The process is not as difficult as it appears...

     I know the process of world building seems to be a daunting task when you break it down in the number of sections I have.  Especially since I kept this guide as simple as I could for my own process.  There are far more areas that can be fleshed out in each section, and I will be going into more detail soon enough.  For detail oriented people, this guide is just a beginning, but what about the non-detail oriented people.  The folks who enjoy writing a story, and don't see a reason to have all this information about the world they're writing if they're not going to include it in the story itself.

     I've given a lot of information on how I break down world building, but I never actually explained my process.  I don't actually start with all the questions and phases I listed here.  I really just start writing a story, and as I go, see if there's something in the world building I need to define by referring to the questions in each section.  I never fill out or answer all the questions in one section, just the ones I need to finish the story.

     If I'm writing some dialogue, and a character mentions something about the "city state" being a certain way, I'll often stop, and spend a little time designing and defining that portion of the world.  If I introduce an uncommon, or original creature into a story, I'll stop, and start to write a basic description of the creature, sometimes even going so far as to do a simple sketch of the creature.  If I'm having my character(s) travel across the land, I'll often stop and draw a simple map, so I know which way they're going, what terrain or obstacles they might encounter, and what possible creatures might exist in the areas they're going to go through.  The questions are answered while I'm writing, not before.

     After I finish a story, I sometimes have to answer questions asked that I skipped, because I knew the answer to them and didn't think they needed to be defined.  I know in my first published story, the editor of the magazine loved it, but there were things that needed to be defined.  I did several edits addressing each concern, and in the next to last message they said they didn't like the ending.  I often describe the exchange as a boxing match.  We exchanged multiple blows back and forth, most of mine hitting their mark as the editor appeared to like the changes I made.  The ending change, I think, was the editor's attempt at a K.O.  I took it as a challenge, and delivered my own K.O. punch.  The editor's next message to me was "I'm sending this to the copy editor."

     Basically, what I'm saying, as a writer, you don't necessarily need your world built before you begin writing the story.  Most all of my stories begin with the characters, and the world grows around them.  Nothing I write is finished once I hit "The End."  There will always be edits to be done, and questions to be answered, but if you get them answered, whether before you start, while you're working, or after you finish a draft doesn't matter, as long as they get answered.

     So, don't be intimidated by the thought of building your own world, instead write your story, and let the world "build itself."  XD

World Building - Question 10 - Division of Land

10) How is the land divided?

The number of nations that occur in your world can play a large factor in your plot and story. Multiple nations on one continent can have border disputes, or be at war with each other. They can also band together to fight a common enemy.

Some important questions to ask about nations are:

1) How many nations occur on the continent? (One, two, ten?)

2) Are the nations enemies or allies? At war or at peace?

3) Is one nation envious of another? (More land, more water, etc.)

4) If there is more than one nation, is there more than one type of government?

5) What natural borders exist between the nations. (This helps with and when drawing a map of your world)

Interactions - Peace

To put it simply, peace tends to be boring.  In most fantasy and sci-fi stories there is some war going on somewhere, and the characters somehow get involved to where they have to end the war to stop the bad guy.

Even so, peace can be useful.  Maybe there's soon to be a revolution and the story starts in the "calm before the storm."  Then the characters get caught up in the storm and have to find their way out.  Whether that involves stopping the revolution or helping the revolution achieve its goals.

Peace is just the lead up to the conflict that drives the story forward and forces your characters to grow.  And no, you don't need a drop down, drag out, country vs. country, citizens vs. government type of war.  That's just an example.  :P  But conflict is necessary, because a story about a character who lives in peace all the days of his/her life is a non-story.  There's no point to it.

Now, even though you're going to have a conflict begin, you need to know how your characters are going to act in peaceful situations.  Peace effects a number of things that would be outside your character's control, and these things affect how your characters will act throughout your story.

