In my experience, writers tend to fall into one of two categories when it comes to world building: The Tolkien Types and Everybody Else. The Tolkien types are those brilliant people who will create entire mythologies and even languages for their fictional worlds. For them, the world comes first and the characters and story second. World building like this is a marvelous feat and one I greatly admire, but I’m afraid that if you are a Tolkien type, you might as well stop reading now. This post just isn’t for you.
For everybody else, our stories start with a character and/or situation and the world building develops out of it. If you want to get technical, this is the “bottom-up” strategy as described here [link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down_and_bottom-up_design ]. While this is a perfectly acceptable approach to world building, it does involve a couple of pitfalls. The first major issue is that it can lead to inconsistencies and plot holes, the latter being especially true when we’re talking about the fantasy and sci-fi genres. The second issue is that the world building tends to be underdeveloped.
And really, both of these problems make sense for us bottom-uppers, right? I mean, we’re far more interested in the characters populating our story than the world it takes place in (while the opposite may be true for the Tolkien Types). No wonder our world building is weak. Also, the very idea of creating an entire world is daunting. It’s so BIG, so OUT THERE; it’s the forest we can never see. I, for one, barely understand the world I live in, let alone the one I’m creating.
Fortunately, one effective solution for avoiding the world building blues of plot holes and underdevelopment is to focus even more on what we love best about the story—the characters populating the world. Crazy, you say? Nope, not at all. The characters—their back stories and especially their motivations—hold all the answers.
To demonstrate, I’m going to take you through some prewriting activities for a YA fantasy novel I would someday like to write. The following headers and questions will function as a world building worksheet.
Concept
What is the story about in its most general terms?
Right now, I picture this story as being Shadow and Bone meets the Pony Express—so high fantasy/steampunk-ish with an emphasis on horses and riding.
General Setting
What kind of world does this story place in? (Medieval Europe? Preindustrial? Futuristic? Try to be specific here, but don’t be afraid to change and modify as the story becomes clearer)
This story takes place in a world home to both humans and a race of vicious creatures known as the Mal’niveus. The Mal’niveus live in a vast network of tunnels beneath the ground, but they come out to the surface at night to hunt. In order to survive, the human population has built huge walled cities and barricaded the tunnels beneath the cities to keep the Mal’niveus out. As a result, the political structure of this world is similar to the city-state structure of Ancient Greece (something I’ll need to research later).
While many of the cities are self-sustaining, trade does exist between them, with goods being shipped via rivers or in large caravans, which I imagine might be protected by mages or sorcerers. For faster travel, the city-states rely on an independent guild known as The Riders (surely, I will come up with a more specific name later—even names play a part in world building). The Riders function the same as the Pony Express did in the American Old West (again something to research and draw on later).
Characters
Who is the main character and what is his/her primary motivation at the beginning of the novel?
- 16-year-old Jane lives on a small farm inside one of the city-states. Her primary motivation at the beginning is to become a Rider like her big brother, John. Riders are required to provide their own mount. But Jane’s horse is small and will have a hard time competing for one of the slots.
From these few brief sentences, the world is already taking shape. Although I don’t state it directly, there are ideas in here about class, social structure, and a number of other world building elements.
How much does Jane know about the bigger world she lives in?
- Although she knows many things about the world, it’s primarily secondhand. She has experienced very little of the world beyond the farm. She has never seen a Mal’niveus before, and she knows only the very basics about the government that rules the city she lives in, as typical of a teenager.
Jane’s lack of experience and true knowledge about the Riders and the world at large is going to make it easy for me to include world building details naturally and without contrivance. There is so much that she is going to experience for the first time, same as the reader. Since she will most likely be the POV character, I should be able to convey much of the world through her eyes and reactions.
To break this down, consider that world building information is usually passed onto the reader in one of three ways:
- Description—what the world looks like, what the character sees, hears, smells, etc.
- Straight exposition—“this is how the world works” kind of statements. And yes, they will often be considered “telling” instead of “showing.”
- The POV Character’s interactions with the world and other characters, including dialogue and plot developments.
I will use all three types when writing this story. But when and how much will depend on my POV character, in this case, Jane. Description, naturally, should be used in every scene, although when Jane goes somewhere brand new for the first time, there will be a heavier emphasis on the description. When she’s at home, in her familiar world, the description will be lighter.
I will use straight exposition as sparingly as possible, but I will use it. Mostly, I will rely on it to convey the more unique ideas about this world, those which Jane already knows but which the reader doesn’t. For example, Jane already knows about the city-state structure of her world, the Mal’niveus, and the Riders, but these will be completely new to the reader. For some of these, I may use straightforward exposition, such as these example sentences:
Jane had never seen a Mal’niveus before, but she knew they lived deep underground, only emerging at night to hunt—deer, elk, humans, they didn’t care. Any fresh meat would do.
