Worldbuilding - Geography

Worldbuilding - Geography

I am currently writing a fantasy story and worldbuilding is so much harder than I thought it would be (especially because I’m a plotter and if I don’t have every single detail decided beforehand I will literally go insane). I also ended up rewriting three scenes because I realised that the geographical locations made zero sense. To prevent that, here are a couple of things you could keep in mind while creating the Geography of your world :)

(also these work for me, but if they don’t for you then that’s okay too! everyone has different writing processes :))

1. Distance

If the map of your world is relevant to the plot (such as if there is a war at a certain border, or if your characters are going on a quest or travelling somewhere) then figuring out the distance between different places is important. You need to know how far it takes to get from one place to another and how far apart different kingdoms or cities are from water, etc. Also, draw out borders and the different countries or kingdoms, and while mapping them out, try to think about the history that caused them to be wherever they are.

2. Landscape/Terrain

Once you’ve decided the locations of different countries (if you have them) and their borders, you can start to map what’s within each one. You can consider where villages are, where castles or forts are, where different species live, water bodies, islands, caves, deserts, mountains, gulfs, straits, now I’m just listing things from my seventh grade geography class, but you can refer to existing maps for inspiration while also creating something of your own. Go wild, but try to make sure it’s physically possible for such a place to exist.

3. Weather

When mapping out the landscape, think about the rainfall. Which direction does it come from? Where are the winds the strongest? And then think about how this could affect the weather. Are certain parts of the land hotter or colder because of this? Does it snow? Is there a certain area where it’s always raining? (cough, England, cough) Is there a desert somewhere because of a lack of rainfall? What races and species live in different places and how are they adapted to that weather? Based on where the winds are, where do ships come to port? (if there even are ships).

4. Layers

Is your world something that you enter from the human world through a physical doorway? (Think Narnia) Or is it something that exists within the human world, side by side? (Think Harry Potter) Is it part of the human world at all, or something entirely different? Is it a parallel universe? If your world is combined with the human world, try to imagine how they are connected/separated and the types of magic used to separate them? (Such as the Mist in Percy Jackson)

Mapping out your world is definitely important, but if it’s stressful then even just a vague outline works well enough. Don’t go too far into it if it’s stopping you from finishing your first draft, because you can always add or change later!