The world-building tag has no wiki summary.
22
votes
8answers
658 views
How does one deal with world builder's syndrome?
I am a planner in the extreme. I tend to drift toward fantasy oriented novels when writing; it's just what comes out. This means that I do quite a bit of planning for the world that the story will be ...
16
votes
9answers
5k views
What tools are available for world building?
I tend to lean towards science-fiction and fantasy, so world building matters a lot to me. A while ago, there was a question which asked how to go about organizing your universe, which was ...
16
votes
10answers
995 views
Organizing your Universe?
When writing, I always have tons of ideas about the universe I'm creating as a whole: People, Places, Timelines.
I'm just struggling to organize it. I'd like to avoid inconsistencies in later ...
8
votes
7answers
370 views
Potential confusion: referring to home planet as “Earth”
I'm writing a science fiction story and it's based in another galaxy, colonised by humans originally on a geographically equivalent "Earth".
My current usage refers to it as "Earth" and provides a ...
8
votes
3answers
266 views
World Building critique: Building an SF society off a tangent of “Adaptation”
I'm writing a short story for my english final - I'm a junior in high school; we've already taken our AP exam, but our teacher wanted to finish the year with something meaningful.
Anyway, I have been ...
8
votes
4answers
273 views
How can I strike a balance between setting and plot?
I'm not a fan of Tolkien's work, but it's relevant to my question, so take it as a reference point.
I love linguistics, culture, and worldbuilding, but sometimes have difficulty focusing on specific ...
8
votes
4answers
887 views
How often do writers develop characters before plot, and why?
As someone who writes a little as a hobby, this is something that I haven't really thought about until just recently, but...
Is it common for a writer to develop characters before actually coming up ...
6
votes
4answers
226 views
Using a world created by someone else for your own fiction
What is the procedure if you want to set a story in a world created by someone else?If, after reading someone else's novel I came up with some neat plot that would fit into that novel's world, but ...
6
votes
1answer
139 views
Shared worlds: are there any good collaborative sites out there?
Writing is something that I have wanted to do for some time, and I know that I don't currently have the skill set to do more than putter. Are there any shared world story sites that exist? A ...
5
votes
4answers
354 views
Creating a compelling story from a prebuilt world
I have during the last couple of years developed a fantasy world. It's a hobby project I work on when I have the time.
Every now and again I get some idea of a scene or an event and I place it on the ...
4
votes
4answers
130 views
How much should I reveal of how the world functions in fiction?
I am currently working on a fiction novel. The way the world (magic, technology, government, species etc) works is extremely complicated.
Basically, the idea is to reveal the mechanics bit by bit . ...
3
votes
1answer
87 views
Creating Shared Worlds
I have a world (well universe since the main focus of the shared world has the ability for space travel) that I am working on some books on however I believe its really large enough that I can open it ...
2
votes
3answers
113 views
Troubles with unfamiliar locations and settings based in the real world
I have a question: is it hard to write about a foreign country/place?
I know that Dostoevsky was Russian, his themes and settings were inspired or entirely based by Russia/the Russian culture.
But I ...
1
vote
3answers
262 views
Is it a bad idea to ground a fantasy world in earthy culture(s)?
I am deeply fascinated by Japanese culture and the medieval era; so naturally, when I began the development of my fantasy world it became solidly rooted in this ground.
Also with the animals that ...
1
vote
2answers
90 views
Shared World licensing fees
I have a world/universe that I wish to open up to other writers. However I am unsure how I should structure the licensing fees and rights of ownership over the world itself and what happens (basically ...
0
votes
1answer
51 views
Which fantasy worlds can be freely used in new work without a license? [closed]
There are lots of different fantasy worlds depicted in fiction. In general, due to copyright, a license is required from the original creator of the fiction to publish a new story set in that universe ...
