How long does it take to create a fantasy world?

I’m part of a Scifi/Fantasy group on Facebook, and a group member and fellow SFF writer asked everyone, “Who has created their own fantasy world? And how long did it take you?”

“Has created”—as in, “has finished creating it”—is a key term for me here. Right now, I’m releasing a series of novelettes set in a fantasy world (watch the video trailer for Book 1 here). I’m putting honest effort into the project, but mostly it’s an exercise in unleashing creativity. In other words, instead of fully building the world, plot, and characters first, I’m building the world—novelette by novelette—as I go, seeing where my wild ideas take me…and where they take my young fictional hero. This is counter to most advice pro SFF writers give, but in terms of unleashing creativity, I’ve found it beneficial.

So to return to the question, building enough of the world for the first and second novelettes (I’ve written the first and will publish it soon; I’m writing the second now) took me a couple weeks of solid work. That timeframe has to do with the length of the stories, of course. After all, novelettes don’t require nearly as much world building as novels (generally speaking). The short time frame also has to do with the limited scope. Because I’m building the world as I go, I’ve decided to limit each novelette to one major setting. For example, the first novelette is set aboard an old ship in the ocean. (It is also set in a forest in our world, but standard real-world rules apply there, so I don’t count it as part of the world building, per se.) The second novelette is set on a small island. You can see the connection between the two settings (a ship sails to an island), which helps me build the world steadily—in other words, I’m not jumping between wildly different settings, like the deck of a sea ship to the heart of a dragon layer. There’s nothing wrong with such a wild leap, of course, but when you’re making up the world as you go, that kind of leap between settings and situations might lead to inconsistent world building.

So the point is, as I build the world, focusing on one particular, major setting at a time helps me shape essentials without getting mixed up. In my world, for example, I know the sky is red, stars are visible in daylight, ghosts exist but have limited ability to interact, and imagination—creative thought—can influence the world, but not necessarily save the protagonist (if he’s hungry, he can imagine himself full; but if he is wounded, he cannot imagine himself healed). These little rules develop according to the small plot and single major setting I work with when I outline, then write, each novelette. But as I go, I keep side notes about these “rules of the world” so that when I continue writing future novelettes, I can build the world consistently.

I guess the short answer to the question is it all depends. Not exactly a helpful answer, but I hope my comments have provided useful factors to consider.

Have you built a fantasy world before? What’s your favorite fantasy world in literature? Thanks for reading!