How to Make a Sci-fi/fantasy World

This follow up expands my earlier how to about sci-fi and fantasy. I do a lot of work I these areas so this is something I know rather well. Building worlds isn’t easy. It can drive you insane but if your already halfway there like me then it shouldn’t mess you up to bad.

Decide what type of world you want. It’s always good to start with what you want. Limit yourself to one world with a max of four. (You’ll notice that most sci-fi movies rarely visit more then for world per movie.) If you concentrate on one world then it’s far easier to describe it. This can go for a whole galaxy but it takes a long time and isn’t important at first.

Figure out what you want in your world. This peppers your stories and makes it far easier take the story where you want to take it. Monsters plants and natural hazards make the world far more interesting. You don’t have to do this all at once. Just make sure you have an idea before your committed.

Name your world. Your world’s name isn’t important to your story as you might think. If it’s not earth you should name it but if you want your readers to think it’s earth wait to call it by name otherwise say it in the first part.

Start your story. This is actually the first and last thing you do. When developing a world you should write stories that tell you of the hardships of the world and allow you to build on your base idea. The Velden stories are a good example of this. (For the Velden stories got to authspot.com and search Velden. It should bring them all up.) When the story starts it seems like a primitive world but you quickly find out that it’s not. It’s part of a much larger world that I have worked on for a long time. The other stories come out you’ll see how big the world is.

This isn’t the only way to build a world but it is the one that makes the best worlds. Don’t spend too much time building your world. If you do it will end up unfinished and hard to understand.