Building A Better World

Aside from your characters, creating your world is also super important. Good world building is pertinent to good story telling.

In this article, I’ll help you with a few ways that you can build a better world for your next story.

General

There are a few general elements of building your world that I think are important. Whether you’re building a fantasy world, or needing to plot for modern story. The following are just a few of the elements that I think are important to building your world.

• Location
  • Whether real or fake, the location of your story is important to good world building. Where does your story take place? This can be one or more places!
• Climate
  • What’s the weather like? Hot summers? Cold winters?
• Plants
  • What’s the flora like? Is it a city center with minimal greenery? Or in the middle of the forest with diverse vegetation?
• Animals
  • What animals will your characters likely encounter? Pigeons? Rats? Maybe even your average housecat?
• Residents
  • What are the people like in your world? What do they look like?
• Politics
  • What are the politics of your world? Is there turmoil?
• Technology
  • What’s the technology like in your world? Is it advanced or a little barbaric?
• Economy
  • How do your people usually make money?

Background

• History
  • What is the history of your world? Be as specific or vague as your feel is necessary for your story.
• Landmarks
  • What interesting landmarks does your world have? It can really be anything of interest. Maybe a mysterious obelisk. Or a beautiful waterfall hidden away deep in the forest.
• Architecture
  • What do the buildings and homes look like? Do your residents live in Hobbit-like dwellings? Or maybe they life in clay-brick homes.

Sensory Settings

• Sights
  • Describe the sights your characters might encounter. For example: mountains, seas, fields, etc.
• Sounds
  • Describe the sounds your character may hear. Things like birds, cars, people, etc.
• Smells
  • Think about what your world and setting will smell like. Seriously. It sounds weird, but it helps your reader imagine the setting.
• Colors
  • Remember to describe the colors of the season. Greens and pinks for spring, yellows and reds for fall, you get it.
• Time Period
  • This one is fun! When does your story take place? Even if it’s a fantasy, your story needs a time period!
• Season
  • Season is important to know when plotting your story. If it’s summer, it doesn’t rain much, winter is snowy and cold, etc. You can’t have your character walking around in the dead of winter and not think about how their cheeks will burn from the cold or how the snow nips at their fingertips.
• Weather
  • What’s the weather like? Does it rain a lot? Is it mostly sunny? Or snowy?

Conclusion

There are plenty of resources online that are better than mine that will help you better build your world. I’ve just included some of the elements that I personally try to think about when I am starting to plot a new story.

Share your world in the comments by using this guide!

Thank you guys so much for reading! See you in the next one!