The Art of Worldbuilding

As my first post I want to dive into a subject that is close to my heart: worldbuilding. Ever since I wrote my first novel I've loved to think of how the world behind it works, and I've always spent a great deal time on the planning before I begin writing. Well planned is half done even in the case of creative writing. Of course, my background as a natural scientist makes me prone to overplanning and overanalyzing, sometimes even too much. However, I cannot stress this enough: comprehensive worldbuilding is one of the key features in writing a believable story. You as a writer have to believe in it, and your characters need to believe in it, for it to be believable to the readers. This belief is strengthened the more familiar you get with your own source material.

A sad fact I've run into recently is that especially among young adult literature and so-called "entertainment literature" sloppy worldbuilding is more of a rule than an exception. This often leads to a feeling of detachment instead of immersion and can be rather off-putting, not to mention the risk for plot holes increasing exponentially. In my opinion, if a reader asks any question on the world, the writer should be able to answer it with some level of accuracy, other than "I never thought about it." I will note already here that comprehensive worldbuilding is a tedious process that may require lots of source material and countless hours of time, and these may change in the course of the story. However it is important to have an outline already when the story begins.

Of course, the first question is scale. The amount of worldbuilding necessary is determined wholly on the scale of the events. There are several scales to events:

The further one moves up the scale, the more focus lies on general facts instead of details. Of course, in one story the focus often moves on different levels, which requires focus transfer. Writing on planetary scale events the details can be more arbitrary, but as the scale moves further down, attention to detail increases. If you are focusing on a single room, you should focus more on the things inside of the room rather than outside of it.

Following are some basic questions I use for my own worldbuilding, taking into account the fundamentals (such as natural laws) and social aspects on both a larger scale (nation or continent-wide) and smaller scale (related to the lives of single citizens). These have been helpful for me. There is no one single right way to do worldbuilding. I often begin with geography and drawing maps and designing cultures and peoples, and go then further into smaller details. Later on I list everything else in a Word document, but there are several websites also helpful for this. One I can honestly recommend is notebook.ai, which allows creating characters, people and artifacts, and even asks ready questions about them. The premium version offers tons of more such as the creation of religions, magic systems and towns, if you wish to invest.

And of course: research, research, research. Read about real cultures, languages, natural phenomena, governments, monarchies, wars. The more you know of the subject you are writing about the more realistic your world will become.

Fundamentals

These are details that shape the course of your world: why is your world as it is. The very "building blocks" of your world. The scale can be anywhere from galactic to local, but generally is more large-scale than in other categories.

History

- How did your world form? How old is your world?

- When did life emerge and in what form?

- What are the important events shaping the history of your world?

- When did human settlement first occur and where?

- Important historical events leading onto this day.

Natural world

- Geography of the world

- Man-made and natural boundaries

- Flora and fauna

- Seasons, climate systems

- Natural hazards

- Attitudes towards nature
- Pets?

Natural resources

- How are natural resources distributed?

- How are they managed?

- Are resources used sustainably?

- Where does waste go?

Magic

- Does magic exist?
- Is your magic infinite or exhaustible?
- Is it internal or external?
- What are the ground rules for using magic? Are there taboos?
- Can anyone learn magic?
- Do magical artifacts exist?
- Are magical abilities inflexible or flexible?

Measurements

- How are lengths and distances measured?
- How is time measured and perceived?
- How are weight and volume measured?

Large-scale social categories

Government

Firstly: is your government a dictatorship, a democracy or something in between? How is power distributed? In this stage, hierarchies matter. Few governments, even dictatorships, are run by solely a single person. Even dictators have their left- and right-hand men who execute their commands. A few questions related to governance:

- What territories is your area split into?
- Who commands these territories?
- What is their title?

- What major cities exist within your territories?
- Which government locations are situated where?

- How much power do commoners have?
- Are there political factions?
- Can people vote?

Safety and law

- Does the world have a military? 

- What is the military hierachy? Is military advancement based on merits or background?

- What divisions exist? Navy, ground force, air force?

- How are cities kept safe? Police force? 

