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Contents

Get Brainstorming

1. Steal Stuff

2. Name Stuff

3. Make Maps

4. Make Style-Guides

80 Questions to Ask

The Wider World

Your Protagonist’s Stomping Grounds

Running the World

People in the World

International Relations

Life, Love, and Death

Myth and History

Culture

Magic

Applying What You Know

Avoiding the Dreaded Infodump

1. Interact with the information.

2. Employ an outsider.

3. Use oral tradition.

4. Be brief and detailed.

5. Resort to the (dreaded) flashback.

About the Writer

3

Get Brainstorming Building a fantasy world is frankly one of the best parts of writing, if you ask me. You get to pull

together all this eccentric stuff like Cornish mythology and breakfast tea and pirates and talking dogs

and viola, somehow it meshes into this new exciting world.

And the crazy thing is you get to do all this cool research, and then you can blow it out the window

and dance to your own jazz! It’s your world, baby, so let’s build something.

To get started, we’re going to have to…

1. Steal Stuff

The most successful fantasy worlds are based on the real world, or real-world myths. Tolkien’s

Middle Earth was inspired by Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon culture and Narnia was very influenced

by Greek mythology. Garth Nix’s fantasy series Abhorsen drew heavily on trench warfare in WWI.

So when you set out to create a new world, have a look at things already exist, and see what you can

steal.

Medieval England has been plundered neigh to death, so maybe have a think about other times,

places, or legends. Or try to take on Medieval England from a different angle. Add some shazam to

that soup!

One recommendation I’d give: Try your hardest to base your fantasy story on something that isn’t

someone else’s fantasy books. I’m not going to name names, but you can really tell when someone

has just ripped off of Lord of the Rings. (Hint: It is called dragon but one of the letters is changed.

You’ll never guess!)

Some fun places to look for inspiration: SurLaLune Fairytales, Planet Earth (that really long

documentary your grandma likes), and ye local library.

2. Name Stuff

I find it really hard to brainstorm when I don’t have any names in place. So it’s time to name ALL

the things! (Okay, not all of them, but all the really important stuff. Like countries.)

I have been and always will be a fan of Behind the Name (and its cousin, Behind the Surname),

where you can spend literal hours trolling through names. With fantasy, you might or might not want

to change a letter or two, but for the struggling or uninspired this is a good jumping point.

Keep in mind the sound of the names you choose. You may not be up for all-out language creation

(see below), but you should try to think about what your character/country names sound like.

4 For instance, it might be a little hard to believe that characters named Alfarsi, Freud, Victor, and

Dayo are all from a country called Leesong (unless Leesong is a super diverse country full of

immigrants, in which case that’s totally cool).

If real names are getting you down, you might want to take yourself to my two BFFs: Oxford English

Dictionary Online or Online Etymology Dictionary.

The OED is a blessed place of glory and beauty, but it is also not free (unless you’re still using your

college login information long after you graduated haha what).

Ety is free, but not as thorough. (However, it is arguably easier to browse if you’re just mindlessly

trolling for words.)

Last but not least, this is a good article on Writer’s Digest about what to do/not do when making up

names.

3. Make Maps

I’m going to cheat on this and just give you guys the link to a master post that’s far more thorough

than I have space to be: The Whole Map on Tumblr.

In case you don’t want to read that for some reason: Maps are important. You need maps to know

where specifically your characters are moving and how far stuff is. If you hate the very thought of

making a map, con one of your friends into doing it for you. (Hey, it worked for me!)

If you don’t need a full-scale country map, make a map of your characters’ environment. If it’s a

boarding school, make floor plans (you can even use this handy guide). If it’s a ship, make ship

plans. Do the thing! It will help with choreography in your scenes, trust me.

One of my favorite books about maps is Mapping the World, which explores the ways different

cultures and eras represented the world. (Remember that thing about stealing from earlier?) Highly

recommend!

4. Make Style-Guides

Take thineself to Pinterest and make a style guide (or take up thine glue stick and turn on thine

printer). What general look do you want for the environment and the clothing?

Once you’ve got an idea of where to start, gather costume images from around the web, pick colors if

you’d like (characters color favorites and/or country/flag colors), and paste them together (or post

them on a Pinterest board) to create your characters’ unique wardrobes.

Believe or not, the clothes your characters wear, and the material those clothes are made out of, says

a lot about both the character and the world.

Other (non-Pinterest) places to look: Costumer’s Guide to Movie Costumes, National Costumes of

the World (25 of them, anyway), and Costume Institute at the Met.

