If you're writing any kind of genre fiction—if there are any fantastical or sci-fi elements in your world at all—you need to do some world-building. This is true whether you're creating a full-blown fantasy world, a sci-fi universe set 100 years in our future, an urban fantasy that's mostly like our world but with some magic in it, or even just our regular world but everybody has self-driving cars now. All of these require some world-building.
So, let's talk about that.
What is world-building? It's you understanding why things are the way they are in your fictional setting and how things are different from our world. It's exploring the "What if?" behind your speculative fiction. What if magic was real? What if we colonized other planets? Even a full-blown fantasy world is a form of "What if?": What if there were a world like ours, except with elves and dwarves, and it was created by some kind of gods?
World-building is thinking through the implications of that "What if?" and then using those implications to flavor your story and immerse the reader.
How do you do it? By asking questions. For example, say your setting is a world exactly like ours except that the city your story takes place in was designed with walkable spaces and public transportation instead of cars. This is mostly (but not entirely) science-fiction, and it raises some questions that you might want to answer, like...
- How long has the city been like this? Was the city always this way, or was it converted from a car-based environment?
- Is it the only city like this, or are most cities in this world like this too?
- How do people feel about it? Is it just normal to them, or is it brand new or even controversial?
- How did the city come to be this way? Is it part of an urban-design experiment, or did the culture shift away from traditional cities because something happened, or something else?
- Does the city's design have a direct impact on the story, or is it more of a backdrop?
With each question, you'll want to explore how that might change things. How do people feel about the city? How does that affect the story?
And as you answer questions, more questions will come up. You might not know or even care about all the answers, and that's okay, but thinking through some of them will enable you to flesh out the world in your mind.
The more you can immerse yourself in the world, the better you'll be able to immerse your readers.
What about deeper world-building, like secondary fantasy worlds? The example above presents only a small change in our world, and already there are a lot of questions and things to think through. How do you create a whole new world?
The same way: by asking questions. For example...
What is a central feature of this world that makes it interesting and/or different from our world? This is usually some form of magic, but it doesn't have to be. For example, the Game of Thrones universe has dragons on one side, White Walkers on another, and a very particular political situation among the humans in the middle. It does have magic, but that magic isn't central to what makes the world unique.
Are there sentient species other than humans? What are they like? Where did they come from (e.g., were they created by gods, or are they an evolutionary branch, etc.)?
Is there magic? Who can do it? How does it work? How long has it existed? What would the implications be on war, economics, and politics if certain spells existed and could be cast by anybody?
What kingdoms, nations, and cultures are there? How are they different? What is interesting and unique about them? Why are they like that?
What are the major historical events that have occurred? How have they affected the people of the present? Were there wars? If so, how big, how long, or how terrible? What do people think of these events now?
Just keep asking questions—the same questions your readers will be asking, in fact. The more you ask and answer, the more fleshed out your world will be.
This all feels like a lot. And it is... and it's just the tip of the iceberg, but it's also a lot of fun!
We'll talk more in future posts about how to organize your thoughts and get the world-building on the page, but to start, you really just have to let your mind wander and ask why?
Think about what excited you about this world idea in the first place. Was it a magic system? A future society living among the stars? A particular "What if...?" that piqued your interest? Start there and branch out, following whatever questions and threads interest you the most. Don't worry about answering everything, just the parts that are exciting to you.
Because if it's exciting to you, it will be exciting to your readers, and that, really, is the whole point.
When world-building, it can feel like there's no end to the questions, and even here on this planet we still have questions about how we got here and if there's magic and what's the deal with the duck-billed platypus?
ReplyDeleteYour last point really helps focus it down to the coolest parts. It doesn't matter how womp rats evolved, only that they were good target training for Luke.