This article is by Adam Bassett.
I’ve been writing stories since about the age of ten. It began with unfinished fan-fiction novels and has developed into original stories with (hopefully) intriguing settings and characters. During my time working on these projects there has always been a collaborative drive whenever I spoke with another who enjoyed telling a story. I believe it is out of this spirit that Worldbuilding Monthly was born.
I learned of the digital magazine about a week before the first issue was released – this was late in March 2017 – and I immediately fell in love with it. Worldbuilding Monthly is a platform for the greater community of worldbuilders to share their ideas, a place for artists to develop and share their work. It is a place for discussion, encouragement of crazy ideas, and perhaps most importantly it is a centralized platform for sharing quality edited content to help worldbuilders in their endeavors.
A Collaborative Process
The magazine’s team changes for every issue; it is an international team of volunteers, each of whom in some way hopes to help share and teach through the magazine. Postantera is our greatest manifestation of this. The team who has collaborated in this world have shared a few things about it in nearly every issue, as well as a short story to accompany the more technical articles. Since issue one, Postantera has grown from a world inhabited by immortals to a world with specific climates and weather patterns, with heroes and villains and a history written by it’s inhabitants.
A Learning Process
My background in worldbuilding is overall self-taught. I picked a few things up during my time in college but I got started by reading books that I enjoyed, continued through research, and continue to practice. Since joining the Worldbuilding Monthly team I’ve been surrounded by other creative people who want to share ideas and collaborate. A lot of the conversations we have among ourselves either turn into published articles or develop over the course of the writing/editing process. Here are a few things I’ve learned since joining the team, which I think are good quick tips for anybody interested in writing, editing, or just some casual worldbuilding:
- When writing a story, don’t always start with building the world. It might be exciting, but people need something they can understand and relate to. Once you have them hooked, start trickling worldbuilding into the prose and dialogue.
- You may be all-knowing. The people who inhabit your world often cannot be. For realism’s sake, take that history book in your world and remember that it is written in that universe by somebody with a bias. Then, remember that some may oppose the writer’s bias and maybe they have torn pages out or fought against the author.
- Not everything should be explained when worldbuilding in a story. Only say what is needed and move on.
- Be willing to work with others and share ideas. Many of these “rules” may be broken but this might be so vital it cannot be altered. None of the articles we publish were completed by any individual. The true test of worldbuilding is convincing somebody who knows nothing about what you’ve made that it’s a place worth spending time in. The editing process allows for several among the team to weigh in to improve both quality and content. We wouldn’t have made it this far without this crucial step.
Issue 6 and Beyond
I am enormously proud of the team which created Issue 6. It contains some of our best content, and it’s the debut of a new section which features the community’s artwork. This comes at no cost to our usual educational content or the vast array of talking points that we strive for in every issue. The best news: you can read it right now on the forums or on our website.
There is much more to do. Issue 7 and a smaller Postantera-focused mini-magazine are being developed and they are looking incredible. The November mini-magazine will allow us to focus on postantera like never before. Issue 7 will focus on gaming of all kinds. It promises more short stories and an interview I’m very excited about. Keep an eye out for that in early December!
Further Discussion
In the spirit of Issue 6, which focused on government, what are the governmental systems of your worlds like? Are they very similar to real world governmental systems, and if not what changes have you made?
We are interested in hearing what the Mythic Scribes community thinks of the magazine. Is there something you would like to see explored more or added? Have any questions for those who made it? Go find us in the forums and let us know!
About the Author:
Adam Bassett is the author of A Package of Moods and a volunteer on the Worldbuilding Magazine writing and art teams.
You may find him at adamcbassett.com, where more information on his personal work is located.
These articles are all incredibly useful. 🙂 I can’t wait to read more.
This is amazing! I'd never thought of such a thing!
I really need this mag!
This is a great idea for a fantasy-related magazine. I’m going to check this out!
OMG…this just through my November goals off course! Awesome stuff!
I read through the first issue, and am very impressed by the quality of the publication. I’m telling all Mythic Scribes readers to check it out. It’s first rate stuff.
Where can you buy it?
I’m flattered you want to buy it, but the publication is available for free at out website linked in the article above. You can access all 6 issues there. Happy reading@
Thank you! Issue 1 was a great start but we’ve evolved over the months and continue to try to improve our presentation and content. It’s rather variable, due to the size of the team and volunteer nature of the project, but I think we’ve done well.
Thanks again for cooperating with us on this, and for letting us communicate so freely with Mythic Scribes. It’s been a joy.
Wow, that magazine looks amazing! I’ve been building a great network of fellow fiction writers and have some wonderful reference books on writing, but I’m still seeking my tribe when it comes to fellow worldbuilders. I can’t wait to catch up on all the back issues!
To answer your question, my governments are based on real-world governments, but so far only loosely, because I really need to read up more on how governments actually work in real life (versus in the movies or in typical fantasy novels).
Glad you enjoyed the magazine! We’re currently working on the next issue so keep an eye out for that in early December. Until then, we have a growing library of content on the website linked in the blog post above.
I agree, if government is of any importance in your world (I suppose it is possible for it to be unimportant but that seems difficult) you should know a decent amount about it. I’m not sure which existing systems you refer to in your world, but I would suggest looking up some basic info about them, as well as more complex theories behind their creation and way of analyzing the world.