Worldbuilding tips and advice can prove vital in your quest to build a world from scratch. But with so much to do, so much to focus on, it’s easy to become lost. And the story may altogether be forgotten.
So in this guide, we’ll cover worldbuilding in the fantasy genre in some detail. We’ll go over what the process involves, how to come up with ideas, before turning to consider the hardest part—revealing your world. I’ve also included lots of helpful resources like the recording of my worldbuilding workshop, and details of communities like Reddit’s r/worldbuilding.
Select A Section
- What Is Worldbuilding In Fantasy?
- How Do You Create A Fantasy World?
- How Do You Reveal A Fantasy World?
- More Fantasy Worldbuilding Tools And Resources
- Worldbuilding And Fantasy FAQ
What Is Worldbuilding In Fantasy?
So, what is worldbuilding in fantasy?
You may have heard the phrase ‘world building’ before, particularly if you’re a fantasy or sci-fi writer. It refers to the process of creating a secondary world, one that’s almost as alive as our own. A world we want to escape into and sometimes never want to leave.
Worldbuilding in fantasy can be both challenging and rewarding. It requires creativity and imagination as well as research into different cultures and histories. By taking the time to create a detailed world, writers can ensure that their stories are immersive and engaging for readers.
Below, we’ll look at tips on how to effectively create fantasy worlds, from researching different cultures to creating unique characters and settings.
How Do You Create A Fantasy World?
“I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold.”
Master worldbuilder, J.R.R. Tolkien
Readers of the fantasy genre love to escape into a magical world, one different to our own, with endless possibilities. It’s arguably the genre’s defining feature. As writers, we love to create fantasy worlds, but doing so isn’t easy.
In this part of the guide, we’re going to explore the process of building a world from scratch and how to reveal it in our stories. In particular, we’ll look at the physical side of the world and the cultural considerations.
We’ll also go over some useful writing tips and tools, such as Brandon Sanderson’s worldbuilding method and some key questions to ask ourselves.
There’ll also be references to some worldbuilding books, a downloadable template for building a world, and tips on how to draw and generate a fantasy map. Plus we’ll cover specific topics like religion and the lives of the likes of medieval peasants and lords to help inspire some ideas.
Click To Learn How To Start Worldbuilding
Brandon Sanderson’s Fantasy Worldbuilding Guide
Let’s start with advice from one of the best authors in the genre—Brandon Sanderson.
Sanderson has his own worldbuilding guide which I’ve personally found very useful. It focuses on two things: physical settings and cultural settings.
Physical settings
Physical settings encompass the things that exist if humans—or whatever species your characters are—did not exist. So, for example, the terrain, flora, fauna, weather, cosmology, geology, laws of physics.
In one of Sanderson’s own books, Mistborn: The Final Empire, the world is plagued by ash falls and dense mists which descend each night. Consider too Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books, which involves a world constructed on the back of a giant turtle floating through space.
If you’re struggling to think of things, experiment with removing yourself from the physical world. What if the sky was green and the grass blue? It could even be a post-apocalyptic world. Once you start writing and exploring your world, there’s really no saying where it will take you, and that’s the most exciting part.
For designing an imaginary world with oceans, rivers, mountains, swamplands, deserts and the like, check out my guides on cartography and geography as a whole:
Further Reading: How To Create A Fantasy Map
The second section of this fantasy worldbuilding guide also has a bunch of resources to help inspire you too.
Cultural settings
This covers things influenced by man, or things that can be physically manipulated or changed, such as:
- Laws
- Politics
- Religion
- Government
- Language
- Structures
- Landmarks
- Philosophies
- Foods
- Music
- Fashion
- Folklore
- Weapons
- Technology
- Clothing
- Histories, like a world war
- Civil rights
- Jobs/Professions
- Medicines… the list could go on.
It would be impossible to write a book of readable length if you covered every one of these things, and these are but a handful. The trick, it seems, is to pick a few and explore those in detail, perhaps bringing in other related settings in less detail. It does, however, help to have an idea of how your societies function to gain a better idea of how your characters live.
Religion in fantasy often plays a big part. I have a dedicated post on the subject which you can read here – Religion In Fantasy.
The language used in a fantasy story also plays a big part and helps bring the world to life. This picture below always tickles me.
