I'm just curious as to how much worldbuilding you guys do before you start writing. Do you work out all the intricacies and details before you start? Or do you add things as you go along? I've noticed that a most of the time I just go in with the basic ideas and characters and flesh out the world around them as I write, essentially ab libbing. What's your method?
This is lengthy, feel free to skip it if time is budgeted.
I'm the outlier in this, but I thought I'd share what I'm doing (if interested). Plotters and Pantsers, in my opinion, exist on a spectrum. Each are at opposite ends. In the middle is an exact mix of the two. There are differing levels in between the two extremes. I am somewhere on the heavy side of plotters / planners.
I created loads of intellectual property (I.P.) that all ties in together (characters, settings, and so on). Up until this point, it has been chaotic to keep track of. To manage it, I opted to create standalone and trilogies following different MCs. If all goes well, I will create a grand project with one MC and other, previous MCs will become secondary/side characters, subplots, and so on.
I needed a way to keep track of the chaos (I.P.) and the ways shared settings, characters, and so on, change throughout the projects. I created a master character development suite. I am in the process of completing a master story development suite. Finally, I will have a mega-series bible (combining information from all projects). Each document contains world-buidling information. The primary goal of them is to remain consistent and not break continuity. Table of Contents and intra-document linking makes it all organized per document. Each standalone / series gets a character and story development suite of its own.
I will add information, as needed to each document, before I work and during a new standalone / series.
There are fantastic authors out there who offer great information what you can add to such documents. My three documents will contain check boxes, character slides, fill-in questions, info on the 16 MBTI character types with numerous character examples, and so on. Of some authors I used to generate my documents, YouTubers Vivien Reis and Abbie Emmons helped a great deal with the story/character development suites. Eva Deverell (eadeverell.com) has loads of worksheets. I cherry picked questions and details from 150 worksheets on her site that are relevant to my projects. I also created many categories of my own, such as character spectrum slides (e.g. where they stand between charity and cruelty) with 28 of these to work. I created questions of character memories (an element of backstory) to help with series symmetries or standalone conflict with people from his/her past. Once you start understanding what the authors are doing, it is fun to create useful documents to help tell stories of round characters and their transformations in standalone and series.
My standalones / series are mapped on a timeline. Characters shared between series morph over time. Some of my entries (such as character slides and MBTI changing per project) tell me of the state of mind, personality, behaviors, and so on, of these characters at any, given time on the timeline. This helps with tying series elements together (and creating scenes with backstories I can address in current WIPs).
I have a pipe dream of selling my I.P. one day, so it will help me a great deal to keep account of large casts, locations, custom food items, alien species, spells, potions, potion ingredients, tournaments, weapons, vehicles, and so forth.
I'll have my documents finished and filled out by sometime next month. The documents also serve to help expedite the writing process, as standalone & series casts, character arcs, and 3-act structure elements will be predetermined.
Because of the scope, I opted to try screenplays to tell the stories. The author resources noted above are a tremendous help for screenwriting. Screenwriting often goes without a narrator, so I avoid tools developed to help with narrator components. One standalone at a time, with my best I.P. / foot forward. I'm almost finished with screenplay learning too.
I did a great deal of research on the Star Wars Holocron (more or less a series bible of original canon and expanded universe) through peeking through books by DK publishing on Star Wars (of what I.P. was created and details of each). Looking through Pottermore was somewhat beneficial. Marvel and DC character bibles were useful to view as well.
I've rambled too long. I don't recommend doing anything I did. A lot of time was invested in the venture, but I have many reasons why I did it. Maybe this post will inspire you to look for existing documents (if interested) and see if these are helpful for your world-building as well. Maybe others are interested.