We can’t assume that everyone knows the world we’re talking about, right? Luckily, author and previous Camp NaNoWriMo counselor Cass Morris has a few suggestions to help us more deeply explore our worldbuilding:
One of the most powerful things we can do as writers is create a world. What we write holds a mirror up to reality, where we can examine and criticize our own world or try to build a better one. We get to play god with our characters, and in doing so, we exercise a great deal of power in what we choose to reflect, to magnify, to laud, and to condemn.
So how can we make interesting choices, rather than relying on stale tropes, biased perspectives, or common assumptions about “the way things are” or “the way things were”?
Here are five basic concepts I suggest you explore to develop a richly detailed and unique world:
1. Family
What is a family structure? Is marriage tied to finances, or is it a purely emotional bond? Do you live with your spouse? Do you raise kids together? Is sexual fidelity expected? How many people can be in a marriage? Does “legitimacy” mean anything to family bonds? To inheritance? Is adoption common?
2.Gender & Sexuality
What sexualities are socially permissible? How does your world conceive of gender? Does it accept third genders, nonbinary people, gender fluidity? If your world has rigid gender roles, or if one gender has more power and privilege than the other, make sure that’s a choice you examine, not just something you presume.
3. Race
What do race relations and ideas of ethnicity look like in your world? A historical or invented world may conceive identity very differently than we do today. If you have aliens or fantasy races, like elves, dwarves, or goblins, examine them carefully to avoid perpetuating racist stereotypes or erasing real-world issues with a handwave. I recommend Writing the Other as an excellent resource to help you think through these ideas respectfully).
4. The Afterlife and Religion
What do your characters believe happens to them when they die? This can affect so much else in a society: how eager or reluctant they are for war, how they preserve assets for future generations, how they conceive of sin and virtue. So what’s your basis? Gods or no gods? Ancestor worship? Natural spirits? And how exclusionary is it? Can your various cults play nice together, or are they trying to wipe each other out?
5. Government
Who has power, how do they get it, and how do they hold onto it? There are so many options beyond “ye olde feudalism” and our modern conception of representative republics. Figure out what your structure is, how it came to be that way, and what other beliefs and structures, like religion or the military, it might be tied to.
These basic concepts will touch many other elements of your characters’ lives, from architecture to economy to warfare. They can also help generate wonderful, inventive plot hooks; in making deliberate choices about your world, you may find new challenges and opportunities for your characters.
While worldbuilding is typically associated with fantasy and science fiction, it’s important to real-world genres as well. The world in your book, whether invented or a version of our own, should be as diverse and complex as the world your readers live in. In historical fiction, the challenge is often in distinguishing what “everyone knows” about a period from the lived reality of people during that time. In a modern romance or thriller or anything else, details as small as what someone thinks of as a “normal” lunch can communicate elements of that character’s personal history and the world they operate in.
Make interesting choices. Your readers will be grateful.
Cass Morris works as a writer and educator in central Virginia. Her debut series, The Aven Cycle, is Roman-flavored historical fantasy released by DAW Books. She is also one-third of the team behind the Hugo Award Finalist podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists. She holds a Master of Letters from Mary Baldwin University and a BA in English and History from the College of William and Mary. She reads voraciously, wears corsets voluntarily, and will beat you at MarioKart. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon. Make sure to check out The Aven Cycle and Worldbuilding for Masochists.
Give yourself permission to explore, even if it may not serve your eventual end goal. Drafting is the time to wander the world. You might info-dump, you might create an irrelevant tangent, you might create contradictory scenes. That’s all okay! The process is important in its own right.
(A. k. a. things I stumbled upon and found inspiring, sometimes without knowing the context well nor the person saying them.)
“Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.”
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
Just play this at your level. It might not be grand, you might not win, but you’ll meet your standards.
“Heroes aren’t always the ones who win, they’re the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don’t give up. That’s what makes them heroes.”
New rule: if something frightens you, do it. Sometimes, the best things are hidden beneath fear.
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal.”
"If you want to do things right, you need : first, love, then, the technique."
"I'm past patiently waitin'! I'm passionately smashin' every expectation. / Every action is an act of creation."
“Words are wind. Words cannot harm me.”
“I find I am increasingly disinterested in what other people will allow me.”
"You’re shivering. / Is it cold or fear? / Just keep singing. / The coldest night / Of the coldest year / Comes right before the spring."
Happy Friday! I hope everyone’s week was good and that your weekend is even better! It’s been a long-ass, super busy week and I’m hoping next week will be better, haha. Anyway, have a wonderful day everyone and be sure to have a look at some of the books on sale. :)
Find past book deals here–many of which are still on sale!
Today’s Deals:
From Unseen Fire by Cass Morris - https://amzn.to/2WVBV2I
Wilders by Brenda Cooper - https://amzn.to/2ETXmab
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - https://amzn.to/2WS9L8S
The Color Purple by Alice Walker - https://amzn.to/2EZrAbU
Joan by Donald Spoto - https://amzn.to/2Wvs2cE
Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations Bk. 1) - https://amzn.to/2Iskrlp
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla by Marc J. Seifer - https://amzn.to/2WuNdMh
Paperback 41% off (<$7)--Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young - https://amzn.to/2EXPNj3
Hardcover 55% off (<$9!)--Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum - https://amzn.to/2Wureoz
Hardcover 44% off--Fawkes by Nadine Brandes - https://amzn.to/2IpiPce
NOTE: I am categorizing these book deals posts under the tag #bookdeals, so if you don’t want to see them then just block that tag and you should be good. I am an Amazon affiliate in addition to a Book Depository affiliate and will receive a small (but very much needed!) commission on any purchase made through these links.
'The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.'
—Terry Pratchett
These are the words I remind myself of when I feel like a draft has lost all aim and focus. A final project needs to be tight and trim; the initial draft can be loose and gloriously messy.
Give yourself permission to explore, even if it may not serve your eventual end goal. Drafting is the time to wander the world. You might info-dump, you might create an irrelevant tangent, you might create contradictory scenes. That’s all okay! The process is important in its own right.
Cass Morris works as a writer and educator in central Virginia, and she occasionally moonlights as a bookseller in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She completed her Master of Letters at Mary Baldwin University in 2010, and she earned her undergraduate degree, a BA in English with a minor in history, from the College of William and Mary in 2007. She reads voraciously, wears corsets voluntarily, and will beat you at MarioKart. Her debut novel, From Unseen Fire: Book One of the Aven Cycle, is a Roman-flavored historical fantasy released by DAW Books. Follow @CassRMorris on Twitter.
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