Building a Universe

Introduction

This article talks about building an entire universe, often times simply known as world building. Most of my experience in world building comes from role playing games. The lessons learned from those experiences, however, apply directly to writing fiction.

Whenever you sit down to create a story, especially science fiction or fantasy, you must always give a thought to the world in which the story takes place. You should build more than just those aspects of the world that have a direct effect on your story. You should build the entire world. Exploring every possible aspect of the world you are building will inject realism into your stories. More importantly, you'll find that taking the time to thoroughly explore the world you create will give you story ideas you never would have thought of.

Besides, world building is fun!

This article talks about world building in a very broad sense. There are lots of things you must think about when you sit down to create a new world. The things discussed here, however, have always seemed the most important to me. The key to remember is that the details you build into your world are interdependent. It's that interdependence that can lead to great plot twists.

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