The Work of World Building
In the year 2024, I heard the term 'romantasy' for the first time, and I personally love it. As someone that picked up (and kept with) many books/series, a lot of it was for the emotional connections between characters. The genre of romantasy makes it clear to readers from the onset that this is a romance set in a fantastical setting. Perfect.
There's just one problem that I've encountered with one very, very, very popular series: all of the focus was on the romance, and not nearly enough on the fantasy. Which, fine, I can handle that most days. Then it did something unforgiveable in my eyes: it kept the Gregorian calendar.
I'm sorry: WHAT?!
I have very, very, very big feelings (of an unkind inclination) about this. So, this blog post is absolutely my self-therapy session as I describe my process(es) for world building.
1. The Map
The only reason the map is #1 is because that's where most fantasy authors start. Logistically, it probably shouldn't be. Realistically, it is the funnest part about creating a new world and I love, love, love me a good map! But it's not always the best place to start, only because your story often impacts your geography. Unless you create the map first (with all of its ecosystems and biomes in place) and then move your characters about in relation to the already settled geography, there's a very real possibility that nothing will remain the same during subsequent edits/rewrites.
So when do you make the map?
Either you do it first and force your characters to adapt to the landscape, or you do it last, once you have most of your scenery on screen. The choice is entirely yours, but I recommend both ways for certain types of books.
Before you write a single word:
The reason you make the map first and foremost in a fantasy story is if your character is going to be moving all over it. Having the map on hand allows you to judge distance and travel time (to be discussed later on). Having important waterways, mountains, etc. visually available along with nation borders make it easier to describe scenery as well as giving your characters environmental obstacles on top of plot challenges. As long as you stick to the map you originally created, it actually can breathe a whole sense of life into the world.
After the first book is written:
I'll be honest and say that I don't often take this approach myself. (This is because I created an entire planet on which I set many, many stories so that I wouldn't have to keep doing this much work, lol.) That said, when you're writing a story for the first time, you're discovering it as a reader is. There's something magickal about it. Each new setting your characters take you to is a whole new place to reimagine and describe. And if the journey to that place doesn't much matter, then waiting to make the map harms nothing. It also allows you to make the geography fit the narrative instead of forcing the story to bend to the elements.
Bonus segment:
Remaking the map based upon natural disasters and border changes as time passes in your world! If you put all of this work into this world, why wouldn't you keep writing stories in it? If that's the case and you want to pull a Narnia where many years (sometimes centuries/millenia) pass, then you might even have to tweak your map to accomodate the new place in time. (Or you could do a prequel and have the same issue.)
For example:
Every time I look at these two maps, it feels like an advertisement for 'aggressive expansion'. But all of this makes sense for the world I created and the history that forced these changes, which is hopefully reflected in your own works.
2. The Calendar
This is obviously a big one for me, but it is a requirement that requires most of the work. Let me explain: Even if you're writing a medieval-based fantasy novel where no one uses exact dates, they still have things like months, weeks, and days. For this situation, the most basic of calendar work is needed: How many days in a week? How many weeks in a month? How many months in a year? How many seasons do you have? Which months are encompassed in which seasons? There. Done. Answer those questions and you have the most basic of all basic calendars. You can write everything with that little bit of information and have it be absolutely ideal. But... What if your fantasy does rely on exact dates? What if specific months and days of the week are named? Well, in that case, we just add a couple more questions. What are the names of the months? What are the names of the days of the week? Simple. Naming things. It should not be so hard, and it doesn't have to be. Unless you're an over-thinker... When you start your calendar, I highly recommend doing it the easier way. Throw things at the wall and let them stick for a minute. Let the overthinking come later, when the details become actually necessary. Why? Because if you don't, you get a thought process like this: 'Shit, I need a calendar. Wel, how did we get the Gregorian calendar? Well, the months are all based on numbers except for the few that were added because of Roman emperors (assholes). Our days of the week are based upon Norse gods. Okay, I have a pantheon, so we can start there. [Proceeds to name the eight days of the week after eight gods in the pantheon.] And for the months... Hmm. Hey, I'll take parts of my friends' names and just add 'as' to the end. Problem solved.'
