World-building
World-building is only half the job. The other half is remembering what you decided, three hundred pages and eight months later, when the same rule has to hold again.
These guides cover building a world readers can follow, and checking that the one on the page matches the one in your notes.
61 articles, page 1 of 2
Naming Ranks in an Invented Army
Distinctive ranks, or ones readers can order.
Naming Ships in a Fleet
A system, not a list of names.
Naming a Fictional Company
Your invented firm probably exists.
Naming a Fictional Newspaper
The paper in your book, styled correctly.
Naming Fictional Streets and Districts
A city that stays in one arrangement.
Naming Fictional Schools and Colleges
An institution, and everything it names.
Naming Invented Holidays
A festival is a date, and dates are checkable.
Invented Medicine and Healing
If healing is free, injury is decoration.
Invented Education and Training
How your world makes competent people.
Invented Crafts and Guilds
Who makes things, and who controls it.
Invented Transport and Roads
How fast can anyone get anywhere.
Invented Communication Systems
Who knows what, and how soon.
How to Name a Magic System
What readers will call your magic.
Naming Spells and Abilities
How many named abilities is too many.
Naming Items and Artefacts
Naming a sword is a promise.
Recording Invented Idioms
The sayings your world uses, twice.
Invented Oaths and Curses
What your world says when it hurts.
Invented Food and Drink
The words your characters use every day.
Invented Clothing and Textiles
What people wear, and what it says.
Invented Music and Instruments
Naming a sound, and keeping it.
Invented Games and Sports
The game that changes to suit the scene.
Family Trees in Fiction
The tree in the front, and what it reveals.
Timelines Printed in Books
Printing dates is a promise.
A Place List for Epic Fantasy
Continents to taverns, in one document that scales.
How Dense Should Your World-Building Be?
How much invented vocabulary is normal, and where it should sit.
Is Your World Under-Explained?
Terms the book leans on and never defines, and how to find them.
Currency and Trade Reference
Money that stays worth the same amount across a whole series.
Maps and Geography Reference
The document behind the map is the one that has to agree with the text.
Flora, Fauna and Creature Reference
Species names, plurals, and the behaviour a creature has to keep.
Weapons and Armour Terminology
Real and invented kit, and the readers who check the real half.
Ships, Vehicles and Transport Terminology
Classes, names, styling, and the travel arithmetic underneath.
Houses, Clans and Family Naming Reference
Naming systems for groups, and the surname problem underneath.
How to Record World Rules
Writing a rule down so that a scene can be checked against it.
Recording Technology Rules in Science Fiction
What the ships can do, written down before chapter forty.
Political and Legal Systems Reference
Offices that need stable names and, more importantly, stable powers.
Religion and Ritual Reference
Gods, orders and rites, and the capitalisation that comes with them.
Language and Naming Reference
Naming conventions as rules, so that new names fit the old ones.
Calendar and Dating Reference
An invented calendar has to survive its own arithmetic.
How to Audit Your World-Building Notes
Checking the notes against the manuscript, not the reverse.
A Reference Pack for a Cover Designer
What a designer needs, and the errors that reach a printed cover.
Page 1 of 2
World-building, on your own manuscript.
One pass lists every name, place, faction and invented term in the book.