Welcome to Square World Portals!
Our vision is to express beauty and meaning through the loving creation of fictional worlds. We bring the worldbuilding community together to share ideas and experiences, to inspire one another, and to ignite creativity in the crowd.
My Worldbuilding Experience
I have always had a passion for worldbuilding. At a young age, I created a square world called Nass. A cube was an easy 3D shape to create using paper. Though I did not yet know the word “pangea”, I utilized this concept when drawing the large continent spanning all six sides, carefully lining the coastlines up at the edges. Placing the oceans at the vertices of the world, I developed the idea that the square edges were best crossed by boat. Later, as a more mature worldbuilder, I embraced the challenge of justifying all of these design decisions with consistent and believable reasoning. Puzzles like this are some of my favorite things in life!
Worldbuilding Process
My general process for worldbuilding, whether starting a new project or building on an old one, begins with an inspiration of some sort. Inspiration can come from anywhere – paper folded into a cube, learning a cool fact in class, or random thoughts while watching leaves flutter in the wind. These inspirations spark notions or ideas that you can then weave into a world. When fitting the pieces together, I think of myself as a historian or researcher, discovering the roots and effects of the idea. Thus, I see worldbuilding as a journey of discovery, uncovering more and more puzzle pieces and fitting them together as you go.
Often, I do not place myself in the role of world creator at all. Rather, I typically prefer to see the world from the characters’ perspectives, thinking about how the world comes together in their perception and understanding. There is certainly a time and place, however, to act as the creator or narrator and ensure that the pieces fit into the wider picture.
One main struggle that I face in worldbuilding is my perfectionist tendencies. Because I typically want to perfect the idea before I put it down on paper, the majority of my ideas live only in my head. Although this is a convenient storage spot, it also leaves less room for new or expanded ideas. To combat this hinderance, I have been attempting to be more intentional about writing things down at the beginnings of more recent projects. For example, the easiest way for me to visualize ideas on paper has always been mapmaking, so that is one area I have focused on. While I have somewhat improved at this over the years, I still have a long way to go.
Conclusion
Since worldbuilding is a highly personal, unique experience for each individual, I founded Square World Portals as a space for worldbuilders to come and learn about different experiences. As I continue to share my own knowledge and ideas, I invite you to participate by contacting me with feedback, submitting ideas for the website gallery, or collaborating on a community project. If you want to learn even more about what we do at Square World Portals, you can also subscribe to our email newsletter.
