Worldbuilding for Masochists
A podcast by three fantasy authors who love to overcomplicate things for themselves. They discuss worldbuilding in fiction, sharing their insights and experiences as writers. The show is aimed at fellow writers and enthusiasts of fantasy worldbuilding.
Episodes
Episode 187: Building Better Magic
Magic is a lot of what makes fantasy fantasy. So, how can you do it better? What makes magic good and fun to read in the first place? Here at Worldbuilding for Masochists, we feel pretty strongly that magic systems should be more than an infographic, a D&D table, or a Sorting Hat. How, then, do we build magic into a world in a way that makes sense? And, even more importantly (because absurd an
Episode 186: Does It Hurt When You Do This? ft. JESSE ARAGON
Fantasy protagonists are highly prone to getting stabbed, sliced, impaled, poisoned, bonked on the head, dropped off cliffs, and otherwise wounded. Which means they need someone to patch them up! So who does that in your invented world, and how do they learn to do it? Guest Jesse Aragon joins us to discuss emergency medicine and other issues of healing.
How much reality can you -- and should you -
Episode 185: How Much Is That Wyvern in the Window? ft. JOHN WISWELL
People and animals have lived together in lots of ways for thousands upon thousands of years -- and humans, as we know, will attempt to pack-bond with anything. But what does the domestication of animals mean in worlds that might have fantastical creatures or critters who can talk? Guest John Wiswell joins us to discuss the friend-shaped beings that inhabit our fantasy worlds.
When did your cultur
Episode 184: Building Better Cities
So, you're building a fantasy city: Plunk a castle in the middle, put some houses around it, make sure there are some inns and taverns, maybe a church or temple, slap it on a nice body of water, and call it a day, right? NAH. We can do better than that. In this episode, we explore ways that you can create cities that feel natural, lived-in, and unique.
Cities are idiosyncratic creatures. So many f
Episode 183: Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
It's the start of our eighth season! And we thought this would be a good time to examine what, exactly, we mean when we say "worldbuilding". There's been a lot of Discourse about it recently, and... yeah, we're a little spicy and spiky about it! So we're addressing, head-on, what we think are some popular misconceptions about what worldbuilding even is (hint: it's not tomes of lore, and it is in e
Episode 182: Stranger than Fiction, ft. GABRIELLA BUBA
Sometimes, the truth is weirder and stranger than anything we could make up -- and that's something a worldbuilder can use to their benefit! Guest Gabriella Buba joins us to talk about building real science into our magical worlds -- and the implications that can, in turn, have about a society's relationship with information, education, and the power structures that both derive from and control th
Episode 181: Journey to the Past, ft. SHANNON CHAKRABORTY
History underpins so much of what we do in the fantasy genre, directly and indirectly. So how do we make that history feel real in an invented world? What makes it feel old and settled as opposed to a culture that popped up out of the snow like a daisy to give the protagonist their story? Guest Shannon Chakraborty joins us to chat about why we love history, how we study it, and how we weave it tog
Episode 180: Subgenre Spin, ft. FONDA LEE
In previous episodes, we've discussed how some genres are more aesthetic-driven (like sci fi & fantasy) and others are more structure-driven (like romance and mystery). So how do subgenres within SFF play with elements of both? How can we blend tropes and reader expectations to put fresh spins on familiar subgenres? Four-time guest and friend of the podcast Fonda Lee joins us to explore the po
Episode 179: That's Me in the Spotlight, Worldbuilding My Religion, ft. VAISHNAVI PATEL
Faith is an element of society that intersects with a lot of other structures of power and privilege -- So what do we need to think about when incorporating real-world religions into our fantasy worlds and stories? Guest Vaishnavi Patel joins us to discuss Using cultures of faith respectfully but not fearfully!
