Parasite: A Masterclass in Worldbuilding

Using what we’ve learned from food and society in worldbuilding, let’s take a look at some of the writing decisions that make Bon Joon Ho’s 2019 film Parasite so successful in immersing us in its world. I should warn you; I’ll be giving heavy spoilers for this movie. If you haven’t seen it and want to, I recommend doing that before reading this article! Trust me, it’s worth it.

Parasite is set in our world—that is, contemporary Korean society. Of course, most of us know what it’s like to exist in the world and won’t have any trouble decoding the world of the film. With that said, everything audiences need to know about society and the people in it are conveyed to us through either dialogue or visual storytelling. Forgetting what we know about reality, let’s examine the world of Parasite.

Society

The world of Parasite is populated by the haves and have-nots of society. The movie opens in the semi-basement home of the Kim family, with the first words spoken being “We’re screwed. No more free Wi-Fi.” Not only does this set the tone for the movie, but it also communicates to the audience that the protagonists are firmly a part of the societal have-nots.

This is a family used to pulling together to make it through life. A family that’s accustomed to using their wits to survive.

Class and Hierarchy

The film makes it clear that one of the great separators in this society is education, as evidenced by a friend (Min-hyuk) of the Kim’s son (Ki-woo), who pays a visit. As a post-secondary student, Min-hyuk is almost revered by the Kim’s. He is a young man in a position to better himself—someone with possibilities in their future.

When Min-hyuk arrives, the family scrambles to make room for him at their table, where he gifts them a decorative rock “said to bring material wealth”—a recurring totem in the film.

The Kim’s are showing deference and respect to someone they perceive as in a better position, both financially and socially. A sharp contrast to their later depiction of the Park family.

The Parks

The Park’s are a young and affluent family. Instead of living in a dank, bug-infested semi-basement they live in a large, naturally bright, gated house. They have a housekeeper and driver. Freshly cut plates of fruit that are made for them. They hire tutors for their children.

It’s precisely this reliance on hired help that allows the Kim’s to worm their way into their household staff. Beginning with a recommendation from Min-hyuk to tutor the Park’s daughter, Ki-woo then recommends his sister as an art tutor for the son; Who then recommends her father as personal driver; Who then recommends his wife as housekeeper.

The “Belt of Trust”

The Kim’s work together to tightly plan, coordinate, and execute this elaborate scheme. This “belt of trust”, according to Mrs. Park, illustrates both her families naivete and reliance on social currency to navigate life. The Kim’s understand this and do not hesitate to exploit it.

Similarly, when handed a business card made by the Kim’s for a fake service company, Mr. Park comments that “You can tell from the card they’re high-class. Cool design.” Coming from a world of status symbols and classist perceptions of wealth, Mr. Park relies on the superficial to inform him in his choices.

A Lot Happens (Seriously, Watch the Film)

Ultimately, things do not end well for either family. The Park’s are mentally scarred by the end of the film (the husband physically, too). The Kim’s daughter is killed. Ki-woo and Mrs. Kim—after Ki-woo receives life-saving brain surgery from being bludgeoned by the man in the basement—are prosecuted. Mr. Kim retreats to the basement of the Park’s house, becoming the next parasite.

Right?

So, just who’s the parasite here?

Parasite explores themes of class and wealth disparity, among others. While it’s easy to argue the man in the Park’s basement, and subsequently Mr. Kim, are the parasites, the depiction of the Park’s, their wealth, and lifestyle point to another.

There’s no question the Kim’s hustle. Constantly. Whether folding pizza boxes, delivering fliers, or finessing the Park’s, they’re working. The Park’s, for all their wealth, are never shown doing anything but relaxing, worrying about non-issues, gossiping, or giving orders to their staff.

Even after Ki-woo and Mrs. Kim are prosecuted they don’t stop. They can’t stop. Not if they want to eat. Ki-woo says, “Those detectives still wore themselves out tailing us.”

I ask you then, watch the movie for yourself. Use what you know about worldbuilding to dissect the world of the film, and with a critical eye ask yourself: who adds more value to society? Then take a look outside and ask the same question.

---

Melanie Pledger is a second-year student of Professional Writing at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. She is published in Heritage Matters magazine and has done extensive research on local soldiers from her hometown, Owen Sound, where she created a museum exhibit in 2015. Melanie received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement the same year. Melanie lives on the water where she enjoys swimming and paddle boarding—weather permitting, of course.

We Live in a Society – Society and Worldbuilding

Society is the backbone of civilization. It is the framework our lives rest upon. Merriam-Webster defines society as “companionship or association with one's fellows”. More specifically, society can be defined as “an enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another”. Society is cooperation, the manufacturer of the status quo—and the cornerstone to worldbuilding.

No matter how small or large your world is, society will play a part in it. Where people exist, rules and customs naturally follow. Let’s take a look at the different parts of a society and some of the questions you might want to ask yourself about your world as you create it.

Social

The social aspect, as I’m sure you can imagine, addresses the social structure of a society. This includes the structure of family units and social circles, class distinctions, living and working conditions, population and immigration/emigration, and birth and death rates. It informs how we connect with each other and build relationships.

Political

PHOTO COURTESY OF HAPPYMAG.TV

Officially or unofficially, a world must have someone (or multiple someone’s) to govern it. The codification of laws makes the prevailing sentiments society has official. Alternatively, laws can be used as a tool of oppression and control. You may wish to begin by choosing the structure(s) of government your society uses. These include:

• Democracy

• Oligarchy

• Dictatorship

• Monarchy

• Republic

• Federation

You can find definitions for these terms and more forms of government using this document from Scribd.

Next, deciding who holds the power means deciding how they’ll wield it. How laws are enforced and who does the enforcing are natural consequences of a lawful society. Consider both peace and wartime and how they might affect the way territory is divided, elections, and personal autonomy.

Geographical

Geography has informed how we settle as a species for thousands of years. People naturally gravitated towards and settled the banks of the Nile; towns sprung up around harbours; farmers went where the soil was good.

Try using history as a framework when deciding where in your world you want to settle your society. Fresh water/waterways, the climate, abundance (or lack of) of natural resources, and plant and animal life are all great places to start when making considerations. Generally, the more comfortable and plentiful the environment, the more people will settle there. You can take this into consideration when deciding population density/how people are distributed across your world.

Cultural

Looking again to Merriam-Webster, it defines culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a particular social group, place, or time”. The anthropological definition states culture is “the combined pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends on the transmission of knowledge to succeeding generations”.

