Quick Announcement

Before we get into today’s article on worldbuilders, I just wanted to take a second to say that the past few days have been absolutely amazing!

For those of you who don’t know, I just released A Traitor’s Vow, the second book in the Adventures in Eldnaire trilogy. Within the first day, A Traitor’s Vow became a #1 bestselling new release, and it already has fifteen reviews on Amazon (you can leave your review here).

No Words

I’m a writer, which means I work with words…a lot.

But in this case, I’m at a loss for words to describe how thankful, grateful, and blessed I feel.

Family, friends, and strangers alike have made the release of A Traitor’s Vow an incredible and unforgettable experience. So thank you! I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

If you haven’t had a chance to get your copy of A Traitor’s Vow yet, now is the perfect time! Click this link, or share it with someone who loves royal intrigue YA fantasy books.

And again, thank you all so much for making this release so amazing!

Intro Into Worldbuilding 

Every story has to take place somewhere, whether it’s a fantastical world of mythical creatures, a high-tech city with super-powered robots, or a run-of-the-mill coffee shop.

But when people think of worldbuilding, their minds usually go to the sci-fi or fantasy genres—for good reason. 

Even though it’s true that all  stories need some level of worldbuilding, genres like fantasy and sci-fi often require a lot of planning and research (and I’d go ahead and lump historical fiction into this category as well).

Depending on the story you’re trying to tell, you might need to do a ton of worldbuilding, or you might be able to get away with only doing the bare minimum.

You may absolutely love worldbuilding, or it might be the bane of your existence. Either way, knowing what type of worldbuilder you are can help you understand your worldbuilding habits, and may keep you from running into common problems that can hurt your writing.

So, without further ado, here are the three types of worldbuilders explained!

Planners

Planners are the type of worldbuilders who feel like they need to know everything there is to know about their world before they start writing.

They may or may not enjoy worldbuilding, but their main goal is to write an amazing story. That’s why Planners prefer to world-build as much as they possibly can ahead of time, so their story will be the best that it can be.

Storytellers 

A Storyteller is the type of worldbuilder who prefers to focus on their story’s plot, characters, and even its themes—rather than the worldbuilding. 

Storytellers may add some worldbuilding as they write, and are inspired by their characters and plot, but most of the time Storytellers will write a draft or two without thinking very deeply about the world their characters live in.

Creators

A Creator is the type of worldbuilder who is a worldbuilder first, and a writer second. In fact, they may even prefer worldbuilding to writing.

Creators find joy in creating new and interesting creatures and places, and usually get most of their story and character ideas from the things they create.

Some Creators may start building a world even before they have a plot, and will end up creating a plot and/or characters after they’ve already created a world, instead of starting with a plot/characters and building a world around them.

A New (Old) Series

Planners, Storytellers, and Creators all have their strengths and weaknesses as worldbuilders, and as writers. Over the next month or so, I’ll be taking a closer look at each worldbuilder type to show what each of them do right, and what pitfalls they’re prone to fall into (plus how to avoid them).

If you’re interested, be sure to join my newsletter so you won’t miss the next post in the series!

I started a similar worldbuilding series a couple years ago, but now that I’ve been published a few times and have way more experience with writing and worldbuilding, I want to revisit this series and share some of the things I’ve learned since then. 

Before You Go…

What type of worldbuilder do you think that you are? 

Let me know down in the comments!

When I don’t have any deadlines, I’m definitely a mix between a Creator and a Planner. But the second there’s a date on the calendar, I’m more of a Storyteller, and I force myself to forget about worldbuilding for a while…

Read my last article here!