Are their prejudices going to come out when they interact with a person of a different race, or are they going to treat them with tolerance?  Do they like to make noise if things get to peaceful?  Do they like to make conflict where there isn't any?  If something (bad) happens right in front of them, do they just let it happen, or do they try and rectify the situation?  Or do they join in on the fun?  >:-)  Are they champions of justice, and does that justice apply equally to all, or just to a few?  Do they enjoy the increased trade, or bemoan it?

If you decide to have peace between your races, you need a conflict to drive your story.  Whether you make that something limited to the character, or you extend it to your whole world is up to you.  Just be sure you have your peaceful interactions defined before you jump into the war, since how a character acts during peace can be drastically different than when they're at war.

Interactions - War

If the people in your story are at war, there are a few things you might want to ask yourself.  For starters, why are they at war?  Does anyone remember, or has it been so long that no one remembers or cares why they're fighting, they just keep fighting?  Is the hatred based on an actual slight by one of the people, or just a simple disagreement?  Or is it just because they don't like the way the other looks?

Knowing this helps define both the story line and your character's motivations.  Your villain could be out to continue the war just to continue the war, or because he's looking for something that the war would reveal.  Your hero/heroine could be seeking to end the war, one way or another, or to keep that "something" out of the villain's hands.

Your hero/heroine could have conflict about accepting help from the other side, even though he/she might need the help, or be captured by the other side and then have to find a way to freedom before he/she can finish his journey.

Maybe he/she finds out the war is nothing more than an argument over the price of cheese, and manages to find a compromise that not only ends the war, but stops the villain.  Or maybe the bigger problem was an assassination that one side was blamed for, but, in reality, had nothing to do with it.  Speaking of which, I need to finish that story.  XD

World Building - Question 9 - Interactions

9) If there is more than one type of people, how do they interact?

Yes, this relates back to question 8, but it is such an important piece to the puzzle that it merits it's own discussion.

Let's go back to the humans and elves from the discussion of question 8. These are considered two very different types of people. Humans tend to be driven by technology and the desire to possess more than another. Elves are the opposite, sharing all they have, driven by nature and the protection of the natural world.

Looking at these two peoples you can tell there is some major conflict brewing. Here is where you can center on social conflicts to drive your story. For whatever peoples occur in your world there are several important questions to ask.

1) Are they friends, or foes?

2) At war? At peace? In the process of bringing about peace?

3) Does one not know the other exists? (Elves are myths and legends to Humans and vice-versa)

4) Are they two completely separate societies? (Each knows the other exists, but they have little to no interaction)

5) Do they exist in one society, equally or not equally? (Elves slaves to humans, or humans slaves to elves.)

The answers to such questions can help define the plot of your story and help develop your characters' ideas and opinions.

People - Characters

Now that you know what kinds of people populate your world, and have an idea of what they might look and act like you can begin to build your characters.

Me, I let my characters come out as I write the story.  As long as I have a general idea of what they look like, I run with whatever comes to mind.  Some writers actually do character sheets, where they draw out every little quirk and characteristic of their characters.  From their hair color, right down to their favorite snack of chocolate covered sardines.  XP

If you're like me, you keep all the character information in your head, but, if you're also like me, you sometimes have so many characters in your head you have trouble keeping them straight.  Especially if you're like me and work on more than one story at once.

Even though I don't always like to, I will sometimes use a basic character sheet, although most of the time I just use a list of my characters' names.  My character sheet looks like this:

Character's name:

Race:

Hair color:

Eye color:

Height:

Weight:

Favored weapon (If applicable):

Birthmarks, moles, tattoos, or other identifying marks:

Temperament:

Habits:

You'll note that the last two are fairly broad categories.  This is where I try to flesh out something of my character.  Stuff that you wouldn't see with the general description I start with.  In those places I like to put stuff like, if the character tends to be a bit of a know-it-all, or if they have a "hair trigger", or if they flip their hair a certain way.  Little things like that may not come out when you look at your character, but should come out when you write what your character is doing in the story.

