Going in depth with a fantasy world is actually very simple.

Worlds are built on stories. When you write backstory, lore, when you write the twists and turns of a story, that is the core of worldbuilding.

If you want to create a world that feels alive, and makes the viewer want to stay and explore, you just need to do one thing.

Tell more stories, and tell them well. Below are a few ways you can bolster your world and make it feel more real.

Subscribe now

📝 World Origins

Coming up with your worlds history is a great foundation for any fantasy world, but a worlds’ origin is a larger piece behind the history. How did it come to be?

🤔 Did something or someone create the world?

🏔️ Was it forces of nature?

🌎 Did the world always exist?

Create your worlds origin story, and then decide wether it should be a well known fact how the world came about or if it should be shrouded in mystery.

📝 Multiple Languages

A great way to add depth to your world is adding multiple languages.

Imagine a scene where two armies meet, and their commanders walk up to each other and realize that they don’t speak the same language.

You can use this to add depth, conflict, and complexity to a world while keeping it grounded in a form of realism. While fantasy worlds are just that, it helps the reader if the worlds are based on a realistic foundation. I know that in many fantasy books I’ve read, there are up to five different languages, and watching the author work around this made me believe the setting could be a real place.

Conlangs are a great place to start, you don’t need to actually create full on new languages, even just a few words that a character can hear that sounds outlandish is enough. Although, it’s always cool if you take languages far!

📝 False History

One tool you can use specifically to add twists to the world, is to have a false history be the most widely believed narrative.

For example: the history of the world told by a government is actually an elaborate lie spun up by to deceive the public into trusting their leadership.

You can reveal this at the opportune moment for a really heavy hitting twist.

This can take smaller forms too, with false narratives from characters throughout the story.

📝 Building Legends

Every fantasy world needs legends.

🔥 Tales need to be told around campfires.

⚔️ Legendary wars that shaped the world.

🐉 Terrifying creatures to fear.

🪎 Treasure that begs to be found.

Characters need things to wonder about in the quieter moments of a story, and legends are the perfect things to fill that space.

📝 Secrets to the Magic

If your fantasy world has a magic system, a really fun way to create some great lore is to add secrets to your magic system.

Say you have an elemental magic system, maybe for thousands of years no one could control a specific element, but then one day your main character finds the secret that there is a hidden element and learns how to use it.

This is a great way to draw in your reader/viewer/player. Secrets make people want to keep progressing through the story to make it to the discovery.

📝 Mythic Heros

Even fictional characters need heros or role models to look up to.

Draft a tale of a warrior who accomplished a great deed. Here’s the real secret though, make them flawed.

I don’t mean ‘they were a ruffian’, I mean like they made a devastating mistake, were broken because of it, and eventually learned how to go on and choose to be a hero regardless.

Heros are people too, it’s important that heros aren’t infallible. Their humanity is what allows us to relate to them.

📝 Cults

You’ll have thought through religions by now, but what about those offshoots of the main religions that take things too far?

These can be religions that misinterpret a holy text, fall prey to a charismatic leader, or corrupt the magic through dark means.

Introducing a cult also adds believability to your world, since it shows that layer of flawed humanity.

Use cults to move the plot, add conflict, and create mystery.

💻 Organizing it All

I created Notion Templates that keep all your information easily accessible and seamlessly linked together!

I’ve spent the last three years honing these templates to serve worldbuilders and storytellers of all varying degrees!

So if you’re not quite ready to go all in, that’s fine! I have a basic version that serves those starting out, all the way up to the advanced worldbuilder who needs a place to keep all of their world lore.

Click the link below to get access to my Worldbuilding Templates!

Worldbuilding Wares

What’s Worldbuilding?

Worldbuilding: The Practice of Creating a World in your mind.

A Worldbuilding project is where you make a up a world in your mind with made up countries, cultures, creatures, magic and more.

It can be for fun, for a story, for a game, for pretty much anything you want.

I’ve seen people make a worldbuilding project with pottery, drawings, youtube videos. The sky is the limit here!

Subscribe now

Why Should I?

You have stories in you that the world needs to hear.

You may not think that you’ve overcome much in your life or done great things, but there are people in this world that need the story of your life told to them.

Starting a worldbuilding project and putting parts of yourself into it gives a lens for others to see you and the life you’ve lived.

There is also immense value for you in the process of worldbuilding. It will help you to discover what you actually believe, and become more deeply aware of who you are.

But I’m not Creative . . .

Wrong, humans are creative.

When we were kids, we practiced creativity every day. We smashed crayons to paper without any concern for how it looked. Back then we just called it ‘play’.

As we age, we lose the love for play, and find ourselves attached to other less important forms of entertainment. Learning to reconnect to the part of yourself that could do this is difficult.

If you practice worldbuilding, you may find that part of yourself again.

Where do I start?

Start with what you love.

To start a worldbuilding project, you don’t need any special skills. Just start with something you already love to do. Cooking, pottery, writing-- take anything you love to do, and start to make up a story behind it.
Imagine your dish is from a wartorn country, or your pottery was actually made by elves. It is literally so easy to start worldbuilding.

