Skip to main content

A GUIDE TO WORLD BUILDING FOR BORED PEOPLE BY A BORED PERSON

The rest of the Writing Mafia apologises for the turtle. It is not human and fails to empathise with other humans. We are not accountable for any emotional damage it causes you.

I, as a perfectionist writer, enjoy nothing more than deleting everything and starting over...aside from world building of course.


STEP 1 

SPREADSHEETS

The most important part of world building is staying consistent. ALWAYS BE CONSISTENT. Nothing ruins everything more than inconsistency. What's the best way to keep organised? A large database with rows and columns. Hey! You! Do you know a way of keeping several different graphs in an orderly way that I can access online? No? Well you're an idiot because the answer is Google Sheets. What? You want to know what to put in your spreadsheet? Well Mr(or Mrs or Ms) I can't think for myself. I have sub parts to tell you what to put in them.


SUBSTEP 1
FIRSTLY there are two thing this sheet needs to do. Provide a reference point while writing so you can stay consistent, and to make sure there is nothing obviously broken about your world. Providing a reference point for your writing isn't that hard. You basically need to make sure that several things stay consistent. Firstly you'll want your world to fit together. This is where drawing a map is handy and it needs to be to scale. To make a map you don't even need to know all the places you're going to use! You could start off with two places and you'll be fine. Just remember to add each new place to your map and add the numbers to the spreadsheet. Secondly you need to set the groundwork for your races. Assuming you have races, this are the trickiest part to figure out. The rows you need will change from person to person but it usually comes down to this: "What can x race do?", " Where do x races live?." SCREW IT! Just put the five w's and the one h and you can pull it off. Just remember this is literally the backbone of your entire book. This is what makes you different from your competition. DON'T MESS IT UP, BUT WHEN YOU DO DON'T BLAME THE TURTLE.

SUBSTEP 2
NEXT you need to make sure one race isn't absolutely overpowered. This is easy because of the nice colour coded graph you made. RIGHT? But loop holes are easily found, and if you're like me instead of fixing the race use it for your plot. JUST NOT AS A DEUS EX MACHINA. NEVER USE A DEUS EX MACHINA. Also don't make your protagonist the exception to the rule. That's just dumb. Also don't reveal powers at convenient times and they just instantly know how to use it. That too is dumb. This spreadsheet is to stop that from happening. Make your protagonists work hard to achieve their goal. Not just realise that they are all powerful and not breakdown in the crushing problems of the ethics of being all powerful.

WHAT'S THAT? YOU WANT STEP TWO? NO! SUBSCRIBE FOR PART TWO. THERE WILL BE NO PART TWO, BUT SUBSCRIBE ANYWAY.

- The Turtle

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spoiler-Free Book Review - The Squire's Tales (Gerald Morris)

Okay, so it's technically an entire series, but that's irrelevant. I am reviewing books and it is therefore a book review.  The Squire's Tales , by Gerald Morris, is a series of novels that retell in hilarious fashion the lesser known tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Don't worry, you won't have to hear about the sword in the stone again or anything at all about Arthur's childhood. Because this is where the best part comes in: these stories are told from the perspectives of those that other renditions tend to gloss over, mock or forget entirely. These characters are a squire, (as the title would imply) a page, three women and a knight who is objectively terrible at being a knight. He sings and plays music instead. His name's Dinadan. He's wonderful. Over the ten books in the series, you get seven different characters from whose points of view the stories are told (plus a couple extra in the last book, but that's a spec...

Sonnets

We studied Romeo and Juliet in English, discovering the foolish protagonists and their sappy sonnets. An activity in class was to write our own, so we picked strange themes and twisted the idea of a sonnet. What we produced is as follows: Oh, My Fair Sonnet Oh, my fair Sonnet, how lovely art thou, Thou tellest most flattering descriptions, Thou entrancest me with stunning words now, If told by others, I’d think were fiction. Thou enchant me with thy pretty quatrains, In which there are many wonderful rhymes. I’d  listen always without any pains, For leaving would be committing bad crimes. Alas, my fairest love must leave me, My misfortunate heart must wave goodbye. My fair love won’t listen to any plea, Even though this leaving makes my heart die. Goodbye, goodbye, with a couplet you leave, I wish for you to know how much I grieve. By Grace Death to Romeo Oh Romeo, thou art Darth Sidious We love uncovering your many faults Delight in fi...

Ostrich short story

She holds her elegant neck high above the masses which she saunters through. Like a diva at a show she flaunts her plumes, casts a wary eye about for rivals, and turns up her nose at her drab brown and cream comrades.  Behold, an animal of distinction and refinement. Here is the ostrich, queen of the winged kingdom. Around her, antelope bow their heads in shame, cringing at their inferiority. Where she steps the grass seems to wither in embarrassment. Even the sun seems reluctant to disgrace her chestnut and ivory feathers. Stop. Look around. Sour musk lines the brisk breeze. She lowers the foot which was held aloft a moment ago, her previously serene expression now one of incandescent disapproval. The antelope prick up their ears. A glimpse of golden pelt in the grass and an explosion of hooves signifies the beginning of the chase. She runs like a demon, head pointed forward and wings outstretched. Long legs kick up turf, spraying it into the streak of gold fur b...