Obviously I'll skip this if I'm using our world but in many cases I'm not. And I like to start big then go small.
I guess you could create the entire galaxy but I don't write (or I haven't yet anyway) worlds where intergalactic space travel is possible so for me it would be utterly useless.
Well not useless because any amount of word building helps you get more of a feel for your world and honestly that's what world building is all about. So even if you aren't planning on using something the more you know the better. But either way, I don't do the galaxy.
I, instead, begin with the solar system.
For the purposes of these blog posts I'm going to create a new world as well. So after each section I'll give an example of the world I'm creating.
Here's how I start out...
The Sun(s)
1. How many? I once read a story (Can't think of the name right now!) that had a whole bunch of suns and the planet was in constant sunlight except for one time every hundred years or so (not quite sure, I read it a LONG time ago) so you can have as many as you want, just think of the implications it would have on the planet.
2. What type? There are a whole lot of options here and each has a different effect on the planet you're creating. There are supergiants, bright giants, giants, dwarfs and so on. They vary in color, size and temperature so many things on your planet will depend on what you choose.
As for me I'm going to be boring. I have one sun which is a yellow dwarf, like our own sun.
The Planet(s)
1.How many?
2. Location? Here you'll want to know the order of the planets. You don't have to name them yet especially if you'll make a language and want to name the according to that but give them a number or letter and decide which one is the planet your story will be on. This way you'll know the number of planets before and after.
3. Type? Most likely you'll have terrestial planet as your own planet but there are others such as gas giants and ice giants.
4. Habitual Zone?
My world is going to have 5 planets. I'm going to use letters for my planets so A-E are my planets.
A: 1st planet from the sun, a terrestrial planet, and not in the habitual Zone
B: 2nd planet, terrestrial planet, and not in the habitual zone
C: 3rd planet, terrestrial planet, and during half the orbit not in the habitual zone
D: 4th planet, gas giant, in the habitual zone
E: 5th planet, ice giant, not in the habitual zone
The Moon(s)
In actuality moons are satellites but because of the connotations I'll refer to this section as moons.
1. Which planet? If you used letter to name your planets so far here you can go ahead and use the planet letter (say A) and then number the moons (so A1 and A2)
2. How many?
All together my solar system has 8 moons or at least at moons that I'm paying attention to because gas giants usually have a lot of moons but for now I'm ignoring them.
A: none
B: 2
C: 1
D: 3
E: 2
The Orbit
Here we are going to look at 3 things.
1. Shape? This will probably be either circular or oblong
2. Length? I usually do this relative to earth days because it's easiest but you can do it according to your planets own days. Also it's helpful to know that the further away the planet the longer the orbit AND the slower it goes. Think of that while you're coming up with the length.
3. Speed? I don't do this but you can. You can find information here about our own solar system to give you an idea. It's a QA but it'll give you the basic idea anyway.
You'll want to figure this out for each component you have except the sun unless you've created an entire galaxy because the sun too is rotating around the galaxy. For example our sun is rotating around the milky way galaxy.
Here's what I did...
Planet A B C
Shape circular circular oblong
Length (days) 172 417 543
Planet D E
Shape circular oblong
Length (days 1057 1560
You'll want to do the same thing for each of your moons. Or at least each of the moons of your planet. As for me I'm going to use a moon of planet D for my story so my moons for planet D are as follows
Moons 1 2 3
Shape Circular Circular Circular
Length (days)
The Solar System
Now that all of that is figured out, draw it to see how it looks on paper.
The Rotation
1. Direction? This will tell you which way your sun rises on the planet unless your "planet" is a moon.
2. Length: As orbital speed told you the length of your year, this will tell you your planets day.
Take a look at my example.
Moon D2
Direction: Clockwise
Length: Same as orbit
Quick note here. The length of my rotation as you see above says "same as orbit". I did this because most moons are tidally locked to the planet they orbit. This basically just tells us that the same face of the moon faces the planet all the time. For the planet this would mean that the year is as long as the day.
Problems
There is no set number of things here just a place you can put potential issues with the solar system.
Anyone heard that our sun is going to expand and become a a red giant is some billion years? Its said that all the inner planets will be consumed, devoured by the sun. What if that were to start happening right now and not in a billion years? What would we do?
That's a problem. See anything like that for your own planet?
Some problems you'll want to fix because they won't coincide with planet life, however others leave them and have it another obstacle for your main characters. Man vs Nature is a great plot or subplot.
As for me I have a couple of issues I see. Here are a few: Tidal heating caused by the planet it orbits so closely. The length of the day and night. And although this isn't a problem per say I haven't quite figured out the mechanics of the way the sun will rise and set... so I have to do some research for that.
How are all your solar systems looking??
Here's a little extra thing. I made up a quick outline so if you'd like to use my worldbuilding method you can go ahead and use it each time without having to read though my own made up world : ) I'll add one to each section and you can put it together at the end of these blog posts.
I. World Building
A. The Solar System
1. The Components
a. The sun
b. The planet
c. The moon
2. The Orbit
a. Shape
b. Length
3. The Map
4. The Rotation
a. Direction
b. Length
5. Problems
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