Welcome to our Worldbuilding Wednesday! On Wednesdays, we will discuss the creative process behind different facets of the Twinverse, from as lofty a concept as the entire cosmology, to specific characters and their role in the setting. Worldbuilding Wednesday is meant as a behind-the-scenes column to give insight into how the setting itself changes and evolves, beyond just the events of the books.
Welcome back to Worldbuilding Wednesday! Today, I'd like to talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and that doesn't see as much interest as it should, despite its importance. That topic is world concepts, and this post is hopefully meant to inspire any readers who are just starting to map out their fantasy novels, and would like to spend some time fleshing out the setting beforehand.
By world concepts, I mean the initial hook that underlies the setting and the world itself. The "elevator pitch" for the world, as it were. This can be as simple ("it's a standard fantasy world with elves, dwarves, and orcs") or as complex ("it's a steampunk-themed fantasy world built entirely on endless towers with no known ground level, where most people move by flying on sentient blimps") as one could imagine.
Sometimes, world concepts can be environment based. Think for instance of a world which is mostly covered in a single environment (like a world of endless oceans, or a world where the landmasses are covered in scorching deserts), or of worlds where a specific season dominates for a long amount of time (e.g. George R.R. Martin's Westeros). Others could be about culture, although this can be tricky to design realistically - after all, it's unlikely an entire world shares a single culture, especially if writing a fantasy novel, unless the entire world is governed by a single empire.
Still others could be related to forces in the world, e.g. the way magic works (see the Runelords series by David Farland as an example of a unique magic system that shapes the world's cultures and directly or indirectly affects the lives of many of the world's people). The sky is really the limit in terms of what a world concept could be, as long as it is a concept that can be developed without hitting a brick wall.
All this is to say that a world concept is very helpful to set the tone of the world. For the Twin Worlds, the original hook was "two worlds mirroring each other, due to the actions of old gods". From that simple concepts, I developed the Trienorn, the Reflection, and branched out of there to develop the rest of the world. Following the concept's logical consequences ("what were the actions of these gods? Who were this gods? Are they still around? What does mirroring mean? How do people live their daily lives, and how does the concept affect them?") enables the writer to come up with ideas they might have never considered otherwise.
There is no reason why one couldn't combine two or more world concepts, although sometimes this can become unwieldy. Similarly, world concepts can be used to drill down further - for instance, to develop a particular country, kingdom or empire by coming up with a concept for it. In the end, the concept is a guideline that helps keep the tone and atmosphere of the setting somewhat even, and offers guidance as to whether a certain idea has a place in it, or not.
World concepts are extremely helpful to fantasy writers, as they provide safety and ensure a certain level of consistency. More than any other type of fiction, save sci-fi, a fantasy novelist needs to ensure their world is consistent within the (very different) ruleset it lives under, otherwise the readers may be pulled out of their suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, as Tolkien has taught us, having a developed backdrop for your world means throwaway lines about characters, events, and places in the world that otherwise have no bearing on the story, can make the world feel larger and more lived in. This in turn helps with suspension of disbelief, and makes readers want to learn more. It's win-win for everyone.
I hope you enjoyed this brief consideration on world concepts, and I'll see you again next Wednesdayh for another Worldbuilding post on constructing the world itself!
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