Why Worldbuilding Is the Key to Your Novel’s Success

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, Janet Forbes, author and CEO of World Anvil, shares how good worldbuilding can help your novel take off. World Anvil is a Camp NaNoWriMo 2020 sponsor.

In Jaws, a team goes up against a man-eating shark. And in the 10th century epic Beowulf, a legendary hero battles a terrifying monster. Although these stories feel very different, at their core, they are exactly the same story: Overcoming the Monster. What’s different is the setting, the characters, and the monster itself. In other words—the worldbuilding. And it’s the key to your novel’s success, too!

The three core elements of a story are setting, character, and plot. Setting is the most obviously related to worldbuilding. From Middle Earth to the USS Enterprise, setting is an instant key to tone and mood, genre, and the core uniqueness of your novel. 

The interactive map of the 5th Dimension, by Caeoa - the pins all link to information, articles and stories! 

But consider Character. Characters are shaped and moulded by the worlds they grew up in. Their beliefs and taboos, their training, the skills they’ve developed—they’re all defined by the world they find themselves in. For example, Superman’s extra-terrestrial origins are both his strength and his weakness, as well as his core character insecurity—he will always be an outsider, a literal alien. 

As for the third, Plot? Plots are driven by conflict. And conflicts are born of politics, religion, magic, resources, and history—in other words, worldbuilding. 

How can worldbuilding keep your novel on track?

If you’re struggling to find your plot, turn to your worldbuilding. What’s going on in the wider world, and how does that affect your characters? Whether your character is going up against a villain, society, supernatural forces, or even technology, worldbuilding will help you turn them into a developed conflict for your novel.

(Left): Character Profile: Fenrise Glen Aigleran by Happy (Right): A primer on Cybernetics by Tobias Linder

If you want to create deeper villains, build out their past experiences, their training and the institutions where they trained, their traumas and their triumphs. How have those scarred and formed your character? What bonds tether your character to people, places and things within your world? And what will they do to protect them?

Creating heroes can be done in the same vein. Reveal their insecurities, their struggles, their vulnerabilities, and show their basis in the way the world has treated them—and perhaps still does. It’s a sure way to help your readers sympathize with your characters. 

How do you keep track of your worldbuilding?

Three years ago, I was struggling to get my first novel off the ground. And it was keeping track of the worldbuilding which was getting me stuck! It just seemed so big, and so unwieldy. My husband, Dimi, created something for me: a place to track, link, and store my worldbuilding. We put it up online when our close friends said it might be helpful for others… and after a month 10,000 people were using it! After almost three years, our community—which is, by the way, one of the friendliest places on the internet!—has grown to almost a million writers, including bestsellers like Brian McClellan and Chris Fox, and a host of publishing companies too. 

The World of Dark-Fall’s homepage by Ninne124 invites readers to explore the world, and get hooked on the setting!

From in-depth character profiles to family trees, timelines, interactive maps, and articles you can link together, World Anvil has everything you need to build your world. Our worldbuilding templates are filled with genre-neutral prompts to inspire you! And you can now write your novel there too, in our new novel writing software! When you’re done, either export it, or host it on the World Anvil platform. 

Write and host your novel on World Anvil too! Locking chapters sends readers to your store or Patreon to buy access and support you!

For those building an author career, World Anvil helps you with every step. Advanced accessibility features allow you to keep your world private, share it with a select few, or show it to everyone. And you can monetize your way, with Kofi & Patreon or your own shop-front! Most importantly, you can build an author platform and keep your fans hooked on your writing. Dimi and I are all about lifting authors up. For those in our professional tier, we’ll support your work, and spotlight and feature you within the community!

To learn more about World Anvil and join our incredible community, go to World Anvil.com and create your free account. And if it looks like it’s for you, use the code CAMPNANO on check out (click the blue text on the payment window) for 25% off Master, GrandMaster, and Sage tier memberships of 6 or 12 months!

I hope you have an AWESOME Camp NaNoWriMo, whatever your goals. Happy writing and worldbuilding! 

—Janet

P.S. If you want more articles and advice like this, check out our blog and our youtube channel! 

Janet Forbes (pen name J.D. Blythe) is a published author and the CEO of World Anvil, the ultimate worldbuilding and novel writing platform! World Anvil helps you organize, store and track your worldbuilding as you’re writing your novel. Our novel writing software, accessible from anywhere, integrates stunningly with your worldbuilding. And when it’s time to publish, you can export, or publish directly on the World Anvil platform and monetize YOUR way! Check it out at World Anvil.