For the first part of this 5 part set of articles in Writers 101 you're going to learn how to start worldbuilding and how to keep things organized when writing!

The Importance of Worldbuilding

People often mistake worldbuilding and tend to limit it into genres of just fantasy and action/thriller, however, today, we are here to correct that belief because worldbuilding is a very crucial step to writing any story regardless of the genre. Worldbuilding does not strictly confine to the elements of the world, setting or location - even though those aspects are quite important, worldbuilding can also refer to character building and plot development as a whole.

Take for example, that you're a romance writer and now, the question may arise as to how worldbuilding can help while writing a romantic story. Think about the time - that's the first concrete place to start working. Which century is your story set? Is it the same reality we live in or an alternate one?

Proceed to location, which place? Why in this place? Make sure that you have enough knowledge about a particular place before beginning and setting the roots of your story in that place.

What people often forget to do is plan their characters, and we don't mean, plan the physical features and the characteristics. A very important thing to working on any story is to make sure you know your characters well. Make them humane and make them realistic. Give them good qualities and bad ones and stick to it. Character development arcs and changes in character can happen but it doesn't happen overnight, those things take time so make sure you have a good look at all your characters, their features, and a deeper delve into their past, heritage, family and everything else before you start writing because the stronger grip you have on your characters, the better you know how your story will proceed.
Plot development is also included in worldbuilding but we'll take a deeper look at that in another article.

How to Start Worldbuilding

Now I'm sure you are wondering how to get started when worldbuilding? Well that's easy! You can start in many different ways but it all starts with an idea for your story. When it comes to worldbuilding you just need to start with one concept and spread out from there. How'd I start? Well, I started with a kingdom and worked from there. Here's some ideas you can start with when you get started on worldbuilding.

- A kingdom, maybe a town! You can start with a single kingdom or town, work on its name and community and work your way up  from there!

- A magic system! Think you can't start with a magic system? Well yeah, you can! You can build that and then the rest of the world, how it helps technology - for example.

- A war! Why did it start? Who helps fight? How do those who fight live and work?

You can use these ideas and play around with them as you start worldbuilding! And there are many more to some you might not have even considered. When it comes to worldbuilding there is no real limit, the possibilities are endless.

How to Keep Organized (part 1)

Now you have your ideas and want to start working on them right? Well, you need to keep things organized especially if you are writing a book series. It would be bad if you lost all your progress somehow. Don't fear! I am going to introduce you to an amazing tool called by many names. Are you ready to know? I'm sure you are!

A worldbuilding bible!

Also called a series bible, or a worldbuilding doc/folder.  A worldbuilding bible is this special document or folder/binder  that is used by many authors to keep their worldbuilding organized. And through personal experience, I can tell you that it's a very useful tool! In the next section you'll learn how to make one.

How to Keep Organized (Part 2)

Now you want to make a worldbuilding bible but how do you do that? Well dear reader you're in luck because I can tell you! You don't even need much to create one. All you need is the following.

- A google or word doc
- A binder/folder
- Pens or pencils

Now, of course both of these depend on if you want a physical or online version of the worldbuilding bible but both are fantastic options. Now to get started. You can make it as organized or chaotic as you like. You can make a table of contents with everything labeled, or just use some headings, or even don't! It doesn't matter as long as you keep everything semi-organized. You can sort everything however you'd like from your characters to kingdoms! It doesn't matter how you sort it as long as it's down on paper. But if you need a few ideas on what you should start writing down here's some! (most of these will get more in depth in separate articles)

- The characters (This is my recommendation on what to start with since characters are what make your world!)

- The kingdom or town (You can go as in depth as you want)

- Cultures!

- Religions

Now that you have a few ideas on what you can start with you, can start putting stuff down! I suggest using lists and bullet points in places you can just write and be done with without going in too much depth or just need to remember what to include later. One thing that I suggest you SHOULD do is include the characters' arcs and how the world changes overtime so you can keep track of the changes through the book or series!
And with that you know how to get started on worldbuilding and how to make a worldbuilding doc! In the next few articles we will go more in depth in different aspects of worldbuilding.