Book Review - 500+ Worldbuilding And Writing Prompts, by Dylan F Cline

I thought I'd write a review of the most recent book I bought. But I've got a sort of declaration of interest. The book was written by a Hiver who I consider a friend; it is a tangible proof of the way that Hive is an incubator for all kinds of great things.

Photo by Me - this is my copy of the book !

The Book's Origins

It is common in the creative writing communities on Hive for community owners and admins (and quite often ordinary members) to post writing prompts to spur the imaginations of the members. Quite often there are small prizes for the best entries, and sometimes there are deadlines by which entries need to be submitted.

500+ Worldbuilding And Writing Prompts started life in this kind of way. @oblivioncubed founded the Worldbuilding Community and for the last couple of years has been posting a daily writing prompt. Well, most days - just occasionally reality pokes it's nose in and takes priority !

All of the prompts relate to worldbuilding and creative writing, and I have certainly enjoyed working with them (and often twisting them beyond all recognition !) Turning the prompts into a book is a very natural development, but wouldn't have happened without Hivers buying into the fun that can be had with the prompts.

First Impressions

One of the reasons I bought the book was to see what the quality was like of a book self-published by the author and supplies through Amazon's KDP print-on-demand service.

The answer is that it's better than I expected. The paper is an uncoated stock type, but fairly smooth and decent quality - certainly better than typical paperbacks you'd find in a supermarket. The print is very clear and in a slightly larger font size than a typical paperback. The cover is matt-printed, and looks great but I do wonder if it'll be as durable as the gloss coated covers on mass-produced books. The artwork is nice, though !

In terms of size, the book is 9 x 6 inches, which I believe is the standard US "octavo" size. Because I'm in England, most of the paperbacks on my shelf are UK A or B format, which is significantly smaller, but I've got a few US books this will be able to match with. It's a shame Amazon don't offer buyers a choice of sizes and then re-format accordingly.

Organisation and Content

The book is fairly slim at 93 pages, but don't be fooled - if you use it to it's full potential, you could easily spend a week or more working through the ideas on each individual page !

Although the book is based on the writing prompts in the Worldbuilding community, they haven't just been copied and pasted into a book-length list. It's clear that a significant amount of effort has been put into re-writing them, editing out typos and most of all, organising them into groups by theme.

There's a useful table of contents at the front of the book which breaks the prompts down into their various themes, as well as an introduction and conclusion. The individual prompts are well chosen for each theme, although worldbuilding is a complex business where ideas can swirl and blend and cross over into all kinds of topic. I can imagine that pinning some of the prompts to a specific theme must have been incredibly tough !

The prompts themselves are deeply thought-provoking, and can be used in all kinds of different ways. They could be the starting point for a gazetteer-type article in a world you're developing for Dungeons & Dragons or a similar game, they could be used as the basis for creative writing which fleshes out a setting, or they could be the spur to a discussion on an aspect of a world which you wouldn't normally consider.

If you were in the process of creating a fictional or gaming world, just thinking about a few of the prompts in this book could really add detail, context and life to your setting.

Conclusion

If you are a gamer or creative writer, this book is one that deserves to be on your shelf, the kind of invaluable tool you'll come back to over and over again. It's not a book for reading from cover to cover (even though I did !), it's one to dip into as a source of inspiration and a way to push your mind into new and unexpected directions.

If I had to make one piece of constructive criticism it's that I think Hive should have been mentioned more in the Introduction and Final Thoughts sections to help bring new Hivers onboard !

I appreciate I'm probably very biased (although I've tried to be fair !), but I love the idea of a book which takes something that started life in Hive and makes it available to a wider audience. It shows how Hive can act as an incubator for ideas that find their way into the "real world".