On Monday, I put up an exercise that people could do, no matter which setting you're using, but I included a second one that was centered more towards those using a second world. The second world exercise looked into the geography of the world and region you're going to use as well as other things. Let's do a bit more of an in-depth look into the exercise and how it can help those using the real world as well.
Here's the link to the exercise in case you want to take another look at it. We'll break it down into the sections that it's in on the website.
The general questions deal with the base geological region where your story will be taking place. Are there mountains or is it by the sea? Is it in a valley surrounded by mountains and isolated from the rest of the world? Are you going to use more of the world or will it be centered in that one region? As you answer those questions, you'll get more of the world and, possibly, more of the story you want to tell. Say, for example, you wanted to keep it to an isolated city or town. You might find out, as you realize that this isolated place is connected to the rest of your world, that you decide that your hero needs to journey out. Or maybe your first book will deal with the isolated city and the rest of the series will focus more towards the rest of the world. It's best to get that down now instead of being in the second book and having to backtrack to world build before you sit down to write the second book. The second part deals with the non-human inhabitants of your world, if there are any, and where they live. Are you going to go traditional or non-traditional? Are your elves going to be forest ones or mountain ones? What about your dwarves? And so on. This goes into real world by trying to figure out, if you're working in a big city, where people live and how their culture centers in that small area. Think Chinatown in Chicago for that. It is centered in a small bit of Chicago but it reaches out all over in the city.
The second part deals with your climate and geography. These questions are also centered around how your humanity has effected the world as well. There are probably still issues of climate change or maybe not in your world. Perhaps there is no erosion of soil but there are cities that might or might not effect on where your humanity lives. There are no right or wrong answers for this, but you might want to figure out that humanity is going to have some effect on the climate and geography of your world. Maybe there are a lot of grasslands where there are nomads and a clear border where you're going into society. It's not wrong to have that, but it's also a good idea to have, in the back of your mind, of what might happen.
Third part is the natural resources of the world. Just like we have gold and oil, there are probably things in your world that people use to barter. Maybe it is just food, cloth, and more basic things than what we have. Or maybe only certain cultures have one thing and barter what they have with ones that have another certain culture has. You're going to need to figure out if you want a free exchange of goods and services or if there are going to be imbalances. Is there a part of your culture that has everything and it's one sided? Or is it going to be something different but yet you have clear borders of who has what? Again, this is where there are no right or wrong answers, but it brings up plot ideas. For example, say that you have it that dwarves are the only ones that have access to ore and stones but the elves are the only ones that have access to wood. There might be a tense alliance so the two can share what they have that could fracture at anytime. That fracture could be woven into your plot as the rest of the world breaks down into it gets fixed.
Fourth part and fifth part has to do with history and how you want to break it down. There's the general world history and then there's the history that breaks down by culture. To use the example of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, the general world history would be the War of the Ring, but the specific history to humans deals with the aftermath and waiting for the return of the rightful king. It also goes into how you want the calendar set up and how time passes and so on. You might want to use the calendar we have now, so you don't confuse yourself, and the 24 hour time that we deal with everyday. Or perhaps different cultures use different time hours. A culture that deals with getting up with the sun and going to bed a hour after the sun sets might have their day set firmly in their boundaries. When you go into the specifics of the country / culture you're using, you also need to think about if they have enemies or allies and how that could effect your plot too. If humans distrust dwarves for some reason, that could work against your human hero if he or she needs to interact with them. So that's another thing that needs to be thought about.
If you're made it to the end, you're probably thinking "wow, this is a lot of work!". I'm not going to lie to you, as it is, but that's why we're starting so early with the prep work. You need to know all of these things before you even sit down to plot out your novel so you have a strong backbone for your story. Take a deep breath, realize that while this might be insane, it's going to be awesome in the end. You're going to have a plan for why things are happening in your novel that make sense in the world you're creating. It is scary but, trust me, once it's done, it's awesome.
Until tomorrow, keep on plotting (and writing)!
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