Treating culture as something that’s been shaped by the needs and desires of the people living at the time, passed from generation to generation and forced to evolve piecemeal can be a lot to contend with. Instead of trying to start at the beginning of civilization and working forward, start with your society as it currently stands and work backwards. You don’t need a complete, comprehensive cultural accounting, but using logic to answer the question of “why” something might be done a certain way can enrich the cultural understanding of your world.

Scientific and Technological

Many people in Western culture have replaced their beliefs in the supernatural/spiritual with belief in empirical science. Especially in medicine, we rely heavily on the scientific knowledge and ability of others for help. This has been the case historically—the only difference is we have largely traded herbs and poultices for pharmaceuticals and surgery.

When deciding the level of tech in your world, keep in mind the social stratifications you’ve put in place. It’s likely that not all technology/advancements made will benefit everyone equally.

Economic

Now that you have an idea of the social, political, geographical, cultural, and scientific aspects of your world, you can begin building your economy. I’d suggest leaving this for the later stages of your world’s development as every previous category helps inform the structure of the economy. How people make money, taxes, trade, manufacturing, wealth distribution, and ownership have all been hinted at by the worldbuilding framework you’ve already put in place.

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

Building a society from scratch may seem like a daunting task. There are many more aspects to consider when crafting one than discussed here. This is meant to help guide you in the early stages of development and spur questions that will help leapfrog you to a fully fleshed-out, believable society for your audience. While you might not share every detail, thoroughly understanding your society and what makes it tick will prove invaluable when writing competent, immersive worlds.

---

Melanie Pledger is a second-year student of Professional Writing at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. She is published in Heritage Matters magazine and has done extensive research on local soldiers from her hometown, Owen Sound, where she created a museum exhibit in 2015. Melanie received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement the same year. Melanie lives on the water where she enjoys swimming and paddle boarding—weather permitting, of course.

Why Avatar: The Last Airbender Is A Masterclass In Worldbuilding

So, we’ve talked a lot about how to build a world for your story, but what does good worldbuilding look like? What’s an example of a rich, immersive world, and why does it work? Well, search no further than Nickelodeon's beloved smash hit, Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA). Other than having an amazing plot, great pacing, and interesting characters, ATLA is also known for its strong worldbuilding.

Water, Earth, Fire, Air: The Power Of A Good Opening

The first episode starts with the iconic exposition (“water, earth, fire, air...”), which may seem like a direct contradiction of a rule we’ve all heard before “show, don’t tell”, however, is actually a smart decision. The opening narration is told by one of the characters, Katara, so the voiceover not only catches the audience up to speed on important events that happened before when the story is set, but also gives the audience her perspective on the story. The episode officially opens with Katara and her older brother, Sokka, fighting, where the audience learns many things: 1. Sokka is misogynistic, 2. Katara is a water bender, 3. Sokka is not, and 4. Katara’s powers and Sokka’s misogyny are both points of contention between the siblings. The writing is so solid, that all that is revealed in the span of about 5-10 mins. Of course, ATLA was designed to be a kids show, a genre which tends to have less subtle writing than those for older audiences, but less subtle doesn’t mean that it’s bad.

Sokka and Katara’s fight escalates, Katara loses control of her powers, and she accidentally breaks the ice, revealing a large glowing sphere hidden underneath. Inside, turns out to be Aang, the main protagonist and the Avatar (someone who is capable of controlling all four elements), along with his trusty steed, a skybison named Appa. From there, the story follows Aang, Katara, and Sokka, with the edition of other friends later on, as they travel around the globe, searching for people who are able to teach Aang water, earth, and fire bending, so that he can hopefully use the combined power of all four elements to end the war that has been raging for the past 100 years.

Growing Up In A World At War

Aang is a very excitable and hyperactive character. When he takes the group on random side quests to go ride fish, or something like that, it gives the audience the chance to explore and see the world more that they otherwise might’ve if the characters solely stuck to their end goal. Like Aang, Katara and Sokka are young, and believe (semi-falsely) that Aang knows best because he’s the Avatar, so also it makes sense why they would go along with him.

Aang’s chaotic personality make it so the side quests don’t feel like something that’s just there to draw out the story, but instead something that he would do. Aang is a unique character, in that he’s both rediscovering the world—after having been trapped in the ice for 100 yrs—and discovering all the things that have changed since. The story allows to audience to see the world through his naïve perspective, using Katara’s hope and Sokka’s cynicism, as well as the lived experience of the siblings—who grew up with the war—to contrast Aang’s viewpoint. Practically every character in ATLA is easy for the audience to latch onto and root for but watching how fast Aang grows up in a short period of time really adds weight to the story.

The world of ATLA doesn’t feel invented for the convenience of plot, either. It feels ancient, and lived in. The Hundred Year War looms over everything—not just as exposition but as a force that shapes trauma, nationalism, displaced peoples, environmental destruction, and generational grief. Ruins, legends, and relics show the consequences of imperialism and imbalance.

Rooted In Reality: How ATLA Builds Its Nations

One of the most striking elements of the world of ATLA is its cultures. Each nation—the northern and southern Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads—feels distinct, lived-in, and inspired by real-world societies without ever feeling like they were copy-pasted.

The northern and southern Water Tribes borrow clothing, some traditions, and values from the Inuit—emphasizing community, adaptability, and respect for the natural world.

The Earth Kingdom pulls from Imperial China, rural East Asia, and a patchwork of diverse regional identities. Even within this single nation, the show presents variations—from the rigid order of Ba Sing Se to the more rural traditions of small villages.

The Fire Nation blends imperial Japanese and Southeast Asian influences, with architecture and martial arts tailored to their identity as a military superpower.

The Air Nomads draw from Tibetan and other monastic spiritual traditions, centered around detachment, but also compassion, and harmony.

These choices go beyond aesthetics; they’re reflected in everything, from cuisine, to calligraphy, to the structure of each society. Culture drives character.

Balance In Storytelling: The Secret To ATLA’s World

The genius of ATLA’s worldbuilding is that nothing is accidental. Every element—cultural, historical, spiritual, political—works with each other. The story’s themes of balance, identity, colonialism, resilience, and healing are represented by the world it takes place in perfectly.