From gender roles to the afterlife, from guiding moral compasses to provoking conflict,
Episode 178: Character and Conflict, ft. CARISSA BROADBENT
It's an oft-cited (though poorly citationed) aphorism of writing that you should “chase your character up a tree and throw rocks at them." Well, worldbuilding is what gives you the tree and the rocks! So how does your world provide opportunities and obstacles for your characters? Guest Carissa Broadbent joins us to explore making the relationship between character and conflict feel natural and org
Episode 177: Getting in Tune: Music in Worldbuilding, ft. MIA TSAI
Music is a cultural universal, something human societies have been producing since our very earliest days – So how do we use it when writing novels? How do we put the audial experience onto the page? Guest Mia Tsai joins us to discuss how to go beyond just slapping a bunch of lyrics down on the page! Music is about emotion and communication, so part of the craft of writing it into a book will mean
Episode 176: Atmospheric Conditions, ft. H.M. LONG
One of the things that can make a novel memorable is its atmosphere. So what do we mean, exactly, when we use that word, and how do we craft it? Guest H. M. Long joins us to attempt to answer that question amid the nebulous, numinous clouds of vibes and aesthetics.
Not every author's going to interpret it the same way, but it's a bit about the mood, a bit about how the setting creates the mood, a
Episode 175: Folklore Monsters and Their Origins, ft. AMÉLIE WEN ZHAO
From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the characters in your world to tell. So where do folktales come from, and how can we use them in our worldbuilding? Amélie Wen Zhao joins us to investigate the roots of folkloric monsters and their narrative potential!
We talk about the sometimes blurry lin
Episode 174: Stress-Testing Your Worldbuilding, ft. ANDREA STEWART
We often start the worldbuilding process with a lot of exciting ideas, shiny notions, and fun experiments -- so then, how do you make it make sense? Even in an invented world with its own history, geography, magic, and other special conditions, we generally still want it to feel like the society could plausibly have developed as we're presenting it. Guest Andrea Stewart joins us to discuss how we
Episode 173: Talking about Writing: A Crossover Episode with SFF ADDICTS (Adrian M. Gibson, M.J. Kuhn, & Greta Kelly)
There comes a time in the life of every author when they have to do that truly terrifying thing: Talk about their book. In this special crossover episode with SFF Addicts, we talk about talking about writing!
A lot of that involves the beast we all face these days: social media. Branding, marketing, algorithms, trends, parasocial relationships -- It's a lot. How much do you really need to do, and
Episode 172: Inquiries and Interrogatives
It's our first episode of 2026, and that means it's time for another listener Q&A episode!
From nitty-gritty craft details like writing good dialogue and measuring your pacing to broader concepts like "How do you make worldbuilding fun again after burnout?", we answer your burning questions about the work we do and how we do it.
And as a sidebar: If you want to be eligible to nominate for the
Episode 171: Eight Days a Week
As we turn the pages of our own calendars, let's think about how the cultures we build in fantasy and science fiction mark the passage of time! What shapes the patterns of life for your characters? Do they judge years and seasons and months by the movement of celestial bodies, by agricultural phenomena, by winds and rains and storms, or by something else? The lunisolar calendar is a frantic hodgep
Episode 170: Save It for the Patreon
We know we’re worldbuilding masochists – But when is too much really, really too much? Some of us try to do all our worldbuilding at the start of a project -- and some of us do it as we go. However you work, where's the line between worldbuilding that's helpful to you and worldbuilding that's become a way to evade actually writing? And, does that line change depending on what your own intentions a
Episode 169: For the Cartography-Curious
Few things are more glorious than opening up a fantasy book and seeing a gorgeously detailed map right up front. So what goes into making that masterpiece for you to feast your eyes and imagination upon? In this episode, we discuss our love of maps, some of the ways we make maps, and the relationship between the map and the text. We also share some of our favorite maps, as well as exploring some n
Episode 168: It's Bigger on the Inside... of Book Two, ft. APARNA VERMA
So: Whether it was always intended and contracted, you told the “standalone with series potential” fib, or the public has simply demanded more, you now have to write a second book in the same world. How do you expand the world while maintaining the throughline of your story? And how might you know when you've over-extended? Guest Aparna Verma joins us to discuss the perils and potential of broaden
Episode 167: Spice Up Your Worldbuilding. ft. NIA DAVENPORT
So, you've decided it's time to turn up the heat on your worldbuilding. Maybe you're writing a full-on romantasy, or maybe it's a smaller component of your overall plot, but if your characters are getting down and dirty, how do you make sure they're getting their freak on in a way that reflects the culture they exist in? Guest Nia Davenport joins us to explore all the angles -- and positions.
