Writing Tips and Reviews

World Building: Places

When creating a world, big or small, a major part in the process is to figure out places and relevance of those places. Every place has a relevance to the story, whether a pit stop, an event or something else. The characters do something in this area and have some development on the area.

Temples and dungeons, towns and cities, individual houses, a mansion in the middle of nowhere, whatever you choose, it's your duty to make sure that place has some development. If there's a sequel to the story, then you don't have to cram all your places in one story. You don't have to be Tales of Vesperia and hold a map wherever you go because IT'S HUGE. Even smaller stories have relevance in their areas, a school should be a spot where the characters interact and play while not in class, the path to the school, home, every piece has its importance and should be developed in some way.

Madoka Magica, the school is fleshed out, you see what the path to and from school looks like, you see the houses of the characters, each represented visually. In stories, these places have to be described, even if it's "an old bridge that people don't like to walk on because of how unstable it seems" is better development than none. Many writers skip over the places and just go to the events, which if you have ever seen any type of media, how many just exist in a blank box and the actions of the characters with each other say everything? Not any that I know of.

Skipping over the area is lazy, just as the characters are important, so are the places they go to. Areas can tell the reader a bit more about the character. A character who lives in a poorly conditioned home, a character who lives in a mansion, the type of school they may go to, the kingdom or government and the way of living. The way of life itself. Everything matters in the story. Even that stupid magic book that's meant to run the plot along because the writer is too lazy to make a real plot. Ahem.

Tales of Zestiria, the ruins and such that Sorey and Mikleo adventure in are all described, both by visual representation and by the characters describing it. Tales of Xillia, the towns are described by comparing the two worlds. God Eater THE WORLD IS IN LITERAL RUINS. Kingdom Hearts, the worlds are visually represented and the player can run through the world like it was a playground. With heartless and nobodies. My series does this, more now than before. Things like a simple forest or a home is described and what it means to both the story and characters is reflected on.

World building is just a must when writing a story, it's what all writers, filmmakers, and more do. You can't skip over world building, if you do, start now. Stories with no world building are boring. Matched with a bland protagonist and bland story, and you've got nothing, bad stories are better than nothing stories. Some places can be shrouded in mystery until later on or in the next entry to the story, but it is always developed in some way. "A mysterious place" is a good start, but don't leave it mysterious forever, it's not only bad story writing, but it leaves questions and leaves an entire possible arc left out.

Do your homework and consider world building your areas before you start writing. Or do it as you're writing, I don't care, just have some development beyond "this is a school".