It’s a masterclass in constructing a universe where every detail matters. And it’s a reminder that worldbuilding isn’t just about geography or magic systems; it’s about how those elements shape character’s lives. Diverse cultures, an engaging plot, and easy to follow characters are some of the many elements that allow the world and narrative to unfold in an organic way. The show respects the viewer, builds slowly, reveals deliberately, and trusts that audiences will connect the dots. And we always do—because the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender invites us not just to observe, but to belong.

If anything, its greatest achievement is simple: it feels real.

Casey Simpson

Casey Simpson is a college student and writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. Initially, Casey wanted to be an animator, earning a diploma in Drawing Foundations - Animation & Illustration at Algonquin College in 2022, before deciding to pursue their life-long love of writing in higher education, returning to the same institution to take the Professional Writing course, which they are graduating from in 2026. They started out writing short stories, then later shifted to writing for newspapers, journals, and websites. They have a variety of works—from dark tales plagued with tragedy, to fun, punchy blog posts.

Wings Of Fire World Building

Inspired By Wings of Fire

I’ve read many books in my time, and some of them had a perfect plot and characters. I’ve read many books in my time, and some of them had a perfect plot and characters, but the worlds the stories take place in are just as perfect. One of my favourite stories with the best world-building (in my opinion) is the Wings of Fire series. The books are about dragons who usually defeat a great evil that has been prophesied. The first series is about a group of five young dragons who stopped a 20-year war. In the second series, another group of young dragons stopped a giant animus dragon who had God-level amounts of power and turned him into a child. And the third story was about an entire tribe of dragons being released from mind control and slavery. The story is intended for young teens but contains many mature topics that are also enjoyable.

Credit: Amazon

There are eight species of dragons, all inspired by real-life animals. For example, the Mudwings are inspired by alligators, the sand wings by scorpions, and the Silkwings by moths or butterflies. The dragons have beautiful designs not only in their appearance but also in their society and behaviour. The dragons have experienced both monarchy and democracy in their history. They have made clothing, weapons, food and many beautiful structures. All inspired by actual things in real life.

Real World into Real Life

The world itself is full of many biomes, including Deserts, Jungles, Forests, Oceans and Ice worlds. Every place is unique with comparisons from our very own world.  On the main continent, Pyrrhia, where its climate is warm except for the north of the environment, there are seven living dragon species, and most of the series focuses on them. However, there is another continent called Pantala where three other species live. Originally, all dragons lived in Pyrrhia; however, some flew across the sea and landed in Pantala, where two tribes were established. A few hundred years later, they would split into three tribes, but that is a story for another day. Each tribe would evolve the perfectly live in their habitat, often having traits such as colours that helped blend into their environment or an ability that was unique to them, such as venom, or bioluminescent scales even the ability to be immune to fire.

Credit: joy Ang

All Hail to the Queen

The Tribes all fall under the same monarchy.  This is similar to monarchies in our own world, with royal families that rule over a country or group of people. While we mainly had kings, we also had quite a few memorable queens in our own history. Only females are allowed to rule and become Queens in the book series. Their sisters and daughters may challenge their position in a fight to the death or surrender. Males cannot rule and rarely have a position of king or even consort, usually only in circumstances where the queen is unable to rule (by sickness or grave injury) does the king step into rule. However, in some tribes, they have a different system of ruling. For the Seawings, the queen has a council that helps advise and help her take care of the kingdom. The Rainwings have a different system of choosing that requires a challenge of a task to be issued and completed to become queen.

Credit: Mike Holmes

Past, Present and Future

The story itself is well-written and made. The pacing develops quite well, and we are told stories both in the past and the present that manage to show good consistency and explanation of how some things are. For example, in the first series, we find out that the Nightwings are living on a volcanic island that is slowly killing them all, with meagre resources and fewer eggs being born, their race is dying out. However, in one of the special editions called Darkstalker, we learn that the Nightwings lived on the main continent but left due to the fear of the animus dragons. Darkstalker would come and kill them all in revenge for imprisoning him in a mountain. We were given reasons for why this happened, and the story still managed to keep good consistency and reasoning for how things worked out in their story. This series meant a lot to me growing up and inspired a lot of my drawings and writing. Without these books, I would never have had the inspiration to make some of my own stories, and I’m glad I had these stories full of wonder that intrigued me.

Credit: Jake Parker

AUTHOR BIO

Carlos Kalambo is a 19-year-old college student in the second year of a professional writing program. He enjoys to read science fiction and any books with xenofiction. He enjoys many book series such as Warrior Cats (From Erin Hunter)  and enjoys anything genre of books, in reality or in fantasy. He has a mind of creativity and enjoys creating any creature and making worlds to see how they fit in and live in their story.

Analysis of the Worldbuilding in Return of the Frozen Player

Summary

The Frozen Player Returns, also known as Return of the Frozen Player, is a Webtoon created by JerryM and SilSil. Originally published in Korean on KaKao, there are official translations in English, French, and Thai on various platforms. While the English translation, hosted by Tapas, is currently on hiatus, the original publication is going into its fourth season. So, what has contributed to Return of the Frozen Player’s success? The intricate world building!

Setting

Figure 1: Junho and his party members frozen and on display in chapter 1, Return of the Frozen player, Art by SilSIl.

Return of the Frozen Player starts off with Seo Junho, the main character, facing off against the Frost Queen in the “Final Dungeon” which appeared in Antarctica. Twenty-five years later, Seo Junho and his frozen teammates are on display in Korea when he manages to escape the ice alive. From there, the enormity of the world that has been created for this story is revealed. The defeat of the Frost Queen revealed dimensional elevators in addition to dungeons.

Dungeons

“Dungeons are places filled with traps and monsters that ruthlessly attack humans.” That is the definition given in chapter five. The dungeons in Return of the Frozen Player seem to be portals to other worlds with certain requirements for the players to enter with. Dungeons affect their surroundings, making them unsafe to leave alone. The longer they are left uncleared, the worse their effect on the local environment is. This creates areas that are uninhabitable. An example of this is the Frost Queen’s dungeon, which could have frozen the South Pacific Ocean. Conquering dungeons leads to safe areas being established where normal humans can survive.

Dimensional Floors

Figure 2: Dimensional elevators; Art by SILSIL, Return of the Frozen Player chapter 75

There are a total of ten dimensional floors. During the two and a half decades Junho was frozen, mankind only conquered two of the floors. The first floor is Earth, which is where all of the first story arc takes place. Because Junho is Korean, the majority of the first season is set in Korea while he recuperates and regains his strength by joining dungeon raids. As he grows more powerful, he begins to venture into the other countries to gain experience near the end of the Season.

