When World Building Takes Over

And Three Other Pitfalls When Creating the World of Your Story

Okay, okay. So, there’s this alien.

And he crashed landed on Earth. He needs to find his way home.

He’s got these special powers that let him do all sorts of things like heal animals and read minds and stuff. He’s from a long line of princes on his home planet Borf and he was betrothed to a distant cousin from the Blergh galaxy. The Blergh galaxy is known for its rich stores of Byzantium, which is a fuel source that is 100 million times more powerful and efficient than coal. There have been wars for centuries between it and the Oof people of the OMG realm. The Oof people have long been led by the Yesthisisstillgoing line, currently ruled by Thisisgettingcrazy. Thisisgettingcrazy has been desperately searching for his long lost son and heir to the throne, Ivecheckedout who went missing in a freak hydroplane accident 4 quarks ago.

Does this ever happen to you?

You’ve got a fun idea for a story, in this case, an Alien stranded on Earth has to find his way home, but when you went to build out the world…. you kind of got carried away. You’ve created so much stuff, and are so into it, that now you’re trying to find a way to get it all into the story. Next thing you know, the story isn’t about an Alien stranded on Earth anymore, it’s about the freaking Oof people from the Blergh galaxy.

The worst part? You don’t even realize that’s what you’re doing. So, now you are trying set all this stuff up and can’t figure out why your Alien doesn’t even get to Earth until page 45. And then, because it’s all interesting to you, it’s hard to see what the problem is when you read the draft and find it lacking any zip.

THIS HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME

As I build out my characters, figure out backstories and wants and needs and the rules of my world… I get lost in them. So lost, often it takes me getting through a draft or two (or the bare minimum, a first act) before I can tell what’s wrong.

If you love telling stories, which I’m guessing you do if you’re writing a script, then it’s easy to see why this happens. Stories are fun! Sometimes we want to just keep going and going…

The key I’ve found is to determine your North Star (what is the story about in its most basic terms) and make yourself constantly check in with it. You can still go off into distant galaxies when you’re developing things, knock yourself out, but when it comes to putting it on the page, your North Star is all that matters.

In this silly example, the North Star is the Alien needing to find a way home.

So, my main structure, the way I outline the story, needs to ALWAYS have that front and center. If we find out in Act 2 while the Alien is bonding with a little boy that he was betrothed to someone from the Blergh galaxy and is really bummed about it, cool! That will deepen the story and the character. But these things are ADDITIVE not CENTRAL when it comes to TELLING the story.

Not in creating the story, though. In creating the story, it’s all important! Everything you come up with means something and is worth thinking about.

But when you TELL the story, you need to have a focus, you need to know what that North Star is. Otherwise, it all might be fascinating, but it will struggle with momentum and likely be difficult for a reader to really lock into.

A COMMON MISCONCEPTION IS THAT WORLD BUILDING IS JUST FOR THE SCIFI or FANTASY GENRE.

IT’S NOT.

All stories (all of them!) take place in a world of your creation - you need to let your audience know what that is. If it’s a coming of age story about a kid in high school, what’s that high school like? Who are the popular kids? Is it a sporty school or an arty school? Is this a multi-story Midwestern campus or a sprawling open one on the West Coast? Is this a conservative community? Liberal? Urban? Rural? Wealthy? Poor? What’s its central issue? Class? Race? Religion? None, it’s very homogenous? Or, none, everyone here is very open-minded and tolerant?

You get what I mean.

Okay, so you’ve created a world rich with detail, how do you get your audience to feel like they’re in that world when they read your script?

3 Pitfalls When It Comes To Immersing Your Audience Into The World Of Your Story