When
Episode 166: The Histo-Remix, ft. ALIX E. HARROW
We use history a lot in our worldbuilding, whether as a direct re-interpretation or as inspiration for a secondary world that we’re creating. So… why do we do that? And what choices do we need to examine as we do so? Guest Alix E. Harrow joins us to discuss weaving historical realities into our fiction.
The construction of history is, itself, always the process of creating a narrative through auth
Episode 165: Pour One out for Your Worldbuilding
From beer to gin, from caffeine to tobacco, from mushrooms to hallucinogenic snails, a culture's options for achieving altered states of consciousness through consumables are vast! So when the people in your culture want to get blitzed -- How do they achieve that? The choices can communicate a lot to your readers about your world's technology, climate, and topography, as well as their ideas about
Special Episode: ArmadilloCon 2025!
This episode was recorded live as a panel at ArmadilloCon 2025!
We give a little history of the podcast, re-introduce ourselves for the in-room audience and any new listeners, and discuss the world of the Magical Nude Gates and our individually-cultivated cultures within it. We also discuss a bit of our general approaches to worldbuilding and our "Choose, Don't Presume" ethos.
Then, we take some q
Episode 164: Worldbuilding and the Lens of Perspective, ft. MARTIN CAHILL
A point-of-view character's experience of the world will shape the information that the reader gets about that world. So, a lot depends on who that character -- or characters -- might be! How can you turn their knowledge -- or lack thereof -- into a plot hook? Does the audience have information before a POV character does? How does their personality affect how information gets communicated to the
Episode 163: Gryphons and Dragons and Owlbears, Oh My!
Mythical and magical creatures are a staple of the fantasy genre, sometimes as obstacles for heroes to face, sometimes as healers and dispensers of wisdom, sometimes fulfilling roles both stranger and more mundane. If you decide to include such beasties in your world, what are they doing there? And how deep you delve into the biology and ecology of these creatures? Do you need to make them make so
Episode 162: A Leap of Faith: Worldbuilding Fantasy Religions, ft. DEVA FAGAN
Fantasy religions often feel like reskins either of ancient Greek or Norse pantheons or of the medieval Catholic church. But what more interesting choices can we make when we're building faith within an invented world? Deva Fagan joins us to explore some of the options! How your people envision deities, the afterlife, and the very bones of the universe can illuminate a lot about their overall valu
Episode 161: The On Ramp
In this episode, we're taking a closer look at something we refer to a lot when we're talking craft: the on-ramp. Which is to say, at the beginning of your book, as you're introducing your world, how much stuff can you throw at your reader how quickly to get them up to speed? And how much is too much and might cause a reader to get bounced right out of the story?
Your readers come in with a lot of
Episode 160: Cozy Worldbuilding, ft. SARAH BETH DURST
What makes a story -- and a world -- "cozy"? What are the conflicts, challenges, and obstacles like when, instead of taking the Ring to Mordor, you heroes are trying to keep a coffee shop afloat or open a pet shop? Sarah Beth Durst joins us to discuss not just what cozy fantasy is, but how its radical joy can be a powerful act of subversion when the real world tells us to be cynical or defeatist.