As you do this, you will start to get excited about a story or idea. New ideas will appear, and you will realize this state of ‘play’ is a powerful force for creativity.

What should I keep in mind?

Keep things fun.

Let worldbuilding be an escape. Let it be that thing you look forward to at the end of the day, or that thing you do in between tasks.

It’s fine to want to monetize it eventually, but you have to hold true to the fact that money isn’t the true purpose of it.

The purpose is to tell your story and to learn to be human again in an age that would steal away your imagination and offload it to machines.

What next?

Tell someone about it!

I want to hear your stories! I cannot tell you how much I love hearing about people’s ideas for stories, and getting to witness their creativity.

If you have a story already, send me a message and let’s talk about it! I’d love to dive into your world!

If you need a place to start, I’ll give you a writing prompt to begin.

Worldbuilding Sidequest ✨ of the Week

As a part of the new newsletter format, I am going to share a new writing prompt each week for you to try! Writing prompts help to override creative block, and you can read other peoples’ responses on our Substack post for this article.

This weeks prompt is called “The Herbalist’s Notes”

Imagine you are an herbalist on an expedition, making record of the new types of plants you find in an unexplored area. Write or draw 5 new plants and describe them 🌿

Things to consider:

• Where you are exploring, and what kind of biome it is.

• If there are magical plants.

• If there are dangerous animals or foes about.

By the time you reach the end of this prompt, you will have thought through:

• Plants

• Magic

• Animals

• Illnesses and Remedies

If you’re viewing this in your inbox, reply to me directly with the answer to your prompt. Or if you’re viewing this on Substack, write your response to the prompt in the comments so I can take a look!

(Yes, I will actually respond to all of them!)

If you enjoyed this, and you know a friend that could use a community of likeminded Creatives, Worldbuilders, and Writers, then please consider sharing the publication with them! I would love to get them connected to the community.

Subscribe now

My guess would be it has probably been a while. Why is that?

Subscribe now

I realized this happened to me a few years ago. I stopped dreaming, stopped pretending. Theres a childlike joy that was lost from my life. Somewhere along the way, my imagination disappeared. So where did it go?

I know for many of us, we lost it to social media. One long stream of new ideas and information has a way of making our imagination seem a lot less appealing. We all got sucked into the current of Instagram, TikTok and Facebook without ever really understanding what the ticket to ride that current would cost us.

Maybe for you it wasn’t social media, but something else. Maybe just the problems of life crept in, and being allowing yourself to be bored felt like a luxury that was meant for other people. Maybe sitting and doing nothing started to feel like a waste, since there were more important things to do.

I believe that the imagination is one thing that is distinctly human, and the loss of it is a tragedy of our age. Of course the rise of AI has now outsourced human imagination to machines.

Well, I am on a mission to help you get it back.

Four years ago, I started reading fantasy books again. This was my first time reading them since I was a child. I was introduced to the practice of worldbuilding as an adult, and I felt like I had discovered something profoundly important. I started to imagine a vast desert world, filled with spirits, monsters, and secrets. I was giddy, like a kid thinking about magic and swords and battles.

I started writing a story, and I found that not only was this a way to engage my mind outside of social media, but it also helped me to process my life and become more present.

So how can you do this? How can you get your imagination back?

Well for starters try creating an imaginary world. Fill it with stories, and people, and legends. Somewhere along the way you will realize that your inner world will show up in small ways. You’ll put your thoughts, your fears, and your dreams into it.

I know starting something so vast can seem like a scary thing to attempt, but put no expectation on yourself! Set a reasonable amount of time where you allow yourself to just dream and try to imagine a world in your mind.

Give it a name, and let it take on a life of it’s own!

I promise that after you try worldbuilding, you will start to realize that you still have access to your imagination.

If you are lost on where to begin, you can start with my article on Fantasy Worldbuilding Basics!

I also have a Basic Template built in Notion where you can start to organize your ideas. Simply make a Notion account and duplicate it to your workspace!

Worldbuilding Sidequest ✨ of the Week

Every week I send out prompts to go along with my newsletter to help reignite your creativity. Worldbuilding Sidequests help to override creative block, and you can read other peoples’ responses on the Substack post for this article.

This weeks prompt is called “The Soldiers Report”

Imagine you are a soldier standing guard in a small town, and you see some suspicious activity. Write a report to your superior detailing what happened!

Steps:

• Get a pencil and paper (or Notes App).

• Write the who, what, when, and where of the situation.

• Make sure to include lots of detail!

Things to consider:

• What transpired.

• Where it happened.

• Who was involved.

• If you intervened or not, along with why.

By the time you reach the end of this prompt, you will have thought through:

• An overall setting.

• Town and government.

• Morality and law.

Congratulations, you just started Worldbuilding 🌎✨

If you’re viewing this in your inbox, reply to me directly with the answer to your prompt. Or if you’re viewing this on Substack, write your response to the prompt in the comments so I can take a look!

(Yes, I will actually respond to all of them!)

If you enjoyed this, and you know a friend that could use a community of likeminded Creatives, Worldbuilders, and Writers, then please consider sharing the publication with them! I would love to get them connected to the community.

