Building your World

[lonewolfwanderer]

I know there are hordes of material on the subject, but i'm curious as to how you build your world.

Do you build your world as you write, or do you build it after?

Do you build from top to bottom, (ie, create a basic map) or do you build it from the bottom up?

Do you know everything there is to know about your world before you write, or do you explore it with your characters?

If you draw a map for your world, how do you do it? Do you just draw some random shapes, and fill in the gaps bit-by-bit, or do you base it something, like the history of the world, or maybe something you saw somewhere else?

Now that i know what my story is about it's probably a good idea to do a bit world building, but i'm not too sure where to begin or how to go about it. Could you share some tips to the novice world-builder?

And finally, do you build your map the old fashioned way (pen and paper) or do you use software? If its the latter, what software do you use, or recommend for a novice world builder?

 

[Nerds_feather]

A lot of people like Campaign Cartographer, but I think pen and paper, scanned, then manipulated in either Photoshop or GIMP is a great way to go.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

A lot of people like Campaign Cartographer, but I think pen and paper, scanned, then manipulated in either Photoshop or GIMP is a great way to go.

I had a look a that Campaing Cartographer. It's actually perfect... Thanks

 

[thaddeus6th]

I liked the idea of Campaign Cartographer, but I can't afford to spend much. Also, as per Nerds Feather, I found doing it by hand and using ye olde computer to put it together worked pretty well.

For 'serious' stuff I do the background beforehand, extensively. Ages ago I didn't, but Bane of Souls was originally just an exercise to stop me getting rusty so I spent much more time on the world, which seemed to work well. Similarly for my WIP, which is the first part of a trilogy (got to ensure it works in itself and as part 1 of 3).

For comedy, I mostly make it up as I go along. Some things work better than others, but generally it seems to have gone pretty well.

Edited extra bit: I start with broad basics, and then you get a feel for the land and can whittle it down to detail if you want to. So:

Is it a kingdom? Republic? Matriarchal tyranny?

What role does religion play?

Are there differing races?

How was the country founded, who are its friends, who are its enemies?

 

[Nìmwey]

I didn't make a map until about a year into it (it's been 4½-5 years now), made several through a couple of years, never satisfied, and I ended up using a random map generator, taking several from there which I liked, put them together and drew them on paper.

Map generator version, of four different maps I put together --> http://s4.postimg.org/x9ixbkh9p/Whaiao.jpg
My drawn version --> http://s4.postimg.org/am3o5f1pp/Map_of_Whaiao_2_0.jpg
(I changed a thing to the east on the northwestern continent, as I intend to have lots of "action" there and wanted to make it more interesting.)

The map generator is this one: donjon; Fractal World Generator

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I liked the idea of Campaign Cartographer, but I can't afford to spend much. Also, as per Nerds Feather, I found doing it by hand and using ye olde computer to put it together worked pretty well.

For 'serious' stuff I do the background beforehand, extensively. Ages ago I didn't, but Bane of Souls was originally just an exercise to stop me getting rusty so I spent much more time on the world, which seemed to work well. Similarly for my WIP, which is the first part of a trilogy (got to ensure it works in itself and as part 1 of 3).

For comedy, I mostly make it up as I go along. Some things work better than others, but generally it seems to have gone pretty well.

Edited extra bit: I start with broad basics, and then you get a feel for the land and can whittle it down to detail if you want to. So:

Is it a kingdom? Republic? Matriarchal tyranny?

What role does religion play?

Are there differing races?

How was the country founded, who are its friends, who are its enemies?

Ye, i bought it straight away. I don't have the paper or artistic ability to do hand drawn maps, so i think it would help me quite a bit in that regard.

Well, i know how the land was created, I know who the gods are (the gods themselves have gods, something on the lines of greek mythology) and that, at moment, there is only one race of peoples. I know that the setting has a Victorian feel, but follows its own rules and implements things from different times and regions. A part from that, i don't know how the kingdom looks (if i were to draw a map) or where the towns/cities in the WIP are situated.

But anyway, thanks for the info!

 

[Juliana]

I have very rough, hand drawn map for my fantasy novel, just to keep myself organized as to where the MC is at all times and keep from committing too many plot atrocities.

At the moment I'm writing a real-world based story which posed a whole different problem, causing me to pore over all sorts of park maps and satellite images to figure out exactly where my characters are (they're in the Diamond Mountains of Utah at present...). I thought it would be easier than the fantasy setting, but nooooo, not so. I can't just move the Rockies or change the flora to suit, unfortunately!