The point is to channel your focus into these cultural settings, which in turn will open up doors to other aspects of the world. Piece by piece you’re revealing all those wonderful details you spent weeks and months conjuring.
George R.R. Martin is an expert worldbuilder, especially when it comes to this. He writes his own songs and poems, goes into great detail about the food the characters eat, like the ‘bowl of brown’ in Flea Bottom.
Some of his most iconic scenes are those at feasts and balls with vivid descriptions of songs and meals. It’s his use of songs and food that brings in histories and other facts about his world and he does it wonderfully.
The Importance Of Conflicting Cultures
If at all possible, Sanderson recommends seeking conflicts between the different cultural strands you choose to explore. It cannot be understated how crucial creating conflict is, and if you can intertwine conflict with your world-building you’re on the right path.
For example, the clash between religion and science and jobs and technology. Having a character that cares passionately about a setting also provides a vehicle for revealing much about it, such as a character that loves to cook, like Talon in Raymond Feist’s Riftwar Cycle.
Again, have fun with cultural settings. Let your mind run free. Remove the shackles of reality. Anything is possible in a world of your own creation.
Download A Free Worldbuilding Template
Having spent many a long hour thinking of ideas and untangling myself up in the knots I create, I’ve put together a worldbuilding template to help keep track of all of the different strands.
Using my favourite worldbuilding tips from Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, many of which were discussed in this guide, I assembled a spreadsheet containing a comprehensive list of questions to help you build a world.
Split into physical and cultural settings, you can keep track of everything before you, develop ideas and pick and choose the ones that fit naturally with your story.
To get your copy, just click below. You’ll be taken to a Google Sheets page. To download, click on file>download>Microsoft Excel.
Natural Worldbuilding – The Best Way To Build A Fantasy World?
I’ve invested a lot of time and energy into studying the craft of building worlds. For years I’ve used Sanderson’s approach, but I found it had some limitations, namely to do with revealing a world, which is the biggest issue according to readers (see my research on the reasons why people stop reading a book).
So using the guiding principles Sanderson has set out, I added my own spin and defined a theory I call natural worldbuilding. It provides the cure for the info dump and the means by which to know the right amount of detail to reveal in your story.
I won’t go into further detail here because I have an in-depth guide on natural worldbuilding you can read here.
Ask Yourself Worldbuilding Questions
On we march in our guide. And onto a writing tip that can be particularly helpful, and that is to ask worldbuilding questions. A questionnaire if you will: who, what, where, when, how. What type of magic exists in the world? How does someone gain the power to use it? Are there different kinds of abilities and spells? Is there a limit as to how much magic one person can use?
Such questions are invaluable. And try to avoid, as tempting as it is, settling for the first thing that pops into your head. Push yourself to think of different options and possibilities.
Keep asking ‘what if?’ And if you can’t think of an answer, worry not. Move on. Your subconscious will be working away on that, and one day the answer will, with a bit of luck, come to you. You’ll know it when you get it. This can be particularly useful when you’re trying to come up with unique races or fantasy creatures.
Here’s a very helpful list of worldbuilding questions courtesy of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. There’s many a good fantasy worldbuilding template out on the web too.
How To Analyze Worldbuilding In Fantasy Writing
When it comes to asking yourself worldbuilding questions, it’s also important to query and analyze how other authors carry out worldbuilding in their fantasy writing.
Analyzing worldbuilding in fantasy writing requires a keen eye for detail and an understanding of the genre. By looking at the way characters interact with their environment, how they interact with each other, and how they use magic or technology, readers can get a better understanding of the world that has been created.
By examining how the different cultures or societies of a world are portrayed in the story, readers can gain insight into how different perspectives may be represented within the fictional universe. This whole process allows fantasy writers to create compelling worlds that draw readers in and keep them coming back for more.
Explore and Research
One of the best ways to come up with ideas for your world is to get out into the real world and explore.
There’s nothing more powerful than actually seeing rolling hills and mountains, walking through forests and fields or busy city streets, hearing the noises of factories, the smells of the beach or a harbour. It allows you to write with experience.
Research is important to gain a greater understanding of how something works. If rivers form a big part of your story, learn how they work, the different types of rivers, how tributaries and meanders are formed, and so on.
Again this gives your voice more authority and gives you the tools to describe things with confidence and conviction, which will only do wonders for your fantasy worldbuilding.
