How does one properly World-Build?

[Netardapope]

So it's been a while since I did any straight up worldbuilding sessions, to the point where I forgot how much fun it was. But there is a problem. As with many people in this forum, I'm creating an Epic fantasy series, as a result, there is a lot of history. I honestly don't know where I should stop worldbuilding and get to the story, nor do I know how much detail my world needs.

I'm thinking of just producing the skeleton of a history and detailing the core mechanics of the setting,and just winging everything else, but I wanted to know if this was an effective approach. Do most of you guys have a lot of details in your history before you start? Or do you fill it in during and after the first draft?

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[skip.knox]

I almost agree with your approach. Yes, just create the skeleton; no, don't just wing it. But there's another issue buried in the words. I'll get to that in a minute.

Don't wing it. Rather, as you begin work on a specific story, you will find there are aspects of the skeleton that are not sufficient to the story. You'll need to come up with new stuff. First, give the story what it needs. Second, take those specific nuggets and use them to flesh out that skeleton. In other words, never let any in-story tidbit go unrecorded. Structure your skeleton in such a way that you have an orderly way in which to expand it. At least for me, when I put those tidbits back (I use a separate Scrivener project for the world) it invariably gets me thinking about other things, so more flesh gets put on the bones than just what comes from the story. And I don't necessarily wait until the story's done. If I craft something for the story that seems worldly (*chortle*), I put it in WorldReference when I have a free moment. It's iterative.

Now for that lurking issue: none of this answers your question. When should you stop world building? When is the skeleton done?

Turns out, that's really hard to answer. I began with a premise, an alternate historical reality, so I had a bunch of work already done (geography, climate, etc). Were I to start anew, I *think* what I would do is start with the living, not the dead. That is, I would let geography, architecture, whatever slide. I might even go so far as to say "medieval Europe" or "Tokugawa Japan" as a hypothesis. I could modify later.

By start with the living I mean start with the peoples. How do they live? What are the social orders, kinship groups, how does friendship work, what are the prejudices and beliefs? If I was lucky enough to have a story in mind, I might even restrict myself to known characters. *Their* social order, family, friends, etc. As with a play, I don't need to build sets for the whole world but only for the scenes in which the actors appear.

All that having been said, do leave room for fun. World building is a great relief from the soul-crushing work of writing. Sometimes we build houses. Sometimes we just go play in the sandbox.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

There probably isn't a right or wrong way to do it. But. Please don't start your story with no good idea of what your world is like. Been there, done that. See my thread in Brainstorming and Planning. So, yeah, I can tell you that it's definitely not a good idea to make everything up as you go because it'll get you in a mess. A mess like I am in right now, and you don't want to be in a mess like that.

That is to say, don't start out with nothing, as I did. I didn't even have a skeleton. I think if you start with a skeleton and worldbuild from that, some details will fill themselves in naturally. Enough to carry the story, anyway.

What should this skeleton contain? The technology level, the basic reach and limitations of the magic, the major cultures/countries/peoples and their basic characteristics and background would be what I focus on. You mention history, and how you handle that depends on how much the history of the world plays into what's happening NOW in the story. If you have complicated rifts and old hatreds between multiple warring countries or something...yeah, starting out it's probably a good idea to figure all that out. Or at least figure out a basic outline of it and then flesh it out as you go. But if it's all just background you really like and think is cool, that's great, it is, but I don't think you need it starting out. Not in any kind of painstaking detail, anyway.

I don't think there's an answer to when to stop worldbuilding, other than that you have to stop at some point. as we all know, can get in the way of, you know, actually writing the story. Does the history of your world provide important perspective to your story? Do you enjoy it for its own sake? You could, if you wanted, spend years building your world, figuring out everything from obscure dialects of mermaid languages to the rules of sports played by goblins. It's totally fine to do that if that's what you like. But if you really want to get to writing the story, you need to somehow limit how much development your world gets before you begin, lest you fall into a worldbuilding hole and never escape.

