Creating a world

[FangedSmile]

Creating a world of time can be tricky, but fun. As always though, try to keep things believable. For example: if you have a character with wings then they would be placed lower on the back, or replace the arms and would be enormous. Consider instead a character with a floating ability; his or her wings are purely for speed and maneuverability.

It doesn’t have to always be realistic, but it should at least be slightly logical. As for sword lengths, all swords longer than the bearer’s arm must be thinner than their index, middle, and ring finger put together. Skinny characters have skinny swords; big beefy giant-like men have bigger swords. Pyramid head has a giant knife, but he also has a pyramid head, so there you go.

Look at your character. What kind of a world does (s)he live in? There are a lot of possibilities, but as a general rule if you have a character that is an extreme (either very passive or very aggressive) their world probably has something to do with it. For example, if you have an ultra strong guy with bulging biceps, buns of steel, and a six pack so hard you can wash clothes on it- odds are he grew up in a place that called for that. Say it is a ruined, war stricken planet that has long ago lost their weapons cache and now has to deal in hand-to-hand or melee weapon combat.

Here is what I use:
For stories based in the real world.

Takes place in:
Year:

List facts about where your character is. You can get more exact than you do in a fantasy world because you don’t have to make up the facts.

Cuisine:
Landmarks:
Temperatures per season:
Salary:
Animals:
Terrain:
Major industry:

---

For fantasy worlds.

Name of world:
Type: (Type means is it like earth? Is it completely desert, plains, forest, water etc.)
Size:
Amount explored:
Methods of transportation:
Religions:
Magic: (It is elemental based, covering a wide variety or spells, dependant of the individual, or granted through an act or religion.)
Countries: (How many)
Languages:
Species:
moons:
History: (This is where you put a significant event for your planet.)
Other: (Anything else you'd like to add)

For each important country.
Ruler(s):
Government:
Laws: (Just basics. You can say they are the same as a particular country on earth.)
Species:
Language:
Trade:
Specialty: (This means what is special about it, like is there something found here that is nowhere else? Does a particular race live here?
Terrain(s):
Culture:
Myths/legends:
Seasons:
Climate:
Currency:

[B. B. Wolf]

So if I were to create an urban fantasy world it'd be pretty easy. Just use Earth, then add in magic. But if you include something like the Fae or some kind of Pagan pantheon, you'd have to create another world, right?

[FangedSmile]

It depends. If you are creating a world with mystical creatures it can be fun to design an environment that would suit them best. Though sometimes that means you have to use a lot of your wordcount actually explaining the new world. Othertimes you can just use earth and adapt it like the Harry Potter books did by saying everything is here, it's just kept as a secret. If your world has magic, you can make it like an alternate earth. For example, what would our world look like if certain people could fly, and others could make their own electricity? We'd probably have electric cars, and people who could fly would hate having to buy groceries unless something was created to help them cary their purchases home. Would we have planes? How do we regulare planes vs people?

[FangedSmile]

I'll also add that you can do a lot with Earth as it is today. However, if you add a fantasy aspect to it you need to quickly decide how that is handled. Think about it, if you saw someone in traffic just get out of their car and fly off, you'd be confused. You might think you're crazy or dreaming or ... well, who knows, but you're sure that's not regular behavior. So... do your fantasy characters have strict guidelines to follow? Is there a council? How is it regulated? I'll admit that if I woke up tomorrow and 1/4 of the population had magical powers and I wasn't included I'd be envious. If a neighbor suddenly had powers or a guy I knew in high school I'd be wanting to know why he deserved them and not me. Of course I'd be happy for people if they used those abilities to better themselves and the world- such as a doctor who can now heal illnesses or a firefighter who is immortal, but it'd still be hard to be an average citizen in such a world.

So, if you just want to create a world similar to earth, but with a few differences, try this:

Planet Name: (can be Earth)
Approximate year:
Special Feature: (Much like a character's special abilities, what sets your Earth apart from the one we know today?)
Cause: (What type of world might your special feature create? I'll add more on this later)
Balance: (How is the world balanced? More on this as well will follow)
Problems: (What types of problems may arise (you don't always have to balance these, they can be used in your plot).)

Okay, so... You have a special feature, how do you tell what kind of world it will create? Unfortunately, there is no magic trick for this, you just have to stop looking at how spiffy your feature is and think "Okay, so let's say we discovered a planet that had that feature... We can't go there or get that feature here. We can only observe that planet. So, now that you've separated yourself from it, what is this place REALLY like? X-Men is a good example due to the public outcry against the mutants. It makes you go "Huh... I guess 1/8th of the world suddenly having superpowers wouldn't be all that awesome after all... unless you had superpowers yourself and enjoyed fighting."

For example, let's use Pokemon. I'm not trying to be a kill joy, but there are factors to consider such as WHY 10-year-olds are allowed to roam around battling pets instead of going to school. Heck, there are even Pokemon schools teaching kids things you learn in the first 15 minutes of playing the game. The adults either suck at it, or are Gym Leaders. What happened? If all the animals are intelligent... what are people eating? Have they just become jaded and see the animals as tools? Well, why build a society around them then?

Anyway, when you think up a special feature, try to add a balance. For example, let's say you have earth, but with Pokemon. Yes, Pokemon again... Shut up. Taking into account the problems mentioned above, let's tweak the world to make it more balanced. The Pokemon are rare, regular animals exist as well, the pokemon may be alien species that evolved only a billion years ago from some goo from space. They also only respond to children at a certain age, so you either start young, or not at all. Also, training them is dangerous and some people just don't have the knack for it. Maybe they're not active or animals just don't seem to like them.

Okay, so now... Why? Well, not only are the battles and shows popular, the ability to train a Pokemon allows you to gain knowledge towards training more, and can also be a useful service.So, let's say you prove to be a trainer candidate at 10- great! You do to an adoption place where a bunch of captured young Pokemon are running around and huzzah, one likes you! The trainer who caught it gives you the Pokeball of that particular Pokemon, you name it, and there is a celebration where the kids who weren't picked cry a lot even though they've been told their entire lives that the chances are slim, and you try not to feel too guilty as you walk by them and try not to rub your success in anyone's face. Your parents have to deal with the fact that just yesterday you cried because you fell off your bike, and today you're responsible for a magical creature.

Cool... But after that, you're going back to school. Why? Because if every child gets a Pokemon then there are a lot of immature twerps running around with electric mice, shocking the hell out of their parents. Instead, you have to put your new Pokemon in a daycare where you visit it and learn to tame it before bringing it home and letting it FireBlast your couch. You also have a lot to learn about Geography, economics, culture, transportation, and probably the basics in a few languages because I hate shows where every country speaks the same language and has the same basic culture (just with different colors thrown around) those countries would never go to war because why the hell would they? They understand each other, have their own territories... they're basically the US, with each country just being a different state. You may dislike another state, but we're not going to war.)

So, anyway, you just have to think about how the world works. Sometimes, you need help. So, get a friend you know will be brutally honest, and prepare to take quite a bit of questioning. If you can keep your cool and think through the problems of a world, you can create a world with miniscule plot holes and fewer things for critiques to jump down your throat about. Your readers can suspend disbelief for a bit, but let's not get carried away. It can be fun to forget the rules, so if you want to do that, do it. Just be ready when people point them out. It helps to be aware of them before hand so you can say "I know about that flaw, but fixing it made things less enjoyable and I wanted things to have some chaotic whimsy."

... Now I wish I'd thought of Chaotic Whimsy before picking a screen name on Steam....