While Webtoons are comics, they use a mix of language to describe the story parts. Chapters are the same as book chapters, but instead of volumes or books, Webtoons commonly use seasons to describe a collection of chapters.  Season two expands his reach further, with more time in dungeons or other countries than in Korea. In the second half of season two, Junho uses a dimensional elevator to reach the second floor, though he visits the first floor frequently.

Society and Structure

Society in Return of the Frozen Player is an interesting mix. The power in the global societies belongs to three general groups, and which group has the most power in a country is often different. First is the Players Association, the organization that oversees the players in general. All players must be registered with the Association and go through a test to ensure they have sufficient abilities. This is to reduce the number of player deaths in dungeon raids. Guilds in Korea have about the same amount of power as the Players Association. Built by strong and wealthy players, guilds offer resources, consistent paychecks, training, and often accommodations to other players in exchange for loyalty and their work.

The guilds’ reputations and the benefits of joining a guild attract players. Going into a dungeon under a guild increases the chances of survival due to equipment, teamwork, and information that can be hard for ordinary players to get by themselves. Governments are the third power, though the Korean government seems to have less power than the Players Association and the Korean guilds.

You can see the influence of these three powers in the way the society is portrayed in Return of the Frozen Player. Instead of the government, the guilds and Players Association are looked to when new dungeons and catastrophes appear. Everyone wants to become a player, and it’s the job that is looked upon most favourably. Auctions, food, clothing and more are designed to cater to players. There are even casinos specifically designed for players!

Creature Creation

Figure 3: Whip wolf by silsil, Return of the Frozen Player chapter 79

The creatures in Return of the Frozen Player are a mix of original creations and those inspired by the real world. For example, an original creature is the Whip Wolf, found in chapter seventy-nine. This monster is a giant canine with three scorpion-like tails that requires several players on the second floor to take down. There are also humanoid creatures. Possibly inspired by Disney’s Elsa in Frozen and the Snow Queen by Hans Christan Anderson, the Frost Queen is one of those humanoid creatures. These bipedal creatures with intelligence suggest that the worlds the dungeons are in once had functioning societies before they were corrupted. This adds depth to the story and leaves an opportunity for more seasons and expansion later.

---

Rebecca Roth is currently pursuing a certificate of Professional Writing at Algonquin College. She is an avid reader, preferring the fantasy genre. She is an aspiring author with several books in the works to publish in the next couple years.

Inspiration from the world’s creations

So you're making your own story, eh? Well, it sounds like you’ll need some help then, and now you may be thinking. Why would you need help with making a world? Many writers want their world to be unique and otherworldly, but some often struggle with finding ways to make their world interesting. Some manage to make a normal world more interesting by adding magic or supernatural elements, but often that’s enough to make the world interesting enough. The real world has plenty of inspiration if you know how to look for it.

Inspiration From Our Own Creations

Well, take inspiration from the real world; then, often books, films, and shows take their inspiration from the people and environment around us. Our own world has so much wonder and majesty that many people are unaware of it. Our oceans and forests have some of the most beautiful sights and curiosities, and many events in history can inspire our writing. For example, the movie Avatar showcases colourful environments and involves conflict. The planet Pandora on where much of the movie’s setting is, takes inspiration from the rainforests and oceans of our world, but on a much grander level. You can see that the reef and home of the Metkayina Clan is inspired by the Great Barrier Reef, and the jungle of the Omatikaya Clan can be from the many great rainforests of the Amazon or the Congo. The beauty of the nature of our own world can help us decide what the story looks like, but other things can also inspire us. Often, we have so many ideas that we are not sure what to do first. But having something already in our surroundings can help us have ideas that we can build upon.

Credit: Frontier of pandora

Connections From Our Own Situations

Conflict from real-life situations in life can be another source of inspiration. One example of the conflict between First Nations people and Europeans could have been taken as inspiration for the movie Avatar. Many wars and battles from our past can be seen as inspiration for conflicts, things like assassinations, battles for the thrones, old world vs new world and etc.Or perhaps you can make your conflict based on something that has happened to you personally, such as an argument between family or friends. Having some personal connections to your story may make it more likable and relatable to your readers and could help you significantly. 

Credit: Library of Congress

But not all great events and fantastical beauty need to inspire you; it can be something simple or complex, depending on what your goal is. Wars and Battles can be used as inspiration for a more complex situation, while more emotional arguments can be used for simpler work. Expressing and describing the emotions that a character feels during conflict adds depth and a connection that your readers can find quite relatable. This makes your story much more immersive and is also something anyone can connect with emotionally.

Simple Yet Superb 

 Your story does not always need to be greatly dramatized with detailed wording that describes scenery. Many great stories come from simple ideas that a person comes up with. Take, for example, the story Watership Down, which came from the author’s experience of World War II and the landscape next to his home. These events from his life, both major and minor, inspired him to create one of the most successful books, which brought him considerable success. Small things from the routine in your life can inspire you to write many things. You just have to look hard and be creative with how you think, and when you open your mind, something amazing can happen.

Credit: BBC

Populating Fictional Worlds

Non-player characters, or NPCs is a term originally deriving from tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. When conducting Dungeons & Dragons game sessions, each player except for the dungeon master makes choices for his or her created character, and these player-controlled characters are the primary personalities in an ever-unfolding saga, while the person designated dungeon master is the one making choices for all characters players might meet while conducting their adventures – an innkeeper, store clerk, friend or foe, even everyday citizens walking the streets in a populated city.

When creating worlds and inhabiting our worlds with secondary characters we are exemplifying the role of dungeon master. The choices we make when imagining the habits, styles, and personalities of our secondary characters define what type of world we are drawing our readers into. Just as in life, the environment of our created world shapes its denizens in unique ways, and these background characters are unique reflections of our created world.

Are We Living in a Simulation?

The Woman in the red dress (played by fiona johnson) in the matrix

We might use a scene from the movie The Matrix to exemplify how background characters set the tone for a story. In this classic scene from the original movie, Neo, the hero of the story, meets “The Woman in the Red Dress” (played by Fiona Johnson). Neo is walking in a simulated city setting with his mentor, Morpheus. The two characters are amongst many people in a crowded cityscape, and all the characters (except for the woman in red) are dressed in black. Morpheus is explaining to Neo that many people (the background characters) “…are not ready to be unplugged” and that these same people will fight to protect the system which they depend on.