Share The Builders Guild

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

1. Notion

I have not found a better platform for organizing all of your worldbuilding information that is as clean and organized to use as Notion is. Notion allows you to create databases, add images, links, and connect all of this information easily. There is a learning curve to it at first, but once you get it figured out, this program is a game changer.

2. Procreate

Procreate is a $10 app with advanced drawing tools, and an unrivaled starting brush library. I would pick procreate as my go to software for drawing maps, concept art, and characters any day of the week! Other map softwares may do a lot of the lifting for you, but there is nothing quite like seeing a map you designed, with style, colors, and the uniqueness that Procreate can help you bring to it.

3. A Long form Journal

I use a moleskin lined journal for long form writing. Journaling every morning has been a game changer for me when it comes to worldbuilding. My journal serves as a place to dump all of my thoughts, worries, and ramblings in my mind before my days starts. After that, ideas flow a lot more seamlessly, since I can stay focused and not be distracted by other things.

4. A Pocket Journal

I use Field Notes in a custom leather portfolio I made. I’ve found that writing and sketching my ideas analog feels much more satisfying than writing them digitally, so I make sure to have my pocket journal be the first place my ideas go before they get inputted into my Notion workspace.

If you’re a creative, writer, author, or worldbuilder who wants to create work that changes our world, then stick around! I’d encourage you to engage with the Community on Substack so you can find like-minded folks!

Worldbuilding Sidequest ✨ of the Week

As a part of the new newsletter format, I am going to share a new writing prompt each week for you to try! Writing prompts help to override creative block, and you can read other peoples’ responses on our Substack post for this article.

This weeks prompt is called “Letter to a Friend”

Get a pencil and paper and write a character name, it can be a fantasy style name or a more realistic one! Write a letter from this characters’ perspective to a friend of theirs, saying that there is an urgent quest for their friend to go on!

Things to consider:

• What the quest is.

• Why it needs to be done.

• What will happen if your friend fails.

• The level of danger involved.

By the time you reach the end of this prompt, you will have thought through:

• Characters

• Setting

• The relationships between characters

If you’re viewing this in your inbox, reply to me directly with the answer to your prompt. Or if you’re viewing this on Substack, write your response to the prompt in the comments so I can take a look!

(Yes, I will actually respond to all of them!)

If you enjoyed this, and you know a friend that could use a community of likeminded Creatives, Worldbuilders, and Writers, then please consider sharing the publication with them! I would love to get them connected to the community.

Share The Builders Guild

If you are getting this email, you may have noticed that my publication has changed names.

This was an intentional move, so let me welcome you to The Builders Guild 🎉

Think of this biweekly newsletter as a bridge that connects you to other likeminded fantasy nerds, up coming writers, and all around creatives.

My publication initially was just my creator name, which was fine, but as this publication has grown some, I have a clearer picture of what’s meant to be.

I have personally gained so much richness of life from worldbuilding, writing, and creativity, that I feel compelled to help creatives tap into this same deep well that I discovered.

The Problem I See

Modern day creatives are siloed off on their own, afraid to share their work for one reason or another. The problem is that in guarding their work out of fear of being judged or for fear of being plagiarized, they also end up without a support system or people with the experience needed to help guide them.

The Solution

I see this community as a way to change that.

I can’t comment for you, or ask for help on your behalf, but what I can do is give you a place to do it.

So if you’re reading this in your inbox, feel free to reply directly and ask me for support, or if you’re reading this on Substack, comment what you are working on and need help with. And no, this is not an empty promise. If you reach out to me and ask for help I will respond!

No creative should have to feel isolated in today’s world.

As this guy once said, it’s dangerous to go alone!

The Path Ahead

My hope is that as I share systems, exercises, and tips around worldbuilding, that you, the community, would share your thoughts and experiences from experimenting with them.

I have loads of creative exercises, systems of organization, and tools to help you come up with ideas that I want to share with this community.

In turn, my hope is that every Subscriber not only gets new tools to enrich their real life, but also real connections they couldn’t have made otherwise!

So here’s to building worlds, and telling tales 🍻

Subscribe now

If you know a creative who needs a community to support them, point them in my direction.

Share The Builders Guild

Many authors, especially on Substack are crushing their book goals and sharing their successes with Notes, but others are viewing these notes while knee deep in writers block. This can feel discouraging to see rather than encouraging.

I’m here to tell you that you’re making writing a novel way harder than it has to be! The way you do this is: you are waiting around for inspiration to strike.

You don’t need inspiration, you need a feasible goal, and you need accountability.

If you actually want to finish your first draft in 2026, it all comes down to one very simple thing that you can start doing today in three simple steps.

It’s exactly the same thing that I did to get over my never ending procrastination and actually finish my 100,000 word novel (mind you this is a first draft, I still need to edit the thing).

1. A small daily word count goal.

I spent months going in circles, with four hour writing sessions one day, and then writing nothing at all for two weeks.

That only changed when I gave myself a goal I could hit every day no matter what. 250 words. Basically a paragraph.

