Wonders of World Building panel script

Wonders of World Building
Panel for Galacon 2019
July 27^th 2019

Note for my making-of blog post readers:

If you’re reading this, then you have probably attended my panel. Thank you very much for putting your trust in me and deciding to join in on the world building adventure. It really means a lot to me to see that you and so many more Galacon visitors were interested in what I had to say. You have made my day! :)

As promised, here is the complete panel script. Notice that it contains more examples than those I showed at the panel. I had to cut out a few to save some time and only presented the most entertaining ones. Yet, even with the cuts the panel ended a tad later than it should have. (And with “a tad,” I mean fifteen minutes!)

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this panel script just as much as I enjoyed writing it. There is also a small making-of about this panel on my FIMFiction page as a separate blog post. Of course I also posted the challenge sheet in a separate blog post, so you can see the cool and crazy ideas the audience (and maybe you yourself) came up with.

Once again thank you so much for your support, and I hope to hear from you soon in the comment section!

Elkia Deerling

Title slide

Hello everypony, and welcome to my panel: ‘Wonders of World Building.’ I’m thrilled to be here at Galacon 2019 and ready to guide you on your writing paths. Let me introduce myself first, so that I’m not some random stranger telling you what you should and should not do.

Language 1: CEFR level C1

Hello, my name is Elkia. I like learning languages, writing stories, teaching, and making memes. In the future I want to become a professor in English.

Language 2: CEFR level C2

Hallo, mijn naam is Elkia. Ik hou van talen leren, verhalen schrijven, lesgeven en memes maken. In de toekomst wil ik een Engels professor worden.

Language 3: CEFR level B2

Hallo, meine Name ist Elkia. Ich liebe Sprachen zu lernen, Geschichten zu schreiben, zu unterrichten und Memes zu machen. In die Zukunft möchte ich gerne ein Englisch Professor werden.

Language 4: CEFR level A2

Hei hei, jeg heter Elkia. Jeg liker å lære språk, å skrive eventyr, å undervise og å lage memes. I fremtiden vil jeg være en engelsk professor.

Introduction

And now it’s up to you all to guess which language is which. But I think you can all understand what I’m trying to say, can’t you?

So yes, I like languages, and I also like doing panels. This is actually the fifth panel I have done, and on the screen you can see the other panels at the other conventions. My first one was ‘Elkia’s Creative Writing Panel’ at Galacon 2017, which was kind of a “writing 101” course. The one after that, ‘Get it Write!’ at UK PonyCon 2017, was about creating a plot for your story. My third panel was called ‘Get in Character,’ which I held at Hearth’s Warming con 2018 in the Netherlands, and which covered the subject of characters. The panel before this one was a special panel named ‘Panelicious’ at UK PonyCon 2018. It was special because it had nothing to do with writing stories but with creating panels.

But now I am here in Germany. And together we are going to make miracles happen and create a world so you can do with it whatever you want. Colonize it? Destroy it? Sure, it’s your story!

Note

These tips and tricks are by no means rules. Everypony has a different way to write, and this is the way which works great for me. I present this way not only because it is fun, but because it may work for you as well. Please do not think that I am some almighty god-person who does everything right the first time—although I am truly flattered if you see me that way. If you can find a better or faster method to build a story world, then by all means do what you want. Always do things the best way, and if you don’t know what is best and cannot find out what is best, then do what feels right for you. With that said, are you ready to build a world? Good! Then let’s begin the panel.

What is world building?

It’s always useful to know what you’re doing before actually doing it, so let’s take a look at what world building is. With world building you are creating a story world for your story. A story world is one of the three essential practical elements you need when you want to write a story, together with characters and plot. Think about this: a story without characters is a nature documentary, a story without a plot is a random collection of events which have nothing to do with one another, and a story without a story world is just a conversation between two floating heads in endless nothingness. You need a stage for your players to perform on and make your plot unfold.

A good habit is to think about your story world before you even start hammering your keyboard, because sometimes the world determines what kind of story you can write and what you can do. A story world gives options but also restrictions. In a world made out of paper you cannot make your character smile and dance in the rain, because one shower would make the whole world sag and fall apart. Rain would be disastrous and no character could ever be happy to see storm clouds approach. What you can do in your paper world is create amazing buildings, because it is easy to fold paper into cool shapes, which might be used in construction.

