A thing I've been doing lately for projects I can't start yet since I'm working on other stuff is do a world building document. Or multiple documents depending on what I want to build. It gives me something to do to 'work on' a project I'm not technically working on right now. I'm also considering making bullet point plot descriptions. you know brief descriptions of what I want to happen in X chapter. I'm a huge pantser and I want to change that and this is one of the few ways I can.
i tried out spending a lot more time detailing the worldbuilding on a book. I guess i'll see if that did me any good. to organize it, i used notion.
I do, but I can't say I'm very organized about it. Usually a map and a bunch of random notes. It seems to depend highly on what the story needs--I don't do the Tolkien thing of sitting down and making up a whole language, most of which will never appear in the story. I also find that it's hard to rush, I generally just let ideas accrete until I start to get a feel for things. Although this may be related to my aforementioned lack of organization. If anyone has a systematic methods for world building I'd be glad to hear it.
I have a journal where I've created spreads for each of the main characters in my series, and now I'm working on the settings and the race of creatures I .. created, I guess. Eventually, the language they speak will be added into it once I get that all narrowed down, and I'll have basic plot outlines in there, too. I'd go digital, but I like the act of creating this, and it's kind of turned into an art project. I try not to deviate too far from the ideas I put down in it, but nothing is in stone, just pen. I think it helps me to have more of a visual on the world I'm creating.
My worldbuilding works the same way. I found a google sheet worked for me best - if I have an idea I just add it to the sheet on a relevant tab. Some of the information I might never use, but it's better to have more than less. ... it's a very bloated sheet by now.
I do, I tend to work on it at the same time I'm outlining, then continue to add to it while I write the first draft. It helps me keep track of and properly flesh out/integrate worldbuilding elements I add on the fly (which happens often in the first draft.) Often I'll just brain vomit worldbuilding ideas wherever I happen to be working then transfer the good ones to the actual doc. I start with a word/google doc with a handful of broad categories that I know are going to be important to the story (I had 11 to start with for my most recent novel), and use the 'header' feature to automatically generate a table of contents to make it easy to jump between sections. The last section is 'miscellaneous'. As I add things to miscellaneous, I group related things together, so if I create enough content on any specific topic, I can create a new header and copy-paste the material there. I also try to tag things with keywords, so I can just crtl F and search for whatever thing I need to refer back to. Sometimes I'll use subheaders if I'm feeling really fancy. It's an easy to set up and flexible system, so it might work well for you as you transition to more planning.
there was a post about integrating One Note and a Word Document, if that might be helpful for you: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/is-there-a-best-writing-program.17547/page-12#post-1919545
So wait, you keep two documents, one for brain vomit and another for organizing the ones that probably will come up during the story. Or is it one document that you organize into groups later?
While I do have a brain vomit document, it actually started out as an outlining document that was consumed by chaos and is not exactly something I suggest you emulate. Sometimes I'd run into a plot element and be like 'what world element would I need to make that logical and how would that affect the character and ramble on that and the plot implications of it for a few hundred words before snipping out the actual world related bits to shove in the world doc. Other times an idea will spring to mind when I don't have my computer and jot it down in a notebook or on my phone to transfer later. When I'm actually trying to world build though, and not just getting sidetracked outlining, I start in the world doc. Everything that I've decided is 'cannon' goes in the world doc, not just the plot-related stuff, though my initial categories are based on what I think will likely be plot-relevant. I will sit down and say, 'and now I'm working on religion', and skip to that section and work there. I may still brainstorm, but it will be religion-based brainstorming.
Scrivener is awesome for world bibles. Seriously. Before I heard about it, I had two dozen different Word docs - I'm very organized, so it was all split up, but it still a pain to find anything. With Scrivener, I can dump it all into one file and look things up easily. For the record, I'm kind of a pantser, too, but it helps immensely to have a record of everything so a) I don't have to keep it all in my head (and potentially forget it); b) I don't have to constantly try to remember everything; c) I can make sure it's correct every time.
Sort of. Its not really organized or extensive. Mainly bullet points. The only organization to it are the headers of my bullet points ("religion/mythos" "planet" "military" etc.). When i actually Put my bullet points under the correct header, it can be much more organized... But mainly i put the most recent note at the top of the page
One further thought I had, which may be more helpful: I used to jot down every idea that came into my head while I was world building. No matter what I was doing I'd at least pull out my phone and write a note about it, then compile them all later. But I realized that this quickly became unwieldy, I had way too many details, most of which weren't helpful but instead just led down rabbit holes--"If this is like that, then what are the implications for etc. etc". So now I only write notes to myself while I'm actually writing a draft of the story. I may still not be very organized but it helps me focus on only the things I really need.
I actually think this is an important early stage of creation. The idea vomit @Idiosyncratic mentioned above. It's chaotic in the beginning, just like the creation of the world or of life, but as it grows it organizes and starts to make sense.
