In a panel on mythology from earlier today, you talked about establishing folklore that isn’t necessarily crucial to the plot—maybe ancillary—but that people read into it too much for clues. Do you find that to be, maybe not annoying, but distracting?
I don’t think so, if it’s the right book. I feel like if it’s a big, thick, epic fantasy then it’s partially about the immersive experience. Those sorts of things are important to consistently indicate to you as a reader that this world is big—this is a real world, we’ll be living in this world for a while. But when you’re doing something else, a more tightly paced urban fantasy for instance, fewer of those things should be put in because you’re trying to pack much more in while trying to keep your narrative focused.
But at the same time, I kind of feel like not every character attribute should be part of the main plot. I mean, who we are certainly influences us, but sometimes a character just likes collecting stamps. It’s just who we are. And if you’re treating your setting like a character, there are going to be things about your setting that are like the stamp collecting, that are just part of it. And if you do it right, these things will feel like pieces of the world and readers won’t be distracted.
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