Do you need to world build pre-story?

I don't and that is to say even in situations where my premises seem very complex to others (as presented verbatim to the patient and interested enough souls; many of those complex stories are just in my mind). I believe that whatever detail - be it a fictitious language, a gothic-like architecture, fancy names, a maritime city council gatherings, traditions - will serve just (JUST) the sake of the story. And I try to keep that in mind. It's a handy and salutary way of approaching world-building (for writing!) because it helps you decide on the important details and unimportant (less important) ones. Once I decide what's important and what's not, I'm not weary of going into great, detailed lengths because I know they are there for a reason.

 

Good call. I've binged my share of Anderson's lectures too. But it does not have to be you only know as much as the reader; I once had to create in my mind a whole side story to the main one simply to justify the presence of an artifact. Usually what happens is that authors exploit such branch-offs and write another stand alone.

 

I didn't really answer the question.
No, I don't. A premise usually pops up in my mind, regardless of how...(dys)functional it may be at first sight. I then fill in the spaces and make
the whole thing reasonable, believable and authentic.