You don’t realize how complex a city is until you have to create a fictional city from scratch. At least I didn’t. To be honest, I never thought of all the things that made a city a city.
Throughout the years, I’ve learned that a city isn’t just tall buildings, coffee shops, and busy people. Both from living in a city and writing multiple ones myself, I concluded that a city is more like a planet.
A city is a planet with its own solar system. It’s somewhere where culture, power structures, history, and daily life revolve around a relatively large place.
If I didn’t overwhelm you with my experience, I have some good news for you. There’s a simpler and clearer route to write a fictional city than I took, and in this post, we’ll learn what that is.
7 Steps of Creating a Fictional City
I know 7 neat steps to create a well-rounded fictional city. This technique is pretty straightforward and lets you create a city in your vision. Let’s take a look at what they are.
Step 1: Define Your City’s Purpose
Before you map out districts or name parks, why are you creating this city? Everything in your story needs a purpose, so why does your story need this city?
Every city is founded for a reason. Similarly, your fictional city must serve the plot somehow.
For example, it might be a:
- Trading center.
- Political capital.
- Holy location.
- Military stronghold.
- Mining settlement.
- Prison colony.
Decide the city’s purpose to help you understand its role in the story. This way, you can use the metropolis as an active element in your book and strengthen your plot.
Furthermore, finding out why the city was founded in the first place can help you understand what functions the city has and give you a clear hint about how the city operates.
In other words, the purpose determines what function a city has and, consequently, how it will look.
Step 2: Connect Your City to Your World
Your city doesn’t exist in a vacuum; how it works deeply relates to the world it exists within. As a result, the geography, resources, and culture of the world will naturally shape how a city develops, survives, and the kind of people who live there.
Therefore, ask yourself:
- What genre is this?
- What level of technology exists?
- How does the landscape look?
- What resources are available?
The environment and genre of your world determine how a city can survive and function. The availability of resources, the surrounding geography, and the level of technology all influence the systems a city must develop to support its population.
Cities must solve practical problems such as obtaining water, producing food, maintaining transportation, and protecting their inhabitants. Because of this, the environment and genre should directly influence how your fictional city functions.
Step 3: Take Inspiration from Real Cities
Did you know that many authors base their stories on a real city? For example, Gotham was based on New York. The writer took inspiration from an already existing location and incorporated it into their story. And that’s completely okay.
You’re allowed to take inspiration from the world around us. Literature is supposed to reflect our world and lives. Your fictional city can still be authentic and still be based on a real-life city.
You can:
- Use the layout of a city.
- Replicate the vibe of a city you’ve visited.
- Borrow a piece of the culture of a town.
For example, you can use the layout of Tokyo in Japan to create an epic and futuristic dystopian novel.
However, always keep in mind you’re taking inspiration, not copying. You’re taking something that already exists and reshaping it into something new and authentic.
What I like about this approach, it works. It’s way less overwhelming when you’re following a blueprint than diving into this large task headfirst.
Step 4: Design the Physical Landscape
Now that you know why you’re creating this city and how you want it to look, design the physical structure. Read this in-depth guide to worldbuilding geography from scratch to create a multidimensional world.
Most cities naturally divide into areas such as:
- Residential district.
- Commercial district.
- Government buildings.
- Industrial zones.
- Wealthy and poor neighbourhoods.
Even in settings like high fantasy, there are often noble quarters and neighborhoods for poor residents. In dystopian sci-fi, you sometimes see upper levels are for the elites and the underground levels are for the lower class.
This structure is notable because cities rarely grow evenly. Instead, they develop in ways that reflect power, wealth, and access to resources. As a result, when your fictional city includes these kinds of divisions, it begins to feel more realistic and believable to readers.
Furthermore, it is also normal for cities to divide based on function. Certain areas exist for living, others for trade, politics, or industry. This organization helps the city operate efficiently and gives different parts of the city their own purpose and atmosphere.
By thinking about where people live, work, govern, and trade, you can begin shaping a fictional city that feels structured, functional, and alive within your world.
Step 5: Build the Systems That Keep Your City Alive
Do you flush your toilet or charge your phone at home? Most of the time, you probably don’t think about the small but essential systems that make daily life possible. Due to the infrastructure and services set up in a city, people can access things like electricity, clean water, transportation, and other necessities that support everyday living.
In the same way, your fictional city needs systems that allow it to function and support the people who live there. Even if these systems aren’t always visible in the story, they still play an important role in making the city feel believable and realistic.
Ask yourself to get a better understanding of how your fictional city works:
- Where does water come from?
- How do people get food?
- How is waste handled?
- Where does the energy come from?
- How do people move around?
Cities can’t function without systems that provide essential resources and services. The way these systems operate will depend on the rules of your world, including its level of technology, available resources, and the limitations or advantages that exist within it.
Step 6: Shape Daily Life and Economy
The next thing you want to do is figure out how people make a living. For any civilization to function, it must be able to sustain itself. That can be through either trading, producing, or specialising in something.
Ask yourself:
- What kinds of jobs do people have?
- Which industry drives the city’s economy?
- Who benefits the most from this economic system?
The industries and types of work available in a city shape how people live their daily lives. Jobs determine how the economy functions, what skills are valued, and how wealth and opportunity are distributed among the population. Over time, this naturally creates routines, different social classes, and social hierarchies within the city.
Step 7: Add culture and History
Every city has culture and history. It adds flavor to the story and gives depth to the setting, shaping how people live, behave, and interact with one another.
Culture influences traditions, festivals, beliefs, and daily routines, while history explains why the city looks the way it does and why certain conflicts exist. Together, they make the city feel lived-in and meaningful, rather than just a backdrop for your characters.
Every city has:
- Traditions and festivals.
- Social classes.
- Fashion and art.
- Language.
- Religion or belief system.
- A history of wars, disasters, and revolutions.
Bring Your Fictional City to Life
Writing a fictional city isn’t an easy job, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be simple. In addition, you now know how to write a fictional city in only seven steps. The next step is to sit down and world-build. You’re just a few words away from writing an unforgettable story.
