10 Ways to Make Sure Your Worldbuilding is Unique

Early on in my writing career, I had strong story ideas, deeply developed characters, and...a completely flat world. Even in my own head, I couldn't see the finer details of my world, and because of that, I lost interest in my work and felt like there was nothing unique or compelling about anything I was writing. 

One day, though, I was watching a Youtube video with my then-boyfriend-now-husband about Studio Ghibli style worldbuilding (I wish I had the video, and if I ever find it again I'll link it here). Watching that video, something clicked in my mind, and I had a powerful ah-ha moment. This is common knowledge to most people, but to me, it came as a shock: worldbuilding happens intentionally.  

If my world felt flat, generic, and boring, it wasn't because the concept was bad - it was because it simply hadn't been developed yet, and I, the author, needed to get to work. That started my intention dive into worldbuilding and re-started my career in writing. After years, practice, and research, I developed a system for worldbuilding, but also found a way to keep it fun and, the most important part, genuine. Below are ten tips to develop your own unique world with ease. 

(and if you're new to this, make sure to grab the Free Worldbuilding Starter Kit by clicking here)

One: Start Strong, But Don't Limit Yourself

Your novel will only be as interesting as you are interested in it. This is something I learned the hard way: although I can churn out fantasy stories faster than cat runs for fresh kibble in the bowl, that doesn't mean that anything I produce that fast is any good. If you're worried about the uniqueness of your world, giving it time to grow is important: otherwise you will end up creating something that looks like everyone else's work.

Take the time to generate a strong concept, but in the initial stages don't rush to call it complete. My professor in college called this "resist the premature closure", and basically what that means is don't be tempted to agree to or shut down an idea too soon. If something pops up in your head, write it down and let it gestate for a while, even if it doesn't feel like something you'll want to come back to. So many stories of mine have been spawned from previously "weak" ideas.

How do you know if a concept is "strong?" Typically, a strong concept is one that keeps feeding itself. When you spend time engaging with your concept, the ideas tend to flow a little more easily than if it was "weak." If it excites you, scares your, or pushes you out of your comfort zone, you're likely onto something awesome. 

What if you've never had any of those feelings? That's when you write down your "weak" concept, let it sit, and come back to it after you've had time to think about it. Sometimes ideas take time - and that's okay, too. 

Two: Research, Research, Research!

This may be the neurodivergence in me, but I love nothing more than research. As the cliche goes - I often spend my time researching to avoid actually writing my novel, because researching is the pouring in of information, which is easy, instead of the pouring out of information, which is a little more difficult. 

I can hear you protest: but Rachel, I don't want to study other people! I might accidentally copy their work, and I don't want to do that! 

I know the fear, but let me share two of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned about copying:

1. Nothing is unique completely. Literally nothing. Even the greatest works from the most notable authors (I'm talking Shakespeare, Tolkien, Chaucer, etc.) drew inspiration from someone else. The difference between them and the copycats is that they took inspiration, learned from it, and sat with it long enough to let it turn into its own thing. In other words, They all did the same thing. They just did it differently. 
2. As my art professor once said, even the greatest artists learned from copying the paintings of their masters. They learned from copying the techniques, and eventually, the mistakes they made became the signature of their own work. 

What should you learn from this? The most important thing is that the greatest artists in any field learned from copying the greats that came before them. Although we should never plagiarize the work of another, learning from their techniques is the greatest way we can discover our own weaknesses and strengths in writing.

Three: Start Small

How small is too small? If you've read my bio, you know that I work at a micro-level, meaning that I work on the smallest details first. This may seem counter-intuitive, but there are a few reasons why I take this approach, rather than the other way around. 

The first, and most important, is that I have two arch-nemeses (nemesi?), and their names are overwhelm and burnout. I do everything in my power to ward these bad boys off every fricken' day. Starting small helps me eliminate the otherwise daunting task of creating an entire world from scratch. 

The second reason is because the small details make the big picture. In one of my film classes in college, we learned about scene building (otherwise called mise-en-scene) and I was taught one very important rule: nothing in the scene is there by accident. In really good movies and shows, when the mise-en-scene is really good, it's because the set builders took into account even the most absurdly tiny details. 

Next time you watch something, try this: stop looking at the actors and put it on mute. Look only at the background and tell me what you see. Chances are, the shows you really like have incredible detail in the background which you rarely notice. The weird part about this is that if it wasn't there, you'd probably notice - although you may not necessarily know why. 

By starting small, I mean pick something that directly impacts your characters - like what they eat for breakfast every day - and work your way up. Why do they eat that for breakfast? What does the economy have to be like in order for that to be the thing that they eat? Do other people in other places in the world eat differently? Although your reader may never know these details, you will, and subconsciously you'll write a much more detailed world. 

Four: Write a History Book

This one is for the real nerds, but it's one of my favorite parts of worldbuilding: writing the history. 

My approach to this is simple: pretend you're a history teacher in the world you're creating. Create the history textbook you'd be teaching your students from, and write it. 

