Tips for Writers: Worldbuilding

Discworld, imagined by Terry Pratchett

Worldbuilding is a giant in the realm of fiction. Often, people like to ignore it at first because it requires enormous effort on the author's part, but the truth is, there's no escaping it. Even if you're writing realistic fiction, you need to factor in worldbuilding, because that's what explains why everything in your book is happening now. We are going to focus on how it can help your Young Adult Fantasy writing.
          Let's make a list of things to consider, shall we?

• Environment: including the way the ecosystem works in particular areas of the world, the temperature, the defining features of the landscape, and more.
• Cultures, Politics, Religions: unless you're writing a Utopian novel, the characters in your story probably belong to different cultures, have different beliefs about certain topics, dress certain ways. Remember, your characters are individuals, and just like in the real world, even the most similar people probably don't agree on everything.
• Basic Infrastructure: what do your people eat? And don't say "stew." Stew is so common in fantasy books, but how bland is that? Know your world. What is grown? How do people get around? How do they dispose of things? How does the economy work and who holds the power? What does the average person do for a living?
• History: even though you've made this world pop into existence, you want to make it look like any other world, one rich with history. Civilizations don't just suddenly exist. How did your world get to the point it's at today?This is may not seem important to the now of your story, but it is. The history of your world explains why everything is happening now, rather than one hundred years ago or one hundred years from now.
• Mimicking Ethnic Groups: you want to create believable people with accurate portrayals of society. In an article we found that may also help you, "7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding," by Charlie Jane Anders, it's said "If you decide that instead of Belgians, you're going to have an alien species called the Bzlgizns––who are basically Belgians except they've got antlers––you still have to try and make them well-rounded and as nuanced as possible." In other words, you can't just create a race and give them no personality. They can't exist for the sake of existing. They have desires, goals, and practices that make them who they are. 
• Knowing How Certain Powers/Inventions Impact Society: if there is magic, or a crazy new invention, you have to consider the aspects of society it will impact. You can't introduce something and not expect everyone to be affected by it. 

Now, don't feel too overwhelmed by this list. Odds are, you've probably imagined a lot of it, and the rest are suggestions for you to work on to give characters a more realistic feel in a much larger playground. A lot of these also pertain to worldbuilding from scratch, which some of you may not necessarily be doing. For example, if your fantasy story is set in our world, then a lot of the history and culture and infrastructure is there. You should still do your research, but you don't have to start from the beginning.
          A good example of this is in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. The human world is still there, and the Shadowhunters do behave similarly to most humans when not hunting demons. Therefore, Clare's worldbuilding consists mostly of defining Shadowunter history, some aspects of their culture, and how their power works in relation to the rest of the world.
          For some, it is easier to create a "worldbuilding bible," so to speak. In this document, you write down all the aspects of the world, even the ones you may not necessarily use in the book, to further define your story and make the characters and reactions more believable. Your worldbuilding bible could contain a map with lists and histories of all the places, along with the cultures in those areas and how they interact with other places/people/species, etc. Honestly, this article would be way too long if we went through every possible aspect to include, but we've handed you the basic tools and it's time to start digging!
          What's in your world?

Other Resources:

"25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding" by Chuck Wendig

"Brandon Sanderson Teaches Fantasy Writing and Worldbuilding" by Nathan Smith

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