The Worldbuilding Trap

“When you feel like your heart is about to pop...just stick some love and a cherry on top...we'll call it Fudge Sundae...like a sunset on Sunday...”

The next day, Natsuki sang to herself in the empty club room as she looked at funny animal pictures on the Internet. She had arrived right after classes let out for the day, ready for her training from hell, but much to her surprise, nobody was there to actually train her. The club room was deserted.

After making sure she was in the right classroom (and then double checking when her mind doubted her first check), Natsuki took a seat at one of the desks. She figured the leadership of her club (ie, the other two members) had things to do, so she decided to get the hang of her new laptop. Having used a home-desk-thingy set up her whole life, the laptop felt odd at first. The screen was too small, the keyboard was too small, and her fingers continually hit the wrong buttons.

But to bring a computer with you on the go! A mobile phone could only do so much. Sure, you could type a story on it, but Natsuki found herself preferring a real keyboard (preferably light-up, but this one was good, too).

Feeling at peace, her thoughts drifted. Her surroundings gradually drifted away from the conscious here and now, and she became so absorbed in the moment that she hadn’t noticed her seniors enter the classroom until they stood right in front of her.

Natsuki stopped singing mid-lyric as her immediate surroundings flooded back to her. With a trembling face, she looked up and saw Masako and Yumiko struggling not to laugh.

Going completely red, Natsuki ducked below her laptop.

“Alright!” Masako declared, clapping her hands. Yumiko took a seat next to Natsuki while the club president took up a position behind the podium at the front of the classroom, with a whiteboard behind her. “Sorry for being late, we had to speak with the student council. But much more importantly…today, you begin your journey, Natsuki! Are you ready?”

Natsuki stuck her head out from behind her laptop like a turtle. “I-I’m ready…”

Masako made a dramatic gesture, sticking her ear towards Natsuki while bringing a hand up to it. “I can’t hear you…”

“I’m ready!” Yumiko declared.

“...not you, Yumiko…”

“...oh.”

Natsuki tried to remember her declaration about being alive from yesterday that definitely didn’t keep her up all night in embarrassment afterwards. “I-I’m ready!” she declared, much more confidently.

“Good! Let’s start with the very basics.” Masako grabbed a marker and turned toward the whiteboard. “Before we actually begin writing, let’s start from the very beginning. The Big Bang of writing, so to speak, is the Idea.”

Masako wrote IDEA in big letters across the whiteboard. At Yumiko’s urging, she added some sparkles and smiley faces. “The idea can be as grand as a space war between galaxies, or as small as a boy meeting a girl on a rainy day. All ideas are good.”

Natsuki twiddled her thumbs. “My idea for a story…is the time cop. It feels kind of stupid saying it loud, though.”

“Nonsense!” Masako proclaimed. “No ideas are stupid. The execution can vary, but no idea is bad from the start.”

Natsuki slid her shoe across the floor, feeling a little embarrassed over how nice Masako’s words felt to hear.

“Now, at the end of the day, our basics are only a guideline,” Masako continued. “The beauty of writing is that anything is possible. But to make things simple, we’ll try to keep some structure.”

She then wrote MOTIVATION on the board. “Why’s your time cop a time cop, Natsuki?” Masako asked. “What motivates him to travel the space-time continuum and punch out time gangsters or whatever he does?”

Natsuki rubbed her temple in thought. “Hmm. To be honest, all I pictured was Time Cop shooting time robbers in ancient Egypt.”

“Then let’s come up with some motivations,” Masako proposed. “They can be as simple or complex as you want. A knight travels the land because he wants to save the princess. The sociopathic cultivator gets into fights with young masters at auctions because he wants to be the strongest. The boy wants to get closer to the girl because he’s in love.”

Natsuki gasped and slapped the bottom of her fist against an open palm. “I saw something like this in a movie once! The Police Department uses this guy to solve cases because he’s a former criminal. So, our Time Cop solves Time Crime in order to get his Time Jail Sentence reduced!”

But then she frowned. “Ah, can I use it if I saw it in a movie?”

