Things to Remember When Fantasy Worldbuilding

cherrystark 2023-05-29 19:20:42 UTC #1

I know that worldbuilding is one of those topics that writers get self-conscious about. While I don't know everything about worldbuilding, I wanted to share a few things that I learned that have helped me when worldbuilding.

It's okay if you don't have a complete magic system developed for your world. One definition I've heard of "magic" is science we haven't understood yet. If your character only knows enough magic to light a campfire and heal basic bumps and bruises, that's enough. For me, magic is a tool. It's totally acceptable for your characters to only know a few spells or dabble in multiple mediums. Not every magic user is going to be like Gandalf. Sometimes a magic user can be the person who learned a few basic spells to make their daily life easier from the crone down the street.
Start small. While it's definitely a point of pride in some fantasy writer circles I'm in to create multi-generational family trees for the monarchy of their fictional country or create fantastical monetary systems. This is all good and what not, but unless the elements are critical to the immediate plot, they aren't really important. You can cover these things with lines like "It had been this way since King Lothar, the first King of the House of Red Dragons" or "He listened to the money lender ramble on about the exchange rate between drabnars and ulecs for an hour." It's much easier to layer on plot elements when the MC is actually dealing with them than take screen time to explain them.
When in doubt, use technology. There was another thread talking about medieval vs modern fantasy. While it's an interesting read, one point that was discussed is that not every "modern" fantasy has to be "modern". If it would make your scene easier to have indoor plumbing and electric lights - add them. Cars and bicycles are more efficient and humane than riding a horse. Need a message to be quickly relayed but also need to set the stage for someone to conveniently "overhear" the message - send a telegram or use a phone pre-2005. Even if your world is more "fantastical" than the modern world, adding minor inventions like the sewing machine or the wheelchair will help move the plot along. Women's fashion up until the 1950s was designed by women with women's needs in mind. The pro-pants, anti-corset trend isn't original. Corsets were for women's support rather than patriarchal torture devices. Different eras had new tech in relation to fashion.
Write about people, not events. I know it is really common in worldbuilding to forgo traditional gender roles and come up with something new. But, it's not inherently bad if you do need to use them. A woman taking over her husband's business after his death can be an interesting story. A woman using her position as a housekeeper to spy is interesting. The same for the dark-brooding man who is actually really shy and has social anxiety so he spends time caring for animals and farming. Tropey characters are boring and can be hard to fit into worldbuilding, "people" make their own place in the world.

Those were just a few worldbuilding tips I had. Feel free to share your own.

BoomerZ 2023-05-29 19:34:05 UTC #2

I would just add don't get caught up explaining everything. People don't care. In the original Star Wars, Tie fighters fly and make that sound. Why? Who cares, its cool. Blasters shoot laser beams that kill people. How? Who cares. If you wrote a modern crime drama and the villain pulls a gun, you don't explain how gunpowder works before he shoots the gun. World building is a background thing. It's a setting, not your story.

cherrystark 2023-05-29 20:17:13 UTC #3

I agree. I've often said that no one cares about your work as much as you do. So instead of waisting time explaining to readers how the money works, they could just use terms like dollar, pound, note, coins, credits etc to describe their money and move on with the story.

HGohwell 2023-05-29 20:45:50 UTC #4

Some really great tips here. A few of mine that haven't been covered:

