Making Better World Design Decisions

What makes a world a world? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the world is “the earth and all the people, places, and things on it.” Similarly, a fictional world is defined by what you decide to put in it. Every decision you make affects the definition of your world, from the most important and powerful characters or concepts, to the tiniest and most inane details.

Contrasting with the processes of inspiration and idea development, which often take on a life of their own as the world grows, decision making typically becomes more difficult as the project goes on. This is because as a world develops, it becomes less flexible, just as woven cloth is less flexible than loose thread. All of the design decisions that came before are set together in an intricate pattern that uniquely defines the world, leaving less room for expansion.

Decision Making

Although decision making is a difficult and highly personal process, it usually involves general steps and iterations that are widely applicable across different projects. To begin with, when you get inspired and begin developing an idea, you have to make sure that it is consistent with your world so far and where you want it to go. When the narrative is consistent across the entire world, your stories throughout that world will be more unified by that world.

Sometimes your idea will fit the puzzle exactly and bring together previously unrelated pieces in a beautiful way. But other times, it may encounter friction with other pieces that don’t quite allow it to fit. Here is where difficulties begin. You must decide if the idea is worth chipping away part of your world to make it fit, or if the idea could be molded into a different shape that works better. The hardest option is to abandon the idea altogether, but sometimes you can avoid this by beginning an entirely new project.

Honestly, I’m pretty bad at decision making, especially when the best decision is to leave an idea in the dust. I always want to include everything. But without a good approach to decision making, a world can quickly become cluttered and confusing. I find it helpful to test ideas in the different areas and aspects that define the world. Then, I can decide case-by-case whether I can resolve certain issues, and iterate on this process as I discover more issues. Below, I have outlined an example of this from my own project.

Decision Process Example

I had started a new project, where the world below is oppressed by the wealthy, opulent kingdom in the clouds. As I developed this new idea, some of the elements began to remind me of another story idea I had many years before, in which the wind was the evil government’s spy, keeping people in check. That fit with the oppressors living in the clouds; maybe they had some way to control the wind as well as the clouds. So, I thought, why not combine the worlds?

But I quickly noticed a few issues to resolve, such as people in the original story taking refuge in the mountains because only stone walls could fully block the wind. Mountains are closer to the clouds, so how could they be safer? Then I remembered that on this world, where these stories were converging, the mountains are the barrier between a secluded nation of dwarves and the rest of the world. What if the dwarves had the power to keep the cloud islands out of their territory?

As I have iterated on the decision to combine these worlds, I came across another issue to fully resove: their mismatched history. I’m not sure how to combine the cyclic ages of one world with the straight-forward history other, especially with close ties to the rest of my universe. But as I continue to explore these ideas, I believe that I can mold these worlds together into something deeper and more beautiful than before.

Conclusion

A world is defined by what’s in it. The world’s very definition is altered with every decision, even when even the smallest of details is added or removed. Although it can be difficult to make these world-altering decisions or to abandon ideas, focusing on the important themes and details in your world should help you resolve choices and continue on your journey.

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