In previous parts of the Worldbuilding 101 series we’ve talked about how to start and the kinds of things that you need to know.
But how much do you need to know?
When you’re building a world for your novel, it’s easy to get lost in the mires of detail. What measures of weight do they use? How long does it take to weave cloth? During the war that destroyed half the planet, who mined the adamantium that built the protective shatterdomes? And who lived in those shatterdomes, how did they live, what did they eat and where did that food come from, how was it transported-
See what I mean?
You can get so lost in the worldbuilding that you forget to, y’know, write the novel. Which is the point of this whole thing! While you need to understand your world, don’t use it as an excuse to avoid the hard work of writing. In my experience, doing tons of worldbuilding upfront ends up being a waste – things will change as you write your story.
So how much do you need to know before you type your first word? The answer is: it depends. Unhelpful, I know. But every story is different, and every writer is different. The main thing is to feel comfortable with your world before you start. In my experience, not knowing the world well enough makes it feel almost impossible to write, but other people might find joy in exploring their world as they write their novel. Give it a try and see if that works for you.
If you still need more detail in your worldbuilding, the best thing to do is to consider two things:
- What do you need to know to start writing your story
- What does the character know
Remember that you only plan the things that you will need to know to write this novel. If a big historical war shaped the culture but isn’t referenced in the novel at all, maybe make brief notes about it but you don’t need to plan out every battle and all of the participants. Similarly, don’t plan out loads of info about the capital city if your story takes place in a small village a hundred miles away. Maybe you’ll need a name and that’s about it. But you’ll want to know lots of details about things like demographics and layout of that village.
Probably the best way to focus in on what you need to know is to think about what your character will (and won’t) know. If they’re from the capital city they might be right in the midst of the seats of power and so know a lot about politics. But if your character is in that small village they might only have heard stories about the rulers and it doesn’t really affect their day to day. In that case you don’t need to know a ton about the politics either and an overview will be fine. See how these things affect the level of detail you need to plan out?
That’s not to say that you only need to know what your character knows, but looking at it from their point of view is a good way to stop yourself from planning everything in the history of the world to a microscopic level.
Make a list of some things that you think you need to know about your world and then write out about how much your character will know about them. You can use the exercises in part three to do this in a fun way. You might also want to list some things that your character might not know but that you need to – just make sure you really do need to, that it will be valuable for you to build this part of your world.
In the next part, we’ll talk about putting all of this together into a reference book or novel bible so that you have all of the facts and figures at your fingertips. If you want a reminder, sign up to my newsletter and you’ll also get a free character workbook.
Meanwhile, if you want to do some more work on your worldbuilding, check out my Fantasy Writing Planner or Science Fiction Writing Planner.