Five Ways to Become Actively Involved in World Building

You’re involved in world building even if you aren’t writing sci-fi/fantasy, the genres we usually associate with the term “world building.” Your fictional universes may parallel our “real world,” but they’re always written through your mind and heart.

For many authors, being a “sub-creator” is a passion and a way of life they seek to improve.

Other than reading and observing, what are ways you can become stronger at building your worlds? Here are five ways you can become actively involved in creating more interesting worlds for us to visit when we read your books.

1. Take art classes

I’m a fan of the Star Wars trilogy written by Timothy Zahn in the early 1990s. In it, the Big Bad is Thrawn, a strategic genius. He focuses on the art of his enemy as a way to gain insight into their ethos, their strengths, and their weaknesses.

I love that take on art appreciation, but I also believe this works for writers on a hands-on basis. We understand the literature of our culture, and we often play with words in world building. I encourage you to do the same with art.

Art helps you understand not just a culture but the world–how to see it, observe it, and love it. Painting and drawing, even poorly, will help you become a more detailed person and provide your readers with a deeper sense of realism even in purely alien realms.

Artistic expression extends beyond drawing and painting, and so should your experience.

Consider dance. Dance is how a culture interacts with music and with each other. A more formal culture may have highly structured dances. An exuberant, family-centered culture may express themselves through group dances and more energetic movement.

As you immerse yourself in the overflow of culture (its arts and creative endeavours), you’ll start to feel from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head the differences and similarities between tribes and nations.

You’ll gain new emotional vocabulary and have a greater range of expression to draw from.

Plus, dance, art, sculpture, and other fundamental arts will help you get out of your head and into the world around you, something many of us could use!

2. Get involved with Old World crafts and survival skills

Part of me has always pitied the weavers of the past. Whiling away the hours at a loom just to get cloth seemed so dull and fruitless!

Then I tried my hand at a loom at an interactive writing conference where fantasy authors tried out various Old World crafts.

I loved it! The weaving rhythm was hypnotic, and the feeling of satisfaction over a few inches of cloth was incredible. I left that weaving session with respect for the weavers of the past and a visceral understanding of the process.

You can do the same thing with any craft, especially ones you might put into your world. Even if the crafts are created through magic or other methods, you’ll have an elemental knowledge that will enhance your writing and your worlds.

3. Take martial arts/strategy classes

Almost every world has its warrior class, and, for many of us, the warrior experience and mindset isn’t part of our life.

Immersing yourself in any well-taught martial arts class (including the sparring!) will help you write that training montage you’re contemplating. You’ll even have the bruises to display to your friends.

If you are setting your characters in Medieval-style eras, Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and Historical African Martial Arts (HAMA) are two paths you might pursue. These disciplines use fighting manuals from the 1200-1800s to explore sword fighting, pole arms, and other historical martial disciplines.

Even if you never become a full-fledged knight of the realm, you might rethink and revise some of your fight scenes before you send them off to your editors. Plus, you’ll pity the fool who keeps a death grip on her sword during training or a battle (her wrists will hurt terribly the next day).

4. Get involved or familiar with local politics

This sounds terrible to me! I prefer to experience political conflict through books or in the comments section when I’m having a bad day and want to make it worse.

Yet political interaction is the basis for most conflicts in world building. Experiencing how a purely political organization works may make you cynical, but it may also help you become a better observer of human nature and a better writer.

Think of how poorer the world would be without Dante’s political life. So many people would have been forgotten rather than immortalized in his levels of hell if he hadn’t spent years in public office!

I’m not recommending that you volunteer for something you don’t believe in or going fully political, but I do recommend at least going to a few city council meetings, talking to your local leaders, and hearing the kind of complaints that come up in small town discussions and on the state level.

5. Go hiking

We circle back around to nature–being in it, loving it, taking part in it. Art helps us observe, but hiking is the full-bodied experience.

All of the senses are involved as we move across the terrain–from touching rocks and moss to sloshing through spring puddles to tasting the bitter leaves of wood sorrel.

Hiking can provide you unforgettable adventures (baby bears!) or provide you with solitude and time to meditate on life, God, and the mysteries of existence.

You take these moments and feelings back to your writing space and give them to your readers to experience collectively.

Life is Experience

The more deeply you build your every-day world, the more deeply you can delve into imaginary creations. Taking the time for experiences isn’t avoiding writing or removing you from your work.

Rather, experiences will help you focus your worlds and create the realms of light and beauty we wish were our own.