Am I worldbuilding too much?

I've been worldbuilding my fantasy novel for over two years. At this rate, I won't start writing the book until I'm 30 years old. This is only a slight exaggeration. I've drawn a map, filled four notebooks, hand written another 200 pages of background, and have over 500 pages worth of research from the internet. This doesn't include the books I've read for further research and of course, the actual novel that I'm going to have to write.

I've stuck to Patricia C. Wrede's questions, which has minimized the amount of worldbuilding I would have done otherwise. If it weren't for her questions there wouldn't be an end in sight.

This year I decided that I can't write my first novel when I'm 30 years old. Instead, my first novel will be a historical romance. There's less research and worldbuilding since it's set in just one region and one era. This isn't anything like the different ancient and medieval world cultures I've researched for the fantasy.

I'll still be working on my fantasy, but considering the two years of my life I've spent in a world that doesn't even exist, how much worldbuilding should I be doing?

John Scalzi tries to build his worlds at least two questions deep:

Other worldbuilders will have to answer this one when talking about their own works, but as for me, in general, I try to build my worlds at least two questions deep — that is, you make your creations robust enough to stand up to a general question and then a more specific followup question. Thus:

Reader: Why did you give your genetically engineered soldiers cat’s eyes in Old Man’s War?

Me: Well, relating specifically to pupils, it allows better filtering for the range of visible light the soldiers work in across different planets and environments.

Reader: Okay, but why not just engineer eyeballs to make smaller round pupils?

Me: The scientists in the OMW universe find it easier to work with pre-existing genetic code than develop new code, so they do that whenever possible.

(Mind you, that’s if you’re creating the way most people do, which is to have the world come out of the story, not the other way around. Tolkien, as an example and if memory serves, did it the other way around, which is that he built the world in detail first, and then told a story (two, actually) inside of it. You certainly can do it that way, and it is frankly awesome when pulled off well. But also it’s sort of the long way around, and recommended primarily for nerdy, vaguely OCD people with secure day jobs and lots and lots of time to kill.)

Lots of authors have created worlds without Tolkien level detail. Even I've done this once. I wrote far less background for a fantasy I tried writing 8 years ago. It was a disaster. There were gaping inconsistencies, cliches, and I didn't give the magical system I planned on using much thought. I settled on the basics, but the thing fell about a quarter of the way through. So, I learned my lesson (perhaps too well; I don't know yet) and here I am.


I think I'm too far gone to rein in my worldbuilding at this point. I'll just have to finish this thing and see what sort of complete world I've created. I've used some of the links posted below, so hopefully they'll be helpful to anyone else who is in the process of worldbuilding.

• The Rules of Quick and Dirty Worldbuilding
• Designing a Fantasy World
• The Mythopoet's Manual
• Creating a Fantasy World
• Imaginary Worlds
• Creating a Fantasy Realm
• Magical World Builder
• A Way With Worlds
• Worldbuilding From The Ground Up
• How Much of My World Do I Build

What's your worldbuilding process? How much time do you spend worldbuilding?

Photos courtesy SXC and SXC.