Why do you want to build a world?

[Malik]

My answers are long today, but I've been writing a lot and I want to talk about writing now instead of actually writing.

I initially wrote several (I think nine?) novels over probably 15-20 years, all set in the world where my first series,The Outworlders, takes place. They were all turned down by publishers, but I had the world figured out pretty well by the time I self-published my debut, which takes place in the same world. I mean, why throw away all that work?

No joke; one of several boxes of worldbuilding notes.​

I talked about this earlier to some degree, but I took it a couple of steps further for my debut and built the world the way I did and to the level of detail I did because I work in strategic conflict analysis, and there are a couple of ideas I want to play with. The Outworlders is a sandbox for my theories on escalatory considerations of weapons technology in intractable conflicts. Introducing advanced conventional weaponry into a conflict zone "just to see what happens" is a really good way to end up testifying in front of Congress, so I settled for doing it fictionally.

However, I had to build the world so that everything worked, from the cycles of the moon to the makeup of the mortar in the walls: low magic, minimal handwavium; otherwise, small actions by the MCs wouldn't have the destabilizing effects we'd see IRL. I need to see those destabilizing effects because, no shit, they give me some idea of what to look for in my day job. Not verbatim, of course; however, theoretically, some of this should hold up.

I've read a lot of portal fantasies, and I wanted to write a portal fantasy series for grown-ups that centered around a snowballing technological disaster resulting from the MCs' actions, with a Crichton/Clancy, sinking-feeling-in-the-gut, world-collapsing, clock-ticking-thriller feel. To make that part work, I had to do much of my research hands-on. I had to know how the tiniest details in their world functioned so that I could introduce stressors that would be initially invisible. I didn't want the readers to see it coming any more than I wanted the characters to see it coming. A buddy with a backyard forge taught me an arcane Viking-era method of making steel, which when theoretically scaled up to small-army size proved critical enough and fragile enough to destabilize an entire nation merely by a couple of Medici/Welser-types playing fast and loose with the iron trade. (Compare and contrast this with the jarring number of fantasy novels by authors who don't seem to understand where steel comes from, and even one recent novel by a household name fantasy author that uses the terms iron and steel interchangeably at one point.)

Now that I have the world built to such a level, I'm working on a second series featuring different characters in another corner of the world. This one is going to be more of a modern-day military sci-fi thriller, less fantasy and more science. It also centers on pre-industrial-era desert warfare tactics and techniques, which is germane because I wrote and lectured on advanced desert warfare for the Special Operations Command after training with the French Foreign Legion at their Desert Commando School in Africa. If you think The Outworlders was technically detailed, hang on to your socks.

And yes, I'm writing two novels at the same time. This is a shitty time to release a novel. No one's buying; y'all can wait till next year.

But once again, the new series consists of writing what I know, in a world painstakingly built to function and intersect realistically. None of this "we don't know how long winter will last" bullshit, no massive cities and Exploration-Age trading economies without Rule of Law, no steel ore mined out of the ground.

 

[MrNybble]

Worldbuilding is an exercise is creativity. The saying "Truth is stranger than fiction" I try to prove wrong when possible. Making a world is so liberating as you don't have to conform to normal standards. Time, locations, cultures, races, geography, etc. Could you imagine a universe based on Doctor Seuss? Granted some are more outlandish then others, but can be entertaining.

I have made entire planets to suit the story environment. Granted I don't shove all this int the readers face in a massive infodump up front. It does become relevant as the story goes on that nothing is what is seems. Some mention of a 406 day year, more than one moon, or the vast distances between places do hint at it not being Earth. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away is the easy way.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I wanted to create a world for a pen and paper rpg.
The basic idea was to take a generic fantasy world and let it develop until something similar to the real world of today. So there's elves and magic and dragons, but there are also cell-phones, office commutes, and fad diets.

At some point I ended up writing short stories to show off the world, and that eventually grew into just writing fiction. I don't think I've done any serious world building for years.

 

[Silvahkir]

My world building goes back to when I was a young teenager (like 12 or 13) after I had a series of recurring lucid dreams; each building off the one before. The foundation of my main world project stems from those dreams. My first homebrew gaming world (D&D 2nd edition) was based on this world and its cultures. It has altered quite a bit over time, mostly in regards to the cultures and countries, but the fundamentals are still the same in regards of what was shown to me in those dreams.

