Hey everyone and welcome to this week’s What The Bleep Am I Doing?! An Artist’s Guide To All Things Creative. This time I’ll be talking about something that writers love to do and stress about all at the same time. What could that possibly be? The all-important job of world-building! The main thing that makes your stories really come alive. So let’s get to it, shall we?
What exactly is “World Building “?
Worldbuilding. One of the most important and crucial things an author needs to do when creating their story. Even before creating their characters, they need to come up with what kind of environment they will be in and what kind of things they will interact with. It also takes the reader on a trip into your book, it really helps immerse them
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers.
Wikipedia definition
What does it really do for your story–Why is it important?
As said above it’s quite crucial for helping the reader really get involved with the story. But, it’s also a major thing that gives your story life. Because what good is a story without a world to belong to? It helps bring a story to life and gives your readers a first-class ticket to see into the world you tirelessly created.
Tips to make worldbuilding easier
Consider the genre
What type of story do you plan on writing? High Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Historical fiction? Deciding what type of story you will be telling is crucial for world-building. You wouldn’t have flying unicorns that are guardians of an ancient realm in a book that’s completely about the Elizabethan era in England. Well, unless that’s your thing. I have read some far-out ideas in my time. But I digress.
What’s your character going to interact with?
Not many would consider this an important step, but it is. Creating and deciding the types of buildings, and objects your character decides to look twice at, move the story along. For example, in my own story Cataclysmic Fates: Phoenix Fire my protagonist Aveeva deals with technology called Spires. They are essential to everyday tasks and technology usage in her world.
They are usually diamond-shaped and have a metallic-like look and feel. And to make use of them, a button has to be pressed on the top. See? I bet you could really picture that item and get at least a decent sense of what the world is like. That’s what creating objects and figuring out the ways your character will interact with them do.
What kind of creatures exist there?
This is probably the most important aspect of world-building. This is literally your first step. The habitat shows where exactly your characters live. How the world is and what goes on around them. Is it tropical? Is it a world filled with volcanoes? Or is it a single deserted island in the middle of a stormy and charted ocean? Find this out and writing your story becomes a hell of a lot easier. Just like making the habitat, it’s important to make sure you come up with its inhabitants. Because a world deserted, is a lonely world indeed.
Who rules your world?
Now, this may not be entirely important especially if you go with the deserted island shtick. But if you make kingdoms or even small towns you might want to consider who would be the head honcho else it’s going to be total lawlessness. Well, unless that’s the point of your story. But, then hey! You got the next thing covered in your world!
That pretty much sums it up, my friends. There’s so much to cover when it comes to world-building so there is definitely going to be a second part. So stay tuned for that! Worldbuilding is a pretty easy process but it’s normal to get stuck on sometimes. But that’s why I’m here to help ya!
But that’s all for now…
Rebel Fae out!
The Rebel Fae 