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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44866
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> Base parts of the setting on real world cultures or locations.

Unless you have near-infinite time to do your worldbuilding, you're probably going to keep coming back to our world. So start there! Not in the sense of "modern-day Earth with the serial numbers filed off", but in the sense of _specific examples_ that are already fairly detail-rich. For example:

- If you need to show a language, think about what broad properties you want it to have, look for a known language (could be historic) that has many of those properties, and study that as a baseline, then adapt. Instead of choosing between a deep dive into constructed languages or a dozen phrases with no clear grammar structures, adapt something that already _has_ vocabulary and grammar and sounds to your liking.

- If you need a physical setting, learn from ones that already exist. Your story is set in the molten lava fields of the salamanders' homeland? What details can you glean from volcanoes here on Earth, both when they erupt and when they simmer for decades without erupting?

- If you're developing a new culture, what are its defining elements and do you know any cultures that share some of those elements that you can study? How do people in nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes manage childcare? What consequences do you see in the economies of nations that are always at war? 

It's fun to reason out things like this, and I can suggest [a site](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/) that can help with everything from orbital mechanics to centaur clothing, but you probably don't have time to work it _all_ out for yourself, and there are _probably_ some analogues already here in this world that you can look to for inspiration and some implementation details.

Original score: 2