Worldbuilding Workbook World Building

WORLDBUILDING WORKBOOK WORLD BUILDING

In any fantasy, science ﬁction, or dystopian story, the world you create is everything.

As Chuck Wendig writes in 25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding:

You build a world to serve the story or stories you want to tell; you do not tell a “story that is slave to the world-building. Story comes first. World-building supports the story. Meaning, you must look at the components of the story you hope to tell: it’s got these characters, it’s about this idea, it makes a particular argument, and from there you start to see that the world can organically accommodate and reflect those things. Doing the opposite — leading with the world-building — is what you’d do if you were writing a roleplaying game which has to tell all kinds of stories, not just yours. If you put the cart before the horse the horse is gonna head-butt the cart and knock it over and then you’re all, WAIT NO MY CABBAGES then we laugh at you.

The way you get your readers to buy into something fantastical is by making it as real as possible. The way you make an imagined world seem real is by making sure that everything hangs together internally. Even ﬁctional worlds are subject to a certain kind of logic. For every cause, there is an eﬀect, and for every action, a reaction.

To create a believable world, you need to: way that we all do. Your characters are ultimately the reason that readers will 1. Set the rules of the world. become attached to your story, so you need to make sure that those characters are • Just as there are natural, physical, and relatable, sympathetic, and genuine, even if social laws that drive our world, there they exist in a strange and unfamiliar will be laws that govern your fictional world. world, too. Your world has to hold together internally, which means that • If you have a particularly unusual practice even if its rules are extraordinary, the occurring in your world, make sure you decisions, events, and consequences that know exactly how it came about. For occur are all believable within that example, in The Hunger Games, children are world. forced to fight to the death each year in a televised arena. Why? Because the • If you create a rule for your world, think government wants to inspire fear and a about the logical consequences of that sense of helplessness in its citizens in order rule. Suppose your characters do not to control them and punish them for feel physical pain, but in all other rebelling in the past. While this is certainly respects are physiologically and an extreme measure, the government’s psychologically similar to humans. How motivation is clear, and provides a would these beings behave? What cues plausible reason why such a bizarre and would they use instead to avoid physical brutal practice has been adopted. damage? What value would they place on their physical bodies? What sort of 3. Establish a unique conflict. threats would have an impact on them? These are the kinds of questions you • The way you set up your world and its would need to consider. rules will ofen generate the main conflict that faces your character. This is especially Even elements of your story that defy physics true in dystopian novels, where there is should be subject to rules. Take magic, for something inherently wrong in the world example. In Aladdin, you get three wishes. In that the hero will try to combat. Harry Potter, there are unforgivable curses and other legal restrictions on magic. In Cinderella, • The challenges that your character faces the magic expires at midnight. should be unique to the world you have created. The themes can be universal — These rules are necessary in stories because they good vs. evil, accepting one’s identity, put limits on what is possible for your overcoming an obstacle — but the specific characters. If a character could magically solve ways in which these themes are explored any problem with a snap of their fingers, they should be distinctive to your world. would never encounter any genuine conflict, Otherwise, there is no point to having your and that would make for a very boring story. story unfold in an unfamiliar world. Which leads us to the next point...

2. Populate your world with believable • In the same way that the world you create characters, organizations, and practices. will contain the seeds of your story’s conﬂict, it will also generate the resolution • The motivations, desires, and actions of to that conﬂict. If your character is a your characters need to make sense to a wizard, he had better use magic to human audience. Unless your characters vanquish his enemies. If he’s a Jedi, he are Vulcans (or something of that ilk), they should be using the Force. will likely respond to threats, challenges, rewards, victories, and defeats in the same

YOUR NOTES What are the fundamental realities of your world? As you answer, consider the following:

• Time – future or past?

• Universe – this universe or an alternate universe?

• Geography – how does place impact the people?

• History – how did this world come to be? As part of this question, you will want to consider why your story is happening at this particular moment in time. Why now?

• Magic/superpowers – do they exist? What are the rules that govern them? Who has the power to use it? How do they acquire it?

• Heaven and hell – do people live forever? Die and be done? Die and go to heaven? Die and go to purgatory?

• Mood – are people happy, content? Traumatized, rebellious?

What are the physical realities of your world? As you answer, consider the following:

• Environment – is there oxygen, gravity? Is it light or dark? Pristine or polluted?

• Reproduction – are there any twists to the basic rules of reproduction? Is there anything about inheritance or lineage that will impact the way your characters behave in the story?

• Technology – what is the nature of technology? What impact does it have on society?

• Transportation – how do people get around?

• Food – how is it produced, distributed, controlled?

What are the social realities of your world? As you answer, consider the following — and make sure that your answers are not one- dimensional, stereotypical or ﬂat. There is nuance to every world:

• Who holds power and why? Are there territorial boundaries? Tribes? Feuds?

• What is the nature of government?

• Who or what is the enemy of your people?

• Is there a dominant religion?

• What are the main qualities of the culture?

• What is the role of money? How is it acquired, spent? Who is rich and who is poor?

• How do people communicate? Is there a dominant language? Is there a special way to address leaders, poor people?

Where are the day-to-day realities of your world? As you answer, consider the following:

• Where do people work? What is the nature of their work?

• Where do people live?

• Is there a system of education?

• What do people do for play?

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