The last three weeks I have gone over the three major areas of worldbuilding: physical, culture, and power. For my last post in this series, I want to introduce you to a tool that makes it less daunting and easier to bring it all together into one story. As I pointed out before, writers have to use the iceberg theory in their stories. You worldbuild all the areas, but you only need to put a small percent of that into your book. Let me introduce you to a worldbuilding cheat sheet technique that I learned from fantasy author Rafael Hohmann, and hopefully it’s as helpful for you as it is for me.
Pick Your Top Three
Look at your long list of worldbuilding categories, and select three areas to highlight in your story. Maybe it’s geography, technology, and language. Or government, economy, and religion. Pick three focuses that you think will enhance your plot line the best and sound most exciting to you. You will take those three categories and develop each one in depth so you know them inside and out.
Make A Graph
Once you have your three main worldbuilding areas, put them on an excel spreadsheet or draw out a table on paper. Put your three categories at the top of the columns. Then list all the other areas of worldbuilding down the side for each row. Once the table is all set up, you will fill it in by listing things in your world that cross over in both the row and column titles. After you complete the table, you’ll have your three topics developed in-depth, and your rows will have three details about each other worldbuilding category. Let me demonstrate to avoid any confusion.
As you can see, developing one idea that crosses two worldbuilding categories is doing two things at once and saving you time developing each one by itself. You keep the focus on your three main categories, but you add enough details that cross into other areas to make the world seem bigger and more developed than it really is in your notes. Since you won’t use everything in your book, no one will know you didn’t fully develop each area. Remember, the goal is to create enough to make a realistic story—not a real world. Have fun worldbuilding, but always keep the focus on creating the story.
Final Thoughts
This post completes the worldbuilding series, though I reserve the right to return to the topic in the future if I learn more tricks. Hopefully, I’ve kept this simple yet informative enough to get your brain spinning and motivated to create your fictional world. Worldbuilding can be daunting, but it is fun once you start.
If you feel like you need more guidance on what areas to address in worldbuilding, visit the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association) website. Here they have a more comprehensive list on how to create your own fictional world. Have fun creating, but remember to write too.
Thanks for reading!
Write a tale
Leave a trail
0 Comments