On Writing and Worldbuilding

Though I wouldn't recommend you buying On Writing and Worldbuilding if you're not already into Timothy Hickson's essays on YouTube—there are much better writing books out there—or Avatar: The Last Airbender—which, as a fact, I am not—or his humor—it doesn't always work on paper—, it's alright. Not at all a Bible or something you must read by any means, but it does the trick for the most part.

This book's rating is greatly skewed by Mr. Hickson's YouTube fanbase. The 4 stars do not, at all, represent a fair, unbiased rating.

I made an utterly terrible, outright awful, mistake. I believed that a book written by a YouTuber with no works of fiction to his name could provide something of value. It cannot.

The book, and the author, lie to you in the title and then again in the book's description. It is not about writing, but it is also not about worldbuilding. This book is a way for an internet personality with a large following to garner views. Most likely you came here, because you watched Mr. Hickson's YouTube videos and came here to defend him. If so, please disregard this review.

There are sixteen chapters in the book. Right from the start I felt that to be a little too many, especially given how low the page count is! I was right to fear. Not one of Hickson's chapters go beyond surface level. This is advice fitting for high school. Let me stress this a bit further. If you want to write a novel of your own, this book will NOT help you.

Majority of the chapters include a cartoon by the name of Avatar: The Last Airbender as a primary source. Why? It's the author's favorite cartoon. He even calls those who dared not to watch it plebeians. What a joke! The cartoon is fine, of course it is, but let us not pretend a Nickelodeon cartoon is a prime example of storytelling, because it is not.

After finishing the book, I took a look at his videos. Many of the chapters are identical to his videos. There is little new. You could watch his videos, which do include some slightly offensive jokes, and many more references to the Avatar cartoon, but in general you would learn the same - nothing, or very little.

The final insult is the final chapter of the book - “How I Plan a Novel”. Mind you Mr. Hickson has published exactly ZERO books in his entire career. In his debut book he tells you how to write. I was unable to find any works credited to Mr. Hickson either, as such I conclude he is not a writer. What Mr. Hickson is I can't really tell.