Episode 159: Holding Out For A Heroic Worldbuild, ft. JOHN WISWELL
What is the measure of a true hero? What a society consideres heroic can say a lot about their values, needs, and ethos -- but it's also something that can shift a lot over time and from location to location. Is heroism about physical strength? Strength of faith? Strength of heart? Or is it about cunning and cleverness? Guest John Wiswell joins us to discuss the worldbuilding implications of hero-
Episode 158: The Invisible Hand of Worldbuilding, ft. ELIZABETH BEAR
In one way or another, economy touches almost everything in a world. Even without currency or capitalism in the sense that we currently know it, the idea of obligations and repayment exert pressure on society. So how can we make interesting worldbuilding choices when it comes to money, debt, gain, and other aspects of economy? Guest Elizabeth Bear joins us to explore the options!
Where does money
Episode 157: How Far We've Come, ft ROWENNA MILLER
It's the start of SEASON SEVEN! And original co-host Rowenna Miller is back to join us in a reflection of how multiple years of doing this podcast has affected how each of us thinks about worldbuilding. What have we learned from our many amazing guests, and how have they inspired us to think about worldbuilding in new ways? Have our worldbuilding interests and focuses shifted? And since the real w
Episode 156: From a Certain Point of View, ft. KATE ELLIOTT
It's one of the first choices you'll make when writing a story, consciously or not: what point of view are you writing from? First person singular? Third person limited? Omniscient? Something else? The POV can affect a reader's experience of the narrative and the worldbuilding, either subtly or dramatically -- so how do you decide what's right for this story? Kate Elliott joins us to explore the p
Episode 155: The Rule of Cool, ft. JIM C. HINES
We often think about "making things make sense" in worldbuilding and building internal consistency, scientific realism, and other logic-based considerations into our fiction -- But what happens when your worldbuilding principle is “What would be awesome?" Jim C. Hines, who embraced this principle for a forthcoming book, joins us to explore the possibilities!
The Rule of Cool, credit to, is defined
Episode 154: Judge Worldbuilding by Its Size, Do You?
We often think of worldbuilding happening on a grand scale, with huge maps and the sweeping narratives of nations and world-changing events. But that's not really the stuff that makes a world feel lived-in. The granular choices are what show day-to-day life, and day-to-day life illustrates so much about how a world has developed, how a culture has grown, and how people negotiate the circumstances
Episode 153: A Long, Skilled, Satisfying Cunning Linguist Session
How can language help shape your worldbuilding? We're not necessarily talking about conlang here -- that can certainly be part of worldbuilding, but it doesn't have to be, and many works of speculative fiction manage perfectly fine without invented languages. But the words you choose in description and dialogue will also communicate something to your reader.
There are so many ways that words can c
Episode 152: Setting the Scene, ft AI JIANG
Sometimes, people will say of a book that "the setting is another character". But what does that really mean, and how can a writer craft it? Ai Jiang joins us to discuss creating worlds and settings that have their own personalities! From the physical geography to the architecture, from the scale of the location to its dynamism, writers can make a lot of choices to make their setting feel unlike a
Episode 151: Everybody’s Working for the Worldbuild, ft AUGUST CLARKE
In amazing fantasy and science fiction worlds -- Who's doing the work? Where does the food come from? The clothes? Who does the caregiving? Guest august clarke joins us to discuss the hands and bodies that create a society.
Labor is something that’s often sort of invisible in stories if it’s not explicitly the driving focus of a book – So, why is that? How can authors better incorporate labor into
Episode 150: Team Efforts, ft. THIRD PERSON (Xen, Matt Roen, and Sara Wile)
Worldbuilding means getting to “play god” – so how does that take a different shape when you’re part of a pantheon rather than the One True Ruler of your world? Xen, Matt Roen, and Sara Wile, the creative trio behind Midst, a surreal sci-fi fantasy audio drama now produced by Critical Role Productions, join us to discuss co-creating a world and the stories that happen within it!
