Introduction to Worldbuilding

Hello there, I’ve been asked a few times about the topic on worldbuilding and how it should be approached when writing a piece of work. So, I figured to write something short to perhaps kickstart your journey into building a world! Now, I’ll come forth and say that I’m definitely not the best at this topic, given that I’ve only started writing last year, but I can share some points and observations based off what I have written so far in all of my works, as well as what I have consumed in terms of media.

I’ll be doing this in several posts since this is quite a deep topic, so expect small additions over time~

Now, let’s start with the first question that would perhaps act as a natural introduction to this humble guide of mine: What is worldbuilding?

If I were to copy and paste the definition from a dictionary courtesy of a simple search on the net, it would be: Worldbuilding is the process of creating a complete, imaginary environment for stories, games, or movies. It includes designing the setting, rules, history, and cultures so the world feels real and alive.

Now, the textbook definition is fairly accurate and if you analyse it closely, there are certain keywords that stand out: complete, imaginary, designing, setting, rules, history, and cultures.

Everyone would have imagined their own worlds in their heads before. You would have watched maybe an anime, movie, read a book, manga, manhwa and thought Hey, this looks and sounds cool, I want to live in a world like that, but maybe I would want to make some changes in this way or another way, or I want to include more things or exclude some things.

If you have had these thoughts, then congratulations! You have already had experience building your own world.

However, just like how any normal society would function, there are many levels to worldbuilding. Depending on how in depth you go, it directly impacts the story you’re writing.

Yada yada, that’s kinda obvious, acorn.

Hmmmm, Yes and no? There are many things that can be incorporated into the world you built but need not be explicitly stated. And that may subtly influence the decisions characters make.

Let’s start with: When do you need to build a world?

As long as your work does not conform to the exact events that transpires in real life, you need to build your world. A piece about what you ate yesterday needs no worldbuilding, because that world has already been established. A piece about your experience of a concert needs no worldbuilding, because that is what you have experienced. All these are known as recollections and are a simple reconstitution of experiences into written words. You can worldbuild when you think and predict what will happen in the future. Five seconds, ten seconds… as long as you are imagining something, you’re worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding is not limited to the fantasy genre. As long as it is an alternate universe, the rules of worldbuilding applies. You could write about idolverse, and that will include worldbuilding, because you are building an imaginary world of you and the subject idol you are writing. You are writing about imaginary locations, cafés, incidents, even smut. Even if you're writing a modern romance, you're still worldbuilding. Perhaps cafés don't exist in your universe because everyone hangs out at arcades. Maybe idols attend university like normal students. Maybe society accepts soulmates as scientific fact. None of these are fantasy, but they all change how your characters live.

I won’t be commenting so much about idolverse, because personally, I find that very limiting in terms of how much one can expand on that world.

I’m a guy who likes seeing magic fly, bullets penetrate, swords slashing and booms and bangs and pew pews. I like action in general. Who doesn’t? Even if there isn’t any combat, a magical world revolving around a blue collared jobs can also be viable and interesting.

Damn, so much yapping and I haven’t gotten to the meat of this chapter.

In this chapter, I mainly want to talk about ideas and consistency. You can have a million ideas to insert into your world, but if they are incoherent and are not consistent, you’ll have readers and highly likely yourself confused when you continue building your own world. These are the things I looked at when I create any world in general, not ranked in any particular order, because they are all equally important.

1. Core Idea/Theme

2. Rules

3. Geography

4. History

5. Politics

6. Economy

7. Culture

8. Technology

9. Power Structures (if any)

10. Organisations

11. Characters

12. Relevancy

13. Mystery

14. Plot Armour

There are other aspects to worldbuilding that can only be touched upon or more deeply understood by you when you start writing your own fic, but these are the basics.

Fourteen. 14 fucking things to touch on. Damn, that’s a lot huh? Don’t be daunted. I sure as hell didn’t make a checklist when I was planning Prism Hearts. Think of it as a natural progression as you create your world. One thing leads to another question, which leads to more questions. Anyone can create worlds. But not everyone can create a good world.

I’m going to touch on points 1 and 2 for this part, which are core idea/theme and rules.

