Every genre is a worldbuilding genre
Why every story needs a world (yes, even contemporary fiction), plus more craft advice on project management, writing life misconceptions, and what publishing company editors want and don't want.
When writers hear the term "worldbuilding," most picture elaborate fantasy maps or futuristic technology manuals. But here's what I've learned from wading through manuscripts in every genre: Every story lives somewhere—and that somewhere needs deliberate construction.
Contemporary fiction writers often resist this idea. "My story takes place in a coffee shop in downtown Portland," they'll say. "What's to build?"
Everything, it turns out. That coffee shop has its own ecosystem—the regulars who claim certain tables, the barista hierarchy, the unspoken rules about laptop camping. The neighborhood around it pulses with its own rhythms, demographics, and social currents.
Even the most ordinary settings become story worlds when filtered through your characters' experiences. A teenager's high school cafeteria operates by different laws than a substitute teacher's version of the same space. The story world isn't just backdrop—it's the soil your story grows in.
The writers who grasp this write books that feel lived in rather than staged. Don’t leave your readers to follow merely a plot. Allow them to inhabit a place that feels as real as their own neighborhood, whether it's magical or mundane.
This week at The Writes of Fiction:
worldbuilding for every genre and story
project management for writers
common misconceptions about the writing life
what publishing company editors are looking for—and not looking for
Worldbuilding and genres
With contemporary fiction, you don’t need to worry too much about certain types of world-building. We know how money works in the present day, and we know what cars, cell phones, and computers are. The one thing to be careful about is when it comes to technology, if it’s not central to your story, you may want to use a light touch. This is because technology will date your book. No one listens to CDs anymore or watches VHS tapes. If we read a book from the 80s today, details like this would make the book feel dated. So, be careful about going too heavy on the technology, or in a few years your story might seem out of date.—Read more from Gabriela Pereira at DIYMFA.
Related—the secret to authentic character voice: “Running commentary” may sound like something suited for first-person or deep third point of view. In fact, continually inflecting the story with a character’s personal concerns is a fit for any point of view whose narrator is also a character. It’s a seamless way to write. The character voice—with all its attendant observations, judgments, opinions, prejudices, preferences, thoughts, and emotions—effectively becomes your framework for worldbuilding.
The idea of character voice often brings to mind a character’s favorite words and phrases—for example, whether a character calls something neat, cool, lit, or dope. That’s coming at character voice from the outside in. To build character voice from the inside out, start with what the character observes in the first place.—Read more at Build your character’s voice from the inside out.
The project plan
When my husband and I decided to self-publish the next book, we established our own publishing company, Wordstar Publishing, LLC. The process of publishing a book became a lot more difficult.
I started with a simple to-do list, and things went fairly well, but I only had one book to worry about. It soon became clear that I needed a project plan to keep track of all the threads.
So now I have a project plan for each book. I don’t use a gantt chart, but I maintain an excel spreadsheet with categories. Each category has a list of tasks and each task has a target date, completion date, and notes. Although I’m an avid follower of the KISS principle, there are well over a hundred line items on the plan for my latest book, and it will grow as I add book promos and feedback.—Read more from Kay DiBianca at Kill Zone.
More management tips for working with an editor: You get what you pay for. If all the editor has time for is a breakneck race through the manuscript, that’s precisely what you’ll get.
Don’t try to reverse-engineer what you think an editor’s editing rate should be based on words or pages per hour. Manuscript speed doesn’t account for writing an editorial report or letter; creating a style sheet; formatting and preparing the file; running automated software and macros to check mechanics, formatting, and style; an initial read-through; a follow-up read-through; or book mapping and structural analysis. If there’s no time for these (or if your editor prices the edit without them), you’ll be missing many aspects of a thorough professional edit.—Read more at Best practices for working with an independent editor.
Are misconceptions and old ideas burdening your writing life?
Not every writer suffers from imposter syndrome. Some have the opposite problem. They think writing one whole book means they’ve learned all there is to know about writing. After all, it took them 5 years to finish the thing. And it’s 500K words! They don’t need no stinkin’ writing classes. Why doesn’t anybody recognize their genius? The whole system is rigged!!
But, as Nathan Bransford said, “No one sits down and simply paints the Mona Lisa. Whether you realize it or not, you’re going to start off writing the equivalent of crude stick figures.”
