5 Myths about World-building
(and what you actually need to know)
At a recent writing workshop, I was asked by one of the teen attendees about world-building, and it got me thinking about some of the things that intimidated me when I was first getting started writing. The most important thing to know is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. The only “right” way is the way that works for you.
1. You must create everything from scratch
This might seem an obvious “no,” but when I first started writing my “Darien” fantasy series I really did think the creatures and races in my story should be completely original. I felt like it would be cheating somehow to use the same creatures as other authors did. But over time and with more research reading, I realized that few of the characters and creatures I thought were original, were in fact borrowed from somewhere else to some extent—usually from some type of ancient mythology. And instead of me feeling like those authors had cheated, it made me feel, well, relieved. I didn’t have to start from square one unless I wanted to. Because—here’s the cool part—even if I wanted to make my creatures a copy of someone else’s, they still wouldn’t be because I am a totally different writer with a totally different perspective. My dragons will never be exactly like anyone else’s dragons. And my elves are not like anyone else’s elves. On the other hand, my charlots are not like anyone else’s because as far as I know, I made them up. And it was fun. But it was more fun because I didn’t have the pressure to make up EVERYTHING. I had the power to pick and choose. And so can you.
2. You have to have everything planned beforehand
No, you don’t have to plan everything before you start writing. Sure, there might be a few main aspects of your world that need to be addressed, especially if they directly affect large portions of your plot. And if you like to plan, organize, chart, list, map, outline, or whatever, certainly go ahead and have at it. But just be forewarned: your story will sometimes go places and your characters will do things that you never initially planned. And then you will have to work with what you’ve got. Truly, if you think you will plan every race, creature, culture, geographical feature, religion, political organization, meteorological occurrence, magical structure, language, art, and science, there is a good chance you’ll never actually write a story to go along with it. My advice: do what you can to give yourself a clear picture of the world you’re creating as it relates to your story, without getting caught up in minutia; tweak whatever you need to during your revision stages; and if there’s more that needs to be explored, well, that’s what a sequel is for.
3. Your world must be completely different from the real world
No—plenty of stories are basically set in our world and only have a small portion that is out of the ordinary. Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord is set in contemporary Venice, Italy, yet there is a magical aspect that occurs later in the story. Doll Bones by Holly Black is also a modern story that has a supernatural aspect. Both The Wizard of Oz and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe begin in very different places in our world and end up in very different magical lands. That is what I did in Darien and the Lost Paints of Telinoria. That’s the fun part of being the world builder. You get to decide. And those are not your only options. Harry Potter is half in our world and half in the wizarding world (depending on which book, and I use the term “half” loosely, but you get the point). I would describe The Golden Compass as taking place in an alternate version of our world. In The Spiderwick Chronicles, all the magic and fantastical creatures are right here. On the flip side, The Hobbit is one hundred percent in Tolkien’s imaginary and wonderful Middle Earth. So many choices!
4. World-building is only for fantasies
Fantasy stories certainly jump to mind when you talk about world-building. If pressed, you might include sci-fi. But in my opinion, all fictional stories require some amount of world-building. Even if that world is nearly identical to our own, it is still filtered through the lens of the writer’s perspective. I could write a story about a restaurant in my hometown that really existed, and my restaurant would be a warm, inviting place where large family gatherings took place. Someone else from my hometown could write a story about the same restaurant, but this time the place is snobby and outdated. I have read more than several books where the author has even included a note stating that they’ve taken liberties with real places to make them fit the layout or structure or tone of their story. Even characters need friends, families, neighbors, and enemies who all have backstories, races, cultures, political views, etc. To me, that’s all part of building your fictional world.
5. You have to explain all of your creations in detail
Another no! As the author of your story, you will need to know all kinds of background and details about your places and especially your characters. However, you won’t want to disclose everything to your reader—they will be much too bored with that depth of detail. They won’t want a laundry list of all the stores on your town’s main street, for example, but if you just give a sample they will get an idea if it is a modern metropolis, a small city in the country, a medieval village, or even a ghost town.
You need to know or decide how things work, but you won’t say it all straight out. There are several ways you can handle this insider information. You could A) know it, but not state it—use the actions of your plot and characters to “show, not tell,” as the adage goes; B) have your characters explain in dialogue—be careful not to dump too much information at once or you will risk sounding like a cheesy infomercial; C) intersperse the information throughout the story, and the reader will discover things along with the protagonist; or D) explicitly explain—this works best for either very simple concepts (because you can just say it and move on) or very complex concepts (because there will be times when you just need to explain what you’re talking about and simplify it for the reader). There are some great tips on how and when to include details in your writing in the book Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. If, for whatever reason, you can’t read the whole book (just do it—I promise it will be worth your time!), I would steer you toward Chapter 8: The Kiss of Life and Chapter 20: Show and Tell.
Bonus tip: The very best way to learn about world-building is to read. Then read some more. And a little more. Start paying more attention to how the authors of your chosen books create their fictional worlds. Think about what details they included and what they chose to leave out. Fill out this comparison chart about your ten favorites and see the different ways the authors handled their stories. Download the free world-building comparison chart here:
Bonus tip #2: The second best way to learn about world-building is to start writing. Try your best to just dig in with your story and characters, and let the rest come as you need it to. (Yes, I know this is easier said than done, but I know you can do it!) Make notes as you go along: ideas that come to you, conflicts that need to be untangled, questions and decisions that need to be answered but can wait until later. Don’t let any one detail or aspect of your story get hung up when you are writing your first draft—the most important thing is to get your story out; you can always adjust things later and add more complex details of your world.
What other myths have you heard or wondered about? Do you have a question about world-building? Leave a note in the comments below.
