Tor•Com has an article up, "How to Make an Apple Pie: Ecologies and Economies in SFF", and it was a coin toss whether I'd post my recommendation to read the article in SFF or here in RT. While the article primarily addresses secondary worldbuilding, the implications of those considerations do affect the worldbuilding of our stories here on Earth, as well. In historical novels and contemporary novels, as much consideration must be given to the time and place of the novel as for an SFF secondary world; for instance, if your novel includes writing about the historical network of trade routes called The Silk Road, you have to know conditions that existed at the time of your novel—the second century BCE would be vastly different than the fourteenth century CE, for example—as well as conditions along the specific network(s), the where of your story.
It's an interesting article that opens up additional questions and considerations wrt the worlds of our stories.
What sorts of things do you routinely consider in building the worlds of your stories? How do you determine what matters and what doesn't for your own story?
Anytime a writer sits down to write a story, they’re faced with decisions about worldbuilding. And if they’re writing SFF, that question often starts with: how much like Earth is it? And if it is like Earth, which parts and when? The ecology of the Pliocene era would be vastly different from what’s available now in the deserts of New Mexico . . .
. . . but process: the idea that the consequences of a decision, invention, or material all ripple, multiplying far beyond the initial triggering event. If you’re obsessed with creating worlds, as I was and still am, that has some serious ramifications. Because, not to put too fine a line on it, matter matters. What the everyday objects in a story are made from reflects the world it is set in.
It's an interesting article that opens up additional questions and considerations wrt the worlds of our stories.
What sorts of things do you routinely consider in building the worlds of your stories? How do you determine what matters and what doesn't for your own story?