Creative Writing: World Building

Module 9: World Building
Build believable worlds — with logic, depth, and reader trust.

In this practical, craft-focused workshop, Iain McKinnon shows you how to build a world that supports your story rather than distracting from it. Whether your setting is a secondary-world fantasy, a near-future thriller, or contemporary realism, world building is the invisible scaffolding that makes everything feel true.

You’ll explore how world details create consequences — and how small choices (a law, a resource, a technology, a taboo, a climate) ripple outward into society, economy, behaviour, and conflict. This is where stories gain weight: when your world has logic, pressure, and “third-order effects” that shape what characters can and can’t do.

You’ll also learn how to introduce your world without dumping information: how to reveal setting through action, choice, and tension, and how to write cultural influence responsibly — avoiding clichés, flattening, and cultural appropriation while still writing rich, varied worlds.

In This Workshop, You’ll:

• Understand why every story has world building — including contemporary and “real-world” fiction
• Learn hard vs soft rules (what must stay consistent vs what can remain mysterious)
• Explore logical consistency and how it builds reader trust (and prevents plot holes)
• Use third-order effects to deepen realism: how one change creates ripple consequences across culture, politics, economy, and daily life
• Discover practical ways to design the “load-bearing” parts of a world: power, resources, transport, law, beliefs, technology, geography, and social norms
• Learn how to introduce your world naturally through character perspective, conflict, and selective detail (no lore-dumps)
• Practise writing world detail that creates mood and meaning — not just description
• Avoid common traps: generic settings, contradictory rules, too much invention too soon, and “tour guide” exposition
• Consider cultural inspiration responsibly and learn strategies to avoid cultural appropriation while still writing diverse, believable worlds

By the end, you’ll have a clear method for building worlds that feel grounded and alive — worlds with consequences, coherence, and story-driving pressure.

Resources & Continued Learning
All world-building frameworks, examples, and writing exercises are available at: http://www.iain-mckinnon.co.uk/creative-writing-course.html

This session can be attended as a standalone workshop or as part of the full modular creative writing course. No prior modules are required.

Part of the Modular Creative Writing Course:
Module 1: Introduction to Creative Writing, Rules & PURPOSE
Module 2: Metrics, Motivation & Productivity
Module 3: What is a Novel & Genre
Module 4: Plot
Module 5: Character
Module 6: Theme
Module 7: Word Choice
Module 8: Writing Scenes – SORCA
Module 9: Dialogue
Module 10: World Building
Module 11: Language Building
Module 12: Narrative Positioning & Description over Exposition
Module 13: Concept Mapping
Module 14: Constraint and Creativity
Module 15: Defamiliarization & NLP
Module 16: Suspense, Tension, Hooks & Cliffhangers & LOCK
Module 17: Editing
Module 18: Drafting your Novel with ChatGPT
Module 19: From Hook to Inbox: Blurbs, Synopses & Query Letters for Novelists
Module 20: Author Function – Social Media Guide

Secure your spot today and let’s build a world your readers will believe in — and want to live inside.