World Building (With a Worksheet!)

THE SIMPLEST, EASIEST TASK

World building even sounds simple. The sort of thing you can do on a lunch break at work, or on your way home from class. It’s just… building a world, right? An entire one? Full of people and customs and architecture and stories and holidays and types of grass and—okay, that’s a little overwhelming. At least, it can be, when you barely know where to start.

Because the thing is, world building isn’t as terribly scary as it sounds. Once you’ve you’ve set down a few foundation stones down, building on top of them is a piece of cake.

To help you with this, I’ve created a two-page world building worksheet. The first outlines a few key world building elements: atmosphere, environment, history, customs & traditions, insiders & outsiders, and your protagonist’s place within it all. The second page gives you room to jot down ideas for your own story.

Click on the worksheets down below and PDF versions will open in a new tab where you can view or download them.

Below the worksheet I have a few more tips on world building and a plain-text version of the first page for anyone with accessibility needs or just a bad internet connection.

Enjoy!

A TIP BEFORE YOU START

For the actual easiest, simplest world building, let one key aspect of the story inform everything else. For example, I recently read The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (which is an excellent middle grade book that I would recommend to everyone). It’s set on a mountain and that mountain informs everything about the protagonist’s culture. Because they’re high on a mountain, it’s cold and harsh and remote, so the only real job there is mining. Because the primary job is mining, physical strength is highly valued and mining songs are a huge part of their culture. Their main holiday occurs in spring, when the harsh mountain snows are gone and traders come up the mountain to buy their stone. Even the magic featured in the book is tied to the stone they mine.

In your world, things don’t have to be that intrinsically tied to one another, but not only does tying one aspect of world building to the next make things easier for you, but it makes the world building more realistic. It gives a line of reasoning for the reader to follow so that everything makes sense.

ONCE YOU KNOW YOUR WORLD…

Once you’ve figured out the world, you’ll probably have a better sense of the types of people you’ll need to populate it. In which case, you might find my character creation post useful.

Worksheet Text:

Raising Mountains & Parting Seas

A Simple Method for Crafting Your World Building Foundation

When we think of world building, we often think of epic fantasies, but every setting requires world building - whether it’s fantastical or not. A novel set in a paper supply company in Scranton needs a defined world just as much as one set in Middle Earth. There’ll just be a different ratio of research to creation. Crafting an entire world can seem daunting, so focus on a few simple elements& details to create a foundation that you can build from as you draft your novel.

Atmosphere

What feeling do you want your setting to evoke in the reader? Is this a Gothic castle book or a seaside cottage book? Are there magically self-stirring tea cups or plastic bins full of instant coffee? Think of a couple of concrete details you can add to this world to evoke this feeling.

Environment

What are the geographical details that inform this setting? Is it sparsely or densely populated? What resources are plentiful or scarce? Start with something important, that’ll affect on everything else—near a river, in a large city, in an arctic zone.

History

How old is this world? How has it evolved? What are the stories (real or legend) people tell about its past? knowing if this town is a hundred years old or a thousand, if its a shell of its former self or in its glory days, makes it feel lived in and real.

Customs & Traditions

What customs and traditions are important to this world and why are they important? This can be as small as afternoon tea and as large as a religious system, but it should speak to what this society values. Start by imagining your protagonist’s daily life and expand from there: are the things they do normal for this world? If not, what is normal?

Insiders & Outsiders

Who holds power in this world and why? What makes somebody an “outsider?” What do people need to do to fit in? This is tied to the same values as customs & traditions, so you can use either one to inform the other.

Your Protagonist

The most important thing you can do when stating to build your world is to make it’s tied to your protagonist. Why—of all the people in this world—are you telling the story of this person? What makes them stand out? How does their world affect them? How does their view of the world change throughout their story?