6 Stages of Building a Story Within an Intricately Designed World

Crafting a fantasy or science fiction world requires both creativity and structure, with a prerequisite care in its conception required if one wishes to succeed in suspending their readers’ disbelief. The essence of world-building lies not just in avoiding excessive exposition or sparse detail but in the foundational design itself. This is essential, for the allure of a well-crafted world often serves as a primary draw for readers exploring the genre.

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With the intent to offer practical guidance, I have distilled my process into six stages, which I regularly explore in my writing workshops.

Stage 1: Establish the Key Premise

The foundation of your fantasy world begins with its premise. By way of example, let us envision a world where dragon riders war with necromancers.

Delve into specifics: Why do the dragon riders war with the necromancers? What varieties of dragons exist? Are necromancers innately magical, or is their power acquired through study?

Summarize your world in a sentence or two, then elaborate on the key elements that underpin the world’s premise.

Stage 2: Consider the Wider World

With the stage set, consider the broader implications of your premise.

How do dragon transports affect trade and commerce? Is there an indifference towards death, given the possibility of returning as undead? Determine whether your setting is medieval or if it incorporates more advanced technologies capable of downing dragons.

Such considerations enrich your world, providing depth and color to your narrative. Identify the ways your premise influences the wider world.

Stage 3: Focus on the People

A world gains its true essence from its inhabitants. This stage extends the prior one, focusing on the diverse communities within your world.

The histories, motivations, and political dynamics of its peoples are key to your story’s narrative. Imagine the societal roles of undead or the necessary bureaucracy among dragon riders. Understanding these dynamics will not only solidify your world but also shape your plot and breathe life into your characters. Describe the distinct groups within your world.

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Stage 4: Shape the Geography

Designing a fantasy map is both a fun exercise and an essential step in your world’s creation. The geography sets the stage for your story, impacting everything from plot to character’s journeys (both literal and figurative).

Whether it’s a dragon-infested mountain, a castle’s moat or a zombie-strewn no-man’s-land, geographic elements shape your world.

Expand on ways geography affects your world. If struggling, examine how geography influenced other books, “The Lord of the Rings” being a good place to start.

Stage 5: Determine the Players and the Plot

The characters in your story will naturally fit within the peoples and locations we’ve now discussed, even if at the periphery.

It is now time to extrapolate from the earlier steps to determine the motivations of the groups and the individuals within them, the areas of conflict between each, and arriving ultimately at the goals of the main character(s) and the challenge they must ultimately overcome.

For example, the main character might be a young man living in a village near the mountain headquarters of the dragon riders, dreaming of an opportunity to join their ranks. The villain might be a necromancer living in hiding in the depths of a wasteland, who is responsible for much of the misery that pervades the world.

Create characters within the various groups, determine their motivations, and decide the main challenge or conflict that the story focuses around.

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Stage 6: Discerning What Works

Ambition is a worthy trait, but realism and flexibility are just as important. While it’s tempting to incorporate every idea that comes to you, be wary of overwhelming your world with excessive complexity. The challenge is to balance detail with clarity and understanding, ensuring each new element enriches instead of overwhelms.

The last thing you want is for you reader to feel they are stuck in an encyclopedia. Listen to your writerly instincts, and be on alert for moments when you are boring yourself. For the reader, this will be doubly true. Your primary focus should always be on propping up the core of your world’s premise, integrating additional details only where they naturally fit around it.

Remember, the goal is to craft a world that feels lived-in and believable. Readers are sensitive to contrivance, and if something feels unrealistic or indeed something the writer thought was “cool”; it breaks their suspension of disbelief. Every element should feel organic, rather than sighted by the writer’s pen.

Beyond the structure above, I have one final piece of guidance. Ultimately, my advice is to ask yourself questions about your world, and then judge your own answers. Be sure you are a tough examiner!