What kind of focus on your world - or the universe - does your story demand? If we look at it in photography terms, is you story wide angle or close-up?
Which focus you choose will depend on the type of story you're telling. If you want action on a big scale then you most likely want your characters to travel around the universe. Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War sprawls across dozens of solar systems, following the actions of half a dozen characters who are spread out all across human space. My copy of CJ Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur has a star map of human space in the front of the book. I adapted her notation system for my own books Starfire and Panthera : Death Spiral.
Other books are set on one planet, and sometimes in one country. Teri Terry sets her Slated books in a near-future England that is under totalitarian rule. The small space of the country matches the confines of the oppressive government, heightening the sense of fear. People who live there never know when they'll be the next victim of the Lorders.
My book Eyemind is set on one continent of one planet. Panthera : Death Spiral sprawls the action across half of human space, while Panthera : Death Song and Panthera : Death Plain again have the action taking place mainly on one continent. Sarah Crossan's Breathe has a lot of the action taking place within one city.
Whether you choose wide angle or close up will depend on the focus of your story. A tight zoomed-in portrait of an oppressive government can be just as exciting as watching a starship come out of jump in far-off space.
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