World Building 101: In the Beginning
It’s a big and wonderful world we live in; land or sea, soil or snow, from the highest peaks to the deepest depths, there are magical designs at play bolder than the most addled imaginations. There is so much to take in – far more than we might have time for, not in a hundred lifetimes. One of my professors once told me that once you’ve learned the structure of language, the one thing you need is to go out and walk among the world until you find your story. And every journey – be it interminable or excruciatingly brief – starts with the first step.
Now, the starting point for any story is the narrative, the characters, the time and place, yes – and if you’re writing non-fiction or even a fictional tale set on earth, then on one hand you have a lot of the background work gathered for you. You already have the history of Earth established, both in terms of historical research and its impact on the “now” of our time, so that’s something a lot of you can quickly cross off your to do list. But knowing the history of our world from birth to the current and understanding the hows and whys of its development is also crucial for creating a narrative. Choose how much you want or need, but knowledge is like a window: you see more the closer you look.
For those of you foolhardy enough to want to create a whole new world of your own, well, you definitely chose the short straw and you’re going to have your work cut out for you. I recommend starting from scratch – feel free to adopt the Plato principle (where the further you go the less detail you may require) but my preference is to go full Cosmos on it. Go back to your own private big bang and draw the world from zero to your heroes and fill it out as you go.
Regardless of how deep you want to go, though, I suggest rolling up your sleeves and learning about the measurable history of the world. How worlds are created, how land and seas are formed, and understand the conditions necessary to sustaining life. Scientist or theologian, knowing the physical facts about how life came to be and the almost impossibility of it all is a magical series of lessons. In fact, Einstein and Carl Sagan both made similar statements about how the understanding of science led them invariably towards an understanding and appreciation of the divine. I just want to throw that out there in case any of you are concerned that this is going to be some sort of debate on whether the world was created in six days or billions of years; it is possible to understand science and recognize that sometimes a metaphor is necessary to put it in perspective. But we’re going to be talking about mythology and faith later in the series, so let’s move forward.
For now, let’s focus on the physiology of your world (or worlds) as pre-organic life, and make determinations on things like gravimetric and electrical forces, climatological and planetary configurations (stars, moons, other planets and heavenly bodies). The simple solution is to understand and apply known structures, but there’s no reason you have to make it just like earth. You can have a dual sun solar system, multiple moons, rings, what have you. Understanding how these things work together, though, is essential. You can’t just plop twenty moons around your main planet and not consider how they’re going to affect the tides, after all.
The concept of a “Class M” planet comes from Star Trek, but has (like so many Star Trek elements) filtered out into more of a public consciousness. It refers to a planet which fits all the requirements for life, which include items like distance from the sun, atmosphere, water, land, chemical compositions, radiation levels, average temperature and so on. The odds of these criteria being found in a perfect balance is extremely rare, but out of the millions of millions of millions of planets in existence, we aren’t living on the only one; we’re just living on the closest one for a good many light years. NASA is finding more planets all the time which may fit into these critical characteristics, however, so the odds of us being the only ones out here are still pretty generous.
And think of all the things a planet does! It spins, it orbits, it heats up, it cools down, it generates an electromagnetic field to protect against the sun’s rays, it maintains life, and it’s always moving. All these things and more give Earth a kind of unique personality. And even down here on the surface, it’s in a constant state of change. The tectonic plates are always moving, erosion and earthquakes and just the general sense of our weather and climate shift and swirl the land and sea. Volcanoes, hurricanes, severe winters, tornadoes – sometimes the changes we see are swift and bold, but usually it’s a change just a fraction of an inch per year that moves things along. Ice melts. Rivers flow. Rare and precious metals, fuel sources, civilization and technological advances – all these elements (literally!) play a role in how your world will evolve. Why is gold valuable? It’s shiny, sure, but it’s rare – and something rare is something valuable. Make sure these are things you make note of, so that you have a good foundation to build on.
As you begin this process, I generally recommend buying a blank sketchbook. Make notes about your world. Is it a new world? An old world? How will the years make their mark upon the world? For example, new mountains are sharper than old mountains. Oceans have currents – how do your tides flow? How do your rivers flow? Where are deserts? Forests? Grasslands?
In the next few chapters we’re going to talk about more specifics regarding evolution (both in the process of physical development of species and in regards to civilizations) in an exploration of cultural anthropology, but for now, start to imagine the world you’re writing for. If it’s Earth, go wandering (you don’t have to travel, thanks to the internet, but when you can travel, do), and if it’s not Earth, start sketching it. Picture how it looks, how it feels – use images from the internet as inspiration. Look at simple environmental images you’ve never seen before, and extrapolate out from there.
Here are a couple ideas – not really homework per se, but just some challenges to get your mind working:
1) Start a World Bible – a collection of thoughts and ideas for your new world. Jot down any ideas that tickle your fancy, and erase NOTHING. Think of world design as God, Brainstorming.
2) Study maps – not of cities but of land masses. Explore the topical relief wherever possible. Look at the interaction between water sources, mountain ranges and all the areas in between.
3) Draw a map of your own. Invent an island, a continent, an entire planet if you have the energy to do so.
4) On this map, create at least three features that someone would write a legend about. A cave? A peninsula? A mountain range? A waterfall?
Give this all some thought, should you like. Again, depending on your interest level, this may be more or less relevant to your exploration, description or invention of a world, but even on a spectator level of participation, it’s nice to understand where you are. Dig in, count the rings and go boldly.
Feel free to discuss below in the comments – we’ll talk again next week!
Additional resources:
“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”, by Neil deGrasse Tyson (or the original series by Carl Sagan)
“How the Earth Was Made”, BBC/History Channel
NASA’s solar system exploration site https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/