 

[Nerds_feather]

I liked the idea of Campaign Cartographer, but I can't afford to spend much. Also, as per Nerds Feather, I found doing it by hand and using ye olde computer to put it together worked pretty well.

For 'serious' stuff I do the background beforehand, extensively. Ages ago I didn't, but Bane of Souls was originally just an exercise to stop me getting rusty so I spent much more time on the world, which seemed to work well. Similarly for my WIP, which is the first part of a trilogy (got to ensure it works in itself and as part 1 of 3).

For comedy, I mostly make it up as I go along. Some things work better than others, but generally it seems to have gone pretty well.

Edited extra bit: I start with broad basics, and then you get a feel for the land and can whittle it down to detail if you want to. So:

Is it a kingdom? Republic? Matriarchal tyranny?

What role does religion play?

Are there differing races?

How was the country founded, who are its friends, who are its enemies?

Those are really good questions to be asking.

 

[sknox]

Since my WIP is set in an alt-history world, you'd think I had much of this sort of thing already done. You'd think that, I thought it right along with you, but we were both wrong.

Sure, Europe is still Europe, and the geography is unchanged: all the rivers are there, the mountains, climate, etc. That said, I keep needing to change things on a local scale. In one story I have an island that magically floats away. I can't very well make an existing one do that, so I had to invent one. No big deal, but I thought that stuff was handled.

More problematic, I have had to make adjustments in political geography. I needed somewhere to put all those dwarves and elves, after all. This required me to keep some forests in place when I know they had been cut down. But where do I put the orcish empire? Which historical peoples do I displace?

Then there's economic geography. How do those dwarf kingdoms survive economically? What's their relation with elvish tribes or human cities? How does that change trade routes? It really has become much more complex than I'd imagined it would.

A final remark, perhaps more useful. I also find need to make very small-scale maps. I need, for example, to map out--to choreograph, really--a fight scene. I need to know the layout of a house or tavern. So, I can see a need for some mapping software, even if you have your grand map all complete and pretty. And if you don't have money for such software, a pad of hex graph paper will do. Such small-scale maps are just for the author anyway.

 

[Laeraneth]

Not a very useful answer, but... both!

Years ago I devised the general idea of the world - and time - spanning arc of the story. The theme, the overall ideas, the eventual goals, the major events. At that point had no hint of characters or individuals in it, just the broad details. Including limited cosmology, genesis, eventual end point, etc.
Steadily it got a bit more focused, major points in history were settled on, ways by which events were shaped and how they then led together, the pivotal figures that would be involved in those moments.
Specific points were then worked out as the best parts to tell the overall story from, setting out a very vague skeleton of a series and a vague idea of "a couple of books to cover that part, main series of three or four there, a couple of linking ones in between, next main series" etc.
Then I started writing at the beginning.
Then I realised I had no idea for the characters at the start of it all, only the ones later on. Which led me to realise that overall plotting and scheming is just fine, but if I don't have characters that I find interesting, there's no hope that anyone else would.
Then, a year or so later, taking everything I'd already established, I started at exactly the opposite end, went to the first person to get directly caught up in events and started to tell that story from a personal point of view.
It seems to be going fairly well.

I wouldn't say this has been a particularly good method... it's sure as hell not been very quick ;P but it seems to have set me up fairly well for now!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Mine umm - well Angus my MC needed to witness a battle his wife headed but he wasn't supposed to be there. Well I kind of turned him into a bird.

That left me with two unanswered questions 1) How did that happen? As in how did he do it. 2) Why did it happen? As in by what power did he do it.

I spent the rest of the book building a world that explained how and why Angus turned into a bird. From that I had elemental monarchs, a magic system, a universe that lived inside its God etc

Merlin (in my book named Fly Fornication) who crosses between the worlds through a crystal cave came about because I wanted to use the phrase "No sh*t Sherlock." So I needed to explain how a character millions of light years away knew about Sherlock Holmes.

 

[Brian G Turner]

World building is a continuous process, IMO - there's always something you've not thought of. Plus research will always through up new ideas. Heck, even reading other novels in your genre.

You just have to know when to stop.

 

[Laeraneth]

You just have to know when to stop.

This is so true!

