World Building Foundations
Building A Solid World

Whether writing something set in a futuristic world, on a fantasy world, or here on Earth, past or present, the writer must "build" that world for readers. This is true even if writing about downtown New York. Not every reader will have been to New York or will have watched CSI:NY. For those readers, the writer must create the New York milieu.

What "makes" a world? Start with all 5 senses to develop a concrete feel for the world. The questions provided are only a starting base. Add to their lists as you are inspired.

Evoke Sight.
1) What do buildings look like?
2) What does clothing look like?
3) What does transportation look like?
4) What do the people look like? Are they homogenous or racially diverse?

Evoke Sounds.
1) Are there animal noises around? Which ones?
2) Do you hear church bells? Cowbells?
3) What sounds come from transportation?
4) Do people hawk wares from carts or street corners?

Evoke Smell.
1) What smells are prevalent in the world?
2) What does food smell like? Are there spices? What kinds?
3) What does the city smell like? The country?
4) Do the people bathe? Wear perfume?

Evoke Taste
1) What does the food taste like?
2) Does the air have a "taste" to it?
3) Does the water have a taste? Bitter? Mineral? Bland?

Evoke Texture
1) Are buildings made of smooth stone or rough? Are there raised carvings?
2) What kinds of fabric are used?
3) Is the ground even or smooth? Terrain has a visible texture too.
4) Are wooden products rough-hewn or sanded and stained?

These things alone won't make a world real, nor will they make the world "work." They will develop a sense of place, giving the world a 3-Dimensional "appearance"--much like a hologram. To make a world feel real requires a solid enough foundation that the reader can suspend belief and travel there mentally. That requires a functioning world.

Here is where writing urban settings is a little bit easier. Readers know that New York City exists. They know it runs pretty much like any big city.  They know there is a system in place and it works. Therefore, all the work in "building" NYC has been done, requiring only that the author do his/her research. Because New York City is real doesn't mean the author doesn't have to describe the city or evoke the senses. All of that is still required for the reader to be transported to NYC for the duration of the story. Where the urban writer has to be more careful than the fantasy writer is in getting the details exactly right. Many readers will be very familiar with NYC; they might even live there.

Another aspect the urban writer contends with is time. Urban stories eventually become dated in the sense the setting is no longer contemporary, but historical. Sometimes it can take decades for the "contemporary" sense to slip away. Or it might take one revolutionary invention. In keeping with the NYC example, a story written not so long ago but set in the Twin Towers is no longer contemporary, not after 9-11. Watch a few television shows done in the early nineties. While those aren't that old either, you'll still notice a change in technology, fewer, if any, cell phones, for instance. In the film "Die Hard," Bruce Willis carries his gun onto the airplane in the open, because he was a police officer. Also note the lines at the pay phones at the airport. These factors date the film, reminding us it's from another time.

When writing in a distant future setting, on an alien world, or a fantasy world, the reader doesn't make any of the assumptions given to a story with an urban setting. The reader needs the author to build the world literally from the ground up and show that it is a working world. Naturally, the reader doesn't want to read or see the blueprints or have to study a course in the world's natural history before being able to enjoy the story. But the author will need that "course." The author should always know far more about the world than the reader. All most readers want is a sense that the author knows these things and that all the necessary systems are in place.

So how much groundwork is necessary? That depends on how alien the world is. The more alien it is, whether physically or culturally, the more foundation work it'll require. So let's start at the planet level.

Terrain

There's a reason most fiction worlds are modeled using Earth-like features. The geophysics, geodynamics, plate tectonics and all the other forces that created Earth's terrain are fairly well understood. Moreover, we have existing examples proving, for example, that volcanoes can be found on islands or in mountain chains. So on a fantasy a world a volcano can spring up in either position and readers will generally accept it. Technically, to map out terrain totally from scratch and do it correctly requires understanding and applying the appropriate sciences to "build" the world naturally. Luckily in fiction, there isn't usually enough detail to highlight terrain flaws. Having the landscape feel right is usually enough.

Likewise, weather patterns follow the laws of nature. Yet understanding pressure systems, parcels of air and jet streams isn't necessary to have it rain on a fictional world. Again, writers generally model after patterns witnessed on Earth. With the Internet and cable weather channels, writers can monitor weather patterns on Hawaii or in the Rocky Mountains to determine what sort of weather their island city or mountain village should experience.

As for alien terrains, writers can keep up with NASA's findings. Today's writer (and therefore reader) can access a lot more information regarding alien terrains. So again, for the writer, an alien planet can be modeled after Mars or Jupiter's Io.

