World Building for Inherent Conflict
Your goal: build an immersive world that creates conflict in your story. The result: a page-turning novel that hooks readers and keeps them turning pages until they hit the end.
For the last two weeks, I’ve talked about ways that plotters and pantsers can approach world building in a way that respects their unique processes and writing styles. Now, I’m going to turn to a world building concept that applies to writers anywhere on the plotter-pantser spectrum.
First up, a basic premise. It’s crucial that you build a world for your story, not a story for your world.
What does that mean?
It means that your world building exists to enhance the reading experience.
Your world has to add to the tension, the wonder, the intrigue that pulls readers in and keeps them turning pages. Your world building should be palpable and immersive but not intrusive. If you fail to strike the right balance, you could end up with a novel that reads more like a series of encyclopedia entries that won’t hook readers unless you’ve already built up a devoted fandom (which is how we got The Silmarillion).
Alright, now we know what we’re trying to avoid. But how do we get there? That answer will vary depending on where you are in the writing process. When you’re in the planning phase of your world building (whether you do that before or after writing your first draft) you can set yourself up for success by world building with conflict in mind.
Why? Because conflict is what makes our stories interesting for readers.
A world that throws obstacles in your protagonist’s way is infinitely more interesting than a cardboard cut-out setting that has no bearing on the story. That might pass in contemporary romance or other genres of realistic fiction, but if you’re writing sci-fi, fantasy or historical fiction, you definitely want the world to interact purposefully with the story.
Here are three ways that you can world build with conflict in mind:
1) Create cultures that clash
As you design your people groups, look for ways that you can set each cultures into opposition with the others. Not only will you make your story realistic (after all, earth is incredibly diverse and there’s no reason why people groups in your world would all end up identical to each other if they developed in different places or contexts), it will also give you fertile ground for developing juicy interpersonal conflicts.
These differences can occur at the global level if you create entire societies in conflict or at the micro level if competing factions exist within a society. There are countless identity markers and cultural factors that you can use to craft these conflicts. Look to history (and current events) for inspiration and you’ll never run out of ways to create conflict between your invented people groups.
Depending on the tone of your story, you can make these differences as light or as heavy as you’d like. In a cozier story, differences could come in the form of fashion, food, and idioms. You can then use those differences to create awkward situations and misunderstandings between your characters.
On the other end of the spectrum, in a darker story, you can use cultural differences to create rigid hierarchies and systems of oppression. Differences in race, religion, and interpretations of history have led to countless wars in the real world. There’s no reason your created worlds should be any different.
In addition to creating conflict, these cultural clashes are great for delivering world building information in an engaging way. How? Have your characters argue about history, about the proper way to do something, about the relative value of one culture’s traditions over another.
Or, have your main character commit a faux-pas and have someone else call them out on it. That cringey “I can’t believe I just did that” embarrassment is painful for your characters but delicious for your readers.
When world building details come out in the context of a fight or awkward mistake, readers have a reason to pay attention. Instead of a boring lecture, world building becomes integral to the conflict and inherently more interesting.
2) Make your protagonist an outsider within their own community or culture
In addition to creating cultural groups that clash, you can also make your protagonist clash with those in their own cultural group.
Think of the teenager testing boundaries and forging an identity outside of their family. Or, the adult who has a transformative experience that forces them to rethink beliefs they’ve never questioned in the past. You can build an entire novel around a protagonist who has to navigate differences between themselves and their community.
Once again, these differences can rum the gamut from cozy to grimdark. In a cozier story, the gap between your protagonist and their community may be something bridgeable and likely won’t be related to a fixed identity marker (e.g., your protagonist wants to be a painter but they come from a family of accountants).
In a darker story, your character’s differences might be a matter of life and death. For example, in an oppressive religious community deviating from social norms could be a death sentence.
3) Make nature an enemy or at least an obstacle in your story.
The physical setting of your story is crucial, especially when you’re creating a fantastical world. But those physical details can get really old, really fast, especially if the setting is idyllic and generic.
To make your setting more interesting, create a setting that amplifies the conflicts your characters face. Driving rain, pitch black darkness, tornadoes, earthquakes, burning heat—extreme weather could be the difference between success and failure for your characters, or at least give the impression that they are doomed to fail.
You can also use magic to amplify the setting/character conflict. Maybe you have vampires who burn up if they step outside on a balmy day. Or fog that means zombies will start prowling outside. Or perhaps every rain storm cues a family of benevolent garden gnomes to pop out of the ground and start granting wishes to little children who are willing to brave the raindrops and go outside. The opportunities are endless!
Cultures that develop in different environments will also develop very different norms and traditions. Those differences can also be used to create conflicts with cultures that have developed in different places and therefore have different expectations.
A community that lives high in the mountains, cut off from the rest of the world during winter when the passes freeze over, is going to be very different from one that lives next to a natural deep water port on a well-inhabited coastline. If someone from the coast ends up sheltering with the mountain community during a freak spring blizzard, those differences in culture are going to be apparent and may mean the difference between life and death for that visitor.
Again, the opportunities for creating conflict in your world are endless!
I hope these tips help you brainstorm worlds that enhance your narrative and help you create conflicts that pull readers in and keep them turning pages.
Happy Writing!