- How are fires and natural disasters dealt with?

- What are the attitudes towards the safety organization?

- What laws exist in your world?

- How are lawbreakers punished?

- What is the legal hierarchy?

- What is the attitude towards the law?

Education and healthcare

- What is  the hierarchy of education? Where are the institutes located?

- Is education accessible to everyone regardless of background?

- How is education appreciated?
- What subjects are taught at school?
- What subjects have been studies extensively and which have received scant attention?
- Most known contributors to scientific fields?
- Is healthcare easily accessible?
- What is the level of healthcare?
- How do people manage their own health?
- Is health held in high or low regard?
- What are the most common sicknesses?
- What is the most common cause of death?

Money and affluence

- What currency is used in your world?

- Who is in charge of the management of money?

- What are the primary resources for affluence in the country (natural resources? non-material resources? information etc...?)

- What are the inflows and outflows of money? 

- Taxes?

- How is money distributed: what parts of the country receive money and what do not?
- What are common jobs?

- What are well and poorly paid jobs?

- How do the affluent spend their money?

- What are the attitudes towards different jobs?

Religion

- Is there a religion? Poly- or monotheistic?

- What are the deities of your world?

- Religious hierarchy?

- Religious events?

- Does religion cause conflict?

Relationships and conflicts

- How are relationships between different areas managed?

- What are the ongoing and historical relations between nations?

- What are the primary causes for unrest?

Transportation

- What is the primary mean of transportation?

- Distances and length of journeys with different means of transportation

- Fuel? Mounts? Where from?

- How expensive is transportation?

Technology and infrastructure

- What is the level of technology?
- Does electricity exist?
- Do steam engines exist?
- Does information technology exist?
- What kind of warfare exists?
- What level is infrastructure at? What kind of basic utilities do households have?
- How are houses built?
- How is architecture like?

Information

- How is information stored and passed on to future generations?

- How does information travel? How is it accessed?

- Is information restricted?

- Is there a writing system and who can read it?

Small-scale social categories

Social

- What kind of social statuses / castes exist in your world? Flexibility?
- How is gender perceived?
- Marital status - what kinds of statuses exist?
- Are arranged marriages common?
- How old are people when they marry or have children?
- What kinds of families exist?
- Is family important?
- How are people of different age perceived and treated?
- How are minorities treated?

Language

- What languages are spoken in your world?

- How do the languages differ in vocabulary?

- How do the languages sound like?
- What is the grammar like?
- What is written language like?

- How many can speak or write the language?

- How easy it is to learn different languages?

- Common words, phrases and idioms in the language?

- How do people swear in your language?
- What are common names for people?
- Common names for flora / fauna?
- Common names for places?

Food, beverages and intoxicants

- What do people eat?

- Where does food come from?
- Who manages food resources?

- What are the attitudes toward food?

- How is food distributed?
- How is food stored?
- How is it cooked?

- How does it taste like?
- What spices and ingredients are widely used?
- What do people drink?
- Do people use intoxicants, such as alcohol, drugs or tobacco?
- Are the former regulated somehow?

Leisure

- What kind of literature exists?
- What are the most known works of literature? National epics?

- What genres of literature are popular?

- Does theatre, music or visual drama exist?

- Popular pieces?

- Popular artists?

- Genres?

- What instruments? What ways of execution and distribution?
- Commonly known songs and rhymes?

- Popular events? Who goes into these? What happens, when and where?

- Travel? Explorers? Who and when, contribution?
- What are cultural taboos?
- What is considered funny?
- What are common hobbies?
- How do people spend their free time?
- Do people play games? What sort?

Beauty

- Does appearance strongly indicate social status?
- Do people value practicality or flashiness?
- How do people dress for different occasions?
- What are commonly used materials and colors?
- What is considered beautiful, what ugly?
- Is make-up used?

And of course, the answers to these questions often depend on the person asked. It is important to think of all worldbuilding character first, since all stories are experienced through the characters. A 10-year-old peasant girl will answer many questions differently than a 45-year-old affluent man. Think of perspective! 

Hope this was helpful for someone. Happy worldbuilding!