Great Worldbuilding: The Master Guide For Authors

https://thathorribleauthor2.wordpress.com/2025/06/14/worldbuilding-tips-stop-info-dumping/

#Worldbuilding #Worldbuildingtips Subsistence systems. You can figure out how to get surplus without agriculture. And I put some of my undergrad work into the thing. So it's brand spanking new work checked by Anthro profs. This post isn't as boring for non-food lovers as you might think.

It took me over a week of work on this post to find and collate everything. And I did it from mostly my own memory. 50 pages single spaced.

https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/707081779285311488/worldbuilding-subsistence-systems?source=share

#worldbuilding #worldbuildingtips Post about Physical Anthropology. This took me a few days to make. But will look at hang ups people often have dealing with humans on other worlds, and help people maybe get past their prejudices.

Also, remember that Homo Erectus did trade and traveled.

Think harder about your populations.

Neanderthal in Space~ where are the homonins in SFF?

https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/706348283800453121/worldbuilding-physical-anthropology?source=share

So a mistake I see in #worldbuilding is often that from Point A to Point l, the person has a linear progression model of progress with everything under say, science going in the same direction.

But often it's steps forwards, another culture takes over, steps back, floundering around, getting scared of progress, reverting and nothing really improves that quickly. More problems.

I think the second model is more fun to play with. #worldbuildingtips

#worldbuilding #worldbuildingtips

Subsistence is divided up usually into these main parts:

forager (rich and regular)
Pastoral
horticulture
agriculture
industrial

It's a huge error to think one is "more advanced" than the others. *cough Star Trek: SNW* But what is true is that transitioning from one to another is super painful because of the dearth of knowledge.

When building culture, I'd start here.

#Worldbuildingtips #Worldbuilding

It's a good idea to make all of your continents in the world first, figure out how they are arranged, the tectonic plates, hotspots then the currents and then the climates.

This saves you the headache later of figuring out rivers, deserts, townships, trade routes, and making sure you have all the features you need for say a "Europe" (which needs a Gulf Stream to exist).

Start big, then go smaller.

#Worldbuilding #worldbuildingtips:

There are three basic types of reciprocity:

Generalized, Balanced, and negative reciprocity. But there are different rules governing them per culture.

Also dyadic and redistribution.

When you're writing a culture and making it up, it's also good to rethink your reciprocity rules.

For example, in the desert, hospitality (generalized) rules can be strict. It's life and death situation.

#Worldbuilding #Worldbuildingtips

I think, honestly, people pigeon-hole themselves by starting small and then going larger. It's much easier to start large, and go smaller, which then will give you the diversity in your world you need plus the mechanics.

You won't get 100% agriculture, which never happened.

You can build more interesting biomes, cultures, and work out the kinks before they are kinks.