Hi fellow readers, writers, and friends!
For my first manuscript, I thought, "Gee, wouldn't an underwater world be SO cool?"
Then I actually started building this world—setting its rules, making characters interact with it—and holy mackerel, it was a MASSIVE learning curve. (But honestly? It's been a blast.)
It's taken me two years to build this underwater world. I've thought about it so much that even at night, when I close my eyes, I'm there...
Swimming beside Vander through Incipio's pathways, weaving between schools of speckled trout that scatter at our approach. Can't help tapping my ELF to grab a shot of this lined seahorse outside Pod 205—little guy's gripping the purple staghorn coral with his tail like he's holding on for dear life. His head's way too big for his body, but somehow it works. Ridiculous and perfect at the same time.
Yep, I just threw up worldbuilding all over you.
Here's the thing: worldbuilding wasn't the
first thing I tackled. I prioritized characters and the story first. Because here's a truth bomb—worldbuilding supports the plot and characters; it's not the main attraction.
And oh boy, there's SO much to consider.
Take my novel, for example.
The ocean is this vast, mysterious space that we humans know almost nothing about. We've only explored around 20% of it. That means there's a TON down there we don't understand (which made my story deliciously ripe for fantasy elements). But here's my big challenge:
I don't actually live in the ocean. Or even near one. My personal experience? Useless. I had to do a lot of studying and brainstorming to figure out the rules of my world.
Questions I had to answer (and trust me, there were SO many more):
- How will the sun and moon filter through the water to show what time of day it is?
- How will water pressure affect the characters' actions in each scene?
- How do I show emotions on their faces and body language (especially when crying isn't an option underwater)?
- How do the characters move through the city?
- How will the water environment affect their hair, their words, their senses?
- What depth allows for photosynthesis so the seaweed farms can actually grow?
- How has technology advanced to be sustainable underwater?
Answering these questions helped me set the rules of my world. And once those rules are established?
You have to follow them. Consistency is everything. Break your own rules, and you'll confuse the hell out of your readers.
Another thing I had to learn (and it took me a few revisions to get right) was
blending worldbuilding into the story organically. The worst thing for me as a reader is flipping through page after page of dense, descriptive detail about the world. That's not my style. I like fast-paced, easy-to-read stories that layer worldbuilding into action scenes, character interactions, dialogue, and sensory details.
And here's where I got caught in the fish nets early on: I thought I had to build out
everything and explain
everything. Like, how does the bubble city get its power? What material was used to construct the clear dome over Incipio that won't break under the water's pressure? Will concrete buildings get claimed by ocean biofilm, barnacles, algae, and tube worms?
These are all good things to think about. But the trap?
Overdoing it. Going way too deep and overwhelming both myself and the reader.
So I pulled my fingers off the keyboard and took a deep breath. I had to reset.
Focusing on what excited me most kept me reeled in. My focus became marine life, architecture, and technology within Incipio. By zeroing in on a few key things and starting small, I made the world believable while still leaving room for readers to use their imagination. There are far more places to explore in my underwater world—it's vast and largely unexplored—and I don't have to detail it all.
My last big lesson came from beta reader feedback. There's a lot to unpack when it comes to spatial awareness, but the areas they wanted more of were
distance, scale, and relative position. I'd focused heavily on sensory details, movement, and character perspective, but I'd missed giving them a sense of how large the space actually was. How many Incipians live in the bubble city? What direction are the characters going? Where are the Residential Blocks in relation to the Research Zone?
This feedback was gold. During my revisions, I wove these details into the book. Added bonus? This will help an illustrator design a map of Incipio someday.
Stay creative, stay hyped, and make your world limitless... to a degree.
Morgan