The first one being the core idea/theme. What do you want your world to be based on? An idea? A theme? A quote? A fancy magic system that you thought of? A certain era? A romance?

You don’t have to include all of them, but you need to have at least one of them. That will form the core of your story. A good world blends in multiple themes/ideas and makes sure that they mix well together. Personally, I think that many people start building worlds based on cool ideas. It’s definitely possible, and I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t, but a cool world won’t last long if there are only cool ideas. You need something to carry the emotional weight that comes along with cool ideas. Things like loneliness, sacrifice, fate, family, revenge, happiness, and countless other possibilities. A fight between two people without motives would be just considered action slop to me. However, if I add in a revenge element, then things are elevated slightly.

Then you have to think about the uniqueness of a world that can’t exist elsewhere. It’s the best if you can think of something totally one of its kind and unique in the entire world. But the chances of that happening is miniscule. So, how do you make yours stand out? Intricate things like the other twelve points above. History, organisations, motives, culture, characters, etc.

Naming some popular media out there, we have things like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Hunter x Hunter, Lord of the Mysteries, Demon Slayer, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, Solo Leveling, Naruto, MCU, DC. There are countless worlds. Yet some are better than others. Some are deeper than others.

I shan’t name names or point out particular titles, but I’m not really a big fan of Power Fantasy. Big epic fights with shallow worldbuilding and story just doesn’t engage me as much.

If your story is about fate, perhaps there are fortune tellers, prophecies, or a society that believes destiny is fixed. If your story is about freedom, maybe the government is oppressive, slavery exists, or the magic system itself restricts people. The world should naturally generate situations that reinforce the theme.

Every major idea should have consequences. If this existed, what would logically happen next?

Magic exists. So... Schools would teach it. Criminals would abuse it. Governments would regulate it. Businesses would profit from it. Religions would explain it. If you stop at "magic exists," your world feels shallow.

Every writer has had moments where they wanted to add dragons, time travel, ten different races, twenty gods, or another fancy power system because it sounded cool.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But every addition should answer the question: What purpose does this serve?

If the answer is "it looks cool," maybe reconsider it.

If the answer is "it strengthens the themes or creates interesting conflicts," keep it.

Now comes the million-dollar question.

Do your ideas need to make sense?

Yes and no.

That’s where rules come in.

It needs to make sense, and you make it make sense. To put it in simpler words, it is an imaginary world. One that does not conform to the current world you are living in. As such, you as the creator set the rules to the world, and you HAVE to communicate these rules to your reader.

For instance, what we know of is that fire is hot and burns you when you touch them. But if I as the writer establish that in my world, fire is cold, you as the reader would find it to make sense. Otherwise, you would be seen as an insane person if you ran down the streets shouting that the fire is cooling you down, or that snow is burning you alive.

Then the next thing would be how you communicate these rules to your readers. There are many ways to do so, but obviously some ways are better than others. I place a heavy emphasis on immersion when I write my series. If you info dump the rules of your entire world to the reader at the start, chances are they are not going to remember them. Determine your story path, main plot line, and judge how you will reveal the rules of the world to the readers.

You can show that a world runs on mana by showcasing a fight. You can show that mana is limited by exhibiting a character running out of it in a fight. You can show that mana is not only used in fights but also integrated into daily societal lives.

Rules don't exist to limit the reader. They exist to limit the writer.

Ask yourself “What changes because of it?”

Rules create tension.

Without rules, nothing would matter. Imagine if your readers don't know whether someone can teleport. Every dangerous situation becomes meaningless because the character might suddenly teleport away. And that’s super shallow. You’ve locked yourself in a world where you can just teleport away from every single dangerous event. How do you even make a crisis at this point?

Dagger comes. Teleport. I’m late for work. Teleport. I want to experience intense sunburn. Teleport to the sun. That’s shallow and lame. Rules tell readers what they should expect. That creates suspense.

Limitations are more important than abilities.

Readers rarely remember what characters can do. They remember what they can't do. For example, you are more likely to remember Superman being weak to Kyrptonite, or that Nen in HxH is not unlimited, but with strict conditions, power is multiplicative.

Limitations force creativity.