How do we do it?

It’s also useful to know how you can get something done before actually doing it. For those of you who have seen my video, ‘The Basics of World Building’ on Youtube, this next part will be very familiar. But of course I will dive much deeper into this method now, and use pony examples, because all ponies are best ponies.

The essential guideline is to question your world, for example by using the “what-if” question together with geographical dimensions. “Geographical dimensions” sounds very complicated but that is only because I want to sound intelligent and sophisticated. Let me show you what these dimensions are.

Geographical dimensions

The physical-geographical dimension has to do with the natural order of your world. I mean the plants and animals, but also the elements: water, earth, fire, and air. It’s about the way the terrain looks (mountains, oceans, etc.), the climate (desert, tropical rainforest, etc.), and don’t forget the weather, my dear pegasi!

The cultural dimension is about the dominant intelligent species. In our world those are humans, and in Equestria those are ponies, dragons, griffons, and the other races. These people or ponies create things like art, literature, music, fashion, and technology. Also, they speak languages, celebrate different occasions, eat all kinds of food, and might even believe in one or more gods. Of course your people or ponies will behave in a certain way which they find acceptable. In Equestria it is acceptable not to wear any clothes, while in our world that is… acceptable in some places and communities.

With the demographic dimension you can think about the age of your population, race and ethnicity, migration, and how the ponies or people are spread out over the world.

The economic dimension is easy. It’s about everything regarding money, business, and trade.

My favorite one is the political dimension. The political system of your world can have a huge impact on all the other geographical dimensions. Are you going for open, free, American-style capitalism, total anarchy, or a totalitarian state in the signature style of Starlight Glimmer? It’s all your choice! War and peace are also matters of politics, more often than not.

The magical dimension is something I made up, because you won’t find it in any regular geography textbook. It’s still fun to use and very important if you’re writing a My Little Pony fanfiction. The world of Equestria is filled with magic and the show isn’t called ‘Friendship is Magic’ for nothing. Think about spells, rituals, different kinds of powers, the source of magic, who can do magic and who can’t, and how society reacts to the use of magic.

The last one, the historical dimension, blurs the line between geography, history, and backstory. The way the world looks and works is a direct result of everything that happened before. Is the world young or old? Just created from magma or weathered for eons by the elements? Are the dominant species primitive or have they had a long history of development and evolution? Have they perfected the recipe for cider in the passing years?

Geographical dimensions + “what-if”

Now let me show you some “what-if” questions in the context of these geographical dimensions.

Physical/geographical:
What if the world were made out of candy?

Cultural:
What if ponies worshipped dragons?

Demographic:
What if ponies lived forever?

Economic:
What if money didn’t exist?

Political:
What if Starlight Glimmer waged war on Equestria, won, and established a totalitarian state?

Magical:
What if magic were illegal?

Historical:
What if Equestria were just founded yesterday?

Challenge 1: creating “what-if” questions

And now it’s time to ask ourselves some “what-if” questions. Please raise your hoof if you have an idea, no matter how crazy, scary, funny, or interesting. Anything goes!

The “why” question

Another world building technique is the “why” question. This one is great to use if you already have some ideas. Then you are essentially working backwards and delving more into backstory. Here are some “why” questions together with my own examples I showed you earlier.

-Why is the world made out of candy? Because Discord reshaped it as he saw fit.
-Why do ponies worship dragons? Because everypony secretly wants to be one.
-Why do ponies live forever? Because of a time-travel spell that went wrong.

The “why” question 2

-Why does money not exist? Because the economy is still too primitive for that.
-Why did Starlight glimmer wage war and establish a totalitarian equal-state? Because she’s secretly still evil.
-Why is magic illegal? Because Celestia misused it to troll the entire world.
-Why is Equestria just founded yesterday? Because then the pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies finally managed to be friends with each other.

As you can see, the “why” question technique is very simple and very effective. The only things you need are your own imagination and weirdness. Now is the perfect time to use the “why” question ourselves, because we created our very own ideas just a few minutes ago. Let’s see how far we will get in deepening our story world.

Challenge 2: using “why” questions

Once again raise your hoof if you have an idea. It doesn’t matter if you want to pose a “why” question to somepony else’s “what-if” question. We’ll just call it a collaboration, then.

