In a guest post on C.S. Lakin’s blog, Kahina Necaise discusses the challenges of fantasy world-building and what you can do to master this skill. “Worldbuilding is often one of fantasy authors’ favorite parts of the writing process,” she says. “After the honeymoon burst of inspiration, though, most also find that world-building is harder than it looks.”
Some of the major world-building challenges include:
- Writing Specific and Concrete Details. Your readers can’t envision your fictional world if you don’t describe it with rich, sensory detail.
- Drip-Feeding Exposition. The opposite of info-dumping, drip-feeding occurs when you hold back details of your world-building until your reader needs the information.
- Weaving the Illusion of a Complete World. You can create an illusion of a world by sharing specific elements without explaining or going into great detail about them. Think of these concepts as threads you might pick up later…or might not. “Such fragmented world pieces are like coils of beautiful thread kept side by side in a box—interesting to look at on their own, but still waiting to be woven together to become something more,” Necaise says.
- Answering “So What?” “In great stories, the world-building usually goes a step further: the writer’s world reveals a viewpoint about our own that readers never considered before,” Necaise writes. “That viewpoint might affirm their beliefs, or it might challenge them. Either way, it makes them think and feel something beyond the delight of being entertained.”
Necaise also suggests some exercises for strengthening your ability to describe your world with specific details; spacing out world-building elements to create a drip of new information that occurs throughout your novel; making connections between various story threads; and identifying aspects of your world that reflect something you believe about how our world works.
