Worldbuilding as societal commentaryĮspecially evident in dystopian novels from The Handmaid’s Tale to The Hunger Games, writers frequently enlist their worlds as a central part of social critique.

Whether we’re writing Tolkien-style high fantasy, steampunk, space opera, or postmodern metafiction, basic principles of construction can help us all. Next week, we’ll delve into how to present (or suggest is probably the better word here) these worlds in our texts. The ideas in this post exist very much in the planning stage of the writing process. Today, we’ll explore some of the challenges, joys, and necessities of effective worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is one of the great excitements of the writing process, as our minds, omnipotent in the world of the story, trace out societies and structures which our characters inhabit.

The worlds we construct inside our stories, especially in speculative genres, carry our readers to new possibilities, new ways of thinking about life and what is set and normal.

Space opera world building