If this seems daunting, no worries - I've been working on my history book for a decade. The point is to have little pieces - lessons, if you will - that are common knowledge to your characters, and have them written down for the sake of consistency. Again, even if the reader never learns about these things, the work is still important. They may never see the boot, but they'll see the footprint that they left, and in the realm of story building, the footprint is often more important (and more interesting). 

Okay - so maybe you don't want to write an entire textbook that sits in the background of your story. I get that. You know what? You don't have to. The important part is that you know the history of the world in as much detail as makes sense. Tolkien did this in a spectacular fashion in the Lord of the Rings - but if you feel intimidated by something of that scale and scope, remember my previous tip and start small. The details that are important will start to stand out, and you can build off of them (and write your textbook) in a manner that makes sense for your work. 

Five: Develop Distinct Cultures

Culture is what makes something really unique. A common mistake new writers make, however, is not that they don't have a culture in their novel - they usually do, and it's usually done quite well. The issue is that there is usually only one, and it's usually poorly defined. 

If you're building a fantasy world that spans a large scope (think a quest novel, or a novel about fantasy warfare), chances are your characters are going to go a bunch of different places. The "quest" novel is one of those fantasy types which is, in my opinion, more fun to write, because you get the privilege of creating multiple distinct cultures. 

Cultures that vary from region to region, even district to district (if your novel is not a quest), add depth to the narrative. They also show that the author really thought things through when they made the decisions they did as far as location and societal pressures on the characters. In addition, when you take the time to develop many cultures that are different, it adds interest to the story that makes it memorable. 

A big mistake I see writers make is having multiple cultures that are only slightly different. There are plenty of inhibitions that could keep you from fully exploring the different facets of a culture, including lack of knowledge of other cultures, personal bias (everyone has one, that's okay) and fear of looking weird. Let me tell you right now: embrace the weird. Your characters, your readership, and your future self will thank you for it later. 

Five: Design Unique Geography

My late grandfather was really into war maps. It's very niche, but because he was into war maps, I was too. This little obsession turned into something huge, and every time he stumbled across a map, he would mail it to me. Now, I have dozens. 

I've always liked maps. I can't fully explain why - something in me just flutters when I see one, especially if its a map of something other than geography - like maps of train tracks, or maps of the greatest concentration of cows in the United States (they have those - and they're heckin cool!). Maybe this obsession with maps is what made it really easy for me to design maps that work in my story.

Even if your narrative isn't a quest or a war story, having a map increases the depth of your worldbuilding tenfold. Think about conversations you have daily with your friends and family. How many stories do you tell each other that include location details? How many of those location details have funny nicknames, or are places only you know about? That's the type of geography that I mean. 

If you're super intimidated by the idea of creating an entire geographical encyclopedia of your world, don't be. Again, work at a micro level, and start with the location details of the houses your characters live in. Draw pictures. Write out the directions your characters travel on the day-to-day. Get used to walking these routes in your mind, and soon enough, you'll be able to incorporate larger details into your narrative. 

Most writers who don't like this type of worldbuilding aren't good at it for one reason: they simply haven't seen enough maps. Be like my grandfather - dig into every map you can get your ink-stained hands on, and look at them long enough until you get a feel for how a functional map looks. Eventually, it will come to you naturally (or at least a little bit easier).

Six: Magic and Technology

If you use magic and technology in your narrative, you need to do this one thing: make sure you know the rules of your magic. If you don't, stop, drop and roll - because your story will be unbelievable and, sorry to say, just like all the rest. 

Establishing a rule system for any types of power is not only a useful tool, it's a necessary one. So before you start writing epic fantasy battles and showdowns between your most powerful beings, create a rule system, and stick to it. 

I'm going to be a bit of a jerk about this, because this is the one rule people always break, and your writing is too valuable to do that. So don't do it. Here's why:

Think about any recent major-motion-pictures. Specifically, think about ones containing superheroes in spandex. I'm not going to call anyone out specifically, but you've probably got a few in your head, and since you're a writer, you've probably got a few reasons you may or may not like the most recent editions to the film universes to which they belong. My biggest guff is this: there are no rules to thier powers, so the scales of their battles get bigger and bigger, and there seem to be no consequences to anything they do. How does that affect the story? Easy: snore. 

Yeah. It's boring, it's plain, and it's really unbelievable. 

You're not going to do that. You're going to take the time to create a system of rules and limitations for your magic and technology systems. The really interesting stories are those that operate within those limitations, get stuck with them, and have to work around them. That's why you have to follow this one rule. 

All rules are made to be broken, I know - and I break rules all the time with my writing. This one, though...please don't. Your characters deserve the very best from you. 

Seven: Use Sensory Details

This one is taught a lot in show-not-tell sessions, and it's just a fundamental of quality writing. It's also, however, a fundamental of quality worldbuilding - and if you do it right, your five senses can reveal some really interesting thing about the functions of your epic fantasy world. 

