Creating a fantasy world can be really challenging. It takes a lot of work and creativity. But setting is extremely important in the fantasy genre–it can make or break your story.
When done well, fantasy worlds linger with the reader after they’ve finished the story. Hogwarts. Narnia. Middle Earth. Westeros. Each world is different and memorable.
But there’s one aspect of world building that a lot of writers (especially new writers) tend to overlook: flaws.
Think of your fantasy world as one of your characters. When you create your characters you don’t want them to be perfect, so you give them flaws. Why? Because perfect is boring. Flaws create interest.
When I wrote my first fantasy story, I created a perfect world. There was no poverty, no slavery, no hungry children, women were equal to men, the streets were clean of filth, and for all I knew there weren’t any prisons. All of the kingdoms got along and no one had enemies. All of the kings and lords were fair and just except for the “evil” king and my “evil” villain who wanted to take over.
It was a very black and white world in terms of good and evil, as fantasy can tend to be. And pretty boring. This is not the kind of world you want to create. You want to make your world as grey as possible.
What do I mean by this? Well, think about it. In real life, no country is perfect. Every place has its pros and cons, its prides and issues. America is the land of the free, but we had slavery. China now has the world’s largest economy, but they have severe pollution. Australia is beautiful, but everything there tries to kill you.
So, what are the issues of your world? It’s flaws? It dirty secrets? It’s atrocities?
When you create your story world, you need to go beyond the obvious flaws of a tyrant king, evil villain, and a war to save the kingdom. I get it, it can be hard to create flaws. No one wants to create a dark, terrible world–heck, we get enough of that on the evening news every night. It’s tempting to create the fantasy land of your dreams where you would want to live.
Don’t.
“But why not?” you ask. “I want readers to like my story world!”
Trust me, giving your world flaws won’t turn readers off. It will actually make them like it more! Strange, I know. But let’s look at the wonderful things adding flaws to your world can do for your story.
Conflict
Giving your world flaws creates conflict. Yes, you’ll already have conflict from your plot, but having inherent conflict already worked into your story world creates even more options for conflict. And readers love conflict.
Tension
You know what else conflict does? It creates tension. And you want tension, because that’s what keeps readers turning pages.
Realism
Flaws make your world feel real to the reader. No place in real-life is perfect, so why should your story world be? Just like you give characters flaws so readers can relate to them, give your world flaws so the reader can relate to it.
To get you started on brainstorming flaws for your story world, here’s a list of examples.
Types of Flaws
- slavery
- racism
- banning interracial marriage
- greed
- poverty/starvation
- gender bias
- disease/sanitation
- savage, poisonous, etc. beasts
- corruption of justice system
- class divisions
- contempt for certain field of work
- persecution for religion, race, etc.
- spies
- civil war
- drugs
- alcoholism
- severe weather/harsh climates/natural disasters
- mistreatment of animals
- mistreatment of mentally ill
- mistreatment of handicapped
- child/arranged marriage
- adultery
- polygamy
- prostitution
- rape
- sex trafficking
- kidnapping
- orphans and widows
- torture
- murder/hired killers
- restricted education
- banning books, teachings, practices, etc.
- mobs, riots, protests, rebellions
- violent/extremist orders, religions, governments, etc.
- unjust laws/limited rights
- thieving, looting, raiding
- debt, taxes
- violence as entertainment
- Child and spouse abuse
- genocide, infanticide, suicide, etc.
- refugees
- bribes and betrayals
Does your story world have flaws? Do you find it challenging to create a flawed world?
INK AND QUILLS 
Great post, Kaitlin! I agree that words need to have tension, drama, and societal ills that help make a story more conflict-ridden and exciting. Racial tensions is actually one of the drivers in my fantasy WIP, and each race has its individual flaws as well. Also, since the WIP is part quest story, I’ve added some strategic reminders that nature has its dangers.
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It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into developing your fantasy world! Imperfect worlds are much more fun to play with 😉
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This is a really cool post! I haven’t thought of this before. It’s been a bit automatic for me to give a world flaws, but this is a neat listing so I can concentrate on specifics. The only thing I have to add is sometimes grey can become a bit boring when everything is grey. It irritates me when every good organization has some dark little secret. I think there should be all three of those colors: black, white, and grey. Good shown as good and bad as bad as well as an in between. Yes, human flaws can come through, but there needs to be clear demarcation or everything is a blur and what kind of example does that make? Does that make sense? Anyway. I really enjoyed the post. ^ ^ Saving this for future use.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it! 😀 I think a big part of learning to write is just becoming aware of your writing and how things work so you can use it to your advantage. Sort of like becoming aware of your body in yoga. And that does make sense! I think it depends on what type of story you’re writing and your specific plot/themes/characters too. Like I think in the fairytale genre there’s more room to be more black and white. And you may want to write a character who just *is* all bad by nature, like Joffrey in Game of Thrones. I think it’s okay to be black and white sometimes as long as you’re aware of what you’re doing and use it to your advantage 🙂
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I agree. Writing aspects start becoming instinctive after a while so you don’t have to think about them so much you know? I see your point. 🙂 Thanks again for the great post!
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