One of the most important aspects of writing a story is creating a believable and intriguing world for your characters to inhabit. This means creating a rich and detailed worldbuilding foundation that your audience can understand and appreciate. Worldbuilding is not limited to the physical world your characters live in, but should also encompass the cultures, customs, religions, and politics of your created society.
While worldbuilding is a complex and often daunting task, there are a few tried and true methods for getting your details across to your audience. First, is inside-out worldbuilding, which is being sure to always keep your reader in mind as you create your world. Readers, like RPG players, only want details that are pertinent to their current session and consider any additional information to be an infodump. So, what will they need to know in order to follow your story? What can be left a mystery? Thorny political issues and complex cultural customs can often be distilled down to their most basic elements so that the reader can understand their importance, even if they are not completely familiar with the particulars.
One of the most important aspects of worldbuilding is making sure your audience absorbs your details. Some authors lavish detail, others use stark minimalism. No one way is better than another, as long as it works for the storyteller and their audience. With that in mind, there are five main methods of delivering worldbuilding details to your audience, which exist on a spectrum of Hard Impart to Hard Deduction, with a Hybrid method smack in the middle.
Check out the video below to learn more about each of the five worldbuilding methods as well as other worldbuilding techniques, tricks, and tips.
Conclusion:
When it comes to creating a believable and engaging world, nothing beats good old-fashioned worldbuilding. By imparting and deducting the right information to your audiences, they will be able to better understand the world that you’ve created, and in turn, be more invested in it.
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