173. Revisiting Your Story World Diagnosis: What Stage Are You In?

“Your biggest challenge is how to start, how to overcome confusion and overwhelm, and maybe how to overcome some procrastination.” - Beth Barany

Revisit an informative, positive, and uplifting episode with host Beth Barany to help “Your Story World Diagnosis: What Stage Are You In?” where she will share the five stages of story world building, including common world-building challenges and how to overcome them.

In this episode, you will:

1. Be able to identify the main stages of building a story world
2. Gain direction on the symptoms to know which stage you are in
3. Learn solutions on how you can progress through each stage.

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• SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
• SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
• EDITORIAL SUPPORT by Iman Llompart

c. 2025 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

--
CONNECT
Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
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CREDITS
EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://get.descript.com/0clwwvlf6e3j
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Transcript

173. Revisiting Your Story World Diagnosis: What Stage Are You In?

Introduction and Purpose

BETH BARANY: Revisiting an oldie but a goodie to help you develop your story world. Enjoy!

Common World-Building Challenges

[00:00:05] BETH BARANY: Are you stuck with your world building and you don't know how to make it come alive? Maybe your story world feels like a flimsy stage set more than real life, and you don't know what to do. Or maybe your story world feels so real, but it's missing something and you don't know what. Or maybe your story world feels like so many others derivative, and you wanna make it feel unique, feel wow.

Make it be a place that readers yearn to visit like immediately. But you don't know how to do that. I know how you feel. Often my story worlds start out as sketches too. Sets that have their back support structure showing. Then I work really hard to bring them to, to life and to enchant my readers so they keep coming back for more.

Of course, there's more than story world to bring a story to life. A good story world though enhances your character's transformation story and your story world is experienced by your main character or point of view character. Brings it to life and is part of what makes your world unique. But how do you do that?

We'll go into this and more right now. 

About the Host

[00:01:31] BETH BARANY: Hi, podcast listeners. Welcome back to How to Write the Future with me, your host, Beth Barany. I am a science fiction and fantasy novelist, a writing teacher, and a creativity coach. I created this podcast because I want us science fiction writers and speculative fiction writers to use our powers for good.

I'm here to support your quest to write positive futures. The How to Write the Future Podcast is for science fiction writers who wanna create optimistic stories because when we vision what is possible, we help make it. So I invite you into today's episode to help you go from. No story world too. Amazing story world.

I'll say it again because when we vision what is possible, we help make it. 

Stages of Story World Building

[00:02:22] BETH BARANY: So today I'm gonna go into the main stages of building a story world. Some of the symptoms to let you know which of these stages you're in, and some solutions on how you can get to the next story world level. Now I have been working with writers for over 20 years.

Myself been world building fantasy and science fiction for at least that long, if not longer. I've struggled. I have yearned, and I think I have finally succeeded at creating compelling worlds that allow my readers to sink into the story and come out the other side amazed and wanting more. I've identified five story stages.

As you listen, notice the stage you are in. If these ring true for you, I'm very curious how they land for you. 

Stage 1: Story World Blank Page Itis

[00:03:16] BETH BARANY: The first stage is story world blank page itis. You know, you're in this stage because you wanna be writing, you wanna be world building. You maybe have some inklings, very vague, but really nothing to show for it.

What you do have is the dream. You're in the stage because you've never built a story before. You've never built a new world. You have maybe a few details, a few notes, lots of questions, and maybe you've been studying craft books for a while, but you haven't really started. You're here because you're starting out.

Everybody starts here. Everybody. Your biggest challenge is how to start, how to overcome confusion and overwhelm, and maybe how to overcome some procrastination. You really wanna get out of this stage and propelled into the next stage. Working on your book. So what do you need to get from here to the next stage?

You need some skills. You need some energy and enthusiasm, maybe even some confidence. You probably need some rudimentary storytelling skills, craft. You need to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and start building your world. Maybe you also need some inspiration, so you need to fill your creative well by doing research, talking to people, watching reading.

And you really need to understand story structure and world building in general. Once you get some knowledge, now we can move you into the next story, world building stage. 

Stage 2: Story World Doubt Creep

[00:04:47] BETH BARANY: I call this stage story world doubt creep because you know you're in this stage. Stage two, when you're right in the middle of learning craft and you're writing your story notes and you're responding to world building prompts, but you're wondering, is this right?

Is this any good? Does this make sense? At this stage, there's a lot of stopping and starting and stalling. I know when I was in the stage, there was a lot of doubt, a lot of concern. You're wondering, does this work? There's a lot of decisions to make. Often the doubts make you freeze, and the reason this keeps happening.