There's an entire other question here: how much worldbuilding does your story need? That's your call, not mine. Tolkienian epics and fluffy fantasy-lite both have their audiences. I think to answer the question of how much worldbuilding to do, you might first have to answer the question of how much worldbuilding you need.

 

[Netardapope]

There probably isn't a right or wrong way to do it. But. Please don't start your story with no good idea of what your world is like. Been there, done that. See my thread in Brainstorming and Planning. So, yeah, I can tell you that it's definitely not a good idea to make everything up as you go because it'll get you in a mess. A mess like I am in right now, and you don't want to be in a mess like that.

That is to say, don't start out with nothing, as I did. I didn't even have a skeleton. I think if you start with a skeleton and worldbuild from that, some details will fill themselves in naturally. Enough to carry the story, anyway.

What should this skeleton contain? The technology level, the basic reach and limitations of the magic, the major cultures/countries/peoples and their basic characteristics and background would be what I focus on. You mention history, and how you handle that depends on how much the history of the world plays into what's happening NOW in the story. If you have complicated rifts and old hatreds between multiple warring countries or something...yeah, starting out it's probably a good idea to figure all that out. Or at least figure out a basic outline of it and then flesh it out as you go. But if it's all just background you really like and think is cool, that's great, it is, but I don't think you need it starting out. Not in any kind of painstaking detail, anyway.

I don't think there's an answer to when to stop worldbuilding, other than that you have to stop at some point. as we all know, can get in the way of, you know, actually writing the story. Does the history of your world provide important perspective to your story? Do you enjoy it for its own sake? You could, if you wanted, spend years building your world, figuring out everything from obscure dialects of mermaid languages to the rules of sports played by goblins. It's totally fine to do that if that's what you like. But if you really want to get to writing the story, you need to somehow limit how much development your world gets before you begin, lest you fall into a worldbuilding hole and never escape.

There's an entire other question here: how much worldbuilding does your story need? That's your call, not mine. Tolkienian epics and fluffy fantasy-lite both have their audiences. I think to answer the question of how much worldbuilding to do, you might first have to answer the question of how much worldbuilding you need.

You make a good point on worldbuilding what has to do with the story, but that's among the hardest parts, because I only have a vague idea of what the story will be. In my mind, I see the history playing a huge role in the background for the villains and the narrative arc of the whole series. I guess I just get worried that I'll overextend.

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[Heliotrope]

I'm not sure there is a proper way to world build, but I will share my way in case it helps.

So, I never world build before deciding on my actual story. I have to have a good idea of what my story is first. I do this by first creating an interesting premise or a simple statement of what my story is about. Let's pick something like:

A man must deliver a 'MacGuffin' to its place of creation in order to save the world from a terrible evil.

Ok, so I have a broad story idea. I can either flesh out the character or the world, but I tend to like to go back and forth between both. So now I have to start brainstorming.

Who would be the least likely person to have to go on a journey? Who would learn the most from having to venture out and go on a journey? Hmmmmm.... maybe a quiet, introverted little man. Ok, I know that I want this to be a fantasy, so maybe a hermit? Maybe a Monk? That would be OK, but I want this story to be more for children... how about a little dwarf like creature... or a little gnome... Maybe I'll invent my own type of gnomes and call them "hobbits". They will be very soft, nice, quiet creatures. Yes. That will be good.

Ok, so I have my new premise:

A quiet introverted Hobbit must deliver a "MacGuffin" to its place of origin in order to save the world from a terrible evil.

Hmm... what might the Macguffin be? Maybe an amulet? Maybe a bottle of potion? Maybe a ring? Something small. Ok, a ring works. What is so special about the ring?

Hmmmmmm, well, maybe thousands of years ago there were many rings and they were all created by a powerful sorcerer to gain power over all the heads of the world... Maybe all the rings were destroyed except for one, which was lost? And now, thousands of years later it is has been found and must be destroyed before the evil sorcerer comes to find it.

Oh yes, that works.

Ok, new premise:

A quiet introverted Hobbit must deliver a ring of power to its place of origin in order to save the world from a terrible evil.

Good. Now I can start fleshing out my world.

