This journal is about Why Using a Wiki Can Make Worldbuilding Less of a Headache! I know a lot of you are worldbuilders like me, for whatever reason (stories, art, roleplay, just for fun, etc), and it can be a tall order working in a Word file. Let me start by listing some of the reasons wikis are perfect for worldbuilding.

And no, I was not paid by any major wiki corporations to write this wikis are open-source and have helped me tremendously over the past year or so, so I thought maybe other people would find them just as useful. I know a lot of people get intimidated by online programs, or wary of how much coding they'd have to do to set it up, but just hear me out! Wikis are very simple and anyone can use them. So here's the list.

* Wikis are incredibly easy to set up for most hosts; many include cheaper wikis or even MediaWiki, the big one that wikipedia uses, for instant setup. I like to use PMwiki, because it's simpler to use and you can skin it to look almost exactly like Mediawiki.

* Wiki markup is also very simple and you can learn the basics even if you've never coded in your life. They have extensive documentation about the markup included on the actual wiki program itself, hosted on your site, so anyone who edits the wiki can read up on it.

* Wikis allow for easy collaboration with anyone who might be helping you build your universe. You can even set up accounts so you know who edited what, and the wiki saves past versions of each page so you can never truly "mess up" someone else's work.

* Wikis are online, making them accessible anywhere with the internet, on any computer. They're safe in the event of a hard drive crash. All you have to do is keep paying your hosting bill (or, if you're using wikia.com, you don't even have to worry about that). You can back up a whole wiki quickly to be extra sure. The only con here is that your access to the internet might be limited.

* Wikis allow you to limit access to just you or your friends. You can set a password for the entire wiki with just a little editing, or a password for the entire wiki folder on your server. You can limit editing of pages to certain users or hide the entire wiki from everyone.

* Wikis allow for incredibly easy organization of topics. Making a new page is as simple as writing the name of the new page in brackets. Linking to other pages is just as easy. In an incredibly short time you can make a really good honeycomb of related information by linking pages.

* Wikis are very easy to read and come with presets for different header styles, bolding, italicizing, code, blockquotes, etc. You can even skin the wiki to look as complex or as simple as you want.


NOW! This is a short little how-to for worldbuilding with PMwiki software, though this would probably work with other wiki programs like MediaWiki.

Step 1: Set up your wiki by installing it via your website host or FTP. You can also set up a free wiki on wikia.com. Some of the biggest wikis online are hosted there, like WoWWiki and Wookiepedia (the Star Wars wiki). I think most hosting services can automatically install certain programs, so check to see if your host allows this. I'm using godaddy.com for all of my hosting stuff now because they allow instant installations. If your host doesn't provide this service, wikis are fairly simple to install anyway, especially PMwiki. Just follow the instructions.

Step 2: Go to the main page of your wiki and click "edit" to edit the first page on your wiki. You can put anything you want on your home page. While I'm building my wikis I like to use the home page to link to any and all pages that I want to make and/or edit, for quick access. I will also add these pages to the sidebar for even quicker access. Your home page can also serve as a great "portal" where you can leave messages for anyone else who is editing the wiki with you, or a "to do list" where you write down what is left to be done.

After you've finished making your world, your home page is a good place to put up basic information about the world, like an introduction. It's like the cover for a book.

On the edit page, you should see a quick reference for most of the editing markup, as well as links to more advanced markup. Learn it - it's very simple and will be handy later on.

Step 3: Make a categorized list of the most basic pages you want, and create new pages by writing the name of the page in brackets. (For PMwiki, it looks [[Like This]] - that would link to a new page called "Like This".) You can use the wiki markup to create unordered lists with nested bullets - very handy!

For my worlds, I like to split up the information into sections like Geography, Religion, Culture, Information (for general facts), Races, Terminology (or Language)...and so on and so forth. Any related sub-pages can go into a list on these pages. For example, on my Geography page, I have one list of links for kingdoms, and sub-lists for each kingdom that give links to towns and cities. Within the town pages there will be yet another list of locations within the town. You can become as specific as you want. I also include links to maps (images) on the Geography page.

Step 4: Start to fill in information on these pages. You can put as much information as you want; you can even include images, like headers, diagrams, or just pictures of what you're talking about. I like to split my pages up into different sections with a header over each part; this makes it easier to reference later on.

The great thing about the wiki is that you can just write a blurb and come back to the page later to add more information. As you think of new things in the world, you can quickly edit what you've written and provide links to new pages. There's practically no limit to how much you can write, which is good because there's no limit to your imagination either.

Step 5: While you're writing out your information, be sure to link to any terms that a) already have a page to their name or b) that you think SHOULD have a page explaining it. Links to empty pages will be red; links to pages you've visited will be purple, and links to pages you have not visited (perhaps if your friend made them) will be blue.

Use the quick links to your advantage! If you've already listed all the special animals in your world on a page called Bestiary, you never have to do it again; simply link to the bestiary in any page that mentions a special animal. You can even set up anchors that link directly to the part of the Bestiary page that talks about your animal.

Step 6: When you have a good core going (category pages, individual articles, etc) you can start thinking about how you're going to present this information to potential audiences. You can use directional links (explained in the wiki markup page) to lead your viewers around related pages. You can set up your homemade category pages to link to lists of related information, and include general information about the category on the page itself. I really love the sidebar (you can edit it with the link near the search bar, but don't remove the "edit sidebar" link once you're in there!) because you can easily link to all the most important pages.

You will probably have some "ghost" pages, pages that you created when you began and never filled out, or pages that don't link back to a category page or lead anywhere else. You can find these pages by looking at the list of all pages in the wiki. Alternatively, you can search for keywords if you remember what these ghost pages are about.

I hope this was helpful!