“The Woman in the Red Dress” represents temptation and illusion, reminding movie-goers how systems of control use sensory appeal to divert attention from real threats. But the characters in the background, all dressed in black, set the tone and premise for The Matrix stories. The Matrix is a dystopian setting, where our team of heroes realize they’re living in completed simulated reality, and the only way of escaping into the real world is unplugging from the machines which trap them in the simulation. Inside this simulated world, agents can appear at any time by taking control of the background characters and turning them (from the inside out) into powerful villains who are incredibly fast and strong. These agents are the true enemies which the heroes of the story are eventually tasked with defeating. But the characters in the background, who mostly remain unnamed, lay the groundwork, creating an entry point for movie-goers into this strange new world.

a street level view of “the woman in the red dress” scene in the movie the matrix. moments before this shot, neo is distracted by “the woman in the red dress” and when he turns around, one of the background characters becomes an agent and is pointing a gun at neo.

Conclusion

Choosing appropriate secondary characters sets the tone for our created worlds, whether that is an innkeeper on the medieval streets of Forgotten Realms (one of the fictional settings created for Dungeons & Dragons games), or the denizens of a science fiction fantasy Hollywood film. These characters could fade into the background and remain nameless, but no matter what meaning our choices may convey to audiences, populating our worlds with characters will lay the groundwork for the kinds of worlds we wish to build.

---

Ryan is a writer who spends much of his free time reading; he especially enjoys philosophy and understanding the link between technology, mind, and culture. He teaches yoga and enjoys being physically active. Ryan has a degree in psychology and is working towards a diploma in professional writing. Ryan recently became a father for the first time.

Turning Miles Into Meaning

Travel shapes adventure. It can add scale to your world and provides an opportunity for your characters to grow. When your characters leave home, they’re not just moving through geography—they’re gaining experience. Every step provides the potential for challenge and change. Maybe your characters cross a burning desert that drains their strength, or a bustling city that overwhelms them with its sights and sounds. The more detailed and imaginative the journey, the more real your world will feel to your readers.

Want to explore your world in an interesting way? Does your character need to visit an ancient, all-knowing wizard to get exposition that will help them on their quest? Can you imagine how boring Lord of The Rings would’ve been if Mordor was just next door? The same goes for your story. So, where does this wizard live? In a cave? In a tower that reaches the heavens? In a swampy marshland? Well, then your character has to travel!

Planes, Trains, and Teleportation

Just like in the real world, an important step in travel is determining what transportation you’re going to take. Say, you’re planning to go on a trip.  How are you getting there—are you going by plane, train, bus, etc.—and what you can use to travel around once you get to your destination? You should be the same amount of thought into travel in your story.

If your setting is historical, I recommend researching the period. For example, in 1800s England, the upper-class would’ve used carriages, while the lower class relied on walking or bicycles. But in Latin America in that same era, mule trains were common for long distances, and riverboats were used on the water. Remember that accuracy helps immerse the reader in the time and place of the story.

For fantasy or sci-fi, consistency is key. If your characters have access to teleportation, don’t suddenly make them trek through mountains for weeks without a reason. Readers will notice, and it will break the believability of your world. Use your world’s logic to shape how people move within it.

Growth on the Go

In my opinion, the journey itself is even more important than the destination. After all, having a grand, epic quest for the hero to go on is a staple of storytelling for a reason. The journey is where relationships deepen, secrets unfold, and growth happens.

When your characters travel across vast lands, they’re exposed to new cultures, unexpected dangers, and surprising allies. Maybe they meet a desert nomad who teaches them humility, or a mischievous spirit who forces them to question what they believe. Each encounter should either challenge or reveal something about them.

Letting the Road Lead the Way

Travel isn’t just about getting your characters from point A to point B—it’s about everything that happens in between. The road, the obstacles, the unexpected detours, and the quiet moments along the way all breathe life into your story. When you treat travel as more than a backdrop, it becomes a powerful storytelling tool that reveals character, builds your world, and keeps readers invested.

So, the next time your hero sets off on an adventure, don’t rush them to the destination. Let them wander. Let them struggle. Let them discover. Because in the end, the best adventures are the ones that take the audience with them.

Casey Simpson

Casey Simpson is a college student and writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. Initially, Casey wanted to be an animator, earning a diploma in Drawing Foundations - Animation & Illustration at Algonquin College in 2022, before deciding to pursue their life-long love of writing in higher education, returning to the same institution to take the Professional Writing course, which they are graduating from in 2026. They started out writing short stories, then later shifted to writing for newspapers, journals, and websites. They have a variety of works—from dark tales plagued with tragedy, to fun, punchy blog posts.

Creatures Of The Earth

When you're thinking about a creature, you have to think, what do you want this creature to do? How important is it to your story? Is it a domestic or wild animal? Why do you want this creature to be in your story? You must think of these questions when you create a creature. You can take inspiration from real life to help you as well! Many people, when making films and shows that have fantasy creatures, combine traits of different animals. For example, the Ikrans from Avatar were most likely inspired by dragons and birds of prey to give them their appearances and behavior. In many dinosaur documentaries, designers take inspiration from real-life animals.

Inspiration From Nature

 For example, in Dinosaur Revolution, they created a Temmick’s tragopan-inspired Gigantoraptor. And in the prehistoric planet, the male dreadnoughts' air sacs were most likely inspired by male sage grouse’s mating display. When people first illustrated animals, they were not quite good at it for example, the first illustration of a giraffe was quite… odd-looking to say the least. Not many people had seen a giraffe, so when it was drawn, they took the description of it quite…literally.

credit: Johothan Pointer on Youtube

Credit: Creative Diffrences

Open Your Imagination

But when you're trying to make your own creature, you have to be creative with it! Throw some things together to make it much more interesting. Let's say, for example, you wanna make a dragon that is gonna be the antagonist of your story. We can make him as big as a house with four legs and two wings, and he breathes fire. This is a standard description of a dragon and if you imagine him, he looks quite plain, so let’s make him more interesting. We could say he has long horns that curl back like a goat and that he has a row of spikes from his head to the end of his tail. His scales could be described as a mix of dark reds and orange, like a melted sunset, and his wings are golden like a fading sunset. Now he sounds much better and more interesting. It’s important to be descriptive with details so that the reader has something to imagine. You could also combine creatures to make something completely new, such as combining a bat with a hyena to make a creature that lurks in dungeons and seems intimidating, but in reality, is quite shy towards others. You must have fun when you think about making a new creature

