By Mya Lewis

1.       Examine the real world.

To begin making your fantasy setting compelling, you will need to make it stand out. Start by looking at the real world, at its environment and cultures. What makes them stand out? Depending on where you are, there are different things you might encounter. You aren’t going to see a lion in Australia or a great white shark chilling in the Amazon river. Your world should have solid regional differences as well. Take elements from reality and merge them into something entirely new. Think about what’s been done before. Elves and fairies have been done to death. What makes a trope boring and overused, and what would turn it on its head? If it doesn’t excite you, don’t write it. If you’re sick of reading medieval-inspired fantasy, don’t write something that mirrors medieval-inspired fantasy!

2.       Don’t bore with detail.

Don’t bore your reader with pages of exposition on how the world was created, or by describing every blade of grass. Instead, let the setting unfold gradually on the page. Note the battles that were fought in the open field as the character passes by them. Make mention of how the trees look and why they’re unique, but only while you’re in the forest, and only for a moment. Giving snippets of information will be like giving the reader a little treat, a sneak peek inside the world building. This will make the setting seem more real and vivid, like our own world, which is full of surprises.

3.       And lastly, most importantly, add danger.

Make the setting filled with fresh and unique challenges. Think about our world, and how difficult it would be to attempt to cross it all on just your feet. To make a compelling setting, you need the same element as you do to make a compelling plot: a healthy dose of suspense and intrigue. Perhaps those innocent-looking bunnies frolicking at your feet aren’t so innocent after all. Maybe the ground underneath your feet has a nasty habit of devouring people every day at exactly three a.m. but only if you’re wearing green and only if it’s rained recently. …Maybe not quite like that. But your setting needs to have rules and challenges interspersed throughout.

But what if your fantasy setting isn’t in the jungle or some wild mystical world? What if it’s as simple as inside a house or down a mythical alleyway? The same elements apply. Ask yourself, where is the danger? And what makes that danger such a threat? There could be conflicts inside that house that your character wishes to avoid, or muggers in that alleyway that pose a safety concern to anyone wishing to walk down the street in peace. In any setting, there is always danger, and identifying it is what makes the story compelling.

If you’re a fantasy or sci-fi author, one of the most important things for you to develop is your story’s world. While this is both fun and meaningful in its own right, your world should be more than just a backdrop for your characters’ story, and there’s so much more you can do with it. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Add Conflict

Are there threats unique to your world that could create serious obstacles and keep your characters from reaching their goals? Maybe your characters need to get through a jungle, but there’s a flower that grows on the trees that’s poisonous to the touch and none of them knows about it, so one of them gets sick and it sets them back. Or maybe they do know about it, but an animal attack forced them back and one of them touched it by mistake, and the only antidote is back the way they came. World-building is a great starting point for adding conflict to your story’s middle.

And that’s just minor conflicts. If you’re writing fantasy, chances are your main conflict has something to do with the world in which it’s set. In my current project calligraphers have the ability, but not the permission, to rewrite time, and when a calligrapher does rewrite time his entire guild is forced to face the anger of the ancient dragons who are responsible for keeping time undamaged. The primary conflict is entirely unique to the world, with not only the dragons but also the time-cementing ink that the calligraphers use. Not all fantasy plots are tied so closely to the world—you can put an evil overlord in just about any setting—but when the plot and world-building are so closely interwoven it’s generally more engaging for the reader.

2. Deepen Characters

When developing characters, think about where in your world they come from. What dreams are they likely to have, judging from the culture they grew up in? What biases will they have? How do they go with or against the grain in their surroundings? What skills would they have developed from the environment they grew up in, and how do those skills help or hinder them in the story?

A character in a culture where calligraphers are held in high esteem, for instance, may have more of a desire–or more outside pressure–to become a calligrapher than to become something that might otherwise be considered more useful, like a warrior or a tailor. Or a character raised inside a jungle might be totally lost when her family moves into a town just outside the jungle.

The world your character grows up in will have a huge impact on who they are as a person, so don’t leave it out of your considerations.

3. Add Interest to Mundane Scenes

Say you have a scene that’s a conversation between two characters, and you can tell as you’re writing it that it’s turning out really flat. One of the ways you can spruce it up is by looking to your world-building for inspiration. What is the setting of the scene? What unique elements of your world could you include? Maybe it’s in a character’s office and they have a magical globe that’s distracting the main character from the conversation. Or maybe they are in a forest and there are tiny fairies flittering around in the way. Not only will these little details bring your scene to life, they’ll bring your world to life as well.

Further Reading

·         10 Tips for Writing Worldbuilding by Elle McFadzean

·         The Best World Building Questionnaire Ever by Hannah Truelove

·         10 Tips for Unique, Creative World-Building by Hannah Heath

Do you enjoy world-building, or do you find it a necessary evil? How have you used world-building to add to another aspect of your storytelling? What’s your favorite thing about world-building?

To read more on world-building, check out R.M. Archer’s blog, Scribes & Archers.