Fantasy Worldbuilding Books
Linked to the above, one way you can learn how to world build is to study how to do it. There are plenty of great world building books and fiction writing books that you can turn to for guidance. Here are some of them below:
- The Fantasy Fiction Formula
- A Fantasy Writers’ Handbook
- The Guide To Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
There are other worldbuilding books but these are some of the best I’ve come across, purely because of the level of detail they go into. And if you wanted to go a step further beyond the odd guide, there are even masters degrees that you can study on worldbuilding.
Click Here To See The Best Books On Worldbuilding
Build As You Go
There are other ways of building a world. And this is one for the pantsers!
If you’re feeling impatient and don’t fancy doing any of the above, by all means, build as you go along. Write your story, see where it takes you.
You may reach a point where your character needs to go to a new city. You can then ask yourself questions.
- How do they get there?
- What towns do they stop at along the way?
- What kind of city is it they’re going to?
- A thriving metropolis or a besieged ruin?
- What’s the population size?
- What’s the economy built upon?
The downside with this approach is you’ll probably have to consistently revert to ensure consistency and to fill in any gaps.
Something you can try when creating your world is to write some short stories that explore different aspects of it. You can use new characters and learn about your world through them.
A Summary of Worldbuilding Tips
We’ve covered quite a lot in this section, so let’s summarise.
- Begin with the physical elements of your world.
- To help you design the physical landscape, try drawing a map, using a fantasy map generator, or try playing worldbuilding games.
- Then create the cultural settings.
- To do this, ask yourself worldbuilding questions.
- Go out and explore the world around you for inspiration.
- Read books on different approaches or history books to inspire you
Here’s another great resource courtesy of the folks over at Now Novel—a handy infographic of world building tips.
How Do You Reveal A Fantasy World?
So far in our fantasy worldbuilding guide, we’ve covered how to go about crafting a world and we’ve looked at few sources of inspiration. Next up in our guide to building a world, we’ll look at some great ways to reveal your world.
The Iceberg
Of all the tools in this fantasy guide, I think this could be the most important. In fact, it could be one of the most important in fantasy fiction writing as a whole.
Many readers complain about info dumps in books. Writers often turn to worldbuilding guides like this for answers. I know I did. But often I wound up more confused than satisfied. That was until I discovered the iceberg.
The philosophy of the iceberg is to reveal a little of your world while holding back much more, just like with an iceberg we merely see its tip, while beneath the water the bulk of its mass lingers.
In essence, we’re showing instead of telling the reader about the world through a little keyhole, teasing them so they want to beat down the door and see everything else. You may be wondering why go to the effort of all that detail?
Through experience, you don’t often know which direction your story takes so to have that bank of information ready to use makes those changes a lot easier and fluid.
How do you achieve this?
- By dropping hints. Show a little, then a little more, gradually removing the shroud surrounding your world.
- Brandon Sanderson uses the term ‘maid and butler dialogue’. This means that characters should discuss things they know about, but the reader does not. The reader is something of an observer and it’s up to them to learn what they can from the conversation.
- Another way of using dialogue is to drop in references to the wider world. For instance, if your fantasy world is called Nagoya, a character could say: “What in Nagoya are you talking about?”
- Or you could use metaphors or similes with things from your world, like the tallest peak in the land could be named Devil’s Rock, and a character could say: “He’s as bloody tall as Devil’s Rock.”
- Another way to reveal details is to feature a character that’s unfamiliar with the world around them. New sights, smells, sounds. They’re exploring with the reader, and then you can reveal the glorious details you long to share, like how each and every bloody flower smells.
- Try not to info dump! By this, I mean spewing onto the page every little detail that pops into your head. We’re all guilty of it. The reader doesn’t want to know the history of a city’s sewage system unless it’s pertinent to the tale.
- Watch out for repetition. When revealing a world it can be easy to labour points or refer to things more than once. Constant editing and critiques from trusted sources can help fix this.
There’s A Right Time To Share
One temptation for the worldbuilder is to foist upon the reader every detail of the backstory before the story actually begins. We’ve been over this in a previous chapter. In short, we spend lots of time building a world, all we then want to do is share those wonderful details.
However, the best way, according to Sanderson, is to be sparse with detail during the first few chapters, keeping the focus on the characters and generating empathy toward them. Reward the reader with little details as you go along, and later on, when everyone’s comfortable and engaged with the characters and plot, open the door to the wider world.