You can use the five senses to draw your reader into your story - to keep them paying attention, to keep them in the moment, and to help them look through the eyes of your characters as easily as possible. BUT there is another way sensory details help you with your world: they can surprise  your reader, too, and this element of surprise is what will do the work of worldbuilding for you. 

For example, if you're writing about a character petting a cat, we would expect that cat to be soft. But what if the cat is scaly? Or sticky? Either one of these options would surprise your reader and open up an avenue you can explore in more detail. Since when do we have scaly cats? What are they like as pets? Did we get them because of radiation? Was the radiation due to some type of cataclysmic event? Ta-dah! Worldbuilding. Easy as pie. 

Eight: Use Conflict to Your Advantage

I love conflict. (What??? I'm a writer! Leave me alone!) Conflict is what makes the story interesting. It's also a really helpful tool to reveal the world around you. 

The war narrative is an easy one - conflict in war shows us large-scale cultures and societies. You can use conflict in smaller ways, however, to show off your incredibly complex world. 

To build your small-scale conflict, think about the cultures you created earlier in this process. Why would people in these cultures have conflict with each other? What socioeconomic reasons do they have? Are there issues between classes or races? Are there religious issues? Are there political divides? Creating small-squale, close-quartered conflict is what's going to make your own world stand out above the rest. Even if that conflict doesn't have much to do with the overarching story, having it in the background tells the reader that there's more going on. It helps your characters become real, and it helps us keep our interest in the world as a whole. 

Nine: Be Consistent

This is a hard one for me, especially because when my imagination is at the wheel I tend to just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Consistency, though, is what's going to make your world not just unique, but believable. 

If you struggle with consistency, my biggest tip would be, again, to start at the micro level. Pick one thing that is important is your world and weave it in everywhere. What does it impact, who does it impact, and how? For examples of this, look at your real life: how many small parts of your world have a big impact of what you say, how you think, what you do, where you go, etc.? 

Consistency is key to maintaining the believability of your setting. Ensure that the rules of your world are consistent throughout your story. If you establish that a certain area is barren and uninhabitable, don’t suddenly place a thriving city there. Keep track of the details you create and refer back to them as needed.

Ten: Leave Room for Mystery

Finally, leave some aspects of your setting mysterious. Don’t explain everything to your readers. This creates a sense of wonder and curiosity, making your world feel larger and more complex. Allow readers to discover new aspects of your setting as the story progresses. 

I know this sounds a little bit contradictory to the things I've written about in this post, but I promise you, it's not. Just because your readers don't know everything about the world doesn't mean you shouldn't. In fact, you should know as much as possible, so you can make an informed decision about what to leave out  when you're adding mystery and suspense to the world. 

What's Next?

If you're struggling with any part of the writing process, or if you're looking to dig even deeper into your novel, then there's something you need to grab. It's called The Ultimate Worldbuilding Manual, and it walks you through each part of worldbuilding, to an extensive degree. 

Here's exactly what's inside: 

• Geography, Weather, and Landscapes: Shape your world’s physical environment, from towering mountains and vast oceans to unpredictable weather patterns and unique biomes.
• Political Systems, Hierarchies, and Power Structures: Define the ruling systems of your world, whether monarchies, democracies, or shadowy organizations controlling everything behind the scenes.
• Societies and Cultures (Belief Systems, Traditions, Languages): Develop deep and immersive cultures, complete with traditions, languages, and belief systems that shape everyday life.
• Technology or Magic Systems: Determine whether your world thrives on cutting-edge technology, intricate magic, or a fusion of both, ensuring internal logic and balance.
• Economics and Trade Worksheet: Create a functional economy, from currency and trade routes to resource distribution and black markets.
• Magic System Builder: Craft a compelling and balanced magic system with clear rules, costs, and limitations to keep it engaging and believable.
• History & Mythology Builder (Bonus): Build a rich historical and mythological backdrop, from ancient wars to divine interventions, that shapes the present world.
• Flora & Fauna Guide (Bonus): Develop unique ecosystems, complete with plants, animals, and mythical creatures that feel authentic to your world’s climate and geography.
• Cultural Aesthetics & Architecture Guide (Bonus): Define the artistic and architectural styles of different civilizations, making cities and settlements feel visually distinct and immersive.
• Laws, Justice & Crime Systems (Bonus): Establish the legal systems of your world, detailing crime, punishment, law enforcement, and underground organizations.
• Religion & Spirituality Workbook (Bonus): Create belief systems, gods, rituals, and religious conflicts that shape morality, traditions, and societal norms.

If you've worked with any of my guides before, then you probably know about my question-and-answer method. This is the method I use for all of my writing projects, and the key piece that works so well is that it asks open ended questions to spark your creativity - 

Meaning that it works well for every project, regardless of genre, style, or even if you've used the guide before. 

(So you can use this over and over and over). 

Click here to take the next step on your book writing journey. I'm cheering for you! 

Happy Writing! 

Rachel