Worldbuilding in Your Writing
How to Create a World That Your Readers Believe In
Creating believeable worlds is something every writer aspires to. But how best to do it?
One of the things that makes a story or book compelling, capable of grabbing the reader and pulling them so deeply into the story that they find themselves immersed, is what many writers call world-building.
World-building is simply that - creating the world in which your story takes place. Providing the details, particularly the sensory ones, that make the world believable and alive. Some writers don't focus much on their world; others create pageantries of details, seductively interesting and compelling for their readers. But in either case, the writer knows their world well, to the point where it comes alive for the reader.
World-building can range from the simple map sketched on a napkin to an elaborate wiki set-up detailing the world's economics, politics, history, and geography. Paradoxically enough, some of the detail the writer creates will never go into the story, but it is evident in how it shapes what does appear. Perhaps it's that the better you know the world, the more clearly you can see it in your head and hear its sounds and smell its smells, the more convincing you are to your reader.
World-building works to create a believeable story in two ways. The first is by creating a sensory experience for your reader, letting them know what the water sounds like as it laps against the prow of the hero's boat or what the salt tastes like on his lips. The more senses you can invoke, the better off you usually are.
The other is by convincing your reader that you know what you're talking about. If you know exactly what the Blue Mist Mountains look like when the sunset is hitting them, you exude authority in your writing. And that authority lets your reader know that they're in good hands. They can relax and enjoy the story.
In her book on writing, The Passionate Accurate Story: Making Your Heart's Truth Into Literature, Carol Bly talks about an assignment she sometimes gives students - writing a scene that will never be shown in the story. writing that scene enables the writer to think about the bones of the story, which the reader may never glimpse, covered as they are with adjectives and figures of speech and other such things.
Time spent thinking about your world and envisioning it is never wasted. Get used to day-dreaming. If you want to look as though you're being productive (not that you're not when daydreaming, but you don't look it!) find some hobby work, like knitting or crocheting, that occupies your hands, but lets your mind run free.
Tips for creating fantasy worlds:
1) Figure out how magic works, and what its limitations are. How does someone cast a magic spell - if that's what they do? Are there natural limitations as to who can use magic? Are spells created by chanting, singing, thinking -- or some other mechanism entirely?
2) Figure out what the technological level is - and how much technology is shaped by or relies on magic. What technology or magic does the average citizen have and how does it shape their lives? Do they want more of it? Less?
3) Figure out the social status of magic and its users. Are magic users high in status or low? Would someone want their son or daughter to marry one? Are there any social customs that are shaped by magic or that demonstrate how magic is regarded?
4) Think about the economics. Samuel R. Delany's Neveryon books are a great example of a series that is shaped by a vision of the world's economics. One of the continuing images is that of the small rubber balls one trader brings and the places these children's toys end up as a result of an evolving economy.
5) Think about what makes your world different from other fantasy worlds. It's fun to write in other people's worlds, but it's more important to find your own voice and vision.
6) Think about the flora and fauna. Are they straightforward Earth versions or something different? What do your mythological creatures eat? Griffons marauding through a farmer's haystacks, consuming it so her cows go hungry, are a good starting point for a plot.
7) Figure out the government. King? Emperor? Council of Mages? Who's eligible, and what powers do they have? What keeps them in power? What changes might they make? Who might want to overthrow them? Who wants to keep them in power (besides themselves)?
8) Think about the feel you want for your world: gritty, nostalgic, dingy, ethereal...the list goes on and on. The details you choose to supply and the word choices help shift the emphasis. You might want to consider what sort of "feel" the movie version of your work might have - gloomy and dark or bright and cheery?
