Welcome to the first post in a series about worldbuilding. If you’re creating a speculative world that requires lots of worldbuilding, you might not know where to start. One great place to start is your physical world. But what do you need to flesh out your physical world? Read below to find out!
How Much Worldbuilding Do You Need?
First off, understand just how extensive your worldbuilding needs to be. If your world mirrors reality closely, then you won’t need to build your world as much as if you were creating a fantasy world. If you have magic systems or even new laws of physics, you’ll need to build and develop those ideas more.
Think of worldbuilding in three different stages:
Stage 1: worlds similar to reality (minimal but period- or culture-specific research conducted)
Stage 2: worlds unlike our reality (worlds that include new cultures, societies, religions, etc., but are still grounded in cultures and religions of reality)
and Stage 3: worlds distant from reality (worlds with new magic systems, different physics, etc.)
So when you begin describing your physical world, you need to determine what stage you’ll need to go to. When you have that figured out, you can start on your physical world!
World Map
To begin, the best place to start is your world map. Nothing needs to be set in stone at this stage of your worldbuilding. However, outlining a world map gives you perspective. You not only have a better idea of what countries and nations go where as you create your plot, but you also get a better idea of the climate (more on both of those later)
Even if you don’t think you can draw, just sketch something out really quick. You might change the details later, but that isn’t a problem. Think of classic fantasy maps, such as Middle Earth or Discworld. Both have unique characteristics, and each map highlights the entire world the story exists in.
Get creative with it and ask yourself some questions:
1. What is my world shaped like?
2. Do I want any islands, deserts, mountains, or anything else cool? Where would I place them?
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For help with building your world map, check out Inkarnate, which lets you bring your world map to life online.
Climate
Now that you have the geography down, make sure you have your climate figured out. When you create the layout of your world, the climate should reflect it.
In this case, your world needs a climate that makes sense, unless it’s established that your world works differently. In either case, it needs to be something that readers can understand. When you create your world map, establish things like tundras or deserts, if any exist, and place them in areas where they would be natural. Also, when you include forests, deserts, or other parts of your world, make sure you know what kind of forest or desert they are. Are your forests more like tropical jungles or are they more temperate? Are your deserts naturally hot or cold?
Additionally, if your climate is important to the story, be sure to avoid the following:
1. Randomly changing the type of climate a setting has (such as a desert going from hot to cold)
2. Establishing climates that wouldn’t work together (such as placing a tropical rainforest right next to a tundra)
3. Including characteristics that don’t fit the climate you chose (such as including grassland in a hot desert)
The goal for your climate is to put everything together to reflect your world at large. Of course, you can get creative. Your climate may not strictly follow the rules of reality. However, your world needs to establish its rules and convey them to the reader. If you want to go off on your own, take the time to describe these rules in your story. This can be done through:
1. Description – taking the time to show your reader where a character currently is
2. Dialogue – a character might be new to the world (like the reader!) and need some explanations. Another character could bring up interesting facts about how their world is different
A good example of different climates that work together is the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this world, people groups exist in different areas that also reflect the elemental magic system in the world. The climate changes throughout the character’s journey, but it reflects what the climates would be like if you traveled the world yourself.
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Countries
Lastly, once you complete your world map and understand how your climate functions, you need to create any countries, nations, or provinces that you need for your story. Here, build your world deeply, not broadly, by first creating the most important places first. Ask yourself:
1. Where should I place major countries? (Think of what the climate would be like, where major rivers, forests, and other resources might be, and how trade would be conducted)
2. What borders exist between lands? (There might be hostility or established trades)
3. What resources do these lands rely on? (For example: rivers for fish and other wildlife, mountains for coal mining, etc.)
These all go in your world map! This also later informs the culture of your different countries and where major cities are. As this series continues, I’ll create a section on fictional cultures, as well as how to build major fantasy cities.
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