Over time, hitting this goal every day created enormous progress, and allowed me to finish my novel on the very last day of 2025. There were plenty of days where I barely made it to the finish line of that small word count goal, but the point is that it kept me writing, even when I didn’t want to. This is not me trying to brag, because news flash: I spent two and a half years barely making any progress.

2. A Word Count Tracker to see your progress

It is massively helpful to have a word count tracker, especially one that has buttons you can push when you complete your goal, and lets you see your progress over the last few months.

This is exactly what I did inside my Notion workspace to keep myself accountable and finish my novel. I am giving away this tracker FOR FREE and no I am not going to secretly ask you for something to get to it. You can find it here:

Word Count Tracker

Just duplicate it into a Notion workspace and get started tracking your writing! I would love to hear about your journey as you hit your goals.

I am doing this because I benefitted so much when a friend helped me set my goal for the year and held me to it!

3. A friend to check in with you periodically

You need someone who is outside of your own brain to check in with you. The frequency is up to you! It can as often as every week or as far out as once a quarter.

Regardless it matters that you have an outside force holding you to writing. It may feel like a drag, but accountability keeps us working towards what we really want even when our feelings don’t align.

I promise that the writers showing up are not better than you. They just stopped relying on inspiration to decide when they write.

If you want more tips about writing and other fun, nerdy topics, I would love if you’d stick around.

Subscribe now

Have you ever wanted to create fantasy world? A great place to start is with the people groups that inhabit your world. Let’s start with, what is a culture? Culture is what happens when a group of people decide that a set of beliefs, values, foods, clothing, and customs is important, and they choose to share those things with the future generations.

So how do you create one for your fantasy world?

Subscribe now

Creating a Culture

Step 1: Research

Start by writing down what real world cultures you have an interest in. If you have a heritage that you love and are deeply connected to you can start there. Think through what things you love, and what things are bothersome about that culture. Every culture has things that are beautiful about it, and things that are maybe not the healthiest. The shared experience of dealing with both, forms a collective experience.

Even if you’re not connected to a particular culture, you can start by studying one to gain an appreciation.

Step 2: Core Beliefs

Define your fantasy cultures’ core beliefs. What is it that drives them? Is it a nomadic longing for freedom, or maybe a love of battle? Whatever it is, the core beliefs will influence everything about them. There will likely be around 3 core beliefs that drive any culture.

There’s a culture in my worldbuilding project that puts a high importance on spoken words. This is a core belief that the words you speak are important, and should be handled with great care. In this culture, verbal disrespect is seen as a greater offense than a physical disrespect, like getting punched in the face. The reason for this is that the magic they use, given to them by their god is centered around words, and is considered sacred.

Thus, a curse, or a verbal disrespect is seen as not only an offense to the person, but an offense to the sacred.

Step 3: Environment

Once you have these core beliefs, I want you to decide where this fantasy culture lives. What is the climate? What resources do they have available to them? What animals are around?

I realize this feel like a later step in the worldbuilding process, but even if you don’t decide the final location of where they live, it’s good to determine at least where they live in terms of things like the landscape, climate, etc.

This will help determine more granular things, like what do they make their clothes out of, what color can their clothes be from the dyes they can get from their environment, what they can eat, etc.

Step 4: The Details

Here’s an exercise that can really help you when creating a culture.

Write out these categories:

👨🏽 Appearance

👕 Clothing

🍛 Food

📜 Values

👻 Superstitions

Try to find a creative way that each of these connects to one or more of the core beliefs. For example, in my fantasy world, one of the people groups has a deep love for the desert area they live in. Therefore, the clothes they wear have artistic representations of shifting sands, as a way to honor the desert.

Get the idea?

Your cultures core beliefs will bleed through in all of these categories. I know this may seem a little more difficult for things like their appearance, but let me help. That same culture I referenced earlier is a big fan of tattoos. The reason being is that if someone accomplishes something or shows consistent character in an area (generosity, kindness, bravery) , they are honored by having a title (typically a single word) tattooed on them. This affects their appearance to other people in this culture.

Remember how I referenced the importance of words to this culture earlier? This is how that can connect to their appearance. Other cultures in my world don’t have tattoos, so this particular culture stands out because of that.

Step 5: Flaws

As you create your fantasy world cultures, remember that it is often better that a culture is believable than it is cool. Give them flaws; biases. A people that is a perfect version of humanity will feel flat and unrealistic.

Depending on how bad the flaw is, it can either make a culture the villains of the story, or just human. That is for you to decide.

Organizing It All

If you’re looking for a way to keep all of your worldbuilding information straight, I have a template built in Notion that keeps all your information easily accessible and seamlessly linked together! I’ve spent the last three years honing this template to serve worldbuilders and storytellers of all varying degrees.

So if you’re not quite ready to go all in, that’s fine! I have a basic version that serves those starting out, all the way up to the advanced worldbuilder who needs a place to keep all of their world lore.

If that sounds like something you’d want, check out my Worldbuilding Wares below!

Worldbuilding Wares

So many people are now interested in the fantasy genre, and are especially interested in creating their own world for a book or project.

