Build a World in 1.5 Hours – MSP Workshop Notes
Led by Abra Staffin-Wiebe
There are a lot of different approaches. The amount of building and the time it occurs at depends on the type of story an author is writing.
- Stories in the current world don’t need much worldbuilding
- Alternate history stories require a lot research
Two common approaches
- Build the world after writing the story
- Sometimes there are questions that you don’t know you need the answer to until after you have written
- Usually requires revisions to the story
- Pre-construct the world before writing
- Deep pre-construction delays writing
- It may also box you into a corner if the story goes in a direction contrary to the rules of the world
- High danger of infodump
- Building as you are walking down the road is usually faster
- You don’t have to wait to write
- A con is that you can can miss opportunities
- Often has a fair amount of post world building and revision
The rest of the session consisted of a targeted exercise calling out high level points to consider, then drilling down a specific path based on choices made by the group.
The general plot for this exercise followed this path: comfort to rags to riches. This type of quest won’t cover much ground. Quests usually cover a lot of distance
- Inhabitants
- Human
- Human+/Humanoid
- Cyborgs
- Androids
- Distant descendants
- Chimera
- Drug enhanced
- Inhuman
- Aliens
- Dragons
- Octopi
- World type
- Earth
- Earth+
- Like but not
- Very different
- Weather
- What is their common dramatic weather? tornados, hurricanes
- Useful for plots that extend over a long period of time.
- Do seasons exist?
- Using seasonal transitions as story transitions can advance the plot and tell you something about the world without infodump.
- What is their common dramatic weather? tornados, hurricanes
- Genre
- SF
- Fantasy
- Horror
Magic and Technology are distinguishing elements of speculative fiction. Both have similar to answer.
- What is the type?
- Magic type
- Technology level
- Preindustrial
- Industrial Revolution
- Modern
- Future
- What are the limits?
- What are the practical limits?
- What is and what isn’t possible?
- What are the legal limits?
- What are the limits that technology cant provide?
- How long do people live?
- What sicknesses can they heal?
- What are the practical limits?
- What are the costs?
- Resource costs
- Personal costs
- Moral costs
- What is the source
- Where does it come from?
- How is it produced?
- Who controls it?
- How is it distributed?
- Equal distribution doesn’t make for interesting stories
- Golden Compass
- Bladerunner
- Mad Max Fury Road
Questions about the main character
- What is society’s influence on our main character
- influencers
- legal arbiters
- Consider methods of rise and fall
- Marriage
- Wealth
- Reputation
- Loss of reputation as a means of fall means people in charge control the resources
- Politics
- Documentation/Identity Theft
- Inheritance
- Land crabs
- Legal
- Military
- Recognition
- Ceremonial
- Religious power
- Natural disasters
- Radioactive spiders
- Family structure
- Poly
- Nuclear
- Multi-generational
- Matrilineal
- Patriarchal
- Creche
- Single parent
- Communal
- Clones
- Mono-cloning everything is a clone of one
- Radioactive spiders
One or two sociological differences from our lives interest readers
- Ethical
- Stealing
- Lies
- Taboos
- Treatment of dead
- Treatment of children
- Treatment of elders
- Gender/sex
- Family hierarchy and marriage
- Marriage
- No Marriage
- Pair bonding
- War
- How do they wage war?
- How do they make peace?
- Property ownership
As you write, there are opportunities to add world building
- When someone meets first time
- Greeting rituals
- Family interactions
- What does the family expect?
- What would disappointment?
- Where are the rivalries in the family?
- Readers want to see family support as well as family conflict
- Makes characters more relatable
- Makes the fall harder
- Meal times, manners
- Food
- Customs
- Who eats first?
- Fights
- Rules of honor
- No rules
- What happens when someone breaks the world?
- Clothing
- Multiple types of materials indicate wide trade
- Colors, reasons for colors
- Cost
- What is expensive?
- What is cheap?
- Why do people wear clothes?
- Protection
- Modesty
- Status
- Ceremonies
- If short plot, no need
- If long plot, fun to add, shows passage of time
- Provides a way to bring people together who might not otherwise interact
- Religion
- Cultural beliefs held with fervor
- Don’t have to involve a god
A re-plot point will occur after the worldbuilding decisions relevant to your story are made.
Resources mentioned
Sloane Talest 