5 Bonus: Build a Language

I am not a language person (you can ask my professor from Spanish 300), but I have a friend who

loves to make her own languages for her fantasy worlds. She recommends Language Construction

Kit and also this generator. The kit will walk you how to use the generator, and then the generator

will help you unpack your language.

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80 Questions to Ask I love sitting down and brainstorming what I can gather from cultures I’ve studied, places I’ve been,

and stories I’ve heard. It’s always exciting to feel the new place take shape, and to find your

protagonist’s role in it. This questionnaire is meant to help you along in your creation of a fully fleshed out world. Even if

your reader doesn’t need to know every question on this list, it’s good if you know.

The Wider World

1. What environment is the main story in? (Desert, mountain, forest, island, etc.)

2. What environments surround the area?

3. What limitations does this environment place on your protagonist? In what ways is the

environment stifling?

4. In what ways is the environment beneficial?

5. What kinds of environment has your protagonist never been in? (Could be a forest if they live

in the desert, could be the ocean if they live in a forest, etc.)

6. Describe the wealthiest city in the kingdom.

7. Describe the poorest.

8. How do people travel in this world? (On foot, by stagecoach, steamer, horseback, etc.)

9. What is the difference between the way the wealthy travel and the way the poor do?

10. What form of infrastructure connects your world? (Examples: Pittsburgh is connected by

bridges, Venice by canals, Tidewater Virginia by rivers)

Your Protagonist’s Stomping Grounds

11. What is your protagonist’s house (castle, spaceship, yurt) made out of? (Protip: If your protag

is home often, you might make a floorplan to help you choreograph indoors scenes.)

12. What does it look like?

13. What does it smell like?

14. How does the air feel?

15. What is one item (either local-craft or from abroad) in the home that your protagonist values

above everything else?

16. What are the main trades in your protagonist’s town? How does he or she interact with them?

17. What is the main gathering spot? (Pub, church, hot tub (hey, it’s the thing in Iceland), etc.)

Describe it.

18. Your character is walking down the main street. What sort of pavement (or non-pavement) is

he or she walking on? What do they smell? What do they hear? What’s the weather like?

Who calls out to them? Who avoids them (or who do they avoid)?

19. What are five things your character knows about his or her home that a foreigner wouldn’t?

20. What does your character’s environment look like to a native, and what does it look like to an

outsider? (Place a native from your novel in that town hub. Describe the scene. Then place a

foreign character in the same setting, and describe it again.)

7 Running the World

21. What sort of government exists in your protagonist’s country?

22. What sort of government do the neighbors have?

23. What government figures would your character run into in an average month? (Law

enforcement, lords, tax collectors, etc.)

24. How do the common folk feel about the government? How do the nobility/wealthy classes

see it? And how about the king/doge/president/prime minister?

25. What’s one thing this government is super good at?

26. What’s one thing this government really sucks at?

27. What’s the flag look like? (See this guide for flag design tips.)

28. How does the government interact with the religious body? Does it?

People in the World

29. Who is the cultural or racial majority?

30. Name two minorities.

31. How do the different factions get along? In what way do they work well together? How do

they cause tensions?

32. What prejudices does each side have about the other?

33. Have your main character walk into a tavern (public bath/park/space station/the gathering

spot we mentioned earlier). What sorts of people does he or she see? What sorts does he or

she choose to interact with?

34. What does traditional dress look like? Is it common to wear, or do only certain people adhere

to it?

35. What’s something you have to own to belong in this place? (A Kokeshi doll, a little elf

figurine, a burka in this season’s latest colors.)

36. Is this an introverted or extroverted society? (Example: Americans vs. British.)

International Relations

37. How do different countries in this world share resources? Is there an even balance, or does

one hold more cards?

38. Who brings the news across nations? How does your protagonist learn what’s going on in the

world?

39. Who has invaded this country in the past? What marks (traditions, laws, ruins) have they left?

40. Which nations are allies in this world? Which are arch enemies?

41. What is the most important ideal to you protagonist’s country as a whole? What would other

countries say is the stereotype? (Brutally simplistic examples: America = freedom, French =

romance)

42. How is this ideal positive, and how is it negative?

43. Is this ideal or stereotype really true? Is it true to your protagonist?

44. What’s one custom in this country that really annoys or offends a neighbor?

Life, Love, and Death

45. Does your world have rules of propriety? If so, what are they?

46. What happens if someone breaks a rule?

47. How does courtship work in this world? Who approaches who? How involved are the

parents?

