Today we start a very important part of our journey: Creating the world where our stories will take place.
Worldbuilding is the term used to describe the process of thinking and building everything that will surround our characters. This part of fantasy writing is one of the most important and with many points to dive in. For that reason, I decided to make several posts on the subject, throughout our trip.
Personally, worldbuilding is one of those things that gives me great pleasure, and one I constantly lose myself in. And the best thing is: You can do it anywhere! If you ever see me staring into the void, I'm probably thinking about a piece of my own world.
It involves everything. Thinking about the elevation of different types of terrain, the reason for the placement of cities or even why a certain group of people wear shoes on the wrong feet.
Everything that we can create to backup the decisions, actions or reason to be of our world's inhabitants (when I say world it can go from a house all the way to a galaxy or universe) should be included.
Some of the points that the authors, including myself, focus on are: Geography, History, Inhabitants and their Races, Religions, Fauna and Flora , Magic and Technology, Architecture and Languages.
As a fantasy writer you should try to structure these categories as best as you can.
My advice is to try to master all aspects of your world, so that when you are writing, you can do it with conviction and without holes in the tapestry you are manufacturing. Many of the things you won't use but, if they are there, they will add extra depth, lending credibility to your creation.
I think it's important to mention that you don't have to do everything before you start writing. You can add things as you write. That's one of the reasons I love writing fantasy. Often the world comes to life on its own and we discover new things, along with the characters.
Today we talk about the Physical Space where all the pieces will settle. With no place to support the many worldbuilding blocks, everything you have becomes a little unstable.
When I started writing my first book, I started by developing Tesbran, the city where the protagonist lives at the beginning of the narrative.
For a few months, this city lived in a void with only the characters I had already met, at that point. I think I wrote the first few chapters before I even thought about building the world around it. (If it were today, maybe I would have done it differently...)
Later, I started structuring the different variants around Tesbran. First, the map of the Two Continents, then the Magic System and then the World History.
By this I mean that you should start your worldbuilding process with something where you can anchor what comes next.
Draw a map of the Capital, write a journey from one village to another or write a short text about a war between two factions, for a certain resource.
🖋You may write if this bit has poked at your creativity🖋
Now that you have a starting point, let´s get down to business:
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
(No! It's not the "Avatar, The Last Airbender" intro, but if you want to see the series, you can learn a lot about worldbuilding and fantasy.)
Water is important in almost all fictional universes. The truth is we base made-up worlds on ours. If your world doesn't depend on water in any form, you might want to skip this one.
Close your eyes and think about your world with these questions in mind:
(Hint: When more questions arise, explore them!)
Humanity as always settled near bodies of water.
- Is your city near one or more rivers? Lake? Maybe an estuary, by the sea?
- Where does this water begin and where does it end?
- Are there other population clusters along this route?
- If yes, what is your relationship with them?
- What is the development of water transportation? Do you have canoes? Boats? Ships? Mechanical or manual?
- How do you use water for cultivation? Is it already there, like floodplains, or do you have to use aqueducts or irrigation systems, in order to get it there?
- Etc...
Water is a starting point for both life and worldbuilding.
Explore it!
After defining the next element, come back here and follow the same process for the Sea (if applicable).
Naturally speaking, Earth, along with Water, is the most relevant element for worldbuilding. Here you can define borders, natural or man-made, mountains, plains, deserts, islands and so on.
Following the river's example, think about their interaction with the Earth:
- The mountains, where they are born, stretch from where to where?
- Are the plains it passes through fertile?
- What advantages do populations have in settling here? (We will talk about Fauna and Flora in their own post, but if you think you have a good idea, you can insert it here)
- Strategic easy-to-defend locale?
- If yes, why?
- Access point to multiple realms?
- Trade routes crossroads?
- Mining site for some special material? If so, which one?
(Here you can create a metal for your heroes' swords, for example) - Etc...
If you google the word, you will find the following answer:
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
The truth is, in fiction, fire is much more than that. Fire is life, progress and death. Depending on the sub-genre you're writing in or where you want to go with your narrative, fire can be good, neutral, or bad.
As a rule, it is associated with villains and evil deeds, but fire can ensure that a certain race survives over another. If you have firearms, it's just a tool that both sides can use. But if your narrative is at a stage where the evolving species needs its light to ward off the dangers of the night, then it becomes vital.
In worldbuilding, you can leverage this element for mythology, Prometheus-style. On the other hand, you might consider using a Great Fire that changed the course of History. Did a city burn? A forest? A temple?
If you don't have anywhere you want to use it, just think about how fire behaves in your world. It will help to describe it better if the need arises.
Just like Aang, the simple act of moving your hands creates a current of air.
The question is: Can it be mastered or, as in our world, you just displace the air?
Like Fire, if you have no intentions of using air in your magical system, just think about how it behaves naturally.
- Does it have an Earth-like air?
- Lighter? Heavier?
- Is pollution a problem or a characteristic?
- How does that affect people?
- Do they have to wear masks to breathe?
- Etc...
The moment I asked myself these questions, I knew that in Tesbran passed the River Gusta, which began in the Midnight Mountains and emptied into the Outer Sea, just after Lhoscoa, the capital of the Southern Taremsa Province. I learned that Lhoscoa's eternal rivals were the Pirates of Ahrumfel, from the Pirate Isles, and that somewhere existed a Great Forest and the Desert of a Thousand Souls.
As you can see, just from the previous paragraph, we have a list of names that we can explore. One river, one sea, one mountain range, three cities and four zones.
This process, like many in worldbuilding, benefits from repetition. Pass over the terrain several times and you will find new things each time. Just don't forget to write them down.
Because you're still here, I leave you these sheets to start building your worldbuilding notebook. 📓
