Have you ever come to a spot in your book where it is time to discuss some piece of worldbuilding, so you look through your notes but can’t find the details you need? You look through notebooks, journals, documents on your computer, and notes on your phone, but can’t find what you’re looking for.
If this has happened to you, it is time to level up your worldbuilding organization.
When you’re creating vast fantasy or science fiction worlds, it’s easy to lose track of the details. This guide will walk you through different methods for keeping track of your worldbuilding.
Choosing a Worldbuilding Tool
There are many tools for organizing your worldbuilding. Let’s take a look at some of these.
OneNote (My Method)
I use OneNote to organize all my notes for my stories. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if this is the best method for worldbuilding organization. But it does work for me.
OneNote is free with a Microsoft account, and it saves everything to the cloud. There’s an app for phones and computers, and you can also access it through a browser. So if I’m out somewhere and I have an idea, I can open up the app on my phone, make a note, and later find that note on my computer when I need it.
I write in Microsoft Word and use Excel for things like tracking word count, so it is also nice to have everything within Microsoft.
OneNote is easy to use, and it has a nice clean look to it. You can paste pictures directly into it, use the pen feature to draw, and create headings, checklists, tables, etc.
Word Documents, Spreadsheets, or Google Docs
If you want to keep it simple, you can use a document or spreadsheet through Microsoft or Google Drive for your worldbuilding.
I personally don’t think I could use a spreadsheet, but some people swear by it.
Both Word Docs and Google Docs have nice navigation features when you use headings. You can easily organize your worldbuilding into categories. And chances are you’re already familiar with one or both of these, so you don’t have to learn a new program.
Google Docs also saves to the cloud; you don’t have to worry about backing up your files. I use OneDrive so my Word Docs automatically save there.
Worksheets and Templates
There are tons of worldbuilding worksheets and templates available online. Most of these you can download (some you may have to pay for) and fill out or print to fill out.
These templates and worksheets ask questions about aspects of your worldbuilding, which can help flesh out your world. They ask good questions that you may not think about otherwise and help you find holes in your worldbuilding.
Worldbuilding/Writing Software – Scrivener, Campfire, yWriter, World Anvil, Etc.
Tons of software tools are available to help you keep track of your lore.
Scrivener is perhaps the most popular. It’s a paid tool designed for writers, so not only can it help with worldbuilding, but many writers write in the program as well. You can keep everything in one place with Scrivener.
Similarly, Campfire lets you keep everything in one place, and you can link things together to reference easily later. You can try it for free.
yWriter is another free tool designed by an author that is great for organization. Its interface is highly structured, and it has tools for story, character, and worldbuilding development.
World Anvil can help you create, organize, and store your worldbuilding with interactive maps, wiki-like articles, timelines, and more. Many people use it to run RPG Campaigns as well as write novels.
These are just a few of the available tools. I can’t cover every tool like this in this article, but perhaps one day I can test each of these and discuss them in an article.
How to Organize Your Notes
I’m going to use my worldbuilding in OneNote as an example of how you can easily find and keep track of any information. But this method should work no matter what program or tool you choose.
In OneNote, I have a separate notebook for each of my projects. Within the notebook, I start by organizing the sections into broad categories: characters, worldbuilding, plotting, and other.
Since we’re focusing on worldbuilding in this blog, I’m only going to go into detail about that section (let me know in the comments if you’d like an article on how I organize the other sections).
Within the worldbuilding section, I have the different aspects of worldbuilding divided into pages. The project I’m using for my examples has two main countries in the world (there are others but they aren’t as important). So, I have a page for each of those countries, along with pages for the worldwide setting, maps, the magic system, and the timeline and history.
Each of these pages can have subpages. For example, the subpages for each of the countries include government; cities, towns, and places; culture; appearance and clothing; religion; and other.
You can customize your categories for your world and divide them up in whatever way makes the most sense to you.
I keep all of my notes in these pages, making sure whenever I have a new idea that I put it on the right page in the right section so I can find it later. I also do all my brainstorming here. OneNote is great for this because you can scroll to the side and create a new text box, which helps me get all my thoughts out in a new area.
I hope this guide is helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite way to organize your worldbuilding. Check out this post to learn how to prevent readers from getting overwhelmed by your worldbuilding.
Happy writing!
2 responses to “How to Organize Your Worldbuilding for Fantasy and Sci-Fi Worlds”
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Glad you found it helpful!