48. What is this world or culture’s moral standing on sexual activity?

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49. Whether conservative or liberal, what tensions could arise from breaking the normal? (For

instance, pre-marital sex in Victorian England or willing celibacy in modern America.)

50. What are the traditions surrounding marriage?

51. What superstitions and traditions surround birth? (When is the baby named? Who delivers

the baby? How much do people know about childbirth in general? Is the father present during

the birth?)

52. Who is most respected in this world: The elderly or the young?

53. How do the people treat the most vulnerable (elderly, young, disabled)? Are they honored,

begrudged, or something in-between?

54. How do fathers treat their daughters?

55. What are the traditions surrounding death? How do people mourn?

56. Are there unacceptable ways to mourn?

57. What superstitions surround burial? (For instance, do you have to be buried in a church yard?

Is it bad luck to be buried at sea?)

58. What superstitions surround the dead? (Do your ancestors watch over you? Do spirits haunt

those who did them wrong?)

Myth and History

59. How did this country come into being?

60. How has it changed between then and the start of the novel?

61. Who is the idolized figure in this country’s history? (The Washington, Churchill, Gandhi,

Esther, etc.?)

62. Who is the villainized figure in this country’s history? Who does everyone love to hate?

63. What is one myth that everyone knows? How does it reflect the way the world works?

64. What is your protagonist’s favorite legend?

65. Name two constellations and the stories surrounding them.

Culture

66. How does the culture influence your protagonist? In what ways is the culture antagonistic? In

what ways is it beautiful?

67. What are three detailed, specific things about this culture that you love? What are three that

you hate?

68. What is one yearly ceremony or celebration that is important to the culture (and your main

character)?

69. What is one specific action/ritual/habit this culture has (and why)? How would they react to

someone who breaks it? (Example: The Pashtun don’t throw away bread crumbs, they put

them outside so the birds can eat them. If you brush off your shirt over a trashcan, they will

take the trash can and try to sweep the crumbs onto the ground outside.)

70. What is the height of honor in this culture? (Examples: Giving one’s life to protect others,

committing suicide rather than surrendering.)

71. What is the height of dishonor?

72. What is this culture’s main religion, and how does it affect daily life?

73. Are there other forms of religion practiced within the culture or the country? If so, what are

they?

Magic

74. Does magic exist in your world?

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75. Does everyone have access to it?

76. What rules exist around the magic? Where does it come from?

77. What is the cost of magic?

78. What societal expectations surround the magic? (For instance, is it rude to perform magic

during tea? Is it rude not to offer your host a magical gift when you pay a call?)

79. What laws surround magic?

80. Does the magic cost the wielder anything? If so, what?

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Applying What You Know You finished the questionnaire—congrats! Next, you should filter through the information to find out

what’s really important to your story. This will help you gain focus in your writing, and develop

direction to help you avoid infodumping later.

Complete the questions/prompts below to start focusing on what really matters in your brand new

shiny world:

1. Pick three of your favorite discoveries from above and list them.

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2. What four things will have the biggest impact on your character’s journey, and how?

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3. What five pieces of backstory or larger culture are essential for your reader to understand? And

what are some ways you might show or explain it?

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4. In what ways can the world you’ve built create tension for your main cast?

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5. Describe three of your favorite visual elements of this world. (Clothing, landscape, etc.)

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6. List four real-world regions, cultures, or periods of history you’d like to research more for this

project.

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6. In your protagonist's voice, describe one aspect of this world through your protag’s primary sense

(smell, sound, sight, touch, etc).

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Avoiding the Dreaded Infodump So now you know a lot about your world. Sweet!

Here’s the bad news: Getting necessary information about this crazy awesome world across to your

reader can be hard. Really, really hard.

The best worldbuilding is done in a steady trickle, so soft the reader doesn’t really know how they

know the information. I’m not there yet. Instead of a gently flowing, melodious stream, I often find

myself taking a hammer to my readers’ brains and being like, “NOTICE THIS, IT’S IMPORTANT.”

This, my friends, is an infodump.

An infodump is when necessary information is given to the reader all at once, often awkwardly

stuffed into the text like a history lesson. Many (most?) prologues are infodumps, and generally

you’ll find the heaviest downpour in the first few chapters.

To catch my bad habits, here are some creative writing tips I employ to convey information without

infodumping:

1. Interact with the information.

Ask yourself: How can you turn your infodump into an active scene?

Example: Your dragons are connoisseurs of man meat. Instead of telling your reader the history of

man’s battle with dragons, show your protagonist engaged in an attack.

