Let's Build a World - Part 1

When I started writing the fantasy novel I’m currently working on, I needed to know how to build a fantasy world and extensively researched the subject. I became enthralled with the research and the different things that started happening in my world because of this research. My characters became more dimensional and the world grew in aspects I had never thought of. I decided I should share the information with others. I developed a worldbuilding class called, “So You Want to Build a Fantasy World, Do You?” and facilitate it online at Writers’ Village University. At first, I solely encouraged writers of fantasy to take the class but then a friend who is writing a Science Fiction story took it and learned from the class. While taking the class, one of the members wrote a horror story with demons, angels, and gods, alternately helping and terrorizing his characters.

It helped them stay on track and keep the little parts of their stories together and consistent. Placement of major cities, states, countries, mountains, etc., need to remain constant throughout your story. Geography and maps keep your muse in the right place at the right time as you write. What will happen if in the first chapter, you tell your reader about the eastern mountain range but in chapter eight, your protagonist travels south and west to climb the heights chasing the antagonist? Your astronaut starts a journey within an antimatter-powered ship but later in the book you write about a fight and the nuclear reactor goes off line.

The future is uncertain. Many things are possible and developing them can be a magical experience. How will your characters cope? What will be in the brave new world you build as you write? Will you have flying taxis? Will people be able to travel through portals from one continent to another? How will the science work? In fantasy, how will the magic work? You need to make it all believable. Rules exist and the rules must be consistent throughout the novel.

Benefits of planning your world before you write:

1. Geography – Mapping out your world lets you know the location of your characters at any given moment. If this is done beforehand, you can glance at your map and keep your characters on track as they travel along with the flow of your words accompanying your muse.

2. History – Back-story explains where your characters came from and how they got to where they are today. We all have history, either our own past or that of our ancestors. If my great grandparents hadn’t traveled to the United States from Ireland, my life would be very different if I even existed.

3. Social Structure and Government – How and where your characters fit in the overall scheme of hierarchy. The life of a peasant stands in contrast to that of royalty, just as a blue collar worker differs from the scientist who develops an alternative fuel that changes the world. This subject includes clothing, customs, and modes of behavior from the different levels of society.

4. Religion – One God or many gods? Is the main deity a Goddess? Does everyone in your story have the same beliefs? If not, how do they differ? Again, you need to look at clothing, customs and mode of behavior as they relate to their beliefs to ensure that they stay the same as in #3.

5. Magic and technology must have two things: rules and cost.