Does World Building Scare You?

[Hans]

I actually like worldbuilding. A world is useful for so much more than one single story. (For example, two stories.)
What I like most is the diversity and versatility that you seem to fear. One method to put it to an advantage: Ever sat through a class, meeting, lecture, speech or similar that threatened to bore you to death? Ask one simple question: How can I adapt this to my world and suddenly it might become interesting.
This probably does not work for everyone, for me it has worked often enough.

Of course that does not mean you have to include every world detail in your stories or show of with knowledge on topics no one else is interested in. But I know from experience that on strange ond obscure topics worldbuilders tend to be the persons who still know something about that.

[Ankari]

Not at all. I love world building. In fact, its the most enjoyable part of the writing process. I always address world building from a macro to micro process.

World(s): What are the physical and metaphysical laws of your world? Do multiple planes of existence exist? How many moons, suns, days, hours, continents, etc, etc do you want?

Races: How many races do you want? When you create a race define them by the climate they have evolved within. Make sure they are races and not just different cultures within the same race.

Religion: For me, this is where it gets fun. From religion you can sprout so much social structure and conflict. How many deities? What are the major tenets of faith? How does it explain the creation of the world and people? Is it inclusive or exclusive? What makes up the hierarchy of faith?

Magic: I love building magic. I've created more than 16 magic systems for my world (many of which will not make a debut for quite some time). I try to use logic when creating magic systems. Where is the magic drawn from? What laws bind the magic? Is it mental based or physical based? How does it affect the caster? Is it genetically inherit or learned?

Nations: How was the nation formed? Is it a racial nation (ex. all elves) or is it a multiracial nation? Why? What system of government do you want to use? major resource(s)? Placement of the country on the map (which should be part of world building). What is the population? If the nation has extensive resources then don't forget wars. How has the wars shaped the nation? Alliances?

[ethgania]

I'm far less scared about building the world than I am about getting it across clearly and concisely in the writing. It's such a complicated thing that I'm dealing with that I'm afraid it's too complicated to write (dealing with way more "races" than necessary... basically a sole unifying culture, but the creatures take on different forms with regards to their responsibility and rank in the world... it gets overwhelming!), but I don't necessarily want to cut it down either, becase that means reworking the whole system.

[Penpilot]

Ethgania, if you don't rule your world, it'll rule you. What I mean by that is don't bend your story to fit the world. Bend the world to fit your story. Find the simple basic essence of your story and fit the pieces of the world onto that like meat and muscle onto a skeleton a little at a time. One scene at a time. It will make things less daunting because your only dealing with bits and pieces instead of the whole.

[writeshiek33]

curious where to start suddenly forgeten how to start world building very strange my mind is blocked for some reason arggh i think have writers block rarerly happens but for me but now just when want to write drawing blank

[Eeirail]

Thanks everyone for the great responses. And Saigonnus, that is an awesome little template you've got going there. Some stuff I would not have thought of. Thanks again!

Here, I just made my creatures and such from scratch, I constructed everything from nothing, it made alot of the research un-needed, and as for some other things, I have concepts of other things but as it stands I think making your own things would be easier and more creative.

[ethgania]

Ethgania, if you don't rule your world, it'll rule you. What I mean by that is don't bend your story to fit the world. Bend the world to fit your story. Find the simple basic essence of your story and fit the pieces of the world onto that like meat and muscle onto a skeleton a little at a time. One scene at a time. It will make things less daunting because your only dealing with bits and pieces instead of the whole.

True. Part of my hesitation is that my husband came up with more of this world than I have, so it's like messing with his territory. He's more of the ideas guy and I'm more of the writing type than he is. It all works, it's just proving that it works that's going to take all that time and skill.

[Saigonnus]

Here, I just made my creatures and such from scratch, I constructed everything from nothing, it made alot of the research un-needed, and as for some other things, I have concepts of other things but as it stands I think making your own things would be easier and more creative.

I have made creatures from scratch also, constructed worlds from nothing, that experience is where my template comes from, and a bit I picked up here. Generally, when it comes to research, I only do it on a subject if something sounds off or inaccurate about something I wrote; not really about every little thing I don't know. Those little tidbits are things you tend to remember and each one gives you more knowledge and experience to draw from when writing.

Usually those things I research are perhaps common construction methods for a rock wall or how to shear a sheep using medieval tools... whatever basic stuff I am relatively unfamiliar with. Those things you create are wonderful, but if you create every little aspect of every little thing your character sees and does it could get tedious since you have to describe each thing the reader would be unfamiliar with.

[Eeirail]

I have made creatures from scratch also, constructed worlds from nothing, that experience is where my template comes from, and a bit I picked up here. Generally, when it comes to research, I only do it on a subject if something sounds off or inaccurate about something I wrote; not really about every little thing I don't know. Those little tidbits are things you tend to remember and each one gives you more knowledge and experience to draw from when writing.

Usually those things I research are perhaps common construction methods for a rock wall or how to shear a sheep using medieval tools... whatever basic stuff I am relatively unfamiliar with. Those things you create are wonderful, but if you create every little aspect of every little thing your character sees and does it could get tedious since you have to describe each thing the reader would be unfamiliar with.

True, honestly. I like the idea, I use all the basic crafting things, but I have never actually researched into them, maybe that will help the awful writers' block I seem to have, I must give my gratitude for this.

[Anders Ämting]

Nah, I ain't scared of world-building, but then I have a very laid back approach to it: I just figure I can add the details as required and imply the rest. No need to waste creative energy on things that aren't actually going to show up in the story, after all.

Besides, first drafts and all that.