

If you don't want to do research, try writing a story in a fictional world. Plenty of people make fictional worlds for their stories, even when their books are meant to be more realistic. Maybe have a fictional setting based on your hometown, where you can make tweaks to the world based on what you want for the story without breaking the rules of any real life place. Look at Stranger Things. Hawkins isn't real, but it feels it, doesn't it? You can do something similar.

Or you can write a sci-fi/fantasy with a completely new world different from our own. That's my favorite thing to do, as evident by my book Starfield, my personal favorite book of mine, and the book that really set me on the map as a writer, Adrift. Both are sci-fi worlds taking place in fictional universes. They spend the majority of their runtimes in space, a realm I can research to make more accurate, but it doesn't have to be one-to-one since space is still pretty mysterious to us. I can make some of my own rules and places to better adhere to what I want, and that's why I like sci-fi so much.

You could also make it take place in your home town, or a place you're familiar with. My book, A Demon's Sin, takes place in Hershey, and while I don't live in Hershey, I can accurately write about it because I've been there more times than I can count. Heck, I practically lived there for a while due to how many softball tournaments I had there, near the outskirts. I went there for my first concert, my softball tournaments, the parks, the countryside, the breweries, etc. So you don't need to live there to write accurately about it, and you'll probably still want to do some research, but you won't need to do as much.

So, to summarize, don't assume. Do your research on a country before writing about it, and if you aren't willing to do research on that country, don't write about it. It will be a detriment to your story if you're writing inaccurately about a place. The story being "fictional" is not an excuse. One of the single most annoying responses to my feedback I get in my contests/review shop is "It's fiction."

You cannot hide criticism behind the "It's fiction" card.

While there are some cases where you really can say "Dude, it's just fiction," especially to nitpicking, when it comes to a core story element, you can't just wave it off. Worldbuilding is one of the core story elements, so you can't pretend it's all fine and dandy if you're writing extremely inaccurately about the way of life of a different country. If you don't have the time and effort to care about writing the country accurately, don't write it at all.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but you risk coming off as offensive to the country, and it's also, quite frankly, bad writing. It's very rare I'll flat out call something bad writing, but I'm sorry, it is. Maybe even lazy writing. Of course, that's not to say I, or readers, expect perfection from your world. It's okay to make minor mistakes. Even extremely popular franchises make mistakes with their worldbuilding (cough Star Wars cough), so I'm not saying it has to be perfect, but at least try, if that makes sense.

Worldbuilding is more important than people realize. Without a world, to our imaginations, the characters are floating in a white void. We can't imagine them interacting with places, seeing things, smelling things, etc. I don't think we appreciate the world around us enough and how we interact with it. The same applies to characters in your books. They need a world to interact with, so give them one.

As long as you don't assume what's normal in your country is normal in another, you should be okay. Make sure to research, ask questions, and make adjustments according to feedback.

~End~

Thanks for reading! Before we go, I just want to give a big shout out to all the second place winners for my Padauk Awards!

"Best Potential" second place winner: Through Pages, by Yootifully

"Best Title" second place winner: in flames he mused, by -saffronjo

"Best Cover" second place winner: The Best Mistakes, by saylradeth

"Best Blurb" second place winner: Actually, no, by BishGoSuckIt

"Best Presentation" second place winner: The Gathering Dark, by Aravis-Brightspell

I hope you guys go check out their work! They're incredible writers, and I have full reviews of their stuff in my Padauk Awards!

I'll be covering more about worldbuilding in the future, likely one piece at a time, so this is part one of a loooonggg series on worldbuilding. I'm also working on a characters chapter, though it's going to take a while because of how much goes into character work.