Where might a Hobbit live? I know what sort of personality I want Hobbits to have, so what sort of world would they live in? A nice quite little village maybe, where they get to sit around in rocking chairs smoking pipes and eating nice cakes all day long. That sounds lovely and it would be very interesting to see a person like that having to leave the comfort of their village and go on an adventure. Ok, what will I call this town? The Shire maybe. Or Hobbiton. Something like that.

Ok, who else wants the ring destroyed? Who else can go on this adventure with him? Maybe some elves? What are they like?...'

Then I just keep asking questions like that over and over and over again until I have a story premise that is fleshed out with world building that supports that premise.

 

[FifthView]

I'd begun a long comment, then I saw Heliotrope's and it addressed much of what I'd been writing.

Knowing the story you want to tell is a requirement for knowing how much world to build before you begin writing–and what to build before you begin writing.

But there are different elements of "story" you should consider. Helio's example focuses mostly on plot and character. I would add: tone. Perhaps that's not a great word for what I mean, but my meaning is this: knowing whether you want a gothic feel, a happy-go-lucky wondrous feel, a constant feeling of imminent horror, and so forth will help you to decide on the elements of the world that will promote this tone.

 

[Devor]

I usually start with . . . anything. No, really, any one little thing I have the notion to write about. A character, an event, a piece of magic, whatever. What is it that's hooking me?

Let's say it's a story about a doorman at the queen's fantasy castle, one of those "small" stories where the epic adventure is clearly happening in the background, and the Main Character watches it without really understanding what's going on, but the reader would.

^I'm only coming up with this on the spot, but I think I might use it in my next trope reboot.

Now, I have my castle doorman. That's my hook. What do I have to have to make that story work? That's the next part. The supporting stuff. Let's see . . .

- A fun castle
- A royal court
- The doorman's personal life (family, friends, etc)
- Personal conflicts the doorman will experience
- A "typical" epic conflict that the reader will pick up on in the background
- The doorman's "bad interpretation" of what's happening based on half-heard conversations
- Something for the doorman to do with that wrong information (revolt, sell secrets, try to start an evacuation, assassinate the wizard, etc.)

Okay, that's kind of cool. I didn't even know it included all that, right? But it makes sense. It's all part of what the story concept secretly promises to the reader. The castle doorman naturally overhears a piece of the epic conflict happening in the background, and of course he's going to do something with that information. That's on top of his own personal struggles, some of which might relate to the conflict (like a dignitary offering him a bribe to spy or a criminal threatening him if he doesn't sometimes let a thief inside).

Now I want to start developing on each of those points. Which decisions do I like more? The thief or the dignitary? Both, but the thief as the A-plot because the MC could have personal entanglements with an old criminal friend, and that could be turned around into an asset when things heat up. Do I want a lot of magic in my setting? Absolutely, quite a bit, but the light-hearted kind. And so on.

Finally, once I've gotten through that information, I think about Character, Plot, and Setting specifically, just to make sure I've rounded off my bases.

Character: Does he have strong personal connections (family, friends, work connections, etc.)? Life events that have shaped his personality? Values that are challenged in the story? What does he want to achieve in life before the conflict begins and how do they affect his goals during the conflict?

Plot: Well, basic plot structure, with an emphasis on the way the character's actions make the plot worse at times.

Setting: Ecology, Magic, Government, Culture, and Warfare

And all of these - well, insomuch as they're explored - change, both during the story and before the story. They arc, and they have a backarc.

In a nutshell, that's:

- Identify the thing that's hooking you the author.
- Figure out the things that are necessary to pull off the hook.
- From there, consider the basics behind character, plot and setting to spruce up the details.

^ I wish I had the skills to make an infographic out of this.

 

[ThinkerX]

A bit of Skip, a bit of Devor.

Way, way back, I spent far too much time world building. Granted, I'd convinced myself this was for AD&D campaigns that never got off the ground, but half a dozen plus worlds is still excessive. Later, I realized that my 'worlds' were actually only parts of worlds, and managed to merge most of them to just two. And while I wrote all through this period, I very rarely finished anything.

