Writing Tips: How to World-Build

#1: Create a Map

World-building, as the term itself, consists of two words that mean the construction and existence of our surroundings. Grounding your story against a meaningful reference such as a map, strengthens its foundations.

Creating a map can be as simple as a sketch with labels. There also exist map generators online such as Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator which Booksify highly recommends that allow for intricate details such as religions areas follow, ongoing plagues/ wars, political statuses of different locations, weather and elevation, etc. Whichever method you choose to set up your map, having a list of your necessities for it will allow you to create a map appropriate for your world.

Starting a map from scratch is difficult, so consider your protagonist or any lead character’s location first. From there, build outwards. Imagine a map, slowly lighting up.

Once you have the basic areas prepared, branch off of characters that your protagonist/ lead character meets. If they meet foreigners, where are they from? Where does the character travel over to visit other lands? The world exists not for the character but with the characters. Consider each portion of your map just as important as a character you create.

The map does not have to be perfect. In all realistic standards, parts of the world can be unknown: water bodies may be untraversed, perhaps technology is not advanced enough to allow far travel. Depending on the length of your story you can relate it to the map of a city, a state, or a country and so forth. Understand distance as time between areas to ease travel scenes. Feel free to expand off of real maps to increase your familiarity and really ease into the process of map-making!

#2: Descriptive Language

Descriptive language is an essential tool for worldbuilding, as it allows you to paint a vivid picture of your fictional world for your readers. By using sensory details and evocative language, you can transport your readers to another place and time, making your story come alive in their imaginations.

When building a fictional world, it's important to give your readers a sense of the physical space and environment. Use descriptive language to convey the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of your world, from the rolling hills to the bustling city streets. By providing these sensory details, you can create a more immersive reading experience and help your readers feel like they are really there.

Descriptive language can also be used to convey the cultural and historical aspects of your world (which we explore even more in Tip #4!). By using lush and gripping language to describe things such as architecture, clothing, food, and customs of your fictional society, you can create a rich and complex world that feels lived-in and believable. This can help your readers better understand the motivations and actions of your characters, as well as the larger forces that shape the world around them.

However, it is important to be careful not to over describe! If you overwhelm your reader with two many descriptions, the enjoyability of your story may decrease. Creating a healthy balance between vivid description and other elements of storytelling is the perfect way to both write a strong story and world-build effortlessly!

#3: Create a Plan

Creating a plan can be an incredibly helpful tool for world-building in writing. When building a fictional world, it's easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. By creating a plan, you can ensure that you are building a cohesive and consistent world that supports your story and characters.

Start by outlining the key elements of your world, such as its history, geography, culture, and technology. This will help you establish the framework for your world and ensure that everything you create is consistent with this framework. Once you have a basic outline, consider creating a timeline of important events in your world's history. This will help you understand how different parts of your world came to be and how they relate to each other.

As you build your world, remember to refer back to your plan and make sure that everything you create is consistent with it. This will help you avoid inconsistencies and plot holes that can pull readers out of your story. By establishing a framework, creating a timeline, and using tools (such as a map discussed in Tip #1!), you can create a rich and immersive world that supports your story.

#4: Build Culture

Intricately sewing together the fabric of a world takes a part of you into its thread too. When creating worlds – varying from outlying districts to large cities, culture can bring life to them. Culture entails the customs of different places – the defining traits. In a story, culture can influence the people in your story and their mannerisms, the music, the food, the clothes, etc. Existing aspects of your story can be related to culture such as architecture and language – which provides historical depth to your story-telling. World-building in the context of culture requires you to remain consistent in the cultures you wish to develop, while allowing you to branch off with many cultures within the same story.

Taking inspiration is vital to creating a rich culture. Consider your own culture and research on others too. You can blend different inspirations together and add in fictional altercations to make your story fit. Continuing on with historical depth, decide the guidelines around which different cultures are divided (or vary, if there is less cultural exploration in your story). Referencing our first tip with creating a map, guiding the cultural progression through the world in your story based on location is helpful. World-building is a beautiful, long process which we can relate back to our own world – so don’t be afraid to explore it and interpret it in fictional aspects!

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These are original writing tips written collaboratively by Anya and Natallia.