Background reading · English
Building a world
Worldbuilding is designing the setting of your story: its places, rules, technology and people. Here is a toolkit to build one readers will believe in.
Every sci-fi story takes place in a world that doesn't exist, or doesn't exist yet. To make readers believe in it, you need to know it well. Writers call this worldbuilding.
The iceberg rule
Only a small tip of an iceberg shows above the water; most of it is hidden underneath. Your world is the same. You should know far more about it than you ever put in the story. Readers can feel that depth, even when you only show a little.
Your world toolkit
Show, don't tell
Don't stop your story to explain your world in a long lecture. Let readers discover it through action and detail. Instead of 'In the future, the sea had risen and flooded the city', try: 'Aroha tied her kayak to the traffic light and climbed up to Nan's second-floor front door.' Readers work it out, and they enjoy doing so.
Keep the rules
Once your world has a rule, stick to it. If robots can't swim in chapter one, one can't suddenly swim to save the day at the end unless you've shown how it learned. Broken rules make readers stop believing.
Make it real with real science
The best sci-fi worlds borrow real facts. Scientists think Jupiter's moon Europa has a salty ocean beneath its ice. New Zealand scientists study how rising seas will change our coasts. Deep-sea creatures really do make their own light. Using a true detail makes an invented world feel possible.
Hope matters too. Not every future has to be dark. Some of the most powerful sci-fi imagines people solving problems together. Ask yourself: what kind of future do I want readers to believe in?
Sources and further reading
Written for Kōkiri Learn students in our own words. Check facts against the sources.