Questions to Ask Yourself While Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding can be hard, yes, but it is my favorite, favorite part of the writing process. I love building places I would want to live in, and yes, I would very much like to live in a lot of them, even though for some reason I make a lot of my characters' hometowns full of really mean people?? Like, what's with Rocky Hill? Why are these people so mean? Like, who even knows?
But in doing my worldbuilidng, even I often forget some very important things. Like, where does the waste go? What do they do when one race breaks the other's rules? Does everyone in your world get along? I personally have a small fetish for giving cultures their own constellations.
So let's get into world building questions.
What creatures in your world are considered pests?
What animals are acceptable to eat?
How often and how far do people travel? Is it so much that they have the geography memorized and don't need maps?
What is some common folklore/fairytales in their world? Old wives tales? Proverbs?
How do gender roles work in your world?
What holidays do your people have? If you have more than one race of creatures, do they celebrate different holidays, or the same ones? If they celebrate the same ones, do they celebrate them differently?
How is water distributed? If your society is advanced enough, how do they recycle their water?
What is done with sewage and other waste?
What materials are their houses built out of? Keep in mind that materials will vary depending on what area of the country your people are from. For example, there is likely to be more rock the closer they are to the mountains, and more clay the closer they are to the sea.
Do people heal themselves when they're sick, or is there someone or someplace they can go to for healing?
What do people do in the face of natural disaster, and can/do they go to one another for help if one were to happen?
What is your culture's sense of humor like?
Do your children go to school, and if they do, what do they learn? What is their species commonly good at? What skills are valued in their society?
If your people have their own language, what common grammar mistakes do the foreigners commonly make when trying to speak it? What words are commonly mixed up?
What do your people normally eat? (so help me, if it's apples, bread, and cheese, I'm gonna break your favorite pencil in half.)
Do all the people get along?
How are laws enforced if someone from another race breaks said laws?
And most importantly: What constellations do they have?
Hope you enjoyed this list! I saw someone comment on a list like this just today saying that technically things like this are unimportant to telling the story. And while that is technically true, knowing details like this adds a richness to the quality of your world that the readers notice and latch onto. Plus just it makes you want to live in that world that much more. 😁
See ya soon with another post!
So let's get into world building questions.
What are some common names in your world?
What creatures in your world are considered pests?
What animals are acceptable to eat?
How often and how far do people travel? Is it so much that they have the geography memorized and don't need maps?
What is some common folklore/fairytales in their world? Old wives tales? Proverbs?
How do gender roles work in your world?
What holidays do your people have? If you have more than one race of creatures, do they celebrate different holidays, or the same ones? If they celebrate the same ones, do they celebrate them differently?
How is water distributed? If your society is advanced enough, how do they recycle their water?
What is done with sewage and other waste?
What materials are their houses built out of? Keep in mind that materials will vary depending on what area of the country your people are from. For example, there is likely to be more rock the closer they are to the mountains, and more clay the closer they are to the sea.
Do people heal themselves when they're sick, or is there someone or someplace they can go to for healing?
What do people do in the face of natural disaster, and can/do they go to one another for help if one were to happen?
What is your culture's sense of humor like?
Do your children go to school, and if they do, what do they learn? What is their species commonly good at? What skills are valued in their society?
If your people have their own language, what common grammar mistakes do the foreigners commonly make when trying to speak it? What words are commonly mixed up?
What do your people normally eat? (so help me, if it's apples, bread, and cheese, I'm gonna break your favorite pencil in half.)
Do all the people get along?
How are laws enforced if someone from another race breaks said laws?
And most importantly: What constellations do they have?
See ya soon with another post!
Writing even the finest details in world building is important, but mostly for the writer to maintain plot continuity. I created one for my science fiction series (with some of the questions asked above) and merging a world created for supernatural fiction and a world for superhero books into one alternative fantasy world with important changes.
ReplyDeleteDetails considered "information dumps" by editors are useful for dialogue, such as one character cracking a joke about something meaningless (such as garbage collection or an ugly knickknack on a wall) or mention of a fictional culture's custom in passing.