Advice/Help World building,

[InsultingBunny]

So, I have my character set. I would like to ask for tips to help me build my world? I’ll take any tips. This will be the first time I would be building a world around my character.

 

[CaptainCorwin]

I'm game. What kind of character should we build this shell around?

 

[InsultingBunny]

Hi! Thanks. My character is an Oracle and an harbinger of the end of times. So I want to build a world of extreme tradgety and a huge fantasy world.

 

[CaptainCorwin]

So it is that she is responsible for both for telling and causing the end of the world. Oh, and how is she receiving the vision? Is it a gift from a Good, or does she alone possess clairvoyance?

 

[Idea]

I generally would recommend not building your world around the character, but the character into the world. Still, since you preferred to take the top down aproach, let's work with that.

The most important thing in world building can be summed up in one word: Consistency. If your world building is, in all it's aspects, both those of continuity and consequences, consistent, then it's usually gonna be good or even great worldbuilding. It certainly won't be bad worldbuilding.

Consistency consists of all things that are connected having organic connections and everything being at least connected to the whole and preferably to each other.


Now, since we're doing top down, I believe what CaptainCorwin was doing with you is a good start. But to break it down on a more general level, what you want to do is justify everything about your character. Nitpick as best you can about every little aspect of them, then see what's needed for each of those to exist in a world. Then see what the consequences for the existence of those justications are, and ramify from there.

Also, I understand you want tragedy, but trying to define a world as "tragic" is the first step to failure. Worlds aren't tragic, they just are themselves. Just natural settings processes, and what happens in those, and what's left behind. A world should never be one-note.



This isn't much, but I do hope it helps! I am a world-building passionate, so if you want any concrete advise at any point, feel free to come and ask!

 

[adrian_]

We have to consider setting first, and since your character is an oracle it could be any apocalyptic tone of setting, you have to ask your self, past, present, or future, then find something to center around in those times.

 

[Happiness Transplant]

Well, I believe you’re off to a great start with the advice you’ve already received. I also tend to do things “backwards” or “top-down” as Idea put it—starting with a character and building a world around him or her. I would disagree with the recommendation that you should start with a world and then build your character into it. That very well may work better for most people, and it’s a good general suggestion, but creative processes vary so much from person to person that I don’t really agree with advocating a specific method if it contradicts the one that person has already established. Do what works for you. If it works, it doesn’t matter how messy it is!


Besides that, I definitely recommend you start with what’s been said. Ask yourself questions about your character. Be an expert on her. Know every little thing you can. It’s easier to create an amazing, in-depth world if the character you base it on is amazing and in-depth. Your character sheet, if you have one, is likely a snapshot of what she’s like now… but she’s lived her entire life up to this point. She started out as a child—an innocent, blank slate—and she lived in a world that shaped her into what she is today. The world taught her things. The first step in backwards world building, in my opinion, is asking yourself “what kind of world would create this character?” What kind of world would cause her to have that quirk? What kind of world would cause her to have this desire? And on and on. You might have done this to some extent already, intentionally or not, since you’ve already established that the setting should be a “huge fantasy world of extreme tragedy.”


I’m going to assume that your definition of world building is similar to mine. You’re not just creating an environment—which is neutral, like Idea said—you’re creating a history for that world. And the history—the backstory of that world—that can be as tragic as you want. Or perhaps you meant that the environment itself should be inhospitable? Either way, it sounds like you know what you want.


Moving on from the points that’ve already been made, I’ll tell you my actual process for world building. Since it’s your first time doing this… it might help to see a more step-by-step method. You know, maybe it’ll help you develop your own process.


Put your character sheet somewhere you can reference it easily and give your world a name—whether it’s the actual name or a sort of temporary codename is irrelevant—just give it a name and open up a new word document with that as the title. This is where you’re going to put everything related to your world. For the sake of organization, make some headers for pretty much any category you can think of. They can be as vague or specific as you want. If it helps, you could format them as questions.

Some examples:

Spoiler

General Tone/Mood

Tragic Events/History/Backstory

Cultures/Prominent Religions

Locations/Cities

Races/Species that Exist

How did the world come into existence? (big bang, created by a deity, etc)

What is the weather like?

Conflicts/Wars

Are there any general themes that the world embodies? (People are products of their environment. Often, harsh environments create unforgiving inhabitants. Light can’t shine without darkness/Hope can’t exist without despair. Etc.)

Laws of Nature/Science/Magic

What sort of technology exists in the world?

What time period is the world modeled after? (modern day, medieval, renaissance, etc.)