When working as a
Episode 149: Especially the Lies: Building Unreliable Worlds, ft. MARINA LOSTETTER
What happens when the world your characters -- or your readers -- first find themselves in turns out to be not quite what it appears? Marina Lostetter joins us to explore the different ways that a writer can play with an unreliable world. Maybe it means a story of scientific discovery that reshapes how their characters perceive their place in the universe; maybe it means a story where information
Episode 148: Horny on Main: Smutting Up Your Worldbuilding
In honor of Valentine's Day, the season of Carnivale, and our own amusement, we bring to you this extra-long episode, where we heat things up and get a little down and dirty with our worldbuilding. What role does sex play in the world you're building -- and how do you depict that?
This comes up a lot, obviously, in romantasy and other related subgenres, but even if that's not what you're writing,
Episode 147: Something Is A-Myth, ft. KRITIKA H. RAO
Mythological retellings have been having A Moment in fiction for a few years now. So, why do we do that? Kritika H. Rao joins us to explore the power and agency inherent in recontextualizing mythology for a modern readership! What is it that we reclaim or rediscover in retelling these stories for ourselves? And, on the other end of the scale, how can the retelling of ancient stories sometimes be w
Episode 146: A Matter of Character (ft SOPHIE BURNHAM)
The world a character exists in shapes their identity on many axes of power and privilege. So how do those various scales affect the emotional stakes of the story they find themselves in? Guest Sophie Burnham joins us to discuss building a world that suits the characters you have in your head!
As a writer who starts with character first, Burnham answers questions about their world after they know
Episode 145: To Worldbuild or Not to Worldbuild, That Is the Question
And obviously the answer is yes! But in this episode, we answer your questions! We talk about the "rules" and common advice of worldbuilding -- and the ways in which we merrily ignore, redefine, or defy them. We pull apart some techniques related to the craft of communicating worldbuilding to a reader and how to achieve balance within a story. We do some shop talk about the publishing world. And w
Episode 144: What Do You Do with a B.A. in Magic?
How do the people in your world learn things? Lessons learned might come from formalized institutions, but knowledge might also get passed down through families, through guilds and trade organizations, or through the wisdom whispered in a character's ear by the trees. A world's literacy rate will define a lot about how information gets transmitted, preserved, or altered over time. So who controls
Episode 143: Children of the Revolution
In this episode, we discuss purely fictional, 100% not-at-all real, nothing to do with contemporary life ideas about rebellions and revolutions. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons is coincidental. Completely.
Continuing our "back to basics" series, and jumping off of a lot of the things we've discussed in the recent episodes on governments and politics, we think about what hap
Episode 142: Law & Order (DUN DUN)
So once you've got a government, what can that government do? What does it regulate, and how is it, itself, regulated? Laws can be created for a lot of reasons, some good and some bad. Sometimes they protect a citizen's opportunity to do certain things, sometimes they present a block to those opportunities, and very often, they aren't applied equally and equitably across all of society. So when yo
Episode 141: More Perfect Unions
Government is a set of rules agreed upon, and politics is how a society determines those rules. So how do you create the systems by which civilizations negotiate those levers of power in your fantasy or sci-fi world? On the sliding scale of representation to authoritarianism, where do the civilizations in your world fall -- and why? What pressures have shaped society to behave in the ways that it
Episode 140: Practical Magic, ft. ROWENNA MILLER
As with the last two “back to basics” episodes, we thought we’d spend some time looking the thing that (usually, though there are exceptions) makes fantasy fantastical – the magic! How do we build magical systems, and what questions do we ask ourselves while doing so? Guest and former WFM co-host Rowenna Miller joins us to discuss how, exactly, we make magic!
With magic being a foundational elemen
Episode 139: 2 Crunchy, 2 Curious
We’re spending a couple of episodes going back to the basics of worldbuilding, talking about the questions that it’s often fruitful to ask oneself when you’re doing this wild thing. Last time we did the physical world, so now it’s time for the world of people!
