Six Effective Worldbuilding Tips for Novice Authors

Worldbuilding can be one of the most daunting challenges faced by novice authors. This process involves catering to even the smallest details of a novel and their impact on the bigger picture of your fictional world.

Building a fascinating world from scratch can be a time-consuming process for obvious reasons. From crafting a fictional world’s history and geography to defining its politics and economy, it is easy for a novice author to get overwhelmed by so much to consider all at once.

Just because it looks challenging does not mean it is impossible. Here are some amazing tips you can use as a novice author for worldbuilding.

1. Try to Imagine an Average Day

If you are thinking of building a fictional world from scratch, you must brace yourself for a long ride. You do not have to hold back from unleashing your creativity while creating your fictional world. There are so many details that go into defining your fictional world and making it believable for the readers.

The best way to make your fictional world relatable for the readers is to use Earth as inspiration in any genre of their preference. Knowing where to start your novel in terms of location can help you finalise important details, such as the tone and mood of your fictional world.

If you are scared that your words will not meet your vision of a perfect fictional world or that your readers will not comprehend your world, try imagining a day living it. If it is comprehensive and complete, you can feel confident about your efforts and leave further refining to the professional editor.

2. Take an Enlightening Start

The opening line of your novel can be called its most important part. Most authors try to use it as a hook to lure the readers in and leave them intrigued to want to learn more about your fictional world and its characters.

The right start of your fictional world can tell the reader exactly what to expect ahead. Whether you are starting with the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic clash or out-of-the-ordinary circumstances related to the environment, share the most interesting details with the readers to set their expectations.

Once you have given the reader a hint of the kind of world they are delving into, they can feel more confident with proceeding to read. You can use the pacing of your novel to reveal the details of your fictional world when needed.

3. Develop Characters with Attention

Characters are the most important factor in a book of any genre. They act as a connection point for the reader to feel connected to the book. The same is true when it comes to creating an interesting character profile for the inhabitants of your fictional world.

The success of your world building efforts depends heavily on how well you develop your characters. Factors such as sociopolitical issues, such as opportunities for job promotions or whether they live under an oppressive political system, play an important role in shaping the growth and development of your characters.

In addition, you must also look deeper into how the characters respond to emotions and feelings. For example, if you take the example of the character named John from Huxley’s Brave New World, you can see how a different reaction to a normal action in the World State leads to John’s feelings of self-hatred and ultimate suicide.

By thoughtfully considering all of these factors and how they interconnect, you can ensure that your characters feel more authentic and that their growth and development are more engaging and meaningful.

4. Define the Environment

The next important thing to consider while building your fictional world is the environment you want to create. This factor can help you tell the reader about the circumstances and how they determine the settings and the feelings of the readers.

You must consider factors such as the weather, disasters, unusual temperatures, and scarce resources while creating an engaging environment for your readers and giving them a steady sense of place while reading.

You can also consider adding a physical map to your fictional book. It is not a compulsion for you to create a map, but they can be very useful in helping the reader understand factors such as distances and space to feel immersed while reading.

5. Define the Law

You are the lawmaker in your fictional world. You can break free of the legal requirements of the real world around you and immerse the reader in a whole new world by giving your world an independent existence.

You must define the governing system, the entity in charge, and the extent of power they hold over your fictional world. But these are not all the details that you need to complete your fictional world. Once you deal with the obvious, you must also consider any exceptional details.

For example, you must consider whether your fictional world has room for magical elements or time travel. Do not limit your creativity based on what the real world allows and restricts. Create your own law and engage the reader with it.

6. Create a Culture and Norms

Just like every part of the world, your fictional world must also have its own culture, norms, religion, and customs.  These factors can help the reader set their expectations according to the culture defined by you.

Share with your readers how these factors influence the points of view of the characters in your fictional world. You can correlate the culture and norms with the daily activities and behaviour of the characters in vivid detail. This way, you can create a meaningful existence for readers to relate to on a personal level.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World remains one of the best examples of world-building and standing out with unordinary cultures and norms. Set in the year 2450 A.D. in a place called the “World State.”

The World State Controllers use advanced technology to maximise human happiness by growing people in bottles and brainwashing them during childhood. Such brilliant worldbuilding, especially for the audience almost a century ago, must have been challenging yet unavoidable to read.