This is a huge undertaking, whether it’s for a few friends playing D&D, or if you’re building out a world for full fledged novel. It can be daunting to get started, but I’m going to help you break this down into easier pieces.

—

Hi! I’m Chris, an avid fan of worldbuilding and writing here to help you break into the craft!

For more on my worldbuilding project, as well as tips and resources for worldbuilding you can follow me on any of these channels:

Instagram

Substack

Tiktok

You can also email me with questions at worldbuildingchris@gmail.com

Subscribe now

📝 Starting Out

The most important thing when you are building a fantasy world is understanding your very specific ‘why’ for creating your world. This is important because when you get into worldbuilding, it is very easy to get bogged down with how far you can take each rabbit trail, also known as scope creep. Basically the scope of the project keeps growing, while you don’t make any real progress.

To avoid this you need to lock down a very specific ‘why’ for your project.

For a fantasy novel, you don’t need 4,000 years of documented world history. You need only what serves the story. For most cases that means, you need one or a few cataclysmic events to shape the current climate of the world, some races of people that are well thought out (food, clothes, customs, any idiosyncrasies), a magic system if that suits your world (if you want magic at all), and an understanding of the current political climate.

Knowing what things you actually need and don’t need will save you days of unnecessary creation of plants and animals that you may actually never see in your book or project.

🔨 Building the Thing

Now comes the fun part!

🗺️ Maps

A great place to start is with a map. A map will take out a lot of the guesswork from your process. You won’t need to ask your self:

“Wait, how long would it take my character to reach the next town?”

A map will help you have a visual of your world at all times that you can go back to and reference with your questions.

If you’ve heard of the rice method for map making, I highly recommend this if you don’t have a general shape in your mind for your world. Basically you drop some grains of rice at random on a piece of paper, and then out line all of the groups of rice grains to form land masses and islands. You can even use the rice to determine where your mountains and lower areas of land are. The higher the mound of rice, the higher the mountain.

I do ultimately recommend a digitally drawn map, that way you can add layers to it as you need to in a drawing software. The ability to zoom in on a new layer and add smaller details is also very helpful. For instance you can draw out a map of your world, then on another layer add icons for where each type of vegetation and animal can be found.

Then add another layer for kingdoms, villages, notable locations, etc. Having a layered digital map allows you to be consistent and also have many types of exportable maps to reference.

Some great software that is free/cheap to do this in would be Procreate, Gimp, or Affinity.

📜 History

A great next step after a map is to outline your major historical events, that act as a kind of historical pillars.

Step 1: Define your major historical events/catastrophes

Think: great cataclysms or the formation of a kingdom. Determining these events will allow you to reflect and be able to pull smaller details for your worldbuild. For example, maybe a specific type of food became a cultural norm because it was the only food accessible during a past war, and then became a staple meal.

Step 2: Write out why these affect the present world

Once you have your major events laid out, write out how each one affects the present. This will help you form character stories, political dynamics, and so much more.

Step 3: Build the connecting events

Decide what events happened in between those events, how people recovered or didn’t, what scars those disasters left.

🗂️ The Nitty Gritty

Once you have your map, and a timeline of historical events, from here it will be much easier to come up with things like a magic system, deities, races and more. You will probably have already made some during the process of creating maps and history. Here’s a few categories to start you off, though I’ll remind you, if you are hoping to finish an end product, do not get lost in the weeds with worldbuilding.

🌎 Deities

✨ Magic System

🛠️ Technology

👨🏽 Races

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Factions

📍 Notable Locations

💵 Economy

🐄 Animals

🌱 Plants

🗡️ Important Objects

Organizing It All

If you’re looking for a way to keep all of your worldbuilding information straight, I have a template built in Notion that keeps all your information easily accessible and seamlessly linked together! I’ve spent the last three years honing this template to serve worldbuilders and storytellers of all varying degrees!

So if you’re not quite ready to go all in, that’s fine! I have a basic version that serves those starting out, all the way up to the advanced worldbuilder who needs a place to keep all of their world lore.

If that sounds like something you’d want, check out my Worldbuilding Wares below!

Notion Templates

What is a magic item?

A magic item is . . . well fairly self explanatory. It is an object like a relic or a weapon that has powers attached to it. There is more too it though. Magic items are also powerful storytelling weapons (no pun intended). Magic items add depth, intrigue, and forward motion to a story.

Have you ever wanted to create your own magic items? Magic items do a lot to add depth to a fantasy world. Some magic items shape a culture or a world itself, and some are just used to move the plot along. You can use this guide for your worldbuilding project, D&D game, or book (or truly whatever you want to do).

Building Blocks of a good Magic Item

It’s believable

Magic is outlandish, fantastical, whimsical even. However, unless the purpose of a magic item is comedy, it needs to make sense within the world itself. Make sure a magic items follows the rules of the magic system you made (or breaks them intentionally to serve the story). If a magic item feels out of place in the world, you must have a reason for it.

