The purpose of worldbuilding is more than inventing imaginary worlds. It’s to understand the world your story takes place in, with intentional clarity, so you can immerse your reader and tell your story more convincingly.
So how does this translate to different kinds of story?
Science fiction
Usually involves known space with a twist. Sci-fi is generally rooted in reality with some kind of scientific premise that separates it from simple contemporary fiction. The focus of worldbuilding here is to explore how the story world departs from reality, and follow through the consequences of those departures.
Of course, sci-fi spans an enormous spectrum. At the minimal end of the scale, the story is built off a single discovery or invention that’s plausible in today’s world. At the other extreme, the story world might be so far removed it’s essentially a fully invented world with a range of technologies that have little or no basis in known science. The world setting might be some far future version of our own, or entirely fictitious (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away)
Fantasy
The worldbuilding focus of fantasy is very similar to sci-fi, except that the departures from reality are based in some non-science speculation. Again, this can be minimal intervention (the real world with a limited magical ability) all the way to entirely fictitious worlds with comprehensive magic systems, taking us into the realms of high fantasy.
Other speculative fiction
Speculative fiction covers a vast range of genres and sub-genres. Beyond regular sci-fi and fantasy, the differences lie in the basis for departures from reality. Whether it’s horror or urban fantasy, invoking the supernatural and mystical powers, or steampunk and other flavours of alternative histories, the challenge is essentially the same. In all these genres, the need for worldbuilding is clear. You are not operating fully in the real world. At least some aspect of it is invented, and that difference needs to be fleshed out and understood as part of worldbuilding.
But what about fiction that is fully set in reality?
Historical fiction
For something to be a real setting, it has to be either today’s world or something in the past.
The challenge for historical fiction is to understand what life was like in a different, but real, time and place. But isn’t that just research? Well, yes, but if you accept that worldbuilding is understanding the world your story takes place in, then unearthing real facts and fitting them into a coherent picture is as much worldbuilding as making stuff up.
And when it comes to history, recorded facts can only take you so far. The historical record – even from a few decades past – is incomplete. Apart from anything else, history tends to focus on big, world-changing events and not on everyday life. You need to take the factual basis, extrapolate it, and fill in the gaps. And then, if your story is going to grip the reader and immerse them in that world, you need to flesh out everyday details in a convincing way to bring that world alive on the page.
Remember, to the characters in the story, this is their world. It’s real, mundane, accepted. It’s your job as a writer to bring the reader along and, for a while, accept that this is their world too.
Fiction that needs research
Whether contemporary or historical, some other branches of fiction demand similarly intensive research and gap-filling.
Procedural dramas, for example, focus on the technicalities of professionals. Police, detectives, doctors, journalists. The whole point of these genres is to bring the reader into these highly technical worlds, to peer over the shoulders of professionals in action. Just like historical fiction, this requires research and extrapolation to show the world in a way the reader can follow.
Contemporary fiction
This brings us to general fiction set in today’s world. What possible place can worldbuilding have here? Everything about today’s world is already known, so you’re not inventing anything other than the characters and the plot. And if the subject of the story draws on everyday knowledge, there’s nothing much to research.
This is especially true if the story is set somewhere familiar to the author.
This alluring simplicity is a dangerous trap, because your own world is not everybody’s world! You can’t assume everyone reading your story has the same background as you. In fact, the world you see as everyday and familiar will be as alien as Narnia, or the Empire, or fifteenth-century Tibet, to maybe ninety-nine percent of the people on Earth.
The focus of worldbuilding in a contemporary or familiar setting is to decide which aspects of the world to describe. Which aspects bring out the atmosphere, or impact the story in some way. What knowledge is needed for the reader to understand the story and its characters. This includes knowledge that you may take for granted, but which you can’t afford to assume in your reader.
Common themes
Worldbuilding is a blend of invention and research. How much of each depends on the story and the genre, but they are both always essential components.
More importantly, worldbuilding is the art of choosing which parts of your world to highlight. Which parts enhance the story.
Ian S. Bott, Writer and artist 