Ever play SimCity or the thousands of its variations? SimZoo? SimRollerCoaster? Or my favorite, SimCubicle? Seems a lot of games are all about building things from the ground up, and then taking charge and doing…oh, anything from forming virtual relationships to building up an army and setting them to siege a city. Egypt versus the Mongol Horde? Have at thee!
In those games, you learn a lot of the dynamics that govern a world, a culture, an army, or a business, albeit on very simplistic levels compared to what they are like in real life. In writing, especially fantasy and science fiction, you do something of the same thing. You get a blank slate for an entire world and can do whatever you want with it. It’s only when you realize you have to know what your characters eat for breakfast and wear throughout the week that it becomes something of a daunting task. But worldbuilding is an incredibly important thing for any story that wants to remain cohesive and seem like a true trip into another part of existence.
How do you approach this massive task in any sort of coherent manner that won’t leave you drooling and staring at white padded walls?
The above link is an incredibly comprehensive list of details about any world that you’re building from scratch. It starts with some basic questions (like…”Are we on earth? Yes or no?”) and by the end gets down to the nitty-gritty like “What calendar do people live according to?” or “Is there a structured crime/legal system?”
Now, you certainly don’t have to answer all of these questions. Some may not even be valid for the world you want to work with. But it’s great to make you think about perspectives and the fine points of reality that we don’t remember all the time. Maybe it’ll even give you some ideas you didn’t have before.
There are quite a few other worldbuilding websites and resources, but I think this one link is quite a read-through for now, so we’ll start there. I’ll try to throw up a few other places that I’ve found to be invaluable in the worldbuilding process, but for now, have fun with this and see where it takes you.
I see that smile.