It is in the last two categories where knowing the different kinds of people, and having them defined, also goes.  This is where I put if they follow the norm of their race, or if they go against.  Say my character is an elf, in a world where elves and humans don't get along at all.  Under temperament and habits I would note if my character was more likely to stand on the side of a human, or if they would side against a human.  Some little things may or may not come out in your story, but the bigger things, like how they might act around another race, would, and it can be a benefit to have them all written down in one place sometimes.  ;-)

People - Descriptions

Once you have decided the types and number of people that are in your story, you need to define them.  The way they look, how they may act in general, and even how their society might function.  I may have already gone over some of this, but it never hurts to go over it again.  ;)

I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to the people that occur in my stories.  Humans are typically humans.  They live in some sort of monarchy, since that is the time frame I tend to write in, that may or may not be central to the story.  If it is, it's because the king is a primary character of the story, if it's not his story.  If it's not, I don't usually worry about it until it needs to be addressed in the story.

Where I like to play is with the other races of people that I use.  In one story the elves look just like humans, except they have feline or cat eyes.  To get by in a human society they have to hide their eyes.  In another story the elves are normal elves; slight builds, long, light, fine hair, and pointed ears.  They typically live in some sort of monarchy, just like my humans, but that's normal for elves.  Sometimes they have a limited monarchy or republic, but Monarchies are the norm.

My dwarves are often shorter than humans, but they could be stocky or slightly built, depending on their trade.  Obviously, the miners would be the short and stocky ones, but if they don't need the bulk for their work, they sometimes look like short elves.  Because they tend to be workers, I like to have my dwarves in a communal or tribal society.  Everybody works, so everybody earns the same regardless of status, or they live in small groups that work one area or around one mine that is their "tribe's" territory.

When I have animals, or animal-human hybrids, they are completely different for each story.

All that being said, these differences make the interactions of your people.  Whether both(all) races live in a monarchy, then perhaps they have the same problems and can commiserate on it.  If they don't, then one side could spend their time trying to take over other races so that all would be under one rule.  Whether by arguing how much better their government is, or by going to war with the neighboring lands.

The difference in height between a human and a dwarf would make humans more likely to look down on dwarves.  Whether that translates to them being considered "inferior," or just the height difference, comes out in the story.  For the elves that look just like humans except for their eyes, anyone who might hide their eyes would be considered an elf, and subject to the prejudices or benefits of that story line.

To sum up, the more details you have about your people, the more you know about what will happen when they come into contact with each other, and how that can drive your story and define your characters.

World Building - Question 8 - People

8) How many types of people?

The people in your world are the most important factor, more important than anything else discussed so far. This is because your characters come from your people, and more often than not so does your conflict.  People are the thinking factor of your story and your world. They are the ones who can drastically change landscapes, and cause simple misunderstanding to evolve into massive conflicts.

If there are only humans inhabiting your world the conflict is as character driven as it is event driven. What the humans do, to each other or to the environment, will play a role.  If you have humans and elves, events and interactions between the two peoples will help drive the conflict and the plot of your story.

Many science-fiction stories revolve around human interaction with aliens of a different planet.  Whether it be an alien invasion of Earth, or earthlings traveling to other planets and encountering other intelligent life forms.  What happens when that first contact occurs is the driving force of the story.

Several fantasy stories involve either the return of a magical race or species returning to a human world where magic has been relegated to non-existence.  Or vice-versa, where a human who doesn't believe in magic, somehow manages to enter a magical realm, or world, that throws everything they know out the window.

Then there are the stories that don't involve humans at all.  Stories where your primary people are not people at all, but animals.  Then you have to consider the types of interactions that might occur between different species of animals, and if there are any, between the animals and the humans in the story.

You have to remember, no matter what genre you're writing, the people in your story are the story.

Creature Creation Cont.

Other ways that can help with creating your creatures include drawing or sketching them out.  You don't have to be the world's greatest artist to do this, you can even trace a reference picture and then add the few details that change it into your creature.

Drawing out your creatures helps when writing about them because you can look at the image and determine if you're creature could actually do what you're describing it to do or not.

