World-Building
World-building can be fun, especially if you enjoy doing research on cultures, landscapes, or making up magic systems! I recommend you keep a master log of your world-building, since you're probably going to have to reference it often. If you'd like a development sheet for a country or city/town, feel free to use mine here.
Whether you're doing a story set in the real world and modern time, or you're doing a fantasy world you totally made up on your own, you better do some research! If your character uses a sword, you better look up lots of sword-fighting tutorials and even learn it yourself if possible. Or if you're really into cooking and know a lot about it, make your character be into cooking too! I like to say: If you don't know, look it up. (I'm personally tired of seeing wolf packs structured as alphas and omegas when that doesn't actually exist.)
I highly recommend that you have a good idea of your world before you start writing your story too. You can always write about different landscapes or what a culture of a particular region is like, if you'd like to get the creativity flowing. Just try not to make things up on the spot that never appear again (or don't even work within the world), or list off a bunch of mystical creatures that your world has and that your audience never sees.
If you're into making maps or willing to give it a try, you could make a map to stir some ideas (particularly for a fantasy story). Think about plant life and animal life, or what creatures might exist. Create reference guides for locations and creatures alike, maybe even healing properties of plants or what types of food exist in a region.
You can also put some thought into how clothing is created, what sort of technology exists, etc. How do people live off the land? How has society developed from there? What sort of culture or spirituality was created over time? What sort of traditions or festivals are unique to the region? Do they use money or trading?
If you're writing a fantasy story, you've got to have magic! What kind of magic system exists? What are the "rules" of this system, as in what is allowed and what just can't be done? Are people able to bring back the dead, or is their magic so restricted that they can only use it for certain tasks? Why is this? Do they need to use an object, like a wand, for channeling power? Does their magic have an "expiration date"? How do people learn magic? Is there a school, or do people learn by apprenticeships?
I recommend using SPICE (which I learned in history, but apparently a lot of people have never heard of it): Social, Political, Interaction, Culture, and Economic. You can add an M to the end to include Magic, if you'd like. You can then have a set of questions under each category. Examples of questions for each category...
Social: Is there a difference between gender roles? How is society structured?
Political: What is the government setup? Is there a war going on?
Interaction (with Environment): How do these people use the land around them? Do they protect the land or destroy it?
Culture: What sort of architecture is mostly seen? What are the religious beliefs?
Economic: Are people materialistic? Are there major trading routes?
Magic: What is the magic system? What are its limits?
I would use SPICE(M) and answer a bunch of questions, going as in-depth as I can, for each region that's important to the story. If your characters are just passing through a region, you don't have to worry about building it so much. But this is a valuable exercise you can use for major locations, especially a character's hometown.
Whether you're doing a story set in the real world and modern time, or you're doing a fantasy world you totally made up on your own, you better do some research! If your character uses a sword, you better look up lots of sword-fighting tutorials and even learn it yourself if possible. Or if you're really into cooking and know a lot about it, make your character be into cooking too! I like to say: If you don't know, look it up. (I'm personally tired of seeing wolf packs structured as alphas and omegas when that doesn't actually exist.)
I highly recommend that you have a good idea of your world before you start writing your story too. You can always write about different landscapes or what a culture of a particular region is like, if you'd like to get the creativity flowing. Just try not to make things up on the spot that never appear again (or don't even work within the world), or list off a bunch of mystical creatures that your world has and that your audience never sees.
If you're into making maps or willing to give it a try, you could make a map to stir some ideas (particularly for a fantasy story). Think about plant life and animal life, or what creatures might exist. Create reference guides for locations and creatures alike, maybe even healing properties of plants or what types of food exist in a region.
You can also put some thought into how clothing is created, what sort of technology exists, etc. How do people live off the land? How has society developed from there? What sort of culture or spirituality was created over time? What sort of traditions or festivals are unique to the region? Do they use money or trading?
If you're writing a fantasy story, you've got to have magic! What kind of magic system exists? What are the "rules" of this system, as in what is allowed and what just can't be done? Are people able to bring back the dead, or is their magic so restricted that they can only use it for certain tasks? Why is this? Do they need to use an object, like a wand, for channeling power? Does their magic have an "expiration date"? How do people learn magic? Is there a school, or do people learn by apprenticeships?
I recommend using SPICE (which I learned in history, but apparently a lot of people have never heard of it): Social, Political, Interaction, Culture, and Economic. You can add an M to the end to include Magic, if you'd like. You can then have a set of questions under each category. Examples of questions for each category...
Social: Is there a difference between gender roles? How is society structured?
Political: What is the government setup? Is there a war going on?
Interaction (with Environment): How do these people use the land around them? Do they protect the land or destroy it?
Culture: What sort of architecture is mostly seen? What are the religious beliefs?
Economic: Are people materialistic? Are there major trading routes?
Magic: What is the magic system? What are its limits?
I would use SPICE(M) and answer a bunch of questions, going as in-depth as I can, for each region that's important to the story. If your characters are just passing through a region, you don't have to worry about building it so much. But this is a valuable exercise you can use for major locations, especially a character's hometown.
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