Do Clockwork Cowboys Have Hearts?

I’ve been mulling on the tendency for setting-heavy stories to also feel soulless. The tin-man without a heart, all surface shine. Steampunk’s banged around pretty hard for this, and I’ve thrown a few punches myself at stories that focus on corsets and burgeoning industry without acknowledging the syphilis and squalor of Victorian-era Europe. Not that being dark or edgy automatically adds depth to a story, just that an acknowledgment of complex social situations opens up chances to do something beneath the gleam.

Mind, I don’t think steampunk is inherently superficial as a genre, and I also don’t think mainstream examples should be considered proof that it is, when there are eddies of counter-movements against Euro-centric, non-punk steampunk. But it is a newer genre, and one that’s very popular, and so one that people jump into, slapping goggles onto their MC and describing faux-Victorian clothing to nab that label.

And I’m going to pull out my Opinion Hat and say that I think this is why setting-heavy stories so easily end up as tin-men. More emphasis on what would be cool to describe, and what would gleam brightly for the reader, than what would work as a structural foundation for the story, which leads the worldbuilding to overwhelm instead of accentuate.

Hey, I’ll admit it: I’m a worldbuilding snob, both as writer and reader. I want to see the roots of these motherfuckers, not just the reflective gleam of their surface. It’s why I personally despise the Rule of Cool — throwing in what sounds good and gluing it together with more of what sounds good.

I love worldbuilding that is completely merged with the story. Say two characters have a conversation for plot and personality development. I’d like to see the worldbuilding permeating this scene — where these people are, what words they consider to be profanity (c’mon, if we’re talking a sex-positive culture here, “fuck” isn’t going to have the negative nuance Westernized cultures today recognize and are aware of), whether they have to speak in a certain way if there are social differences between the two, whether they are eating or drinking, and if they are, what. The possibilities are endless, and for a scene that isn’t even primarily focused on setting.

In other words, I feel worldbuilding has a larger chance of overwhelming everything else when it’s used as skin instead of as veins and arteries. Hiding a story’s heart instead of feeding it blood.