Worldbuilding

As an incredibly rich, deep and enjoyable part of human culture, stories have accompanied us since the dawn of time. Tales, mythologies, short jokes even or simply rumors, and of course endless reshapings and retellings of real history unfold in the sky of our destinies as a rainbow of oniric and nightmarish tones, joy and sadness, bright ideas and quiet observations, manipulations and exposition.

As soon as you're writing a story in a fictive world, even if this world is just "Earth but with werewolves", you're gonna need worldbuilding. Even the most basic horror flick needs worldbuilding, if only to know how the werewolf works, if their bite can carry the curse, if they turn only at full moon or every night... An advice to remember is "Don't forget the story", but we still need to focus a little on the setting, don't we? Some folks even like to develop a world without the story, as a purely intellectual exercise.

So this is a thread to exchange advice, observations and resources about worldbuilding. For we will never know everything, for we need to think and examine what the hell we're doing, for ideas develop better with dialogue.



WORLDBUILDING RESOURCES

Seven Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding Checklist
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions by Patricia C. Werde
David Hair on Worldbuilding
12 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Magic System



And a question for everyone: What's the big thing forgotten in worldbuilding in your opinion?