World-Building for Furries
by Tempe O'Kun

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Getting Started
When building a new world, it's easy to get lost in the weeds. Before you really get going, it's worth your time to consider what you're actually going to do with the setting.

Consider who you are writing it for:
• Yourself vs. others - There's no shame in world-building purely for your own enjoyment. Even in the Internet Age, not every creative endeavor has to be presented to the world. If you want others to be able to understand the setting and be entertained by the stories in it, however, you're going to want to make it accessible. That means, for example, limiting the number of crazy new made-from-scratch words (or species).
• Kids vs. adults - Kids are as smart as adults; they just don't have the same background info. A kid reading your work is going to already be looking up or guessing the meaning of words, so you should limit how many made-up words you're asking them to learn. They're also less likely to match up the cultures in your setting to real-world ones, which limits the amount of shorthand you can get away with (i.e. you can't just give the moose a Canadian accent and assume the reader will know she has a knowledge of hockey). However, this also means they won't pigeonhole your made-up culture as a furry version of a real one (i.e. a melting pot of different cultures won't automatically feel like Brazil or the US).
• Furry vs. non-furry readers - The average person will know that foxes are tricky and red pandas are cuddly. Furry readers will ride in on a massive wave of memes, slang, and inside jokes. While some of these are obvious (calling red pandas "wahs," for example), others can sneak into your work. Non-furries might be able to figure out what "head-fur" or "hand-paws" or "snoots" are from context, but it will certainly break the immersion for them.

Consider what the final result will be:
• Short story - Pay particular attention to the events that immediately surround the plot and your main characters (protagonist, love interest, antagonist, et cetera), as you won't have time to give lots of background. The pacing of a short story doesn't allow for much info-dumping.
• Novel - As above, but spend more time delving into who your side characters are. You're going to have lots more chances to showcase where they come from and what their cultures are like, as well as how these things shape their perspective.
• Game - While you can't predict where the players will go, you can predict the types of interactions they'll have, based on who they are playing. A party of hardy adventurers will often be working at the edges of civilization and diving into ruins. A group of scheming spies might be rubbing elbows with the nobility and touring palaces. Direct your efforts to the places they're most likely to frequent. Prep a dozen or so NPCs from various backgrounds as experts in different fields, so the players can learn about your world the same way they do in real life: meeting one person at a time and extrapolating culture from there.


Take Notes
While it's tempting to think you can keep all your ideas organized in your head, I find that writing things down has multiple advantages:
• It keeps me from forgetting cool ideas. Nothing is worse than knowing you had a fun detail and forgetting what it was.
• It frees up mental space for me to have new ideas.
• It forces me to articulate ideas that were very abstract. This often means I will have to fill in gaps, which leads to even more creativity.

Not every concept I come up fits in immediately with a particular setting or fits in an obvious way. For this reason, I leave the notes in either a general pool of ideas I think are interesting or in the background notes for the setting that I then go through later, once I've had time to come up with more of the setting.


Set the Rules
Over the course of developing your world, we'll need to set the ground rules. To get the ball rolling, let's ask some questions.

Is this setting basically our world or a completely different planet? Are there humans? How did the anthros come to be? Did they evolve or were they created?

How animal-like are the anthros? Do some anthro animals have senses that humans lack? Instincts? Physiology? Group behaviors? Are they basically humans who look like animals? At the other extreme, are they animals with human-level intelligence?

What concessions to being anthro does their society make? How are everyday objects engineered differently to meet anthro needs? What new inventions exist to meet their needs?

How different are they culturally (both from us and from one another)? Were they once very different? Have they always been in close contact?

Which species can interbreed? Does it work like real life? Is it a bit looser and all sorts of cats, for example, interbreed? Or are there all sorts of hybrids? If so, why isn't everyone a hybrid?

How much does scale vary? Is it like Zootopia (anthros are basically the size of their real-life species)? Or Authur (everyone is human-size)?

You don't need to answer all this info in the story, but you need to know it.


Get the Right Tools
I know people who swear by writing in a paper notebook. It's just part of their process. Ultimately, you need to find what works for you. That means trying out new methods. Plus, going outside your comfort zone can help get your creativity flowing!

Let's take a look at what works for me. To organize my thoughts, I like to use Scrivener. It's a word processor designed for writers, so it allows you to make any number of sub-documents. The most obvious use for these is to break up chapters or scenes in a longer work, letting you focus on just one section at a time. Sub-documents can also be placed in the "Research" folder so they won't be part of the finished work. You can have entire folders of sub-documents about the characters, where they come from, and what their histories are. The app also allows you to drop in images so you can quickly flip back to a reference you are describing. Another key feature of the program is the split-screen mode which allows you to view two sections at once. This is quite handy when you're trying to reference an image or notes while writing.

Another good option is WorldAnvil, which is a site designed to help you build fantasy settings. Even though it was originally designed for table-top role-playing games, it is a very useful tool for fiction authors. The account is free, though you are limited to two settings unless you get a paid account. This site is very useful if you're looking to explore a very large and intricate setting, since it asks you countless questions about the people, places, and culture of the world.


Research and Inspiration
From the way we talk about fantasy world-building, we tend to act like it's 100% original and the author had no outside influences. In reality, that's impossible. The most fully-realized settings, like Middle Earth, are the result of studying real-world cultures. Far from limiting you, learning about other cultures helps you see your own and thus avoid subconsciously writing your modern-day hometown with fantasy hats simply because it's the only way you can imagine a society being.

Creative types often get hooked on the idea of being a tabula rasa (literally "blank slate"), free from outside influences and able to come up with perfectly original ideas. In reality, we can't make bricks without clay. So read and watch and listen to as much interesting fiction and non-fiction as you can from as many sources as you can. Creativity isn't making things entirely from scratch (you will, I hope, be writing this story in a language not of your own invention). It's remixing elements in unique ways.


Live in Your World
Don't leave your setting on the page—live in it. Going through a door? Practice shutting it like you have a tail. Getting groceries? Imagine how a dragon three times your size would pick up an orange. Shopping for furniture? Look for items that are compatible with the anatomy of your non-human characters. Getting into a car? Consider how a character with antlers would have to use the sun-roof.

This doesn't stop at the physical. Let's say you're in a lobby. Consider how various species of anthro would use this space. Penguins might be happy to queue up in line. Cats might sprawl out on the seating. Meerkats might cluster together. Dogs might get bored and start investigating interesting smells. Badgers might stake out a space and sit in peace.

Likewise, how would the lobby look if it were designed by another species. Perhaps bats would have a motorized dry-cleaner's track to hang from instead of taking numbers. Maybe the seating in a rat waiting room is arranged to optimize socializing. Lizards might install heat lamps above each seat to keep the customers alert and happy.

Expand and Revise
Once you start writing your project in earnest, the world-building doesn't stop. It may even accelerate as you are forced through together sets for your characters to scurry, swim, and fly through. Don't be afraid to go back and change your notes. Organization will be key here, since easily finding the place you talked about red panda martial arts means you will actually make your change, rather than just adding a note somewhere—which ultimately means you'll find the updated info a year from now.

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