The opening of How to Tame Your Dragon is a good example of this—though Hiccup’s voiceover

tells us a lot about the dragons, we’re also seeing it happen live.

How does your protagonist respond to the attack? What does the fight reveal about him/her?Show the

answers to these questions, and what was a textbook infodump changes into shining character voice

and conflict.

At its best, worldbuilding should be working on three levels: showing the world, moving the plot

forward, and revealing something about the characters (specifically your protagonist).

2. Employ an outsider.

Make sure your main cast includes an outsider. This doesn’t strictly mean a foreigner (though that’s

great), but even just a hick plopped in the city or vice versa can be a good way to show the reader the

world as the character is figuring out how to live in it.

15 If this person is a secondary character, you can put some questions the MC doesn’t think about into

Mr./Ms. Supportive Character’s mouth (“Why do you all wear masks?”) and let your MC explain.

See: Every magical school book in the history of ever.

3. Use oral tradition.

Though this should be used sparingly and requires a lot of work to weave into present action,

sometimes when you have essential information (like a legend, or gossip about the royal family) you

can convey it through oral tradition. Ballads, bards, or stories exchanged during the journey can be

used (with great trepidation) to get chunks of information across in one place.

The most important thing with this (as with all worldbuilding) is that the information should be

immediately applicable to your characters. Otherwise your readers will just skim through it.

4. Be brief and detailed.

When you have to convey information in a block, make sure it is as focused, detailed, and brief as

possible. Make it personally important to the narrator and relevant to the present action.

Normally the best way to do this is through stream-of-consciousness. If someone says something,

you can follow your narrator’s thoughts through the information. However, it’s important to actually

follow the thought train, not cram in random information.

For instance, if someone mentioned 9/11 to you, you might think about where you were on that day,

the (general) politics of the fallout, or the memorial in NYC. But you probably wouldn’t mentally

construct a timeline of the war in Iraq or make an inward speech about the complexities of the

current situation in Afghanistan, because (unless you’re pointedly being asked about that) it’s

probably not immediately relevant to your conversation or life. If your thought process were being

written, you’d probably skip the general and stick to the personal.

So keep it short and sweet, and cut, cut, cut as you redraft until you only have the absolutely

necessary bones left.

5. Resort to the (dreaded) flashback.

Flashbacks should be approached with much caution. Too long, and you risk losing your reader. If

it’s not immediately applicable, your reader might skim. Remember that what matters to the reader

(and the story) is the action happening in the present of the story. You don’t want to lose that tension

with unnecessary (or uninteresting) information.

An aside: Shows like Arrow, Once Upon a Time and Lost [generally] do a good job tying the

flashbacks to the present action by unified themes (love, loss, loyalty, betrayal, magic is good, magic

is bad, etc), but by the fourth time Charming and Snow have been separated in flashback-land you

might find yourself wondering why we’re still spending time in the memories. Arrow is a big sinner

in this, especially in the first season, because Abandoned on Island is never going to be as interesting

as Killing Bad Guys in the City.

16 The best way to go is to make the flashback as tight and vivid as possible.

In my own writing, I have a prince with a power he can’t control. His father never touches him. But

instead of just saying that, I put in a short, four-sentence flashback scene during a relevant moment.

In the flashback, the prince is learning how to ride and his stirrup breaks when the horse spooks. He

has a terrible fall and looks up to see that his father stepped back instead of catching him. That sort of

specific image (hopefully) drives the point home to the reader, and connects the information on an

emotional and informative level.

The best tips for this (and every writing obstacle)…

Study the way others do it.

Books that do it well: Sea of Trolls, The Thief (The Queen’s Thief #1), The Dark is Rising, and The

Knife of Never Letting Go. You can also look at how movies/shows do it well (and how they do it

poorly).

Even though they aren’t fantasy/sci-fi, books with strong sense of place are also good to study for

worldbuilding ideas. The Scorpio Races, Mrs. Mike, and Rooftoppers are a few of my favorites.

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About the Writer Alyssa was born in small-town

Milton, Florida, but life as a roving

military kid soon mellowed her

(unintelligibly strong) Southern

accent. Wanderlust is in her blood,

and she’s always waiting for the

wind to change. Stories remain her

constant.

Alyssa received her BA in English

with an emphasis in Creative Writing

from Berry College and her MA with

honors in Writing for Young People

at Bath Spa University. In 2013, she

won a prize from the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity for her creative non-fiction essay, Naan

in the Afghan Village.

She is represented by Amber Caraveo at Skylark Literary.

Visit her website: http://alyssahollingsworth.com/