If I'm writing a novel, I like to draw a map of the world . . . or at least the major continent where the story is taking place. If nothing else, having a map makes me more aware of where the characters are and how long it should take them to travel from one location to another. The map helps me keep the time line consistent. For a world to feel real, it must feel as if it occupies space. Space means there are distances.  Crossing a distance requires time.  If I can convey that time in a consistent manner that is believable given the distance and the type of terrain crossed, the world becomes a fully 4-Dimensional (with time as the fourth dimension) place. It has a foundation in reality.

But that doesn't mean the world works.

Modeling With Cultures

So far, I've only discussed the physical, tangible aspects of a world. Although fashion and food are part of a culture, culture has deeper, intangible roots. Using a plant analogy, the base, stem or trunk of a plant grows out of the root system. Then from that growth, we get leaves, fruits and flowers. But kill the root system and the entire plant withers. Therefore, we start at the roots, just as we started terrain from the ground up.

The easiest way to create a culture is to model it after an existing one. The nice thing about modeling is the ability to take the culture, like a lump of clay, and begin to reshape it a little--just enough to disguise it, if desired.  One advantage of not disguising the culture is that readers will fill in blanks, as they are already familiar with the culture. Just as in the case of writing in a modern setting, readers will assume the culture functions. A disadvantage of not disguising the culture is that readers may not accept any changes made whether inadvertent or done on purpose. Readers may see any changes as an inconsistency or a flaw in the writer's understanding and knowledge of the borrowed culture, thereby causing the reader to lose trust in the author.

Yet modeling is still a valuable means of creating new cultures. Studying a culture in depth reveals the many layers that go into a culture and how these things are interlaced. Religion and government, whether separate entities or not, both came from the same mind-set, from the same people, meaning there is some crossover, some common beliefs, common morals. Moreover, those morals will have an impact on fashion. They can impact music and entertainment. Belief--which doesn't necessarily have to mean religious--runs deep through culture and governs more aspects of daily life than not.

No culture develops independently of their terrain. (At least not those indigenous to the world. Space faring races will have developed according to whatever their home "terrain" was, even if it was a space station.) Whatever the terrain, terrain is a tangible factor in culture development. Think of the terrain as land and culture as the plant. The land gives the culture a place to grow. If the land is hostile, desert-like and resistant to growth, the people are not likely to become lavish and wasteful--not in a limited resources land. (Sure, oil has made a number of desert cultures wealthy…today.  Go back and look at how these cultures survived before their rise to wealth.)

Internal and external forces affect a culture. Very few cultures exist free of outside influences from other cultures. This has been true for centuries in most places. Some island cultures, the aborigines of Australia existed a long time without foreign influence, but even they eventually dealt with outsiders. Nonetheless, the degree of which culture is influenced today by other cultures is far, far beyond the sort of influences foreign cultures normally had. To model a medieval society after the American melting pot is difficult to pull off. People simply didn't travel or relocate to the same degree or quantity in medieval society for many reasons. If your world can't overcome these reasons, having such a blended society won't make sense and the world building fails.  That doesn't mean there won't be foreigners, travelers and explorers. It means you won't have a population in which less than fifty percent are of the country's original stock--unless you are dealing with a conquered people. Even then, the percentages are likely to be overwhelming in favor of the indigenous people.

When modeling a culture, it's easiest to start with matching ingredients. For example, if using a desert terrain, pick a culture that developed on a desert.  There are still many cultures to choose from.

Pick a culture and dissect it.  Try to understand what really motivated those people. Figure out why they did the things they did. Ask what things would have had to be different for those people to have taken a different course in history. While dissecting and studying a culture, don't impose your own morality or world-views. Remember you are a product of a different culture from a different time. What you view as "right" has grown out of your roots . . . which is not necessarily their roots. Try to answer the questions based on that culture's world-view.

Now that the culture has been broken into its components (i.e. dissected) think of if as a recipe.  Some substitutions of ingredients are possible, but remember that not all ingredients can be substituted and not all substitutions will work. In other words, and in a different analogy, cutting and pasting together pieces from different cultures won't necessarily fit or make a complete picture. If the pieces don't fit, then the culture doesn't work and the world building crumbles.

