✨ Worldbuilding: The Art of Creating Compelling Universes ✨
Welcome
back, story explorer! If you've ever wanted to build a world from
scratch, where your characters can live adventures, fall in love,
discover mysteries, or even face cosmic threats... this is your moment! ✨
Worldbuilding is
one of the most exciting skills a writer can have. It's what makes your
book completely immerse readers and, when they close it, leave them
thinking: "I want to live there! ". But don't worry, you don't need to be an almighty god to do it well, just follow some key principles.
To complete this overview that I will develop, you can read my note on Narrative Universes here , it will help you understand how to build your own universes.
But now, let's start at the beginning:
๐ 1. The Basis of Your World: Will It Be Realistic or Fictional?
The first thing you need to decide is whether your world will resemble
our own or be a completely new universe. There are three classic
approaches:
- Based on reality: Stories set in real cities, countries, and times. Examples: historical novels or thrillers.
- Alternate reality: A world similar to our own, but with a unique twist. Example: stories with different historical events or alternative societies.
- Completely fictional worlds: Universes with their own laws, geography, and cultures. Like epic fantasy, space science fiction, etc.
๐ Practical example:
If you're writing about detectives, you can set them in New York or
invent a city like DarkHaven, a place with its own history and rules.
๐ 2. Rules of the Game: Internal Logic The
golden rule! Even if your world has pizza-eating dragons or robots that philosophize about love, it must have internal coherence . Readers will accept the impossible... as long as it's believable within your own universe.
To find out if your setting has that logic, ask yourself these questions:
- What are the physical and natural rules? (Magic, technology, different gravity...)
- How does society work? (Governments, economics, relationships between species or social classes.)
- What mythology or history does your world have? (Past events, urban legends, religions, or beliefs.)
๐ Quick tip:
You don't need to explain EVERYTHING in your story. Details can be
shown little by little, without overwhelming the reader with
encyclopedias. They can even NOT BE SHOWN
, but that logic is what will support your story as you develop it.
This will support not only the script you follow or the plot, but also
the individual plots.
๐ฐ 3. Details keep universes "alive"
As in real life, small things and details create magic. This is achieved through DESCRIPTION mixed proportionally with EMOTIONS and EXPERIENCES . Imagine reading about a city with " cobblestone streets" " ... Good! But if you mention that " the cobblestone streets smell of freshly baked bread by the night bakers " ... BOOM! Your world comes to life.
✨ Think about:
- Memorable landscapes: Red deserts, floating jungles, islands that change position.
- Language and expressions: Idioms, local insults, and idioms.
- Customs and rituals: Festivities, superstitions, typical foods.
๐ Example
: In "The Lord of the Rings," the hobbits have customs like "second
breakfast." Did the plot require it? No. Did it make their world feel
real? Absolutely!
๐ฎ 4. Map and City Design (While optional, it's great for your creativity!)
If you have a large world, a map can help you visualize it better. It
doesn't have to be a work of art; just helping you understand where
things are is enough. It could be a local map, a continental map, or a
space map for your sci-fi adventure.
- ๐ Create cities and routes: Where are the key rivers, mountains, and cities?
- ๐ Give each region personality : Not all cities have to be the same. Perhaps one has a grand magical library, while another has a black market for forbidden artifacts.
๐ 5. Bring your Universe to life with Story and Characters!
Your world is the stage, but your characters are the actors. Make sure
they interact with their environment in a believable way. They must be consistent with their history, society, and particular experiences.
๐ If your protagonist grew up in a warrior society, they will speak and act differently than someone from a pacifist city.
๐ If there is a water shortage in your world, people won't bathe every day, and the economy will revolve around that.
TIP: Don't force exposition. Let everything "flow" naturally. Often times, instead of writing (for example) “ The city was ruled by a council of magi ,” you could show that through dialogue like:
-“Don’t mess with them, friend. If you upset a councilor, you could end up in a dungeon for a very long time.”-
๐ค 6. How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a great ally in world-building. It
won’t replace your creativity (that’s for sure), but it can boost it in
several ways:
- ๐ Idea Generation: You can use AI to suggest city names, races, creatures, or unique concepts for your world.
- ✍ Developing descriptions: If you need inspiration to describe a landscape or culture, an AI can generate some paragraphs for you to then adjust to the story and your own style.
- ๐ Creating History and Mythology: Some tools can help you create legends, origin stories, and historical conflicts that enrich your universe.
- ๐ญ Character and dialogue design: AI can suggest personalities, speaking styles, and behaviors to make characters more believable.
- ๐บ️ Maps and environments: There are AI programs that can generate maps based on your descriptions.
๐ 7. Useful tools you can take advantage of:
- AI chatbots ( ChatGPT , Gemini , etc.) to generate brainstorming or brainstorming.
- Fantasy name generators like Fantasy Name Generators .
- Map creators like Inkarnate or Wonderdraft .
๐ Example:
If you don't know how to describe an underwater city, you can ask an AI
to provide a description and then modify it to suit your story.
๐ 8. Test Your World: Ask Tough Questions!
Before you jump in and write, challenge your own creation:
- ๐ง Does everything you created make sense?
- ๐ฎ Is it an interesting and different world?
- ๐ก Do the characters interact naturally with him?
If any answer is "no," adjust and improve. There's always time to polish!
๐ Create, Have Fun, and Don't Be Afraid!
Worldbuilding is an exciting process, and you are the architect of your
universes. Don't be held back by minor details: write, experiment, and
let your imagination run wild. ✨
๐จ Today, invent a city for your story. What makes it unique? Describe it in a paragraph and feel the magic of worldbuilding!
The world you create could be the next setting for a great story! ๐ฐ๐๐
Do you have questions? Do you want to expand on these topics?
If you are interested in expanding on these topics, I recommend that you read my articles for writers. There you will find many interesting topics that will help you become a 21st century writer. Here are my notes for writers (use the google translate button - for no-spanish writers-) ๐✍️
Do you have any questions? You can ask me -in english too- through a google form. Use the "Tu Consulta" button, please:
Good writing! ๐✍️
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