Beyond the Surface: a Guide to World-Building

Imagine a tabletop gaming session where players enter a bustling medieval town. The dungeon master (DM) describes the clamor of the marketplace, the faded flags on the city walls, the rough-hewn wood of the merchants' stalls, the homespun cloth of the city-dwellers, the spicy scent of street food mixed with the earthy steam of wet cobblestones after a spring rain—turning a simple setting into a vivid, living world, transforming it from a backdrop for a series of events into an immersive experience.

Not only confined to roleplaying and sci-fi and fantasy realms, a well-built world can (and should!) extend to all genres. With roots sunk deep in storytelling traditions, from the mythological worlds of ancient epics to the detailed universes of modern games, world-building is essential craft. Whether historical fiction, contemporary romance, or dystopia, a well-developed world can enrich every aspect of your story, its characters and plot—allowing rich, complex narratives to surface by going deeper, bringing the world to life as a vivid and tangible place.

Here's a short guide to world-building, creating unique cultures, detailing everyday life, going deeper into history, and exploring contradictions. We'll also get into fanfic-specific strategies for working within (and expanding on) existing worlds.

Your world is waiting to be uncovered. Consider the iceberg—Hemingway did:

The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

Ernest Hemingway

Relying on stereotypes can flatten a narrative and worse, alienate readers—but going deeper, creating multifaceted cultures with interconnected systems and unexpected details goes a long, long way to making your world and its story believable, authentic, and engaging.

First, consider the core beliefs that define your culture. How do they influence your characters’ life, their politics, and social structures? For instance, a culture that highly values honor may have elaborate rituals for conflict resolution. A culture that values freedom above all else might eschew formal governance. A culture reveals its values and ideas through its stories, whether verbal or visual. It helps to think of the other ways a society’s story is told—are there epic poems, myths, or legends that get passed down through generations? What types of arts are prominent? Pottery might be a respected art form in a pre-industrial society but might not have much utility if your characters are living on a generation ship, traveling the stars. But, for a twist—what if traditional crafts have been all but lost to time in a space-faring people, and have become commodities? A well-built world will have contradictions and through-lines that connect its elements together.

And while you don’t have to develop a full-on conlang (maybe you do—in that case, go forth!), unique words and phrases or dialects can make your culture speak. When working with a real language in a specific region or era, researching slang, proverbs, and idioms can help your characters find their voice. The tip of the ‘berg—strong names, or unusual grammatical rules—can signal a culture’s true depth.

Details are the lifeblood of world-building, and inspiration can come from anywhere—art, maps, surveys, letters, periodicals, etc. Taking advantage of any and all resources to fill in the gaps and enhance your backdrop will bring your world into sharp relief. Consider historical fiction: Writers working in a particular period can get hyper-meticulous with period accuracy, tying major historical events to everyday objects to make the world believable, sending readers hurtling back in time to experience the world as if they were there.

Imagining a world is equal parts research and imagination, uncovering details that make the commonplace meaningful. What does a typical day look like for different characters? How do they work, play, and socialize? What do they wear, eat, and how do they travel? A world's environment—its landscapes, cities, lived-in spaces—can reveal the boundaries of your characters lives. Expansive spaces can signal a culture’s value for freedom and leisure, while brutally functional designs signify militant efficiency. Power and politics play out not only in government buildings, but in the structure of the city and in its streets, while intimate stories are shaped (literally) by interiors.

Follow the iceberg—start at the broad shallow end, then dive into specifics—who built the house? How do your characters live in it? How is it decorated? What objects do they use daily, and what significance do these objects hold? Remember, you don't have to reveal every detail of your culture all at once. Exposition can be a notorious momentum killer, so let the details unfold naturally as they become relevant to your characters. Focus on giving context to readers to keep them engaged, using environmental storytelling techniques to show your world, not just tell it.

How much time has passed in your world from the first spark of fire to warp drives, and everything in between? A crafted history provides context for your story and shapes its present, and drawing out a timeline of major and minor historical events that have shaped your world, influenced the current landscape, and the lives of your characters can center your world in time. Wars, cataclysms, legends, and myths deeply influence cultural beliefs and behaviors. Think of how the stories of the past filter down to the present—and influence the plot. What themes are prevalent that have, over millennia, served as a means to interpret the world and shape its communities?

As a human of Earth, you probably know that cultures are full of contradictions and complexities. Consider the everyday contradictions in real-world societies: A culture might value individualism, yet have strong communal traditions. Or a society might promote peace yet maintain a well-funded military. Digging into the messy collisions of culture can make for fascinating characters and unexpected behavior, with internal conflicts creating tension and driving the plot forward. Dynamic change can show how cultures evolve over time, reflecting shifts in values, technologies, and external influences, shown in generational differences, social movements, or technological advancement.

Embracing chaos means that not every aspect of your world needs to be perfectly harmonious—even with the best intentions, no world ever is. Conflicting ideologies, economic disparities, and tensions can all add to the richness and believability of your world—and can be used to mirror real-world issues, making your story more relatable and thought-provoking.

When writing fan fiction, you're building within an established world—which can be both a foundation and a challenge: How do you stay true to the original while adding your own unique voice or twist?

While you don't have to stay rigidly in-canon, respecting an IP's lore and understanding the boundaries of a existing world caninspire you to explore and expand its limits. This means going deeper—re-reading the source texts, re-watching previous seasons, and engaging with fans to tease out the world's nuance.

To make the world your own, look for areas that the original work hasn't fully explored—gaps or under-explored areas in existing lore can be fertile ground for a new story. Side characters with little backstory in the original can become protagonists of your fic, giving you the chance to flesh out new histories and motivations. But adhering to the established rules of the world, whether magic systems, technological constraints, or historical events keeps consistency, helps maintain the believability of your story and ensures that it resonates with fans of the original work.

Alternate universes (AUs) can also be incredibly fun ways to explore different scenarios or settings for established characters, allowing for experimentation with the world in fresh contexts, with new perspectives. AUs can take familiar characters and place them in completely new situations—from the classic high school cafeteria, to shifting a medieval narrative to a post-apocalyptic landscape. Exploring "what if" scenarios that might not fit within the original IP means seeing the world through new eyes, with boundless stories waiting to be explored.

Collect your insights into a lore bible to help keep your world consistent and detailed—including timelines, cultural norms, key locations, and any other relevant details, so that you can reference and expand your world accurately as your story develops. Once you've fit the pieces together, ask questions: Does this world make sense? What would stand out to its inhabitants or outsiders? How can the world influence the overarching plot?

As you write, remember to stay true to the rules you've set for your world—but also be open to discovering new details and layers that might emerge organically in your storytelling. Keep your lore bible updated with new discoveries and adjustments as your story progresses, evolving alongside your plot and characters, maintaining a sense of continuity and depth.

Brainstorming is super fun and the ultimate procrastination fuel, but setting your world in motion, letting your characters and plot spin on its axis, is the ultimate goal. Beneath the tip of the iceberg is a world that will provide a backdrop for your story that feels vibrant, alive and immersive. And it’s your world: Your characters—and readers—are just living in it.