It’s balanced

A good magic item has a clear cost of use. It is not just a huge magic cannon that can obliterate all enemies— it has to require ammo, maybe a cooldown time. It needs some kind of drawback or handicap. If it feels too powerful . . . it probably is. Balance brings the feeling of realism, and therefore groundedness. Even in a fantastical world the one reading or hearing about it must say ‘Oh, that makes sense’.

It’s for the story

Magic Items should always serve a greater narrative purpose. It is however, up to you to define what that is. A magic item could be the goal a character is striving for, or maybe something that turns the tide of a battle at a critical moment. Whatever the case may be, the purpose should be forward motion— to move the story along.

Without a purpose, magic items will start to feel gimmicky. It is fairly easy as a ready or player to sense when the creator of the world thought ‘This would be SO cool!’ and forgot to make it make sense.

It’s really cool

In my opinion, the most important part of a magic item, is that it has that cool factor. It should wow the audience, and make them say “Thats a great use of this magic system”.

Share

There are tons of magic items across all genres. The inspiration is everywhere! However, when you sit down to create magic items for your project, it can be easy for your mind to just . . . go blank. Especially when you are years deep into the worldbuilding process, and it feels like you exhausted every idea. Below I’ve outlined a few starting places to get your brain moving in the right direction.

Remember, these are starting places that still need to follow the above rules!

1. Go no limits

A fun thing I have seen very rarely used in a story is that a magic item is all-powerful. This is rarely used, since it would make it for a very short story depending on whoever had the item. I think there is merit to using it intentionally as a plot device. I immediately think of One Punch Man. An all powerful character that is limited only by his own apathy, and boredom from beating every opponent that has ever challenged him, with one punch.

You can create an all powerful magic item, but depending on who it’s given to, will change the story drastically. Think about a person who is a pacifist given an all powerful item. That deep-seated sense of justice and desire to resist the pull of violence would mean the item would likely get hidden by that person or just not used, perhaps even destroyed.

2. Make it hurt

A interesting take on a magic item is one that slowly (or not so slowly) hurts the user as they interact with or use it. A great reference for this would be Nightblood from Brandon Sandersons’ Warbreaker, or the Gloom Weapons from the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

When a character has to weigh the cost of using a powerful item, it makes things much more interesting. The character can save the day, but must also give something up of equal or greater value. This is helpful because it pushes the character to think a little longer and makes your magic item not feel like a Deus Ex Machina (basically meaning a god-like force saves the day at the last minute).

3. Add a Time Limit

Another great way to craft a magic item is one that a person can only use for a limited time or has a limited number of uses before it breaks or resets. Think about the Dragon Balls, from the Dragon Ball Series. The user gets three wishes but after that, the Dragon Balls scatter across the world, and have to be gathered again. This type of dynamic is great because it makes characters think about what they actually want, and they are less inclined to use the items frivolously.

4. Make it talk

One idea that would really spice up a magic item, is one that is powerful, but incredibly annoying. Imagine a magic item that you could use, but only while it jeered you with insults and exposed your deepest insecurities to the people around you. While it would be great to have a super powerful magic item, how long could you stand to hold on to it?

5. Amnesia

Plenty of magic items affect the user in wild ways, or sometimes the magic items protects itself from being used at all. One interesting idea is a magic item that makes the user forget how to operate it while they are touching it. This would be hard to work around, but still possible.

6. It’s split in half

A great way to complicate a magic item is to have it be split into two or more pieces, and to take it a step further, it could also be something where two people have to activate it at once for it to be used. Imagine a magic item that could create an impenetrable shield, but only if activated by two arch enemies!

7. It can only be used by one person

Having a specific character as the only person who can use the magic item is a great way to add a limitation.

8. It’s unpredictable

One of my all time favorite magic items comes from the critically acclaimed video game, Skyrim. The Wabbajack is a magic staff that has any number of random effects. It helps you a good deal, and can get you out of a lot of trouble. But it also is the trouble. It has an equal chance to turn your enemy into a chicken, or teleport you off a cliff, killing you.

A great concept of a magic item is that is unpredictable with what effect it will have. Maybe the user has to be very specific when asking it for something, or maybe the item chooses how it will react based on who is holding it.

9. It’s a Person

One concept that I love is a magic item that is literally a person. Imagine a scenario where a person has magical abilities, but these can only be activated by another person. So this person stands around, until a friend comes along and puts a hand on their shoulder, speaks some magic words and casts a spell.

This is one of my favorite ideas, so if you use it in a story please let me know! I’d love to see it in action.

10. The Magic is lost

Imagine a magic item that is just dun. It’s lost all magic. At one point it was a great and powerful item, used for a great deed or great catastrophe, but now some old wizard uses it for a paperweight.

There is intrigue with this concept because there is a chance that someone will try to restore it’s magic, or learn from it to make a new all-powerful magic item. You can take that any number of different ways.

I love magic items so much. Every time I have observed one that moved a story forward in an interesting way, I find myself so much more engaged. I want to know more. I want to discover more about the world, it’s people, it’s magic.

As you traverse the landscape of creating your own fantasy world, don’t forget about magic items (though I doubt a fantasy nerd like yourself would). As you make your world, don’t forget that every great artist or creative needs support.

