World building is something I’ve been interested in lately because of the science fiction fantasy novel I’ve been writing. Such a genre requires an extensive amount of world building, and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. In that endeavor, I took a workshop at Context about world building presented by fantasy author Elizabeth Bear. This post answers the question of What is World Building, and next week’s post talks about the Seven Deadly Sins of World Building. Both posts are the accumulation of notes I took for the incredible workshop. Enjoy!

“Fish do not talk about them swimming, but about the state of the water.” –Elizabeth Bear

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