World building is an incredibly important part of writing, whether you write sci-fi and fantasy, or you prefer to set your stories in the real world. A little world building can go a long way. It allows you to create a world that is distinct from ours, to keep details and technologies consistent, to inform the events of our books by understanding the conventions of our worlds, and to present a vibrant world to our readers that actually makes sense. it’s a hugely important part of writing, especially if you’re primarily a fantasy writer like me. However, just like there’s a split between people who outline before writing and those who jump right in with both feet, I’ve noticed a bit of a split in world building methods. It seems to me that there are two main schools of thought when it comes to building up your story world.
The first school is that of the World Firsters. These writers like to spend a lot of time planning out their story worlds before they ever put pen to paper. they’re often very detailed in their imaginings of their worlds, and they are likely to have pages and pages of notes detailing everything from style of government, and whether it’s a matriarchal or patriarchal society, to the current, slang, and intricate styles of dress. These people like to go deep and often for them, understanding the world is just as important as understanding the overall story they want to tell. These are the Tolkiens of writing, people who like to have their worlds set out and detailed before they begin telling their stories.
The second school is that of the Story Firsters. These people jump straight into writing their books without waiting to map out the entire geography of their lands ahead of time. World building tends to happen on the fly, and important decisions are either spur of the moment, or put off until later. These people will still world build, but that usually waits until after the first draft, when they know what parts of their world it is most important to understand. They’re less likely to have a whole history worked out. The world serves the story, and if something doesn’t appear on the page, it’s not usually considered important to know. These are the C. S. Lewis’s of writing, happy to tell a cool story without really worrying about the creation history of their worlds.
For me, I tend towards being a Story Firster, possibly due to my natural tendency to also be a Pantser. I don’t like spending time figuring things out before I start writing. I’d much rather dive straight in, write my story, and then figure out what I need to know after I see what I’m trying to say with my story. My world literally only exists to support the story. Once I’ve written the first draft, then I know what parts of the world I need to build out to better tell the story, or to make the world a little more vivid for my readers. I would love to have a whole story universe worked out, but I struggle enough with outlining, let alone pouring more time into planning things that might not even be used. I’d rather figure out what’s important to the story I’m trying to tell and let everything else well enough alone.
However, that’s just the way I work, and I know that other writers like to spend plenty of time getting to know their worlds so that they can better understand the stories that they’re trying to tell, or so that their story and world inform each other in equal measure. Both forms of worldbuilding are equally valid. The main thing is that we’re all building out those vivid worlds, whether it be based on the real world, or a fantasy realm with elves and dragons. Good world building draws readers into a world that feels as if it could be real and makes sense, and whether you plan ahead of time, or you make it up as you go along, world building well is vital. that’s why, in my next post, i’m going to be sharing some of my personal favourite resources for world building. I hope you’ll come back and check those out!
Are you a world firster, or a story firster? And, connected with that, are you an outliner or do you prefer to just dive right in? What’s your favourite part of world building? Let’s chat in the comments!
Liked this post? Sign up to the blog using the sign up form in the sidebar and you can have more posts like this delivered via email. Don’t miss my upcoming post of world building resources!
