World Building, Character Creation, and all the little details!

So I'm not sure if anyone'll actually find this a useful little piece, but I got into talking about world building and character creation last night. It's actually quite an interesting subject and thought I'd write up my process of how I go about creating characters and the worlds they interact with.

For Characters:

There are three basic steps I always take into account when building a character: moral grounding, goal, and 'base line.' Hang with me now as each of these works off the other and comes into creating your happy little story focus. Not necessarily in this order.

1. Moral Grounding (Guiding Principles and Lived Experiences): Now for a moral grounding, you want to think what is this character's formative mindset. How were they raised, who taught them, where did they grow up, were they rich, were they poor. What world experiences influenced the character up to the point where you introduced them to the reader. You don't have to write this all out for the reader, it can be introduced in subtle little ways that build the character over time, BUT! _{(And this is a really big but, and I cannot lie.)} YOU must write this all out, it's your personal catalogue to make sure you get the details of your creation down. All of this information that your reader will most likely never see. It's still vastly important to YOU as the writer. It also makes sure you don't do something stupid down the road with your character that ignores all that work you initially put into it.
2. Base Line (Heart and Soul): This is where your character's moral grounding comes in to form the heart of your character, his or her emotional base line if you will. All that moral grounding you built around your character is going to influence their base line, or how they interact with your world and those that inhabit your world. If they were poor, they're more likely to be conservative about how they spend money, practicality is going to be their driving force over luxury. This isn't always the case of course, it's more to give you a pathway into forming their mindset. Likewise, the path to their goal in your story is going to be guided by their base line. How they handle obstacles, challenges, and opponents on the path to their goal is all influenced by their moral grounding and the base line that you've formed from that moral grounding. Their heart and soul, their emotions and thought processes are going to be different based upon their lived experiences and give you that base line. It may seem like you can lump both the moral grounding and the base line into a single section and in most cases you will to save time. But it's important to understand that these are two separate and important sections that factor into your character's development before you start your story.
3. Goal (Motivation and End Game): What is the goal you are pushing your character towards. This is always important as it gives you a guide light to keep your story and your character on track. Pretty simple right? Not so much. Say your character wants to try to take over the world. How's he _{(Or she, we're an egalitarian organization here after all.)} gonna do that? Where's he gonna get all that drachma to pull it off if he was born poor? How much influence do they wield? What is their motivation for achieving their goal? How do their life experiences influence that goal? What effects will the story have upon that goal? Is it easily achievable or will they have to fight the world to grasp it? These are a number of questions that you have to answer as you form their goal for your story. You'll always find more questions you have to answer as you go through the creation process and depending on which goal you choose, what questions you'll ask. In that same vein your character's base line is going to effect how they approach their goal and what their motivation for that goal is. A knight isn't necessarily against taking over the world, but his motivation for doing so will be VASTLY different from a mad scientist's. Likewise their approach to achieving that goal is going to differ.

World Building:

Now we come to the broader workhorse of every story. The WORLD. This is a conglomeration of lore, rules, civilizations, politics _{(Oh sweet Luna... He said that word again!)}, economics, culture, and mythos that build the world your characters fight and strive to succeed in. I break this down into four sections all combined into what I call a "World Bible". This is your holy grail of information on the world you've built. This is how my world bibles break down: The Immutable Laws, Lore and Mythos, Civilizations and Culture, and Governing Forces.

1. The Immutable Laws: These are the rules and laws that cannot, under any circumstances be broken in your world by the characters you introduce. A great example of this would be Full Metal Alchemist's "Law of Equivalent Exchange". In that universe, you cannot create something from thin air. Something must be exchanged to create something else. Likewise, the world you create must have certain rules and laws that cannot be broken by your character. And of course, attempts to break those laws must come with consequences. This helps immensely in limiting what could potentially be infinite god-like powers that would, in all honesty, make your story a pointless power fantasy. By giving them drastic consequences or limits that are easily understandable to the reader you make a more believable, enjoyable, and invested experience. Remember to think over these rules and laws carefully, if there are potential consequences for trying to break these rules, mark them down. Ask others to look over your rules. But most importantly, establish them.
2. Lore and Mythos: The lore and mythos of your world is the history you give it. The mythical heroes and villains, the Gods and Daemons, the great empires of bygone ages who's marble bones now dot the southern deserts. What you decide to put into your world is vital for giving it a sense of presence. J.R.R. Tolkien was a master class in giving his world presence. Ancient monoliths, ruins of bygone empires and a sense that something greater once touched the land, never to be seen again. How you decide to develop the lore, how deeply you're willing to dive into it and how much you let it influence your story are all important factors when you're building your world. It doesn't have to be heavy handed in your presentation either. Introducing small elements at a time, slowly revealing the greater lore and mythos in your world. This can give the reader a sense of discovery alongside your character and enhance the joy of discovery both your character and the reader can share. But it's important that YOU have this all established before you begin. Going into a story with a vague idea often times leads to a longer and more frustrating process, so making sure you have it already established and that you've already worked through those frustrations can save you a ton of time down the road.