The rule of cause and effect

You can build on these questions using the rule of cause and effect. This rule shows that if one thing happens, another thing happens as a consequence. It’s a way to predict the future—or to explain backstory, depending on how you decide to use this technique. If you use it to see the future, you might even end up with a possible plotline for your story!

The trick is to start your sentences with the word “if.” Try to go as far as you can, because the better you can establish a cause and effect relationship, the more details you can uncover about your world. Now you need not only imagination and weirdness, but also a little bit of logic, or else your world will make no sense (although Pinkie would probably disagree). Take a look at these examples, and notice how the different geographical dimensions influence one another. The colors correspond to the geographical dimensions.

The rule of cause and effect 2

If the world were made out of candy, then ponies will probably not be able to grow any normal crops and eat only sweetness day in day out. Needless to say, the population will become unhealthy because of the massive sugar overdose.

If ponies worshipped dragons, the dragons might rise to power and become the new leaders of Equestria. Then burping might become an official greeting after all.

If ponies lived forever, then life could become very relaxed. Why the rush? You have all the time in the world! The economy might become a mess because everypony is too lazy to get to work on time, and the employers are too lazy to care about it. But in the end they might get enough of it, and a civil war between leaders and workers could ignite when the tension rises.

If Starlight Glimmer were to become a dictator again, then Equestria would finally have a capable leader.

No just kidding! If Starlight Glimmer were to become a dictator again, then Equestrian culture will be radically transformed. Old celebrations will be abolished, and everypony will be forced to celebrate “the day the great leader rid them of all the prissy princesses!” Perhaps Starlight will introduce communism as the economic status quo because why not? Fits her perfectly.

If magic were illegal, unicorns would be powerless. Many great inventions will cease to exist, which might slow the economy down. Protests, civil disobedience, and perhaps even civil war could start, when things spiral out of control.

If Equestria were just founded yesterday, ponies might be excited to explore the new, fertile lands. Perhaps the ponies are open-minded and adventurous. Rich or influential ponies might claim land and call themselves rulers.

Challenge 3: linking cause and effect

You have seen how it works, so let’s use the technique ourselves, shall we? This is the most difficult challenge because these cause and effect relationships require an open mind. But I know you can do it. Raise your hoof if you have an effect for one of our causes.

Scale levels

Creating a story world also requires you to pick a scale level. If you’ve studied geography and opened an atlas, you know there are many different maps on many different scale levels in it. You have maps of the world, of a part of the world, of countries, regions, states, provinces, cities, and even specific neighborhoods. Certain types of stories work best with certain kinds of scale levels. ‘Star Wars’ might have been a very boring saga if it played out on just a single planet, and ‘Titanic’ would have made no sense if the story took place onboard the ship and a few countries on land. When I define scale I use these levels to zoom in and out—to find out what I do and do not need in the story.

The universal level instantly makes you recall ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Star Trek,’ and other science fiction space-travel books, movies, and TV-series. Fantasy too, uses different realms like Azeroth and the Outland from the ‘World of Warcraft’ video game. Maybe you have heard of it?

This is the highest scale level where you will use different planets, solar systems, or maybe even dimensions. What you can also do is let the story play out on one planet and only hint at extraterrestrials from other planets in legends and backstory, as horror science-fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft does in his ‘Cthulhu mythos tales.’

The global level is simply one planet. Enough said.

Scale levels 2

The regional level is a bit more vague. If you look at our own world, you can find regions as big as countries or as small as city networks. A region can be a group of countries like Scandinavia, a group of provinces or states like New England in America, a group of cities, or just a region where certain flora and fauna lives or where certain activities happen like das Ruhrgebiet in Germany.

With the national level I mean one single country. Simple as that.

One of the smallest levels is the rural/urban level. “Rural” means countryside and “urban” means cities. I’m talking about all the villages, even the cutest and tiniest ones, and the grand cities where innovation happens.

Of course there are even smaller scale levels like the domestic level, by which I mean stories that take place in a single house, or sometimes even in a single room. The movie ‘Gerald’s Game,’ based on a book by Stephen King, is about a woman being handcuffed to the bed during a sex game. Then she accidentally gets stuck, and has to escape before she perishes of thirst. And my tale ‘Don’t Do It!’ also takes place in a single room, but that is more of a one-shot and not really a short story or book. So yes, you can use this tiny scale level, but keep in mind that your story will then likely be on the shorter and simpler side of fiction. If that is exactly what you want, then go for it!