World building is not actually that hard. I know lots of people get flustered by world building, especially fantasy, but it's not more difficult that building a character or plot. Take it slow and logical and make notes of things you say as you go. As long as you don't contradict yourself, (again, try to stay logical) you actually shouldn't find it too hard.
Start with your conceit and work outwards as logically as possible. For instance, to use my own work as an example, horseback archery on fae horses is a major part of the plot. Why? It's a competition run by the fae queen. What do they value in it? It's a sport that can't be brute forced and favours skill, horsemanship and respect for the fae creatures. Why here? Magic spring where the water the fae horses prefer. How does this effect the culture around the area? Archery and horsemanship and highly valued skills. Archery is a less gendered skill and was often considered a good way to show off marriage prospects. This, plus fae queen and a more rural area (despite what you may think women in rural areas were in many ways less bound by gender norms because what was done had to be done, you couldn't afford to be fussy or your family could die) puts men and women on a more equal footing. Being horseback archery, riding astride is more common, but being 18th century inspired dresses are still a must, so look at history and discover split skirts, invented for riding bicycles the can be buttoned to look like a skirt, but where simply wide legged trousers. These are now common attire in the area. And if we have a spring that's magic, obviously an order of religion pops up around it. So much world building can be done simply but taking logical steps from one thing to the next without having to think on grand, wide scales about lineages and entire worlds in one go.
Try to find real life inspiration. Even if you're making up a completely new world or country, assigning your world a similar place in the real world will help you keep it feeling consistent. For instance, my example, despite being a melting pot of mostly 18th century French fashions and set pretty solidly, if never outright said, in Wales, the place I root it too most firmly is the absolutely stunning Rebun Island in Japan because that is The Vibe. It's the right size, right terrains, right look and has all the features I need. Try to find real life places to tie it to. A map can definitely help, but that doesn't give the same vibe as going on google maps street view (or videos or even going there if you can) and walks a place to feel it.
It's ok to just say it exists. Magical realism is fantastic. If a dragon is an every day occurrence to this world, treat it as such. That's a fae horse, sometimes they come out of the mist, sometimes they steal your children, they're like wolves like that. If they're as common as a dog or a bird, why treat them any different.
On that note, if everyone believes something, why does your character not? This goes double for worlds where there are things like magic and gods, higher fantasy settings. Now, obviously no culture is a monolith, but most of us believe the Earth is round, because science and everyone around us says so. If you grew up in a time where your historical version of science said the Earth was flat, and everyone around you believed it, so would you, unless you observed evidence otherwise. Likewise in a world where magic and gods exist, a character who doesn't believe in something is odd. It does seem to be a phase that's passing but if you're in a world where gods, ghosts, vampires, fae and magic exist, why on earth would your character scoff at the idea of a werewolf? Ask, why is your character an outsider and how does this effect them? Why do some of my characters not fall in line with the fae horse springs worshipping order? Because one is the daughter of a different fae queen (oh, so no that's more world building, other fae courts, see how easy this is?).
Less is more. As someone part of multiple groups dedicated to figuring out world lore from hints in the background of books, let me reassure you that flashing a little world building can be way stronger than dumping it. Remember guys zettai ryouiki is a thing and it applies to world building, only show as much as is necessary. Where did this ritual come from? What's going on in the rest of the world? Why does the magic water bring the fae horses here? Speculate dear reader. My story will live in your mind rent free with all these lore questions.
Simple and small done well, is far more satisfying that big and complicated botched. There's a reason that a load of popular isekai recently have been things like cooking in another world, or bookshop in another world or such. A good, cosy, well done world build on a small scale can be so much better than a big generic fantasy world (I've heard the term Fantasylandia for generic medieval-esque fantasy worlds with little to no worldbuilding character and I'm here for it).
On the other end, if you're going to go full out just go for it world building, embrace it. Made In Abyss is a horror adventure series with a few controversial points but the world building is both nuts and fantastic with a giant hole in the ground that seems to lure people into it with treasure and psychic whatever and curses and is built with a delicate difficulty curve to be just hard enough but also just rewarding enough to be addicting and lure people into its various nonsensical levels as if a video game luring the best people into its depths which they cannot return from and appears to be expanding. It is both terrifying and fascinating and insane. If you're going to go for it with your world building, commit. A lot of things seem outlandish, but you play it straight and commit fully, and it can work.

So yeah, there's some thoughts. Like I said, mostly, just taking logical steps, start small and work outwards.

Also, just a brief aside, 90% of the time corset it not the word you're looking for. Corsets as we know them didn't come into existence until around 200 years ago and there was only a brief few decades when they were super restrictive and tight. And under support in general has only been around 500 years (the oldest one you'd recognise as a corset we know of belonged to Queen Elizabeth I) or so and were fine to move in, although sometimes a little tricky to lean all the way forward in. If a under support is restricting your lady's movement or causing her harm, it's badly fitted or you're in that brief few decades where that was a thing (and 90% of the time the story isn't). Sorry, you're medieval woman didn't have problems moving because of her corset, she didn't even wear anything under that dress except an underdress, and the closet she did get was a padded vest. Unless you were around Greece, actually, there's some evidence of reed under supports in Minoan culture but we all know you're not going to put corsets in your ancient Greek inspired fantasy.

cherrystark 2023-05-30 00:43:36 UTC #5

This is a big point. Even if you aren't religious, you are still affected by your native culture. If you were raised your entire life to believe a certain way like the popular moon goddess trend, why be quick to reject it?