To recap, we’ve looked at ways of crafting a world, sources of inspiration for a world, and how to reveal the dreaded info dump.
To complete this worldbuilding checklist, we’re going to take a critical look at this oft-discussed aspect of writing fantasy.
How I Revealed My World In Pariah’s Lament
One thing I didn’t expect to get comments about when I published Pariah’s Lament was my worldbuilding. In fact, half a dozen advanced reviewers cited the world as one of their favourite aspects.
So in this section, I wanted to share with you my approach to revealing a world. Because it’s here where many of us can stumble. And it’s here I’ve struggled in the past. I’ve studied worldbuilding approaches at length. In the end, I settled in the less is more camp, or close to it anyway. And when it came to Pariah’s Lament, I took a lot of care with what details were revealed and when.
For me, I love fantasy because of escapism. I want to travel to a new world, explore new places, experience new things. I wanted to immerse readers in my fantasy world too, but I didn’t want to overdo it, to info dump. My intention was to leave them wanting more, and as the story went on, I gave them that.
Helpfully for us, those lovely book reviewers pointed out a few different things which to them, in their own words, “fleshed out the world,” and made it “real and lived in”, which is what we all aim for, I think.
One way I achieved this was through revealing small cultural details in exposition as characters moved through the world, keeping it all as natural as possible. Here are a couple of examples:
“In the center of the square, a group of young boys and girls chased a small leather ball around with sticks, a game known as lingas, and one that often ended with the sticks turned on each other.”
“War brought opportunities. Increased demand for weapons, armor, and food meant higher prices and greater profits for those who owned the supplies, and they all had their fingers in such pies.”
How Much Worldbuilding Is Needed For A Fantasy Novel?
So, how much worldbuilding is needed for a fantasy novel?
We’ve all been guilty of doing too much. Even the greats like Tolkien, though in his defence he wrote in a different era.
And I’ll be the first to hold my hand up. The first draft of my first chapter was 12,000 words long and most of those words were dreary passages of info-dumping.
Perhaps this is where this minimalistic approach has come from, as a backlash against authors indulging too much in world-building, in info-dumping their readers’ poor brains to bits.
I’ve been reading a lot of upcoming authors of late, helping them with reviews and edits, and it’s a persistent problem I encounter. One book I recently read had a prologue setting out the history of the world and story, then in chapter 1 the story began and I was somewhat engaged. Then came chapter 2 and another massive info dump. It lost me.
Are readers getting fed up with big, epic worlds?
Maybe. I think it all depends on the type of story you’re trying to tell and the type of reader you’re looking to attract. In a high fantasy story, for example, some degree of world-building is inevitable as characters quest to save the world or whatever.
In newer types of fantasy, such as contemporary or urban, the focus seems to be less on the world and more on characters and plot.
I don’t think it’s something we can just dismiss as a trend though. Rather it ought to be regarded as a warning that readers are getting fed up with being info-dumped, that more time, care, and ingenuity needs to be invested when it comes to showing our worlds.
So what do we writers do? As Rothfuss said:
My personal philosophy is to err on the side of caution. Given the choice, I’d prefer to give too little description and leave you wanting more, rather than give a lot and risk you being bored.
Don’t you just hate it when there’s no straightforward answer? All you can do is bear in mind advice like Rothfuss’s, as well as helpful techniques such as the iceberg.
It boils down to the story you’re trying to tell and what the reader expects from that type of story. But be warned: the days of the info dump, it seems, are over.
We’re reaching the end of this worldbuilding guide. To recap, we’ve looked at ways of building a world, finding inspiration, ways of revealing a world, and some critical considerations.
We’re not quite finished, yet though.
More Fantasy Worldbuilding Tools And Resources
Thank you so much for reading this fantasy worldbuilding guide. I hope you’ve picked up a few useful bits of information or had your questions answered.
Below, I’ve included some further tools which you may find useful, and if you have any other questions not covered in this guide, why not contact me?
Here are a few extras you might fight useful, from podcasts to videos.
Fantasy Worldbuilding Lectures
I can’t recommend Brandon Sanderson’s lectures more highly. He truly is an excellent worldbuilder and much can be learned from him. They’re all free on YouTube, and there’s a terrific one on world-building, which you can watch below. In it, he explains a lot of the concepts above, and his own approach to world-building.