It is actually quite simple, if you've already got some tools at hand (like an already formed pantheon). But then you jump to another country in the same world and realize that they do not have access to this calendar because it is not yet global (though it will be!!). So then you have to take the same number of months, weeks, and days and translate that into a whole separate method of time keeping. (In medieval-ish societies, I like breaking this down into eras in which a certain ruler was on the throne ala Lord of the Rings style.) However, I very recently did just throw things at a wall and let it stick. At first, I used numbers to indicate birthdays and such because I was too lazy (and not yet committed enough to the project) to put in the work of creating a new calendar. So I started with the basic questions and didn't proceed until I had to. When I was forced to expand, I literally just picked gemstones as months and sorted them based on season. Which is what led me to decide which months held which seasons, etc. Oh, and all of this came about because of holidays. (Which will be discussed later.) One other thing you may want to consider if you want to hop around the timeline of your world is keeping track of the years (obviously) and when/if there is an era shift. If you look at the maps I posted above, you'll noticed they are dated by year following either BI or AI. This is very much like our BC and AD, except that there's a historical reason for the shift, and I don't count backwards. (BI stands for 'Before Illusion' and AI stands for 'After Illusion'. Time marched forward until a global shift forced everyone's hands as far as the schism of time keeping. If you're familiar with Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series then you'll recognize the device used.) So you see, you can get by with the basics so long as you don't reference time that much. But you bring specific dates to the table, they better be in line with the story you're telling. If it's an urban fantasy, I expect to read 'October 31'. If we're in an entirely new world with dragons and gryphons, I will fight the urge to literally throw the book at the first mention of 'August'. Are we clear? Good. Moving on. 3. The Galaxy Once again, this category will depend entirely on how much work you want to put into it, and how much you intend to show the readers. That said, we're going to pretend you'll do as much as me. Enjoy. Whenever I start a new world, one of the first things that I do is figure out the math. (I know. Yuck. But the sooner it's done, the easier things get from here.) One of the first things I like to do is figure out how many seconds I want in a minute. Because, as you know, humans created the concept of time and clocks and the methods by which to track such things. So for each world I create, i try to figure out how it could be done. As someone who likes things that go in 5s and 10s, I decided early on that that would be the time model used in Vassel. Therefore, there are 50 seconds to a minute, rather than sixty. There are also 100 minutes per hour (5,000 seconds). Vassel has twenty hours in its day, which is equal to 100,000 seconds and 2,000 minutes. On and on it goes. Eight days a week, sixteen days to a fortnight (which is 2 weeks for those of us unfamiliar with UK terminology), with three fortnights a month. That gives us 48 days/6 weeks per month. There are still three months to a season and four seasons per year. So what that looks like is 12 months, 36 fortnights, 72 weeks, and 576 days in a Vassel year. (I've also done the math down to the second, placed that against certain physiological processes, and found out that a human pregnancy in Vassel is roughly six months, not nine. You may now all breathe a collective sigh of relief.)
Anyway, that's part one of what building the galaxy is all about. Now you have to figure out how they're telling one month from the next. Yeah. Let that sink in. For those of us on Earth, it's rather simple. We have one moon on a fixed orbit. It's predictable. At certain times of the month, Earth's shadow will interfere with how much of it we see. It also spins on its axis in the same direction, which is why we always see only one face of it. Therefore, we use the shadow placement to time each of our months. (At least, mostly. Y'know, before those pesky Romans got involved.) Did I keep it that simple? No. Absolutely not. I wanted 3 moons. Okay. At first, they all had different orbits as well (think Jupiter and its sixteen stalkers). That idea was quickly scrapped as I wanted them to rise and set in a specific order each day/night. Therefore, they all got put on a 48 day rotation. The other problem with three moons rising and setting and otherwise being in the wrong position at the wrong time? Which one are you going to tell time by? Well, I fixed that by making one of the moons much, much larger and closer than the others. In point of fact, it used to be a small planet that got trapped in Vassel's gravitational pull. Yet, it produces enough gravity on its own that it maintains its own axis spin. And it spins in the opposite direction of Vassel. Therefore, they time the months based upon how much of its other side they can see. I'm sure this would give a lot of astronomers a headache, but I really don't care. It's my world and things happen how I want them to. And that's my driving point: as long as it makes sense for your world, then that's all the sense you need. Beyond things like timing and your moons, the rest is literally just for fun (unless one of your characters develops an interest in the stars). How many planets do you have? Where is your planet in th grand scheme of things? What are your constellation shapes and do they have zodiacs that your characters rely upon? It's all up to you from here, and either do the work or don't. Personally, I've only done a small part, but I also plan to keep building this world for years to come.
