Writing, promotion, tips, and opinion. Pour a cuppa your favorite poison and join in.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Camp Nano World Building

Here's another post from my past Nanowrimo prep. This was written with my speculative fiction genre in mind, but no matter what kind of story you're writing world building matters. The reader needs to feel grounded in a place that you make feel real. These lists will help.



This is going to be short and to the point. Whether you are writing sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, or whatever--go to SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions.

There are questions to cover:
  • The World Basics
  • Physical and historical features
  • Magic and Magicians
  • People and Customs
  • Social Organization
  • Commercial, Trade and Public Life
  • Daily Life
Each of the above categories have more things listed under them. It says "This should not be considered as an exhaustive and final list, but as a beginning point from which each individual writer can compile a personal list." Yeah? Well it sure is a great place to start with more questions than I ever would have thought to ask myself.

OR...

I cut and pasted all of the questions into a word document. It is a 36 page list of questions! You can get it Here.

When reading, what pulls you into the world better than anything else?

3 comments:

Liz A. said...

I have a bad habit of only thinking of the things that directly impact the story.

Angela said...

Yes. A thousand times yes. Every author should read this.

Charity Bradford said...

Thanks Angela!

Liz, I do the same thing, which is why I need these kind of lists.