World Building
April 12, 2009 | 
Author Creating fictional worlds can be one of the most enjoyable parts of writing. Done most often in fantasy and science fiction genres, it is also necessary in mainstream fiction. Many writers create believable, a realistic worlds based on areas they know that without using actual place names. No matter if you are writing speculative or commercial fiction, these writing tips for creating a fictional world will help transport the reader into your story.
Creating a Fictional World – Necessary Ingredients
Any fictional world you create for your short story or novel needs the basic building blocks of culture and society. Of course the depth you go into these things will depend largely on your plot and storyline
Writing Tips for Creating a Fictional World – Read more here.
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Posted in Creativity, Fantasy Genre, World Building | 
Tags: Fantasy film, Fiction, Short story, Speculative fiction, Writer | 
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Including religion in your fantasy world building is a challenge. The challenge, to the creative fiction writer, is not necessarily coming up with names of imaginary gods and what type of religious laws they have for their followers. Services, traditions and rituals can be fun to create as well.
The main problem with fantasy world building is making sure it is not an unwitting parody of real religions (unless, of course, you are writing religious satire).
On a popular list of things NOT to write in fantasy fiction, the ‘noble savage’ and the misguided ‘insert dominant race here,’ is near the top. When world building, try to avoid the ‘cowboys and indians’ type of conflict. Of course, there is a great chance of conflict between the religions you create, it should just be based on something other than real life drama.
World building is an important and really, really fun part of writing fantasy and science fiction novels.
Of course, since fantasy and sci fi occur in worlds that do not actually exist, you need to world build in order to know where and what and how your characters will be doing whatever they need to do.
What are some of the main areas of world building?
- Map making
- Political systems
- Economy
- Social groups and interactions
- Education system
- Language creation
- Industry and agriculture
- Religion
Are all these things necessary to create a believable fantasy or sci fi world?
Well… maybe.
This is where the world building trap starts to slam shut.
Some fantasy and sci fi writers – me included – have delved into building the world of their novel so deeply that it becomes a distraction from writing the book. I have spent a week on a map. I have studied linguistic systems and created my own languages. I have outlined royal successions for dozens of generations, and written brief histories for each one.
Did doing all this make my stories better?
Yes, I think it did.
Was all of it necessary? Was all of it used?
No way.
World building is fun. World building is important. But 95% of the world building you do will not make it into your novel. It may be vital to know the history of the kingdom and how it affected the trade routes, but chances are, that will not make it into your book.
Elements of Time
Available from Twin Trinity Media.
Elements of Dimension continues the Twin Trinity short story anthology series with more top-quality stories and poems. This book explores the themes of science fiction, fantasy and reality. I have one short story, "Death Obeyed," and one poem, "Tale of the Suburban Dungeon" in this book.
"Elements of Time" short story anthology is available now. It features winning stories from the Accentuate Services contests plus themed poetry. Two of M. Lori Motley's short stories, "Inescapable" and "No Time Like Now," are included.
"Elements of Soul" short story anthology is available now. It features fifteen winning stories from the Accentuate Services contests plus themed poetry. Two of M. Lori Motley's short stories, "Summer Heat" and "Flood of Tears," are included.