Worldbuilding with Wonder and Wisdom

One of my favorite parts of writing fantasy is worldbuilding– crafting huge, expansive worlds filled with lore and history and culture, and not a small bit of verisimilitude (which, to all of you who don’t obsess over long words like I do, means “lots of little details that make it seem more realistic”. Approximately, that is.)

But, like always, writing is an arduous process with a long learning curve, and a lot of new writers can feel “stuck” in the worldbuilding phase of planning– or they skip it entirely, leaving their story feeling flat and empty. My aim today is to break down not just how to worldbuild skillfully, but also how to worldbuild with wonder and wisdom.

The main reason writers can get stuck in the worldbuilding phase is because it's simply not something they enjoy. I am a firm believer in the principle that if you’re doing something you love, you’ll figure it out eventually. But worldbuilding isn’t up everyone’s alley, so to speak, and when it’s not, it can feel like a dead end, dumpster and all. (See what I did there?)

But there’s one tactic that I’ve seen time and time again that can help liberate writers from their walled-off alleyways, and it’s often overlooked. (Or rather, underlooked, for actually it’s right above your head.) But what am I talking about here?

Well, none other than the fire escape.

Now, I know this is not a “how to escape your pursuers when trapped in a dark alley with no way out” article. (See title for reference.) But the best tool for worldbuilders who aren’t too thrilled about their current occupation isn’t to keep banging their heads against the brick wall in hopes of it eventually collapsing. We all know that the only thing that gives you is a headache. Rather, all you need to do is simply pull down the fire escape and climb out.

Okay, enough with the metaphors. What do I mean by “climb out”? If worldbuilding is leaving you dry due to a lack of interest, then the most reasonable solution is to create interest. Wonder is one of the facets of writing stories– something will tend to bring us a sense of awe, and we feel we must write about it. If we can cause that wonder to carry over to worldbuilding, we might find it isn’t as tedious as we first believed.

Before we continue on to the main subjects of this post, I want to challenge you. What is something about your preferred genre that you really enjoy? Perhaps you love the high stakes that come from action/adventure novels or thrillers, or the unique magic systems that tend to appear in fantasy. Maybe advanced technology and distant worlds are more up your alley with sci-fi, or the ruined landscapes and corrupted governments in dystopian fiction bring a revolutionary stirring to your heart.

All of those facets of different genres that I just mentioned are all things that require worldbuilding. When you sit down to plan how a magic system works, or what technology your character has, or how the government became broken, or even what parts of your world could cause the stakes to rise, you’re actually building your world and making its reach deeper. Bring wonder into your worldbuilding by discovering what you love about writing and infusing it with your own ideas and characteristics.

Once you’ve kindled wonder for your world through the things you love about it, it’s time to consider other areas of worldbuilding as well– namely, the four pillars of worldbuilding.

Every world is built from four large pieces: geography, culture, history, and legends, all with their own subcategories and facets. You could technically spend an infinite amount of time crafting intricate details for the smallest parts of your world, but usually authors are more practical than that, focusing only on what would be useful for the actual narrative. (After all, why plan out the cultures and governing structures of a faraway kingdom if it is only a passing mention? Ahem, Tolkien…)

Geography is the biggest category that most people think of when they begin worldbuilding. Map-making, deciding where each kingdom will go, and what geographical features your story will contain are all rather important, but this category goes deeper than that. Everything in a story can have meaning, and even your geography can be a subtle metaphor for your story’s theme. An infinite thunderstorm that stretches over your kingdom can symbolise turmoil and unrest within. A circle of mountains around the enemy’s stronghold can mean anything from cleverness to fear. A secret cave behind a waterfall is the prime location for something treasured, but perhaps overlooked.

Geography is also very important for the reader to grasp. I’ve read many a book where I was confused about the characters’ location, or where they were going, and I don’t always reference the maps in the front if the author was kind enough to provide one (I feel it can break immersion, which is key to understanding a story). Making your geography clear for the reader will certainly help make your worldbuilding shine. (Put un-simply, I’d rather have a polished yet simply-worked piece of cutlery than an ornate but dull one, for clarity is above design.)

