Building A World

One answer at a time

[worldbuildingjune]

It’s June World builders!

Hope you have not forgotten, for I have been ever vigilant in counting down the days till our next big month of world building goodness!

What’s world building June?

World Building June, WBJ, #wbj2015, or the month of passion and tears, is the month where we lay down the flooring on our settings. This is your sign to start building that sci-fi world of your novel, to flesh out that fantasy setting of your webcomic, to weave an entire universe for that game you’ve been wanting to make.

This month you will have the encouragement of me, and hundreds of others to work every day on a new aspect of your world. The goal is simply to know more about your world on June 30th, than you did on June 1st. Simple? Totally! Possibly a grand undertaking? Absolutely! You can go as hard or light as you want. No wrongs, only rights this month because playing God is full of trial and error, so let’s fail faster!

Overall though, this is also a month to celebrate world building and get down and dirty with it! World building has been a passion and fascination of mine for a long time and this event has transformed from a get together with friends, to a huge following of strange faces come together to do something we all love!

But what if I have no idea how to go about that?

No problem friend, during this month I will be slamming a new prompt on this blog for you all to noodle over for each day. These will be broad prompts that will get you thinking about important parts of your world that you may have never considered before.

What if I want to show off my world building?

Then we will be sharing our work, tips, and resources in the #WBJ2015 tag! I’ll also check the old #world building june tag if you want to rock that old tag as well. Whatever your fingers want to fill out the tag field with, it’s cool.

We had a FANTASTIC turnout last year, so let’s make this year twice as great! Tell your friends, give them positive reinforcement when they aren’t too sure, remind them constantly each day so they don’t have an excuse to wriggle out later!

Warm up those keyboards! Sharpen those pencils! Eat plenty of brain food! And most of all…

GET BUILDING!

[azzandra]

Whenever I see a post on tumblr suggesting aliens don’t have gender, I always think–‘but what if also the reverse. What if aliens also have some fundamental social construct we don’t’.

Like, they come and meet us and they’re like ‘hey this is an awkward question but what’s your gooblebygark?’

And we’re like what.

‘You know, the… the thing. Your goobledygark. The thing that dictates whether you’re gnarfgnoovles or brubledoopes’

What. What. What the fuck, those words don’t even mean anything??? What are you talking about?

‘Look, your ridiculous human languages don’t seem to have the words for these! But they’re totally a thing, they’re like, fundamental aspects of social life for our species, just… just let us lick you so we can know what verb tense to use when we speak to you.’

What does one thing have to do with the other??? That makes no–

‘UGH, nevermind, you’re totally brubledoopes, I can just tell, I don’t even need to taste your bacterial skin colonies.’

And then another alien overhears and is like ‘holy shit, you can’t stereotype like that, that’s SO NOT COOL’

‘yeaH BUT THEY WON’T LET ME LICK THEM’

[worldbuildingquestions]

“In what ways can your creatures’ useful traits be cumbersome, detrimental or awkward? When do their abilities or body shape get in the way?“

For example, penguins and seals are a little silly on land, since the streamlining that makes them such good swimmers isn’t so useful there. Your creature could be meant only for one environment and a literal fish out of water in any other, or it could be a little subtler, where they needed one thing in one environment, but a sub-optimal but serviceable thing in another is just fine.

[worldbuildingquestions]

“Can animals use magic? Insects? Single celled organisms? What stops the creatures who can't use it from using it?”

A fun lower boundary to consider - if animals can use magic, or simple organisms, that can have big effects on the environment, and if they can’t, the reasons why would have big affects on when and how magic users can use it.

[the-right-writing]

Basic overlooked worldbuilding questions

Whether you are writing a futuristic dystopia or a cloud city of dragons, you need to figure out how people get basic supplies. These are often the most overlooked worldbuilding questions since it’s more fun to think about how cultures honor the dead or where the mountain ranges are, but answers are necessary to create a complete world.

-Where does the water come from and how is it distributed?

-Who makes the food?

-Who transports and distributes the food?

-If your world has modern utilities, are they widespread or only for the rich? For that matter, do utilities have to be modified to work in your world (for example, electric lines with anti-magic coating)?

-What happens to trash?

-What happens to sewage? 

-What building materials are available?

-What do people do when they get sick?

-What do people do in the case of a natural disaster?

-What do people do in the case of a fire?

-How are large objects moved?

-How are items that take skilled labor to make created and distributed?

Remember, the answers might be different for people at different economic levels.

[worldbuildingquestions]

“Does your fictional culture have any mythical heroes? What are their heroes like? What sort of story do these heroes star in?”

You can learn a lot about a culture by the fiction THEY create, and while it’s not always feasible to write whole fictional stories for your fictional stories (oh god) you can create some basic parables and folk tales that tell us a lot about what the people value!

[worldbuildingquestions]

“How do people call on, use or invoke magic? Is there more than one method? How are they different?”

Just because it’s one world doesn’t mean everyone has to do things the same way, after all!

[worldbuildingquestions]

“How does the physical scale of your fictional species influence the way they interact with their environment?“

There are lots of things about the world around us that are totally different depending on how big or small a creature is. The world can seem almost alien just looking at things from the point of view of an insect, or an elephant. Things we can’t do become possible and things we take for granted become absurd. What is the world like for your bigger or smaller creatures?

[worldbuildingquestions]

“What plants or animals are important symbolically to your fictional culture? How do people express this importance?”

Plants and animals have been used all over the world to symbolize things like strength, power, family, history, etc. And this is often shown in art, clothes, furniture, you name it.

[worldbuildingquestions]

“What behaviors and emotional expressions does the culture in your world pressure people toexaggerate or suppress?”

For example, suppressing the urge to cry when sad or in pain because others think that shows you are tough, or exaggerating cheerfulness to be polite. What expressions of emotion are encouraged or curtailed to create the expected image in this fictional culture?

[worldbuildingquestions]

“What is your fictional species’ strongest sense? Are their other senses weaker, since they rely on that one so much?“

Humans for example have very good eyesight and weak sense of smell. Other animals have placed more emphasis on hearing or smell instead. What senses a species relies on will have a big effect on how they behave and what kind of societies they build.