5 World Building Tips (Vol 2, #2): Continents
Here are today’s world building tips! The theme is continents. You can read more in Chapter 3, “Creating a Continent”, from Creating Places, (The Art of World Building, #2).
Tip #1: “Decide How Many Continents to Create”
Even if our story only takes places on one land mass, we should at least roughly create other continents and give them names. Knowing their direction from our main one and how hard they are to reach tells us and readers how likely visitors from far off lands are. Each continent might be known for a few things, however fairly, such as slavery, rare gems or other items, strange lands, or interesting creatures. Some of these things might find their way to our main continent, which is why we ought to have some idea on this. It makes our continent seem less like an island.
Tip #2: “Decide on the Hemisphere”
If we’ve lived our life in one hemisphere, we might need to remind ourselves that the season are reversed in the other one. The visible constellations are, too, and the moon appears upside down. Most importantly, an expression like “going south for the winter” makes no sense in the southern hemisphere.
Tip #3: “Understand Plate Tectonics and Mountain Ranges”
We don’t need to be experts in plate tectonics. Just know that explosive, volcanic mountain ranges along coastlines are common due to two plates converging there. If this happens at sea, we can a chain of islands. But when it happens between two continental plates, we get the tallest mountains, none volcanic. But technically a volcano can happen anywhere if there’s a flaw in the plate below.
Tip #4: “Waterways”
Did you know a sea and ocean are the same thing? Sea is just used to denote a smaller area of an ocean. Bays, gulfs, coves, and fjord are all bays but of different sizes and configurations. They can be connected by a strait, channels, pass, or passage, which are also all the same thing!
Tip #5: “What’s an Island?”
Some islands are so big that we might be tempted to call them a continent (Australia, anyone?). The distinction is largely one of size. Use your judgement. However, actual islands are either oceanic or continental. The former are far out to see and volcanic.
Summary of Chapter 3—Creating a Continent
Which hemisphere our continent lies in affects the seasons and might impact where we place constellations. Understanding plate tectonics can help us build believable mountain ranges and place volcanoes where they might occur. This can also determine where deep areas of the sea are, giving our sea monsters somewhere to call home. We have some liberty to name bodies of water what we want, but this chapter includes details on when to use which name, including seas, bays, inlets, and more.
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