Worldbuilding
📋 What it is
Worldbuilding invents a consistent setting — its rules, places, cultures and history.
🗣️ Coach says
Big stories need believable worlds. Worldbuilding is inventing the setting's rules (how magic or tech works), its places, cultures and history — and keeping them CONSISTENT so readers can trust and get lost in it.
🧠 Memory hook
Invent the rules and keep them CONSISTENT. A world readers can trust is a world they'll believe.
😂 Giggle
What did the tile-based map say to the hex map?
"I'm not square — I'm just well-organized!"
😲 Whoa!
Some authors write encyclopedias of their invented worlds — languages, maps, timelines — most of which never appears in the book.
✅ Quick check: Why must a fantasy world's magic have consistent rules?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
So readers trust it — if magic can do anything, there's no real tension.
Consistent rules make a world believable and keep stakes meaningful.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Invent one rule for a made-up world (e.g. "magic costs a memory") and one consequence of it.