What are the building blocks of a human life? (Or an alien one, or draconic, or elven, or whatever you've got?) From the most intimate rela
Episode 138: Crunchy Questions
Every once in a while, it's good to go back to the basics. And for us, that means the basics of worldbuilding!
When you're getting started out with a new project, building a world from the ground up, there are a lot of things you can take into consideration! This episode is not so much about finding the answers as figuring out how to ask the questions and what kinds of questions you want to ask. H
Episode 137: Smile and Be a Villain, ft. CHLOE GONG
A villain may not have excuses for their behavior -- but they probably have reasons. How can worldbuilding feed those reasons? Antagonists are often those characters who are both the most willing and the most able to seize control of power structures and take advantage of their privileges. So what pressures in your world have created those structures, and how does your Big Bad maniuplate them? Gue
Episode 136: Live from WorldCon in Glasgow!
We were all in the same room! And that room was in Scotland! In this episode, your WFM co-hosts were able to record a special episode at WorldCon. We chat about ourselves, our works, the Traveling Light anthology, and our favorite components of a world to build.
And then, we take some audience questions! (We apologize that some of them are a little hard to hear; they had a mic, but it seems it was
Episode 135: Philosophical Acts of Translation, ft. KEN LIU
What can translation and transmission of ideas and stories over time teach us about a society -- and about storytelling? Guest Ken Liu joins us to talk about the intertwining of philosophy, imagination, and translation. As writers, we can never fully translate the story that plays out in our heads onto the page, because every reader will imagine something a little different. How do we embrace that
Episode 134: Print The Legend: Weaving Myth and History into One, ft. NALO HOPKINSON
Where does mythology come from? How does it tie us together? What does one world's mythology tell us about its people, how they view themselves, and their interactions with the divine? We speak to Nalo Hopkinson about myths, mythologies, folklore, and the stories that we tell each other as well as the stories we invent.
[Transcript TK]
Our Guest: Nalo Hopkinson is the award-winning author of numer
Episode 133: The Devil in the Details, ft. M.J. KUHN
A perennial question that our listeners often have is: How do you organize your worldbuilding? Do you have templates to use? Charts to fill out? Once you start imagining all your fantastic choices, how do you keep track of them all and then weave them along with your plot? Well, the answer to all of this, as with so many writing questions, is "do what works for you" -- but how do you even figure o
Episode 132: Just a Small Town Worldbuild, ft. CHERIE PRIEST
A lot of the time, fantasy worldbuilding invokes huge maps, spanning civilizations and continents, with characters traversing vast distances on their epic quests. But what about the worldbuilding that happens with a tighter focus on an intimate, even insular location? Guest Cherie Priest joins us to discuss creating small towns just ripe for gothic mysteries, peculiar traditions, and weird, haunti
Episode 131: Projects!
It's the start of our sixth season! And we've got some projects going on.
The Traveling Light anthology, which we Kickstarted -- with the help of many of you listeners! -- at the start of the fifth season, is now almost complete! We've finished the page proofs and are about to turn this into a Real Book. In this episode, you'll get to hear from the anthology authors about their amazing, exciting,
Episode 130: Large-Scale Worldbuilding for Character-Centric Worlds, ft. REBECCA ROANHORSE
Massive worlds require massive worldbuilding -- or do they? Sometimes, a narrower, character-centric scope can create a tight and compelling narrative while still crafting an expansive world. Guest Rebecca Roanhorse joins us to discuss how knowing your characters can help you konw your world.
What does it mean to let character lead worldbuilding? How does that define your scope and how much worldb
Episode 129: Motorcycles and Magic, ft HANA LEE
"Traditional" fantasy novels often hold themselves to a pre-gunpowder/pre-steampower level of tech. So, what’s fun about setting a fantasy world in an era that has anything from the printing press to cell phones? Guest Hana Lee joins us to explore incorporating the technological into the magical world!