For example, if you create a squirrel like creature.  Say it is like a flying squirrel, in reality flying squirrels have a membrane of skin that connects the front and back legs.  They use this skin to "fly" across great distances from tree to tree.  Truthfully they only glide, but they do have the illusion that they can fly.  Now say your creature actually has wings, maybe bat-like wings, so it can actually fly.  Perhaps it is also venomous like a snake.  Not a nice creature like your average squirrel right?  XD

Now we have a basic description of the creature, so we can do a basic sketch.

And Viola!

Isn't it cute?  XD  Well with those fangs maybe not.  Now that we have the sketch we can determine some of what it might do in a story.  Like flicking of that big bushy tail when agitated or angry, maybe rubbing it's face with it's front paws or scratching behind its ear with a back paw like a dog.  I know, that's basic behavior for such a small creature.  Especially, if you've watched squirrels in real life.  Things it would do that a real squirrel wouldn't would be leap up into the air and fly over the forest, or strike like a snake to poison either an attacker, or evening meal.

Because of its large eyes you could say it was nocturnal, like a bat would be.  It might choose to roost in rocky outcroppings like a bat too.

With the short legs you know it doesn't have a long reach, so it's not going to stretch across a gap to grab something.  More likely it would just leap or fly across to get at what it wants.  It certainly wouldn't have any trouble getting into your bird-feeder, squirrel stop or not.  XD

An image also give you an idea of the size of the creature, whether you add a scale or not.  This is a small creature, it's drawn small, and it's based off of something that is small in real life.  So it would have the same problems a small creature would face when dealing with larger creatures or large objects.  Depending on the situation, and the little bugger's temperament, it might fight or attack even if there is an obvious escape route available.

As you write the story you can continue to reference the sketch.  It will help with determining what the creature would/could do in the story as it develops.

Creature Creation Questions

There are several different questions you need to ask yourself when creating a creature besides what the animal looks like. A strong basis in biology is helpful, but not needed. (I find my MS in Biology very useful.)

These are the questions I ask myself when I first start out making a new creature.

1) What kind of creature is it? (Cat? Dog? Fish? Bird? Mythical? Elemental? Etc.)

2) Where does it live? (Trees? Cliffs? Ocean? Stream? Lake? Pond? Forest? Mountains? Desert? Etc.)

3) What can it do? (Jump really high? Fly? Swim? Climb? Telepath? Magic? Etc.)

5) Can it be tamed? (Ridden? Kept as a pet? Pull a cart? Etc.)

6) Is it dangerous? (Poisonous? Predator? Really big for trampling? Etc.)

7) What does it look like? (Furry? Scales? Rough skin? Feathers? Etc.)

These seven questions can be considered the bare bones of your creature. As you build and describe it more you'll find more questions to ask and more things to describe.

Why Create Creatures?

Why create creatures? Aren't there enough real world animals out there? Well yes, there are plenty of real world animals out there that can be used in a story, but do they really fit?

I mean, come on, do you really expect to find a normal everyday horse on an alien planet or alternate universe. Or all the same kinds of birds that exist in real life? Are they really going to look/act/be the same?

Yes, if your story is set on a realistic Earth or human space colonization (even here you can create creatures for the alien worlds) you have a virtual cornucopia of creatures to draw from both scientifically proven and mythical. But, if it's not, then you have the opportunity to stretch your imagination beyond the everyday and create creatures to fill in the gaps.

What you have to remember when creating a world is that it is your world, and can be anything and everything you want it to be, and have whatever type of creature you want to have in it. Not just the same everyday animals that everyone knows.  Creating your own creatures is a fun and imaginative exercise.

Before I go any further I want to tell you that for all intents and purposes you will probably not create anything that hasn't been imagined before. Most all creatures created by artists or writers are inspired by something.  Whether it is from something someone else has done before them or from something that occurred in real life. Even the creatures of myths and legends were based on some factual evidence. (Dragon bones in China are fossilized dinosaur bones, the Greek cyclops is supposedly based on a mammoth skull.)

That said, don't think that you can't create something uniquely your own. It's all dependent on how you treat and describe your creature. Perhaps it has a unique power, or an extra set of limbs. Perhaps it's identical to an existing creature, but the story around it is completely different.