4. Travel
So I just said that everything under the galaxy heading was more for fun than anything. I did say that.
I meant the planetary nonsense and you know it. If you have a journey-based fantasy novel, however, you need to figure out your timing, at the very, very least.
The other thing you need to figure out is distance. This is the same process in figuring out your time. I'm American, so I like imperial names, but I prefer 5s and 10s, like I said. Therefore, I decided that there were only ten inches to a foot, not twelve. There are also only 5,000 feet per mile and five miles per league.
You know what was so fun about this very simple math? The fact that I still have horses, and my time/distance does not match Earth. To figure out how far and how fast a horse can travel a specific distance, I had to math it out based upon inches per second. Yeah. I had to take our miles per hour rate, parse that down to inches and seconds, and then compare that to my own inches/second and build it back up. Turns out, a horse on Vassel can walk 40 miles in four hours. Which is actually a pretty decent distance, and with how many hours there are in a Vasselan day, there's plenty enough time for rest, allowing for a decent trek each day.
Of course, y'all can do your own math where carriages and teams are concerned. As of yet, I have not had to encounter that problem and I don't intend to touch it with a thirty foot pole.
Now then, what about creatures that fly? How fast can a gryphon fly? Well, now we're talking about wind resistence and the elements. Which leads us to...
5. Geography/Habitats
Where's the desert? The plains? Farming country? MOUNTAINS, GANDALF, MOUNTAINS!! Rivers? Fresh water seas? Salt water seas? Oceans?
Yeah, baby, it's geography time. Some of this, obviously, is probably already done from when you made your map. Kuddos. You may have even already named everything. In that case: impressive.
That said, I recommend having those done when you make your map, or at least give yourself a general idea of what is where. Only when it is relevant to the story do I recommend digging into the details of each habitat. For example, I have one short story set in a desert. I don't know everything that survives there or how, but I know the major predators, their territories, and the water sources which allow people to thrive there.
The same is true of the Forest Realm. I made a tree that's as large as the California redwoods (maybe a little bigger) that glows from the inside when there''s a lot of friction. Humans have figured out how to build inside the tree and keep it alive. However, the reason the tree glows is because there's a parasitic worm that bores into it, and the action of the boring lights the tree up so that predators of the worm can pluck it right out. These abandoned holes then become nests for all kinds of other species (or waste deposit holes for the humans).
This is what I mean when I talk about building up your habitats. Were these details necessary to the story? Partly, so that's why the detail went into it. Are there other trees and creatures equally as important to the story. Absolutely. So I figured it out. Sometimes, I went and figured out things that never made it into the book. Why? Because there was every chance that it might.
If your story is character-driven, the setting may be inconsequential to the interactions and actions. Or it could be incidental. It all depends. But it's worth having something even partially figured out in case it's important for that one perfect line.
(Or you'll spend hours of research to find out turnips are the best plants that grow in a certain soil type at a certain altitude only to then delete the whole scene.)
6. Life
What is a habitat worth if there's nothing living in it? Horses, wolves, lions. Everything we're familiar with in our own world can easily come to life in another. Of course, then we have things like dragons and gryphons. But what else? This is where the fun truly begins. What lives in your world? What color is it? Where does it live? What does it eat and what eats it? Is it useful as something other than food? Is it a community animal or a loner? Are there different breeds? So many questions. The best part? You get to make it all up as you go. No rules. Just your imagination and your inclination. Just remember that all animals eat, breed, produce waste, and find a spot to raise their young. That's it. Also, flora and fauna exist. If your habitat produces a lot of poisonous plants, that's good to know. Also if there are plants that produce antidotes. Just some fun stuff to play with when you drop characters into unfamiliar situations.