How can the harnessing of magic be similar to or dissimilar from channeling other kinds of power
Episode 128: The Carousel of Progress
Making fantasy worlds into living, growing worlds means giving them a history of change and growth and shifts in technology and culture, not to mention governments and borders. We talk about building history, historical ages and generational shifts, as well as diving into what are the historical ages in the world of the MNG, and how has it grown?
Also! It is Hugo Award voting time! And we would l
Episode 127: Expanding Worlds
It's been a while since we spent some time in the world of the MNG! So in this episode, we apply some topics from recent episodes as well as some worldbuilding staples to the cultures we've been developing in our ongoing co-created world. We play with nifty biology! We consider the monstrous! We think about love and education and phases of growth!
How does Mirraden conceputalize and use the Gates?
Episode 126: When Worldbuilding Gets Wild, ft PREMEE MOHAMED
Critters, creatures, and things that crawl -- part of the fun of building a new world is getting to populate it with not just sapient characters, but all the flora and fauna. And sometimes, that means the things you find in the smallest corners and crevices. Guest Premee Mohamed joins us to talk about the role of bugs and other biology in worldbuilding!
Bugs are a critical part of our world, perfo
Episode 125: Monstrous Worldbuilding, ft. JOHN WISWELL
From the Minotaur to xenomorphs to the undead, monsters and their ilk have long been a staple of the sci-fi and fantasy genres. But what exactly is it that makes a monster? Guest John Wiswell joins us to discuss how monsters in fiction often reflect not only our primal fears, but also the people that society seeks to Other. When monsters reflect what a real or fictitious society values and doesn't
Episode 124: Worldbuilding in Review, ft. PAUL WEIMER
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to work with worldbuilding as writers -- but how does a reviewer approach the topic when they're reading works of sci-fi and fantasy? Guest Paul Weimer joins us to share his insights as a prolific consumer and critiquer of speculative fiction! Paul talks about the details that he pays attention to, the things he looks for, and the things that draw his atte
Episode 123: Worldbuilding in Your Underpants, ft. JOHN HARTNESS
When you're creating your world and bringing it into a story, how much do you let show? Guest John Hartness joins us to discuss balancing the off-page and on-page elements, and how that balance might shift based on what kind of a world you're working in and what sort of a story you're telling. How do you ensure that the worldbuilding serves a purpose and serves the characters?
In this episode, you
Episode 122: Now Kiss: Building Romance into Your Worlds, ft. GWENDA BOND
We've talked before about the difference between aesthetic-driven genres, like sci-fi and fantasy, and structure-driven genres, like mystery and romance. So what happens when you want to build a world just ripe for all your favorite romance tropes? How can your world create the obstacles to your characters getting their happy-ever-after? Guest Gwenda Bond joins us to talk about the love of worldbu
Episode 121: Brave New Worlds, ft. FONDA LEE and MELISSA CARUSO
When you've put your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into building a world -- what happens when you then have to leave it behind? Most SFF authors will, at some point, close up their work in one world and start building a new one, but that comes with its own set of challenges! You know the old world so well; it's become comfy and familiar. The new world still has all its work yet to be done,
Episode 120: World Bibles and the Gospel According to Tolkien
When you're creating tomes of information about your world -- spreadsheets of demographics, maps at every level of geography, tomes of lore -- how do you keep tabs on it all? How much can you keep in your head, and how much has to be written down, codified, and carefully tracked? In this episode, we explore our tools of worldbuilding.
We use all sorts of different methods and platforms, some of th
Episode 119: Worldbuilding Philosophy and Practices
Why do we worldbuild the way that we worldbuild? The start of a new year seems like a great time to take a zoomed-out view of how we do this thing that we do. In this episode, we consider, contemplate, and cogitate on the major concepts that guide our worldbuilding. Why is it important to us? What parts of it are important for us, and help us find our story and develop our characters?
