6 Worldbuilding Mistakes Every New Writer Makes

In this video, I explore some of the most common fantasy worldbuilding mistakes that I see new writers make.

⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction
00:29 - Detached worldbuilding
05:36 - Starting too big
8:10 - Going shallow instead of deep
11:00 - Ignoring consequences
14:16 - Anachronistic dialogue
16:14 - Failing to find something new

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[lindenstromberg]

It’s worth noting that Tolkien didn’t build Middle Earth for Lord of the Rings, he built it for his languages. The stories were later developments, starting out because he felt stories were a way to make those languages and that history come alive and memorable. Tolkien liked history as well. Lord of the Rings came as a result of his publishers wanting a Hobbit sequel, and The Hobbit itself was to write a story for his children, with a ready made Middle Earth elements merged into The Hobbit’s history.

[Wintermute]

Big franchises like Star Wars and Marvel are known for their elaborate worldbuilding but their first installments didn't have much worldbuilding. "A New Hope" was a basic story about rebellion against an oppressive government with a vaguely-explained magic system thrown in. "Iron Man" was just the story of a genius inventor trying to fight an evil business partner stealing his tech.

The goal of a first installment isn't to introduce a massive universe. It's to tell a good story that makes people want to know more about the universe.

[jordendarrett]

Yea, better to go deep then wide.
I thought of something the other day. Writing a book is exactly like solving a puzzle. When you start with all the pieces laid out before you, you have no idea where to even start. But as you go, things start to click. By the time you get 50% through, it suddenly becomes much easier to figure out where more pieces go.

[dino.niichan]

Almost succumbed to Worldbuilder's Disease, until I just decided to build the central framework, the backbone of the story, and make the details as I go. More like the mindset, "I created this world from scratch by myself. I know everything about this world, because everything that is here and happens here is what I WANT it to."

[rawrbeez]

Like to point out that a lot of giants of the genre started off by writing Lord of the Rings clones. Just immediately off the top of the head the first entries in Terry Brooks Shannara series and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time are both kind of fellowship clones. But they turned into their very own things. If your first story is derivative, make your second better. Emulation is a good place to start.

[jimschuler]

"Where are they growing their food?" Thank you! That's the number one question I keep asking with a lot of stories.

[dchick]

I start with characters and a basic setting and then figure out what kind of world would create them and their conflicts. It keeps the characters and world and events all integrated together.

[lorenaa_h]

regarding the last point, it doesn’t have to be only about your passions and interests! i’m currently working on a world where people who have the same sleep disorder as me have a high status and, because of the magic system that’s also in the world, they get to be like night guardians and their magic is stronger than average people. a slight change in our world like that can create really interesting things you can work around with worldbuilding

[johnnyritenbaugh]

"I doth me thinks this gryphon be attacking us." I cannot adequately express how perfect this line is. 😅

[MGDrzyzga]

My own two cents on the first point:
That triangle of character, plot, and worldbuilding - it doesn't really matter which one you start with. As long as you remain mindful of how the three must remain interconnected. I mean, I started with the worldbuilding. Once I felt I was ready to write a story to show off the setting - well, I picked a subplot for secondary characters I loved, promoted it to primary characters and a major plot, and then adapted it.

To my writing style. To my world. To my characters. To the types of characters my setting produces for a dime a dozen. There's more than one way to maintain the triangle - "what characters are especially challenged by my world?" addresses it just as much as "what kind of world especially challenges my characters?"

[davecothran]

I like the idea of starting in a town like Hobbiton, where you get to know that town and people first, and then you join the travelers when they leave and together you discover the world. Obviously they know a bit more about it than the reader, but the exposition is more natural. Just keep track of the geography and rules of the world that come up as you go.

[DanCreaMundos]

Most Worldbuilding could be summarized by saying: "Don't tell us the name, personality and life of the last 20 kings, tell us there were 20 before, one of them was a crazy psycho, one was truly benevolent, and they were all different. Reader's imagination will fill the rest.

[keanancupido]

I agree with so many of your points. I'm currently writing a medieval fantasy and it was very important that the world and languages were introduced in a natural way, very much like how we come across them in daily life. The archaic way people spoke that time was also something I found very interesting so I spent a lot of time learning it and intergrated it into my work. Thankfully the people who I've shared it with are impressed with it all so hopefully, when I get it done my readers will think the same thing 😁

[kitdubhran]

For your world with the spires, they could have subterranean farms in caverns under the towns. As long as they have some form of light that would make plants grow, that would work. Or narrow tubes that lead to the surface with lenses to let in and disperse as much sunlight as possible.

Also, people could additionally grow their own food to some extent in small gardens above the buildings. Like above buildings gardens on large buildings, or small gardens a la victory gardens.

Thought of this. Had to share. 😂

[matthawkins]

A long time ago I read am essay by Isaac Asimov where he said when you create a world it should have internal rules that make sense. But in the end, the story you write should be able to be written in any world.

[zugabdu]

I would add a little nuance to point one. I tend to like books where there's a sense that the world is bigger than what's happening in the plot. It can make the story atmospheric and immersive. Details that don't directly connect with the plot and characters shouldn't be treated with the same amount of detail or lead to digressions, but rich details about things like food and drink or the way a city looks are helpful to getting me into a story. If all the worldbuilding only connects directly with the plot and characters a little too perfectly, it feels less real to me. Worldbuilding can connect with mood, tone, and atmosphere as well as plot and character.

[AvatarYoda]

That thing about hours, minutes, and seconds occurred to me early while writing my novel set in early medieval Germany. They didn't have clocks, so they wouldn't have hours or minutes. In the story, if people want to meet, they'd say "I'll meet you midday tomorrow" or just stop by, as it often wouldn't be imperative to meet at a specific point in the day anyway. I check my draft using the "find" option to ensure that I don't have any mentions of hours or minutes.

[m.j.johnsonbooks]

As always you make me consider everything. I struggle to walk that line between over-crowding and keeping everything connected. Thankfully, it’s fun coming up with ways world building can link to story.

[geerat]

While not a “story” story, your advice has been invaluable to me for constructing a story for my DnD campaign, I’ve written a few short stories to go a long with it and all of your content is really helpful, practical advice to make them more compelling than they would be. Thanks a ton for what you do!

[twylanaythias]

About #5, I would argue that affordance would be far more crucial. Sure, farmers would be more concerned with dawn, dusk, and midday than with specific times, but they would also have use for gradients of time such as minutes and seconds. Rather than use invented words for these concepts (which readers may have difficulty in remembering), it's far better to simply use terms the reader already understands.

Related to this is that such stories are (with rare exceptions) written from the perspective of someone native to that world. Characters are *NOT* going to obsess over niddly details which they normally take for granted - perhaps the worst example is when a character studies themselves in a mirror for no particular reason; assuming mirrors are relatively common, they know what they look like and aren't going to spend ten pages counting their freckles.

The amount of time/attention given to any particular detail is going to be proportional to its deviation from the norm of the viewpoint character's story world. "She tore through the plaza, past the elfin half-breed juggling orbs of fire for paltry coins and merchants loading and unloading their hippogriffs" is more than enough to convey that magic and fantastical creatures are fairly commonplace in this world - possibly even hinting at the character's morals by thinking of the fire juggler as an "elfin half-breed". There are many ways this information can be expanded upon, but the viewpoint character isn't going to give much thought to anything they perceive as mundane.