Many, many years ago, I noticed American politics often boiled down to blaming things on God, Darwin, Or History. Later it came to me that, in some ways, worldbuilders did this as well.

These are three crutches we use rather poorly in our worldbuilding. Three excuses that let us hand-wave good worldbuilding and thinking, and shovel torpes in. We may not even realize we do it.

(Though if you think about it you’re probably being a bit lazy. It’s OK, everyone is now and then.)

Let’s look at how these excuses get us lazy – and make poor worldbuilding. (more…)