In my opinion there are many different types of world building. Many times, people just start with the world itself; is it on earth, or a fictional planet? Do you have back stories of how the earth and everything came to being? Gods, evolution, a flying monster with a bird hat? What type of people live in this world; how many people exist, are their different races or is there only a singular one? What is the history of this world, war, peace, innovation and governments? Then moving onto the more difficult part in my opinion. The finding of the main character and how they are going to be. Along with the setting of the story along with the story itself. This is how I will break down the way I myself world build with nearly every story I write.
The world Itself
First thing is first, where exactly is your story taking place? Is it modern times olden times, or possibly a futuristic world? Is it earth or a whole other type of world that you make yourself? Is it a combination of both? The best way for me is to simply make a map, it can be complex, or it can be very simple. I have an example down below.
Both these Maps are different but both are very good. They are created for different reasons and even if a map is made simple it can still be edited and added onto so even if its just simple you can later make it complex.
You can create just a big map or a small map, you can also just create a town outline, that your entire story could possibly take place in. You can always expand this but it is good to start small and work your way up. Building up a world will not be an overnight work. You need to take your time and don’t get caught up in the small details. Save that for later in the other steps to world building.
The way things are created
How do you want your world to come to be? Was it a freak accident, the big bang, a god or gods? How do you want your world to be with the creation of everything? Also, this is never needing to be instated in your story but if you ever want your main character to meet the creator or to discover how all came to be its good to lay the foreground and background details on how it was created. Laying little hints every now and then.
Many writers don’t find it necessary especially if its more of realistic and down to earth book or story. In my opinion I always want to create that how the universe came to be event. The main reason is because if you do have a down to earth realistic book where nothing supernatural happens I personally find it better if there was a supernatural aspect without it truly being supernatural or known to be.
The people in the world
For the people of your world how would you like them to be? Is there a single race like humans, or is there multiple races living in the same world like humans, elves, dwarves or many other races? You might want to make your own race and maybe creating a race with many different subcategories such as ethnicity just like the human race.
The different races you created can have specific qualities and some different parts in their DNA to make them special or different to a noticeable degree. Making other races are slightly more difficult due to if you plan to have an evolutionary track then you must first decide how they branched off. If you go with a godly track it is slightly easier but still needs a formal basis on how they all came to be, never forget everything has a beginning.
History of the world
Now, this is one of the most tedious things I find in writing backgrounds for the world building. The history, history is a complex thing to go through. You can make the history foggy or sharp, by that I mean you can either make it very vague or you can make it very complex. You can either write out every major event in your world and for some forms of writing it is better to go down that path; or you can stick to only the details needed to establish the world just enough for your story to fit in.
The way I would consider starting with the more complex way is to first establish all your major wars and founding the nations. Next should start with the small colonies and work from there, once the timeline of your world is well established you can then move to finding the period of time you place your main character in. Do you want your main characters history to revolve around war, peace, the military, some form of art? The choice is yours and the best way to establish the world is to first figure out the way it could affect your character.
The main Character’s story
Now the final part of world building. The main characters story, after you build up the world, the people, the history itself you then need the main character. The entire story clings to this character and it is necessary to know how they will be. Will they be charismatic or vindictive, will they forgive or be vengeful? What will their personality be like, cheerful, glum, grumpy, angry at everything, determined? All these can be used but there are so many others.
Making a character that fits into your world is the key to the puzzle. It is very necessary to make your character fit into the world and be able to interact without feeling stale or unnatural. Although there are stories where that form of characteristic is necessary to fulfill the end goal. The final thing your character should always do in a normal book/story or even an odd one that is off the rails is stay in character. Never make a dramatic change of character unless that character has defining traits to assist in that change.
In summary I believe if you follow these steps you will create a very stable and lore friendly world with many ways to go in any type of story. You can have the world spread out and two different stories following other characters and a third story where they all meet. With these hints I am positive you will make a pleasant world.
I hope that this has given you some assistance at becoming a better writer and world builder. Many things are difficult in writing but doing so is something that drives me and I hope it drives you too. Thank you very much for reading.
