On Worldbuilding- A Page From Tolkien’s Book

Every fantasy writer wants to craft an intricate world that is not only fascinating— but believable. There is a difference between fantasy worlds that come off as too magical, ridiculous, or unbelievable, and those that feel real— despite the magic, strange creatures, and whatever other fantastical elements your world happens to have. 

But what is it that makes a world so believable that it isn’t just some cheesy fairytale place that people see from a distance— but instead is a world you are a part of? 

First, a common writer’s law: Avoid exposition. Or, as I know it to be called, the terrible info dump. This is, basically, when you include unbroken, long dumps of information through, 1) character thought or dialogue or 2) an explanation outside of character thought or dialogue. Info dumps are something you can avoid by the classic, “show don’t tell” rule, which I will probably touch on in a later post, (it’s pretty self-explanatory for now though).

In addition to avoiding exposition, I think that one of the key factors in making your fantasy world believable (and all of this applies to sci-fi and dystopian genres as well), is how your characters interact with the world itself— how it is revealed through their eyes.

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s famously amazing Lord of the Rings series, the world is detailed and full of unreal things, yes, but it also comes off as incredibly real to you, like an actual place in an actual time. (and this is how all fantasy worlds should be, as close to being real as possible). The worldbuilding he does is so detailed, intense, and full!

And yet, one of the things I noticed that really lent a hand to the world’s believability is a sense of “normal” that comes whenever the characters interact with the world and its lore or mythology.

In Lord of the Rings, you read about an interaction with a creature that is called a “Barrow Wight” …something that never gets a full explanation or introduction, despite having interacted with the characters and impacted their journey largely. Why is this? 

Because to Frodo and Sam, a Barrow Wight is, in a sense, normal. It may not be something they’ve ever encountered before, but they’ve clearly heard stories or news of these creatures, or simply grown up around the fact that they are real— and knowing that Barrow Wights are real, knowing what they are and what they do, doesn’t require any explanation for the characters— and therefore none for you. If something is an integral part of your world, your character is likely going to know about it. The hobbits grew up around stories of the war between Sauron and the free men of Middle Earth— so most of that was something they already knew. And while it would be cool to have every little detail of worldbuilding and lore that is there, the element of mystery is something that makes it all the more real. In the real world, you don’t know everything, and you don’t regularly think about what you know.

Now, Frodo didn’t know about the wring-wraiths, or much about the One Ring, and some other things like that. There are things your character won’t know and will have to learn throughout the story— things that the reader has to learn through the character’s eyes. But you have to ask yourself this when worldbuilding: what would my character know, and what would my character not? Logically, would this be a part of the myth and lore that average people know? Or is it something that only a select group of people (or even a single person) know about? Take into account each character’s backstory, circumstances, and personality when coming to this conclusion.

When asking yourself this, also consider how your character would learn the things they need to learn. Is it taught to them by someone else (a friend or mentor perhaps)? Do they have to make their own observations and conclusions about this certain aspect of the world? There are many ways you can have your character learn something without exposition.

And one final question: what if your audience needs to learn something my character(s) should already know? If this is the case, then it really is just a decision of how you realistically slip that information into the story. Perhaps it is mentioned in passing but described more fully as your characters interact with it. Break up the information into reasonable sections that aren’t just huge info dumps or exposition paragraphs.

Keep these questions in mind when revealing your incredible world through the eyes of your characters!