In one of my writing groups, I noticed that many of the writers were writing sci-fi or fantasy worlds, which is great, but with less developed world building than I would prefer, let's say. It happened enough that I thought it'd be useful to write out a general overview on worldbuilding in one handy worksheet, which is what follows. I hope people find it useful. Obviously, there's a lot here and a writer probably won't use all of it but hopefully there are things for any speculative writer to think about.

 

If you want a downloadable, printed version, download this PDF. Now, onto the worksheet:

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You are writing a novel or story which combines the world that we know and live in with fantastical, science-fiction, and/or other speculative elements. Congratulations! These are awesome and the world needs more of them.

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That said, your fantasy/sci-fi/speculative work (which I will from now on refer to as your “Fantasy piece” for brevity’s sake) will work best if the fantasy concepts that are vivid in your head are communicated to people who haven’t done a Vulcan mind meld with you. There are rules and history and tendencies and mores and details in your head which makes your world live and breathe which have to be communicated to the reader.

 

This worksheet will ask questions about the world of your fantasy piece. The questions will tease out the things that come to mind whenever I read a fantasy piece. You don’t have to insert all of these details into your piece verbatim. That would probably be tedious. But it would be helpful if you clearly know the answer to some or most of these questions and use the details these questions bring up to deepen the portrayal of the fantasy element in your piece.

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1. What is the fantasy element in your world? It could be the existence of old mythical realms intersecting our reality, alien incursions, alternate realities, a secret subculture of magic users, the development of technology such as time travel or artificial intelligence, superheroes, surprisingly intelligent animals or inanimate objects….  I could go on, but there are hundreds of other things it could be. What makes your world different than ours? Or is there more than one fantasy element in your world?

2. Was there a time that the fantasy element didn’t exist? If so, how did the fantasy element develop throughout the history of the world? What has changed as time has gone on? What are the consequences of this development?

3. How many people know about the fantasy element? Is it a secret known only to a select few? If so, why is it secret? Who is allowed to know about it? What measures have been taken to keep it secret? What would happen if it were suddenly now a secret? If it’s not secret, how does the knowledge of the fantasy element affect society? Not just your main characters, but your uninvolved bystanders? What are the range of opinions that people have about the fantasy element? Are opinions changing? Do some people have incorrect knowledge about the fantasy element? What is the most surprising consequence of this knowledge?

4. How pervasive is the fantasy element? Are only a small set of people affected by it? Or is the entire world affected by it? What is the intensity of this interaction? Does the fantasy element lurk in the background of life or does it completely overwhelm the life of those affected?

5. How have the various societal institutions of the real world adapted to accommodate the fantasy element? Does the newspaper have reporters assigned to cover the fantasy element? Do governments have departments devoted to combating/supporting/studying/regulating the fantasy element? Is it studied in school? Monetized by business?

6. How has the knowledge base of your fantasy element changed over time? Did your society once think this of the fantasy element years ago but nowadays they think that? Did they once love and esteem the fantasy element but now hate it? Or vice versa?

7. How has your fantasy element affected:

   • Fashion and Style

   • Food and Drink

   • Sports

   • Commerce and Economics

   • Government

   • Media

   • Pop Culture

   • Dating & Sex

   • Family structure

   • Intellectualism

   • Travel

   • Religion and Spirtuality

   • Language

   • Health and Medicine

   • Science and Technology

   • Music

   • Celebrity

   • War/Armed Conflict/Violence

   • Crime

   • The Environment/Weather

   • Nature

   • Infrastructure

   • Education

   • The Job Market

 

What categories of the above categories were the most consequentially affected by your fantasy element? Which are the least?

 

Exercises to develop your fantasy worldbuilding:

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1. Wikipedia your fantasy world. Write a one page summary outlining the basic information about the history of the fantasy element in your fantasy piece using information available in the world of the story of your piece. The history, the who, what, when, where, why and how of it all as succinctly as possible. Make a timeline of pivotal events of your fantasy world. No narrative needed, this is just informational. It doesn’t have to be exciting to read.

2. Astro City your fantasy world. Astro City is a comic book series written by Kurt Busiek which posits a long running superhero universe similar to the Marvel and DC universes, with decades of accumulated history and continuity implied. The stories that Busiek writes are not the story of the usual adventures of Superhero main characters. Instead Busiek focuses on peripheral characters and concerns of people in this universe. How does the Superman analog go on a date if the world depends on his constant intervention to keep them safe? How does a reporter report on superhero activities in a world in which reality is regularly warped by superhuman activity? How do the regular humans in a town clean up after a big superhero battle?
   
   In this exercise, write the Astro City version of your fantasy piece. What ultraperipheral character or worldbuilding aspect would make a good small story on its own? What unimportant people doing normally mundane activities have been affected by the fantasy element, and how? What small stories can be told as a result of your fantasy element that would be impossible in our mundane world?

3. OpEd your fantasy world. The fantasy element in your piece is sure to have elicited strong opinions among those who know about it. Write two columns about an aspect of your fantasy element, one strongly for and one strongly against it.

4. Trivialize your fantasy world. What are the weirdest, most delightful, most surprising, most illuminating factoids about your fantasy world? If someone from our world were to suddenly find themselves in your fantasy world, what little thing would most blow their mind? Conversely, what aspects of the fantasy world are shockingly unchanged from ours?

5. Make a Glossary for your fantasy world. Any subculture will generate its own language or lingo that is opaque to outside listeners but clear to those within that subculture. Make a list of terms that people in this world will know and use like second nature that outsiders do not know at all. You can find pools of weird jargon in many small subcultures of our world that are utterly baffling to outsiders. Just for a few examples:

   • Video games like League of Legends or Dota

   • Disc Golf

   • Knitting

   • Culinary terms and slang