Masako grinned. “There’s a secret to writing, Natsuki - nothing’s original. Everything has already been done. It’s just that we can find new ways to put it all together. And at the end of the day, web novels are generally amateur works done for love of the hobby, not for cash. That gives us even more leeway. As long as you’re not just replicating the exact plot of something, by all means, go for it.”

That gave Natsuki confidence. “There wasn’t time travel in that movie!”

With that settled, Masako wrote down “Reduce Jail Sentence” below MOTIVATION. “That’s the beauty of motivations - it can completely change the tone of your story. For example, maybe the Time Bureau is more of a secret police and Time Cop does it out of love for his country, only to figure out the country isn’t as nice as he thought.”

Yumiko raised her hand. “Ooh! “Maybe he’s a headstrong loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules and really wants to capture his arch-enemy, but he rubs up against his strict chief who wants his badge on his desk because he's off the case!”

Natsuki scratched her head as visions played in her mind of the different ways her story could go. “Wow…I had one concept but you can take in so many different directions…”

Yumiko raised her hand again. “Sometimes I go into a writing session having one direction in my head, but as I keep writing, it goes somewhere completely off the rails. That’s why it’s fun!”

“Agreed.” Masako wrote ANTAGONIST on the whiteboard. “Lastly, we need to figure out who’s going against Time Cop. What’s stopping him from reaching his objectives?”

“Hmm…” Natsuki couldn’t help but think of movies and anime she had recently watched. “Maybe there’s a few small-time crooks at first, but it turns out they’re all being hired by an ancient conspiracy!” Her eyes widened and she made circular motions with a hand as she thought out loud. “Like each Time Crime is actually part of a plot to steal artifacts from different eras to use in an ancient conspiracy ritual!”

Masako stifled a good-natured laugh at Natsuki’s enthusiasm and summarized that on the whiteboard. “I like that, it sounds fun. To give you more ideas for the future, the antagonists don’t always have to be a tangible enemy. The boy struggles to meet up with the girl due to the social pressures of focusing on schoolwork and fears confessing his love due to his own anxieties. No visible enemy there - it’s just man vs. society and man vs. self.”

She looked over at her vice president. “Who are the usual antagonists in your stories, Yumiko?”

Yumiko tapped her cheek with the back of a pen in thought. “In fantasy settings, usually there’s a demon king the main character has to fight, along with minor bad guys like arrogant nobles and dungeon monsters. In school settings, sometimes I use bullies, but usually the hero warms her heart. So, I do use tangible antagonists sometimes…”

Her eyes got that dark look to them again and she started chuckling. “But usually the antagonistic force comes from not having enough time in the day for the harem!”

Masako wiped her face as Natsuki eagerly took notes on her laptop.

“And now, we saved the best for last,” Masako said as she collected herself. On the whiteboard she wrote SECRET SAUCE - CHANGE. “Web novels are fickle things,” she explained as Natsuki gave the board a puzzled look. “The way they’re set up, a lot of them don’t follow traditional structures like the three acts. A lot of them are designed to go on forever, too. So, in a lot of cases, there’s no character development. This is just a personal thing for me, but I like to make it so my main character changes over the story.”

Natsuki struggled with her notes. “You mean…like get stronger?”

“A lot of fantasy and action web novels do have that,” Masako said. She tapped the side of her forehead. “But I’m talking about up here. What does the main character learn during the story? It doesn’t have to be anything complex. Your demon main character learns that there are good humans, too. The boy learns it’s okay to open up about himself. There’s nothing wrong with having a static character, though, and I’d argue that most web novels, even the best and most popular ones, do-”

“Hey!” Yumiko called out when Masako side-eyed her for just a little too long. Yumiko closed her arms, crossed her arms, and hmph’d. “I’m not trying to be the next Proust. I just want to write stories that people will enjoy.”

She opened an eye and saw Masako and Natsuki staring blankly at her. “Hey! I know my stuff. And I think you’re missing a key ingredient here, Masako.”