To me, this just shows a lack of research. Corseting is basically a precursor to a bra and a lot of researchers have said that a corset is actually better for women support-wise than a bra. An ill-fitting corset/stay is a sign of a bad stay. Even in fantasy, a little research toward the era you are basing your work on goes a long way. "Medieval" is laziness when it comes to worldbuilding.

NickRowler 2023-05-30 00:56:31 UTC #6

I feel like an important tip that includes 1 & 2 is, don't needlessly overly complicate your lore.

I often see some people front load their lore and they end up getting overwhelmed with their own worldbuilding.

Why establish 50 different magical races in your story? Would you even have time to even use all of them? You could mention that their is a diverse set of magical creatures but your story could just focus on 3 or 4 of them. And once you are comfortable with balancing them within your story, you can add more.

HGohwell 2023-05-30 01:26:04 UTC #7

These days I see this most in "feminist" fantasy media where for no apparent reason the main character seems to be the only woman on the planet who doesn't believe women should be treated in whatever way they are. They often feel like a modern woman and modern sensiblities in an old world, without doing any research into how women were or weren't controlled in that time period or how they did actually weild power within the system (for instance, very often in noble houses, the woman of the house actually controlled the finances and gave the husband an allowance to go out with, because she ran the household, which included the upkeep of the house and paying the staff ect it might have been her husband;s money, but she controlled it.). And how often this woldbuilding is terrible weak and is "women oppressed because men bad" rather than actual thoughts about how and why this sort of oppression come about given the world and culture, or the way actual cultural revolutions happen. In many ways, I feel like small stories do better here, as you mentioned, people rather than events. The world isn't oppressive (even if it is) it's just the very casual sexism of the group of people aroound the main character, and the main girl isn't trying to over turn a system, she's just doing her own thing. Which is honestly, just a general writing tip. Big scope is a conversely a lot less tense than small and personal.

This along with quite a few other things, screams of lazy research and just listening to common knowledge. It's one thing to make an artistic choice (personally, while I'm very inspired by 18th century fashion, I'm working on an alternate world with some fashion choices that clearly aren't, but that's by choice and I try to keep the feel of the outfits ect right with correct shapes and layering and styles even if things like modern colours and hairstyles and adaptions are consciously present) but in the modern day when research is so easy, it's pretty lazy not to even do the basics. I don't expect things to be perfectly historically accurate, but at least browse the wiki on your time period and dress and culture you're employing.

TheLemmaLlama 2023-05-30 09:09:22 UTC #8

Counterpoint: sometimes writers don't want their plot to move along too easily. Sometimes when your world has too much powerful technology (or magic, for that matter), you could be trying to come up with difficult problems only to realize 'oh, they could just solve that by using X' Conversely, a lack of (real world or magical) technology could pose interesting problems to work around

I do have some of my own thoughts about worldbuilding, but they're not exactly 'things to remember' sort of tips; they're more 'stuff that could help if you want to achieve a certain goal in your worldbuilding', but by no means essential and there are many cool fantasy stories you could write without remembering (or hearing) any of them XD

cherrystark 2023-05-30 14:57:30 UTC #9

True that sometimes writers don't want the plot to move along too quickly, but you also prove my point about overcomplicated worldbuilding. Even just adding basic technology like indoor plumbing or electricity, makes things more tolerable for everyone. A sewing machine makes clothes (even magical clothing) faster. A bicycle is an effective means of transportation when you can't justifiably give a character a horse.

If a writer is willing to step out of the zero tech/magic-only mindset when worldbuilding, adding technology only makes their job easier. If you set a fantasy in your home country during the 1930s or a fantasy in the American Old West, a lot of your worldbuilding is already done - you can then focus on the story rather than coming up with a unique way for them to travel when they could just take the train like everyone else.

