#NEXT SPACE REBELS WINDOW ROCKET HOW TO#

If there's an actual history in my head for how this world came to be, then the characters will have some passing knowledge of it, kind of like you and I have knowledge of our own world's history. However, if I don't know it, my ignorance will negatively affect the way the characters talk about their world. Readers don't necessarily need to know about the history of this world. My (imaginary) book doesn't have to include all of these details. In other words, I have to know why and how these things came to be. That means I have to consider the history of this world from the beginning, including magical influences (hence the unicorn) needed to direct the way society developed.

So I'm thinking of a world with unicorns and dinosaurs and steampunk-y transport together with rocket ships (because why not?) and also hot air balloons. In the story above (which I just invented), I want Little Dude up there to ride his dinosaur to the hot air balloon and fly away. In order for that to happen, however, I need to have in mind a history that includes dinosaurs alive and domesticated, as well as air travel. The little window frame in the middle is all your readers will see it's the confines of your story. World building – like a window (Click to see larger) Here's a fun little example I drew scratched out for you: Your readers see what’s inside the window frame, and that's it.īut what happens out of sight beyond those walls determines what passes in front of that window. The walls of the house are the covers of your book. Think of world building like this: your story is basically taking place through a window. Make sure you have at least some handle on the world you live in right now. Those things I mentioned up there determine your character's culture, and the culture determines what your character deals with and how he/she reacts.

#NEXT SPACE REBELS WINDOW ROCKET HOW TO#

You don't have to know how cars work in order to drive one, but you know the principles of how to start and steer one. This is possible, and it's not as overwhelming as it sounds. You have to be aware that just like you, your character lives, acts, and reacts within the context of their world-just like you do yours.ĭon't scream. You have to be aware that the winner writes the history books. There's history (how things came to be the way they are), geography (the lie of the land and how long it takes to get from one place to another), ecology (environment and what lives in it), economy (how does money work), mythology and religion (how people view things that go bump in the night and morality), and the way all these details affect cultural development. The scary news is this: complete world-building means having an awareness of the real world. World Building 101: First, the Scary Part

With an entire world to play with, you will never run out of stories. With world building, you have the chance to capture imagination of your reader-and isn’t that what we want?Īs an aside, world building also leaves open the possibilities for sequels, which is always fun. It didn't feel like we could step into the story and live there. We've all encountered stories that didn't bother with this crucial step, and we felt the difference the world lacked authenticity. World building encompasses every assumption and belief your characters hold, spoken and unspoken-and that means it determines the decisions they make and the responses they choose. This goes past whether or not your characters have magic and what political systems they use. This goes way beyond clothing designs or the shapes of trees. There’s a sense of more, maybe even of epic, that haunts the edges of your story.

World building means you have the sense of a bigger universe. It's time to dive into advanced world building. I want this to help you no matter what genre you write, so this post will cover broad but powerful principles.īuckle your seatbelt. I recently had the honor of co-leading a panel at Geek Girl Con all about world building (you can hear the audio and read the notes here), so I've been giving the topic a lot of thought. It's the skeleton of your story: though unseen, those bones determine the shape of the beast. If you write fiction, you need world building.

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