Ultimately, your creature becomes yours when you add that little bit of flair to it that no one else has.

World Building - Question 7 - Creatures

7) What kinds of creatures occur in this world?

The animals that occur alongside your characters are an important part of your world. These include the creatures they eat, the ones they train and make use of, and what they might keep as pets or companions.

Some important questions to ask about creatures in your world are:

1) Does your story depend on clearly defined creatures that occur in the real world? Are there horses? Chickens? Snakes? Dogs? Cats?

2) Is it a mix of real animals and mythical animals?

3) Are all the creatures in your world made up in your head?

It's important to ask these questions because if you're using creatures that you've created and no one else has ever seen or heard of you have to be able to describe them in such a way that your readers can picture them in their heads.  Of course they won't see exactly what you see, but they'll get a close consensus.

If you're using real life animals, whether mixing them with mythical/created creatures or not you don't have to worry as much.  A chicken is a chicken whether it's being gobbled down by a chimera or a lion.  A horse is a horse whether an elf is riding it or a human.

Mythical creatures tend to be a mix as to how you write them into a story.  Most everyone knows what a dragon or unicorn looks like.  Even a chimera you could get away with little detail about it and still have most all your readers know what you are talking about.  But, what about a Baku?  What the heck is that?  Well, in Japanese mythology the Baku is a great tapir with the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the legs and paws of a tiger (Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures pg. 55).  Yeah, I hear Baku and I picture that.  XD  So even if you're using established mythical creatures you may need to add a bit of description so your readers know what you are talking about.

Alien Tech

Alien Tech can be fun, your characters don't necessarily have to understand it to use it, so you won't have to worry about all the nitty gritty details.  You can just say it's alien and that's all there needs to be to it.  Now, that being said you do need to know a few details about alien tech to make it believable.

For starters, is it a type of biotech?  Or is it some type of radioactive powered ray gun that works great as long as it stays intact, but if the powercell is damaged in any way it causes a nuclear meltdown equal to the Hiroshima bomb.  Or maybe the user just gets a bad case of radiation poisoning that may or may not be cured/curable.

Secondly, do humans have this tech, or is it limited only to the aliens that brought it/created it?  If a human can't use the tech due to some biosignature, and your story is past that part, then it would be unreasonable for your hero to forgo his AK-47 for the alien blaster he just confiscated off a fallen enemy.

So even though you can get away with very little when dealing with alien tech, there are a few details that you have to know.  Now most of this might be background knowledge that only you will ever see, while only giving your readers the juicy details, but you still need to know it in order to write the story.

Biotech

Now like I said, I'm not a tech person, so my stories have little beyond the basic tech of horse and cart, and normal things.  No computers or tablets, but you don't really need those things if you have a magic spellbook with an unlimited number of pages.  :p  But, not everyone is like me, nor does everyone write the same types of stories as I do, so I'll briefly explain (because I don't really know that much) the tech options that I see most of the time.  Starting with Biotech.

Now biotech is just what the word means.  Tech, obviously means technology, and Bio is Latin for life, so biotech is "living technology."  Now how you merge the two is what I think matters the most to a story.

Biotech can be anything, but is basically a machine of some sort made up completely or partially of living cells/parts.  In some stories I've read, the biotech is completely biological.  They literally grow a computer/ship/whatever by manipulating the base cells into what is wanted.  This can get very complicated and starts going into complicated Cellular and Molecular Biology to understand.  Thankfully, for writing a story you can leave the science in the background and just do the cool stuff.  :D

The most common biotech that I've read is where the machine is only partially made up of living cells/tissue.  This is the more simple of the biotechs that can be described.  You have the mechanical part of a computer/ship/whatever that works just like a normal machine, but for it to work properly you have to add some sort of living tissue/cells.  The simplest idea is hooking a living brain up to a series of wires and it can run a machine or becomes the central processor of a computer.  Another simple example would be an artificial limb that can hook up to the central nervous system of the body and work just like a normal arm/leg.  A more complicated version of this type of biotech would be when the ship is made up of a non-living body, but the space between the panels; the circuits, circuit boards, and wires; are all made up of living tissue and cells.  If the ship is ever damaged, the outside can be fixed rather easily, but the inside has to "heal" just like a living person would.

