World Building
When creating a story, you want the plot to drive the story—not the setting. When I work on world building, I work on problems in my story and then find solutions. I create the story first and add the setting as I go.
There are many ways to do this but who else gets stuck in world building? You can start building your world but then you build, build, build, and suddenly are no longer writing your story. What do all these fancy details mean if there is not a story to pull them together?
In this weekly, we will talk about world-building. How much your story needs, how to not get too lost in the weeds, and to see exactly how you should not do it (despite it being so fun to do!)
What is World Building?
World building is the creation of the world in your story. This is the setting and details within. Fantasy is a common example for this as writers create countries, maps, races, governments, laws, military systems, schooling and ranking systems, magic systems, and more.
So much detail can go into world building. It is fun and frustrating at once. If I sit down to start writing and instead of working on a certain scene, I dive down a rabbit hole and plan how a job selection process works in the world… I am off track and am not focusing on the story as I should be.
What’s the most important part of a story? Creating the story. The setting, characters, and plots are all pieces of this puzzle. All should be balanced and the progress of the story and the ongoing plot should not be hindered. A story should be developed first—I say—but I understand sometimes you think of a cool idea, world, or setting first and then craft your story from that. That’s totally ok! Go for it. But, once again, if you spend all your time world-building, as it is easy to do, who will write your story?
Check Your Setting
The setting is an essential part of a story. Does it really matter where you set a story? Yes, of course. It’s exciting to choose a setting but it’s also important to pick the right one. Your story can take place anywhere, but does it really work?
If your setting is picked out just because it is “cool,” your favorite place, or doesn’t have any influence on the plot itself, I recommend not going with this choice or going back and rewriting a majority to weave your setting into the plot.
Here is an example:
Two characters are arguing angrily. The setting is on top of a mountain, the trees are pink, and there are big birds in the sky. While writing this scene, I mention that one of the characters is the god of the mountain.
What if I wrote this same scene in a parking lot? Both characters are out running errands and run into each other and start arguing. –Yes, the same exact thing can happen. If your scene can happen literally anywhere, your setting is not so important. Don’t write the magic mountain because it has awesome visuals. Also, you don’t need a whole mountain to prove your character is a god, they can just say “I am a mountain god” and we will believe them.
Side note: I’ve been watching a lot of fantasy Korean dramas. There is a show where a man revealed to his love-interest that he is mythical creature. Did he march her up a mountain and shower her with flowers to do this? No, he told her in a parking lot, and it was just as exciting. In this scene, you still learn what you need to and get the impact.
It’s important to ask yourself: does this directly affect my story and plot? If not, get rid of it.
Read more about how to choose a good setting in my Writing Wednesdays piece titled “Scary Stories.”
Down the Rabbit Hole
World building can be like a sweet nectar. It is exciting to build an entire world but if you go in too deep or off topic without the supportive structure of your existing story, it will collapse.
World building is endless! Don’t fall down that rabbit hole unless it directly impacts your story.
Let’s make an example.
Thanks to my subscriber, @Promethius, we are going to borrow his awesome character, Simeon a Dusktreader, the Brigidine Paladin. This cool guy is on a journey to rescue his kingdom’s king who has been overthrown and locked in the palace’s dungeons!
To show how world building can fall down a rabbit hole, I set a timer for 10-minutes and wrote out as much content as I could make up in my fake version of Simeon’s world. None of these details exist in Promethius’ work, but this is to show you how crazy you can get with world building and what you probably should not do. See what it looks likes when you get caught up on too many details and facts that have nothing to do with your story.
Simeon, the Brigidine Paladin, is a Dusktreader in the Kingdom of Laotan. Laotan is split up into eight different counties: Treta, Marlon, Oceana, Gnarled Shores, Balli, Hectrate, Tinton, and Posti. Each county is ruled by a medieval mayor who oversees the lands’ productions, people, and policies.
Posti, Gnarled Shores, and Balli are three counties on the east of the country alongside the great Ocean Mistik. Hectrate, Tinton, Treta, and Oceana, are to the west. Marlon is the biggest of all 8 counties, stretching over the tall Roshak mountains to the North.
Posti, on the ocean, is well known for their pearl-divers and aquatic wildlife.
Gnarled Shores is overgrown with kelp and many of the people have a kelp and fish only diet.
Balli is a sunny county where there is little rain. Many of the people work as craftspeople, building large homes out of Guano and decorate with seashell mosaics.
Farther inland, to the west, Hectrate is a wasteland due to the great Minmin wars of 1282. The mayor of Hectrate is known for his cruel punishments and hate for the royal family to the north in the mountainous region of Marlon.
Tinton, farther inland is full of thick forests and underground homes.
Treta specializes in grassland farming with rich horse and cattle farms. The hills are dotted with the peaceful herds of grazing sheep.
Oceana, a strangely landlocked county, is said to used to be a part of the ocean before the lands were rent into the positions they were today. Some people say this is the final resting place of their great gods, some say that glaciers of times-too-old had dragged deposits of ore and seashells from the sea to paint their land in a myriad of different stones and soils.
Marlon is the largest county in all of Laotan. It is a peaceful county where the people build magnificent cities between the peaks of the Roshak mountains. Every summer, when the snow at the top of the mountains melts, there is a summer solstice festival to harvest the life given from these fresh melt waters.
During the summer solstice festival in Marlon…
RABBIT HOLES!! While reading all this, did anyone wonder what happened to Simeon and the king he is supposed to rescue? I know I did. Do I really need to know about this entire country, all 8 counties, and more when I’m trying to find out what Simeon is going to do next?
Before I make any enemies (love you guys!) worldbuilding is an awesome skill and a great thing to do. But, worlds, especially the boundless limits of fantasy can go on forever. You can spend hours to years planning out every little detail of your world from the different plants, to countries, what weapons are used by every level of society, how and where their food is grown or produced, the meaning behind every character’s name and heck, maybe you will make a list of asking yourself what Simeon’s favorites sandwiches, colors, and songs are.
While all this world building is going on, you are missing a crucial detail: THE STORY
I know I am overexaggerating here, only to get my point across, but all details and information put into a story must have a direct relation to the story at hand. Maybe Simeon crosses all 8 counties to reach his beloved King, or maybe he is already in Marlon and knows that it might be the angry and lost people of Hectrate that undermined his King’s position and got him locked up and forgotten by his own people… but we don’t need every country and every person in existence involved. Maybe that information comes in later books or later stories. Maybe Simeon rescues the king and then they run away to escape to neighboring Balli. But until they get to Balli, we don’t need to know everything about it.
Does this make sense?
World Building can be a huge rabbit hole that can distract you or stop you from writing your story completely. Don’t get me wrong, I love big intricate and detailed worlds but, make sure while you are planning, you are making progress on your story first and foremost.
Conclusion
That’s all for today! This was a fun one to work on. World building is one of the most fun things to do. I’m definitely guilty of it. When I was working on my book as a high school student, world building was one of my biggest focuses. I generally cut out or changed everything many years later but I’ll always keep those notebooks full of the smallest and most random details of my characters’ world. I’m extra guilty of this, I have paintings, commissions, and even built the entire castle of my world in Minecraft. Talk about getting side tracked from writing!
I hope this weekly helped you and gave some good tips you can utilize the next time you sit down to write. What are some of the craziest things you ever planned out in a story that wasn’t used in the end?
Best,
Danni Lynn, Evangeline40003