I love talking fantasy with people, and brainstorming ideas. So if you find yourself in a rut, reach out to me and let’s find a way through together.

For more on my worldbuilding project, as well as tips and resources for worldbuilding you can follow me on any of these channels:

📝 Substack

📷 Instagram

🎵 TikTok

▶️ Youtube

📍Pinterest

Or email me at 📩 worldbuildingchris@gmail.com

Subscribe now

It can feel silly to want to work on art, or a story, or any other non-essential thing in the world today. Maybe you’ve felt guilty for working on a passion project when there are dishes in the sink, or you could have put in an extra hour at work.

I’m here to tell you that the art that you create— the raw stuff, the stuff that is really you— is more important than ever.

Why?

Because often times we get so caught up in day to day life, just surviving, that we forget why we are alive.

To explain my point further, I’ll quote Robin Williams from his role in Dead Poets Society.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

When times get dark, especially when we feel like we have no control over the world around us, it is so imperative to spend the time to making something beautiful. When we are in survival mode just trying to get by, it is easy to forget whywe are surviving at all. What are we are surviving for?

Beauty adds meaning to our existence. Creation, authenticity, storytelling. These things are the color on top of our lives. They are what gives us the strength to keep going.

Think about when you see a sunset, enjoy a quiet moment with loved ones, observe art or music that resonates with your soul. These are the moments where we actually live.

But of course I want to talk specifically about all you authors, storytellers, and worldbuilders— and why it is so important right now for you to create fantasy stories in our current day and age. Why would something like fantasy matter when most people are just trying to make it to tomorrow?]

It’s because human stories are going to get them there.

When it comes to fantasy, I’ve heard it said many times that fantasy is escapism. That it isn’t useful or productive.

And to that I say . . . duh!

Fantasy wasn’t meant to move the needle, but to remind us why we live at all— to teach us how to be better people. It was meant to teach us how to keep going, and to give us hope.

I remember a few years ago at a time in my life when I was thrown into a leadership role— I desperately needed to learn how to lead my team and I picked up the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. In the final book of the series (no spoilers cosmere fans) a character was thrown into a leadership role that they felt extremely unequipped for.

This was exactly how I felt at that pivotal point in my life where I needed to become a leader. I wasn’t born with the skills, I was thrown into it with no guide book. As I found myself tripping over my own feet in leadership, I got to watch this character navigate challenges, their own insecurities, and I watched them become a great leader. And guess what? I’ve read non-fiction books on mindset and leadership. While these were helpful, it was a fantasy novel that made leadership lessons stick.

I learned from a fictional character the skills and mindsets that truly worked. I believe that this is because stories lean more emotional, and less logical. They they teach through showing you how a character feels in a moment, and what they did to overcome themselves.

In that time, I learned from art! And I grew because of it. That is a beautiful thing.

Stories— even fictional ones, are so much more powerful than we give them credit for. So while it may feel frivolous to work on a painting, push yourself to write a story, or work on any other non-utilitarian pursuit, I’m here to tell you that you’d better do it.

You’d better write your story. You’d better create that fantasy world. You’d better start that D&D group. You have no idea who needs your story, or what they stand to gain from your authentic story. The world needs artists, creators, and dreamers to remind it that life is worth living, and that life isn’t all bills and chores.

I am dead set on creating resources that help people tap into their creativity and remind them that they can actually live well, despite the things out of their control. I want to show people how worldbuilding and fantasy can enrich their real lives, and deepen their relationships with people.

So if you’re an artist, writer, or creative, please reply and tell me what you’re working on, and what is driving you to make it.

There’s a person out there who is struggling right now, who desperately needs your story.

Subscribe now

You’ve probably been where I have.

A few years ago, I found myself jumping from hobby to hobby— never able to make any real progress on anything I started. I had a love for leatherwork, bookbinding, graphic design, writing, worldbuilding, storytelling, illustration, video games, reading, you name it.

I knew that I saw the world in a very specific way. I could reach into any discipline of humanity for a time, and see the value that it brought to my life. But I could never commit to one. There were too many interesting things gosh dangit!

For a long time, I thought of this as my curse— to bounce around from interest never really excelling at anything. I had heard scholars and prolific phycologists call this the curse of the creative person. And for a time I resented it. I beleived I was going to wander in this limbo for the rest of mylife and be on my deathbed with 4 million half finished projects.

However, something changed after watching a Ted talk about being what the speaker coined a “Multipotentialite”.

This helped me understand that the thing I thought was a curse could actually become my greatest weapon to mastering my creativity.

Enter: the Sandbox.

I don’t think I am the first person to think of this concept, so I don’t claim it to be it’s originator, but hey, I did think of this before anyone told me. If you’re a creative too, you know thats what really matters.

The Sandbox was a challenge I set for myself to create a project that could span multiple creative disciplines, would have no deadline, and would purely be for the joy of creating. After mulling it over, I settled on worldbuilding. I would start a worldbuilding project. This would take me into a new discipline— writing, as well as let me use some of the skills I already had, like graphic design and drawing.

And when I tell you this changed the course of my life, I am not exaggerating.

