Why Worldbuilding Fails Without Strong Characters (and How to Fix It as a Writer)

From Edie: Struggling with worldbuilding? Discover why strong characters are the key to making your story come alive—and how to create settings readers truly care about.

Why Worldbuilding Fails Without Strong Characters (and How to Fix It as a Writer)

by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

Every author needs worldbuilding, no matter what genre you write. Sure, the most extensive worldbuilding shows up in speculative stories, but a strong grasp of setting detail will serve every storyteller. But where do you start? 

Creating a world that readers can experience on a page is a very different prospect than imagining a world in your mind. If you are an author of science fiction or fantasy or some other speculative genre, you have undoubtedly discovered this. You can dream up a vast, alien world with multiple cultures and various languages and expansive existing histories, but how do you portray it in a way that an audience can experience? 

It doesn’t work like visual media. Movies and television shows have cinematography at their disposal, and the art of visual communication has aspects that make storytelling much more straightforward than with the written word.

Of course, there are always exceptions. The instant I tell you that you can’t start your story with a paragraph of description, some other author will do it and become a bestseller. But even in that instance, the exception isn’t the rule. 

Generally speaking, starting with a descriptive paragraph detailing what a setting or a landscape looks like is a surefire way to bore a reader. If you invite readers into the story and then use the limited time you have their attention to talk about the wind blowing a leaf around or cheerful little woodland creatures scolding each other from the treetops, you’re going to lose them. Even starting with something exciting like the magma chamber of a volcano grumbling or the sudden eerie quiet before a tornado touches down will fall flat for one simple reason. 

You haven’t showed them why they should care. 

Tornadoes and volcanoes are cool, but so what? Woodland creatures can be cute, and autumnal forest scenes can be beautiful, but so what? I hate to be blunt, but that’s the question we need to consider as we write the stories of our hearts. 

So what? You may have seen the acronym, WIIFM: What’s In It For Me? Even if an average reader won’t voice that question out loud, that’s the question in their minds as they pick up a book. 

No one will care about a volcano erupting unless they care about the people it is threatening. No one will care about a tornado ripping through a small town unless they can identify with the people in its path. Likewise, no one can experience the peace and beauty of a wooded landscape unless they are walking through it alongside a character they enjoy spending time with. 

The key to effectively portraying a world, fantasy or not, is Character. If your worldbuilding isn’t resonating with your audience, check your characters. Make sure your perspective character is sympathetic. Keep the storyline your character is walking clear and straightforward. Intentionally show your character’s growth arc, actively progressing toward a goal from the start of the story to the conclusion. And let your worldbuilding support that journey. 

It’s harder than it sounds, because storyworlds have a tendency to get bigger and louder and clamor for attention. If you aren’t careful, they’ll draw all the attention away from your protagonist and the actual plot of the story. And, while your world is probably very cool, the world itself won’t sell your story. 

Your world must serve the story your character is experiencing, otherwise readers won’t understand what it means. 

One of the easiest elements of worldbuilding to incorporate into a story is climate. Climate is a part of normal human life that all of us understand and have some experience navigating. If it’s cold outside, you get a coat. If it’s sunny outside, you get sunscreen. If it’s raining, you bring an umbrella. 

If you’re writing a historical novel, all three of those items might be different based on the time or the culture. If you’re writing a fantasy novel, those three items might be made from different materials (dragon wings, griffin claws, etc). If it’s science fiction, well, maybe the rain that’s falling is acidic, and you need to be wearing a shielded exo-skeleton. 

Regardless, how your character handles the weather in each of those genres will give a reader a glimpse of the world where the characters live. 

Think of the protagonist of your current work in progress. Think of the scene you just wrote or are getting ready to write. What is the temperature like where your protagonist is standing? Is it cold, hot, pleasant? Is it dry or humid? Is it quiet or loud? 

How can you show your character responding to those details of the current climate? Don’t just tell us a character is sweating because it’s hot. Show us how he drags a cloth across his brow and down his neck and wrings it out while he tries to inhale the thick, moist air. Don’t tell us a character is on the edge of hypothermia. Show us how she can’t flick a lighter or even hold it properly because she can’t feel her hands anymore. 

When your character can experience the world where your story is happening, that’s when you readers can too. That’s where effective worldbuilding begins, regardless what genre you write.

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Why Worldbuilding Fails Without Strong Characters (and How to Fix It as a Writer) from @ACW_Author on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

A.C. Williams, also known as Amy C. Williams, is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at WWW.AMYCWILLIAMS.COM.