How to build your Sci-Fi world

World-Building: Visualizing the Future

by

Eva Caye

When writing science fiction, what does it take to ‘build’ a new world for your novel? Research, research, research! Although science fiction appears to be top-heavy with spaceships and space battles, to be among the stars means there are other planets to consider, which will be my focus for this article. Otherwise, I find it effective to use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a guideline, to make sure I cover all the bases.

Attribution: Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

First, start with the physical world. If humans are already on your ‘new world’, they will have brought human developments with them. Even if you envision pod houses floating about with anti-gravity and geopositional guidance systems, you should know, and occasionally address, building considerations that your reader would otherwise question. For example, how is waste recycled in your traveling pod-home? Where and how do you renew your water supply? Even if you only provide half a line as a description, “… he moved it to the flash-bin,” or “… as he hovered six meters above the lake to up-vac another thousand liters…” your reader will understand you took the time to build your world thoroughly. 

If your planet has life-forms, look at the life-forms on Earth. We have creatures that fly, swim, crawl, jump, run, slither, and glide. We have plants that grow out of the ground, fungi that grow under the ground, aerial plants in trees. We have microbes that range from beneficial yeasts to Ebola. Take some time to consider evolution and look for little details that may escape notice. For example, you may have your aliens use cilia to communicate in addition to sensing their environment!

There are an estimated 8.7 million species on Earth. Just look at this excerpt taken from

Number of Species Identified on Earth

Category	Species	Totals
Vertebrate Animals
Mammals	5,490
Birds	9,998
Reptiles	9,084
Amphibians	6,433
Fishes	31,300
Total Vertebrates		62,305
Invertebrate Animals
Insects	1,000,000
Spiders and scorpions	102,248
Molluscs	85,000
Crustaceans	47,000
Corals	2,175
Others	68,827
Total Invertebrates		1,305,250
Plants
Flowering plants (angiosperms)	281,821
Conifers (gymnosperms)	1,021
Ferns and horsetails	12,000
Mosses	16,236
Red and green algae	10,134
Total Plants		321,212
Others
Lichens	17,000
Mushrooms	31,496
Brown algae	3,067
Total Others		51,563
TOTAL SPECIES		1,740,330

The species totals do not include domestic animals such as sheep, goats and camels. Nor do they include single-celled organisms such as bacteria.  The original data can be found at: http://bit.ly/UMehiN

If Earth is this complex, what about other biospheres?  A little research on your part will go a long way!

Second on Maslow’s hierarchy is safety.  How do your pod-homes keep from running into each other?  What kinds of unique employment are available to your characters due to the physical aspects you design for your world?  How do your spaceships know where, when, and how to achieve parking orbits?  When you latch onto an idea, make certain you follow through with your reasoning, whether you explain your reasoning right away or not.  In my To Be Sinclair series, there are regular EM transmitters for most purposes, but for travel between the stars I needed a mode of instant communication.  As a result, in book one, DIGNITY, I mention ‘quantum transmitters’: