Elevating Your Worldbuilding

August 30, 2024 | Anna Hawkins

Worldbuilding. Well-regarded author Stephen King has not been shy about his dislike of the term worldbuilding online. He has posted several times on Twitter/X about his dislike of worldbuilding as a concept, but has failed to suggest an alternative term for the process of creating fictional worlds. So, in the absence of anything else to call it, today I want to talk about elevating your worldbuilding.

Expansive and detailed worldbuilding is the bread and butter of science fiction and fantasy. I would even go so far as to argue that every genre needs worldbuilding on some level. Even contemporary fiction authors have to consider setting, culture, and how those elements affect the plot and characters, which is the most basic level of worldbuilding.

But anchoring readers in an unfamiliar world can be a tricky prospect. Too much exposition and you bog the story down, too little and your readers won’t have enough information to understand what’s going on. So how can you ensure your worldbuilding is effective and properly balanced with your plot?

Below, I’ve shared some tips and tricks for taking your worldbuilding to the next level.

Not everything will make it onto the page, and that’s ok.

This is the most important thing to remember when it comes to worldbuilding. Of course you want the worlds you invent to feel rich and “lived in” to your readers, but how can you do that without bogging down your writing in exposition and detail? One good rule of thumb is to identify which worldbuilding elements are connected to the story you’re telling, and focus on getting those elements on the page. Skip the rest, at least in early drafts. You may know all the ins and outs of the political structure of the order of wizard monks who live deep in the mountains, but your readers don’t need to know. Not unless the story takes place in the monks’ citadel and the main character is learning to navigate that political structure so she can become the head wizard monk and learn the magical secrets she needs to save the world.

There will always be worldbuilding elements that don’t make it onto the page because they’re not relevant to the story being told, and that’s ok. NEVER THROW OUT IDEAS that don’t make it into your current story. Save the extra worldbuilding details for sequels or other future stories.

Use worldbuilding to breed conflict.

When you’re outlining or just starting your first draft, consider the worldbuilding rules you’ve set for your world. Whether these are rules of magic, technology, or the laws of physics themselves, consider how these different elements might come into conflict. Would a reclusive order of wizard monks living in the mountains be happy about a group of magic-denying scientists turning their mountains into an extensive network of mines?

Now, this conflict between wizard monks and magic-deniers can be central to your plot, or it can simply be an accessory that makes your world more colorful and gives your characters something to argue about. It’s up to you! Just beware of including too many details about the burgeoning war if it’s not important to the story you’re telling.

Let the chicken exist. …Or maybe don’t.

There are a couple different schools of thought when it comes to just how detailed your worldbuilding should be. On the one hand, allowing some mundane, normal things to exist makes room for you to describe more interesting new things. When chickens exist in your world, you don’t have to waste time explaining that a “blorf” is a chicken-like animal and instead can get to the good part: in your world, chicken cries raise the dead, and your characters have to fight off zombies to save their daily omelets.

Alternatively, you can go all-out: make everything new and throw your readers into the deep end! This approach can be difficult to do well, as it naturally lends itself to more exposition than the previous method. But when done well, you can introduce the concept of a “blorf” as an animal that fills the same role as chickens with very little exposition and readers will still understand what you’re talking about.

The approach you take is up to you! Whatever you do, just remember to keep it as light on the exposition as possible to avoid slowing down your pacing. When in doubt, look for beta readers to help you!

Consider how your characters interact with their world.

No matter what kind of world you’re building, it’s important to consider how your characters interact with that world. Especially if the world is very different from ours and the characters aren’t human! What senses would be most important to an eight-armed sentient race from the darkest depths of the ocean? How might a creature like that react to suddenly being on the surface? “Get inside your character’s head” is an often-repeated piece of writing advice, but it’s just as important to get inside your character’s body and describe their physical reactions to other characters and the things that happen to them.

When worldbuilding, it’s also important to consider how environment shapes culture, and how the various peoples of your world might live and act depending on whether they come from the deep desert, the lush rainforest, or the snowy tundra. Many authors draw inspiration from real-world cultures when it comes to this, but I would advise caution and plenty of research to ensure cultural sensitivity if this is an approach you want to take.

Don’t let worldbuilding get in the way of a good story.

Worldbuilding should never get in the way of a good story. You will lose readers if you allow your writing to become too bogged down in worldbuilding detail. Any worldbuilding that makes it into your story should serve as plot seasoning (aesthetic, overall vibe) or plot scaffolding (essential to the plot itself).  

The best part about worldbuilding is that the details aren’t written in stone. We’ve all had that moment when we’re writing and think, “this plot point would be so much better if the world were actually like X.” Well, guess what? It’s your world, and you can change the way it works to suit your story! Don’t let worldbuilding prevent you from building a compelling plot.

One word of caution when altering worldbuilding details after-the-fact: keep in mind that worldbuilding should be (at least mostly) internally consistent. Inconsistencies in the use of magic or in available technology will ping readers as either 1) mistakes or 2) important plot points. Be intentional in how you alter your worldbuilding to suit your story, and use it to support an engaging plot!

No matter what, I encourage you to come up with an approach to worldbuilding that you enjoy. If you feel stuck and need help paring down your worldbuilding-related exposition, check out my previous blog post on incluing!