Writer Talk Carnival: Worldbuilding

In this Writer Blog Carnival for December 2025, we are talking about worldbuilding. Strap in, this could be a big one.

Pick whichever aspects of this huge topic you would like to talk about. There is a lot of this topic to go around.

Your starting prompts

Here are a bunch of questions we came up with. You only have to answer the ones you want to, and can take things in whatever fresh direction you wish. This is your blog post after all.

Tell us about your worldbuilding.

• How much (or little) worldbuilding do you do?
• Do you spend a long time on worldbuilding?
• What aspects of your worldbuilding are you most proud of?
• Are there any areas of your worldbuilding that are unexplored?
• How do you introduce readers to your worldbuilding?
• Is there more worldbuilding left out than included in your writings?

What is worldbuilding?

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. Worldbuilding often involves the creation of geography, a backstory, flora, fauna, inhabitants, technology, and often if writing speculative fiction, different peoples. This may include social customs as well as invented languages (often called conlangs) for the world.

Worldbuilding, Wikipedia

What does worldbuilding mean to you?

Forgetting for a moment the above definition, let us talk about what worldbuilding means to you. Do you write in a setting that needs a lot of worldbuilding, or is your setting so close to the real world that you need very little beyond the world your characters find themselves within?

What does worldbuilding mean to you?

World building is not just about creating a place, but crafting a story that exists within it, giving life to its inhabitants and breathing soul into its landscapes.

J. Edwards Holt, The Seven Branches

Share some of your worldbuilding – what is your world like?

Give us a taste of your worldbuilding. Show us some of the political, technical, magical, geological, or historical aspects of your world.

I made a world AMA: Introduce your world and take worldbuilding questions

A great prompt for worldbuilding is taking random questions about your world. Use comments, email, replies, mentions, or whatever method you prefer. See what readers find interesting and answer questions that force you to grow your understanding of your world.

How do you name things in your world?

Naming things can make or break the immersion of your world. What conventions or styles do you use for worldbuilding? For example, do you have a culture that uses specific sounds like Ja, Sh, Pht (or whatever) in most of its names? (I’m sure your ideas are better than mine).

What are your worldbuilding tips?

You don’t have to talk about your own worldbuilding. You could, instead, talk about the art of worldbuilding itself. Share your wisdom with us, oh, enlightened one.

Quickfire round

Critise my worldbuilding

If you are feeling especially spicy, I invite you to become a critic of my worldbuilding – it is a Dungeons and Dragons setting called Tameria.

Bonus link: Worldbuilding SE.

• All world builders should know about the SE worldbuilding Q&A.

Now it is all up to you

All that is left is for you to write your post and talk about your world or worldbuilding. You can submit via Comment, Reply, or WebMention (the latter being the best and easiest).

Remember to link to this post and then ping us when you are ready. (The ping form is under the comments.)