World-building is an essential part of storytelling, even when you’re not writing in a “world heavy” genre. Of course the world-building is obvious in fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction, but even in contemporary settings, it is crucial for immersing the reader into your story’s world. (For more info on how world-building plays out in different genres, check out this article.) But how do we build our story worlds effectively and what world-building mistakes should we avoid? Read on for the five biggest mistakes writers make in their world-building and what to do instead.
Mistake #1: Treating your world like an empty vessel.
Your story’s world is not just a world for its own sake, it exists for the characters who live in it. While it can be tempting to get caught up in world-building and figure out all the intricate details of how your world is put together, if there are no characters in that world, then what’s the point? What good is a story world if there is no one in it?
I am a firm believer in character-centric world-building and crafting your world around a character rather than simply dropping them into a premade setting. I recognize that for some genres, doing preliminary world-building can be important for the writer to wrap their head around the story and understand the basic gist of how everything works. But, too much world-building before you start to write can be counterproductive. After all, you might spend so much time developing your world that you never get around to telling the story.
The other problem with treating your world like an empty vessel is that the world itself is shaped by the characters in it. If you don’t spend time exploring the world through your storytelling, you won’t see your characters’ impact on the story world.
SOLUTION: Experience your story world through your character. Drop a character into your world and let them explore. View the world through their perspective and see how they react to different aspects of it. Show us the world by having your character interact with it or run into obstacles along the way.
Remember, your character’s state of mind will shape how they perceive that world. If your character is feeling optimistic and happy, they will have a very different view of their surroundings than if they are feeling grief or fear. Show that story world by using the character as a lens.
Mistake #2: Thinking of your world as just a setting.
If the character is at the center of your story world, then the world is automatically more than just a nice setting. Most writers assume that world-building is all about the character’s surroundings or the overall structure of society. What they forget is that character interactions and relationships are just as important. Just as the protagonist’s internal state will influence how they perceive the world around them, so too will their relationships with other characters.
Supporting characters are a crucial part of your world-building. Notice the use of the word “supporting” rather than “side” or “secondary.” This is because I believe that supporting characters play an essential role in the story: to support the protagonist’s development. They may not see themselves as supporting characters, but for the purpose of the current story, their role is to support or impact the main character’s journey.
These supporting characters can have different effects on the protagonist’s arc. They can be allies, helping the main character reach their goal. They can appear as advisors, giving the protagonist information or warnings. They can even be adversaries or antagonists, creating obstacles along the way. The key is that these supporting characters are not just nifty little add-ons to the story. They serve a distinct purpose in the main character’s journey.
SOLUTION: Think about your supporting cast and ask yourself what purpose each character plays in the story. If a character doesn’t have a purpose, you need to ask yourself whether that character is even necessary. Or, if two characters are filling the same role, you might want to combine them or treat them as a unit (think of the younger sisters Mary, Kitty and Lydia in the first two acts of Pride and Prejudice). Similarly, sometimes you may want to use a supporting character as a stand-in for another, if the protagonist goes on a journey and a particular supporting character can’t go with them (think of Rue being a stand-in for Prim in The Hunger Games).
Think strategically about the role each supporting character plays and consider how each one helps bring your story world to life. Depending on the role that character plays in your protagonist’s arc, they will influence the way your world comes to life on the page. Don’t limit yourself by looking at your story world as just a setting. Think about how your supporting characters also contribute to that world.
Mistake #3: Assuming your world won’t change over time.
Your story world is not static but dynamic. As with our own real world, things will change over time. Not only will your character’s impressions of the world change as they grow and develop, but the world itself may undergo political, environmental, or logistical changes.
Think for example of the story world in the Hunger Games trilogy. Not only do we get different surroundings with each of the different Arenas, but the whole landscape of the world changes as the story evolves. At the beginning of the series, the nation of Panem has twelve districts plus the Capitol. We are told there was a District Thirteen, but it has been destroyed in the uprising that predates the Games. As the trilogy develops, we learn that District Thirteen has not been destroyed but has, in fact, hidden underground for seventy-five years. We also see District Twelve completely annihilated and turned to rubble. The whole world of the story is turned upside down as the trilogy evolves.
SOLUTION: If you find your world is feeling too static, try this exercise. Think of your story world and fast forward 100 years. What will that world be like in the future? Do some freewriting to capture your ideas, then rewind your story world back to 100 years before your story takes place. Again, do some freewriting to get your thoughts on the page.
Put what you wrote away for a few days, then come back to it and reread it. Mine it, looking for details you might be able to incorporate into your current story. If your story world is a certain way 100 years into the future, what detail could you weave into your story now to hint at that evolution? If your story world was a particular way 100 years in the past, how can you give clues about that history? Challenge yourself to make your story world more fluid and dynamic, rather than locked in time.
Mistake #4: Overloading the reader with your world.
One of the biggest world-building mistakes new writers make is the dreaded info dump. We write paragraphs upon paragraphs of exposition explaining the ins and outs of our story world instead of showing the character navigating that world.
It makes sense why we might do this: We worry that if we don’t give readers all the details about the story world right away, they won’t understand what’s going on. For this reason, it might be tempting to do a lot of world-building up front so that readers have the information they need in order to follow the events of the story.
The problem with this approach is that it can slow the story down and might even be (dare I say it?) boring. World-building without purpose can feel like nothing more than set dressing and it can pull the reader out of the story, which is the opposite of what you want. Ultimately, the goal of world-building is to immerse your reader in your story world, not pull them out of it.
SOLUTION: The way to solve the info dump problem is to keep your reader on a need-to-know basis. In other words, only give the reader information about the world that they need to know, when they need to know it. Whenever possible, try to bring your story world to life by showing the characters living in it, rather than relying heavily on exposition. When you show your characters interacting with the world, it feels more immersive to the reader.
Mistake #5: Going down the research rabbit hole.
Depending on what type of world you’re building, you may have to do research. The temptation here is to go down the research rabbit hole and learn everything you can about that world. The problem with this approach is that every minute you spend researching is a minute spent not writing.
I recently attended a conference where the keynote speaker shared his approach to world-building and research. He said he only researched details necessary to tell the story, rather than trying to learn everything about a particular subject. He said the only exception was if the topic was something he had a genuine interest in and would have researched for his own edification. Otherwise, he focused his research only on the information he needed to move the story forward. I thought this was an excellent insight.
SOLUTION: If you find yourself going down a research rabbit hole, use the TK trick. In book editing and journalism, TK stands for “to come.” What’s convenient about these two letters is that they very rarely appear next to each other in the English language. This means, if you write TK in your manuscript to mark a spot where you need more information, you can later do a quick search and find all the places where you need to fill in the gaps with some research. (You can also do the same thing by using brackets like: [Insert description of the house here.])
As you’re writing, if you find you need to research something, try to use TK and keep writing forward. This way you don’t derail your writing momentum by pausing in the middle of a thought to look something up. Later in the writing process, go back and look for all the TK spots. They will serve as a checklist of all the things you need to research so you don’t waste your time hunting for details that lead you nowhere.
There you have it, five world-building mistakes writers often make (and what to do about them). Remember that your story is layered with character, plot, and world all closely intertwined. Don’t think of your story world as just a backdrop for the action of your book. Rather, consider how that world interacts with the characters and the plot to make it fully three-dimensional.
P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.
