One of, if not the most, enjoyable aspect of writing in fiction is world building. Especially for me, who has moved from Sci-Fi and Fantasy to just Fantasy, mostly of the high Fantasy variety.
I have entire documents that are thousands of words long detailing everything from currency disputes to how magic would shape international conflict to why sex is a foundational aspect for an entire race.
It is SO. MUCH. FUN. to do world building. And more than it is enjoyable, world building provides a hell of a lot of structure for you to model your world after. I spent about five hours researching what it would take, in terms of kilocalories per acre, to sustain a populate of ~4' 5'' bunny people. I had to develop how they did agriculture. I had to flesh out their diet, I have to manage how they would handle trade. What does their culture produce? Why would other cultures want it? What are their challenges, why are they so sex-obsessed? That last one is mostly because I'm so sex-obsessed, but I digress.
The reality is that while almost none of that has made it into the final version of the first six chapters, the fact remains that they are the very bones upon which the story is built. They are the skeleton that provides form and focus for the flesh of the story. It is also a very easy way to make progress on a slow writing night. It's still writing, it's engaging and interesting, and I can't count how many times that simply creating a more lived-in world has created tension and resolution for me. It's so easy to find places where societies and resources would create a seamless and natural escalation. Then you just write about that!
"Oh, they eat so much food at such a rate and have to cover all of their land and there are existential conflicts because of X or Y resource and the limitations surrounding it!" I have done that an endless number of times and each time it has made my story and my world better.
It is my firm belief, one which I shall not be talked out of, that you can make up any number of pie-in-the-sky ideas but to do so you must keep your conflict grounded in reality. If you want people to buy in on you writing about a sex-crazed barbarian bunny then you need her to be fighting and fucking for relatable reasons. Using sex to cover for her unresolved child-hood trauma? Perfectly relatable.
Your world building document may never see the light of day, but I will go to my grave shouting that you need to have it and that it needs to maintain internal consistency for your audience to ever engage with your worlds.
So go forth, dare to dream big, and build beautiful worlds full of fun and danger and conflict every bit as relatable as our own.
Bunnyfully,
The Unsheathed Quill