# First Time World Builder



## srg (Mar 25, 2011)

The project I'm working on is fairly simple - I'm going to write a series of stories based heavily on common fantasy tropes, while at the same time putting my own stamp on it.  That means though that I want to have a "bible" of sorts I can consult while writing.

What, minimally, do I need to include beyond characters, setting, etc.?  Are there some things I can include in brief, and expand on later?

I guess I just want to be able to make a comprehensive guide for myself, but I don't want to spend too much time putting it together.  I don't want to take away from time spent writing the actual stories.


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## Telcontar (Mar 25, 2011)

Don't take ANY time away from writing the stories. Start writing the stories. The world will build itself as you do so. 

Some people do take the time to draw maps, invent cultures, etc etc (myself included) independent of any single story, this is true. However, I would hazard a guess that the majority of THOSE worlds started as the result of a story. That story was a seed that the world sprang up around. It had a few details here and there, evocative tidbits of what would become a much larger picture. This captured the author's imagination all over again, and they wanted to flesh out that world. In doing so, they discover more stories to tell.

This is, at least, the way it works with me. Story begets world begets more stories. Rinse and repeat.


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## srg (Mar 25, 2011)

That's a good point.  I guess I thought of the whole world building process as being necessary preparation and associated it with designing my characters, outlining plots, etc.

I should make sure I differentiate between the two, as they ARE different.


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## JCFarnham (Mar 25, 2011)

I don't believe its as clear cut as that. For example, I've gone in the worldbuilding with the mind of I'd like to draw a map and see what happens and came out of it with a whole short story. Its really just a matter of what works best for you, but yeah in general there's absolutely no reason for putting off starting to write the actual story.

I guess what I'm saying is that there is no minimum or maximum amount of worldbuilding you should do "in preparation"


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## Ophiucha (Mar 25, 2011)

Basically, worldbuilding should - before you start up anything extensive - reflect the story you want to tell. You have an idea for a dragonrider to go on a quest for a diamond sword, and you have things you can expand on from that. You have dragons - how do they work? -, you have diamonds - are those valuable here? how are they cut? - and so on and so forth. You should work off the story to get anywhere, and once you've established those details, its just about going behind the scenes and tying up the loose ends.


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## Meister H (Mar 25, 2011)

I would also recommend starting with the story, but you can always creat the world first. BUT, don't let the world building processes get in the way of the story, let the world build it self after the story and not the other way around.


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## Ravana (Mar 26, 2011)

I am probably one of the few here who _has_ "taken the time" to deliberately build a world from the ground up for the purpose of setting stories in it, prior to writing any of the stories themselves. I don't consider any of that time wasted; on the other hand, I also dig world building as a pursuit all its own, so I'm not sure my example is going to work for anyone else. 

Then again, I learn something new every time I engage in such thought exercises, which I do pretty much constantly–the "what if?" questions that launch most people into a new story: for me, it's impossible _not_ to start building a comprehensive picture of a world once I take that first extrapolative step away from our own. That doesn't mean I sit down and hammer out a complete geography, mythography and history every time I start a new story, only that I rarely "just write": usually, I'll run scenarios in my head until I'm content that the setting integrates to my satisfaction, and only then begin writing. 

No, I wouldn't take time away from writing the stories. Even if you were seriously determined to develop an encyclopedic background for your world, you'll discover once you begin writing that you haven't thought of everything; it will be a constant back-and-forth process. If you already know you'll be spending a lot of time in the world, then getting some background set down will be useful… even then, be aware that in all likelihood you'll eventually want to change something you thought you'd "set in stone." Probably a great many such somethings. 

Since, however, you present the question as that of a "first-time world builder," I can pretty much promise you that you _don't_ "know" you're going to be spending a lot of time in your proposed world. You may _plan_ on it–but until you've had practice constructing a great many worlds, you'll have no way of knowing whether what you think you want is going to work for you in the least, let alone whether there might not be other approaches, other worlds, which appeal to you more. The last thing you want is to spend weeks or months (or years!) assembling a rich, detailed background, only to discover that the result is flat-out boring to you, and you need to chuck it and start all over.

When I set out to assemble the world I reference above, I already had over two decades of experience in writing and in RPGs at my back… and I knew what I wanted, I knew what I was getting myself into, and I knew I was going to have a ball doing it even if I never used the thing in the end. So I guess that may be the answer to your question: unless you find the exercise worth doing _for itself_–just write the stories.


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## srg (Mar 29, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice!  I guess what I will end up doing depends heavily on whether I decide to do a novel, or serial-type stories.  I'm leaning more toward the latter, so I guess it might be more beneficial to just write down a few notes about the world and add on as I go?


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## Meister H (Mar 29, 2011)

Yes, that sounds like a good plan.


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## Amorus (Mar 31, 2011)

I have done it both ways. Do what works for you. However, as echoed in previous responses, the story will ultimately end up shaping and fine tuning your world. Once the characters of your story are well developed they tend to take on a life of their own and often times decide to take the world you created along for the ride. For example, at one point I had a character stand up and tell me that before all of "this" (referring to the current world around him) he was a salt trader and very well known at that.  I decided to use that information to develop salt mines and areas that contained dried sea beds. Best of luck to you!


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## Dr.Dorkness (Apr 10, 2011)

like people before me have said don't stop writing the stories. the stories you write now could become something bigger in a diffrent story or novel. you could use them as ledgends on a world or perhaps the protagonist in one of your stories has a deity because the story you wrote got told by bards all over the world and people would pray to him/her for advise.


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## Ulutar (Apr 18, 2011)

I,ve been world building for so long now, I am itching to start writing but I'm still not finished


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## Zahantian (Apr 19, 2011)

I'm the same, but I don't think you can ever 'finish' world-building, you just keep adding depth and details.


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