The cornerstone of most types of Fantasy writing is world creation. Writers of other genres (Science Fiction not withstanding) often have it easier in this respect—their world is our world, so there's no need to worry about the complex issues that go into constructing a new one. Even Science Fiction has it somewhat easier, since the worlds in Sci Fi logically flow from current knowledge or from plausible extrapolations from current knowledge. (Though to give credit where credit is due, a lot of research goes into that.)

But Fantasy worlds are usually completely new worlds separate from the world we know and understand, and typically they include natural laws that have little to do with current knowledge at all--though these laws must still make sense, which is part of what makes Fantasy world creation more difficult in some ways than the initial pre-story hurdles many other types of writers must cope with.

So what can make Fantasy world creation not only easier, but more fun as well? Perhaps a more literal interpretation of a common commandment in fiction writing: map out your story!

Idle Time Made Useful

Whether we're artists or not, most of us tend to doodle when we’re bored. Maybe we doodle on the notepad by the phone during a long conversation. Maybe we doodle on a napkin while waiting for the check in a restaurant. Maybe we doodle on a receipt while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. One way or another, almost all of us puts pen (or pencil) to paper to while away the time and occupy our wandering brains--but if we put this idle doodle-time to use, we could jump-start a chain of ideas for our fictional worlds.

A good way to do this is by drawing maps. These maps don-t have to be masterpieces by any means, nor even very detailed if you don’t feel inclined to make them that way. The point is to spark ideas--to start the train of "why" questions that ends up leading to a story--and a world.

Mapping Things Out

Let's say you draw a vague coastline outlining a small continent. Then you mark off some arbitrary boundaries--maybe these designate kingdoms, or countries, or principalities in a larger union. After that, you put in some dots to represent major cities, and maybe you even put in some geographical attributes like rivers and mountain ranges. You might even name many of these things, though you certainly don’t have to at this point. Now you have a map of a strange place no one has ever seen and no one knows anything about--now what?

Your job is to ask questions: Why is there no major city along the banks of the largest river? Who controls the islands off the west coast? What are the isolated people of the southern peninsula like? What is the climate like in each region and how does it affect the people? What is the country that is entirely made of mountains like? Who trades with whom, and what do they trade? What routes do they take? Who is at war with whom? Why? These questions can go on and on—and any world you create will be the better for it.

Putting It All Together

You have a map, you've named all the countries and cities and peoples, you know who's fighting with whom, who's in league with whom, and what the weather is like at any point on the map. You have a world now, right? Not so fast. This is only a starting point--you're quite a ways away from a world yet, much less a story. But you have a seed, a thing to spark your curiosity and get you to ask the questions that need to be asked. And you have to ask a lot of them.

Orson Scott Card used this technique in conceptualizing his novel Hart's Hope, and he often doodles maps to spark ideas. If you've hit a block in your story, drawing a map of the places involved can be just the thing you need to open up the blockage. You can map out whole continents, or just a country, or even just a city or village—maybe even just a castle or mansion, if that's what seems to have captured your fancy. You don't have to create cartographic masterpieces, but if you can jump-start your creative process and have fun at the same time, that's a masterpiece in itself!