General Setting (High fantasy, steampunk, apocalyptic—there can be several)

General Inspiration (Quotes/pictures/prompts that have the general feeling you’re going for)

Free-Writing Scenes (more on this in a minute)


And so on. It’s okay if you don’t have any solid idea of what you’ll write in every category. Write them down anyway. In the end, you can delete any categories you don’t use.

Now, go through and write down anything you can in any category you can. Go crazy. It doesn’t have to be pretty or eloquent—just start writing. This is just for your reference. Consider it an ugly first draft that you’ll NEVER show anyone. EVER. Don’t be afraid to be repetitive—that actually helps with the consistency thing that Idea mentioned earlier. Go ahead and jump around to different categories as inspiration hits and revisit things you’ve already written. Some things might evolve or become completely irrelevant the more you write… and that’s okay. I always end up deleting entire passages and rewriting concepts. Just view it as part of the process.


As far as what you actually write… I literally mean ANYTHING. Obviously… descriptions and explanations are great, but you can also put quotes or pictures that seem to fit. Spending some time on Pinterest and filling the page with concept art can help a lot with writer’s block. Other than that… a lot of times I’ll start writing from the perspective of my character—so instead of explaining how it’s cold and rains a lot… I’ll go into some colorful monologue of my character complaining that he’s freezing his ass off and sick of the Gods pissin’ on him all the time. Generally, everything usually works itself out enough to at least give me a general concept of the world.


Overall, I find it easier to discover the world from my character’s perspective. I write out random scenes or have him tell me stories, in his own words, about things that he’s experienced. Not to sound like a total crazy (although it’s hard not to sound crazy as a writer) but my character has lived an actual life. Everything he’s experienced is fact. It happened. Even if I haven’t written it down yet—even if I don’t consciously know about it yet—it happened. So if I ask my character about his life, even if it’s just some mundane thing that doesn’t really matter, I invariably get details about the world he lives in. Just like my character has a life of his own, independent of me, the world he lives in has a presence and history that’s independent of my character. It exists. You just have to discover it. It’s like… I’m this sort of medium of discovery. You don’t know my character. You can’t see him or hear him, but I can. So it’s my job to learn everything I can about him and accurately relay his story to you. My character does the same thing—except I can’t see or hear his world, but he can. So it’s his job to learn everything he can about his environment and accurately relay that to me. Then, I can relay that to you… and BAM. It’s roleplay time.


Now… you do have to be able to analyze/draw conclusions from your character’s stories for this method to work. If that isn’t how your brain is wired, well… your creative process obviously differs from mine. And I wish you luck finding something that works for you!


Well... this has been a PSA from your friendly neighborhood method writer. I feel like I just put all my crazy out in the open! Awkward…

Blah. It’s okay. We’re all a little crazy somehow… I guess? Hopefully this helps! I’m also amenable to being asked for advice/help/friendly discussion—you know, if your crazy happens to jive with mine. But, anyway... have fun world building!

 

[InsultingBunny]

Well, I believe you’re off to a great start with the advice you’ve already received. I also tend to do things “backwards” or “top-down” as Idea put it—starting with a character and building a world around him or her. I would disagree with the recommendation that you should start with a world and then build your character into it. That very well may work better for most people, and it’s a good general suggestion, but creative processes vary so much from person to person that I don’t really agree with advocating a specific method if it contradicts the one that person has already established. Do what works for you. If it works, it doesn’t matter how messy it is!


Besides that, I definitely recommend you start with what’s been said. Ask yourself questions about your character. Be an expert on her. Know every little thing you can. It’s easier to create an amazing, in-depth world if the character you base it on is amazing and in-depth. Your character sheet, if you have one, is likely a snapshot of what she’s like now… but she’s lived her entire life up to this point. She started out as a child—an innocent, blank slate—and she lived in a world that shaped her into what she is today. The world taught her things. The first step in backwards world building, in my opinion, is asking yourself “what kind of world would create this character?” What kind of world would cause her to have that quirk? What kind of world would cause her to have this desire? And on and on. You might have done this to some extent already, intentionally or not, since you’ve already established that the setting should be a “huge fantasy world of extreme tragedy.”


I’m going to assume that your definition of world building is similar to mine. You’re not just creating an environment—which is neutral, like Idea said—you’re creating a history for that world. And the history—the backstory of that world—that can be as tragic as you want. Or perhaps you meant that the environment itself should be inhospitable? Either way, it sounds like you know what you want.


