Worldbuilding AS the story definitely does not work. If you’re going to do worldbuilding at all, then you have to have a story and a plot that will hang on that

Worldbuilding AS the story definitely does not work. If you’re going to do worldbuilding at all, then you have to have a story and a plot that will hang on that worldbuilding as the surface visible material over the structure provided — or the skin over the bones. And that skin still requires some flesh that occurs between those two extremes. IMO, the Silmarillion made for good worldbuilding. But not so good as an actual story.