Maps

As for maps, it might be useful to make one, especially if you’re writing a book with multiple story threads and multiple characters in different cities. Maps make it easy to track who is where and what happens where, and can also be used to get a feeling of distance and travel time. If you are an amazing graphic artist, you can even publish your map together with your book. But if you’re like me and cannot even draw a stick figure properly, then your map will probably look more schematic, and useful only for yourself and not for promotion. That’s alright too.

The nine worlds (Nordic mythology)

Nordic mythology and runology are also hobbies of mine. These were kind of the things that kindled my fascination for everything Norwegian. The Vikings believed in nine different worlds, held together in the great nothingness by the world tree Ygdrassil. This is a map of these nine worlds. Notice that some are separate and opposite of each other, like Asgard, the realm of the gods, and Jotunheim, the realm of their enemies: the giants. Yet, there is also the rainbow bridge, which connects Asgard and Midgard: our own world we call earth. The nine worlds is a great world with lots of opportunities for conflict, and conflict is exactly what you want when you write a story. This map is not just made to show where the worlds are, but reveals some of the folklore as well. For example the chariots Sol and Måni which carry the sun and moon, and even some backstory of Odin. He sacrifices an eye for wisdom and you can see the noose where he hung himself to gain the knowledge of the runes.

Can you guess what scale level the map of the nine worlds is?

Equestria (MLP: FIM)

I don’t really need to explain that much about this world, do I? Trust me when I say that you will use this map many times when you are going to write a long adventure MLP fanfiction. You can see all the different settlements and even the different climate zones. Opposites of each other are the Dragon Lands, Griffonstone, and Yakyakistan where conflict might arise; and notice the connecting elements: the railroads and harbors.

What scale level is Equestria?

The Horseshoe Fjord (A Cold Tale up North)

This, my dear audience, is the reason why I am a writer and not an artist. Still, it was the only example of this scale level I could easily come by. This is a map of the Horseshoe Fjord, a place in Equestria to where the main six and Sleipnir—yes, the same Sleipnir as the horse in Nordic mythology—will travel to save it from a terrifying storm. It’s a story I’ve been working on since the beginning of my writing career three-and-a-half years ago. A four-book epic which is nowhere near completion, although I’ve finished the first two books by now.

You can already see why this world is called the Horseshoe Fjord. It’s a fjord shaped like a horseshoe, which tells us something about the physical-geographical dimension and the historical dimension. The dots are pony settlements and the bubbles are territories where different kinds of creatures live. There is a lot of conflict in this world, which shows through the overlap of the elk and wolf territories. You don’t have to be a biologist to understand that elks and wolves do not mix. Also, the mountain range is infested with wolves, as the war rages on. Thanks to the mountain range the settlements in the Horseshoe Fjord are quite isolated, yet there are some connections, namely the place where the fjord meets the ocean. And look here! Might this be a secret passage through the mountains? Who knows…?

What scale level is this map?

Germany (Earth)

Most of you will understand this map as well. If you don’t, then I have no idea how you got here. This is Germany, and I really like this map because it shows us many things. The big and small cities; the connections by rail, airport, and road; and how many big cities are situated close to the mighty Rhine river. Just look at how many they are! This map also has a legend—this little box here—which helps us to read the map. Could also be fun to make, especially if you’re drawing a very alternative map which might be hard to interpret by your reader.

On what scale level is this map?

The Moscow metro (Metro 2033)

Wow! What the hay is this?! This might look like some vague abstract painting, but it is actually a map. Maybe those of you who live in a big city can read it at first sight. Those of you who live in Moscow can read it even better. This is a map of the Moscow metro system, from my favorite dystopian book ever: ‘Metro 2033’ by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The book is about a third world war which forced the population of Moscow to flee into the metro. They survived, and turned every station into its own city-state with its own political system and alliances. As you can see, we definitely need a legend to decipher this map. In a nutshell, the largest political powers are the communists on the red line, the capitalists on the circle line, and the fascists in the heart of the metro over here. All these different visions on how the metro should be creates an enormous amount of tension and a few bloody wars have already been fought between the stations. Connections are of course the tunnels, the rails, and the very important circle line, which opens up trading possibilities for the entire metro.

