World Building - A Helpful Guide - Part 1

 World Building

A

Helpful

Guide

Part 1

Your world building is just as important as the story itself when writing fiction. You help the reader understand who the protagonist is by building a solid world. The world is often called the setting too. This blog post is part one, discussing what to do in world building.

To begin your story you want the basics of your protagonists life. What sounds are there? Do the doors open automatically or is he in the past where everything is manual? What smells does the protagonist deal with? Is he religious in some capacity? Go for the basics before diving into what is called the inciting incident. This is where new things are experienced. From where the protagonist is to what he feels as his world is turned upside down. Once within the inciting incident, in full force, bombarded the reader with what the protagonist is feeling, seeing and doing. Everything will be different as far as emotions, buildings, the fives senses, and so on.

As you continue to develop the characters, story and world, create new scenarios that require changes in setting. For example, your protagonist is in a palace and ends up soring through the skies atop an eagle. You'll show what the palace is like and then the conditions of being on the eagle. Remember to use the five senses and show what the protagonist sees. And if the scene calls for it throw in a memory or exposition.

There is one thing I want to stress most in world building. You need to include an element of the genre you are writing in from page one of the story. Its not science fiction if there is nothing high tech or unearthly in the story. There needs to be something in general that sets your story apart from other genres so the reader knows what they are reading. If I'm reading historical fiction set in the 40s, then radios, newspapers speaking of WW2 and maybe even a slightly worn first appearance of Batman can be shown. This all depends on whether your a civilian in America, a soldier in the war or in a POW camp. The point is not to leave the reader confused as to what exactly they are reading. 

To close out part one of World Building - A Helpful Guide, I want to add that it's important to do your research when creating a fictional world. Whether everything is made up or set the real world you want things to be clear and to know what your talking about.