World Building Part 1:

I had the chance to attend the Utah Writers League conference this year because of the generously of a fellow writer, who couldn’t go. Here are my notes.

Two methods of creating convincing worlds. By Stephanie Restivo

There is the Drill down and sparrow method.

 Drill down: top to bottom method world building that utilizes a step by step guide to creating a rich environment.
 Each world has a creating story.
 Map your world and continents and sort out planetary details.
 Creation: who made the world, what Gods were involved, or was there a big bang? Why? Understanding how your world came into creation will help define what can or cannot affect your world as a whole.
 Ex: a world that came into existence because of the death of great Titan God. When he died his body formed into a world.
 Continents & map: need a visual what your world looks like. (Map generators software is online) how many continents. Do you have a visual map in your mind you want to draw or simply have an idea of what you want to describe it as?
 Why? Knowing how many continents and what type allows to further define your country borders and cultural influences on the world.
Planetary details:
 Sort out how the world works in the universe you’ve created. Also think about the tides, pols, suns, and moons.
 Why: the rotation of your world and the number of suns or moons they have will impact both culture and geography
 Ex: Two moons and one Sun. One moon is a black moon; the other is a normal moon. Sun drive by pantheon gods.

The Continent:

 This step will help you get to know what kind of the land and borders you will have to work within following steps. Pick a continent in which you plan on having a country.
 Landscape: see continent from space what are the large masses lakes, mountain range. They can affect multiple countries. It affects resources, affects the culture and reacts to the environment.
 Climate: take a moment and chart out the general climate across your continent. Just like the earth where it’s cold, hot desert.
 Why: colder areas bring people together. Hotter people spread out. (look in tribal history)
 Define things in broad strokes. Countries/ regions
 Outline country borders (after landscape) they are defined around rivers, mountains or big regions
 Why: countries influence their cities, by landscape
The country:
 Understand a country and its culture.
 Rough out the country’s story
 Define city-state cities and regions
 Pick a governing type and population density
 Write out a short history of the country and how it came into being. Country’s history defined the culture.
 Just need a couple of paragraphs to give a basic understanding
 City streets/ regions/ cities
 Mark down the large city areas. Select places where they can make trade by rivers. City centered on resources. City location is also influenced by trade.
Government and population density:
 Governments= Democracy, royalty, and select density. And government
 Culture and society: summarize in a couple of paragraphs. I.e.: Norse traditions and medieval knits/royalty
 Landmarks are based on history: stature of liberty and Grand Canyon important to our cultures.
 Plots, rumors, and relations: what’s going on in our country? A big event in the country.
 Rumors: three-headed baby