Like any element of storytelling, worldbuilding has the potential to greatly elevate the quality of a project. But, also like any element of storytelling, it can be easy to fall into common pitfalls and fail to tap into the full potential of your worldbuilding. Today I’m addressing some common pitfalls that authors can fall into when it comes to worldbuilding, and how to avoid them.

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One pitfall I see fairly often is that authors don’t value worldbuilding in the first place. They see their world as a means to an end, a backdrop that their characters can simply move around within–not really interact with. In the vast majority of cases, this does a great disservice both to your world and to your story! Not only does this prevent your world from becoming all that it could be and from offering readers the excitement of exploring a new world, it also precludes the opportunity to weave your world into your story and, as C.S. Lewis put it in his essay, “On Science Fiction,” “develop a story of real value which could not have been told (or not so economically) in any other way.”

Our own world affects our lives every day–even in the (many) cases in which we don’t notice. We are bound by the functional laws of our world–both physical and moral–and we are shaped by the cultures and families in which we are raised. Our worldviews, habits, etiquette, clothing choices, etc. are all shaped by the world around us. Our fictional worlds should be just as intrinsic to who our characters are–and the types of stories that are told within those worlds.

Not only does this give our worlds a function beyond mere set dressing, it also makes our characters and stories feel more real and organic, because they are naturally integrated with the world in which they take place; instead of your story feeling like “just another love story/adventure story/political story” in “just another fantasy world,” your story will feel organic and unique simply by the integration of worldbuilding and storytelling.

To solve this problem, the fundamental choice must be made to understand the potential of worldbuilding and its importance to storytelling as a whole. Beyond that, it’s important to learn what makes worldbuilding effective and how to integrate your worldbuilding with the characters you’ve created and the stories you’re telling.

Over-Complication

The next big pitfall that authors fall into when it comes to worldbuilding is that they over-complicate it–whether they over-complicate their worlds or the worldbuilding process itself. Worldbuilding doesn’t need to be complicated in order to be effective. In fact, sometimes sticking to a few simple elements is what best enables a world to serve its function within the storytelling process!

So why do we make worldbuilding complicated? There are a few potential answers to this question.

1. We think it has to be complicated to be interesting.

Your world does not need to be complicated to be compelling to your readers; it only needs to be unique. Building a unique world is not as hard as it sounds, either! If you are unafraid to put yourself–your interests and your values–into your world, then you are already creating a world that no one else could create. You are the core ingredient in creating a unique, compelling world. If your world is compelling and fascinating to you, that is going to spill onto the page and hook your readers as well! (More on this when we cover “generic concepts.”)

Not sure how to integrate your own interests and values with your world? The Worldview Focus Questions are designed to help!

2. We’re afraid of missing something.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in “what if I need to know this super specific thing and I haven’t fleshed it out yet??” that we end up diving down a million irrelevant rabbit holes and spinning off in a million complicated directions. Sometimes we end up using those super specific pieces of information, but often they end up adding nothing to the story we’re really trying to tell. And when we do hit points in the story where we need a detail we don’t have, it is so much easier to simply come up with those details in the moment (or leave a note to come back and develop those details later) than it is to try to flesh out everything ahead of time. We can’t prepare for every eventuality, and the most common result of trying is that we end up worldbuilding for years without ever putting a word on the page toward an actual draft. You will miss things, but you won’t know what you’re missing until you’ve written and found out.

3. We want the world to be perfect.

Your world will never be perfect. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be effective in serving its storytelling purpose and drawing in your readers! You can leave gaps and unanswered questions (in fact, these often contribute to greater reader curiosity!); you can get away with small inconsistencies; you can make things up as you go along when you need to. And, furthermore, the more complicated your worldbuilding, the more likely you are to have these inconsistencies and “mistakes” vs. if you keep things simple!

The question then becomes: How do you know how simple is simple enough and how simple is too simple? Well, that all comes down to purpose.