Importance To The World

You also have to remember how the creatures are important to the world of your story. What is the effect that the creatures have on the world? What about the world affects them? Maybe your creature is a companion who provides comedic relief to the story and companionship to your characters. Small moments when the story interacts with the creatures make the world seem much more alive and fun! Having some creatures who play an important part in a culture is also another way you could connect them to your world. For example, one show named Mia and Me had unicorns, which were very significant to the story and world. They were important to the world since they used their magic to keep the plants alive and the land fertile. It is shown that without them doing this, the land withers and dies. This small detail becomes very important to the story since the main conflict of the show is the unicorns being hunted and taken away, and the heroes of the show must fight to defend them

Another media example is once again Avatar, the Na'vi use many creatures as transport, and quite a few are important to their culture, such as Ikrans, Direhorses, Great Leonopteryx, Ilu, Tsurak and Tulkun. Ikran and Direhorses are common mounts that help the Navi to travel quickly and reach places they couldn’t on foot. The Tulkun and Great Leonopteryx are a bit more spiritual to the culture of Navi. The Tulkun can communicate and form deep emotional bonds with the Navi, becoming part of their family, and the Great Leonoptryx is seen as a hero and uniter of people.

Credit: Disney

Credit: Disney

 Having creatures that play a huge or small part in your world makes it seem much more vibrant and alive, or gives your story wonder and Majesty. Something that makes your readers want to read everything about your story. So go outside, read a book, watch a show! Find something that inspires you and then use it to make something absolutely wonderful

How Food Can Kickstart Worldbuilding

So, what is worldbuilding?

Think of some of your favourite fictional worlds. What made them so immersive? You probably can’t put your finger on one thing. Rather, it’s everything in the world working together, making it believable. Every detail knits together to strengthen the narrative and suspend disbelief, to whisk your audience away to a land of make-believe of your creation. That is worldbuilding. Through these posts, we here at Brick by Brick aim to give you the tools to create immersive worlds of your own—regardless of experience.  

The spice must flow

One place you may wish to begin worldbuilding is with one of society's foundations: food. We all must eat. Food gives us insight into not only a character’s preferences, but also their geography, culture, and status. The agricultural revolution changed the way humans live and function forever, taking us from wandering nomadic tribes to settled peoples with growing cities.  

Not only should you think of what you want your society to eat, but also how they get the food in the first place. This can help inform how your society is structured from top to bottom. Try asking yourself some of the following questions to begin thinking about your world’s food source: 

• What kind of plants and animals are native to your world? 

• Is agriculture/farming the norm?  

• If not, perhaps fishing, hunting, gathering, or pillaging? How might these alter how people interact with one another? 

• Does your society trade for food? Who trades, and what? 

• Who in your society works to acquire food? 

• Are animals domesticated? If so, how are they fed and sheltered? 

• Does seasonality affect food? What is the climate like? 

• How long does it take to grow or acquire food? Is it scarce? 

• Does your world have access to spices or seasonings? Who gets them? 

Shaken, or stirred?

photo courtesy of Hayao Miyazaki, spirited away, 2001.

Once you have a grasp on how the food is harvested, you can begin looking at how it’s consumed—and by whom. Social status plays a part in who has access to what in our real world and will very likely be the case for any world you create as well. Not only the availability of ingredients, but also their preparation depends on the social status of whoever’s eating it. Some foods may be considered more ‘common’ than others—meaning that even if someone has the means to make something, they may not because of the status associated with it. Here are some more questions to consider: 

• What is the most/least common food in your world? 

• How visible are the different classes of society (i.e., can someone know what class you are from the way you look)? 

• How important are status symbols in your society? 

• How is the food eaten? Are plates and cutlery used? Are they used by everyone? 

• Who prepares the food? Do some households have staff to do their work? 

• Do holidays/religious ceremonies/celebrations affect what food is eaten? How might those outside these events be affected? 

• What happens with food waste? 

• How might recipes be shared? 

Answering these questions will tell you a lot more about your society than its food consumption. From this, you can develop a basic outline of the social structures in your world and the roles that might need filling. It will also help with geography as you work to pinpoint food sources and how a society might grow around them.  

Final food for thought

Food plays a much bigger role in your world than you might realize. If you think about the role food plays in your life, you can appreciate how it might have the power to unify or divide, to recall a time and place from long ago, or remind you who you are and where you come from. By examining the logistics of food—the where, why, who, and how—you can create a snapshot of both the world and the people inhabiting it as well as how they interact. By asking what some might consider the more tedious questions, you can learn the lay of the land—literally—and begin building a world worthy of getting lost in. 

---

Melanie Pledger is a second-year student of Professional Writing at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. She is published in Heritage Matters magazine and has done extensive research on local soldiers from her hometown, Owen Sound, where she created a museum exhibit in 2015. Melanie received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement the same year. Melanie lives on the water where she enjoys swimming and paddle boarding—weather permitting, of course.

Building a Better World for Our Human Senses

What are the ingredients for building a world where readers want to spend their time? Readers want to feel like they are part of the experience, and this immersive quality requires connecting with our five human senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. These senses are how people gather information about the world around them, regardless of their social status or background, so connecting with this common currency of basic human perception is fundamental to building effective worlds which draw readers in and compel them to enter a story and its characters.

Sights might include colours, textures, backgrounds, plants, or animals. What would readers see if they were transported to a place and experiencing the world from a first-person point of view? Which elements would stand-out and capture readers’ attention? Movement is a crucial aspect of visual perception because movement implies transformation, and attention moves towards transformation and change.

Hearing might include sounds, music, language, words, and tone. These are all crucial elements of how readers understand the worlds and stories they choose to immerse themselves in. Sound can be at the forefront good storytelling when dialogue is propelling a story forward, creating conflict or covenants between characters, but sound can also be in the background, adding to the visual element and creating atmosphere.

Smell, according to neuroscience research, is a sense which connects directly to the emotional part of our brain, bypassing the executive control centre. Smells come in many different forms and can influence human decision-making by triggering aversion or desire. In world building, smells add to the emotional resonance of readers’ perspective and a feeling of being there with all their sensory awareness.

Taste transports readers to the pleasures of a hearty meal or the bitterness of something foul. Taste is an internal sense which only the taster can experience, so adding to the sights, sounds, and smells of our created environment, flavors pull readers even more deeply into our world and its denizens.

