How much do you worldbuild before writing?

I've started a story, but I find that I have a lot of worldbuilding and lore creation to do for the story to be fully fleshed-out. However, I've seen that you should not get lost in worldbuilding too much, as it can keep you from writing altogether.

How much do you invest in worldbuilding and establishing necessary lore before you write? Or do you just create what you need as you write and the need arises?

I tend to be a pantser as opposed to a planner, so for me if I worldbuild for too long I will definitely get tired! It all just depends on your preferences. For me, I create a basic background that the reader would need to know at the beginning of the story, then add more facets when I feel like it. If you're a planning kind of person, planning a lot at the beginning will definitely help you.

I think how much worldbuilding you need depends on what you're writing. If it's fantasy, it's good to have a basic idea of ​​what your world looks like, what races and magical creatures live there, and a basic idea of ​​how the magic system works before writing. These are not mandatory things, you can easily start from scratch, but it can help if you have at least a few ideas.

For me, it always depends on the story to the story, really. My probably the simplest advice is: don't avoid worldbuilding, don´t get lost in worldbuilding! If you have a bunch of ideas about the world, don't be afraid to develop them. But at the same time, you have to be careful not to get too involved in building the world, haha. Personally, it helps me to write down all my notes about the built world in one place (whether in a notebook, or in a document, or even in an email that I then send to myself, it doesn't matter.)
It can be helpful if, at the very beginning of the story, you have an idea of ​​the very first things around which your world revolves.
Personally, I'm a planster, but it gravitates more towards a panster. When I sit down to write, I simply write. But you have to realize that there is a difference between creating an outline and creating a world. So back to worldbuilding! For me, it's mostly like I start with a few ideas and suddenly build half the universe. Or just as much as is needed. However, the truth remains that I usually start with little and then build a whole lore on it relatively quickly. Of course, the exception is the case when it is devoted purely to my hobby, so to speak, which is the worldbuilding of worlds, into which I then insert short stories, chapters, characters... in that case, I already have a pre-built world that is still growing and I simply add new ones to it and new information. Well, this is not necessary for normal writing, it is just a hobby of a fool into fantasy worlds
I would probably sum it up like this: if you feel like building your world, go for it! Well, if you just want to write your story and just have a proper worldbuilding along with it, you can easily build things as you go.
The truth is that the best ideas and solutions come along the way. And if you get into a deep worldbuilding (or even a smaller one!), write your ideas down. Really. I never realised how much that helped me.

I approach world-building in a few different ways.

The first is an ongoing, collaborative process. My partner and I write a lot together, and whenever a story reveals a world-building need we work out what it is, how it functions, and why it exists that way. As we continue writing more stories set in that world, we refine the rules. It’s mostly for our own enjoyment and we don’t share much beyond each other, but it shapes what we bring into our projects.

The second approach is to build just enough to get started. For example, when I run a campaign, I’ll sketch the city, its role in the region, its main exports and imports, and the inciting drama that kicks off the plot. From that drama, history, notable figures, religions, and cultural influences naturally follow. I also think about the city’s population: who lives there, what the demographics are, and why they’re there.

That process remains collaborative. My players tell me what characters they want to play, so I make sure those characters fit into distinct pockets of society and culture. I create their hometowns, position their peoples within the world’s history, and let their choices shape major events. For instance, because a player wanted to play a human raised by dwarves, I devised a calamity that drove the dwarves from their mountain a thousand years ago—pushing them into villages and towns, spurring industrial development, and eventually causing them to adopt children of other races to preserve their crafts. That whole arc grew out of a player’s concept.

Once I have the essential elements in place, I build more only when the story requires it. If I were writing a novel, I’d use this method for the first draft, then solidify the rules and apply them consistently in the second draft.

I used to be a pantser, and never finished any projects.

Now I… still haven’t finished any projects, but I’m further along than ever before after six years of planning before beginning to write! 16 chapters in 2 months without even trying, it’s all just pouring out now that the worldbuilding is mostly done.

I highly recommend worldbuilding as a result.

I didn’t even plan much around any plot so much as build a world without concern for the plot, and it’s worked great so far.