Worldbuilding: the frame for your story.

World building as a definition, is figuring out what the landscape, scenery, and setting for your story is.

You can make this totally imaginary with purple skies and trees that grow down, or set in the real world (or something like it). But the most important thing you need to do is make it believable, no matter what.

World building is integral to your story. It’s what tells us the level of magic or technology we will experience as a reader. It will also be the biosphere in which your characters live and grow. 

Good worldbuilding draws the reader in, making them feel part of the story. This is a key element for keeping them inside your story, instead of closing the book.

“Worldbuilding is a must in science fiction and fantasy fiction because readers expect it. They will be disappointed if the fictional world is underdeveloped.” ~ Kindlepreneur.

So how do we worldbuild?

• REAL OR NOT? First, you need to determine if this is set in the real world, an alternate reality, or an entirely new world. What makes your world unique and interesting? What is it that will draw readers into this world you’ve created?

• CULTURE: Look at real life cultures, present and past. For the Comstock Chronicles, I drew on the ancient cultures from several countries found during my book research (We’ll go into this later on). This can help you root your story in facts, which build the believability of your world and characters.

• CUSTOMS AND HABITS: Consider the customs of your characters and how each region or group has different things that set them apart from the other. These can be like in Harry Potter, how wizards do things differently from muggles. Even the food is different. Since J. K. Rowling first wrote about a young wizard, many of the iconic dishes from the stories have become common place. They also had owls deliver the mail. Strange, don’t you think? 

• RELIGION: Religion can deepen your world and cause an interesting hook. Religion is everywhere in our world and it plays a big role in lore, myths, misconceptions, civil issues, and why people dress a certain way. How could religion affect your world? What happens when you’re part of it and when you aren’t?

• MAGIC: Magic is HUGE, especially with fantasy. You must determine the level of magic. Is this a high fantasy, where all magic stems from traditional lore, or are you making up your own? Does everyone have it, or only a few? What are its effects on society? What are the consequences of using magic? If your characters use magic, there should be some type of consequence. Do they get headaches after healing? Can they hurt someone if they don’t say the incantation right? Do they age every time they use their gift? Do they lose hours of their life if they time travel? This is important to nail down, so take your time on it.

• CREATURES AND OBJECTS: What about magical creatures and objects? Are you making them up? Are you borrowing from traditional lore? (i.e. the Holy Grail, Griffins, unicorns etc.) What are the characteristics of each? Are they useful/pests? What happens if you kill one, even by accident? What happens if you touch the immortality stone or whatever object is in your book? 

• EMPLOPYMENT: What do your characters do for work? Which jobs are glorious and which are drudgery? This can be helpful to determine as you construct your social class. Think higher paying jobs and social elites, garbage collector and blue collar. Maybe in your world, these roles are reversed. 

• ETHNICITY AND RACE: Are there different races? Do some people have blue skin and others red? How do they treat each other? I will caution you, if you use real world races, do your research on how each ethnicity likes to be portrayed and always be respectful. Do your absolute best to stay away from condescending stereotypes. We, as authors, need to do our best to show respect to all races, creeds, nationalities, and religions.

• TRAVEL: How do people travel around in your world? Are they in spaceships, flying cars or carpets? Do they ride dragons? Does everyone turn into smoke and ride the breeze? What happens? 

• SOCIETY: Now it’s time to think about the society where your character lives. What are the laws, regulations, social structure, and political structure? Is your protagonist on the right side of the law? What happens if you break a law? 

• HOME LIFE: Get personal. What’s inside your characters’ homes? Do they have metal furniture, or does it grow from the trees (Tolkien’s and Paolini’s elves)? Or are they underground? Do they keep broomsticks by the backdoor so they can play quidditch after dinner? Write out as many characteristics as you think the reader needs to know.

• COMMUNICATION: How do your characters communicate? Do they use owl post or the United States Postal Service? Do they call each other on cellphones or do they meet up in a dreamworld? Is it a silent world where people only speak mind to mind? Letters or texts? You get the idea.

• QUIRKS: Now this is a fun one. What are some quirky habits your characters may have? Are they shapeshifters who transform into wolves, but even in human form, they shake like a dog when they get wet? Does your character throw up every time she tells a lie? Does your character go out of their way to avoid walking under ladders or crossing black cats? 

• RELATIONSHIPS: How do your characters treat those of different social status, races, religions, gender, age, jobs, etc. What are family relationships like? Friendships? Enemies? Think about all your POV characters and how they interact with others. 

• CURRENCY: What does it look like (Galleons, coppers, gold nuggets, paper dollars) What is its value? How does it affect your characters? Not enough/ too much?

• TECHNOLOGY: Are they still using swords or guns? Do they have holotabs to communicate or do they leave paintings in caves? How sophisticated are your characters?

• CULTURAL CHANGES: Revolutionary war? French revolution? Religious revival? A town gets a new something and the MCs have to figure out if it is going to ruin the city or not? (Robots, illness, social trends). Is the society stagnant or is it pushing forward?

• SPEECH: Are there certain catch phrases that are common? (“Lies as thick as an ox’s leg”) (“Stars above”) (WAZZUP?) 

• SETTING: Physical location, time of day, geography, landmarks, seasons, etc.

A tip from Kindlrepreneur: “When you hint at world building details within character dialogue, it creates a mini-mystery that makes readers ask what they’re not saying or what else there is to learn. Well-written dialogue is also a natural method to reveal worldbuilding significant to the characters.”

For more on this, check out Dave Chesson’s article on worldbuilding