3. Civilizations and Cultures: If Lore and Mythos are what give your world presence, Civilizations breathe life into your world. These are the villages, towns, cities, empires, countries, and races that inhabit your world. Each piece adds a little more life into the world, small towns and villages give you a chance to show how the world is settled enough that dangers are rare. They're also classic starting points for adventurous characters. Cities and empires are a chance to give greater breath to your world, to show how large it is and how small or big a part your character plays in it. Are they one of the great movers and shakers in an empire? Were they a street rat, bumming for a loaf of bread? A small town farmer? Civilizations give you a chance to grow your character how you desire and likewise, can present a chance to show how small or large their effect is upon the world. But what are towns and cities without the people? The inhabitants of your world are just as, if not more, important as the cities and empires. From vast cybernetic empires of science fiction to the sprawling ghettos of a corrupt fantasy empire, the races and inhabitants are just as important to develop as the cities are. They're the interaction medium for your character. The traveling merchant, the local blacksmith, the cyber enhancement dealer are all little insights for the reader and the character into just who inhabits the world your character is in.

   Likewise are the different cultures that each Empire and race presents. Delicate balance must always be struck when handling different cultures. Yet they can present a chance to explore differences between the races you create for your character to explore. Subtle differences can have greater mileage than smacking someone in the face with a different cultural norm. Showing how those differences interact everyday through your character can have a much greater impact upon your reader than you might initially realize. Of course cultures can be a difficult subject to broach, where do you start, how do you make them interact? These are just a few of the challenges that you'll face as you develop them, yet there's no real limit here. Looking through the real world you can find many examples how cultures share and adapt different aspects of their relative cultures into their own everyday life. Real world examples are also a great way to help you learn how to adapt your own cultures. From food, to religion, to music and education. Your cultures are only limited by how far you want to go into them.

4. Governing Forces: The Governing Forces of the world. Here you can categorize how your world functions. The monetary and economic structure, the Governments and political factions your character is going to have to deal with throughout your story. The various religious organizations that hold power and sway. From the small town sheriff to the Emperor himself, each must be defined within the greater machinations of your world. From the smallest half pence to the largest gold piece or jewel. These seemingly minor details are more important than you realize. Developing a well thought out world entails the governments, the economies and the financial norms your character is going to come across. The Religious factions and hidden power struggles your character can potentially come across are only more chances to expand your world. While exhaustive detail isn't necessary within the confines of your story, having a fully fleshed out system in place within your World Bible will assure you have firm references to go to when your character comes across them within your story.

SO! There you have it. A small... Well okay a moderate glimpse into how I tackle creating characters and building worlds. While this may seem like so much work for a story. In the end you will have a fuller, richer world that you and your readers can enjoy together. Having a World Bible you can fall back on will ALWAYS help you maintain the story you're building within that world, and keep you from derailing that train. At the same time, this is something you can share with others who are interested and want to contribute. Just remember the old idiom, too many cooks in the kitchen. It's always great to have others join your project, but make sure you have the final say on what goes into your world bible.

It's a lot of work, I won't deny that. It takes time a effort. But at the same time, you don't have to do this alone! Having two or three interested friends willing to bounce ideas about can alleviate a lot of pressure you put on yourself. It's also a fantastic way to work through problems you may come across during development. I hope you've enjoyed this little snippet and if you've found it helps you, even better! Thanks for peeking in and have a great time!