bits of worldbuilding

Well, I guess my first question to you would be, how far are you in this process? Do you have an idea for how you'd like your world/ continent/ city to look? Do you have some notes in a notebook or file, or are you starting from scratch? I would recommend some National Geographic or Nova documentaries to help give you some good images of far-flung corners of the world, along with History Channel segments on whatever historical era reflects your imagined world most closely.

For actual world-building questions, the SFWA website has a very in-depth set of questions, written by Patricia C. Wrede, on everything from the geography of your world to its religion, culture, history, etc. I'll try to find the link and post if for you.

I vary, but if I'm dealing with more than one culture/country, I start with deciding what I want to base those cultures' names on. So when I rewrote Shattered Ivory from fanfic to original, I gave one country Welsh and Welsh-inspired names and the other Anglo-Saxon/Old English names.

Then I decide which time period I want to 'reflect' and which cultures. Doesn't stay strictly the same. Both my big fantasy worlds have forms of running water, based on the idea that if the Romans could do it, so can they. The discovery that combs were an important sign of civilisation amongst the Celts resulted in my use of an offering of decorative hair-combs by a man to a woman being tantamount to a promise of marriage.

Culture is naturally associated with climate. If it's northern/temperate, fabrics will be wool, fur, leather and probably linen. Silk, cotton and similar fabrics would be gained by trade with warmer climates (unless you invent a new kind of silk). In many climates, horses are of vital importance as the strongest animal for bearing human weight and thus dramatically speeding up travel time.

I find myself doing all sorts of little bits of world-building completely unrelated to what I'm researching all the time. Let it flow - you can always change it later. Just keep things consistent.

Avoid building too much - you can end up stifling the story itself if you try to make too much of it. The world needs to serve the story, not vice versa.

Satyesu, I'd suggest that you don't waste your time building world if you can't yet build strong story. World design can be a huge time sink, and any worlds you design will be useless to your fiction until you can tell strong stories in them. But you don't need a whole world for a good story; just a location or two. Here's one way to do it...

Start with a mood. e.g: sinister
Add an image: e.g. eggs
Add a passion: e.g. vengeance
Add a risk or threat: e.g. poison

Now you can make a sentence like this: In a sinister environment surrounded by eggs, character X seeks vengeance but does not yet realise the poison that awaits.

Now we can flesh it out by asking questions:

What sort of environment is sinister and surrounded by eggs? A spider-web? A giant wasp nest? A wyvern's nest? An alien infestation on a space-hulk? The home of an evil Easter Bunny?

What is the cause of vengeance? A friend hurt? An insult? Something taken? Do the eggs belong to the character itself?

What is the source of poison? Is it a venomous creature? Some toxin applied to the eggs? A volcanic vent? A noxious gas? A lie being spread to harm the character?

Here's one story idea: After a wyvern ravages his farm, Jon scales a mountain and finds its nest, bent on vengeance. But he little reckons with the venomous saliva with which a wyvern glues its home.

Here's another: When the Spider Queen returns from the hunt she finds all her eggs stolen by the Whispermages of the Pan Than. Can she recover her unhatched brood from their sinister towers, or will their whispered enchantments forever twist her mind?

As I think you can see, you don't really need a whole world to make a story like this work -- just a bit of mood and some good characters with a bit of back-story will suffice. The rest will come from the way you want the story to go.

Hope that helps.

It always begins with the idea, then I find the main character for the story. I find the persons name either from -> http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/gods.htm <- or from one of the random generators found around the web. The lowchensaustralia.com is my favorite site for gods and goddesses listings. Usually my main character is either an obscure god that not many people have heard of or I change the order of letters if it is one they have heard of. Anubis would become Asinu or Abisu. Some thing like that.

After that I write an outline where other characters that have been rolling around in my head are put down, and I do a character sketch
After I have a basis for the characters, the why are they doing what they are doing. After that I begin with the world itself, I will make a map of the area of the planet or area, cities, towns, deserts. Before any of this happens I usually have a good idea of where the story is going to go, plot points.

Everyone is different though. It took me a while to figure out my own style when world building. This way seems to work best for me.

satyesu said:

it's pretty much universally agreed that writers should write daily to keep sharp, and i'm thinking that, both because i enjoy it and it might show in any cracks in later writing, i'd like to do a little worldbuilding every day. problem is, with (nigh literally) a whole world of possible work, i don't know where to0 start, or how to do this without getting bogged down with research. any suggestions?

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I don't think it is universally agreed that writers should write every day.
It is also not necessary to world build before writing - some people do it while they write. IMHO more cracks appear when the worldbuilding is not on the page than when it is not in a notebook somewhere.

I started writing a series of articles on this, a while ago. This thread reminds me that I need to finish them. If it helps, the articles to date can be found here:
http://shannonthomas.org/fantasy-102-world-building/