World Creation

Creating a world is always fun, but it is also hard. And sometimes, you can really screw up, if you don't know how to do it.

There are dozens of fantastic examples for perfectly created worlds, and millions of examples for badly-created ones. In this article, I will talk about creating a world to be the best it can be.

First off, you need an overall concept. It should definitely be something you want to write. As an fellow peer of mine has once said, "Writing is like marriage. Never commit until you can't believe your luck." You're going to be spending thousands of hours writing in this potential world, and it should have just that: Potential.

Now, if you're sticking to this universe or making a different one, you have to start with the basics of your idea. Say you're writing a fantasy, and you want to create a magic system. Think of magic like a science - there have to be laws, they have to be followed, and nothing can contradict. You can't just throw science out the window because you have magic - it all has to have a process. It's like taking away gravity and going "Wee! Everybody can fly!" I'm not saying that you should be piling on infodumps about how your magic system works - you shouldn't. It's usually best to show it in action. If you can't show it in action, maybe add a teacher or mentor to your book - or maybe just someone who knows more about magic than your main character.

Now that you have your basics worked out - the laws of physics, magic, whatever else is in your story - you should work on the aspects of making sure it all matches up. The cardinal law of creating a world is that nothing can contradict. This cannot be stressed enough.

After you work out your basic laws of physics, you should be looking at character creation. Most writers will already have a main character and immediate setting in mind. Ask around, tell a few people about your world and your characters, and make sure that your creations aren't too perfect. (This is called having a "mary sue"). Your character should not be a mesiah, or be more powerful than gods, etc. (Unless, of course, your character is a mesiah, or a god. Then it's suggested that you give them some kind of drawback.)

For an in-depth world, history is a must. Timelines can be a fantastic advantage to this. Set a time for the 'present' of your world, and add a past to it. An example is like this:

2001: Present.

1999: Slightly in the past. x event happened here.

1009: Far in the past. Something amazingly important must have happened for this to be remembered in history.

Next, you should add to the conflict of your world. (Since what is worth writing about if there is no conflict? There isn't anything to say.) As an example, my story Revelations was originally a religious war between two groups with superpowers. I added a third group, gave it a past, and let it fly. Then I added a time traveler to tie up more in the plot and to improve the overall readability of the book. The second cardinal rule in world creation is that every little thing is big. Even if it doesn't seem big to you, your reader will definitely notice everything. This conflict can vary, from the lives of individuals to something that might need an entire army. If it does involve an army, it's usually better to make it an individual conflict somehow - give your character a better reason to be in the army rather than 'I felt like it'. Adding individual conflicts are a great way to make the reader connect with your main character.

After that, it's pretty much your own decision on what to do; a creative license is a very good thing for a writer to keep on him at all times, since writing is all about being creative and making the old things seem new, and the unreal seem real. When you've finished all of these steps, your plot should be ready to be written - that is, if you haven't begun already from excitement.

"World Creation" Article Copyright (C) James Cohen, 2009.