Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding is creating a story’s setting: its geography, history, politics, languages, religions and everyday details.
Good worldbuilding is usually like an iceberg. The author knows far more than ends up on the page, and you can feel the weight of everything you don’t see. Details come up when a character needs them, through what they notice, eat, fear and take for granted, instead of through long explanations.
The classic mistake is the infodump: pages of history before you have any reason to care, often in a conversation between two characters who both already know all of it. The opposite mistake is a world with no depth at all, where cities are just names and every culture gets one adjective.
Readers lean on anything that helps them find their way: a map, a character list, a glossary, appendices, in-world documents at the start of chapters. In long series these really matter, and flipping to them mid-book is one of the easiest ways to get spoiled, because a printed glossary doesn’t know how far you’ve read.
In BookBubble
That’s why BookBubble’s wiki works the way it does. Every character, creature, group, location, item and glossary entry is tagged to the chapter it comes from, and only unlocks once you’ve read that far.
Worldbuilding: common questions
What is an infodump?
A big chunk of background information handed to you all at once, usually early on, before you have a reason to care. It’s the most common worldbuilding mistake.
How much worldbuilding does a book need?
Enough that you can find your way around and the world feels lived in. Beyond that, the extra detail is for the author to know and the story to hint at.