World or Characters
Which comes first?
This is a question that we as writers tend to find ourselves asking quite often. Which comes first? The characters or the world surrounding them? For many, they like to flesh out characters and then build the world around them piece by piece, while others prefer to figure out what kind of world they’d like to create and then add characters to fit the scene. While both approaches have their own ups and downs, it might be good to see what each approach has to offer before you decide which way to go. Even so, depending on the type of story you’re trying to create you might already have a sense for the scene or likewise the characters. Often we might find ourselves naturally drifting towards one approach or another. Now, this isn’t to say that the other approach has a lesser or greater value than the one you’re drawn to, on the contrary, I think that looking at your story through different lenses can help to enrich both the characters as well as the colorful background the world provides. We can simply think of these two approaches as a left or right-brained response to your natural creativity. Left being more rooted in the infrastructure and social constructs needed in the world you create versus right being rooted in the beauty and depth of your characters. The left helps to lay out the scene while the right helps to, well, write it. Without this dynamic, we wouldn’t know where to begin or even continue on past the first few pages of our stories. This doubly helps when it comes time for revisions, as you have the layout of your chapter or story already made, the left brain has done its job, so now the right brain can come in and make a right mess of things creatively and artistically so that everything shines as bright or as dark as you were hoping. While this might include multiple rounds of editing, the left, and right brain work in tandem for as long as there is still work to be done. But nevermind revising, for now, we first need to figure out how to start your story.
Character-first
When we put our characters first we end up focusing more on the enrichment of their backstory and their surroundings. The people close to them as well as the society they are a part of becomes a high priority when writing, often leaving the world feeling a bit grey and unfinished. While it is important to create a character with a rich background and possible backstory, it is also important to think about what kind of world they might find themselves in, as well as how they might tackle the challenges that face them on the road ahead. Not everyone reacts the same way in dangerous situations, one way to think of this is to ask yourself the question of fight or flight, which is their prerogative? Will they act tough and then run in the face of certain death or act shy but venture bravely on in spite of their timid nature?
One series that I feel exemplifies the character-first story is that of the Legend of Korra. In it, we are met with the newest Avatar. Because of this, the writers have to ask themselves, how has the world changed since Aang was the Avatar? In doing so they built a robust city filled with benders of all kinds, however bringing along its own set of problems and problem people. Likewise, we could say that the original series is the opposite, seemingly a world-first story, even showing that in the opening credits with the base information about the avatars and the fire nation attacking. The writers do incredible world-building as the story shows us these people, places, and scenes through the eyes of our protagonist, seemingly for the first time, or in a different era. When I say that the Legend of Korra is a character the first story is because we as fans already know much about the world of the benders, we know of some of the various animals and different nations and locations that were important to the original story, instead of traveling across the world we are bound to Korra, the newest avatar. She faces her own struggles and finds her own friends and allies along the way. The story is about her, not the world at large.
This is one of the strengths of a character-first approach. In doing so, the right brain helps to create wonderful characters, even when the location might be a bit dull, the content and dialogue between these characters are still engaging and help to develop the characters more throughout the story. One fault of this approach is that you might miss out on some of the worldbuilding that we saw in the original series of the Last Airbender.
If the story you are trying to create revolves around one character, heavily, and a small portion of the world at large, I would suggest this approach. To make up for a lack of a full world build, you instead focus on enriching the characters, focusing on developing them throughout the work of writing. You can have a lack of geography and still have a complete story. Examples of this might be a story set in a small town or over the course of a small increment of time. You might have a story that revolves around one conversation perhaps. You never know your limits when you leave the box unfinished, unclosed.
World-first
On the other hand, when creating an entire fantasy world, an undertaking that I have had the pleasure of undergoing for my own writing, you can quickly begin to see where the bounds of the so-called “box” lie. You can call this box your universe, your world, your dimension, or just another sandbox to test out new ideas. Whatever it is, you’ve given it definition. Weight and size. Your left brain has really gone and done most of the work, hasn’t it? I’m sure you probably started with a big sphere, or maybe a cube, and then everything just came more into focus over time as you added in more and more information and structure.
As stated before, worldbuilding doesn’t have to be this big project, it could be a small town with a mysterious past or a room that your character just woke up in. When I say world first, what I mean is working on the story itself first, and while this often involves fleshing out the world and all its rules and regulations, it also means figuring out a plot, a path for which your unnamed protagonist and co will follow until its end. In doing so, you begin to picture what might be the antagonizing force, or what town your main characters will be a part of. You can’t begin to finalize your planning details without thinking about your characters at least a little.
Avatar the Last Airbender is great at this because it almost seems as though the writers came up with the idea for the world and the elemental nations before figuring out the ins and out of Aang’s character. In doing so, they create the idea of the Avatar without fully developing Aang, who instead starts out as a playful and naive kid who just woke up from a hundred-year slumber. Throughout the course of the show, the writers use the places and people they meet along the way to help shape Aang’s character and ultimately his relationships with the other characters. One character leads to the next and that’s how you end up with Iroh being a father figure for a lot of young adults as they rewatch the show after years of not seeing it. Iroh’s characterization is so strong and moving because, in spite of the worldbuilding being as big of an undertaking as it was, the writers still found time to develop each character with intent and purpose over a long period of time. Through this, characters like Zuko get their redemption, not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of those around them as well.
A big upside to this approach is that you as the writer are more aware of the surroundings of your characters. The line; Little did they know that they would be wandering into badgerfox territory springs to mind, as only you, the writer, would know of such things. This presents greater opportunities for conflict as you can stage where the fighting will actually happen. For my own writing, if I were to stage a fight within the area where the Orcs live, it would be swampy and muddy, possibly giving way to some slip and slide action on the battlefield(Probably why only the meatheads live there). On the other hand, spending too much time painting the background and scenery can give way to your characters being drowned out by everything around them. Description is nice, but don’t forget to also describe your characters, what they’re feeling, doing, and even what they look like. Without at least some of this, we can’t fully paint the scene in our head, where we can better break it down into its parts and digest it as the readers we are.
In summary, the approach you take is one of your own, but no matter where you start it is important to think about and develop your world, whether it be big or small, as well as your characters. I would suggest starting with what you are most comfortable with and then working the other in, whether it be painting the world after or before the characters.
I wrote another article about writing believable characters if you’re someone who needs help in that area, and I will be writing an article about worldbuilding in the future. My goal is always to help writers however I can so feel free to use my articles as references for whenever you feel stuck or just need to get out of your own head.
