World Building and Why I’m Not a Gamemaster…

It’s been one of those months busy, busy, busy. I was asked to write a blog about world building and failed miserably. That’s how it is with me and the idea and how to of world building. While in my first blog on the subject, now titled “Before World Building” I floated into dreaming and imagination, I did not realise that for most people in the world in which I live that airy fairy imagination doesn’t cut the muster. For them it’s the details and secret rules that only a Fantasy role playing gamemaster has access to. I’m not a game master.

My one foray into fantasy role playing ended badly, another epic fail, where, despite it being “free form” I had no idea how to operate in this peculiar world that the “game master” had constructed. It had rules and I was constantly breaking those rules.

The first thing about World Building is it’s about rules. Like if you have a game. You have the boundaries or field of that game. The field looks a certain way like the stage or land in which you story is set. For example, you may have goal posts if it’s a football game. The field will have green grass with markings. And so on. Then in the game the players are dressed in team colours and have roles like goal kicker and goal defence. Just like in your story, your characters dress a certain way, have roles and personalities. The game has of course rules that the players must follow, just as in you story the village or land will have laws, culture mores and religious practices they must follow.

So, you can see that it’s advisable to think about these “rules” for the world in which your character lives and into which your reader will vicariously enter. In the world the reader enters, if the world is believable, the reader suspends disbelief and immerses themselves in that world. I should mention here that Mary McDee has written a yet-to-be published children’s story “Chaos in the Kingdom” which has a land which she has mapped out, and there were specific rules of language that the characters must obey. And in my own Sci-fi books, I spent decades researching Astronomy, space travel, physics, UAPs (formerly UFO’s), alien first contact and abductions to make my story of Minna’s alien abduction by Boris believable.

This then is the premise of how to create a world. To be frank. I have no idea how I land on creating my worlds. I brainstorm. Research. Write notes. Do character profiles. The story develops and I write it. In the process, the world forms around the story. This, I’m finding works well in the world we know—our contemporary world. For the Science Fiction or Fantasy genre, since the worlds are alien to our general human world view, the writer needs to delve into greater detail to make the world cohesive, consistent and believable for the reader. Tolkien’s last uncompleted work before he died was The Silmarillion which as I understand was his notes building a fantasy world. It’s a decent sized book. As for me, I spent over thirty years planning, researching, world-building and writing my first book, Mission of the Unwilling.

Now, on that line of thought, about conveying the details of the world in your story, there is a danger for the author to become bogged down in too much information to describe their fantasy world. Have you ever read a book which spends three quarters of the story on developing the world in which the characters live? I have. Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I laboured through three hundred pages of the book describing every square inch of Paris, before I reached the interesting story part. I dare say, the novel served me well when we did visit Paris a second time in 2014. Victor was just following the “rules” of world building…And playwrights and movie makers of the Hunchback of Notre Dame plays and movies were eternally grateful.

Not sure if I tackled such a 300-page info-dump, I could have Victor Hugo’s success. One of the world building articles I read advised against overloading the reader with detail.

On another note, about being OCD about detail, is that it can stall the writing of the work or story. I remember one of my first attempts to draft a novel. I was 18 and had this idea for a fantasy romance. Like any obedient aspiring author, I asked my playwright uncle for advice. Build the world, he advised. Do a story map. Make a diagram or graph of the characters and their relationship with each other. So, I did. Spent all summer building the world and the storyline never happened. Those pages now languish, buried in a cupboard somewhere…covered in dust.

However, as we were discussing world building in a recent Indie Scriptorium meeting, Mary McDee voiced a concern that our focus is too much on the fiction to the neglect of the non-fiction. I believe that even in non-fiction, the writer is building a world, or a world view as they share their wisdom on a certain topic. I know that in researching family history, situations arise, and there can be information, or information gaps become known that sets me speculating. My overactive imagination takes over and I speculate. I imagine what life was life say in 19^th Century South Australia. I do research about my ancestors emigrating to the Barossa, South Australia in the mid-1800’s. For historical accuracy I try to get hold of primary resources. Spouting unfounded speculation was one of the reasons I almost failed History in Education way back. My two-times great uncle’s fault. If Friedrich Basedow, parliamentarian and in 1881became Minister of Education, hadn’t had the drive to reform the State education system in South Australia, I wouldn’t have a historical chip on my shoulder. (The Basedow Story © Bernhard Basedow 1990) Imagination is good, but especially with non-fiction, good research and supported hard facts must prevail. In this case, world building is based in the real world.

Yet, what is the essence of World Building? How is it done? I believe that central to the art of it is creating. Creating a world or stage in which the characters physically live, move about and interact with. Creating a past from which the characters come and what has made them who they are. Creating rules, norms, boundaries, habits, means of communication, and attitudes that defines the characters as a race or type of being. Creating the mechanics of how stuff works in this world, either by peculiar or unique physics, chemistry, biologically or even dimensionally (are they two dimensional? Or six dimensional?). Creating a world view. Creating a conflict. Creating the people or beings who live in this world.

You may have noticed I have used the world “creating”. To create, I believe begins with imagination. Which is why I still think that whatever world a writer is developing, imagination is the key. The stories that resonate most with us, books like Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings, it’s because the world they create is unique and memorable and the reader wants to enter it and stay in there.

But, just in case I haven’t nailed it, because I’ve been general, and creatively waffly, here’s what my AI guru has to say about World Building:

World building is a crucial element in creating immersive and believable settings in a novel, especially in genres like fantasy and science fiction. Here are the main elements of world building:

1. Geography: This includes the physical layout of the world, such as continents, oceans, mountains, and climate. It sets the stage for the environment in which the characters live.
2. History: A world’s past can shape its present, so detailing historical events, wars, discoveries, and cultural shifts is important.
3. Culture: This encompasses the arts, customs, traditions, and social norms of the societies within the world. It also includes language, religion, and societal structures.
4. Politics and Government: The types of governance, political relations, and power dynamics between different groups and nations within the world.
5. Economy: How the world’s inhabitants sustain themselves, including trade, currency, industry, and technology.
6. Magic System (if applicable): If the novel includes magical elements, defining the rules, limitations, and effects of magic is essential.
7. Flora and Fauna: The creatures and plants that inhabit the world can add depth and wonder to the setting.
8. Rules and Laws: The physical and metaphysical laws that govern the world. This could include gravity, time, or even the possibility of traveling faster than light.
9. Conflict: The central conflicts that drive the narrative can be deeply tied to the world’s structure, such as scarce resources, ancient feuds, or clashing ideologies.
10. Characters: While not a direct part of world building, characters should be shaped by the world they live in, reflecting its values and complexities.

Effective world building creates a rich backdrop that supports the story and characters, making the novel’s universe as compelling as the plot itself. Remember, consistency is key in making your world believable and engaging for the readers.

For further reading to demystify the world building process, here are four links to posts which tackle the topic. They have done a much better job than I ever will on the topic.

Worldbuilding References:

15 Worldbuilding Tips for Writers (Templates and Examples) (kindlepreneur.com)

What is World Building — Definition, Examples & Techniques (studiobinder.com)

Worldbuilding: The Ultimate Guide (Plus a Template!) (scribophile.com)

Worldbuilding: Create Brave New Worlds [+Template] (reedsy.com)

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2024

Feature Photo: The Mini World of of Hermannsburg © L.M. Kling 2023