Create Your Own World

A Basic Introduction to Worldbuilding

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The desire to create your own world can be overwhelming. Many of us realize as soon as we sit down to start writing that creating an immersive experience is more complicated than we thought.

With an entire ecosystem of beings, politics, food, and the monotonous hum-drum of daily life, the sheer volume of intricate details brings a spectrum of challenges along with it. It is like the old adage of how to eat an elephant, "one bite at a time." The problem is, where do you take the first bite?

You want to create your own world so your reader can step in and experience what you see in your mind. This will require taking a proverbial chainsaw to that elephant to make it more manageable. Once the separate components are broken down, the process becomes significantly easier. At that point, you can begin thinking about how to season the food rather than worrying about where to start eating.

One of the easiest ways to simulate a believable world is to take facets of the world around you to inspire you as you model your own story. There is no greater realism than life itself, whether in its beauty or its horror. Fantastic ideas lie just below the surface if you look close enough.

The principles of science, the concepts of art, and even historical facts can ignite inspiration in an instant. Worldbuilding is often more about crafting creativity than it is about trying to finesse raw data. It is about the execution of transmitting intangible ideas into observable notions.

There is no simple three-step process that, once worked through, is done and dusted. This is a process that might, and debatably should be, approached with some patience.

While there are a plethora of aspects to worldbuilding, for now we are going to break down a few that potentially have a heavier impact on continuity and storytelling. Those categories are:
Framing the Setting
Establishing Rules
Defining Core Concepts

To dive deeper into these concepts, here are some helpful pages to assist you in building your world.

Worldbuilding Guides:

These topics break worldbuilding into specific systems so you can build your world logically instead of being overwhelmed by details.

Framing the Setting to Create Your Own World

Without knowing where or when your story takes place, it can be very difficult to solidify other major rules of your world. Will your story unfold in the caves of a distant, undiscovered planet, or right here on earth? Will your story's twists and turns be through a realm unknown or entirely within a character's mind? Will your story follow the expected rules of physics here on earth, or will you be introducing your reader to new laws of science?

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To create your own world, you need to construct the recipe. Before you can gather the ingredients to bake your favorite elephant-based meal, you need to know exactly what it is that goes into what you are cooking. Is it a steak, roast, or sausage? Just like those dishes vary wildly in both ingredients and preparation, you need to know the method to create your own world. A sci-fi story's ingredients are most likely going to be completely different from a romantic fantasy. Your setting will help give a baseline for the next set of ingredients you will need for solid worldbuilding.

Another point to setting is time, which is just as important as physical location. The world of Blueprints of Destruction offers a very different experience than the one the reader is surrounded by in the real world.

Understanding what kinds of food your characters eat, or the clothes they wear, are necessary details when starting your worldbuilding venture. You can't establish those details until you know both when and where your characters exist.

Create Your Own World Through Establishing Rules

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Establishing rules is an important step to create your own world successfully. Consistency is the key to solid worldbuilding. Whether you choose to use magic or technology, it is critical to know what is or is not allowed within the confines of your worldbuilding system. In either case, it is important that your chosen parameters create as many challenges as solutions.

While using new systems, it is possible to fall into the "lazy-solution" trap simply because you have the ability to write the rules. You may find yourself facing a tough challenge after you have boxed yourself in through undeveloped consequences. If you are opting to write a sci-fi story, well-established science and clear parameters around technology's abilities will seal your world's believability.

Whatever rules you choose to use, stick with them for the duration of your story. Few things are more frustrating than an author breaking their own rules to patch a plot hole—especially one they likely created by deviating from those very rules in the first place.

Setting boundaries for yourself, your narrative, and the characters within it, can be a useful tool when telling a story. Limiting the scope of storytelling by allowing your worldbuilding rules to create both obstacles and solutions can be powerful.

It’s easy to get lost chasing fleeting thoughts down every little rabbit trail (elephant trails?). Strictly established rules help keep the story as the cornerstone. This not only identifies when your efforts are being sidetracked, but also serves as a reference to guide to keep your train of thought on track.

Create Your Own World by Defining Core Concepts

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Defining core concepts can also be essential as you create your own world. Now that you have strict boundaries of what is or is not allowed, working through the core concepts will be a little bit easier.

What about your world's magic system, technology, or society makes it unique against the plethora of other stories that a reader could select? How do you use innovative ideas to create a grand adventure? How can you create a world that your reader can be swept up into alongside your characters?

Even if you aren't adding any groundbreaking elements like unique magic systems or fantastic realms, you can still add creative core concepts to the foundation of your story. As you create your own world, weaving interesting character dynamics or a goal that is especially hard to achieve throughout your narrative, is a wonderful method to define core concepts.

Most of all, commit to the narration and put words onto paper.

Understanding worldbuilding concepts is easier when you see them used in a functional world.

The universe of Qualx, which Blueprints of Destruction unfolds, provides a practical example of how these systems work together.

Rather than building a world all at once, Qualx was developed through individual systems such as law, economics, and technology.

You can explore some core concepts displayed in these pages:

  • The System of Life Rights - The economic foundation of Qualx's civilization
  • The Guild - The organization responsible for enforcement, governance, and protection
  • Ricochet pilots and the Flicker - The technology that allows travel between dimensions
  • Pirates of Qualx - The shadow economy and underworld networks
  • Qualxian Species - The many beings that inhabit the universe

These pages demonstrate how worldbuilding ideas become practical storytelling inside a narrative.

From cheese, to wine, to dry-aged elephant meat, everything is better with time. Don't put pressure on yourself to have everything done in a strict timeframe - that is a recipe for an unsuccessful and potentially unfulfilling world.

Letting ideas rest and marinate before you come back to them is a great way to strategize a new approach and create your own world. If you feel stuck, or if you simply want to take a step away so that you can get a fresh perspective, time away can only make your thoughts better. Just as you let wine breathe so the full-bodied flavors can work their way to the forefront of the experience, the same can be said for giving your story room to flourish. Your notes and ideas will be patiently aerating, while waiting for your return. By the time you get back, they will be ready to transform into what you need them to be.

Pull up a chair, grab a fork, and dive into the process of eating the elephant of storytelling.

If you want to get closer to unleashing your inner author, here are some helpful guides!

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