How to Start Worldbuilding Like a Pro

What is Worldbuilding?

In reality, our world is jock full of rich history, millions of beautiful sights, many genres of music, countless species of animals, multiple religions, and a variety of cultures and ideals. Can you imagine a world without any of the mentioned things? I can - BORING!

Worldbuilding is the foundation of the story you want to tell. You want to immerse your readers, pull them into your world, make them question things, make them want to learn more. Even if you have a beautiful fantasy story with perfect ideas, without that foundation, your story will fall apart.

You're probably familiar with multiple fantasy worlds such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones, and even Star Wars. All of these worlds utilize worldbuilding to suck readers in.

Lucky for you, I'm going to teach you some basic tips to get you started crafting your first world!

Step One: Setting

Whether you are building a world based in reality like Harry Potter, or an epic fantasy like Lord of the Rings, you need to determine the subgenre of fantasy you are writing in.

The amazing thing about worldbuilding is that there is no one to tell you what is wrong or right. You can set your fantasy world anywhere from a random asteroid in the Andromeda Galaxy, to a restaurant that serves demons in Hell. No one can tell you what to do.

A popular setting for worldbuilding takes place in a world that resembles the western European middle ages. I would also suggest this if you are a beginner since there are thousands of references you can use as inspiration.

Step Two: How Does Your World Work?

To make your world believable and engaging, it's important to add details to flesh out your world. Think about other worlds that you've found yourself invested in and figure out what about it excites you. Here are some of the basics to worldbuilding that you should start off with:

Physics and Laws: Does your world have Earthlike physics? Does your universe follow the same fundamental laws as ours? Is there magic? Is time travel possible?

Geography and Climate: One of the most important things in your world is the geography. Does your world have vast mountain ranges? Giant lakes? Massive volcanoes? Is there a giant crack in the world that is causing the world to split in two? Is the weather earthlike? Are the storms much more extreme? Is rain caused by something other than the water cycle in this world?

Flora and Fauna: What kind of plants exist on your world? How big are the trees? What kind of wildlife exists? Are animals giant or more earthlike?

Geology: What kind of metals/materials exist here? Is there a landmass made entirely of crystal? Is your world hollow? Is there important metals such as iron, copper or gold? If not, what is used instead for technology/weaponry/armor.

Step Three: Inhabitants

This step is important because you need to determine what kind of species will inhabit your planet. You can go with the all-around Humans, the mystical, immortal Elves, the sturdy Dwarfs, the intelligent Gnomes, or even create a brand new species yourself! Here are some questions you need to consider when considering your species:

• What language do they speak?
• How do other species interact with each other with the language barrier?
• How big is their population?
• How did the species become part of the world? (i.e. backstory)
• What kind of genders do they have?
• What is their culture based around?
• What ideals are most important to them?
• What kind of religion do they practice?
• Do they practice polygamy or monogamy?
• How does their class system work?
• What kind of currency do they use?
• How technologically advanced are they?
• What does this species specialize in? (i.e. Cooking, Music, Fighting)
• Are they all unified under one banner or are there multiple factions?
• Are they centralized in one part of the world or spread out throughout it?
• What kind of government do they have?

Step Four: History

Any good fantasy novel you read, or even fantasy games, there is pre-stablished lore that helps explain why the world is the way it is today. History is extremely important in a world because it allows you to have a deeper understanding of your species, how certain governments came into play, how wars changed the outcome of the future. Here are some starter questions to help you establish some history for your world:

• What is the earliest known record of history?
• Are there any ancient forgotten species that left ruins behind?
• Were there any wars where significant amounts of life were lost?
• What caused these wars? Politics? Money? Cultural differences?
• What are some of the most notable events that shaped the world into what it is today?

Step Five: Know When Enough is Enough

Whether you are writing a fantasy novel, or creating a world for your next DnD campaign, over-worldbuilding can be your undoing.

As someone who is writing a fantasy novel myself, I have sometimes found myself putting way too much attention into worldbuilding that it's making it hard to write my novel. For example, I've created complete government and social systems down to the last detail. When I'm writing my novel, I feel like I'm having to twist and bend my novel around these rules that I have created.

Another problem that writers face, including me, is creating in depth systems for countless species that won't even have anything to do with the novel that you are creating.

A way around this problem that I would suggest, is to focus on the details that surround your story and affect how your characters interact with the world. You can always fill out the details later.

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I hope you guys enjoyed reading this article on worldbuilding. Stay tuned for my next article where I will talk about how to create a convincing magic system for your world.