World Building - Question 6 - Technology

6) Is there technology?

In most of my stories technology is minimal. What little there is can be limited to basic carts, pulleys, gears and levers. No spaceships or flying cars, materialized foodstuffs or moving sidewalks.

The time period you set your story in will determine if and what kind of technology there is.

If your story has a lot of technology there are several questions you might want to ask, including:

1) Is it biotech?

2) Is it current or futuristic technology?

3) Is it alien technology?

4) Does everyone know how to use the technology?

5) Does the technology rule the world?

World Building - Question 5 - Buildings and Building Materials

5) Buildings and building materials?

This is important because you don't want a primitive tribe of africans or native americans living in a grand marble palace unless you're writing a post apokalypse story. Even then the building will be run down and crumbling because the people wouldn't know how to take proper care of it.

Likewise you wouldn't want a modern man or King living in a teepee or reed hut unless your modern man's a missionary or the King has gotten himself into a bad situation or he's the King of the tribe; in which case he'd have the biggest, grandest reed hut in the village.

Make sure the buildings and building materials of your people are appropriate for the time, place, and persons that inhabit them.

The King lives in the grand marble palace, the tribe in the reed huts or teepees.

World Building - Directions 2

I know I've already mentioned this, but I don't think I can emphasize it enough that the directions part of your story is vitally important.  In a story I'm writing this month I have a character running back and forth down streets.  At one point she stops and watches the shadows.  I haven't drawn a map yet, I'm just using a mental map right now, and I have her judging the time by the shadows, no she can't afford a watch, even a cheap one.  The building she's in faces East, so the shadows on the buildings across the way in the afternoon have to be tall, if not completely covering everything across the street.

Shadows and times are important and a good indicator of direction.  Unless your sun rises in the West and sets in the East, if your character is in an Eastern facing building, or looking out a window that faces East, due North, or due South, they're not going to look out on a beautiful sunset at the end of the day.

I'm fixing to draw a map now, at least of the small section of the city that this portion of the story occurs in.  It's not going to be there much longer, but making sure I send her in the right direction when it's there is important.

World Building - Question 4 - Directions

4) Directions? Which way are my characters traveling to get where they're going?

Again, this is where it's helpful to draw a map, especially if you didn't start one for question 3. You don't want your characters traveling South to reach the villain, when his fortress is to the North. You just need a basic map showing where things are in relation to one another. Don't worry about fancy symbols and map legends until your world is complete. Right now all you need to worry about is where things are and where your characters need to go.

World Building - Tundra

Tundra is the coldest of all environments. There are no trees on the tundra and little to no rainfall.

The Arctic tundra encircles the north pole, extending down to the forests of the taiga. Vegetation is short, growing low to the ground, and grouped together in tight bunches to protect from the cold. A permanently frozen layer of ground, called permafrost, keeps plants from having deep root systems.

Alpine tundra occurs in high mountain ranges around the globe. Like the Arctic tundra the vegetation is short, and there are no trees. A few stunted shrubs are sometimes seen. Unlike the Arctic tundra, the soil of the alpine tundra is well drained.

World Building - Grasslands

Grasslands are just what they sound like, grasslands. There are two types of grasslands that occur on our world; temperate and tropical also called savannas.

Temperate grasslands are the Great Plains of North America and Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. The predominant plant life is grass.  Trees and large shrubs are virtually non-existent. Temperate grasslands make good farmland because the land is flat and soil very fertile.

Tropical grasslands or savannas cover half of the African continent and a good portion of Austrailia and India. Unlike temperate grasslands savannas have distinct wet and dry seasons. This is important because the dry season allows for fires to occur. If not for the dry season and its associated fires areas of savannah would become tropical forests. Individual trees are scattered throughout the savannah.