Writing Guide // yventualip

a little more on worldbuilding

World-building can be hard for a lot of people and improper world-building can make your story feel flat. Here are some of the ways I try to avoid that / improve my world-building:

1. First make sure you know exactly when and where you are.
Maybe you don't specify a year in your book (assuming it's realistic fiction) but I almost always pick a timeframe. Think about the differences between the 80s and the mid-2000s, even in the same place. People:
-talk differently/have different slang
-dress differently
-different pop culture references - music, tv, etc
-different technology
-different social dynamics
-if we're keeping it historically accurate, gay people are not as accepted in the 80s

If you're choosing a different time period I'd recommend researching it a little bit, especially the farther back you go. You don't have to stay totally accurate to the times but I think it's important to be conscious about whatever choices you do make. 

2. Now we get more specific
Where is this taking place exactly? I'm going to be using American examples because if it wasn't abundantly clear I live in the west coast united states. that's usually where my stories take place unless it's fantasy or set in Korea.

Actually, let's use Heart Beating For You's setting in the beginning:

Place: Yongsan-Gu Boarding School, Seoul South Korea
Time: Sometime in September - weather is growing colder (it comes up later in the book)
Year: sometime in the mid-2010s.

What is this going to change about the setting? I researched the city in Seoul so I'd have an idea of what it'd be like to be there and where I'd want the characters to go. The shopping malls and hotels they go to are real places, and so is the national park (Idk if that chapter will be out by the time I post this but there's a spoiler ig). Maybe you don't think this is important enough which is fine, but for me, I find it easier when you don't have to make stuff up as you go along

3. Now actually more specific
Now for the smaller world-building. We'll use the example of aespa's Minjeong to switch it up:

What is Minjeong's relationship with her parents? Good or bad? Are her parents together? What are their jobs? What social economic status does her family have (in basic terms, are they rich?)? What kind of neighborhood does she live in? What kind of attitude does her family have toward different social classes? 

What's her school like? How many people/grades attend? Do people in her school care about status? What kind of school is it? If it's a college, what is she studying?

Who are her friends? Why are they her friends (what do they have in common/how did they meet?). Is she popular? Does she like her friends? Who is she closest with?

4. Futuristic 

I gotta be honest I don't have a whole lot to say on this one. The only futuristic story I've ever written was still in love / lipves and I didn't do a whole lot of explaining the world there. Lemme know if anyone would like more of that story by the way, because there is an outline for a sequel in the drafts. 

Usually, when I think futuristic I think apocalyptic, but if you're not doing apocalypse then you kind of do the same thing for going back a time period. How much time has passed? Do people still live on earth? What has changed about slang, houses, culture, clothing, pop culture, and technology? How will this change your story?

4.5 Apocalypse

My favorite!!!! 

(This is basically me encouraging you to write apocalypse fanfiction because I love it)
you could do
Zombies
Aliens / Meteor 
government take over
nature disaster
plague
sharknado! (I'm kidding)

the world is being torn apart, but it's happening gradually. If you're writing something like this, here's some information/things to think about:

-phones would not work for very long / or may not work at all if cell towers are damaged
-gasoline lasts from 3-6 months, diesel up to about a year if properly stored
- canned high-acid food (tomatoes fruits etc) can keep for about a year and a half, while low-acid foods such as meat or vegetables can keep for about 2-5 years. 
-on average medication expires after about a year, but I'm not too sure 
-where are your people getting weapons, food, transportation, clothing, etc?

apocalypse writing means you have to do more research on your specific setting, such as how to shoot a gun or write action scenes. I'll explain the action scenes more later. 

have your characters lose hope, kill off people they care about. make them do things they don't wanna do. but also let them save people, give them happy moments, and let them have hope. 

my final plea for everyone to write more apocalypse fics!!!

5. fantasy

I know the least about this, so bear with me

you can make it easier on yourself by writing about a fantasy world that already exists
the hunger games (not really fantasy but whatever)
star trek
star wars
harry potter
game of thrones (SEND IT TO ME IF YOU DO THIS I'LL PAY YOU MONEY)
lord of the rings
divergent?
idk at this point I'm just naming series 

do a little checking up on the rules of the universe and choose how closely you want to follow the canon storyline. other than doing the world-building for your own characters you're pretty much good to go.

if you're going all out on fantasy, you're creating your own world. this takes time and a lot of effort to make it good, so here are some things you have to consider:

geography/climate/cities
what is the land like? where are the cities, kingdoms, towns, and how big are they? what is the weather like in different places and how does that affect the people, culture, clothing, and resources? What is the power balance like between cities? Between kingdoms?

culture/history/beliefs/societies
what is important to the different kingdoms, and what kind of goods do they produce? how did their kingdoms come to form? what kind of gods do they believe in? How do their societies treat women and children? what kind of technology do they have?

animals 
are their animals fantastical? what about the plants? do they have things like dragons or sea monsters, and if so how do they interact with humans? does magic exist, and if so what are its rules?

now you'd figure out how your own characters fit into that world by doing the smaller world-building of their little social bubble. honestly, from then on you can do it how you want. 

that was a lot

now you can figure out:

-what kind of world it is
-what kind of life your character has
-the setting in which they are living 

I hoped this helped even a little :)