Does Your Worldbuilding Live and Breathe?
Secrets to Create Unforgettable Fantasy Stories #2
Most fantasy worlds are stage sets.
Pretty backdrops. Painted skies. Props that exist only so your characters have somewhere to stand while they talk about the plot.
Readers feel this. They just can’t name it.
Here’s the fix: stop building your world and start raising it — the way you’d raise a character.
Your world has a personality.
Ankh-Morpork is cynical and exhausted. The Shire is generous and unhurried. Arrakis is merciless and ancient. You know these places before you ever meet their people — because the world tells you who it is.
Ask yourself: if your world walked into a room, how would it move? What would it want? What would it refuse to give?
Your world has a history it hasn’t gotten over. Don’t explain this history in chapter two. Let your characters trip over it.
Your world pushes back.
A living world creates friction. Weather ruins plans. Locals distrust outsiders. The road costs something.
The moment your world wants something, everything changes.
Make your world a character!
Stay tuned for part 3 in the next email …
What are some of your favorite fantasy or sci fi worlds? How do you make your story world a character?
Hope you all have a great week and having a great summer!
Author MB Mooney
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I think “make your world a character” is nearly right, but it is also how people end up just writing scenery with opinions. Can the world make demands of the story without waiting for the protagonist’s permission? That is the question that leads to the path.