When you see a post about world-building by an author, what comes to mind? Fantasy? Science fiction? Dystopian?
We’d all agree creators of these kinds of stories build fictional worlds very different from “real life.” It’s the quality of their world-building that makes what might seem unlikely feel believable as we read.
Every author is a world-builder, even those writing contemporary or real-world historical novels.
That’s been true for as long as people have been telling stories. In 1817, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and philosopher, described how an author needs to create “a human interest and a semblance of truth.” According to J.R.R Tolkein, a reader needs to believe what they read is true within the reality of the fictional world we’ve created. In short, we want to build an imaginary world that feels real while our readers join us there.
How do we build our fictional world filled with human interest and a semblance of truth?
The details will be different for each of us, as will how much we can assume our readers already know, but some facets of world-building are the same for every genre.
- Physical: One part of the world we create will be physical. The terrain, the weather, modes of transportation, types of food, unusual events like wildfires and volcanic eruptions—we determine whether our characters stroll through a gentle world inhaling the fragrance of lilacs or shiver at the top of a snow-covered mountain pass where the air’s so cold it hurts to breathe.
- Societal or Social: A second part will be determined by the other people who live in our fictional world. Some aspects affect every character. Who has power? What controls the wealth? Who decides what’s right and wrong for society in general? Is it a fast-changing high-tech world or a simpler one that changes slowly over time? Are the engineers or the artists assigned more value by society as a whole?
- Personal: A third part will be more personal for each character. Is there a social class structure that usually determines a person’s future? What role does religious faith have, and is it different for different people in your story? What happens to people who challenge the status quo?
While aspects of the physical world will help us craft sights, sounds, tastes, and textures that draw the reader in, thinking through the other details of our characters’ world will help us make their experiences feel more real, even if their world exists only in our imagination.
Once we understand our story’s world, we can put memorable people into stressful situations and let them work to reach an emotionally satisfying and believable ending.
I write historical adventures set in Roman times. They include spiritual arcs, a romance, and friendships and conflicts between characters who are not part of the romantic pair. Typically 100K to 120K words, they are long enough to let me immerse the reader in a culture very different from today. When reviewers say they felt like they were living in that time, it’s a sign I built the story world well enough.
I’m a bit obsessive about getting the history right, partly because that’s just me and partly because I write a Roman history website and can’t afford to get sloppy with the history in my own books. But a few things that work for me might be helpful for other genres and word counts as well.
Character backstories are part of the world-building.
Every major character needs a backstory, and it helps me to write it out in a narrative description so I can reread it as I’m writing. Defining the past for each main character and many minor ones as well makes it easier to figure out believable motivations for what they do. It also lets me write those secondary characters as three-dimensional people ready to move into a leading role in a later book. At the back of every book, I ask readers to let me know whom they would like to see return in another book. I get great feedback, and four of the leading men were chosen because so many wanted to see that secondary character become a lead.
Write what you know.
We’ve all heard that before, but what does it mean in practice? It doesn’t mean restrict your writing to only what you’ve personally experienced. It does mean immerse yourself in what’s important for understanding the world of your story.
Go wide and deep as you consider the society your people live in. The country’s history, economy, government, law enforcement, whether the social class of your characters is fixed or fluid, the role of faith in the community—all these and more help shape what will happen and how your characters will understand it and react to each other.
Once you know the details of your book’s world, you can help readers feel like they’ve become a natural part of that world, too.
Stay consistent within your setting and time and get your facts right.
Devoted fans of a genre, lovers of a period in history–these readers will intuitively know what feels right and what feels off. Reading many books in your genre gives you that intuition, too. People who read a lot of books set in a particular time or location will know if you’ve been sloppy with the facts, and they won’t like it.
If you’re writing historicals, be careful of anachronisms (things that don’t fit the novel’s time frame). They will jerk a knowledgeable reader right out of the story. (Did you see what ruins the illusion of ancient times in the photo above? It doesn’t take much.)
Prayer is essential for writing spiritual scenes that have the ring of truth.
Stories of transformation need to have the ring of truth, and this is especially true of spiritual arcs. Think about the back-and-forth of a conversation you might have with a seeking friend. If you came to faith as an older teen or adult, think about the questions you had and how you got them answered. If your characters share deep conversations, addressing some questions and then backing off to ponder before proceeding–that’s like real life.
My Roman-era stories are set in a time when Christians were few and being one was dangerous. Living their faith and being willing to share it with pagan friends is part of each of my novels. The most valuable “tool” I’ve found when writing deeply spiritual sections is having prayer partners I can call upon to pray while I’m actually writing those scenes. I treasure my friends, whether writers or not, who pray for me to be inspired to write those with the ring of truth.
Share your thoughts?
What kind of stories do you write?
What do you focus on as you build the world your characters will live in?
Do you have any helpful resources to recommend?
There are a lot of useful resources to help with world-building.
Here are three, but there are many more. Please share your favorites in the comments.
Christian, Charles. Writing Genre Fiction: Creating Imaginary Worlds: The 12 Rules . Urban Fantasist. Kindle Edition.
Two useful websites from a quick search on “world building”
Hi Carol, I agree, world building is an essential skill for all fiction writers. I write contemporary stories and I find it’s the cultural and regional differences within countries that I’ll be researching for accuracy. I’m currently writing a contemporary Christian romance set in the US with American characters. I know my early drafts will have many Aussie expressions that will need to be corrected to sound more authentically American. I love learning about history from reading fiction, and I always read the author note to find out which aspects of the story were based on real people and events. Thanks for sharing with us today. 😊
That Aussie-to-American expression switch sounds challenging, Narelle. Getting the right regional expressions can be a huge challenge, even for the country we live in. I’ve lived in 4 different states spread around the US and married a Texan, and every one used different words for common things. Is the smaller source of water that feeds into a river a creek, a stream, or a branch? (That “creek” might be pronounced like “creak” or “crick” depending on where you live.) Is the carbonated beverage you drink soda, pop, a soft drink, or a coke (no matter what brand or flavor)? There’s even a map by county of the US that shows which drink word is used most. What do you call either of these in Australia?
We call carbonated beverages soft drink, and Coke is literally Coca Cola. Tea is hot tea, not iced tea, and tea can also be dinner. We have morning tea and afternoon tea. High tea is different again and can take place either in the late morning or afternoon. Many of our expressions have British roots, and there are regional differences here, too.
Soft drink gets used in the US, too. That’s mostly what people would call it around Albuquerque, NM. The first time my Minnesota sister asked my kids what kind of “pop” they wanted, they stared at her. They were happy with the dad they had and didn’t expect a choice. They didn’t know she was asking about a soft drink.
When my not-yet-husband was moving from Texas to Idaho (where he met me), he discovered that ordering “tea” got you iced tea until he was a little more than halfway through Colorado. It was a big surprise when a steaming cup of tea appeared instead. That’s why I always say “iced tea” or “hot tea” when I’m ordering, no matter where I am in the country. No surprises that way! But that’s another US regional thing to watch.
Sounds Interesting Carol (late as its been a busy or tiring few days) Its nice for readers to see the process also.
Before I started writing novels, I never gave much thought to what went into creating a story that pulled me out of the real world into the book’s world. Doing all the background work is way more fun than I ever suspected before I started.