Academy · Worldbuilding
How much worldbuilding do I need?
How much worldbuilding should I do before I start writing?
Beginner
Enough that the first three scenes feel grounded; not so much that you're still building when you should be writing. The minimum: where the story takes place, what's different from our world, and one rule that matters to the plot. Everything else can be invented as you go and back-filled into the World Index later. A useful test: if you can answer "what's the weather like, how do people light their homes, and who has power" for the first scene's location, you have enough to start.
Standard
Worldbuilding is iterative. Build a starter set. Write the first scenes. Note the questions the prose forces (what's currency, what's the religion, who runs the city). Answer the ones the plot needs; ignore the rest. Pendraic's World Index is built for this — it grows with the manuscript instead of demanding a complete world before page one.
What to try
- Open the worldbuilder
- Apply a starter world template
Related questions
- What is hard magic vs soft magic?
- Do I need a map?
- How detailed should my world get?