Subject: I need world-building help!
Author:
Posted on: 2020-02-05 12:41:08 UTC
So earlier today I was working on my original story, and I was writing a scene where the protagonist enters a room which is basically a library containing more or less all the books in the country. And I just put in some big numbers for the dimensions of this library and the size of the shelves, and then I thought "hang on a second... this is a lot of books." I did some rough sums and it turned out the library would contain literal millions of books, which is way too many.
But that then got me thinking: how many books would be a realistic amount? So I decided to try and calculate it... and realised I didn't have the numbers. Because I don't even know the population of the country. I've done basically no proper world-building. There's been a bit of work on the magic systems and languages, but barely anything on history, geography, culture...
And to be honest, I don't really know where to start: I've never learnt to build a world before. It's the disadvantage of writing fanfiction: all the world-building's already been done for you. So I guess I need help: how do you go about building a fantasy world? Any tips, ideas, recommendations?
Thank you!