While it is possible that I could show all of these elements through a combination of #1 and #3, I will want to be careful about placing too much burden on the reader to figure things out for themselves. Sometimes it is okay and appropriate to give the readers “just the facts, ma’am.” If you leave too much up to the reader to guess at, they might grow frustrated with the story and put it down.
Primarily, however, I will rely on the POV character’s interactions with the world and with other characters to pass on world building information. Dialogue, of course, will be a key component. The trick here is to identify which characters know what and to use them effectively.
Identify supporting characters and their motivations, including forces of antagonism.
- So far, the only supporting character I’ve identified is big brother John. And I don’t know his motivation in the story yet, other than to make sure his little sister doesn’t get hurt. But he does know a lot of about becoming a Rider. He will likely pass this information on to Jane.
- The Mal’niveus are a force of antagonism, and they have already provided a main structural element to the world building by creating the necessity for the walled city-states.
I haven’t yet identified the main villain, but once I do I will need to explore his/her motivation extensively. What does the bad guy want? Why does he want it? How does he plan on getting it? Answers to these questions should both inform and be informed by the world at large. Think about it—only the perfect storm conditions of post World War I Germany could’ve produced a Hitler. The more we explore the villain’s motivation for his/her badness, the more these conditions will become apparent. Once they are apparent, put them into the story as much as you can and as much as makes sense.
Finally, my last bit of advice is to try and make the world building as fun for you as possible. If the writer is having fun playing in their world, the reader will, too.
Mindee Arnett is the author of two forthcoming young adult series. The first book in her contemporary fantasy series, The Nightmare Affair, will be available March 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan). Her YA sci-fi thriller, Finding Eden, will debut Winter 2014 from Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins). She lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space. Find her online at www.mindeearnett.com.
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THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR by Mindee Arnett: 16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams.
Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell.
And then it comes true.
Now the Dusty has to follow the clues–both within Eli’s dreams and out of them–to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.
Coming March 5, 2013.
Um, please write that novel because I REALLY want to read it.
This is super helpful! My current project involves a really complex world, to the point that I’ve spent the last three years building after two failed attempts at actually writing the thing. It’s a tricky thing to work with, because the concept is so foreign to anything else I’ve encountered.
Mindy, I’d love to win the query prize! This whole process is so daunting..it would be great to get some feedback on my YA Urban Fantasy novel!
Thanks,
Lauren Spieller
ooops i spelled your name wrong,. NUBE MISTAKE. my sincere apologies, Mindee.
Thanks for sharing your insights on world-building! I think I’ve learned the hard way about how to create holes and inconsistencies.
Hey Mindee!
Great post. I especially like how you build the world – almost through the character – that makes me realize, even deeper, that it is the character in the world that makes the voice true / makes it a real experience.
Thanks! Kelly
- go Swag
This is great! World-building is one of my biggest weaknesses, because I’m not very good with detail. That little worksheet was so nice!
Also, I’d love your prize! =)
Good to know I’m not the only non-Tolkien world-builder out there. I’m still relatively new to world-building, but it’s so important for horror and dystopian novels. Thanks for the advice. Love the concept of the Nightmare Affair. Can’t wait to get my copy!
This is a really nice way to start with world-building. I tend to wade in and muck around, and then change pieces of the plot that then change the way the world works… and pretty soon I have a tangled ball of yarn.
This is a fantastic checklist filled with reasons for why a solid world is important. Thank you for putting it together!
I am definitely one of the people who falls into the pitfalls of letting the world build around me as I write … and rewrite. LOL! I’m getting better though. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you, Mindee!! This is very, very helpful!
Great post! I’m currently working on a project that involves another world, so this is very helpful. Thanks!
It’s great to have this kind of nuts-and-bolts advice laid out to use as a framework. (Especially the part about how it’s okay to “tell” sometimes, as long as we do it sparingly.) Thank you!
Mindee,
Thanks for sharing your story idea with us. It sounds intriguing… as does The Nightmare Affair.
Your approach makes a lot of sense to me. I also tend to focus on character’s first, though I do love fleshing out the setting once I settle on it.
Best Wishes,
Joseph
This was very helpful–especially the part about when it’s okay to use exposition.
Great list to get started worldbuilding! I’d love the critique prize. Can’t wait for The Nightmare Affair!
I thought this was a great overview of the writing process. Worldbuilding is so hard to get right, but when it works, it’s the best feeling ever.
I love world building. Thanks for the permission to give straight exposition sometimes. In the beginnings, I really fight the urge to just write down some facts, but maybe I shouldn’t?
Great tips and wonderful examples for help in building one’s world. Thank you for helping to make WriteOnCon an amazing conference!!
Great topic. Thanks for your thoughts. I struggle with conveying cetain aspects of my world and your thoughts are helpful. Your new book sounds exciting.
Thank you Mindee,
I quickly read the title as Word Building and read the article , only to go back and read “World” !!!!
