Building Your World

World Building is a pretty important part of writing a novel, especially, if you've created your own world. You have to basically build up your world from scratch which is fun and addicting (if you are me and many other people I know). Even writing a novel in the modern times will need some world building. Knowing your settings is important so it will remain consistent throughout your novel.

The thing about world building, it that people take it too far and they end up losing sight of their novel. It's happened to me and my friend does it all of the time. I'm trying to get her to tone it down a bit because she goes nuts with world building. It tends to make her unmotivated to write.

Remember, you only need to know the important things.

This is more for the Fantasy/Sci-fi people but they can also work in other styles.

• What kind of government does your world have? This might be important because it can change the way the world functions. You've got to keep in mind how different governments work and how it effects the community. 

• Does your world have magic? If it does, how does it work? What are the limitations? Magic needs limitations. You can't have save your character from everything. Nothing is more annoying that limitless power.

• Where does your story take place? I feel like this should have been one of the first bullet points but I'm just going to go with it. What the name of the place your story take place in? What's it like there? Describe, briefly the place in which your story will be.

• Do you have any strange creatures? If it does, list a few and a brief description only if they are important to the story.

• Is the world part of the plot? Meaning, is the world falling apart, dying, being destroyed and your character has to save it or seek refuge somewhere else. You know, things like that.

• Only add important detail. You don't need to know everything about your world before you start the novel, just the key things that are important.

• Build the world as you write. You are going to come up with new material for your world as you write. It's okay to learn about your world as your character shows you.

This is as basic as I can get the list. Just remember not to over-build your world and allow for some room to play with it. You can add further detail as needed.

If you novel deals with military, you might want to know a few things about your military. Or if your story has to deal with slavery, you've got to know the system. Things like that. Ask yourself a lot of questions that will help improve your novel and make it seem like a real place.

Take what you need and go from there.