How Neuroscience Reveals the Alien Mind
by C. L. Kagmi. Neuroscience can give authors tools to imagine alien minds. Here’s how the biology of senses and emotions can help you create believable nonhuman experiences for your own worlds and stories.
worldbuilding
Post-Apocalyptic Antibiotics
by Jason P. Burnham. Worldbuilding insights for crafting life after antibiotics. Learn about surgical fixes, ancient remedies, and unusual cures that can shape compelling characters and gripping plots in speculative fiction settings.
Artifacts of Alt-History: Mining Museum Objects for SFF Inspiration
by Sarah Karwisch. Historical artifacts can bring inspiration to speculative fiction. Here’s how you can use museum objects to drive plot turns in your stories, spark conflict, and shape your worldbuilding.
Beyond the Beauty: A Research Guide for Responsible SFF Worldbuilding
by Kemi Cole. Discover Lake Bunyonyi’s hidden past and learn practical methods for SFF worldbuilding grounded in cultural respect and meaningful engagement with the communities that could shape speculative worlds.
Verisimilitude in Speculative International Relations with Game Theory
by J. D. Harlock. Explore how game theory can fuel speculative fiction to craft tense standoffs, believable diplomacy, and political intrigue. A practical guide for creators building high-stakes worlds with strategic depth and realism.
Avoiding “Arab Land” Stereotypes when Depicting the Premodern Arab World
by J. D. Harlock. Find out how speculative fiction sometimes misrepresents the premodern Arab world, and learn how accurate historical ranks, regional dialects, and naming conventions can help build more culturally grounded fictional settings.
Information Center, The SFWA Blog
Tools of the Trade: Stellarium
When a character swims across the Arctic Ocean, in a story set a thousand years in the future, what stars might she use to guide her passage westward?
The SFWA Blog, Worldbuilding
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
The following list of questions is meant to aid authors of fantasy fiction who are seeking to create believable imaginary settings for their stories. While many of these questions may be helpful or crucial to certain stories, they will not all apply to every story. It is not necessary for an author to answer all, or even any, of the questions in order to start writing, (or to finish writing, either). The idea is simply to provoke people into thinking about the ways their settings and backgrounds hang together … or don’t. If it’s useful, use it. If not, don’t.