Brandon Sanderson, the celebrated fantasy author, has warned writers about "worldbuilders' disease"—that obsessive need to flesh out every tiny detail of a fictional universe. One telltale sign? Saying, “I’m doing food lore!”
Sanderson recommends spending no more than three months on worldbuilding before diving into the actual writing. As a young writer, I spent countless hours mapping out landscapes, creating languages, and compiling encyclopaedic glossaries. But over time, I’ve learned that less is more. The goal should be to build only what’s necessary—not to document every historical event spanning 10,000 years! You can always add details later as the story unfolds.
That said, worldbuilding depth depends on the kind of story you're telling. If your protagonist is a chef on an alien planet, food lore might actually be essential!
In my last blog post, I outlined my general worldbuilding categories. One tool that has helped me immensely is Scrivener’s split-screen feature—I draft my story in the left window while keeping my worldbuilding notes open in the right. This has saved me so much time jumping back and forth between documents!
Another modern shortcut? AI-generated content. AI can provide inspiration and help visualize characters or objects, making it easier to focus on storytelling instead of spending paragraphs in your notes describing appearances. But even here, moderation is key—there’s no need to generate images of details that don’t serve the story.
Finally, another trap many worldbuilders fall into is endless research. For one of my current projects, I’ve been immersed in space and military studies, watching videos and reading articles on a range of topics. While research is valuable, it should never replace actual writing.
Worldbuilding is an exciting part of storytelling—but don’t let it consume you. Build just enough to support the story, then get to writing!
IMAGE: AI generated
Comments ()