Culture is the next facet, and is quite important when building realistic civilizations. Examine real-world cultures, living or extinct, and use them to draw inspiration from. Think about what forms culture, and what makes it up. People’s relations to others in their class, their beliefs about their life and their governing authorities, similarities that unite a people and the differences that divide them, and motifs and physical things they might hold dear are all important when building a culture.

Something else to consider is how culture might connect to geography. I believe that when worldbuilding, everything should share a connection and have a reason for existing other than “I thought it was cool,” which might be perfectly acceptable in some cases, but for broader topics, more thought is required. How might the civilization’s location on the map dictate their culture? Are they close to a port city, and as such, have a relationship with the sea and the trades that go on there? Perhaps they are threatened by pirates, or perhaps they work with them. Or maybe your culture is quite secretive. What would be the best place geographically to contain them? A forest, perhaps, far from the rest of the world.

The next facet is history, and this might be my favorite of the bunch. Some of the best worlds have history, because history gives everything a reason for being there. Is there a mountain range with a great cleft in it that was not made by natural causes? Use history to explain it. Perhaps a beast or dragon once threatened your world and caused a rift in the stone. Or maybe two kingdoms are at odds and have always hated each other. “Always” is such a lofty word, when really things like that are much more finite. When did they begin hating each other? What conflict was there that caused their dissension?

Once again, think of the connections between all these facets. How does your history provide a foundation for your world’s culture? How does it influence the beliefs of people and the desires of those in power? What does it do for your plot? History is often the best way to ground a plot and give it a reason for existing as well, like the prologue to a grand adventure. Also consider what events might have occurred in your world’s past because of the geography. What wars might have erupted over a particular resource or location? How many times was a specific stronghold sieged? How long was that forest there, and was it always haunted?

Finally, worldbuilding usually consists of legends and myths. I often think of these as the halfway point between culture and history, for they are influenced by both. Each culture has their own myths and legends, but they all contain a spark of truth that is usually to be found in history. Legends can help add realism to your world (despite that sounding like a contradictory statement) for superstition is found wherever you go, and you can even relate these legends to your plot to explain certain things about it.

Legends are not just for fantasy, either. Distant planets can exist in the minds of hopeful dreamers and desperate souls, crime syndicates of ages past can haunt the memories of the dark alleys of a city, and terrible beasts that lurk outside the safety of the last haven can keep people contained within– but perhaps the most terrible beast of all is really found inside. Legends are for drawing readers in and giving them bits and pieces of information, and then letting them decide whether they are based in truth or not. Legends keep readers thinking and guessing, and they can serve to suspend disbelief and subvert expectations.

Once you discover the wonder that worldbuilding contains, thinking through all of these facets might not be as hard as you once supposed if you truly love your world. Exploring a new, never-before-seen place, and not only that, but being the one to decide what goes on there, can be a liberating and enjoyable experience. After all, creating your own world is just as close as we can get to going there ourselves.

But crafting our worlds also takes a measure of wisdom. What parts of humanity do we want to reflect, and what parts should we pass over? Should we show certain evils as what they are, exposing them to our readers and characters? What would be the most honoring to Christ and our mission to forward His Kingdom?

When we create worlds, we are taking on the role of subcreators in Christ. God has made our world, and He has also made us in His image. We bear the ability to create, and to be creative, like our God, but we must also be wise in doing so, so as not to abuse His gift to us. If you wish to learn more about subcreation and Tolkien’s view on it, you can read my guest post on the subject here.

I would also invite you to become a part of my email newsletter, where I share behind-the-scenes updates on my novel as well as bonus tips and content. I also have created printable worksheets for my Faith-Forged Fantasy series that can help you apply what you learn and grow closer to a complete novel concept. You can get these worksheets for free when you subscribe to my newsletter!

Worldbuilding is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, and I invite you to explore it with me! I would love to know more about your unique world, and if you have any questions about worldbuilding or would like to share your world, you can contact me using the button in the footer below. (Don’t worry, the mail dragons don’t bite!)

See you among the shelves,

Emma G. McKee

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