HGohwell 2023-05-30 15:08:40 UTC #10

Personally, I don't even think you need to step out of a zero-tech/magic-only mindset for this to apply. Like, please, you're telling me you guys have magic and no one has thought of a way to make transport quicker? Or how to light rooms better? Or communicate over longer distances easier? Humans are constantly inventing. If there's a way to do things better/easier, we look for it. And this is what I mean when I talk about people not logically thinking through the steps towards logical world building. Like it's fine to say something just hasn't been invented yet, but the idea that magic has chaged nothing and the world is still exactly the same middle ages but some people can throw around fire and there are dragons is just lazy. If you want your world to feel real, don't just take a generic historical setting, change nothing and add magic.

This also solves a lot of the problems of "oh tech could solve X" because, because sure, there are things like cars and some modern tech, but it's not well distrubuted. Only a handful of people will have cars, or phones or whatever, so you can be eccomnomical about using them. There are lots of really cool ways to have some moder tech, but not so modern it's overwhelming. Especially in the 1800s and early 1900s when tech was evolving rapidly but also there was a major boom in mystisim and researching the occult as a science ect. Such an underrated time period for real fantasy.

cherrystark 2023-05-30 16:01:16 UTC #11

THIS!!! And even keeping with the idea of magic, one of the big things I've always hear from fantasy-loving white boys is that magic has a price. So if you had a character who was the only magical healer in the kingdom, wouldn't it make sense for them to have even a basic standard for medicine so the healer can save their strength? Or like I've said before, everyone knows a spell or two that they know to make life easier that were passed down from their grandparents or learned from neighbors. Understanding people and cultures is as important a worldbuilding tool as technology.

TheLemmaLlama 2023-06-03 07:25:26 UTC #12

I think one of the main reasons behind a zero (familiar, modern) tech mindset is that some people want to worldbuild in order to make their world different from the real world. If that was your goal, inserting (too much) real world tech would kind of defeat the point

Magitech is cool and I agree it's underutilized, but if you want to make your world feel different in a meaningful way, it could be hard to avoid the pitfall of making your magitech just fantasy reskins of our usual real world tech, such that the plot would can be carried over one-to-one into the real world with no issues. Worlds with vast differences in technological functions can admit more unique plots than world where the tech functions very similar to our own, imo. Like what if coming up with a unique way for them to travel is the story?

On another note, how many situations do you encounter where it wouldn't be justifiable to give your character a horse, but it makes total sense to give them a bike? I feel like less tech usually means simpler, not more complicated, worldbuilding - like why have both bikes and horses if the only purpose is to have the former when the character has no access to the latter? (Though getting rid of horses instead of bikes would be way more interesting >:D)

cherrystark 2023-06-03 18:37:16 UTC #13

I agree. I think it ties back to the mindset that a "proper" fantasy story has to be a knock off of LOTR, GOT, or D&D.

I agree. Part of the reason I stopped reading fantasy for a long time is because people made it too complicated, both modern and classic fantasy. If you have a major goal of the story, talk about that. As a reader, I want to know about that. I want to care about the characters. I don't want to stop my train of thought over plotholes created by magitech. If you invent magitech, let it work in a way that people recognize and make it normal. If everyone can magically fly/teleport, why would they need a train? Why would they need floo powder to travel?

The only situation I can think of from "classic" fantasy is the scene where someone has to sneak out in the middle of the night and rendevous in the woods with someone who has horses for them.

That's why I advocate for more tech even basic inventions to make people's lives easier. Carnival Row has all sorts of magical creatures but it's set in a pseudo-Victorian Era fantasy world. There are lights, indoor plumbing, trains, etc but the gentile, upper-class folk still ride in horse-drawn carriages. The whole house might not be heated but they have more options for heat than a firepit and more options to bathe than a large wooden tub.

The core of this thread and people's comments seem to be that fantasy doesn't have to be overly complicated. You don't HAVE to start from scratch with your worldbuilding. Any location/era will work as long as you do your research.

