Creative ways to worldbuild

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

How do you like to go about worldbuilding, and what are some different ways you like do it?

Someone on the forums (can't remember who) said they wrote songs. I like the sound of that, and I'd like to focus on recipes and food for a bit in one piece I'm working on.

For example, what ingedients are easily accessible and therefore considered upper/lower class. If the world doesn't have mammals or mammal analogues, say goodbye to anything dairy based. Also, cultural and geographical influences (e.g. spices, preservation techniques, dietary restrictions) or whether the magic system helps at all (control over fire would at very least make things easier, and there's the gag of Iceman instantly chilling your drinks).

Edited October 10, 2021 by jamesbondsmith

[Channelknight Fadran]

Here's a good idea: do some soft worldbuilding.

All ye coward authors only do hard. This is false. Soft worldbuilding expands the soul of the work of writing itself. Just look for a vibe, connect it to the theme, yeet out a couple ideas, and BAM: you've got yourself a great world to work with.

[Mage he/him]

6 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Here's a good idea: do some soft worldbuilding.

All ye coward authors only do hard. This is false. Soft worldbuilding expands the soul of the work of writing itself. Just look for a vibe, connect it to the theme, yeet out a couple ideas, and BAM: you've got yourself a great world to work with.

But. My OCD nerd mind can't handle not knowing everything about my world.

No, you're right. This is a good idea, and often is how I'll start a world (then proceed to flesh out every detail that could possibly be relevant to my story). How I do worldbuilding is to get a single cool idea, and go from there. If the one idea is cool/absurd enough, more cool/absurd ideas will follow.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Soft is so good though... and a lot less work on the detail end...

[Mage he/him]

1 minute ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Soft is so good though... and a lot less work on the detail end...

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it in other media, but for myself, my brain just doesn't work that way. Maybe I should work on that and change my brain. Perhaps your next RightingWrite lesson will do it for me. I dunno.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Oh right.

I need to do that.

Have you watched Castle in the Sky yet?

[Mage he/him]

1 minute ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Oh right.

I need to do that.

Have you watched Castle in the Sky yet?

Errr. No comment.