Touch is the realm of sensual pleasure and physical pain, two of the most powerful forces shaping life. Desire and aversion are engines which move stories forward, creating conflict, tension, or love between the denizens of our created worlds. Adding touch to our already rich array of sensory descriptions is adding something personal for our readers, like readers could reach out their arms and feel what it’s like to be in a story, touching a soft piece of moss, or another person.

Sensory awareness is at the heart of what Martin Heidegger called thrownness, the experience of each individual human being thrown into the world. Heidegger’s view fits with modern research in cognitive science (see Donald Hoffman, David Chalmers) which posits consciousness as the true starting point for a theory of everything. It’s hard to argue with this perspective when one stops to consider its origin. The scientific method is built on making observations, and sensory awareness is what allows humans to observe the world around them. All human knowledge begins with our five senses.

The same goes for world building when it focusses on pulling readers into our creations and keeping them engaged. Just like real life experiences which engage our five senses, pulling us more deeply into awareness of the present moment, successful world building means engaging with our readers’ senses by describing what it would be like to be part of our world, using all the sights, sounds, smells, flavors, and tactile experiences of that reality. Our goal, as writers, is building worlds which readers want to inhabit.

---

Ryan is a writer who spends much of his free time reading; he especially enjoys philosophy and understanding the link between technology, mind, and culture. He teaches yoga and enjoys being physically active. Ryan has a degree in psychology and is working towards a diploma in professional writing. Ryan recently became a father for the first time.

Where Am I (And When)?

One of the most important steps in worldbuilding is determining what time and where the story is taking place. Is your story set in an old western town? Does this town hide a dark secret; one that all of the residents seem to know, but won’t dare speak? Or is it next to a booming gold mine that’s overrun with bandits constantly trying to steal from it? What about a seaside kingdom in the 1300s? Do the prim and proper nobles have large properties by the water? Or is that where the poor fishermen live in cramped stilt-houses? It’s necessary to think about details when you’re deciding when and where to set your story.

What Time Is It?

Let’s go over time periods first. As I’m sure any author that has written any work of historical fiction will tell you, nailing the time period can be quite difficult. Even if you do a ton of research, there are often gaps in historical records, and the farther back you go, the less information you have. Of course, perfection isn’t a requirement, even if you’re going for realism. If you have a compelling plot and characters, any historical inaccuracies—unless they’re very obvious, like an Ancient Egyptian having a cellphone—can mostly be ignored by your readers.

Genres like fantasy and sci-fi have a bit more wiggle room in terms of time periods and timelines. A lot of historical fantasy books in particular like to set their stories in some vague period during medieval times, often with some mixed influences from other eras as well. However, most people don’t really care, as any real historical accuracy goes out the window the moment you have dragons flying around. Sci-fi tends to be even more loose than historical fantasy, since usually sci-fi stories are more “what-if” scenarios, which can be anything you imagine it to be.

Location, Location, Location

One of the most important parts of story and world building is the setting. The story’s setting can immediately tell the reader a lot about what type of tale they’re in for and gives them an idea of what your world is going to be like. Setting can also serve as a good introduction for your characters. A good example is the start of The Killing Floor by Lee Child, which opens on the main character, Jack Reacher, sitting in a small-town café. The, at first, seemingly mundane atmosphere helps introduce the reader into the world and mind of Jack, firmly grounding the audience before the story starts to ramp up with action.

Similarly, you can also use characters to flesh out a location. Imagine for a moment that you go to a museum that has a ton of perfectly preserved artifacts, beautiful paintings, amazing statues, etc., but you just sit and play on your phone the whole time that you’re there. Are you going to remember any of the fantastic displays that the museum had? Probably not, right?  The same thing happens with characters and setting. You can describe a place in as much detail as you want, but if a character just stands and does nothing, it’s likely not going to leave much of an impact on the reader. If you’re struggling to add detail to a place, a good way to help with that it to imagine a character in that place. What can they do? What do they see? How do they feel?

Consistency

Whether you’re determining where the story is taking place, or when, the most important thing is being consistent. There are exceptions, such as a time travelling story, but your reader still needs to have a sense of where and when the characters are supposed to be, otherwise they just get confused. For example, The Witcher TV show has a storyline that jumps between the past, present, and future, but the show cleverly uses the character of Jaskier, or Dandelion, as a marker for when scenes are happening in the present, helping the audience to follow along with the winding tale.

Some authors draw maps of their worlds so that they, and the audience, can remember where everything is. This is strictly necessary, but you should still have some sense of how far one place in your world is to another, if climates are different in certain areas, etc. You don’t want to say that a town is the mountains to the north, only to later say that that same town is in the middle of a jungle. Similarly, if you say that the old saloon is the town hotel and bar, if the characters pass through that same town again, it shouldn’t now only be a bar. You never want to leave your audience wondering where the characters are supposed to be.

But, no matter what type of story you’re writing, you should ask yourself: What kind of technology does my world have? What clothing do they wear? What’s their architecture like? These are just some of the many important things to consider when trying to establish when and where your story is taking place

Casey Simpson

Casey Simpson is a college student and writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. Initially, Casey wanted to be an animator, earning a diploma in Drawing Foundations - Animation & Illustration at Algonquin College in 2022, before deciding to pursue their life-long love of writing in higher education, returning to the same institution to take the Professional Writing course, which they are graduating from in 2026. They started out writing short stories, then later shifted to writing for newspapers, journals, and websites. They have a variety of works—from dark tales plagued with tragedy, to fun, punchy blog posts.

A Guide to Worlds Without Clutter

When it comes to worldbuilding, some people make the mistake of believing that more details equate to a richer world. In reality, that’s not quite the case. It can dampen the reading experience by bloating the story with underdeveloped ideas. Plus, certain genres don’t require extensive worldbuilding. 

Now, you might be wondering what exactly counts as unnecessary detail? Anything that doesn’t contribute to the world counts. 

Cool Doesn’t Mean Cohesive

A story I once read had a magical, multicoloured flower introduced, but because of its lack of importance in the overall plot (it wasn't mentioned a second time), it felt unnecessary. There were already other elements to demonstrate that the story was magical. The flower itself brought no impact on the world.

It didn’t need to directly impact the plot, but what if the flower was part of the ecosystem meaningfully? What if its powers were used to sustain society, and its disappearance could cause consequences?

