Worldbuilder’s Disease: How to Recover and Actually Finish Your Story

by

worldbuilder's disease blog post image

To a writer, building a world can be the best part of creating a story. But sometimes, worldbuilding can eat up your storytelling.

You create character sheets, world maps, in-story systems, genealogies, and compendiums. But these elements, while helpful in creating a deeper world, do not advance scenes or develop characters. You’re left with a ton of material but no plot to show.

What is Worldbuilder’s Disease?

Worldbuilder’s disease is when a writer gets so caught up in creating their world that it becomes more important to them than storytelling. It often happens to writers of genres that require detailed worlds, such as fantasy and science fiction.

This can greatly slow or even completely stop a writer’s progress. In the worst cases, this can go on for years, with the writer often oblivious of their story’s lack of growth.

Take J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium for example. It’s backed by a ton of background information that were written (and rewritten) over the course of many years, starting in 1917. These include text that would later be compiled into The Silmarillion, The History of Middle-Earth, and other supplemental works. It was only in 1937 that The Hobbit was published, and then The Lord of the Rings came in 1954.

Even stories with isolated worlds can suffer from worldbuilder’s disease. Think of the classic cozy mystery, where a closed circle of suspects are being investigated within a limited setting. A writer can get so caught up with creating alibis, maps, escape routes, and traps that they forget to actually write the story.

Worldbuilding Vs Storytelling

To be clear, worldbuilding is designing the world in which a story takes place. You can go as deep as you want, depending on what level of detail is needed to support the story you want to write. This includes writing your setting’s history and geography, culture and society, flora and fauna, races and factions, and more.

Storytelling, on the other hand, is using the details of the setting to create a coherent plot. You show how characters progress through scenes, explore the world, and achieve their goals.

There’s a big overlap between the two as they essentially won’t work by themselves. A story needs a framework (the setting) from which it will take place. Conversely, the setting is only a collection of loosely-related details until a story binds all of them into a cohesive whole.

Symptoms of Worldbuilder’s Disease

Because they’re continuously adding details, writers often don’t realize that they’ve been afflicted with worldbuilder’s disease. Here are a few signs to watch out for:

1. Lack of story progression

A lot of writers will count progress by how many words they have written and in extension, how many details have been created for their story. But length and world depth are not indicators of plot progression.

You can get stuck with writing entire genealogies, guidebooks, and companion piece without anything ever happening in your story. While such details can be interesting, they can quickly get boring without a plot that links them together.

2. Info Dumps

Info dumping is when you give too much information at the same time. It’s an indication that you’ve at least started on the story, but get stuck with trying to tell the reader everything all at once.

You get so obsessed with your world that you’ll want to showcase every aspect of it any chance you get. When this happens, you dwell on background information that’s not necessary for the current scene. This relegates the characters and plot to background status.

3. Writer’s Block

Writer’s block prevents you from moving forward with you story. When this happens, you might work on bits and pieces of background info instead. They’re shorter, easier to conceptualize, and often faster to write.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing background info and staying there. You forget about actually writing the story.

How To Recover

There are many reasons why writers are afflicted with worldbuilder’s disease. Sometimes its laziness or lack of motivation. Whatever the reason for it, there are different ways of curing yourself.

Think of what your story needs.

Sometimes its better to do less worldbuilding. Think of of what your scenes need first. If your character’s lineage isn’t needed for the reader to understand the scene, then don’t include it. This way, you avoid info dumping while keeping your narrative focused on details that matter.

Writers can get overzelous with their world and assume they need to tell their audience everything about it. But some of the details you want to include in your story might be better written separately. Creating companion pieces is an excellent way to add to your lore without bloating the main story.

Use macro and micro settings.

A vibrant story isn’t made by telling readers a ton of information. Rather, it’s telling them these details at the right place and time. This can be accomplished through macro and micro settings.

Macro settings look at the world through a wide lens. This is where you establish the geographical, historical, and cultural context of the story. Then use a narrower lens (the micro setting) to focus on smaller details.

Think of your overall setting like an onion. Bigger layers give way to smaller ones, revealing details that become more specific as you go further. A planet becomes a continent, then a country, a city, a neighborhood, a house, a room, and so on. It doesn’t have to be in such an order too.

Shifting between macro and micro settings lets you balance your worldbuilding. Instead of an oversaturated story with no progress, you get one that utilizes the right details in scenes that move it forward.

Just write.

A challenge you’ll likely encounter is the fear that your writing will never live up to the story you’re imagining. The world won’t be as vivid as you want it to be, the characters too shallow, and the plot too derivative. So you stall by obsessing over background info instead.

The story living in your mind will never exist until you write it. Start the writing process by understanding that your early drafts will probably be terrible. But through the process of writing and re-writing, you’ll eventually arrive at a version that either matches or exceeds your initial vision.

Tell Your Story

Fundamentally, everything you write is all about the story. Your world is the foundation where actions are taken, scenes unfold, and plots are developed. That doesn’t mean that you’re required to describe every aspect of it though.

Only the important things need to be told and every detail must justify its inclusion to the story. Don’t dwell too much on one detail, just enough for it to do its work. This way, you add depth and flavor without arresting your plot’s momentum.

Have you ever been contracted worldbuilder’s disease? Share your experience in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like: