The Cardinal Rules of Worldbuilding

When I first conceived this essay, I structured it around three cardinal rules. As I went on, though, I realized that three didn't really cut it...but I wasn't sure how necessary the fourth was, either. So, much like the Laws of Thermodynamics, we shall have a zeroth rule of world-building in addition to the first, second, and third.

The Zeroth Rule of Worldbuilding: Be Original.

Being original doesn't mean everything you think of has to be completely 100% noninfluenced by anybody else. It just means that something--the way your world is put together, a few important details, even point of view--should be different than anything you've seen. Because if you're just writing someone else's world...well...that's fan fiction, isn't it? And if it isn't, it's certainly derivative. So try to find something new, not just in surface details, but in the perceptions and surroundings of your world. Especially if you're writing a series, it can be your most reliable and interesting source of plots.

The First Rule of Worldbuilding: Don't distract your reader.

Remember, your world is there to serve the story, not vice versa. Or possibly your world IS the story. Either way, you don't want to throw your reader out of the story. Trying to keep your readers' full attention has a lot of effects. Avoid illogic; avoid unnecessary detail; integrate your world into your story, rather than tacking the descriptions on separately; make sure your characters fit your world and vice versa; make sure you explain all the really weird things. Don't distract your reader, then, covers a whole spectrum of evils relating your world's setup and its implementation. Use the rule wisely. :)

The Second Rule of Worldbuilding: Make your world coherent.

This is sort of a subrule of the First Rule, but I think it's important enough to address separately. "Coherent" means both logically whole and sticking together. In other words, all your pieces should be interrelated, and they should all make sense. Violating this rule will distract your reader for sure; it will also cause breakdowns in your story, because some parts of your world won't fit together, and so your characters will want to do one thing which makes sense with half of what you know and one thing which makes sense with the other half. Every world will be at least partly contradictory, since we all make compromises--but even then, make sure you know all the reasons, benefits, and results of those compromises. As long as you know why everything fits and how that will affect your characters, go for it. Beware the cracks where you haven't thought about a relationship.

The Third Rule of Worldbuilding: Know at least one level of detail deeper than you need to.

Again, this is sort of a subrule of the Second Rule, but again, I think it deserves its own expansion. Basically, if you know one level of detail deeper than you need to, the stuff you do have will seem more realistic because there's a logical structure underneath it, supporting the connections that aren't explicitly laid out. As a corollary, do your research. It helps with the detail; you can make things up, but it's nice if they're based in fact. Anyway, if you can, go even deeper than the one level I prescribe...two or three or more levels deeper than necessary. A good example is the Lord of the Rings movies ; get ahold of the special features on the DVD and marvel at the detail. Even the insides of the royal costumes were brocade, though that layer was never shown on screen. And, actually, this examples serves my purposes well: the miniatures teams often made models which were shot much closer than they'd been expecting, but because they put the time and effort in, the models held up under the closer scrutiny. That's similiar to what you need to do, especially for novels. You'll never know when you need a detail, but if you have everything worked out, it's right there, ready and waiting for you. Just thinking about this level may also help you work out some of the subtler things about your world, especially perceptions. And, of course, it never hurts to be one step ahead of your readers!

So there you have it: the four qualities I think are absolutely necessary for worldbuilding. Everything else is icing on the cake. :) Of course, I'll keep pounding these rules elsewhere on the site...but really, if you can make these four things work, all your other concepts will fall into place, and with a good framework laid down, you can fix any other problems that crop up.