In a new post, Kirsten Lamb gives advice on worldbuilding. “Science fiction and fantasy are what most people think of when one mentions ‘world-building’ but techno thrillers like The Hunt for Red October or even crime procedurals like Rizzoli & Isles or NCIS also must create a world the audience understands,” Lamb says.
For an expansive story world, Lamb recommends creating a story bible. “The more world-building we have, then the better records we need to keep,” she says. “In your bible, you’ll detail out any magic or technology, how it works or doesn’t. This will make it simpler for you to go back and refer to as you’re writing.”
Lamb examines how different genres use worldbuilding, such as the rules of magic in fantasy and high tech in science fiction, as well as the range of worldbuilding within genres. In Star Trek, the cultural worldbuilding is rich, whereas the writers generally don’t explain how most of the technology works. In The Martian, hard science is the selling point.
One important aspect of worldbuilding is knowing how to dole it out. If you show too much too soon, you could lose your reader. “If we have to keep up with the name of five characters, a religion, a mountain range, a certain spell, a sword (that is called something other than ‘a sword’) it is a LOT of vocabulary hitting us at one time,” Lamb notes.
To prepare for worldbuilding, Lamb recommends paying close attention to books, movies, and tv series that created environments you loved. Ask yourself what you liked about the world and which elements really caught your eye. Explore why you liked these elements, and how they made you feel. Don’t be shy about mixing elements from different worlds, such as high tech and mythical beings.
Importantly, your world needs to have order. “We need to draw from what readers already know so they have some sort of psychological tether,” Lamb explains. “For instance, Dune is about rival houses, but the worlds eerily reflect the age of colonization and the battle over the Middle East.” Any constructed languages also should have order and logic. “If we use this language for any amount of time, the ear will pick up on consistency and thus make it ‘seem’ more authentic because it will ‘sound’ like an actual language (just one we don’t understand),” Lamb writes. “Keep this in mind for vocabulary as well.”
Other genres, like mystery and military fiction, require worldbuilding as well, because most readers don’t know how a detective works or the way weapons are operated. And of course, any genre using an historical setting requires information and detail to ground the reader in the story world.