Reddit’s r/worldbuilding Community
There’s a thread on Reddit dedicated entirely to worldbuilding called r/worldbuilding. Here you can post your ideas, discuss possibilities and get all-important feedback.
Other Worldbuilding Guides
Here’s another insightful article by fantasy author Tad Williams on worldbuilding.
This guide by author Katja Kaine also provides 6 useful steps you can follow when it comes to worldbuilding. She walks you through her process, shows you how to apply it in your writing, and reveals tips for why worlds in famous stories like Harry Potter work so well.
And if you ever considered studying worldbuilding, it’s now possible to do so. Earn yourself a shiny masters degree through the Leeds Art University.
This guide on easy tools writers can use to build suspense relates to worldbuilding and may be of use too. And this one on how to create tension in writing could help too.
For a bunch more worldbuilding resources, check out this page
Here are some other guides you may find useful:
- Fantasy writing
- How to write a fantasy novel
- How to write battles and fight scenes
- Elven names generator and guide
- Fantasy character names
- The knight of chivalry – medieval knights
- Demon name generator
- Head here to learn about the writing community, r/worldbuilding
- Human name generator and guide
- The best communities for fantasy writers
- Fantasy archery – a complete guide
- What is a boring book and how to avoid writing one?
- Orc names generator and guide
- Fantasy name generator
- Worldbuilding guide and tips
- Worldbuilding and religion
- Download a free worldbuilding checklist here
Worldbuilding Podcast
I recently recorded an episode for my podcast with my good writing friend, JM Williams, all about fantasy worldbuilding. We discussed all of the different approaches and the best ways of revealing a fantasy world.
It’s one of the most popular episodes on our fantasy writing podcast so I hope you enjoy it! You can also listen on YouTube, iTunes, Acast and TuneIn.
To find out more about The Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed podcast, just click here. You can also head here to find some more podcasts for writers.
Worldbuilding And Fantasy FAQ
Before we wrap up this guide, I wanted to share quick answers to some questions I often get asked about building fantasy worlds. I hope they help.
Worldbuilding is the process of creating an original, secondary world, that is, one unlike our own. It may have influences or share characteristics with our own, but it is defined as the process of creating something fictitious.
1. Write down or draw a map of the physical landscape of your world
2. Define the culture of the world
3. Build a history of the world and its laws
The creation of a world which feels almost as real as our own. One that we can escape into, lose ourselves in, and for a time, wholly believe that we have visited. We achieve this through our characters—their experiences and interactions—and through the plots of our story as we weave our way through the tale.
Perhaps the best way to introduce a fantasy world is via the iceberg method. By this, it is meant that you reveal only the tip of the mound of details you have of your world, with the rest lurking beneath the surface. This ensures you do not overwhelm your reader with detail—also known as an info dump. Instead, small details are revealed at opportune and relevant times throughout the story.
Fantasy names can often be too difficult to read. It’s common to see apostrophes placed into names, like Aba’lar. This can jar the flow of the story and may cause readers frustration and fatigue. It can therefore help to be guided by the principle – clarity reigns supreme. If it’s easy to read, you’re less likely you’ll get complaints from readers.
The best place to start is to split the process of worldbuilding in two—the physical settings and the cultural settings. Begin with the physical. This relates to the landscape and terrain—rivers, mountains, oceans, forests. The physical side will influence the cultural side, which relates to everything influenced by man, from laws and government to songs and poems. You can think of things from our real world too like the knights of chivalry and the code they followed.
If you have any more questions about worldbuilding and fantasy, please get in touch.
Most nights you can find him up into the wee hours scribbling away or watching the NBA.
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Was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!
Hey! Thanks so much for your comment! I’m so happy to hear you found this useful.
Great post. And I love Sanderson’s lectures.
Thanks so much Jo! Those lectures helped me out so much. And Sanderson’s methods have definitely helped me develop my own worldbuilding approach, so I’m indebted to him for that.
What’s your favourite/least favourite part about worldbuilding?
He is a treasure. One of my favorite parts of worldbuilding is considering the vast array of possilibites-all the choices. The more wonderous and other worldly the better. My least favorite task is setting aside something I consider to be really cool, because it doesn’t quite work within the world constraints I have created. Ah, well, I suppose those bits are the starting point for another book series. 😊📚📚