183 | TTT007 | World Building 101
May 6, 2024
Welcome back!
Today's Topic: World Building 101
Do I need to world build?
Earth, in the future, with a twist
How far is too far?
// CHAPTER 1: DO I NEED TO WORLD BUILD?
The whole concept of world building fascinates me. Especially when it comes to building a world that you've never seen before - or a magical one that isn't even possible based on our scientific knowledge.
Abbie Emmons:
World building is often used incorrectly - with a big data bump right at the beginning of the book
You're so excited about this world you've created - that you think you need to explain it all to the reader so they will appreciate it as much as you do...
The problem is - this doesn't work. The reader gets bored and will most likely put the book down...
The other thing she says is that writers tend to fall into the bad habit of Telling vs. Showing:
By adding too much exposition - because they are making the world up as they go
Or, like we said - providing too much information vs. only the important information
Have it created before you begin:
But think small (What is it about this world that immediately impacts the character)
Why does it matter? How does it impact the protagonists external and internal struggle
The world needs to be important to the development of your character
Good: Narnia (Slow burn - piece by piece as the story unfolds)
Bad: Divergent (Big does of exposition about the world - but not really about Tris - don't even see her at the beginning)
Kate & Abbie Podcast:
We typically think of world building for Sci-fi and fantasy
But it's for every story we tell
Fantasy all the way to Contemporary
Even if it's in the "real" world
Without world building the reader experiences "White Room Syndrome"
Where they ask, "What am I looking at? Where am I? And what can happen here?"
It's basically the environment or the setting for your story
Tend to overdo it because we're invested in it
But the reader unfortunately doesn't care - they need very little information to be invested in the character and their story
MasterClass Article:
This article admits that world building is typically viewed as a function of Sci-fi and Fantasy genres
4 Successful Stories - examples of great world building:
Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin)
Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling)
Star Wars (George Lucas)
Even games like Dungeons & Dragons require a massive amount of world building
8 Tips for Successful World Building:
Decide where to start
List the rules and the laws
Establish the type of world you want
Describe the environment
Define the culture
Define the language
Identify the history
Use existing works to inspire
In my research I even found platforms that suggest they can help you walk through this process:
One platform I found is called Milanote:
Built for all sorts of creative pursuits - but world building is one of the things you can do with it
Scrivener - one of the widely used platforms for writing:
Comes with baked in folder structures for characters and places
Things that can easily be used for world building - including digital cork boards where you could pin images that help you describe the world you want to create
For me - Scivener was a useful tool with a steep learning curve:
So at some point I found myself back in Google Docs - just because it's easy to use
And it's easy to share elements of my work with friends who are interested
So to summarize - world building isn't just for Sci-fi and Fantasy - though it is a very big part of those genres to be sure. At the end of the day - world building is required for every story we tell. If you don't define the world the story is being told in - the reader will feel less grounded - even lost. And that means they will probably stop reading...
// CHAPTER 2: EARTH, IN THE FUTURE, WITH A TWIST
So what I wanted to do next is talk about my Big Idea - and the world building required for it.
Simply put - the story takes place on Earth, in the future, with a twist.
But before I unpack that - let's back up the bus to the early days. When I first got the Big Idea and started thinking it through:
At this point - world building was the farthest thing from my mind
At that point it was all about plot:
I mean in my dream I received the Inciting Incident, Some of the Progressive Complications, the Climax and the Resolution - for the entire Trilogy no less
That's pretty high level
And requires a lot of fleshing out in order to become a complete story people will choose to invest time into
And remember - this is a Trilogy - so even more time to invest than a one-off novel
From receiving the Big Idea - I moved directly into Skeleton Mode:
I had some of the major bones in the body of the story
But I needed to start adding in the medium sized bones, and then the small bones
And eventually the tiny bones that make up the fingers and the feet
For me - the medium bones turned out to be things like:
The 4 Quadrants document - getting each of the 4 sections documented for all three books
Then there was the formation of the Story Spreadsheet - One document to rule them all - with a column for every scene - and rows of data associated with each scene
And then I started fleshing out each scene with 2-6 sentences - basically creating a comprehensive outline for the entirety of Book 1
Sidenote:
I can't remember who did this - but we talked about it being Michael Crichton
He used 3x5 cards almost exclusively to document his ideas for his current book
When done with them - he would throw them into a box
Then when he felt like he had enough ideas - or the ideas really slowed down - he took them out and started arranging them into a story he thought sounded good
Then - when that piece was done - he started writing
He would pull out the first card - and write a scene
The next day he would pull out the next card - and write that scene
And so no and so forth until the book was written
I really like that concept - just not interested in physically writing ideas on paper 3x5 cards so I looked hard to find an App that functioned in a similar way - with the ability to create digital 3x5 cards and then archive them and sort them at will
I didn't really find anything to be honest - and the ones that looked like they might work charged a monthly fee to use
So I found the next best thing - a Google product of course...