Lack of Purpose

This is smack in the middle of the list because it’s ultimately the core problem from which most other worldbuilding problems spring. If you have a purpose in place for your world, you’re less likely to undervalue your world’s role in your story, it will be easier to keep things from getting over-complicated, and you’ll have a clearer idea of what to pour your creativity into–and when you can get away with a generic concept or two.

Your world should have a purpose to your storytelling–and to the particular story you’re telling. Is it supposed to support your plot? Shape your characters? Provide a particular experience for the reader? All of the above?

From there, you can ask what decisions will best serve that purpose.

This will not only help with almost all of the other problems on this list, but also help you to ensure that your world is internally consistent and cohesive–which will help ensure that your world feels real and prevent it from feeling like a bunch of disparate pieces stuck together. (Your world’s core purpose should guide all of your worldbuilding decisions in the same way that the values of the cultures within your world should guide the creation of all other cultural elements.)

If you haven’t yet articulated the purpose of your world, thinking through your goals is the best first step toward overcoming the obstacles that have been holding you back so that you can make worldbuilding work for you and your story.

Generic Concepts

As we learn to write, we imitate. This applies to worldbuilding as well as other areas of the craft. We see worlds that we enjoy and admire, and we imitate them. At first, this is a great way to learn, but we have to move past imitation at some point or we end up lingering in generic worlds that offer nothing new to readers–or ourselves or our stories.

As I mentioned earlier, the best way to make your world unique is to weave in your own interests and values, because these are unique to you. No one else has exactly the same combination of interests and values that you do, which means that no one else can integrate them into a fictional world in the same way you can. (For that matter, no one else will approach that integration the same way, so even the very process is an additional step toward making your world unique!)

Does moving away from generic concepts and toward unique, personalized worlds mean you can never use elves, dwarves, magic academies, or other familiar fantasy world tropes? Of course not! These elements have become fantasy staples for a reason; we enjoy them, as readers, and they provide a familiar point of entry. We understand what elves are, or how magic academies work, and they provide a starting point as we explore unfamiliar worlds.

But knowing that these elements are generic, knowing why we like them, and knowing how to put our own spin on them enables us to use them intentionally and to imbue them with our own unique flair while maintaining those features that we enjoy and that provide that point of connection with readers–striking a balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar that ensures our worlds don’t feel generic on the whole but that our readers have someplace familiar to start instead of feeling like they’re being thrown into a fully alien world.

Disorganization

While the rest of the list has largely focused on the intangible elements that go into building an effective and cohesive world, it is also true that it’s difficult to create a cohesive world when your notes are scattered and disorganized. This is a real, practical obstacle, as well!

If you’re facing the disorganization of worldbuilding notes scattered among binders, notebooks, sticky notes, unrelated computer folders, online documents, etc… take a breath. I’ve been there, and I promise it doesn’t have to be a nightmare to fix!

The first step to tackling disorganization is to know how you prefer to work and keep notes. Do you like to keep analog notes? Do you prefer to have things digital where they can easily be rearranged? Do you like to be able to access them across devices? Do you take notes on paper but reference notes on your computer?

You also need to know your options. Analog options might include a simple notebook or 3-ring binder, or even a bulletin board. Digital options might include World Anvil*, Scrivener*, a Word document, a Google document, a personal Wiki tool like Zim Wiki, etc.

(Not sure what it would look like to use these different tools for worldbuilding? Here are my own tips and guides for tools I’ve used: World Anvil, Scrivener, a basic document or notebook, a 3-ring binder)

Once you know your preference in terms of process and the tools available to you, you can sort out the best combination of the two–whether you find one tool that works really well for you to keep everything in one place, or whether you end up using a hybrid system but working it out to ensure nothing gets lost along the way.

Setting up a new system can be tedious at first, especially if you’ve spent years with disorganized notes, but finding the right system for you will pay off for years–and worlds–to come!

Have you fallen into any of these pitfalls before? Which struck you most? Are you facing a specific worldbuilding obstacle I missed? Comment below with your thoughts!

Interested in learning more about the principles that go into effective worldbuilding and how to organize your worldbuilding system and notes? Enroll in The Worldbuilding Toolbox to get my “starter kit” advice for effective worldbuilding!

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