I can genuinely say the original idea for all that I'm writing now started in my late teens.
It's changed a bit, but the general ideas are still basically the same. The WORLD has changed a few times, the events that happen have as well, but the ideas... are likely to be two decades old before anything ever (fingers crossed) gets published

 

[The Storyteller]

Personally I'm still working it all out, but thus far I've done world building during writing. The first copy of my story I just wrote without any brainstorming whatsoever, but the story has changed so drastically I don't know if I can call it the same story or not!


For maps, I drew mine all through the writing process. At first, the map was no more than keeping track of locations; MC starts in A, travels southish to B, then there is a mountain range, which he follows to C, etc. etc. It is helpful to see where things are placed, and as the story evolved and developed, so did the map. I have at least twenty versions of the map as everything changed. Often my decisions are based on what makes sense with my story. For example, the starting place is fairly excluded, and they have to travel through a stretch of 'wasteland' to get to the next kingdom. So, obviously, I had to draw the map so that the initial kingdom was fairly cut off (it is almost completely surrounded by ocean), and so that the wasteland area stretched between two kingdoms. And etc. I find my map evolves and develops in concert with my writing. Really, I just keep redrawing the map, fine-tuning it to make more sense with the story and with the history I've developed.


As to how I make my maps, I draw them all by hand. I've never done anything on the computer. I sometimes trace my maps in order to mark different things on each (cities and kingdoms and borders on one, landmarks and geography on another, etc.).


Best of luck with your world building!

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

One last question...

What are the top 5 things you look at when building your world?

And i don't just mean geographical things... things like politics, religion, technology. Anything else?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Geography came way down my list because the vast majority of my story is set in a palace. There are a handful of forays out into the town, an army base, a monastery a farm and into the sewers but not many.

1) The characters and how they interacted
2) Making sense of the magic and setting
3) The religion played a big part because the universe was the god. When there was an imbalance he got sick. The planet it was set on was like his internal organs.
4) The politics as I tried to make sense of a king in a world contemporary to our own.
5) Creating a link with Earth so I could use names like Angus and bring Sherlock, Merlin etc

 

[BelgarionOz]

I have a tendency to start with the map.

I went through a period where I was just drawing random maps based on whatever whimsy happened to be passing through my brain that day. One of them has become the map for the next series I'm going to write. And it has to be on paper, done either with pen or pencil. I think it is more organic, more real to do it that way. It flows from your mind to the paper much better. The map is very important, possibly the most important thing. It determines where your characters will go and how they will go. It determines what sort of people you have living in different parts of your map, due to the different geographies.

 

[Wendigo]

What are the top 5 things you look at when building your world?

And i don't just mean geographical things... things like politics, religion, technology. Anything else?

For me, those things are usually fairly high up, as I like to try and get some of the "nuts and bolts" of the world sorted out before starting (clears space to focus on the story). If I had to pick a few different things, they would probably be:

* The who's who of major factions, groups, people who are involved. Also why they are where they are and what they aim for.

* The philosophies involved in each, and how they apply, especially if it affects the story.

* The history of how it all came about and where it's likely to go. Obviously that factors in to where the story goes as well, but I like to have at least some of the background filled out.

* The science and technology involved, what technologies are available and what they can do, again especially if any of them are particularly important story wise.

As may have been suspected from that, I try to prioritise the story over the setting but I do like to have at least a rough outline of what it all looks like. I also reckon having a good world built up can help provide story ideas and ideas to explore- e.g. just for a simple example, if I know the history of where my future city came from, for instance, that might lead to a story about how it was founded.

 

[sknox]

My top five things are the story.

That's it.

Each story I write is set in the world of Altearth. Each story I write forces me to color in a bit more of that world ... something about elves or ogres, some bit of history, a consideration of dwarvish economy or the religion of sprites.

Once in a while I do get into background and I'll make notes or write something out, but for the most part I try to develop only what is needed for the task at hand.

I think I may be unusual, though hardly unique, in that I am writing multiple stories all set in the same world. Each story takes place in a different era, so what was true (or at least believed to be true) in one tale might be different in another.

 

[Bissot]

I actually have Campaign Cartographer, along with cosmographer which I really bought for spaceship design, but there is a bit of a learning curve with these programs and they don't feel very intuitive to me.
If you know Gimp at all, you might want to concentrate on learning that instead. You can download map paint brushes, massive Amounts clip art, and just about any font or texture under the sun. Youtube has far more tutorials for gimp also. It is a much more versatile medium and it's all free. Not only do I make maps on it, but I design my book covers, sketch characters, and create promotional ads and inserts as well. Not to mention that I also create designs with it that I sell online!

Get it. Learn it. Bask in the glow of your amazing creations