[teddyrux]

History and background and detail in a story is great, if it's done right. It has to be necessary in most cases. I know there are exceptions and let's agree not to discuss them. There are history books by fantasy authors: "The Silmarillion" and David Eddings has one. They read like history books.

What needs to be in the story, is enough to make it seem real. I don't care who the third king on the Soo Dynasty was, unless it's important to the story. However, it doesn't mean that you don't have to know it. It might be important.

Everyone does world-building of some sort. You don't have to draw a map or have detailed notes about the history, but you do have to know that Town X is the capital of Country Y and is located on the Eastern shore of Continent Z. Your can't rename your towns in the middle of the story without a good reason. Even this little detail is world-building and Terry Brooks does it. He just doesn't consider it world building. He does an outline and probably keeps all his milieu information in the outline.