This also includes humanoid additions such as elves, orcs, etc. 7. Different Cultures/Customs Speaking of unfamiliar... I've read most of the books in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, and the one thing I always loved about the series were the different cultures and customs. Where the story starts, in the Two Rivers, there's a Women's Circle that decides when a girl is ready to be recognized as a woman. Once she is, her hair is plaited in a single braid down her back. Whereas, in another country far from there, the people have their hair in dozens of tiny braids, sometimes decorated with beads. In yet another culture, those of the highest royalty have no hair, and the amount of hair someone has shows station, as well as length and coloring of nails. Does the story drag sometimes? Yes. Are there narrators that serve no purpose to the overall plot? Absolutely. But no one can fault the creativity of a man whose world has so much variety, history, and complexities as the WoT. For the world building alone, Robert Jordan will remain one of my favorite authors of all time. Again, this is one of those areas where you can let your imagination run absolutely wild. Do they use hair braids to tell the story of their lives? Is it customary for single women to dress more revealing so as to be on display whilst married women are fully covered? How important are tattoos? Animal companions? What traditions shackle them versus which ones are revered by your characters? It's all on you. The best part? It does not have to bear any similarity to any culture or custom here on Earth. That said, I'm going to sneak in a diversity point. You realize we have different races only because of our evolution to certain habitats, correct? More sun = more melanin. Less sun = less melanin. Keep that in mind when you set the story close to or far from the equator. And take in natural migratory patterns over land or sea. It'll help you figure out the disparity between poc and paler characters in specific locations at certain points in time. Even as a mostly white person, it's still okay to have a main character of a different race in a fantasy novel. Their history and experiences are vastly different (hopefully) than the history and conflicts of Earth. That said, do your research on the needs of your character before adding it to the story. Be sensitive to your audience, and for the love of all, do not try to one-up an #ownvoices creator. Period. (I'm 1/4 First Nations, but I'm very white passing and will never put my hat into a ring where someone more deserving has a chance to shine. No matter how many times my friend sends me the diverse writers links.)
8. Magic Systems I'm briefly going to touch on this because it is, again, one of the many things in which your hand is very firmly on the steering wheel. There are a lot of fantasies without magic of any kind. That's fine. The only things I've seen to criticize certain magic systems are: be consistent with it and let there be consequences. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini got some heat as far as the first point went. Having never read the last book, or the latest installment, I can't speak with any certainty as to what did/not happen. But having read some commentary, one of the things fans were annoyed with were the limits imposed on the MC's magic, only to then have certain magic artifacts negate the limits and essentially overpower the MC during particularly perilous moments in the story. I'm guilty of the second. A lot of writers create the magic limitations based upon the character's own will or physical wellbeing. In essence, using magic can be draining. There are those of us, however, who haven't imposed physical limitations in certain works, and this can annoy some people. And that's fair. It makes the magic use more impactful if we know that it comes at a cost for the person wielding it. A very powerful spell being cast should be differentiated from a lower level spell. Some books help offset this by using tools. In the Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan, the MC is well-endowed with magick, but focuses and controls it using a lot of tools familiar to those practicing witchcraft. Crystals, incense, athames, etc. All of it is used to focus intent and work spells effectively. Now, it's been a while since I've read the books, so I don't remember there being a physical drain on the characters, but the use of tools was often the limitation. For me, in some of my books there is an energy-level aspect to the magick usage. In others, magick is as much a part of the character that it's like exhaling. How would that cause her damage? Are my characters sometimes overpowered? Absolutely. Does that shield them from the emotional repercussions of their decisions? Absolutely not.
It's okay to have powerful characters, so long as there are equally powerful obstacles to them accomplishing their goals. 9. Religion I don't know that an author has integrated religion into a fantasy world as well as George R. R. Martin in his Song of Ice and Fire series. Not only is it a foundation on which certain characters have built themselves, but there's also the conflict between several different religions. It's complex, if nothing else.
That's also why a lot of authors stay well away from it. It is complex. Creating gods, myths, legends, heroes and villains, and scripture is asking a lot. And if you can get away without having to include it, more power to you.
