Tips for Better Worldbuilding in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Worldbuilding can be one of the most difficult parts of science fiction and fantasy writing. A world must be engaging, original, believable - and, above all, consistent. Here are some tips for science fiction and fantasy writers to build better worlds for their stories, worlds that make sense and are able to keep the readers' interest.

Realism vs. Believability

If something is "realistic," that means it makes sense in the real world. Something "believable," on the other hand, makes sense within the confines of a particular story or universe. The two words are often erroneously used interchangeably, but they make a big difference in worldbuilding and in fiction writing in general.

Readers do not expect fiction to be entirely realistic. For example, written dialogue has very little in common with candid speech, but a "realistic" conversation, full of "um"s, interruptions, and tangents, would not be believable in most fiction writing. But readers do expect fiction to be believable and internally consistent.

The different rules of a science fiction or fantasy universe will affect the way societies develop and the way characters act and interact. Often authors take a lazy shortcut and invent universes exactly the same as our world, but with magic (or aliens). This is especially obvious when authors create alien cultures that are exactly like human culture, save one or two alien components. If the "unrealistic" components do not affect the "realistic" ones, the world becomes unbelievable. Why, for example, would an alien species with three genders develop two-parent family units, or a world where the existence of vampires has always been public knowledge still have shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Readers of science fiction and fantasy already expect a certain lack of realism; it is a lack of believability that will distract them from the story.

Planning

A good science fiction or fantasy world must be meticulously planned out. The author should write notes and descriptions even of things that don't have a direct bearing on the story, because these will affect the way the author thinks and writes. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote volumes of backstory to The Lord of the Rings, much of which he never intended for publication, in order to explore and understand the universe so that he could express that understanding to his readers. An author need not go quite that far, but it is essential to have at least several pages of notes. At the very least, these notes will provide solutions or explanations to things that pop up later in the story so that the author can keep writing instead of stopping to figure out the rules of the universe.

Not planning ahead is a good way to create an inconsistent or incoherent universe. If the author makes up the rules of the universe as the story progresses, it shows on the page. Things are not foreshadowed or developed as much as they should be. It may also be difficult for even a good editor to catch components of the universe that might have changed since the story's beginning, or for the author to decide which version is better when both of them affect important things in the plot.

An author can make the planning more fun, or more of a writing exercise, by framing the information not in outline form but as newspaper articles, chapters from a history textbook, or myths. The urge to include these materials as a means of exposition in the story, however, should be severely repressed.

Avoiding Infodumping

Exposition is necessary to establish things about a fictional universe, but infodumping, or introducing too much exposition at once, is a surefire way to put readers to sleep. Infodumping comes in several forms. The most boring is the introduction, which explains the rules of the universe before the story has even started. While this may provide the readers with necessary backstory, it also gives the story a slow start, which can put readers off. Another common form is the "As you know, Bob," wherein characters explain to each other things that they should already know, solely for the benefit of the reader. (Sometimes the author even uses the exact phrase "As you know," which makes the bad writing even more obvious.)

Sometimes authors can get away with a little infodumping by introducing a character who is not familiar with the world, such as a time traveler to the future or a "mundane" suddenly introduced to the fantasy world existing all around them. These characters do not know the rules of the world, and so they must receive explanations. But writers should be careful with this, too. Sometimes it is necessary for the reader to know more than the main character, and sometimes less. If information about the world is given mostly through dialogue and explanations from one character to another, the subjects the author can believably address may be limited.

Reading

Good authors are always good readers. An author of science fiction and fantasy should pay close attention to other authors' worldbuilding techniques. From a reader's perspective, it is more clear what works and what doesn't. Armed with this knowledge, the author can decide which writers to imitate and which techniques would be useful for a particular story. As with other talents, study and practice will make an author into a better worldbuilder.