What are the fundamental principles of world building and what are your favorite tips and tricks?

I’ve been looking at our world building community and I’ve noticed that there are some great questions being asked and great discussions being had. However I think there’s not enough discussion about the fundamental principles of world-building. <br><br>I think it’s important for world builders to have a strong foundation in the principles of world-building that will help guide us through the process. I also think that as a world building community it’s our responsibility to teach aspiring world builders about these principles and help support them in creating amazing worlds. <br><br>Given this I thought it would be a good exercise to share our favorite tips, tricks, and principles of worldbuilding. What are some general rules that govern how you build your worlds? What are some things that you wish you had known sooner? What are some common mistakes that you see other people making and how can we avoid those mistakes? <br><br>I’ll go first. Here are some of the principles that I think are important to keep in mind when you’re building a world:<br><br>1. **The only true way to build a world is from the bottom up and the top down at the same time.** When you first start out as a world builder you need to have a general vision for your world. You need to decide if it’s a high fantasy world, a cyberpunk world, or any other number of settings. You need to have an idea of what the world should look like and how it should work. Once you know this you will be able to start actually building the world by doing specific research into different topics like how streets function or what medieval cooking would have been like. <br><br>You will be able to use that information to build the world from the bottom up but that information will also inform your overall vision for your world. It will help you build your world from the top down. And then you can use that more informed top down view of your world to inform your bottom up building and so on. <br><br>2. **World building is a mindset as much as it is a process.** If you want to be a world builder you have to always be thinking about your world. You need to be thinking about your world when you’re at work, you need to be thinking about your world when you’re driving, you need to be thinking about your world when you’re in class, etc. You should also be letting your world inform your interactions with the real world. Everything that you see and experience can be related back to your world in some way. <br><br>3. **World builders must always be curious.** World building is about learning new things and generating new ideas. It requires being interested in anything and everything. You should constantly be wanting to learn more and generate more about your world, and the more you learn and generate the more you will want to learn and generate. It’s a cycle that I have no problem being stuck in. <br><br>4. **World building is a process.** World building is something that takes time, that’s why world builders have to be patient. We have to be willing to engage with the process, making mistakes and taking the time to learn from them. I know it can be tempting to just rush through the process but if you do that you will miss out on so much and your world will be worse for it. <br><br>5. **World building is supposed to be fun.** If you’re not having fun while world building then you’re not doing it right. If you’re not passionate about your world then you will eventually burn out. I think the biggest mistake world builders make is getting too caught up in trying to make other people happy by world building instead of trying to make themselves happy. <br><br>The best tip I have for world building is to read history books and travel guide books. History books, especially cultural histories, are amazing for helping to generate ideas about how your world works and travel guide books are great for helping to generate ideas about the landscape and environment of your world.<br><br>My favorite trick is to read other world builders work critically. If I’m reading a book or watching a show I’m not just reading it/watching it for fun, I’m also analyzing it for what the creators did that I like/dislike as well as what they did that I would like to incorporate into my world. I also think it’s really important to look at what mistakes other world builders make so that we can learn how to avoid those mistakes.