25 Years of WORLDBUILDING ADVICE in 20 Minutes

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00:00 Fantasy Worldbuilding
00:52 Worldbuilding Fundamentals
04:51 Physical World and Inhabitants
08:00 Cultural Aspects and Historical Background
11:20 Magic and Technology Systems
15:30 Economy and Politics
19:37 Environment

[rolotomassi]

I've learned more from watching your videos than I have in any creative writing class or workshop. Everyone else just rehashes the same tired old basics and general tips, and they're never willing to give genuine feedback for improvement or delve into the meat of the craft itself. So I appreciate your detailed advice and breakdowns of what works and what doesn't. It's helped my writing tremendously the last few months.

[Putoaduh]

I'm surprised you didn't mention genre anywhere. Understanding how you want your world to feel will have a massive impact on it. Creating a setting where no one wins and it's only suffering will be far different from a setting meant for heroes.

I also wanted to mention that genre can influence more than the theme and atmosphere. For example, a fantasy setting is usually a reflection of the protagonists' emotions, while fiction is usually the world influencing the protagonist.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the rule of 3. It makes everything a lot easier if you can break it down into multiples of 3. 3 major factions each have 3 noble families who hold land over 3 territories. Of course it doesn't need to be exactly 3, but just saying that one sentence outlined a ton of macroscopic information for a setting.

[jessiedoege]

Working on an idea for a fantasy novel and stumbled upon your channel. It has been SUCH a blessing in my word 🎊 Keep up the good work

[Putoaduh]

I think the video can ultimately be boiled down to "Consider everything" but it's nice to have it all laid out, because it's hard to keep everything in mind. One thing I would add is, don't be afraid to revise the same thing over and over as you consider new things. Magic, technology, and politics are probably the biggest factors in changing how a society functions.

[darkkothor]

Those that believe politics and economics are the boring stuff couldn't be further from the truth : these are the sources of conflict in the world.
They are what make the world change, so unless the story is purely about internal conflict, they are in fact the most important stuff, way more important than the magic system or even culture.

[MalachiSouth]

Great Video. Using and remembering Environments in worldbuilding really so obvious but so often overlooked. I think it's something that a lot of my favorite writers (namely Tolkien) actually did really well without me realizing it, and something I look forward to implementing in my story.

[dr.jekyll]

Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim

[Arthur-oynj]

Trade and poletics are also important in Star Wars.

[hadeshades]

One of my species in my story stem from a neutron star. The noxar on their own could not escape it. Another species managed to scan and reproduce them so they could be their pets. Noxar however are sentient and communicate without the engineers noticing. Their culture is born from revolution. The noxar destroyed the main archive to break the engineers who died out incredibly quickly when they could no longer recreate and use their own technology.
Without a clear purpose the functionally immortal noxar commit self delete by starvation. Nothing but their own claws and teeth could harm them now that the engineers technology was unusable. Their offspring degrade with each generation. Now only one of the Null born (born in a laboratory, so still generation 0) is left alienated by his kind but revered as the last null born. He would refuse any and all rolls of leadership. Null born were all equal and their relays (sensory organ also used for communication) made mass coordination easy, so why have a dedicated leader when all could suggest and disgust together. They were all in it together and so they would all be equal.

[MCSCHOOL]

Can you do a video where you make characters

[theklatosshowtv]

How much history do I need to plan before I start writing my novel?