Moving on from the points that’ve already been made, I’ll tell you my actual process for world building. Since it’s your first time doing this… it might help to see a more step-by-step method. You know, maybe it’ll help you develop your own process.


Put your character sheet somewhere you can reference it easily and give your world a name—whether it’s the actual name or a sort of temporary codename is irrelevant—just give it a name and open up a new word document with that as the title. This is where you’re going to put everything related to your world. For the sake of organization, make some headers for pretty much any category you can think of. They can be as vague or specific as you want. If it helps, you could format them as questions.

Some examples:

Spoiler

General Tone/Mood

Tragic Events/History/Backstory

Cultures/Prominent Religions

Locations/Cities

Races/Species that Exist

How did the world come into existence? (big bang, created by a deity, etc)

What is the weather like?

Conflicts/Wars

Are there any general themes that the world embodies? (People are products of their environment. Often, harsh environments create unforgiving inhabitants. Light can’t shine without darkness/Hope can’t exist without despair. Etc.)

Laws of Nature/Science/Magic

What sort of technology exists in the world?

What time period is the world modeled after? (modern day, medieval, renaissance, etc.)

General Setting (High fantasy, steampunk, apocalyptic—there can be several)

General Inspiration (Quotes/pictures/prompts that have the general feeling you’re going for)

Free-Writing Scenes (more on this in a minute)


And so on. It’s okay if you don’t have any solid idea of what you’ll write in every category. Write them down anyway. In the end, you can delete any categories you don’t use.

Now, go through and write down anything you can in any category you can. Go crazy. It doesn’t have to be pretty or eloquent—just start writing. This is just for your reference. Consider it an ugly first draft that you’ll NEVER show anyone. EVER. Don’t be afraid to be repetitive—that actually helps with the consistency thing that Idea mentioned earlier. Go ahead and jump around to different categories as inspiration hits and revisit things you’ve already written. Some things might evolve or become completely irrelevant the more you write… and that’s okay. I always end up deleting entire passages and rewriting concepts. Just view it as part of the process.


As far as what you actually write… I literally mean ANYTHING. Obviously… descriptions and explanations are great, but you can also put quotes or pictures that seem to fit. Spending some time on Pinterest and filling the page with concept art can help a lot with writer’s block. Other than that… a lot of times I’ll start writing from the perspective of my character—so instead of explaining how it’s cold and rains a lot… I’ll go into some colorful monologue of my character complaining that he’s freezing his ass off and sick of the Gods pissin’ on him all the time. Generally, everything usually works itself out enough to at least give me a general concept of the world.


Overall, I find it easier to discover the world from my character’s perspective. I write out random scenes or have him tell me stories, in his own words, about things that he’s experienced. Not to sound like a total crazy (although it’s hard not to sound crazy as a writer) but my character has lived an actual life. Everything he’s experienced is fact. It happened. Even if I haven’t written it down yet—even if I don’t consciously know about it yet—it happened. So if I ask my character about his life, even if it’s just some mundane thing that doesn’t really matter, I invariably get details about the world he lives in. Just like my character has a life of his own, independent of me, the world he lives in has a presence and history that’s independent of my character. It exists. You just have to discover it. It’s like… I’m this sort of medium of discovery. You don’t know my character. You can’t see him or hear him, but I can. So it’s my job to learn everything I can about him and accurately relay his story to you. My character does the same thing—except I can’t see or hear his world, but he can. So it’s his job to learn everything he can about his environment and accurately relay that to me. Then, I can relay that to you… and BAM. It’s roleplay time.


Now… you do have to be able to analyze/draw conclusions from your character’s stories for this method to work. If that isn’t how your brain is wired, well… your creative process obviously differs from mine. And I wish you luck finding something that works for you!


Well... this has been a PSA from your friendly neighborhood method writer. I feel like I just put all my crazy out in the open! Awkward…

Blah. It’s okay. We’re all a little crazy somehow… I guess? Hopefully this helps! I’m also amenable to being asked for advice/help/friendly discussion—you know, if your crazy happens to jive with mine. But, anyway... have fun world building!

All that mess of crazy, was just the crazy and motivation I needed. You were a large help and bumped me out and down a cliff away from my writers block! I appreciate that you took time to do this!

Really, thank you.

 

[Happiness Transplant]

All that mess of crazy, was just the crazy and motivation I needed. You were a large help and bumped me out and down a cliff away from my writers block! I appreciate that you took time to do this!

Really, thank you.

Oh, awesome! I'm glad I was able to help.

No problem! Hunting down writer's block and loosening its hold on people is a pretty fulfilling pastime. I'd say this was time well-spent. ^^