Yumiko proudly made her way to the whiteboard and grabbed another marker. “To put it simply, there are two kinds of web novels,” she said as she wrote on the board. “Self-contained stories and stories designed to go on forever. The former are more like traditional novels and it’s easier to have character development in those. But ones designed to go on forever, they’re supposed to have chapters reaching into the hundreds. Your demon might realize humans are good by Chapter 50 - so what’s the development for the next 300? And you’re not doing three acts, you’re just writing the next adventure and fight and bologna pony and power level gained each time.”

Natsuki felt overwhelmed. “Wow, I never knew this could be so complex.”

Yumiko stepped past Masako and gripped the sides of the podium. “What will it be, Natsuki?! What will your story be? Will it go on forever, or will you have a clear plot and end in mind? Will you write it for yourself, or for fame? Will you have the discipline and power of will necessary to complete this task? Will you fight, or will you perish like a dog-”

Masako gave Yumiko a manga-style smack on the head with the marker. Yumiko rubbed the growing bruise and bowed her head. “Sorry, Natsuki. Anytime I see a podium, I get…political.”

Natsuki raised her hands, though she still felt rattled. “I-it’s alright. You asked a lot of good questions.”

Good questions that Natsuki didn’t have answers to. Time Cop has to fight a few small bad guys before reaching the big conspiracy, so that’ll be a good amount of chapters, she supposed. But the story ends with him beating the conspiracy, right? Unless there’s another conspiracy after that. Or maybe the Time Bureau are the bad guys all along?

Her eyes widened. I…I could keep this going forever. I have my Idea, Time Cop has his motivation, and I could use a never-ending stream of antagonists. Change…maybe he can punch harder. Or time travel faster.

Thoughts danced around Natsuki’s head. This could be it! This could be my magnum opus! The work that defines who I am! The memories of Yumiko’s stellar reviews and comments swirled around as well. Oh, I could be famous! I could get so many likes and comments! Online discussions, shipping wars, fanart, long essays on my symbolism! An animated adaptation!

Masako and Yumiko noticed the fire rising within Natsuki. The newest member of the club, the newest member of the web novel world, raised a finger, then jabbed her keyboard several times until she spelled out

CHAPTER ONE.

..........

“The first week of club went so well!” Natsuki exclaimed as she and Mitsuko ate at a fast food joint near Mitsuko’s apartment.

Mitsuki pointed a fry at Natsuki and spoke in her monotone voice. “Do I have my character yet?”

“Soon!” Natsuki exclaimed, too enthusiastic to eat anything at the moment. “We’ve spent the whole week doing this worldbuilding thing.”

“Worldbuilding?”

“We’re creating our own world!” Natsuki proclaimed. A couple of nearby children clapped for her and she smiled proudly.

“Uh-huh,” Mitsuko said.

Natsuki made motions with her hands as she spoke rapidly. “You see, our story is set in the year 2199 after a devastating war between the Lunar Alliance and the Outer Territories. They both split off from an originally united humanity when tensions arose over Solar System resources. The war between the two factions killed millions of people but also brought in new technologies. One of those is time travel. A team of scientists developed it out on the moon of Ganymede - that’s the new capital of the Lunar Alliance after the devastating nano-strike on the Western Hemisphere twelve years ago-”

Natsuki took a deep breath.

“-that ended the war in a stalemate, forcing both sides to come to the negotiating table. The diplomacy lasted for several weeks since the Outer Territories refused to give up several occupied asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. They also demanded an apology for the Hyperstrike on Charon at the start of the war. But, thanks to the efforts of the Lunar Alliance president, the treaty was signed, only for a zealous Lunar officer to shoot the president for being too soft on the enemy that fought so hard against. And then-”

“Uh, Natsuki,” Mitsuko interrupted. Natsuki caught her breath again and gave her a confused look. 

Mitsuko tilted her head. “I thought you said your story was about time travel.”

“It is,” Natsuki said. “This is all backstory.”

Mitsuko took a long sip from her soda cup. “Have you actually started writing?”

“We’ve spent all week writing,” Natsuki said proudly.

“Not the backstory, I mean,” Mitsuko clarified. “I mean the actual story.”

Natsuki opened her mouth, ready to say yes, but then slowly closed it.