One aspect often forgotten in world building is its faith. It's only in modern times that religion hasn't had such a strong impact on the world. Science has been the greatest factor in weakening religion's impact over daily life. Science has changed how we view the world. With so much explained, a sense of wonder was lost. Because part of faith is wonder, any "wonder" lost weakens religion's importance in our lives. Mostly, science (the wonders of technology) brought us freedoms. It freed us from having to toil quite so hard, giving us free time. It has helped close the gap between the classes, enabling the rich and poor alike to travel across great distances. It brings the world into our living rooms, allowing for a wider spread of knowledge. Because it freed up our time, and therefore our children's time, science (in its many forms) has allowed for the education of the masses as never before. But in a world in which science and technology are limited, as in medieval times, the unexplained continue to baffle people and religion was there to fill in that gap. Moreover, religion was there to promise that the toils in this life were rewarded in the next, and that there was a plan, a purpose, a reason for all things. It offered comforts when comforts were few. And still today, as it was then, religion (in the broadest sense) sets morality. Religion and government are the two strongest factors in maintaining society. Without a functioning, believable society, the fantasy world falls apart.

In a culture, every aspect connects to another. Make sure all the pieces connect. They should fit as neatly as a puzzle and the finished picture must make sense. No part really developed in a vacuum. All the other parts around it influenced it. The easiest question to keep asking is: Why? Why do the people wear dark clothing? Why do they eat spicy food? Why do they look both ways before crossing a street? Why do the tower bells always ring at dawn? Why . . . why . . . why?

Checklist

Patricia C. Wrede put together an incredible list of world-building questions that's over twenty pages long. I'm certain it's still out in cyberspace somewhere. Try searching for "Patricia C. Wrede's Worldbuilder Questions."

To get started developing a world, my simplified outline/checklist may help. Think about all these aspects and how they relate and impact each other. It's their relationships (both good relations and bad) that bind them together, that make the world work as a single unit.

Think about these sections, ask what is available, what do these people have/know/etc. Then ask: Why is that? How do the pieces available combined with their rudimentary beliefs combine to produce an answer for why? What binds the pieces together? How does one piece fit (or interact) with another? Simply having a collection of independent answers won't make a believable world. Having a collection of answers in which every answer affects or is affected by all the others will.

I. Terrain
    A. Land Formations
         1. Arable lands -- for growing crops
         2. Natural borders -- mountains, anything difficult to traverse
         3. Forests -- for wood products
         4. Mining resources -- gold, gems, coal
         5. Wastelands -- unusable places, could be swamps, desert, etc.
    B. Water Sources
         1. Lakes
         2. Rivers
         3. Oceans
    C. Weather
         1. Seasonal variations -- does the world have 4 distinct seasons?
         2. Disasters -- drought, flood, mudslides, tornados, etc.
    D. Animals
         1. Dangerous Predators
         2. Fish, fowl and other game
         3. Fantastic or alien creatures
II. Culture
     A. Religion
          1. Is it Monotheistic or based on a Pantheon?
          2. What are the basic beliefs?
              a. is there a good -vs- evil view?
              b. what is their creation myth?
          3. Moral code
              a. ethics and values
              b. taboos
          4. What services does the faith supply? Sanctuary? Shelter?
          5. What does the "church" expect in return for its services?
          6. How is the religion organized?
              a. who's in charge?
              b. what are the ranks?
          7. What are religious gatherings like?
              a. weddings?
              b. funerals?
              c. are there weekly services?
              d. special services?
     B. Government
          1. Judicial systems
              a. what are the laws?
              b. what are the punishments?
              c. who enforces the laws?
          2. Political parties
          3. Foreign relations
              a. bordering neighbors
              b. distant countries
     C. Military
          1. Volunteer, draft, required duty
          2. Weapons
          3. Wars--past and present
          4. Branches of service--army, navy, air force marines, coast guard?
          5. Who control the military?
          6. How is it funded?
     D. Economy
          1. Occupations
              a. for commoners
              b. for skilled workers
              c. for artisans
              d. for the wealthy
          2. Import & Export
          3. Classes/Castes based on wealth or birth?
          4. Money or Barter System
          5. Natural resources
          6. Farming
              1. What crops are grown?
              2. What animals are raised?
     E. Education
         1. Who is educated?
         2. What is taught?
     F. Measurements
          1. Time period -- approximate to Earth
          2. Units of weight, distance, time, etc.
     G. Sciences
          1. Natural sciences
          2. Technology (applied sciences)
     H. Magic
          1. Who works magic?
          2. What area does magic most affect?
          3. Who has access to magic's benefits?
          4. What limitations are imposed on magic, its users and its beneficiaries?
          5. How does magic impact economy? Religion? Government? Warfare?
      I. Entertainment
         1. Feasts
         2. Libations
         3. Performances
         4. Pubs/Taverns
         5. Gambling
         6. Festivals & Holidays
             a. religious
             b. secular
       J. History
           1. Actual events
           2. Believed (mythological) events


The connections between all facets of a world are the binding factors that hold a world together. Understanding why everything evolved as it did makes the wheels of a society turn. Between the connections and all the answered whys, a world will have a solid foundation upon which to tell a story.