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Some would argue that World Building process is not required in modern literature at all. To some extent this argument holds its place but at least, the process does take place implicitly.

There are different kinds of modern literature - technical papers, news articles, anecdotes, gossip and fiction. Technical papers and news articles are based on facts. They describe and try to build up on things as they exist or things as they happen. The write up is based on a world that is already consistent - the real world. Modern literature in terms of technical writing does not have to do anything with World Building. At times it is even true when writing about happenings around the world. But when stating the same in case of modern fiction writing one has to be a bit cautious.

To some extent anecdotes and gossip articles too are based on facts. Anecdotes go about to tell about an incident and the kind of dramatization made is for the purpose of strengthening the validity of the incident. A gossip write-up too dramatizes an incident, but throws the validity to the air and concentrates on the entertainment factor that would be delivered to the reader.

It is in case of modern fiction that the role of World Building comes into picture. Modern fiction literature may be a short story, a novella, a novel or even a series of them, but must be woven out of a World - one that is based on real world - yet it requires some amount of World Building.

A modern fiction author writing about the protagonist in a secret government agency has to create a proper structure of such an organization. Of course it would not be described explicitly at one place, but when the descriptions are given regarding the dealings of the protagonist at various acts in the story, there must be a consistency built up to make the story believable. If a story is being written about a corporate war, the corporate systems need to be built in it. It could be quite difficult for an author to set up such system in a modern setting as opposed to science fiction, futuristic, medieval or fantasy setting because in a modern setting the constraints - a lot many of them - are already laid out because we live in that World. But in case of authors writing in the other genre, the setting as a whole is constructed by them.

It can be taken that the authors of the other genre have to put a lot of effort or that the authors of modern fiction have to work in a constraint-laid setting. Whichever may be the conclusion, it can be seen that a modern fiction author would need to involve in World Building.