How to Start Worldbuilding?

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. World Anvil, a 2021 NaNoWriMo sponsor, helps you develop and organize your characters, plot, and world setting. Today, World Anvil is here to share some pro tips for worldbuilding basics!

How do I start worldbuilding? It’s one of the most commonly asked questions in our community, and one which even seasoned professionals ask! After all, creating epic settings like those of The Expanse, Game of Thrones, or Mistborn can seem like an overwhelming task—but they all start from the same place: the fragment of an idea, carefully grown into something extraordinary. The good news is that you can easily create your own rich, unique setting, and in this post I’ll tell you how to start!

Getting inspiration!

Let’s start at the beginning—that flash of inspiration. Brandon Sanderson describes a drive in foggy weather as his inspiration for Mistborn. Sometimes a setting idea can come from a dream, flash fiction, a TV show or game, a character, or from a magic system you’ve been toying with. The desire to dig into a new genre—sci fi, steampunk or epic fantasy—is also a great place to start. And occasionally, a plot walks into your brain with a setting—or a least a few fragments of one—attached.

Keeping a writing notebook is a great way to hold onto inspiration until you’re ready to take the next step. And reading back over your old thoughts is sometimes enough to inspire you for a brand new setting! But once you have your inspiration—what on earth are you supposed to do with it?

Worldbuilding Meta

Ideas are all well and good, but writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So how do you develop the taste of an idea into an entire setting for a novel or series? Well, bring on the Worldbuilding Meta!

A Worldbuilding Meta document is the big stuff, the most critical DNA of your setting. It helps you keep track of the overarching themes and components as you build your world, and to make logical choices. If you already have a setting, it helps you prioritize and streamline which elements are most important, and to avoid bloat or over-complexity. Later in the writing process, it inspires new ideas and even helps you pitch your setting to others! And if you’re writing with others, it’s critical to keep you on the same page.

The Worldbuilding Meta is divided into short sections of questions to help you flesh out your world logically. Each section helps you establish critical information, and those answers will inform the next ones. This creates a dynamic and cohesive world setting. 

Scope: Deciding why you’re building your setting is often the foundation for all your other choices!

What is your motivation for building this world?What is the hook or unique selling point of your setting? What makes it different?

Theme: Genres, mood and tone, as well as the recurring themes and motifs you use to reinforce them, are excellent ways to start defining your setting.

What’s the genre of your world?What is your world’s mood? How does the world feel (character/reader experience)?What are the recurring themes which reinforce the genre, mood and feel of your world?

Focus: You can’t build EVERYTHING in your setting, or you’ll never write that novel! Focus helps you pick which areas you want to build in more detail (we suggest about five). You might allude to a few others without expanding on them, and some issues won’t be relevant to your story at all. Here are some examples (there are even more on the meta page in World Anvil!)

Military InfluenceReligious InfluenceTechnology InfluenceArts and Culture InfluenceWealth DistributionAgriculture And TradeRace RelationsClass RelationsGender Relations

Drama sets your world in motion, creating a dynamic setting through current affairs. A couple might directly relate to your plot, but others are there to make your world feel expansive and dynamic, and to reinforce your genre and tone. Examples might include:

A blight which has been decimating crops, creating food shortagesA nearby country is on the brink of civil war Rumors of a breakthrough in transportation technology are circlingA mysterious, new religion has been sweeping through the upper echelons of society

Scene gets specific, nailing down the physical properties of your world (especially if different from our own Earth). Magic, flying islands, ice worlds, extra-long winters etc. can all be mentioned here.

What are the fundamental differences in the natural laws of your world compared to Earth?What does the geography of your world look like? Does it have special properties or features?What is the initial scale of your active storytelling space? A city, a continent, or a galaxy, for example?

The People section helps you describe the inhabitants in broad strokes, and also sows more seeds of conflict in your world. Discovering their needs gives them a dynamic relationship and you some great threads for your plot and story!

Who used to live here, and what’s their history?Which species/cultures live here now and what’s their history?What do they need, and what do they need from each other?

Two really important things to remember about creating your worldbuilding meta are:

Only write single sentences or paragraphs! This is just the overview, and the longer you make it, the harder it will be to parse through later. Every idea can be expanded as much (or as little) as you want in worldbuilding templates later, interconnected and completely searchable. You don’t need to fill it in order (although I do recommend starting with Scope - it’s incredibly useful for helping you make other decisions!)Getting Started

The full worldbuilding meta document with all the prompts is available (for free, of course!) on World Anvil as part of your world setting. You can also find additional prompts and explanations for each question, to help inspire you and guide you in the right direction!

If you’re looking for a good series bible to help you develop your worldbuilding, and keep your setting safe and organized, World Anvil was tailor made by professional writers exactly for this task, and the integrated novel writing software and its marketing capabilities make it an ideal choice for any writer!

Ready to start worldbuilding? Go make a free account on World Anvil to get started right now!

Otherwise, check out the three most common worldbuilding mistakes and how to incorporate worldbuilding into your novel writing method.