World Building

[DeviousColony69]

So an idea popped up in my head and I immediately write down every possible events, situations that I could think of but there's only one missing: making your own world. So my question is: what are the most important things in making your own world?

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

I'm a noob scrub but i would say: a world that you love to write in/about.

Or maybe one that is a good storytelling engine.

Theres also many videos on the web that talk about worldbuilding, so maybe those could help.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

What kind of world it is, first, then if applicable. . . Mystical physics. How does magic work? Is there more than one mystical energy at play? How do different forces interact? How do they interact with natural physics? How did the powers come to be? Are they technically natural to that reality? Were they caused by gods or some other outside forces? That sorta stuff tends to be my focus.

 

[Fang_Yuan]

Personally, the most important thing is focusing on the aspects of that world that is relevant to the whole story.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

So an idea popped up in my head and I immediately write down every possible events, situations that I could think of but there's only one missing: making your own world. So my question is: what are the most important things in making your own world?

POLITICS!

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Mating customs, family dynamics, what they eat, where they sleep . . . basic survival stuff, really.

 

[Cipiteca396]

The most important parts are the ones you care about. You could theoretically get by without mentioning any of the major details of a world, as long as you can make what you do write believable.

Spoiler: If you just want ideas;

The physical makeup of the world(geography and geology).
The inhabitants of the world (plants, animals, people, so on)
Weather, climate, and biomes.
The way time passes and the way that passage is measured culturally speaking(seasons, sun, moon, day-night, years)
Civilizations, mythology and culture.
Technology and magic.
Outliers caused by your unique world (might be the most important in fantasy/sci-fi works)

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:World_generation

 

[J_Chemist]

How much suffering can the world bring my MC?

I ask this question. Then I add more suffering.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

How much suffering can the world bring my MC?

I ask this question. Then I add more suffering.

Unless suffering is the point, i would limit the suffering to the consequences of their actions or as a motivation for the character in some way (overcoming injustice/misfortune/weakness). It should serve the story in some way.

 

[LAJistics]

I find it too direct to introduce anything about the world itself. I try to only let readers understand the world as the characters need to go to those places.

However my stories are all quite short. There really isn't any point to proper world building.

 

[georgelee5786]

The world's history.

 

[Alfir]

Lore as in history, important events, nations, and even geography.
People as in their common sense, perception, nationality, how they live, the class system and the sort, and even culture.
Lastly, the premise. Feudalistic government? Medieval fantasy? Sci-fi dystopia? Your genre-pick will definitely be able to define this.

If you want to start small, and expand from there, start with your main character... Ask him/her/it Where he/she/it lives.
When? (Time Period)
Why? (Purpose in life or Ambition)
What? (Race, physical features)
Who? (Personality, thinking, and such)
How? (As in profession, also include relationships)
That's the 5 Ws and an H

 

[DeviousColony69]

What kind of world it is, first, then if applicable. . . Mystical physics. How does magic work? Is there more than one mystical energy at play? How do different forces interact? How do they interact with natural physics? How did the powers come to be? Are they technically natural to that reality? Were they caused by gods or some other outside forces? That sorta stuff tends to be my focus.

In my "upcoming" work, I would've focus on a world where science can make a good chemistry on magics

Lore as in history, important events, nations, and even geography.
People as in their common sense, perception, nationality, how they live, the class system and the sort, and even culture.
Lastly, the premise. Feudalistic government? Medieval fantasy? Sci-fi dystopia? Your genre-pick will definitely be able to define this.

If you want to start small, and expand from there, start with your main character... Ask him/her/it Where he/she/it lives.
When? (Time Period)
Why? (Purpose in life or Ambition)
What? (Race, physical features)
Who? (Personality, thinking, and such)
How? (As in profession, also include relationships)
That's the 5 Ws and an H

The "when" part is where I am currently stuck since idk if I should do 'medieval' period or futuristic or maybe mixed

 

[Cipiteca396]

In my "upcoming" work, I would've focus on a world where science can make a good chemistry on magics

The "when" part is where I am currently stuck since idk if I should do 'medieval' period or futuristic

Medieval is overdone, so if you're asking for input, do a futuristic setting.
A more modern setting would be easier to write though, if you really want to focus on (Al)chemistry. You can just look at the real world and ask 'How does that work with magic?'
Then it's just a matter of explaining who thought it up, why they needed that knowledge, and how that knowledge was spread, used, improved and profited from.

 

[DeviousColony69]

Medieval is overdone, so if you're asking for input, do a futuristic setting.
A more modern setting would be easier to write though, if you really want to focus on (Al)chemistry. You can just look at the real world and ask 'How does that work with magic?'
Then it's just a matter of explaining who thought it up, why they needed that knowledge, and how that knowledge was spread, used, improved and profited from.

In my upcoming work, my MC was a self-proclaimed "mad scientist" who wants to prove that there exists an another world and if he proves it, he wants to become a god or something that makes the people worship in there

 

[Alfir]

The "when" part is where I am currently stuck since idk if I should do 'medieval' period or futuristic or maybe mixed

It might sound flippant, but how about you do a roll? Make fate take its course? You can do it through dice or a random number generator. Just list out the 'whens' that you think are applicable to your story, do the roll, then you are done.

In my upcoming work, my MC was a self-proclaimed "mad scientist" who wants to prove that there exists an another world and if he proves it, he wants to become a god or something that makes the people worship in there

At some point, I am imagining the MC conquering both worlds. Instead of another world, how about parallel universes, or alternate reality?
Parallel Universe 1 has magic and science while Parallel Universe 2 has magic only.
Alternate Reality 1 has an Albert Einstein, while Alternate Reality 2 doesn't.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

In my opinion, The underated but important thing to do before doing world building is :

Ask yourself, How much do you know about our own world ?

Seriously, if you see it this way, a story is always about how character interact with the world around them, and the results of it.

Do you know what would happen if A character interact with this part of the world ? Or what will happen after he does that instead ?

What happen when a disaster happens in the story's world ? And how it was happening in our world ?

How people of that story deal with that problem, and how people of our homeland deal with these world problem.

Reader that were know a lot about how things work in real life will complain if the story's world didn't do what realistically would be done in our world.

Not without convincing reason or proper alternative solution that proved to work reliabily.

Well, this answer Deviated from intended question and becoming long winded.

But definitely ask people around if the things happened or a solution in that world is acceptable to our people.

And I'd possible, try to find out the results of doing similar solution in our world if possible.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

carefully.

 

[RockiesRetriever]

So an idea popped up in my head and I immediately write down every possible events, situations that I could think of but there's only one missing: making your own world. So my question is: what are the most important things in making your own world?

The most important thing to me is extrapolation. Think about how the choices people make, the things that are different in your world, how they affect everything.

In my story, it is in the future. There is much more advanced genetics technology. How is this technology used? If it is used in some bad ways, how do people react to that? Why would people support the use of this technology? People affected by this technology, changed by genetics, how are they treated by society?

A couple of things explored in depth is much more interesting than a massive ocean an inch deep. That to me is how you make interesting worldbuilding.

 

[Skalugsuak_Hakarl]

I sat on my story for a long while and whenever I thought of cool stuff I would work it into the world. Yeah, that's the way to do it