Then, after a hiatus, I resumed writing again about seven years ago. Just for me, to start. A story I figured would be 10-15,000 words tops. I picked the world that suited it best, dredged up the relevant notes, and started typing. And almost immediately ran into problems. My old worldbuilding covered a bunch of stuff - but not a lot of the stuff I needed to make the story work. As I wrote the story, the world changed - sometimes in little ways, some times in big ones.

Later, I came to this site and started writing 'Challenge' stories, most of them set in my principle world. Again, each story added to the world - sometimes little things, like the robes favored by master wizards, other times major events like the fall of empires.

So far, pretty much like Skip.

Except, as with Devor, there is also the 'idea' aspect. Fantasy is full of mighty heroes duking it out on battlefields - but what would it be like to be Grunt #117 in that battle? Assuming Grunt #117 survived, how would this experience affect him? In most fantasy epics, this issue doesn't come up, because Grunt #117 gets killed about three paragraphs (if that) after making his first appearance. Likewise, court intrigue - most fantasy epics focus on the aristocracy, the royalty, favored courtiers, with just maybe the odd servant or general. Very rarely do you see these intrigues play out from the POV of an ordinary servant or minor functionary (unless said servant or functionary also happens to be a bastard heir to the kingdom or some such).

Those are just a couple of ideas. What I do now is take an idea, look over the worldbuilding, and see if there's a place that idea could fit. Actually writing the story tends to alter both the idea and the world building.

But confession time: I have had to (re)create a world or two since beginning my current novella series. 'Empire: Spiral' takes place on a world I contemplated long ago, but didn't develop past a few initial notes and maps. The Lovecraftian (well, sort of) elements in the story changed the entire nature of that world while leaving the geography mostly intact.

Past year or two I have been writing short 'concept stories' for a more contemporary project. Two types of worldbuilding here: first a mild apocalyptic near future earth - circa 2050 or 2060 or some such; and second another world altogether, a bleak and forbidding wasteland. Among others. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to further delve into their mysteries this year.

 

[Peat]

Heh. I was coming in here all excited by the new ideas I'd been having for doing just this sort of thing and then found Heliotrope and Devor had pretty much said it all already. Which is reassuring!

My approach is to come up with the skeleton Skip talks about, then look at my story concept and work out the important things like Heliotrope and Devor talk about and put a bit more flesh on those, then write the story. I'll discover the need for a lot more meat on the bones come the end of the first draft but its really hard to know where that is before hand. So yes, you can totally go for a skeleton and add more as you go.

I'd also add that Skip is spot on about starting with the living. Grand histories are fun and not without use but most importantly, you need to know how the characters will react to each other and to other cultures. I'd start with culture and a little geography (as not only does geography help form culture, it also tells you whether your characters spend a lot of time complaining about the rain or not ). A basic sense of history helps but I'd try to keep it down to what you can explain in a minute (or five, depending on how good you at compressing things).

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

If you start with story elements and build your world around them, be careful about introducing a "short-circuit" in your story. Have you ever read a story or watched a movie where the main issue could have been solved by the simple application of some feature that solved some secondary issue? When asking the questions about what feature of the world will solve problem B, maybe make sure it doesn't also solve problem A, the solution of which would prevent problem B from even occurring.

 

[Ryan_Crown]

I have to agree with Skip and Peat -- I start with people. Once I have a couple main characters, I can develop the race/society they come from. And from your societies comes your geography -- a horse culture is more likely to be found on the open plains than the jungle, for example. I like to find historical groups to at least loosely base my cultures on, because this gives me access to geography, clothing, housing, etc. ideas I can start with.

After that I start putting together history -- and I gotta admit this is usually where I have to watch myself, because I enjoy history enough it's way too easy to get caught up developing an in-depth history for my world, when ultimately you just need the key highlights to get your story started.

Most everything else I figure out as I need it. For example, in my current WIP, I wanted one of my characters to be imprisoned, so that his companions could stage a prison break to free him. At that point I realized I needed to figure out the justice system for my world -- why would he be imprisoned, versus executed, or his hand chopped off, etc? My main characters aren't the religious sort, and so I haven't really given much thought to the religious views of the world -- that's something I'll worry about when the time comes. In someone else's story religion may be really significant to the plot, so they would need to tackle that earlier in the process.

