World building questionnaire?

Hi all.

When I’ve been researching online, I’ve found some really handy questionnaires about characters to help writers build up a full picture of what their creations will be like. I’ve seen some others for world building and just wondered if anyone had any they would recommend? I can always use the ones I’ve found, but you folks seem to know your stuff!

 

Check Amazon. There's many books on this subject.

 

Thank you. Will do.

 

There's a better method: Build your world as you write your story. Add things to it as you need it. By the end of your story, you'll have checked all of the boxes!

 

I can see the sense in that. I shall experiment with both.

 

Here's a good one.

 

Seconding Lazaares link, that’s the best list of worldbuilding questions I’ve ever found.

Also seconding the recommendation to focus on the areas of world-building you will need to tell your specific story; you really don’t need to flesh out every aspect of your world, just give the illusion that you have.

 

Superb- this is the sort of thing I was hoping for.

 

Thank you to yourself and Lazarus.

I agree with that point about focus. While massive lists of questions are handy, I'm not too fussed about flora and fauna to any great degree. I just wanted those little things I might not have considered to be brought to my attention as early as possible rather than further down the line. Of course, there will always be things we miss and need to go back to, but minimising that is something I'd like to do.

Thanks everyone for their help.

 

In my experience, people tend to concentrate far too much on geography and far too little on cultures / societies. The former is largely irrelevant for a story apart from major details, the latter defines characters, their backgrounds and their behaviour.

 

I work in the exact opposite...I create my cultures and societies, then make a geographical spot to place them.

How to keep your story in line? Find one of the freeware wiki software creators that you like and for each location make a wiki. The geography and climate, the people who live there, the food they eat, the houses they live in, their primary occupations/trades, temperament, notable people from that location, ect. Now every time you need to have a character interact with that location you have your "source code" to always refer back to. I go way overboard with my worldbuilding...partially because I enjoy worldbuilding but also so I never really run out of material. If and when that does, I can edit the wiki to include new details, but I have never had it happen.