This is really interesting. I would have never have guessed that this could have been someones experience. A modern example of someone being visited by the muse.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Elaborating on my earlier answer... I always loved maps, especially the Lands and Survey Street maps, from as long as i recall. From an early age i began doing my own maps. Mostly they were street maps with some country maps as well. I did them on huge sheets of paper my father used to bring home from his job at what was one of the largest stationary companies in New Zealand at the time. I continued doing these maps well into adulthood. Worldbuilding has been a great hobby because it costs me next to nothing to do. I do it by hand because computer programmes always seem to be too awkward to use or don't do them quite the way I like.

World building has also provided me with an escape from the realities of being long term unemployed and keeps me sane. It also helps me with understanding geography, the environment, society, urban development and political systems. And why things like towns, borders and roads are located where they are.

 

[Saigonnus]

This is really interesting. I would have never have guessed that this could have been someones experience. A modern example of someone being visited by the muse.

Yes, it is a little odd. Honestly, I still have the occasional episodic, lucid dreams; mostly revolving around the survivors of a fantasy world that underwent an apocalyptic event that killed approximately 70% of all life on the planet.

There were a lot of things from the first series of dreams that I thought were silly, pointless, or not that useful. The principal thing was the character I was portraying was me... but mixed with a conan-esque barbarian; complete with the bulging musculature, a spiked obsidian blade and fuzzy shorts and furred boots... I always found that portrayal of stone or bronze age warriors a little unrealistic; especially in the coldish climate shown to me in those dreams. The odd thing was that this "persona" died in that first episode, impaled on broken tree branch (I was watching like an observer as it happened) during a brutal fight with a pack of nocturnal dog-like creatures that would become an abused and displaced scavenger race on Aern. It was implied that the culture he represented were the ones abusing and displacing those creatures; who; while somewhat limited on intelligence compared to Humans, still had a rich cultures that was stolen from them by the expansionist policies of the "Empire" he represented.

 

[Gwynndamere]

All of this is so true. We read Fantasy & Science Fiction to escape from our own mundane, no magic & no dragons world, so it is a logical next step to create our own world where these things we love do exist.

 

[StrawhatOverlord]

Same, it's an extension of the escapism reason for why I like fantasy, sci-fi, etc. In fact I'm intensely disinterested in stories that lack unmundane elements, even if they're technically well crafted. Have magic or super tech or something. Kill someone at least.

 

[CupofJoe]

I get a picture or line of dialogue in my head and I have to know where they come from.
My trouble is that I get lost in WB and never end up writing the story...

 

[Hir i-Chorvath]

I worldbuild because Earth is kind of super lame when you want to write fantasy stories. It has no dragons, elves, magic, and not nearly enough sword fighting. Which is unacceptable. I mean, what's the point of writing fantasy if you can't have a mysterious, strange, confusing, magical world to go with it?

 

[Saigonnus]

I get a picture or line of dialogue in my head and I have to know where they come from.
My trouble is that I get lost in WB and never end up writing the story...

That is one of my problems as well. I can say honestly, that I've only finished 3 or 4 short stories in the 20+ years I have been writing as a hobby.

 

[Gruden]

For my novel that's why.

 

[Zygzy]

I worldbuild for the sake of consistency, a point of reference I can revisit and expand whenever it suits my needs. It is so easy to be lost in minutia that lends an undercurrent of verisimilitude so innocuous to the casual observer yet critical to a discerning eye; no one really considers why roads exist when walking on them, or how commerce is shaped by a local community's circumstances, or even the physical limits of a fit human body, but failing to address these facets of reality whenever necessary is keenly felt. No matter how creative someone is, they cannot craft an entire world whole cloth. Something will be missing or worng, and someone will notice. Accounting for these mistakes can make all the difference between a plot that stumbles on occasion and one that trips into a shallow grave.

It is extremely helpful to have a document on hand that catalogues every aspect, large or small, whether it is needed or not, apparent or obscure. Worldbuilding spans the gaps in my imagination, and makes it that much easier to guide others along impossible journeys.

 

[Electric Bone Flute]

Everybody else is doing it and it look cool.

 

[Estarriol]

My world is as a living growing one in my mind. I feel that I more live it than tell the story. I can impart legends from this world to the reader but it has been difficult to share such an intimate thing. I want it to be my own forever. But I also want to invite reader's to this world.