This is like referencing other media in your world, such as Greek mythology. Unless Greek mythos was always intended, adding random myths and lore from Greek mythologies comes off as uninspired.  

For instance, adding Cerberus as a creature characters have to fight, despite being in a world where monsters barely exist.  

Namesakes, on the other hand, can be interesting. A sci-fi robot with three heads can be called Cerberus or Hydra, and people’s knowledge of those names will help fill in the gaps. 

Mind-Numbing Logistics

Contrived details are another type of clutter in worldbuilding. These can range from how the planet tilts on its axis, to the calendar, to the phases of the moon, and to the exact temperature certain regions may have.  

These are neat details that, unless significant in how it shapes the world, are unnecessary. A lot of new writers make the mistake of adding things to their world because they find it fun and not because it fits.  

This seems to come from these authors being really invested in their worlds. They fill every country with details, religions, cultures… But once it gets to the writing process, their attachment to those details prevents them from streamlining what the reader needs to know. 

Learning what to prioritize is as essential as writing itself. You might think that, if everything’s consistent, then why not add more details to make sure others know about your extensive knowledge of the world? That’s because more often than not, no one’s going to care as much about this world as you.  

This ties back to “kill your darlings,” a saying often heard on the internet. It doesn’t mean getting rid of everything, but it means you don’t need to show the skeleton of your story.  

All those details you like about your world can be kept in a separate document, so if you ever want to make a second story set in the same world, you’ll have something to refer to. 

Details Depend on Genre

That being said, the expansion of a world strongly depends on the genre. Fantasy, sci-fi, or even historical can get away with extensive worldbuilding, because that’s generally what a reader expects from those types of stories. 

On the other hand, abundant details in other genres, such as romance or horror, feel pointless. In romance, the focus is the characters’ interactions, and the world serves as a backdrop rather than the focal point.  

In horror, a bit of worldbuilding can be helpful to assert the mood, but too much detracts from the main point, which is to be scared. Knowing too much erases the ability to fill in the blanks yourself and makes you think about the technicalities, which isn’t what you want. 

It’s for these reasons that you often see romance and horror taking place in the modern world, with a recurring “main” location. 

It’s not just in horror where too much detail detracts from the experience. It depends on what type of story you’re trying to build, but even fantasy can feel less fantastical with too much elaboration.

What I’m ultimately trying to say is that there is no shame in having a small or simple world for a story. Everyone’s creative process is different, so there will never be a hard set of rules. However, the reader knows best. People know what they want to read, and it’s typically not unfocused ramblings.   

There needs to be balance in everything. A story is meant to entertain, inspire, and that can’t be achieved without a clear purpose. Learning what to introduce is just one step towards reaching that purpose. 

---

Marion Landry studies at Algonquin College in the Professional Writing program. She began writing personal stories for about six years and has developed a critical sense of storytelling. Her favourite genre is fantasy, as are most of her stories-all filled with in-depth worldbuilding and richly explored narratives.

Brick 1: Language

Have you ever found yourself enjoying a historical novel only to be jarred back to reality with modern slang? What about coming across an unoriginal explicative and wishing for something more creative? Or a fantasy creature suddenly being compared to a typical sci-fi alien.

Language is more important to worldbuilding than many people realise. It might be tempting to create an entirely new language for your world, but it’s not entirely necessary. A similar effect that immerses readers is achievable by crafting specific terminology, exclamations, and in-world metaphors.

Terminology

                The non-magical humans in Harry Potter are referred to as “Muggles”; “Light Sabers” are glowing electrical/magical weapons in Star Wars. These are just some of the examples of terminology that didn’t exist before the stories. Without words like these, you wouldn’t feel as involved in the story. They are unique to the world/universe they belong to. You don’t need an entire dictionary full of new names for things, but a few wouldn’t hurt.

Swearing and exclamations

                Every culture has their own words they use in frustration. However, when reading, the F-bomb is only interesting for so long. Giving your characters something offensive to exclaim in their world can help retain your reader’s attention, if it’s used well - for example, “blood and ashes” and “burn me” in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

Do you need to swear?

No. In fact, a lot of fantasy and other genres that rely heavily on worldbuilding don’t include swearing at all. This lack of swearing is due to the intended audience of young adults (12-18). But the characters still yell at each other (“Fool of a Took!” -Gandolf, Lord of the Rings). So, creating a pattern or selecting specific words to use in these instances is a good idea.

In-world metaphors keep readers engaged

                Keeping your metaphors relevant to your world may be the hardest angle to take when adjusting your language to suit your world. If the story is about pirates and takes place on the ocean, comparing something in the sky to a seagull makes more sense than comparing it to an airplane. In a medieval fantasy, saying someone is as smart as a computer brings the reader out of the world because computers presumably hadn’t been invented yet (unless they’ve already been introduced to the story, but I digress). Try to imagine what people of the world would be familiar with and use that.

Increase engagement with language three ways

                Whether following Tolkien by creating entire languages or adding a handful of unique words into your world, terminology helps set the scene and settles your reader into your world. Not every world needs expletives, but everyone exclaims something when they stub their toe. What they say gives a peek into the characters’ experience and culture, making it something found only in your world and giving the audience something to say themselves. Keep the comparisons in-world and you’ll keep your readers there too.

How important is language to worldbuilding?

Language might not be the most important tool for worldbuilding we discuss on Brick by Brick. However, there is no denying that curating the language you use with the three methods mentioned can increase how interesting and believable your world is. Not everyone talks the same way. In the real-world people use different words, phrases, and languages depending on where they come from. You wouldn’t expect someone from Texas to speak with a British accent. The slang a thirteen-year-old throws around is drastically different from what their grandparents say.  The same applies to the worlds you build.  Give it a try!

---

Rebecca Roth is currently pursuing a certificate of Professional Writing at Algonquin College. She is an avid reader, preferring the fantasy genre. She is an aspiring author with several books in the works to publish in the next couple years.

Intro

Imagine this, you open a book, and you’re transported to a blank space. Slowly, colours and shapes bleed into your vision as the story unfolds and the setting expands. But for you to have this experience, someone had to fill in that blank space. Worldbuilding is essential to any story. Romance or mystery, fiction or non-fiction, they all need a place to be. Worldbuilding lets the world live on its own through architecture, customs, plants, people, and species. This blog discusses the best ways to approach worldbuilding in a way that makes stories more enjoyable.