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?
I always wonder what the experience of the world is like for my characters. I can’t ever dissociate character from setting.
I wonder about my characters’ experience in the world.
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.
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
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.
Thanks for sharing, this is brilliant! 🙂
Glad you liked it 😀
Super handy tips for my ‘New World’ project. Happy days!!
I think it’s nice to have a road map when you’re creating something from nothing. Makes everything just a bit easier.
Well, nobody really creates from nothing. We all have our influences. Doesn’t mean we aren’t innovators.
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 🙂
Agreed. Research just makes my imagination sing! 😀