Google Slides - and a template that looks just like a 3x5 card
And this is what I sued to create the short descriptions for each of the first 20 scenes in Book 1
On the desktop - it works great - on mobile - not so much
I mean you can see the cards - and read them - and even drag and drop them around
But what I really wanted was a quick and easy way to add cards when out and about - when an idea hit me while at lunch somewhere
And that isn't as simple - on the phone - it's really hard to just duplicate a slide and use a previous one to document the next card in line
But I'm using it - and we'll see how it goes
Now I've only finished the first 20 scenes at this point - but I don't see it taking long to bang out the rest of Book 1
But having that started - and seeing the finish line with my outline - I've been able to start looking for some of the smaller bones:
I realized that I had a lot of work to do on character development - so I created a spreadsheet for all characters - where I can document everything from their hair color and race to their habits and mannerisms to the important pieces like their back story, and internal conflicts
Next, I realized I hadn't done much in the way of settings or locations - so I started another spreadsheet with each location listed and columns of information for each location - things like the climate, the people, the food, the danger level, etc.
And at some point I came to a stunning realization...I hadn't even started down the world building road yet...something I've never done - but assumed was a massive undertaking
I'm picturing J.K. Rowling standing in front of massive white boards, and cork boards with a map of the world - an exploded map of England - then overlay maps with locations for the Wizarding World - along with lists of words she had made up for things like spells, potions, and other magical items that just don't exist in the real world
Then I pictured J.R.R. Tolkien doing the same for LOTR
And Michael Crichton doing it for Jurassic Park
And I immediately started to shake - nervous about my ability to think up that much stuff off the top of my head
But at the same time I started to get excited about it
I sat down one morning and said, "Today is all about world building."
And I sat there - fingers on the keyboard - wondering where to start...
It took a while - but then the questions started to come...
In the Trilogy - there are a group of people on a Deep Space Rover - capable of reaching distances no current space craft can reach
If this is true - my story has to be in the future - but how far is far enough?
So I settled on 100 years in the future as a safe round number
So let's just say the story takes place in 2125
The Prologue of Book 1 starts with a flashback to something that happened "100 years ago"
Which means it basically happened right here - right now in our time
Next - I thought to myself - if the story takes place in 2125 - things are going to look a WHOLE lot different than they do today - especially when it comes to technology:
Think about AI right now - what it can do - and what people think it might be able to do in 5 years
Then think about adding another 95 years to that number
Crazy right? How technologically advanced might we be in 2125?
And from there - the ideas just started to flow:
I created a doc just for world building and wrote about each of the following aspects of this future world:
A section to document the Dates & Times in the book
What the Physical World/Environment looks like
What Local US and World Government looks like
What Travel looks like
What Technology looks like
Food
Medical Care
The Education System
Work/Employment
Religions of the World
Religious Terminology
Entertainment
Before I knew it I had written over 3,000 words - that's basically two full scenes in the book!
And I wasn't writing paragraphs - it was short sentences and phrases explaining each of the areas I needed to flesh out - answering questions I knew I needed answers to, in order to tell the story
This means my 3,000 words stretched to over 13 pages of content
And I don't even know if that's it - I mean I came up with a lot of stuff - but I'm assuming I will keep adding to this over time to ensure there aren't gaping plot holes - or things the reader will see that don't make sense about this future world
But what about the twist you ask?
