By Andrea Lewis //
I first came across the term “world building” when reading through Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, in their chapter on Fictional Place: Far, Far Away. The two authors emphasize the strong connection between character and setting, in the sense that the character is a “product of place and culture” and not only is setting supposed to be “illuminating the story’s symbolic underpinnings,” it has to “reflect emotion or reveal certain aspects of a character’s life.” Since it is supposed to play such a major role, I dove into researching on how writers build the worlds of their stories. It helped also learning from Salman Rushdie’s Masterclass that he prefers planning out and knowing the world of his stories in detail before he starts writing, to the point that he “hears” his characters speak.
I. What is world building?
Look around at any story, short or novel-size and you’ll realize they all happen in a world of some sort. The editors at Self-Publishing School define world building as “the process of creating a fictional world within your novel that offers an entirely new and unique location with exotic creatures, societies, religions and governments.” To Jerry Jenkins, author of several self-help guides on his blog, and of the best-selling series Left Behind, writing a story is like building a house: world building is “how you create the foundation” for the house. It is more than just the setting, is the creation of “a world in which readers can lose themselves,” where characters live, have experiences that bring the story into existence.
II. Real World vs. Second World
Jenkins makes the distinction between the worlds that are most frequently encountered in stories: our, or the real world, and the “second world.”
For Jenkins, the real-world fantasy stories are set in the world we live in, but the plot is “either based on a real event or in which historical events occur differently.” He finds that the most common example in this category is “The Man in The High Castle,” based in the real world, on a real event, but imagined with a different outcome: Germany winning WWII.
I would add that even without an imagined outcome, the real world with its real history still occasions unique fiction, as does, for instance, Isabel Allende’s The Japanese Lover.
Second-world fantasies create a new land, species and government with its own history, geography and purpose. The editors at Reedsy see in it the “freedom for authors to do whatever they want with their books, untethered by historical paths or rules.”
As Jenkins notes, in some novels, the two worlds, real and second, are combined: The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland.
Whatever the path, real or completely new and imaginary, writers have a great responsibility: to create a world that feels real, that pulls the readers in and keeps them engaged through the story. Which leads to the question:
III. How does one build the world of a story?
In the greatest part, it is created through details that cover every aspect of life, scattered through the piece rather than overwhelming the readers at the beginning with a description. They should help the story flow, perhaps, be a cause of aspects or of events in the story.
On his blog, Jenkins offers a comprehensive step-by-step guide to world building, from its starting point in the mind of the author, to the main aspects to consider when imagining a context for our stories.
- Planning
Whether you plan the entire world out before you start writing your story, or you write it as a process of discovery, it is always good to “build your world first, then you can better focus on your story,” says Jenkins. However, the planning phase should not take over the purpose of writing the story, rather be a working tool for the writing process.
At this stage, asking yourself questions about the world that you are creating is the best way to determine the elements to consider, they will also help you “know the setting fully, experience it mentally,” is the first requisite suggested by the editors at Self-Publishing School.
- Describe your world
This is the chance to anchor the story into a concrete location, then as Jenkins advises, “paint a world that transports the readers.” “Show don’t tell is a must when it comes to worldbuilding.” Allow the readers to focus “on all five senses, not just seeing and hearing.” Consider geography (mountains, oceans, forests), terrain and how it influences transportation, weather and its impact on the story, natural resources that are either abundant or absent, and the list can continue.
- Populate your world
Jenkins brings up the example of Frodo, from The Lord of the Rings, where Tolkien gave his character “a past, personality traits, and morals. But first, he determined what a hobbit looked like and how he lived.” Specifically, think of who inhabits the world of your book—humans, aliens, monsters, other species? How big is their population, and eventually, the world of the book? Are there alliances, genders, races, is there a class system? How is their interaction?
- Establish the history of your world
The editors at Self-Publishing School emphasize the importance of history as it tells of “how things came to be the way they are.” Even though fictional, the world in the story will have to have its own history. Aspects to consider are major rulers, traumas (wars, famines, plagues), power shifts (political, religious or technological), events that fueled the present economy.
- Determine the culture of your world
Consider religion, society and politics. For instance, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on religion, politics, government, customs, economy, in a theocratic regime where rules are forcefully imposed and fiercely punished.
Questions to help with imagining culture revolve around codes of conduct, a set pattern of behavior expected to be followed: is the form of government totalitarian, autocratic, or democratic? How do the characters behave? Will they break the rules? Are the rules considered fair, or is society opposed to them? Is there a religious beliefs system, are there gods and how do religious beliefs manifest?
- Power your world
This category will place the story within the realms of fantasy or of Science-Fiction, once we establish whether the world created is energized by equipment or by magic, whether there is Artificial Intelligence, space or time travel, futuristic weaponry, or simpler technology: swords, guns, horses. If there is magic, how powerful is it, where does it come from and how does it manifest? Who wields it, and can it be learned or are people born with it?
After establishing the elements of your fictional world, its layers will unfold through characters and their actions, as well as through the relationship of the setting with these elements, thus conveying richness to the story, as identified by the authors of Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft, Jane Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French:
- Place and atmosphere: the atmosphere of a scene or story is partly dictated by setting which includes location, time of the day, of the year, weather, and partly, by the tone of the narrative voice (sinister, solemn, formal, etc).
- Setting is the background on which the character evolves through the story. They can be either in harmony or in conflict, causing the story to draw energy from this relationship.
- Place and character – showing the readers a personal space created by the character is one of the most economical means of sketching the character. The space can be a bedroom, a kitchen, an office, the interior of a car.
- Place and emotion – we have an emotional relationship with a place, its weather, time of the day or of the year. Our perception towards a place changes with every event that we go through in the respective place. The house of our childhood may mean love, peace and shelter, which may turn into sadness and feeling of loss if our loved ones are no longer with us.
- A place can be suggestive and symbolic – along with time, it can be used to “give stories a sense of reaching out toward the universe.” “Shakespeare consistently drew parallels between the conflicts of the heavenly bodies and the conflicts of the nations and characters.”
- Alien and familiar place – the function of literature is to make the ordinary feel fresh and strange, or to report extreme things as if they were ordinary, as once noted by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“One great advantage of being a writer is that you may create the world. Places and the elements have the significance and the emotional effect that you give them in language.”
Final considerations for World Building in a novel
World Building can be as simple or as complex as the author chooses. Even when developing the world from scratch, not every single element of your world needs to be revealed to the reader, as we try to avoid overwhelming the audience. The elements of the world should be sprinkled in slowly, the details need to be woven into the story in a manner that helps the story flow.
Have you ever gone through these steps when you built the world of your stories? Have you thought of breaking them down like that? Leave your comments here!
ANDREA LEWIS lives and writes in Huntington Beach. She was born in Romania and moved to the United States at the age of 34, after meeting and marrying her husband. She writes memoir and personal essays, with a recent attempt at freeform poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.