Worldbuilding by joshua_creator

Worldbuilding is possibly one of my favorite things about writing. The thrill of deciding what goes where, how things work, who rules whom, and what the world looks like. Your world is more than just the story’s setting; it is a character in its own right. And like both your protagonist and your antagonist, if your world is not at its best, your story will suffer. Regardless of your chosen genre, whether it be fantasy, science fiction, or one of those set closer to the world we know, big or small, you need to put the time into your worldbuilding.

In this post, as well as a few more down the road, we will explore the ins and outs of worldbuilding. We will discuss what to include and what to leave out, or, at least, what works best for you.

Why Worldbuilding Matters

Worldbuilding is your framework, the skeleton of your short story, your novel, or your series. It isn’t a collection of details recorded for information’s sake; although that collection matters, it serves other purposes as well. Let’s take a look at the three key tasks worldbuilding must accomplish.

1. Anchor the reader. The worlds we create must give the reader a sense of place and rules. This lets them know what to expect without confusion. By anchoring your reader to your world, you give them a point of orientation, just enough clarity so they can invest in the story.
2. Shape the story. A strong world dictates what type of stories you can tell. What you include, from society to industry to magic and the perks and drawbacks they bring, sets the boundaries for the types of stories you can tell. With your worldbuilding, you influence conflicts and character development. You determine what is important to your world and what is at stake. Your world reinforces your theme and shapes the logic of the plot.
3. Draw the reader in. If your worldbuilding succeeds in the first two tasks, then you will find it easier to draw the reader into the story. It gives the reader a sensory and emotional connection to your world. It builds trust and confidence, helping the reader surrender themselves to the story. They experience the story on a deeper level than just that of a casual reader.

Three Pillars of Worldbuilding

The Tree Pillars of Worldbuilding by Lee Ball and A.I.

Now, let’s look at the three interconnected pillars that support your framework. These pillars make your worlds feel cohesive rather than chaotic.

1. The Physical World: Your physical world determines how your characters live, travel, work, or survive. This includes the following aspects.

• Geography
• Climate
• Flora and fauna
• Natural resources
• Architecture and infrastructure

2. The Cultural World: Your cultural world is your world’s personality, its heartbeat. This shows what your characters value. Your cultural world includes the following aspects.

• Languages and dialects
• Religion and mythology
• Social norms and taboos
• Art, music, and fashion
• Food, celebrations, and rituals

3. The Structural World: Your structural world determines your world’s laws. It sets up your conflicts and how your characters settle them. The structural world has the following aspects.

• Politics and power structures
• Economics and trade
• Laws and justice
• Technology or magic systems
• Military organization

Purpose Before Detail

Purpose Before Detail by Lee Ball and A.I.

The main purpose of worldbuilding is to support your story, not overshadow it. One of the mistakes new worldbuilders make – I’ve done it myself – is to create everything at once. I drew my maps and wrote my histories and mythologies. (I did not attempt to create new languages; I am not J.R.R. Tolkien.) There are better ways to build your world.

1. Identify what your story needs. Does your story take place in one location or do your characters cross nations? Is magic key to your plot? Are supernatural creatures wandering the countryside? Answering these questions shows what areas of your world you need to focus on.
2. Build only the parts of your world the story needs. Once you identify your needs, make those your main focus. For example, if your characters travel from the town to the mountain, add things like distance and terrain. Describe the town, the mountains, and the land between the two. Unless the characters are traveling beyond the mountains in a later chapter, don’t go any farther.
3. Add to your world as you write. If you are a discovery writer and not a planner, you can add to your world along the way. There are a couple benefits and drawbacks to this method.

Benefits

1. Your world develops more naturally through storytelling.
2. The world is more spontaneous.
3. You spend less time in preparation before writing.

Drawbacks

1. Contradictions can occur.
2. You must monitor continuity.
3. You revise more frequently.

Top -Down vs. Bottom -Up

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up by Lee Ball and A.I.

Whether you choose to build your world before you begin writing or as you go, there are two ways to approach it. You start with the world as a whole and work your way down to cities or towns, or you start with a single detail and expand the world around it.

Top-Down

With the top-down method, you start with the big picture and work your way down. There are a few starting points you can choose.

• Your world’s history
• Major nations
• Global conflicts
• Cultural and technological eras

Once you have any one of these in place, you begin zooming in until you reach the local level.

Bottom-Up

When using the bottom-up method, you start with the smallest points and expand outward. Like the top-down method, there are a few points to begin with.

• A single village
• One character’s daily life
• A cultural tradition

Most writers use a combination of these two methods.

The Importance of Constraints

A world with and without constraints. By Lee Ball and A.I.

Many new writers treat worldbuilding as a place to include anything they want. The only thing they don’t include is constraint. Possibility doesn’t define great worlds; limitation does. Constraints create tension, and tension creates your story. Here are a few questions to determine your world’s limitations.

• What resources are scarce?
• What technologies don’t exist?
• Do certain beliefs limit behavior?
• How do laws affect society?
• What knowledge have people lost?

Think about the story you want to write, then figure out what your world doesn’t need or have. Ask yourself how this particular constraint carries your story forward and build on it.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Avoiding Pitfalls by Lee Ball and A.I.

Now that we have a basic idea on how to start the process, let’s look at some of the more common pitfalls to avoid.

• Info-dumping: This is when you reveal way too much information at one time. There is always the temptation when starting something new to present all you know at one time.
• Overbuilding: Tying into the info-dumping, overbuilding is when you add more to your world than you need. It is good to know some background, but if it isn’t going into your story file it away and save it for another time.
• Inconsistency: Inconsistency damages a good story. So, what constitutes inconsistency in worldbuilding? If you establish a rule, don’t change it later on. If magic depends on certain components in the beginning, that has to remain constant. You can’t suddenly later say the world’s weather patterns drive all magic. If you make the rules, you must follow them throughout your world’s creation.
• A generic world: Literature, as well as movies and television, have given us a hundred thousand worlds. Some of them are fantastic, some are horrible (in a good way,) and some are mundane. Your job as a worldbuilder is to be original. If you are going to borrow aspects of other worlds, you have to treat it as a skeleton. You have to put the muscle and the flesh on it and shape it into something completely different.

The best way to avoid these pitfalls is to build with intention and reveal with restraint.

A Simple Framework

A Simple Framework by Lee Ball and A.I.

While other folks have created amazing templates to help us build our own worlds, for now, I just want to give you a simple framework. I might, eventually, post a full-blown worldbuilding workbook, but for now I just want to help you get started.

1. What is the core concept of your world?
2. What makes this world different from ours?
3. What rules govern how people live?
4. What conflicts naturally arise from these rules?
5. How does the world shape your characters?
6. How do your characters shape the world?

My Closing Thoughts

Remember, worldbuilding isn’t about creating a perfect world, it’s about creating a believable one. When your world has logic, texture, and purpose, your readers will follow you loyally. Make your world worthy of your characters, of your fans, and of yourself.

by

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