World Building and Writing : Discovering a New Tool

*Note: this post contains affiliate links.

When I started thinking about the “Days of…” Series, Book 4, I knew I would need some new tools to organize my thoughts and keep all the details straight. My first hurdle was a family tree – I needed to create two new generations for three families. A request in a writer group led me to WorldAnvil – a world building site designed mostly for RPG gamers (or so I thought) – it’s also a brilliant tool for a writer!

I quickly learned that this site is intricate and multi-faceted. If I were a sci-fi and/or fantasy novelist, I would’ve found pure gold. But even as a contemporary Christian romance novelist, I’m still over-the-moon delighted by all the tools, and it is indeed, pure gold! I get to world build my characters with as many or few details as I want, add in traditions and events, locations – any detail I can think of, and so many I hadn’t considered (because they have a field there offering a place for details).

Since I was starting the fourth book in this series, I had three books worth of characters and information to input. I took some time over a couple of weeks setting up my fictitious world and it provided a beautiful learning curve for the site. Now, I’m still no expert, but I think I’ve got a good enough handle on it to utilize it for my writing. And I’m so excited about it, I knew I had to share it with my writing community (hense the affiliation).

Prior to this world building exercise, I’d already written the majority of several chapters of Book 4. I thought I’d try WorldAnvil’s manuscript module. I’m struggling with that, so I’m opting to return to Word. That’s okay. I’m not giving up on learning their tool; I think it will be useful in other aspects of utilizing the site. But, I was feeling like my hands were tied with the writing and just wanted to get into the writing. No writing, no book. And I want to get this book to my readers sooner rather than later.

So, back to Word I’ve gone for the actual writing process, but I have WorldAnvil open and on my second monitor. Now, as I’m writing and developing aspects of a character or creating something new for the “world”, I just click over and add details. Can’t remember what color eyes I gave a character? Click right there and refresh my memory. Discover I didn’t give them an eye color? No worries – add it on the fly. Need a visual of a family tree? Click, and there it is. I’ve got four generations on beautiful display. And if I’ve given them a “face”, that is what I see in the tree. It all makes me kind of giddy.

As a visual creator, this site has been so much fun. It satisfies the beaver-organizer in me, is the visual tool to refresh and remind, and so far a brilliant companion tool while I’m writing that is far superior to simply making lists in MS Notes. Having my second monitor helps out tremendously, too, because I don’t have to hide my manuscript window to engage the WorldAnvil site.

Now, I am far and away not finished learning this site. There are publishing tools embedded within it that I can make available to my reader community, should I so choose. (I’m thinking exclusive insider tips to a special reader group, maybe.) And it has a manuscript publishing element, too. (Remember I said that manuscript module was a tool I think I can still utilize later?) The possibilities are vast.

For now, I’m writing and employing all the details in the articles I’ve compiled for my own private use. I’m enjoying all of my characters, and the ease of modification and update. And in the back of my mind, I’m learning and considering how else I can utilize this site for my readers to have behind-the-scenes info.

If you’d like to play around with WorldAnvil and see if it will work for you and your writing (or game building), click here. As one of their creators says, it’s time to light up the forge. Happy world building!

(This article contained an affiliate link for WorldAnvil’s world building website.)