It takes a long, long time to learn the skills it takes to be a professional novelist. You can’t just say “I have a computer and I can write an English sentence, so I’m Stephen King.” But an amazing number of people do.—Read more from Anne R. Allen.
More misconceptions—this time about editing: But hey, say you and the editor already see eye to eye on what type of editing your manuscript needs, and they’re willing to do a little bit of this and that on top. Say you’ve also agreed that more mess means higher editing rates. Everyone’s square, right? Not so fast. If your level of preparation consists of whisking through your draft while repeating “let the editor fix it,” that’s exactly what you’ll get: an editor who spends their time fixing basics that a wordsmith like you should’ve already mastered.
Leaving basic errors in your manuscript is a choice to spend your money and your editor’s focus at a mundane level. Some editors enjoy chugging through the basics. More mistakes equal more money equals happy editors, right? I’m a trained copyeditor, a skill I bring to bear during your later edits—but my specialty is line editing, a level of focus we won’t reach if you’re still mangling dialogue mechanics. Leaving that in your manuscript would make me an unhappy editor.—Read more at Avoid this editing misconception that sabotages your writing.
What do editors really want?
To feel something. No matter the genre, I want writing that makes me feel something. My personal preference is writing that devastates me, but, honestly, any feeling will do—you don’t have to make me cry. You can make me laugh or make me wistful. Anger me or elate me. Give me that slightly transported, vaguely disoriented sensation of something I can’t even name, but we all know it when we feel it. In fact, feeling something is ultimately, to me, even more important than aboutness. Certain hybrid, flash, or non-narrative work, and certainly some poetry, is not necessarily “about” any one thing. Instead, it’s a nonspecific explosion of meaning that cannot be neatly summed up, but that can leave us changed for the long haul. And that’s what I’m looking for. I want you to make me feel something, because that is why I’m here: to do what Louise Erdrich says is our main job, to feel.—Read more from Jeannine Ouellette at Writing in the Dark.
More on giving agents and editors what they want: Recognizing raw talent is an agent’s business, but that’s no excuse for submitting raw material. Take responsibility for learning your craft. “An editor who can help you structure your story, develop characterization and voice, and iron out major problems could be a good idea, if you see yourself as an apprentice learning your writing craft,” Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary told Adventures in YA Publishing. Then at some point down the line, Davies says, you’ll gain the confidence to rely on your own skills rather than those of an editor.
Karen Grencik from Red Fox Literary agrees. “Newer authors who hire experienced editors definitely have a leg up over authors who are working alone or only with a critique group because the quality of their manuscripts is generally much better,” she told Adventures in YA Publishing.—Read more at Should you get professional editing before querying agents?
Fiction Fuel
I heard in a sermon once that the definition of self-control was to choose the important over the urgent.
Often, I've wished that I could've had quicker success, greater financial security, more respect, et cetera, as a writer. For nearly twelve years now since leaving the law, I have often felt ashamed for wanting to be a writer and doubtful of my talents.
What helped in these moments was to consider what was important, rather than the urgent feelings of embarrassment and helplessness. What was important is still important now: to learn to write better in order to better complete the vision one holds in one's head and to enjoy the writing, because the work has to be the best part.—Min Jin Lee, Free Food for Millionaires
Building worlds, building readers
Whether you're crafting the social dynamics of a military platoon or the unspoken protocols of a hospital emergency room, worldbuilding transforms your settings from mere locations into living, breathing places readers won’t forget.
The magic happens when you stop seeing worldbuilding as optional and start treating it as essential as character development. Readers will feel the difference—and they’ll sink in.
Onward,
Lisa
P.S. If you enjoyed this week’s Writes of Fiction, consider buying me a tea (Earl Grey with steamed coconut milk, plus a little stevia if I’m on deadline):
P.P.S. Stuck on what comes next? Whether your manuscript needs editing, a fresh eye from a coach, or help getting it query-ready, making the right choice can be tough. That's where I come in. Check out the different ways I can help, then let’s chat—your book deserves to keep moving. (Already know you need an editor? I offer developmental and line editing too.)
This is The Writes of Fiction, a slow-simmered assortment of old and new thinking about writing fiction, assembled at my desk, not by algorithm.
And this is Tsuki’s reaction to stories with weak worldbuilding. Get her tail wagging again, would you? 👇
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