Getting your hands dirty with the worldbuild

As much as I love writing, the thing I really love doing is worldbuilding.  It’s never been a necessary evil for me, but a reward of its own.  If I had my druthers, I’d organize an anthology project of short stories where writers work off my worldbuilding notes.  Perhaps someday.

Of course, it’s important for me not to then use that as an excuse to bog down the actual writing.  I’ve read many complaints about sci-fi and fantasy books where the author spent several pages infodumping their worldbuild.  For me, it’s the follow-up to the rule, “Show, don’t tell.”  Namely, “Know, don’t show.“

One friend of mine compared worldbuilding to an iceberg: 90% of it you can’t see.

So, while I would never do it in the text of the writing itself, I want to start excavating the iceberg.  So my next few entries will be about my worldbuilding process.  Geography, biology, culture, and tying it all together, and the resources I use.