Can you guess what scale level the Moscow Metro is?

Pitfalls and tips

We have worked very hard to create our own world, and it is already getting pretty detailed, isn’t it? That’s a great thing, because the more you know about your story world, the more realistic and consistent your world will be and the easier it will be to write. Doing a lot of research is a very good cure for the dreaded writer’s block. Only, be careful not to use too much information in your story, because your reader is not reading a geography textbook!

Use only the information you need to explain your world at the present moment in your story, either to your reader or to the characters. I call that: information on a need-to-know basis. And if you need to explain a lot about your world, you can write a short prologue or sprinkle the information through your dialogue. What you can also do is use epistolary interludes like diary entries—which are used a lot in ‘Fallout: Equestria’—or wall carvings to explain history. That’s what H.P. Lovecraft likes to do in his ‘Cthulhu mythos tales.’

Also a fun thing to do is creating mystery. Maybe no one in your story knows how the world works or came to existence, and you can reveal some secrets bit by bit as the plot progresses and the characters become wiser. That way, your reader can still learn something about the world halfway through the story. Plus, your reader can pose questions so he or she stays engaged and wants to read on, curious about your story world and your story itself.

If the story you are going to write is your first one ever, it might be a good idea to make your story world at least somewhat similar to Earth. Then you don’t have to bother with creating all kinds of exotic climatological developments or outlandish races with complicated magical powers. When writing your first story, keep it simple, keep as many options open as you can, and write about what you know.

My work and where to find it, or: shameless self-promotion galore!

If you want to have some more world building or general writing tips, you can read ‘Elkia’s Wonderful Writing Book’ and ‘Elkia’s Awesome Additions’ on equestriadaily.com. They are hidden under the ‘Community—Tutorials’ tab.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/tutorial-codex.html#more

And if you can’t get enough of my voice, you can always watch my Youtube video: ‘The Basics of World Building’ on my channel with the same name. Don’t expect a lot of content on that channel, by the way. The video was just a one-time thing because I had to make one to get admitted into the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, where I will do an English teacher study.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLntYi_Tbi0&t=12s

Speaking of Youtube, this very panel will be recorded and put on the Galacon Youtube page, so you can literally watch it again if you want. The footage of my first panel, ‘Elkia’s Creative Writing Panel,’ is on there as well. If you click on it you can see how different I looked and laugh at how nervous I was back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU2RDTbtL8I&t=433s

On my FIMFiction page you will find the panels I have done. That’s right, everypony! I post the complete panel scripts online, free for everyone to read, including this panel. So if you want to take it all in a second time or gain inspiration by doing the challenges again all by yourself, feel free to do so. I use the ‘Blogs’ section to publish those, so you can find them there.

Of course there are various stories as well. Funny ones, sad ones, weird ones, short ones, and even three complete books, if you like long stories. But wait, there’s more! I post my notes, outlines, character sketches, and other pre-writing material as blog posts. These are part of a making-of series which you can read if you’re interested in finding out the practical process behind writing. You might learn a lot from the making-of blog posts!

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/278157/Elkia+Deerling

Or if you just want to get in touch with me, you can always send me an e-mail at this address: [e-mail]. I check my inbox every day.

Before you’re going to scribble this all down, you can also grab a card from my little Elkia over here which has all the info on it. I’ll sign it too, if you want. Then I can feel like a celebrity!

Q&A

Do you have any questions, perhaps? Remember that there is no such thing as a stupid question, fillies and gentlecolts. The only thing that’s stupid is not asking what you want to know. Maybe there is something you struggle with when writing yourself? Struggles with world building or another aspect of writing? Do you want to ask me a personal question, share a story idea, or the ultimate MLP meme?!

Thank you!

I want to thank you all very much for helping me do this panel. Without you, my dear audience, I would have been talking to myself all the time—although someone told me once that is a sign of intelligence. I also want to thank the volunteers here in the room, the volunteer behind the camera, and Galacon for letting me do another panel.

If you have any more questions or want to have a friendly chat, I will be walking around the convention both tonight and tomorrow, so you can always tap me on the shoulder. I hope to see and hear from you again and I wish you a great time at Galacon 2019. Thank you!

©Elkia Deerling

(30 min. including drinking pauses)