Is a few things. Maybe it's perfectionism. Maybe you're worried about trends and sales, and are the readers gonna like this? And it's hard to know because this is your first attempt. So how do you get out of the stage and propelled into the third stage? Well, persevere. Keep going. It's okay if you don't know.

What you're doing that's totally, totally normal. Have people ask you questions, get with peer writers. It's a little too early to hire an editor. I wouldn't do that, especially 'cause this is all about brainstorming. You may need to do more research. Also connect to your greater why. Why are you writing the story and persevere and keep going with all your story planning and world building.

Get support. This is often where people come to me as a writing teacher and coach. And get feedback and support that and the steps I shared will move you into the third stage, which I call story world first steps. 

Stage 3: Story World First Steps

[00:06:23] BETH BARANY: Now what you've done all your story planning, and with that, you've also moved into drafting.

You know, you're in this stage because you have gone through your planning notes. If you do planning and you have written a complete first draft, I mean crappy first draft. Many elements of your story world are there. You have your character moving through the action of the story, but now you've taken a step back and you notice this doesn't quite make sense.

Maybe critique partners are asking you, how come this and why that? You realized you've left out a lot of nuances. There's holes, there's implications you haven't thought about, so you're concerned, do I scrap the book? How do I stitch this all together? How do I fix it? What you really yearn for at this stage is clarity.

Some more methods and tools on how to refine and edit the story. You love your story. Maybe you even feel really proud of what you've done and I hope so. Writing a first draft is awesome, but maybe you feel a little bit embarrassed 'cause you don't have all the details quote right? Like doesn't quite hang altogether.

That's okay. That was your first pass. What you really want now is clarity and confidence. You wanna know that your story world is robust, that your readers can really engage with your story world and really feel all the things about your world and really experience the story through your character's eyes.

What do you need to get to the next level? You need to pressure test your story in your world. You need more information, new methodologies. Maybe you haven't asked the right questions of your story. Maybe you need some more in inspiration. The creative well may be empty again. Now it's time to go do some research and deepen into the signals on the fringes.

What are the patterns outside mainstream media? Have you really picked up all the ways in which you can make your story world unique from the perspective of your main character? So you dig in. And you do the work. This is also where people come to me for support so that I can help them spot all the holes in their work.

Stage 4: Editing Your Story World for Clarity and Cohesion

[00:08:28] BETH BARANY: Now you're in the fourth stage editing your story world for clarity and cohesion. You know, you're in this stage when you're stitching everything together. You have found the answers to all your story world's problems, and now you're doing the work with an eye towards. Your audience. So I was gonna call this stage, sell Your Story World.

Maybe I'll call it Edit and Sell Your Story World, because this is where you're editing, you're bringing everything together. You wanna make sure your readers are really gonna find your story attractive. What you'd love more than anything is to be able to sell your story, whether you're selling it direct to readers as an independent author, or you're selling it to agents and editors.

As a traditionally published author at this stage, you wanna really be able to identify what are the core concepts and values of your story world. What is the foundational soapbox of your story world? What do you stand for and how does that connect with what your readers really want? So what propels you into the next stage is identifying the key elements of your story world that speak to the audiences of today.

Really honing in on those setting details, values, even what's kind of edgy about your story so that you can communicate that attractiveness about your mission to your readers. 

Stage 5: Your Story World is Alive

[00:09:56] BETH BARANY: This propels you to the final stage, stage five, which I call your story world, is alive. It's alive. The confident selling writer, you have arrived.

You know the value of your story and its world. You know the whys and the where fors, and you can confidently communicate that to your audience so that your ideal readers can find your book and can buy your book. You've arrived, your book is out into the marketplace. You can now communicate in any form through various marketing mediums, the awesomeness of your story world and your character.

So go forth and market your novel. 

Conclusion and Call to Action

[00:10:33] BETH BARANY: That is the five stages of developing your story world for science fiction writers. Obviously, this can be applied to fantasy writers and anybody who needs to build a cohesive deep story world. Granted, this was a, a flyover, a 30,000 foot view over the course of future episodes.

I'll dive deep into each one of these stages. Now. I'd like your help. I would like you. To tell me through social media, through writing me, or even just think for yourself, where are you in these story world stages? Which one of these five stages do you find yourself in? Also, do these ring true? What is missing?

If anything? Did I leave anything out? Should I add some more things in? These five stages are based on my experience as a writing teacher and a writing coach, as well as my experience writing 16 science fiction and fantasy novels. That's what I base all this on. I look forward to hearing from you. Please enjoy.

Let me know if you have any questions about these five stages. The best way to reach me is through LinkedIn or Twitter or through my website, Beth Barany dot com. That's B-E-T-H-B-A-R-A-N y.com. Until next time, I'm Beth Barany signing off from the How to Write the Future Podcast. Write long and prosper.