Too, how do
Episode 118: Passing the Torch
In this final episode of 2023, we have a momentous announcement!
Rowenna Miller is stepping down as a full-time co-host of the podcast, because... well, life! It happens to us all sooner or later. But fear not! Rowenna will still be joining us from time to time, and she's still working with us on the Traveling Light anthology.
And we're welcoming an amazing, fantastic, glorious new co-host! Please
Episode 117: More Queries and Quandaries
It's another listener Q&A episode! Many thanks to the folks who submitted their questions!
In this episode, we tackle some things that can block and stymie your worldbuilding, how to approach research that's not really in your preferred milieu, and some details about how we interact with our guests.
Also, learn what your hosts' favorite holiday pies are! No one asked us that, but we're telling
Episode 116: Choosing, Presuming, and Decision Fatigue
Worldbuilding is great! You get to make all the choices! On the other hand... you have to make all the choices.
"Choose, don't presume" has long been our ethos on this podcast, but does choosing always mean making the weirdest possible choice? Does every choice have to Make A Statement? Does an "anything goes" approach to worldbuilding actually make things harder than setting some boundaries for y
Episode 115: When Not Writing Is Writing, ft. MUR LAFFERTY
Everyone knows that writing is writing. And everyone knows that authors are super great at finding things to distract us from our writing. But under what circumstances is not-writing essential to writing? Guest Mur Lafferty joins us to explore the underpinnings of the writing process!
From research and concept-noodling to moodboards, playlists, and other creative expressions, what non-writing thin
Episode 114: The St Crispin’s Day Special, ft. ANNA SMITH SPARK
When the glorious hero calls for his allies to follow him into battle... why should they? And how can that hero convince them? In this extremely-niche-themed episode, guest Anna Smith Spark joins us to explore the interplay of language and leadership!
In fiction, we love a great, rousing speech -- but how realistic is that stirring moment? (And do we care if it's realistic, or do we follow the Rul
Episode 113: Trust Your Instincts, ft. SEANAN MCGUIRE
A lot of work and thought can go into worldbuilding, but sometimes, you just have to go with what feels right. In this episode, guest Seanan McGuire joins us to explore how writers can make the most of their worldbuilding flow and lean into their personal resonance.
How can writers develop worldbuilding instinct? Why does worldbuilding come easily to some writers but require more conscious effort
Episode 112: Whirlwind Worldbuilding ft. JAMES L. SUTTER
This one's for the folks who don't want to spend a few eons building their world before they can start their story. Author and game designer James L. Sutter joins us to share some quick-and-dirty methods for getting the worldbuilding going!
In this episode, we explore the question of how much worldbuilding is necessary -- and when it's necessary. If you already have your plot and want to charge ri
Episode 111: Let’s Pick a Fight: Balancing Realism and the Fantastical in Martial Matters, ft. S.L. HUANG
Shiny swords, sharpshooting archers, magically-assisted martial arts: all these things are staples of fantasy literature. But how do you do fights right? Guest SL Huang joins us to discuss all the pointy bits!
In this episode, we think not just about the technology and technicalities of fighting, but also how combat fits into (or goes against the grain of) social norms. Is your world one where a c
Episode 110: In Your Leisure Time, ft. MATT WALLACE
Hobbies and leisure activities aren't just neat ways to give your characters something to do in-between plot beats -- they can also communicate a lot to the reader about the world you're building! Developing hobbies and entertainment in a world also touches on what that culture thinks about work, income, community, and many other components of society. Guest Matt Wallace joins us to discuss the op
Episode 109: Seer-iously: Religion, Prophecy, Politics and Tradition, ft. APARNA VERMA
Our discussion of integrating religion and faith into your fantastical world continues! In this episode, guest Aparna Verma joins us to examine the deep connections between religious belief and the choices your characters make. How do they negotiate their relationship with their faith and the stories that go along with it? What happens when, thanks to a prophecy, they become one of those stories?
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