It's not just the historical fantasies that fall into the overly complicated trap. If you step away from shifter romances, how many dystopian stories are there where the MC's family is impoverished and are at the mercy of complicated governmental plot point for support? Depending on the story, simpler plot elements make more sense to carry the story forward. Like @HGohwell, I believe, said, people like to invent and tinker, so less is more worldbuilding works here too.

HGohwell 2023-06-03 18:56:01 UTC #14

So, I'm bringing this up a lot recently just because I recently reread it so it's on my mind, but I have a perfect example of this done right. The Scorpio Races is magical realism set somewhere in the 1920/30ish (we never get an exact date but boy has fandom researched). It's a specifically rural, small island. Cars, bikes and horses are all present and all used. Bikes are used by mostly locals getting into towns and tot the docks to work. Cars are still the preserve of the well off, the ones on the island are generally pieces of trash that barely work (because sea air is not good for metal), owned by the very wealthy (or donated, in the case of the priest) or farmer's sheep trucks, meaning they're rarely avalible to the average character. Horses, aside from being native to the island so easily accessible and cheaper to run, are still used for things like pulling carts, because bikes can't transport boxes of teapots very well, and field labour. It's sensible world building to ensure that when we need a car to force the two main characters to spend time together or to escape predatory horses, we have them, but they're not an easy fix, while also meaning that when you can't ride a horse because you entered her in a race and the rules say she can't be undersaddle anywhere but the beach from entry until the race, you still have a bike to ride around rather than walk.

(Also, just personally, even if I had access to bikes and horses, I would always pick horse. Horses are cool. I literally refused to learn to ride a bike as a kid, because when a horse stops, it doesn't fall over, bikes do.)

cherrystark 2023-06-03 19:41:06 UTC #15

Leaving the bike vs horse debate, though I'd prefer both to exist in the world instead of either or. I would much rather have stories acknowledge things like sewing or washing machines and characters with a wide variety of life skills no matter the fictional setting than characters existing in a world where the only way they add value to the plot is by fighting or seggsy time.

HGohwell 2023-06-03 19:51:22 UTC #16

I think, for me, it's that people should maybe think a little more about what time period their story should be set in, rather than generic historical fantasy. Like, I don't have anything against a generic low tech medieval fantasy, except that it feels like it's often used as an except not to world build. It's just a generic, stock setting. And then people claim historical accuracy, when most of the time it's actually the accepted pop culture impression of accuracy (see my rant about corsets and how they don't actually exist in the period most of these are going for). It's an excuse not to world build and then you see them come across something they want to do, like long range communication to solve a plot point, but because they haven't brought up the idea that people might be using magic to work these things out, it comes out of nowhere when they go people have magic for this. It feels like people want vaguely historical, without thinking if it's the best time period for their story, when other more modern time periods or slightly more world building intensive thigs, could be better. Like I've said before, I don't understand people who want to write fantasy, where half the appeal is the amazing world, and then are lazy about their world building.

TheLemmaLlama 2023-06-06 04:26:24 UTC #17

Ahkay. Certainly, you don't have to start from scratch, but I feel the need to point out that starting from scratch isn't necessarily more complicated than not starting from scratch.

Like, research itself is complicated. I personally find research to be far more information overload than just making shit up, and unless your readers are historians familiar with the time period your story is set in, they themselves are going to come in not knowing anything about the world and experience the same information overload as if you were explaining made-up tech. The amount of complicated worldbuilding details you decide to actually include in your story is independent from how much your story takes from real life!

(Ofc this isn't the case with modern fantasy where you don't have to explain the real world tech because your reader's probably familiar with it, unlike historical real world tech -- in which case it goes back to how different you want your world to feel. It's certainly a valid choice to focus less on making your world different in favor of making it more intuitive and understandable to your modern audience with minimal explanation :])

cherrystark 2023-06-06 12:56:32 UTC #18

I agree that research itself can bog writers down. Part of the reason why past eras fascinate me so much as potential backdrops for fantasy stories is because you really only need a basic understanding of the era to add basic inventions we've all heard about. The rest of the worldbuilding is yours to invent. haha

BoomerZ 2023-06-06 17:30:22 UTC #19

Another nice thing is all you have to say is "castle" and everyone already knows what that is. There is a general knowledge (accurate or not) of what is a fantasy setting, so you can do a lot of shorthand in your writing.