I’ve already covered how to write your villian, your protagonist, and your plot, but something that’s just as important to the story is knowing how to build your world. This includes things like knowing how to write magic systems, how terrain/climate work, etc. and is the most technical part of writing your book. Just like with the main characters and plot, in order to create a good world, it has to be compelling and feel like somewhere that the reader can visit in real life.
First of all, if you happen to be writing a story that takes place in a world where magic is a thing, you need to figure out how the magic works and what its limits are. There are two types of magic systems you can use: a hard magic system and a soft magic system.
A hard magic system has strict boundries concerning what can and cannot be accomplished with magic. An example of this type of magic system can be found in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. We are told what certain characters can do with their powers inherited by their godly parents and were their abilities end. With this type of system, you can bring in surprise powers, but you need to establish early on what the limits are.
A soft magic system isn’t as strict and you are given more leeway to write new, surprising magic feats without having to set up exactly what each type of magic can do before hand. An example of a soft magic system is found in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Each character in the show (except for a few, like Sokka) can bend a different element that corresponds with one of four things: water, earth, air, and fire. The boundries of what can be accomplished with those powers are never specified. We later learn from the spinoff show that Earthbenders can bend lava and metal, not just rock, but we are still left wondering if the characters can bend things on a molecular level (to create fire, can Firebenders heat up atoms and somehow create something to fuel it? How far could that go?) However, while soft magic systems are easier to write and have a lot of benefits, if you’re a chaotic person who likes your magic system to have a bit more structure so you aren’t getting sidetracked, then I would have to suggest a hard magic system to be your go-to.
After you’ve decided on your magic system, you need to figure out what the people are like. What’s their political system? Are they divided into factions (like the districts in Hunger Games) or are they a multicultural melting pot? Speaking of their culture, what’s that like? Depending on who has what type of magic (if they have any magic at all), how does that affect their everyday lives, religious ceremonies, etc.? What religion do the people practice, if they have one? Are there multiple religions? What is considered morally tabboo? It’s these types of questions that will really help flush out your books.
Climate and geography also come into play when dealing with these types of questions. If you have characters that maybe can control water, maybe put them somewhere where there’s a lot of water (such as near the coast, a rain-forest, a river, etc.) However, when creating the climate and geography, you need to take into account how these things affect each other. If you have massive lakes everywhere or perhaps your story is taking place along the coast of some sea or ocean, any towns near there may experience a lot of rain during the summer monsoons and harsh blizzards if they’re farther North. The result would be a hot, muggy region where the people likely grow rice or some other vegetable that can do well in flooded feilds, which would also affect the culture and religion of the people (look at the Mayans who had a god dedicated to corn because it was so important to them).
If you need help creating the general geographical layout of your world, one thing I would suggest doing is creating a map. If you suck at drawing (like I do), do what a lot of D’n’D roleplayers and fantasy nerds on YouTube do and just dump a bowl of rice on a piece of paper. From there, create your map by spreading around the rice and tracing around it with a pen or marker. Clear off the rice and color things in, add rivers, lakes, marshes, mountains, deserts, markers for towns, cities, palaces, military establishments, etc. and you should have a pretty decent map that you can work with.
Lastly, you’re going to need to create a history for your world. While I’m not saying that you need to create a history for your world to the extent that Tolkien did in writing The Silmarillion (let’s be honest: has anyone today even come close to that level of god-tier world building?), you do need to come up with some background events for your kingdoms, towns, characters, etc. No world is complete without some sort of backstory, just like with your character.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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