There are endless ways to start building your world.

When we think about harmful magic, we might jump straight to things like fireballs, death spells, curses, and magical weapons.

Derek and Irene the dinosaurs go on a surprise adventure together

As worldbuilders, we might be the ones creating the world, but our characters have spent their whole lives living in it.

When we’re creating a fantasy city, we begin with all the sensible stuff: population, districts, trade, defences, roads, markets, rivers, and the all-important taverns.

Fantasy is full of places you really shouldn’t go.

Usually, when we build magic systems we ask what magic can do, what it can’t do, where it comes from, what it costs, and how somebody learns to use it.

When you’re creating a magic system, the first questions are: What can it do?

Secret societies are great fun to include in your world.

Fantasy worlds are such a great place for secrets.

Trade creates a web of travel and connections across your world, allowing you to link two distant places together.

Every black market begins with a need.

By the time your story begins, your world has likely already existed for many eras.

The big events that have happened in your world shouldn’t simply exist in the history books, monuments, or royal family trees.

Summer isn’t always a great time for heavy four-hour writing sessions.

A world can have a deep, multi-millennial history mapped out, and still feel flat and lifeless.

After a break of several years from writing fiction, I’m back in the saddle.

When you’ve been writing and publishing for over a decade, you have a lot of time to make a lot of mistakes.

I started self publishing in 2015.

You can give a monster claws, teeth, unnatural movement, a disturbing appearance, and a long history, and it can still fall flat the moment it appears on the page.

I have started work on a folklore map, in which every location has a story to tell.

You don’t always need more ideas.

Well...

This isn’t a post about worldbuilding.