We were talking last week about maps and the geography of worldbuilding. Here are a few more questions to consider:
- How do people communicate over long distances? (A note here about pigeons. Pigeons are called homing pigeons, because that’s what they do. They fly home. You do not take a bird, strap a vital message to its leg, and whisper “take this note to Prince Shagalot who’s somewhere on the road between here and Mount Gullible” in its ear, and expect it to do anything other than look at you blankly. Pigeons, after about six weeks, think wherever they are is home. So, if you want homing pigeons to send regular reports back to your king about how your noble quest is progressing, you’ve got about six weeks to get it done, buster, or you’re screwed.)
- If you have non-human races, what territory do they consider theirs?
- What are the penalties for breaching their borders uninvited?
- How have human activities affected the landscape? (A large city where everyone is cooking over open flames demands a huge amount of firewood or coal. More than likely the land around any city has long been stripped bare of trees.)
- If you’re not on Earth, how do the differences (more than one moon, brighter sunlight, less sunlight.) affect your world?
- Does your world have equatorial, temperate, and polar regions?
- Where is your farmland?
- What do they grow?
- What animals do they farm? (If you’re dispatching messages on parchment, you’d better have sheep, because parchment is made from sheepskin. Cotton requires a lot of water. Silk comes from silkworms, which means somewhere, someone is farming them, and purple dye is very hard to make naturally and is therefore very expensive, which is why it tends to be the colour associated with royalty. Purple robed beggars, however colourful you think they might look, are unlikely.)
- What natural resources do your countries have (e.g. gold, iron ore, gemstones, etc)?
- Is your terrain consistent with your natural resources (So let’s not be mining the limestone White Cliffs of Grover for gold, hmm…)?
- What resources are in short supply?
- What is the consequence of the imbalance of these natural resources between neighbouring countries?
I could go on, and on, and on…I won’t, but I’m sure you get the idea.
So toss your rectangular world map away and think beyond the borders of the three countries you’ve thought up names for. Give your world a convincing look and feel, rather than making it up as you go along to fit the story.
Jennifer Fallon’s worldbuilding does the talking – she’s the author of thirteen fantasy novels including the recent Tide Lords quartet. The final book in the quartet, The Chaos Crystal, came out last month. You can read more from her at her website and blog.
Filed under: Fallon Friday, Jennifer Fallon, on writing, World building | Tagged: fallon friday, fantasy maps, Jennifer Fallon, Maps, on writing, questions for your writing, World building | 1 Comment »