Earth, in the future, with a twist.
Well, the twist part is the fun part. It's the little bit of world building that crosses the line between real and fantasy.
In fact I just read an article the other day about Urban Fantasy. I'd never really heard that term before - but after reading the article I felt like I had come home. I realized that the Trilogy most likely falls into this genre.
Because it's set in our world - complete with cities, cars, technology and stuff like that - but yet there are things on Earth with us - things not of this world - things from a dimension outside our scientific three.
Now - the story itself could be considered Sci-fi on some level as I'm having to describe a world 100 years in the future. But that's just the backdrop for the twist. Because it's the twist that gets the screen time. It's the twist that has our main characters second guessing everything they hold true in life. For them - they aren't living in a Sci-fi world - to them it's just our world 100 years from now.
But in the same way seeing an alien in real life would jolt us awake today - for them - the twist is the thing that rocks their world.
So fun - I can't wait to write some of those crazy scenes...
But for now - here we are. World Building 101.
// CHAPTER 3: HOW FAR IS TOO FAR?
So I've walked you through my process - and some of the good and bad that can come from doing a deep dive into world building.
But I wanted to end with this...How far is too far?
And I'll ask it of you as much as I'm asking it of myself.
In terms of my Big Idea - how far is too far?
First of all - I have to think this through on some level - because I chose to tell a story set 100 years in our future
This means the world of present day is NOT going to look like today
There won't be gas powered cars
We won't have iPhones
Televisions will look totally different
All things I have to wrestle with if I'm going to tell a convincing story
But how far is too far?
For example - it's up to me how technology has changed the world
I can suggest we use implanted digital devices that allow us to interact with the world and the Internet at the same time - sort of an Augmented Reality type thing
Or I can go even farther and say people have become part digital - that over time we learned how to incorporate mechanical elements into the human body so now we're part human and part robot
See what I mean?
As I flesh out my world - I'll need to be very careful to ask myself, "How far is too far?"
I literally learned this today when listening to Abbie Emmons clip on world building:
She was pretty clear that less is more
That you don't want to info dump massive amounts of exposition throughout your story simply to discuss the amazing world you came up with in your head
And definitely not right at the beginning of your story
Her recommendation is to slowly leak info bytes along the way
And only the elements of the world that directly impact the protagonist - or characters right then and there
Over time - all these info bytes add up and the reader begins to see a pretty clear picture of the world you created
But they are getting those pieces in chunks they can handle - and subtly while reading about the protagonist - or characters they care about
She always goes back to the Chronicles of Narnia - and how the children went through the wardrobe one at a time - and each time you learned a little more about the world they were walking into
But there is never a big, factual world building info dump at the beginning to tell you what the world was like
You learn it little by little - when it's important to the story or important to the characters
So what about you? If you have a Big Idea that requires world building - where are you at? And how did you come up with the various elements?
And at some point did you ask yourself, "How far is too far?"
And if so - what ruler did you use to draw that line?
Let's Land the Plane:
Thanks for joining me again this week.
I hope the brain dump on world building was interesting and helpful in some way.
I'm learning so much right now that my brain is probably going to explode.
I just finished the book Story by Robert McKee. It felt like I was in school again - reading a textbook with sacred knowledge - stuff every reader must know in order to swim and not sink.
Next I'm going to dive into Story Genius by Lisa Cron - recommended by a good friend that recently published her first book.
And I also have Holly by Stephen King sitting on my nightstand - crying out to me, "Read me, read me..."
But all in good time.
I'm loving life right now - loving the process and can't wait to get together again in a few weeks.
Next time, my plan is to walk through Characters and Locations. But don't hold me to it.
Based on my progress - I may have something else I'm geeked about at the time - and it might trump my previous idea.
But that's ok - it'll be fun either way.
So we'll end here for this episode. Have a great week everyone - and keep Transcending Human!