A Creator of Planets

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. "-Mark Twain 

 I am currently in the process of doing the ground work for my first novel, and I must admit that I am having some trouble not getting lost in the minutia.  I am a firm believer that to tell a good story you must have a solid foundation to draw from, I think this is especially true for science fiction and fantasy pieces where even more of the stories foundation is created by the writer.  Since my current story is science fiction and I am responsible for creating not only a believable back story but also the entire planet that the story takes place on I want to make sure that I am doing it right. I was trolling the internet for world building advice and possibly some worksheets to help me organize my thoughts and as I was reading I realized how easy it would be to spend the next six months or longer designing the world in which my story will take place.  I am sure that at the end I would have a completely immersive world for my characters to prance around in, but I am not sure that it would be the best use of my time.


 I am always trying to follow the example of the authors that I myself admire and I got to thinking about J.R.R Tolkien (one of my personal favorites) now talk about a man who built and expansive world for his stories to take place in,  hell he even created new languages and maps for Middle Earth.  I admire the effort and I know that all that hard work is the reason why there is so much to draw from, it has given birth to novels, movies, video games, card games, fanfiction and all kinds of creative expression.  Tolkien made it his life's work to create that world and it shows. I loved everything about reading Lord of the Rings and I always felt very connected to the world that he took so much time to build. I get a particular power trip when I think about creating worlds and entire societies and I wonder if Mr. Tolkien himself felt that same sense of pride in his own creations. I want to create a place where my readers could lose themselves but I don't want the creation of the setting to keep me from writing the story I have to tell so I have to reign myself in from falling into that particular creative abyss and remember " All things in moderation".


 I did however find several websites that helped get the juices flowing and brought up many questions I hadn't ever imagined I would need to answer.  Now I am not saying that every story or every author would need to answer all these questions, but they definitely gave me some food for thought. 
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/ truly an in depth guide to building a world from the bottom up
http://basilicus.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Building_Worlds more of an informative read on aspects of world creation but they do have some good question and they look at world building from a more scientific perspective than a purely creative one.