There comes a time in every writer’s life when they’ll write a fictional world, and it might be the hardest thing they’ll ever have to do in their career. Don’t take me the wrong way; there’s nothing easy about writing, but some things are just more difficult.
You want to write a good story. I want you to write a good story so I might someday get the pleasure of reading it. However, there’s one problem: you don’t know how to create a fictional world from scratch. Don’t worry, I’m about to give you the worldbuilding 101 guide for beginner writers.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to build a fictional world from A to Z and how to approach this large task. With that said, let’s get started.
What is Worldbuilding?
Before you do anything, stop and ask yourself: What is worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding is the process of creating a fictional world where your story can take place. It involves creating settings, laws, histories, and civilizations.
Whenever you’re creating a world that doesn’t fully exist, you’re worldbuilding. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be a fantasy setting where they speak with a British accent and slay dragons. It can mean implementing a magic system into your fictional world.
According to blogger Simon Provencher, there’s one golden rule of worldbuilding: “Unless specified otherwise, everything inside your world is assumed to behave exactly as it would in the real world.”
If you consider that, you only need to worldbuild what’s different about your fictional world.
Why is worldbuilding important?
Worldbuilding is essential in fictional literature that takes place in another world, or introduces elements that don’t exist in reality. Without worldbuilding, stories like The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t exist because J. R. R. Tolkien had to invent Middle-earth, where the story takes place.
The characters, cultures, history, and conflicts of The Lord of the Rings are all tied to Middle-earth. The story couldn’t simply be moved to a real-world setting because the world itself is part of the story. Tolkien needed to build the setting before the story could exist within it.
If I could put it in a different perspective: worldbuilding is the process of creating a place your story can exist in.
For example, in the Game of Thrones series, there are white walkers and dragons. Those creatures can only exist in George R. R. Martin’s world. He created a physical setting, magic system, laws, and a history that made the story possible and the white walker and dragons a natural part of Westeros.
However, there are many good reasons for worldbuilding; here are some of them:
- Make an unrealistic plot feel believable.
- Makes the setting memorable.
- Explore themes from a different perspective.
- Allows you to be creative without being limited by our painfully ordinary world.
- Makes room for high stakes.
- Can make your story interesting.
Define the Type of World You’re Building
Before I give you the worldbuilding 101 guide, you need to decide what kind of world you want to build.
Not all fictional worlds are made the same. Some stories require extensive worldbuilding, including detailed histories, cultures, and legal systems. On the other hand, some stories only require a few fictional elements to work.
For example, let’s go back to Middle-earth, which is a fully developed secondary world. It has its own geography and society. In contrast, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater mostly takes place in the real world but introduces magical elements.
Understanding the type of world you’re building helps you determine how much worldbuilding is necessary for your story.
For instance, an epic fantasy adventure set in a completely fictional world will require more development than a contemporary story with minor magical elements.
Generally, fictional worlds fall into two categories:
Secondary world: It’s a completely invented fictional setting. It has its own geography, culture, government, and history.
Alternative world: It’s a borrowed version of reality. Instead of building a fictional setting from scratch, you focus on developing elements that make your setting different.
Determining what type of world you’ll build helps you get an overview of what and how much you need to worldbuild.
The Five Core Elements of Worldbuilding 101
We can divide the worldbuilding process into 5 core elements to develop. You need to worldbuild geography, culture, politics, history, and rules of reality.
These 5 worldbuilding 101 elements together can help you create a story you would like to see on display in the bookstore.
Building Believable Geography
Geography plays a huge part in your story. Geography is the physical space where your story exists. It’s the ONLY place your characters can live, move, struggle, and grow. Your plot unfolds within mountains, deserts, cities, forests, and oceans.
With that said, you have to remember that your story only exists within the context of itself. The rules, climate, distances, and natural limitations you create become the reality of your world. If your geography feels inconsistent, the entire story can start to feel fake. But when it makes sense, your world feels grounded and believable.
You can read the full guide on how to create a believable geography here.
In the meantime, here’s a mini version of the method:
Start with the bigger picture: Think about the overall layer of your world. Decide where oceans and continents are placed, then where the mountains and rivers can naturally go. Furthermore, remember climate zones.
Tell a story through geography: Geography creates opportunities and limitations. It shapes how people live, travel, and interact. Instead of designing landscapes just because they look interesting, consider how they affect the people who inhabit them and the conflicts that arise.
Maps aren’t meant to be restrictive: Maps are only good as a tool. It stops being useful when it hinders you from moving forward with your story. You can always come back and edit as much as you want, but to make it better, your story must exist first.
