It’s hard to flesh out your story’s worldbuilding beyond what the characters will directly come into contact with—and why would you? If it never comes up, it doesn’t matter… right? Though that may hold true for some secular stories, for others, not having done enough worldbuilding at the beginning can cause major setbacks or plot holes.
You don’t need a detailed deconstruction of everything in your world, but you should have a rough idea of most things. I’ve listed all the aspects of worldbuilding you should consider.
For each, question yourself: Have you thought about this? Yes, or no.
If you have, but don’t need to get into it too deeply, write down a couple words as a place marker, in case you need to explore it later.
Of course, feel free to take every aspect listed below and expand on it in your own preferred way, be that a document or mood board—whatever worldbuilding process works best for you! This is just a way to make sure you’ve covered all your bases.
World Map
Creating a World Map is a fun (but still productive) side quest for any writing project. Familiarizing yourself with the lay of the land will add depth to your story descriptions, a note of authenticity, and better help you get in your characters’ shoes. If you have an adjacent, real-life place you’re basing you setting in, that’s great! Drop a pin on Google Maps and take a look around, maybe grab a screenshot or two. Otherwise, here’s an article on how to create a fictional map. Now, onto the checklist:
Specific Location:
Continent Name
Biom (climate, season duration, daylight hours)
Wildlife (native and invasive species)
Plantlife
Village/City/Town Name
Classification (urban/rural)
Architecture
Infrastructures (electricity, water, roads, sewage, waste disposal)
Population Size
Population Density
Population Demographics (% age, race, gender)
Segregation (suburbs, municipalities, districts, etc.)
SocioEconomics (% of population, disparity, class markers)
Level of Access to:
Technology (from the invention of the wheel to a spaceship)
Medicine (level of sophistication)
Communication (methods)
Transportation (public, private)
Resources (mining, oil, lumber, etc)
Freshwater
Agriculture (types of production, industrialization)
Domesticated Animals
Crops
Food (process, cooking methods)
Societal Structure:
System of Power
Political Leaders
Other Political Beliefs (present, existing, or opposed)
Laws
Law Enforcement (active regulation)
System of Punishment (legal process, practice of incarceration, or libertarian approach, etc.)
Culture Name (self-identifying, and called by others)
Language (lexicon, glossary)
Arts
Sports
Education (accessibility, levels of degrees)
History (predominantly known, falsifications, lost texts)
Religion (prevailing theology, curated practices)
Tradition (holidays, festivals)
Superstitions (sayings, local legends)
If you would like a longer, prompt-oriented approach to worldbuilding, there’s an article and download for How to Build a Fantasy World that can be commandeered for other genre uses too. Or, if you’ve moved on to fleshing out your characters, here’s a comprehensive article on creating your Character Sheets.