Posted on by Desiree S. Brown

Lets Get World Building!

Imagine a desolate stretch of land and an empty sky with not so much as a twinkle of a star. There’s no vegetation, no water, no inhabitants no…nothing. Now imagine your main character wandering in this desolate place. They’re hungry, cold, and, most of all, they have no idea what they’re suppose to do. Then they look up at the sky and say, “A little bit of world building never hurt anybody!”

While searching the Internet yesterday I found this neat video (about 5 minutes) that talks about building fictional worlds. I put some of the suggestions to practice with my Camp NaNoWriMo novel and it helped out a ton! I wish I would’ve found this video FIVE drafts ago with Restitution. O_o

Live and learn I guess…

Anyway here it is, I also bulleted out the main points below:

So lets gloss over a few main ideas:

  • Fictional worlds operate within certain rules making them unique
  • Think about the basic place or time
  • Map out a timeline
  • What are some rules / laws / unspoken laws?
  • What type of government is in place?
  • What is the belief system? (religion)
  • What does the society value?
  • How do they treat their young or old?
  • What type of animal or plants are here? How do the people interact with them?
  • What type of technology is there?

Takes a breath…

Now you don’t have to answer all those questions. Just enough to get you started. In fact, there are somethings that the video may’ve missed. Like magic, for example.

What questions do you ask yourself when you’re world building?

12 Replies to “Lets Get World Building!”

  1. Damyanti Biswas – www.damyantiwrites.com/blog – Damyanti Biswas lives in Singapore. Her short stories have been published in magazines in the US, UK, and Asia--including Smokelong, Ambit, Griffith Review, and she helps edit the Forge Literary Magazine. Her debut novel, You Beneath Your Skin is out now with Simon & Schuster, and was optioned for screen by Endemol Shine. Her next literary crime novel, The Blue Bar, was published in Jan 2023, and the sequel is slated for October 2023.
    Damyanti says:

    I always wonder what the experience of the world is like for my characters. I can’t ever dissociate character from setting.

    Reply
  2. Damyanti Biswas – www.damyantiwrites.com/blog – Damyanti Biswas lives in Singapore. Her short stories have been published in magazines in the US, UK, and Asia--including Smokelong, Ambit, Griffith Review, and she helps edit the Forge Literary Magazine. Her debut novel, You Beneath Your Skin is out now with Simon & Schuster, and was optioned for screen by Endemol Shine. Her next literary crime novel, The Blue Bar, was published in Jan 2023, and the sequel is slated for October 2023.
    Damyanti says:

    I wonder about my characters’ experience in the world.

    Reply
    1. Desiree S. Brown – Stockton, CA – Desiree S. Brown is a poet and speculative fiction author. She has contributed poetry to magazines like Redrosethorns and articles to blogs like NaNoWriMo.
      Desiree B says:

      I do to. It’s partly the reason why writing is so much fun! Sometimes I like to think of characters as actors and my setting as a set.

      Reply
  3. daviddelaney70 – Australia – Weaving words into characters and worlds is something I live for. Writing is something I used to love as a kid. Sitting through English class as a teenager was the only period in school where I stayed awake and learned something. When I left I followed a path that would take me away from my passion. Now I’ve finally taken the road less traveled and decided to commit words to page and screen in order to imagine worlds filled with characters all with their own stories to tell and me as the guide. If a story causes you to feel any one of the myriad of emotions we all possess as human beings then I’ve done my job as a writer. I’m an Irishman hailing from Dublin but now living in Sydney, Australia. I’ve come to meet people from all over the globe. I love listening and learning about others. We’ve all got a story to tell whether we write it down or not. There’s not a form of entertainment I don’t like. Movies such as Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Jurassic Park and Blade Runner kept me up late into the night as a kid (even if I shouldn’t have been watching them). Later on I found video games. Resident Evil and Silent Hill on the original iteration of the PlayStation blew me away. Books were a constant though. While I fall in and out of love with movies and games, books have always stayed with me. The first book I ever read cover to cover was ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes when I was 8. I borrowed it from a traveling library that came to my school. I moved on to the Famous Five, The Hardy Boys and every Roald Dahl novel I could get my hands on. As I got older I began to love the likes of King, Koontz and Barker. Their magical ability with the written word transported me to somewhere new each time I opened the pages of their books… books that I still love today. I am inspired by all of the above as well as other great writers such as Neil Gaimon, Kylie Chan, Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, David W. Wright, J. Thorn, J. F. Penn and David Gaughran. These are just some of the amazing writers who I follow and learn from through their meticulously crafted works of fiction and non-fiction. If you want to join me on this journey and check out my future works please sign up to my mailing list. You’ll be the first and foremost to hear of new releases. No spam, I promise (it’s bad for you).
    David J Delaney says:

    Fantasy is a tough genre, I’ve tried building a world and got lost… surely the creator shouldn’t need gps. I’ll attempt it again some time in the futire

    Reply
    1. Desiree S. Brown – Stockton, CA – Desiree S. Brown is a poet and speculative fiction author. She has contributed poetry to magazines like Redrosethorns and articles to blogs like NaNoWriMo.
      Desiree B says:

      I know what you mean, sometimes I build way to much and then forget about it. A GPS doesn’t sound too bad though lol! I guess that’s why I keep a separate file for my setting.

      Reply
    1. Desiree S. Brown – Stockton, CA – Desiree S. Brown is a poet and speculative fiction author. She has contributed poetry to magazines like Redrosethorns and articles to blogs like NaNoWriMo.
      Desiree B says:

      Glad you liked it 😀

      Reply
    1. Desiree S. Brown – Stockton, CA – Desiree S. Brown is a poet and speculative fiction author. She has contributed poetry to magazines like Redrosethorns and articles to blogs like NaNoWriMo.
      Desiree B says:

      I think it’s nice to have a road map when you’re creating something from nothing. Makes everything just a bit easier.

      Reply
        1. Desiree S. Brown – Stockton, CA – Desiree S. Brown is a poet and speculative fiction author. She has contributed poetry to magazines like Redrosethorns and articles to blogs like NaNoWriMo.
          Desiree B says:

          True, research does help. I love asking myself “where do I start?” or “what next?” when I’m worldbuilding. Imagination is so fun to play with, lol 🙂

          Reply

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