Creating a Fictional Culture & Society
Some authors would argue that culture and society are the most important part of worldbuilding, which is understandable. Your fictional culture and society dictate who your characters turn out to be, everything from how they think to how they will solve the central conflict. If there’s one aspect of worldbuilding you should get right, it’s worldbuilding culture.
First of all, culture in fiction is the shared way of life between a group of people. They have the same perspective on beliefs, values, customs, and traditions. Furthermore, culture isn’t just the shared philosophy of life between an ethnicity or a nation. The minimum criteria for it to be considered a culture is that there’s a group of people who have developed a similar view on life.
Culture and society have a huge impact on your story. You can’t decide not to worldbuild culture. It would make your story incomplete.
For example, a society that values honor above all else will raise a vastly different character from a society that’s survival-oriented.
Many writers will attempt to worldbuild culture all at once, which often results in getting stuck. Fortunately, you’re not obligated to do that.
Instead, I would suggest you start with these few fundamental questions to get the ball rolling:
- What does this society value most?
- Which behavior gets praised or punished?
- Are there any sacred traditions and ceremonies?
- In what way do people celebrate and mourn?
- What beliefs influence daily life?
- How do geography and history affect the culture?
This list of questions is only a fraction of the questions that need answering. Suppose you want to take your worldbuilding a notch up, learn how to create a believable fictional culture in only 7 steps. Furthermore, if you want a step-by-step guide on how to create a fictional society, read this, and you’ll be ready.
Worldbuilding Power & Politics
I know many fantasy and sci-fi writers love power and politics. I mean, it’s kind of awesome. The thrill of writing power and politics is almost as exciting as experiencing it as the characters (less at stake, of course).
Every civilization has a system of power; it comes naturally to the human race. Someone makes the rules, someone benefits from them, and someone suffers because of them.
Nevertheless, worldbuilding power and politics isn’t about creating random laws or an inbred royal family. Political systems shape how society functions, who holds power, and what people are allowed to do within that world. In many ways, politics acts like a second gravity. It quietly influences everything.
Whether your story takes place in a secondary world or an altered version of reality, some form of government and legal system will usually exist. Someone decides what is acceptable, what is forbidden, and what happens when those rules are broken.
With that said, here are some things that a foolproof government and legal system contains:
- System of leadership.
- Laws and punishment.
- Social hierarchies.
- Inequality.
- Rebellion and resistance.
- Conflicts between different groups.
Although this list can get you started, it might leave you with little material to create a fictional world from scratch. Fortunately, you can take a look at this post about how to create a fictional government. Then there’s this guide to creating a fictional legal system for your fictional government.
Worldbuilding History
This part is for all the writers who accidentally info-dump because they can’t stop speaking about the history of their fictional world. For us writers, the history might be the most interesting part of the backstory. It may have something to do with spending a little too much time worldbuilding history and lore.
I know you’re excited to begin worldbuilding history, but first, ask yourself: What does worldbuilding history mean?
If you don’t know the answer, don’t worry. It’s not as complicated as it might sound.
If you’re creating a fictional world, you might have already created a country, culture, and language for your fictional world. But to make it truly real, you have to create a fictional history that explains how your fictional world came to be.
Let me paint you a picture: you’re writing a dystopian world where evil AI lords rule over humans. The history you would need to create is basically the backstory to how the AI took over the world.
Worldbuilding history often involves:
- Major events.
- Wars.
- Natural disasters.
- Cultural shifts.
- Political changes.
The 5-steps are:
- Major event.
- What changed.
- Consequences.
- Related events.
- Show history through characters.
You can build an entire history from scratch doing this. Furthermore, if you want to include more than one major event, repeat the process until you’re satisfied.
Rules of Reality
What makes this world interesting enough to write about?
Is it the following: magic, technology, gods, or talking animals? Every world has its own rules. To demonstrate, think of our reality. We have gravity and biology as boundaries to our abilities. Remember this when you are worldbuilding.
Consider these questions:
- What kind of supernatural, magical, or futuristic elements exist?
- What can people do, and what is forbidden or impossible?
- Are there costs, side effects, or dangers to breaking the rules?
I recommend adding limitations or risks. If magic or technology is accessible to everyone, it has no downside. There’s little risk of using it. That means less potential for conflicts you can use later to create storylines.
Final Thoughts on Worldbuilding 101
You did it; you have now learned the entire worldbuilding 101 guide. There’s nothing else for you to do except begin creating a fictional world from scratch.
If you want to create a good story with amazing worldbuilding, use the worldbuilding 101 guide. If you want to write a great story with unforgettable worldbuilding, take the extra step of going through the blog posts and guides linked in this article. One extra step can be the only thing that prevents you from being an inspiration for good worldbuilding.
