Last updated on December 27, 2024
One reason I chose the Fantasy genre as my niche—perhaps the biggest reason—is the concept of worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is the creative process of laying out the foundation for my stories. It includes everything from geography and cultures to history, magic elements, and every detail that shapes the world where my story unfolds. While I love the concept of worldbuilding, it certainly comes with its challenges. Today, I want to take you on an adventure through the three that I consider the most challenging and share how I overcome them.
Chronicles of Creation
Thinking of a whole new world comes naturally to me. But along with that comes the challenge of ensuring it makes sense to my readers. Sure, it’s fantasy, and you can create a lot using imagination and creativity, but that alone isn’t enough. Worldbuilding also requires research and a constant flow of questions. For example:
- ‘Is the housing area I’m creating a suitable environment for my people to live?’
- ‘Are the powers my characters are using balanced and not too overpowered?’
- ‘Is what I’m doing unique, or has it been overdone by other writers?’
These are just a few examples—trust me, there are plenty more where that came from. The key to overcoming these challenges is thorough research. For me, that means diving into real-world cultures, geography, and history to ensure my fictional world feels authentic. That way I eliminate the risk of readers finding flaws within my story. If I myself encountered inconsistencies like that in a book I was reading, it would immediately break my immersion and diminish my interest. That’s the last thing I want to happen with my own work.
Doing research can be time-consuming, but for me, it’s invaluable. I’ve learned that not everything in my world needs to be completely unique—after all, some tropes exist for a reason. However, I’m mindful not to lean too heavily on these familiar elements, striving instead to let my own personality and creativity shine through in the narrative.
Once the world itself starts to take shape, the next challenge is creating the characters who inhabit it.
Characters And Their Lore
The research doesn’t stop with real-world cultures, geography, and history—it extends to creating my characters. When imagining my main cast, I follow the same concept as mentioned above, starting with thorough research. I put significant thought into what their names should be. While it’s fine to include a few common names, I avoid filling my cast with the top five most popular names imaginable.
I dive deep into name selection, exploring etymology, cultural significance, and historical usage—not just within the Fantasy genre, but broadly speaking. When deciding on the name for my main character, I chose the name Kaelen because I wanted a strong Celtic-inspired name, but not one exclusively tied to that origin. The name resonated with me due to its connotations of strength and heritage, fitting for my main character. After confirming it wasn’t overly used in other stories, I knew it was the perfect choice.
But deciding on a name is just the first of many steps in creating my character. Next comes adding everything else, from their ethnicity to the color of their hair, eye color, mouth shape, and height. And that’s just the physical details—I haven’t even touched on their personality.
It all begins with my imagination and creativity. Once I have the outline ready, I ensure everything makes sense. With my character Kaelen, I decided early on what kind of leader he would be—introverted or extroverted. From there, I made sure his strengths and flaws reflected that decision. Sure, mixing and matching traits is always possible, but for me, it’s all about making the character authentic, even within the Fantasy genre.
Last, but not least, comes the task of creating their lore. This is where I determine the size of their family, the relationships they have, what shaped them into the person they are, and what drives them in life. When I reach this stage, I focus on making my main cast unique. Overflowing backstories can lead to confusion, so I aim for balance and clarity.
One challenge I face is that, while I come from a small family, I sometimes want my characters to have large families. Imagining how they interact within the dynamic of a big family can be tricky, especially when there’s more than one main character. This ties directly into my ‘Beyond Shattered Bonds‘ series, where my protagonists have families of varying sizes. I strive to ensure that each character’s relationships with their family or friends are unique.
However, managing multiple connections within a story can become overwhelming. To address this, I prioritize the most important relationships and ensure they are relevant to the plot. There’s no point in detailing a connection with a family member who will never be mentioned again. Instead, I focus on relationships that add depth to the story and drive the narrative forward.
The Ritual Of Renewal
Sometimes, I’ll be working on a concept and feel good about the direction it’s heading. I spend time doing thorough research, and everything seems to come together. But just as I’m finalizing, I stumble upon something that derails the entire plan. It’s a painful blow, and starting over is never easy.
Instead of discarding the idea completely, I prefer to look back and see what I can salvage. Even if it’s something small, it’s worth keeping—especially when it’s a product of your own imagination and hard work.
In my ‘Beyond Shattered Bonds’ series, I initially envisioned an artifact to connect the main characters. However, as I developed the idea, I realized it wasn’t as original as I had hoped. This forced me to rethink the concept. I didn’t abandon the idea entirely but instead reworked it into something fresh. Rather than an uninspired artifact, the concept evolved into the shards of unity—items that connect the group without them even realizing it.
In the forge of creativity, I melted down the original idea and reshaped it into something new.
Logic, character development, and idea adaptation are my three biggest challenges when it comes to worldbuilding. But no matter how tough these challenges may be, they energize me to keep working on my world and improving it every day. Seeing my vision come to life on paper fills me with a sense of pride.
Worldbuilding is a journey of endless discovery, filled with challenges and triumphs. But every struggle I face is a step closer to building a world that feels alive. I’d love to hear about the challenges you’ve faced—and how you’ve transformed them into creative breakthroughs.