I love what you’ve written here and feel that with all your building of a new or different world, the word building flows right along beneath the surface.
Mindee,
Thank you for breaking the worldbuilding down into steps – it seems much more manageable that way. And developing it through character seems like getting twice the bang for our buck
I struggle with wanting to be a Tolkien-esque type of world builder, but after a few days of furiously scribbling notes and drawing arrows to connect the societies, I realize I’m still nowhere close to developing the actual novel. I’ve found that bottom-up works best for me. I’ll leave the big time world building to the pros!
This is a great post, I’m sharing it with non-kidlit writers too. And your book sounds exciting! Also: dig the blue streaks
Great post! I think I tend to fall somewhere in between the two categories (leaning more towards non-Tolkien), so this was great for me to be reading right now! I’ve been working a lot on world development lately. Thank you so much!
I *think* I hover somewhere in the middle: way below Tolkien, but in a land where I build the world before populating it with rich characters.
IDK…If I win that 1st chapter crit, you can let me know if my assessment is accurate.
World building is one of my favorite parts of writing. Finding the right balance of what details to include and how to include them is the challenge. Great post and hope you have time to work on that story. It sounds good to me.
A great post! I love the way you broke it down. Thanks.
Wonderful information! Can’t wait to apply this to my next fantasy story. Thank you!
I found the initial premiss of this blog post initially misleading. At first I thought that you meant that being a Tolkien type world builder meant knowing great detail about the world being created. But as I read on, I realized that the “Tolkien Type” was implying more of the style of how the reader is presented to the world being built.
I agree with many of the point brought up in this post about how to present the world to the reader. I personally find reading books where the world is created in a more natural way to be much more interesting. Though sometimes you need the long descriptive paragraphs to paint a picture for the reader, it’s always wonderful to find snippets of life in the details of conversations and actions.
As an aspiring science fiction writer, I find it very important to be a Tolkien type world builder in order to create the world in which my characters struggle, because if I don’t understand where they come from and how their world works then they can’t have a story. But that doesn’t mean I have to tell the reader in a Tolkien kind of way. That gets a little too heavy sometimes.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on World Building. It’s almost more important to discus how to expose your reader to the world that’s been created than to talk about the process of creating the world. I found your words very inspiring.
You inspire me to branch out and try my hand at fantasy!Thanks.
Thank you for sharing your tips! I’m definitely going to pay more attention next time I world build, re: description vs. exposition vs. interaction. I’ve never broken it down and analyzed it like that before.
Thank you so much! I have an idea for a spec fiction, MG, but I haven’t written about such a different world before. Your questions will help to get it organized in my mind. Awesome.
Thank you so much for this awesome breakdown of world building! Loved your examples!
I LOVE this breakdown Mindee, so so so helpful! Thanks for taking time to write this all out!
Showing and not telling, especially in the case of straight exposition, is one of the hardest things that I find. In fantasy, I find that it is used more in dialogue or tales told around the fire. In other cases, it can be a little harder since you can’t always have a campfire near by. Great stuff, Mindee!
Great breakdown! I’m a cross between a Tolkienist and a character-driven worldbuilder. My character and plot arc govern the outlines of my world, but once I have that outline, I feel like I need to fill every corner of the “map” with details–folktales, languages, religious rituals, historical events, etc. (Most of which, of course, end up cut right back out in revisions. Sigh.)
Great Post Mindee!!!
Hm. Lots of people here…
I’m afraid I’m halfway between–I already know the world I’m working in, so I don’t have to build it. The characters run the show and show me the LOCAL culture differences. I’m also an EXTREME pantser.
I do have a map, and a language, and a history for the world. That’s where half the fun comes in.
Lauren Ritz
This was super helpful! I particularly like how you mentioned world-building through charater interactions…the show don’t tell, but somehow deeply explain your world quandary=solved!
Thank you so much for the great post! I have a rough draft I’m planning to revisit & I will definitely be breaking it down.
Thanks for taking time to write the this great post! Can’t wait to read your book.
I loved your straight-forward approach to this! Thanks for giving us examples from your own worldbuilding process!
Sometimes the most challenging aspect of world creating is transferring enough of it from our mind to written word. Thank you for sharing these tips that can help writers of all levels improve. Great post!
I love world-building! But lots of times I get so caught up in that vastness of it all that it seems so daunting. Thanks for all the tips!
Great post Mindee! I’m definitely one of the Everybody Else’s and not the Tolkien type- one of the reasons I gave up on my fantasy WIP. These were great tips for world building. I’ll definitely have to keep these tips around so I can reference them later.
Thank you for this, Mindee. I feel like I need help with setting, so this is such great information for me.
Mindee, wonderful advice! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all build worlds like Tolkien? But this post sends us in the right direction for doing the best WE can do for our stories. Thank you!
Great post!
There’s lots of world building in historicals, too. Thx for writing this!