Worldbuilding: when is it too much?

[serria]

I, along with a couple other members of this community, absolutely love world building. In stories that take place in non-Earth settings, I love developing cultures, religions, ecosystems - you name it. Part of the appeal is the freedom to be god without worrying about mucking up details, but mostly I just love the opportunity to be creative.

But as I write "original world" stories, I find myself struggling with a lexicon that's realistic to my world without being annoying. Here's an example: if characters in a fantasy world have a concept of named days/weeks, should they use Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.? How about January, February, and so forth? It would be strange for a culture that had no Roman or Germanic history to use names blatantly rooted in such, just as it might be for these characters to celebrate Christmas. Is it therefore more helpful to invent new named days and months, or does simply confuse the readers unnecessarily, and it is permissible to "translate" a fantasy world into common vernacular?

When does "changing names" go from being world building, to falling under "Call A Rabbit A 'Smeerp'" territory?

In the same ballpark, but more extreme, should the words that characters use, or I use in my narration, be subject to world realism? Is it strange to use the word "maudlin" when the word comes from Mary Magdalene? Okay, that's a radical example, but I think most readers would be thrown out of a story if a character stubbed his toe and shouted "Jesus Christ!", even though the expression is better understood than perhaps a fantasy counterpart - so where is the line between making language and the world understandable to readers, and retaining world realism?

Comments

[inkdust]

Here's a specific thought that's sort of out of left field, but one possibility for a story that really needs to reference days of the week or months of the year could be to use the Quaker plain calendar: First Day, Second Day, Third Day / First Month, Second Month, etc. It's very simple, but it could fit into a certain kind of world, and it wouldn't be completely invented.

Edit: and "out of left field" is another one of those phrases you have to consider, haha. I faced a similar issue when I was writing ghosts from the Civil War and Prohibition times, always looking up when idioms came into use.

[serria]

If I remember correctly, I want to say Anne McCaffrey use day names like that - something along the lines of First Day, Second Day, etc. It's been a long time since I read the Pern books, but that seems to stick out to me.

I haven't bothered naming my months. I've been doing something similar - referring to "the first moon of spring" or "the second moon of winter" and so on. I did name the days, which is one of the things that inspired this post. I named them after the gods of my world, similar to our week (Thursday = Thor's Day and so on). The pattern was similar so I thought it was a good idea, now I wonder if it's taking things a bit too far. I don't really like explaining things in my narrative to avoid dreaded exposition, I prefer to write exactly as I would if I were writing about an Earth setting. But if it's to the point where your readers don't know what the heck you're talking about?

Ahh, I love historical fiction, but I'd be so nervous about actually writing it. Little idioms, words, phrases - in addition to all the research! If I ever dared to write historical, I'd do something medieval or earlier - where some level of "translation" is generally acceptable.

[inkdust]

It seems to me in terms of detailed worldbuilding, like using new names for timekeeping, it works best when the details are sprinkled in but not necessary for comprehension - like having a character mention that they'll be leaving on [Thor's Day equivalent], but not making it essential for the reader to know/remember that [Thor's Day] follows [Odin's Day]. That gives the impression of cultural depth without throwing the reader out of the story with the technicalities. And I'd say the best test for that is to write it the way you would naturally and then find good beta readers.

I did give myself a little leeway with my historical bits because I put my ghosts in a present-day setting (minimizing the need for setting research) and had them already observing/interacting with people over the years, so they were allowed to pick up a few anachronisms here and there. Full-on historical fiction, that would be a lot to take on.