Today’s world-building questions is: What is your setting’s climate?
The weather and seasons of your setting play a huge role in the development of your culture and plot. You can start simple: summer or winter? hot or cold? Is it rainy like the PNW or rainy like the tropics? Is it autumn and harvest is coming in? Or the end of a hard winter?
Real world climate matters to. Are they in Spain or Iceland? The middle of the ocean or a southeastern American city?
The climate affects what clothes your characters wear, what food they eat, what activities they can/want to do. Are they tanned or pale? Do they hate the feeling of sand in their shoes or spend the story shivering in an unfamiliar clime?
Is the climate changing? Is this due to humans or the gods or a volcano erupting. How do they get water, how do they find shelter, can they forage for food? Is there a risk for wildfires or drought? Can they be snowed in, or the roads made impassable by flooding?
Again, even if your story is not centered on these a climactic event, it can still throw up problems for your characters. They spend an evening cleaning and repairing boots that are caked with mud while they plan their attack. They must find shade in the middle of the day to rest out the heat and have a heartfelt conversation lying under a bush. Use the world around your characters to build scenes that enrich their — and your readers’ — experience.
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