Worldbuilding for Masochists

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, religion has the potential to affe...

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 organic through the world they exist i...

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 exploring how your characters feel...

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 bit about the characters' sensory e...

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 lines between folklore, mythology, fab...

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 can create systems of power and cul...

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 how can you set boundaries around y...

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 2026 Hugo Awards -- perhaps, say, f...

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 hodgepodge in our own world; how does tha...

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 and goals are?

Often, it's important...

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 non-traditional types that we'd love...

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 broadening those horizons.

One of the most...

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 we're thinking about the culture o...

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 authorial and editorial choices, and so...

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 health. Alcohol and other intoxican...

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 reader? Guest Martin Cahill joins u...

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 some sort of scientific sense, or can...

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 values and how they self-mythologize th...