I went from a creative that felt like I was uncommitted, lazy, and easily burnt out— to realizing that I was a powerhouse of ideas that could make something truly beautiful. This project was Inara. My first worldbuild, and now my first novel.

Worldbuilding with Chris

Building Inara

Sup! If you’re reading this I would assume you have some interest in Worldbuilding or Writing in some capacity. That makes us friends! Sorry, I don’t make the rules…

Read more

a year ago · 4 likes · Chris

It started out exactly as I intended, something that was purely for my joy and delight. But after sometime, I felt like this could be something I could do as more than just a hobby.

Don’t get me wrong— I hate the mindset that every hobby must be monetized. We should have things that stay sacred and untouched by consumerism. But this was different. I knew I had something special, and I saw a world that I knew needed to be shared. I had never been able to say that before this project. I spent so much time wishing that I could make something that would move people. I literally broke myself mentally trying to create for the eyes of other people, and those projects turned out flat. But somehow the moment I created something that I loved, it became known to me that this was something worth sharing.

And that brings us to today.

I had been so anxious to start sharing about this project. Three years of my life were spent working on the world, and I was terrified that people wouldn't resonate or worse that my ideas would get stolen. But now, after spending some time in the Sandbox, I feel that I have something I truly believe in. And sure, maybe someone will throw my drawings into a generative AI and it will get turned into slop, but at least I was brave enough to start here.

If I can inspire one more person with that same bravery, then this was all worth it.

Is that you? Let me know.

Subscribe now

This obviously got me nowhere.

Then this last winter, I started going on runs again. Unfortunately, the issue I had with writing transferred to running as well. I would try to run and find myself making no progress at all, barely able to get a run in per week. On top of that my runs felt terrible. No runners high, just chest pain.

Meanwhile, I was reading a few massive books a year and finishing them. I started to wonder was the disconnect between reading and the other two? I knew I could commit to things and see them through, but why didn’t that translate effectively?

Cue a friend of of mine. Marathon runner, health nut, hilarious guy. I asked him if we could go on a run together. So we decide on a mile and half, farther than I had made it in a while. While were about halfway through the run my friend tells me something I did not expect.

That I was running too fast.

I was genuinely surprised by this feedback, as I thought myself as a slow runner. But my friend who had finished marathons and ran almost daily explained that I was tiring out too quickly, and that as you train for a race it is far more important to make sure you complete the distance than to try to hit a goal time. Go as slow as you like, but as long as you finish the miles will become a better runner. I was pushing myself too hard initially, and not finishing my runs. His advice soon proved to be the most helpful feedback I would get in the last year.

As I practiced what he said, I was able to hit higher and higher amounts of miles and feeling like I could actually reach my goals for the upcoming race.

Let’s jump back to writing for a moment, and cue in another friend. This friend of mine is a true creative. She runs her own business and has been growing it over time, and she recently got her products a place in her first store front. Beyond all things, she is consistent with her creativity and her business. I was telling her— well, complaining really, about my book and how little progress I was making. She asked me what my daily word count goal was, and I admitted that although I had a goal last year I had since let go of it since I missed the mark by a huge amount. After talking for a while she gave another piece of advice that fit nicely with what I learned about running.

I needed smaller daily goals.

I wasn’t making progress because I would mentally bully myself if I didn’t make a lot of progress in my book daily. Life happened, and circumstances prevented me from being able to sit down for an extended period of time. My mindset ripped away my passion, energy, and discipline for writing my book.

She told me very bluntly to stop being so hard on myself. I wasn’t a failure, in truth I had just started.

She helped me calculate my daily goals that would allow me to finish my first draft by the end of the year, and it ended being more than manageable. I hadn’t even realized how little it would actually take. This lesson rang true again.

If you commit to small, manageable goals, and focus on finishing them, you will actually make progress.

Since then, I have made more progress in two weeks than I had in months. The stress around writing has all but disappeared, and I’m finding myself more motivated to write than ever, and more than that, I know what I want to say!

And finally, reading.

The one thing I was actually consistent with because, well it is so dang enjoyable. Reading allowed my imagination to be revived during a really busy time of my life, and provided some great life lessons on leadership, growth, and becoming who you were meant to be (see Brandon Sandersons’ The Stormlight Archive).

Sometimes a little escape from your daily life isn’t unhealthy, but can give you the strength and perspective you need to face the challenges in reality.

However, I had taken this to an extreme, reading for four hours and getting nothing done.

It was becoming clear that I was living a life of too much. Too much pressure on myself, too much escapism to be effective at the things I really cared about

So finally reader, I scream from the rooftops the sheer power of being kind to yourself, and keeping your pride out of your goals. Set small incremental goals, so you can actually hit them and build the confidence that will allow you to accomplish the things you want to accomplish. These three habits (reading included) have helped me take a positive mental turn for my writing and my Worldbuild, so I dare you try to it.

Slow. Down.

Run the miles, hit the word count, and learn to be honest with yourself when you’ve had enough fun. It’s going to be okay. If you rush or avoid things, you’ll waste more time than if you had just committed to do a little every day.