What is worldbuilding?

Before we can talk about worldbuilding, I need to define what it is. To make sure we’re on the same page and you know what you will learn. Below is my definition.

Worldbuilding is the process of designing the rules of the world in which your story takes place, such that it improves and supports the story as well as possible.

In other words, worldbuilding is not just “pick a random interesting location” or “invent a load of details about your made-up world”. Similarly, if you do not think about setting at all and just put your story in a generic location (room, town, school, office, whatever), you’re wasting a lot of potential. You’re not allowing the story to be as good as it could be.

No, it’s a design process. Step by step, you pick elements that make the setting feel interesting and unique, which will also help the story feel interesting and unique.

That’s why this element matters in every story, not just fantasy (or “those with an invented world”). Even if you write a completely realistic story, you want to consider the best “rules” for the world in which it lives.

An example: non-fantasy

Say your story is about career and ambition. You could probably tell the story from scenes inside the protagonist’s home, you could probably tell it on the bus, but are those really the best locations? It seems like an office would automatically help the theme more.

Similarly, what that office looks like and rules about how it works are also important. To make the story feel fresh, you’ll need to find simple details or “rules” about this workplace that a reader can latch onto and remember. Maybe they don’t have cubicles: everybody sits in one giant room at round tables. Maybe employees have to deliver certain reports at certain moments, or the rules force the protagonist to work together with a colleague they absolutely hate.

The “rules” are up to you. The process of worldbuilding is all about designing them to make the story as good as possible.

An example: fantasy

Fantastical stories are easier examples. They literally invent entire worlds! Worlds that could work any way you want!

For example, just the other day a thought popped into my head: “what if animals grew from trees, and plants grew from eggs?” A silly idea. But I can design my world to work that way, then write a fantasy story that explores this reversal of how nature grows.

Most fantasy stories, though, actually play it quite safe. Their other world mostly follows the same rules as ours, but they pick 1–3 unique elements that hook the reader. (Usually, one of those is the “magic system”. The existence of magic in this world, how it works, and how that has influenced everything else.)

The important thing to note is that such tiny ideas are a good start, but not enough. An idea like “but what if … weather worked completely differently in my world!?” is nice, but does not describe a full world or sustain a full novel.

That brings me to my four-step process for worldbuilding.

The Four Steps

The four steps below are the best way I’ve found to add some structure to the overwhelming task of worldbuilding. Sometimes, I execute these out of order, or not at all. As always, it depends on the idea, your story, and your style. But I think they provide a balanced process for most writers.

1. Start with the categories on which you’re going to put a twist. (Find the handful of unique and memorable things about your setting. Weird weather, weird religion, weird geography, weird customs, …)
2. From that, figure out how basic needs are met in this world. (With these twists, how would people and civilization function in this world?)
3. From that, think about all the consequences and implications. (Write down the most logical and necessary ones.)
4. Top it off with spicy details and the rule of cool. (For smaller implications and consequences, don’t try to include them all or stick to rigid logic. Only pick the smaller details that seem the most interesting.)

As you can see, this approach starts general and broad (with rules and ideas that cover big concepts), but becomes deeper and more detailed over time (as you consider consequences and logic).

As you read this course (and craft your own worlds), you’ll notice that all worlds have “layers”. Some things are at the core and influence everything, others are details at the fringe that can easily be changed later. This 4-step approach starts with the core questions (the first layer) and ends with the details (the final layer)

This approach (broad->deep) is not “required”, however. As opposed to plot that has to follow the laws of time, worldbuilding is timeless. That means you can start anywhere and add elements as you go. (Except for, perhaps, a detailed history of how this world came to be. That’s still a timeline!)

This makes worldbuilding a bit more free. You can keep building the world even if you’re already halfway the story. In fact, as you read this course, you’ll notice that I recommend such a hybrid approach. (Build a small part of your world beforehand, the rest while writing.) It has some big advantages to make this a two-way street: plot informs worldbuilding, worldbuilding informs plot.

Additionally, many writers suffer from “worldbuilder’s disease”, in which they spent months crafting their perfect world … and never actually write the story.

My hybrid approach circumvents that. You can try to figure out all out beforehand, but then you’ll likely burn out and overwhelm yourself. You end up with THOUSANDS of notes about your world—and then you have to somehow squeeze a story out of that.

Speaking of thousands of notes …

How to write down my worldbuilding notes?

Many people create huge Word documents. If that works for you, great, but it likely isn’t helping you.

First of all, keep things tight and concise. Most authors only have a summary of the most important elements in their “worldbuilding document”. Anything more, and it becomes near impossible to look up important details while writing, as the document is just too full.

Secondly, make things visual. A large wall of text is perhaps the most inefficient way to store raw data and information. Instead …

• Keep a map of the world’s geography and important locations
• Create a timeline for history
• Create a web about how systems or events interconnect. (You can draw one or use specialized software/tools for this.)
• Keep pen and paper nearby. It’s much faster to quickly jot down notes, add arrows between them, sketch images in your head, etcetera when you do it manually.
• Use a table for raw numbers or overviews. (For example, you might have a really hardcore magic system with loads of spells with different strengths and weaknesses. Don’t write them in a Word document: create a table that efficiently easily displays the stats of each spell.)

Such visuals are a godsend when trying to make sense of the world you’re building. They’re also a very nice addition to the final story, if you take the time to clean them up for public viewing afterwards.

Conclusion

The next few chapters give more general advice about worldbuilding. Then we dive into the four steps of my process (one chapter for each), to end the course with a few chapters about magic (systems).