Ultimately I'd say the point to shift from world-building to plot development is when you're confident you have the basic details you need to develop your story without having to ask yourself too many questions related to the world the story takes place in.

 

[Ryan_Crown]

If you start with story elements and build your world around them, be careful about introducing a "short-circuit" in your story. Have you ever read a story or watched a movie where the main issue could have been solved by the simple application of some feature that solved some secondary issue? When asking the questions about what feature of the world will solve problem B, maybe make sure it doesn't also solve problem A, the solution of which would prevent problem B from even occurring.

I couldn't agree more! This is one of my big pet peeves when reading a story/watching a movie. It's right up there with characters doing something blatantly stupid or out of character simply because it's the easiest way to move the plot forward.

 

[SerpentSun]

My advice may differ from what others before me have said. That doesn't mean they're wrong, I just ain't normal. And I also don't intend to get published either; publishers are looking for certain things, and that isn't what I write. Your mileage may vary.

I struggle with writing dialogue and relationships, something I'd like to improve. My characters are great until they try talking to each other. Then again, I'm socially inept and emotionally unstable myself, more task-oriented than people-oriented. I simply can't start with the "living" first.

Not to say I must plan a whole planet before I create any characters. No, it isn't that linear of a process. But my characters, loners they may be, are a product of their ecosystems like every other animal. Earth herself is a character.

My WIP documents a 13 year quest crisscrossing the whole globe. I explore the human condition, our place in the food web, the extremes of every spectrum of our values. The characters find themselves in nature and find nature in themselves. Aside from their end goal of "save the world", the plot will follow the terrain.

You save a lot of time and effort if your story takes place on Earth. Mine doesn't, but my world is still basically Earthlike. Same size, axial tilt, distance from sun, etc. So I started with the tectonic plates.

Except that the degree of volcanism I envision would require numerous smaller tectonic plates. Which in turn might require a hotter core/mantle, and a thinner or more brittle crust, thus a somewhat different mineral makeup. Maybe more uranium and silicon. I don't know, whatever makes the crust crispier.

I don't suggest most writers go this in-depth for worldbuilding though. I have a strong passion for deep ecology, and I have no audience, publisher, or deadline. Writing and worldbuilding are simply hobbies of mine.

The most detailed worldbuilding focuses on geology/geography, weather patterns, and the evolution of ecosystems. Many maps and charts. I like to know where all my ores, mountains, rivers, tigers, bears, rivers, and deserts are.

Then I move on to history and anthropology. The populations of humans and elves are mapped out with the other animals, so I make a timeline for each region with only the key events plotted out. My stories and characters will fil out the timelines later.

I feel that a realistic (or at least consistent) natural environment is important for creating realistic cultures and characters. Humans spent thousands of years as just another animal. Our appearances, health, etc are heavily influenced by the ecosystem our ancestors evolved with. The same could be true of fictional folks.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Personally, I have maps of multiple worlds and a ton of information about them. I plan to set all my novels in the multiverse that contains these worlds. I've been working on this setting since the late 1970s. But there were world-building aspects I still needed to work out for my WIP.

 

[Miskatonic]

Be thorough and consistent. Nothing irks fantasy nerds more than authors that have a habit of contradicting their own lore.

 

[Christopher Michael]