However, if you're like me and swear a lot, and you create a character who also swears a lot, then you begin to re-examine how certain words in our vocabularly may/not translate over if there is no religion. Hell, for example, exists in three major religions. As a swear word, it's something we all recognize. But in a fantasy world? Is there a hell? If there is: why? Who created it? For what purpose? Maybe it isn't hell. Maybe there's an underworld. Okay, so who's in charge of that, then? Is it someone like Anubis who weighs your heart against the feather of truth? Is it more like Hades, just supervising as souls cross the River Styx? Or, y'know, maybe no one runs it and that's just where the souls linger for all time. Who knows? You. You know. You're the only one who knows. Part of creating cultures includes weddings and funerals. Both of which have a lot of symbolism. Sometimes this is very much a 'part of this earth' kind of symbolism. Other parts are spiritually transcendent. It's your job to figure out which is which, what the people believe in and hope for, and then decide if it's easier to give them a deity (or several) upon which to pin their hopes. Giving a character a religion does not dictate that you have to make it their entire personality. I mean, even creating a religion doesn't mean your character has to be a part of it. But if it is important to even one significant character or has any particular influence over the culture of your people, it should probably be fleshed out.
10. Holidays
You don't need religion to have holidays. You don't need to base it on specific events in your world's history. The celestial movements of the sun and moon(s) need not be involved. But, damn, it helps. All you need is a group of people intent to celebrate something. Are birthdays a big deal or are they a BIG deal? Did your people have a revolution and decapitate their oppressors? Throw a party. Or maybe there was a big haul out of the farms this year and feasting seems like the only appropriate response. Did two warring nations sign a treaty after 300 years? Maybe celebrate that. Whatever you choose, remember that holidays are something for your characters to look forward to. They are events that call for gatherings to happen, bringing multiple characters together. They also have traditions attached to them, which is a great way to sprinkle in your different cultures without an info-dump. Medieval-ish setting? Then you can get away with giving it a season and some expectations. Modern-ish setting? Get to work on that calendar! Even if you don't say the exact date, you should be aware of when it is and if it happens yearly on the same date. With this type of setting, you may also want to be aware of the evolution of the holidays. Did they start as some warm, wishful village thing and then grow into a global event? Did it become overly consumerized? Does anyone have any real privacy during it? Think about it.
Again, this will be brief, but it's important. Either your socieities run on trade, in which case, you have to assign value to something placed against something else, or you have money. This is really rather easy: figure out the values of things and how 1+1=2 and then name it. Very simple. VERY IMPORTANT.
It doesn't get difficult until you add in other societies with different money.
And that's it for all the advice I have. For now. Not that that isn't enough. It's a lot of work, isn't it? A ton, really. But it's oh so rewarding when you do it right. It's just too bad that you're not going to info-dump any part of this in the book(s) and the readers won't know that most of this even exists. So why give so much attention to the world if most of it will never be seen by the reader? That is the question, isn't it? Why put in all of this effort, create all of these creatures, constellations, customs, and calendars when info-dumping is so highly discouraged? For me, the answer is simple: because the tiniest line can mean everything. I read romance for the couples. I read fantasy so I can be immersed in a new reality. You can have romance with any/all kinds of settings. A fantasy is entirely dependent on its creation of a new reality. (Note that I said reality not world.) If you're going to combine the two, then I expect to have the focus on the couple, but in a place/situation entirely new and fantastical to me. And if you're not settling into the paranormal and urban fantasy settings, and are instead immersing me in a whole new world with its own history, dialects, and native creatures, then you better damn well give me a whole new world with almost zero ties to the old one. (Horses excluded from this. There can be horses anywhere, lol.)
Honestly, there are a lot of things that can make or break a world. Most modern fantasy books get by on the bare minimum, and that's fine. If you're someone that enjoys character driven stories, then that's perfect.
If you're someone like me, however, who literally wants to live in the worlds of books and movies and video games, then these tiny details are the difference between bringing your world to life and drawing people into it, as well as leaving them with a sense of loss and longing every time they leave it.
For me, the book that did this best was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. To this day, it's the only book I've read that makes it feel as if the circus is the main character, and the characters exist only to tell you how it came to be.
My goal in life is to make a world I want to escape to as much as I want to sleep in the empty halls of Rivendell, run away to join the Night Circus, or find in the back of a wardrobe. Sometimes a great story comes with a spectacular world (The Lord of the Rings) and sometimes you get some boring stories to go in a fantastic world (Narnia). Very rarely will you get a marvelous story in a subpar world. And all too often, I'm seeing subpar stories in lackluster worlds. If you have the story, give it the world. If you have the world, give it hundreds of stories.
Then, when you're ready, take us along for the journey.
