WorldBuilding

I love world-building. Almost as much as I love character creation. I will spend months (months!) developing the setting for a story. Locations, climates, species, cultures, genders, histories, religions, governments, distances, measurements, sciences and magics... I love knowing all the intricacies of a world. Having all that information to reference helps me as I write. It influences character personality, can shake up a problematic scene, and keeps details consistent throughout a story.

There is a project I have been working on since high school (yes, that one; it still isn't finished) into which I have put years of worldbuilding. I thought I was finished. I even decided the fifth draft, dutifully revised and edited, was acceptable to my perfectionist self as the final draft, and I sent out the manuscript. That was nearly a decade ago.

Since then, I have experienced some truly fantastic storytelling with wholly immersive worlds. I already had templates for such things, such as Tolkien's impressive catalogue, but I've come to appreciate even more how such deep and well-thought worldbuilding affects a story.

Let's discuss tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) for a moment. I've played with groups whose Game Masters (GMs) haven't put much effort into worldbuilding, or who are following a module without getting in-depth. I must here admit that I too was guilty of this, in my early experience as a GM. I have since discovered the glory (joy, madness and heartache) of creating your own world and all it contains, and letting other people run amok in the setting.

My brother (codename: Sasquatch) asked specifically for advanced worldbuilding in our current campaign, and both of us are finding it delightful. He is literally reshaping the world I created through his characters' actions, and I am learning how to adjust such things in a way that plausibly reflects natural story progression. He's having a blast trying to start wars and hoodwink characters out of their literal thrones, and I'm refining my worldbuilding and storytelling techniques. It's a win-win.

What I'm trying to say is that I run/play a Dungeons & Dragons [3.5] and Pathfinder homebrew, it helps my writing process, and you should all give it a try. The whole point of games like this is that you as a Game Master can make up all the rules, just as you make up all the rules for your written stories. Follow templates, abandon them, make new templates, create a new race, discard that spell that no one uses because it is so convoluted and replace it with something that makes sense.

Now, go rework that scene you're struggling with; I have a sixth draft to prepare.