My advice is going to differ from some before me, and agree with others. Honestly, at points, those may even be the same people.
When world building, especially with an Epic or High fantasy, you need to start from the ground up. But you don't need much more, at first, than the absolute bare bones. Do they have science? What kind and what level? What are the limitations? The same is true with magic. What kind of governmental system do they have? What technology level are they at?
Those are the primary questions I ask. At that point, I move to the important characters. Sometimes during the process of creating and developing those characters, I encounter more information to add to the world building.
Sometimes, at this point, I pick a character who I probably won't even utilize in the story- a guard or sewage worker, maybe a beast trainer/handler, a low-level mage- and I do a free-write flash fic starring them. It's usually "day in the life" garbage that is terrible in absolutely every way, except one. It gives me insight into the world, and gives me more data to add to the world building profile.
One last piece of advice I stumbled into by accident when crafting the world and characters I'm working on now- cursing. Believe it or not, cursing is incredibly relevant to your world. Do you have one or more religious beliefs on your world? References to one or all of them WILL creep into the curses of your world. Do you not have a religious outlook? Look at how your people curse, and you'll find something of importance regarding what the society holds with some form of reverence. (Whether you like the Pern novels or not, Anne McCaffrey was a master at this. Anything that didn't survive from Earth regarding cursing revolved around the dragons and eggs. They may not have had a religion, but they had a reverence for the creatures that crept into the curses they developed.)
Finally, and most importantly, you have to remember one final thing. YOU need to know all of this in order for your world to function believably. But your audience does not. Show the world to your audience, don't data dump. If an overuse of black magic causes an absolute corruption of the mage, turning them into a dark beast? Show it happen. Or that it HAS happened. Don't just say tell it to your audience.

 

[Chessie]

It took me forever to world build because I had no idea what I was doing. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't do it. Granted, it's nice that I have a world to call my own, but is it? I mean, in reality, it's like any other medieval type of fantasy out there. I'm not into fancy details. Once I'm done writing in this world I'll create settings instead (much smaller scale).

 

[Svrtnsse]

I've really only built one world, and so far all of my stories have taken place in various parts of it (a planet's a pretty big place).

What I started with was the concept of the world. What's the idea behind it (it's a fantasy version of the present day real world).
I then added in all the cool fantasy stuff that I wanted to exist in the world (elves, dwarves, magic, dragons, gods and spirits, other things).
Finally, I set up the mechanics of how the world works. What does it take to practice magic, how common is it. What are elves like? What are dwarves like?

Once I'd done that I drew up a brief chronology of some major events and then I drew a map of the two biggest continents on the planet. There's barely any history, and the geography is sketchy at best. There are three big empire states, roughly equivalent to US, Soviet (yes), and China, and then there's a plethora of little random countries around and in between. At some point I'll have to go into detail about the political relations between these three empires and how it affects the rest of the world, but I've not yet written a story where that's really relevant - yet.

I spent a lot of time figuring out culture though. How do the people of the various races live? How do they view each other and themselves? How do they relate to the world around them? These are things that interest me and which add depth to the world my characters exist in. It affects them directly and shapes the way they behave and think.

Historical events and prophecies may cause a character to set out on a grand adventure, but local superstition can cause them to behave in interesting ways that causes a different kind of conflict.

I think this may be a reflection of the kind of story I want to tell though - or it could just be an aftecronstruction to justify why I did it that way. Either way, I focused on the things I found interesting and enjoyed, and it worked out great for me.

 

[Futhark]

I'm like SerpentSun. I started with what I wanted their environment to be like then spread out using what I know about geography and evolution to generate the physical world. For the cultural history I chose a significant moment in history that is legendary and helps define them as a people and then worked forwards and backwards from there. This forms the spinal column of my skeleton, so I can add limbs and flesh as needed.

 

[neodoering]

When beginning a new fantasy novel, I ask "Who are the main characters, and what culture do they come from?" I trained as an anthropologist, and to me, culture determines characters' world views and beliefs. Once you determine the culture, many of the character details will fill in automatically. Then, as I fill in an outline of those details, I work out the back story: relevant personal history, relevant cultural history, the physical setting, the magic systems (religious and secular, male magic and female magic), etc. But for me, story is king. Usually, the very first chapter establishes the story; sometimes this is in media res, and sometimes it's just a little hint of what is to come.

What's that, you say? It's better to present all the background first, then start the story? I disagree, and in general I'm irritated when there's a lot of backstory in the first few chapters. It's a legitimate storytelling style, but I much prefer to get right into the story (which to me is plot), then fill in the backstory in small infodumps as things progress. NEVER large infodumps that go on for many pages. But that is a personal preference, and you must determine the way you want to treat backstory in your novel.