Today’s post is the start of a four-part series on worldbuilding for science fiction and fantasy books. If you write in a different genre, you may still find this information helpful in your brainstorming. You won’t have to invent all of the things I’m going to talk about, but you will need to address them in your own story. In this first post, I’m going to discuss your story’s physical world.
Setting Breadth
Before you start worldbuilding, you need to consider how big of a setting you will need. Does the whole story take place in one room? A town? A country? The whole universe? You will need to know how much to build. It won’t be helpful if you get halfway through the story and go somewhere you haven’t constructed. You also don’t want to spend your whole time building a universe if your characters never interact with more than their hometown. Once you know the amount of worldbuilding your story will need, it’s time to construct that setting in five areas.
1. Real World or Alternate World
The first thing to ask yourself when worldbuilding is will your story take place in the real world or an alternate world? Both options will require work on your part. If you pick a real-world setting, you need to choose if it’s contemporary or a historical background. Then you will need to do research into that time period or place to make sure your details are accurate. You could even set the story in today’s world and then make your own addition to the world like J.K. Rowling did with Harry Potter.
If you decide to create your own alternate world, you will have to design it from scratch by following the steps below. This can be labor-intensive and daunting for some people, but others will find it more exciting than researching reality. The important thing is to pick whichever option makes you most excited about your setting. The more interested you are in the world, the easier it will be to form and use in your story.
2. Physics
If you are creating your world, you will need to think about the physics of the planet. If you’re like me, that is daunting. My solution was to set my story in an Earth-like planet. A lot of writers do that, but there are some who thrive on creating their world’s physics. You can think about the planet’s mass, colors, chemical makeup (metallic, gravel, ice, gas, etc.), moons, orbit around a sun, and so on. All of this will affect the environment, the length of day, seasons, weather, habitability, and even gravity. If the possibilities excite you, then dig in and make an amazing world for your story.
3. Geography
Next, you get to draw a map. Whether you have a real world or an alternate world, you will need to lay out all the locations for future reference. You don’t have to be an artist. A simple sketch will do for your notes. If you want something more detailed, a good resource is inkarnate.com for drawing free online maps. Don’t waste forever designing the map. Remember the goal is to write a book not draw a map, but for visual people it is helpful to have when you are writing.
When designing the map, make sure you vary landscapes if you have a whole world. Make forests, water sources, mountains, hills, cliffs, meadows, caves, etc. Create countries, big cities, small towns, roads, harbors, landmarks, and even some natural wonders. You won’t probably use all of them, but they will be nice to have if you need setting ideas as you write.
4. Natural Resources
While you map out your world, make sure to put thought into where the natural resources are located. Cities often pop up around them, and the countries with the biggest resources will have more power. If you have no fresh water resources in your world, you better have a population that needs salt water to survive or your readers will wonder how the people are all still alive.
5. Life-forms
The last area to consider when worldbuilding is who and what inhabits the world. Do you have unique creatures, plant life, races of people? Maybe you want all plant life to be like earth but create two new races of humans. Be creative, but your readers must connect with the story so they need some familiarity to grasp onto when reading. If everything is foreign, the readers may get frustrated trying to learn too much too fast. You can make things as cool as you want, just keep some familiar to help the reader follow along.
Final Thoughts
Creating your world is fun, and it can be as creative as you want. There are readers who like all kinds of settings so there won’t be a shortage of fans. Just remember, worldbuilding is not storytelling. Don’t get so lost in creating a world that you never tell the story.
Also, remember the Iceberg Theory—only share in your story a fraction of what you create. You will spend all this time creating the world and want to share it, but the reader won’t care. Only share what readers need to know when they need to know it in order to follow the story. Even without explaining everything you created, the details will be in your head and leek into your story making it feel realistic to the readers.
Thanks for reading!
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