The Therapeutic Escape of Worldbuilding

The world is a bit…ehhhhhhhhhhahhhhhhhherrrrghhugh…right now. The real world anyway. I don’t think I need to spell that out for anyway, save for the purposes of introducing this post.

For me, this whole COVID-19 thing is one of my worst fears realized, given my own personal health issues and the fact that stuff like a pandemic can happen, that it’s happened before and there’s no reason why it can’t happen again. Totally legit that it is happening again. Especially in our current state of corruption that ironically borders on the cartoonishly evil and political leaders who are both inept and narcissistic, even psychopathic. 

And unfortunately, this is usually the kind of situation that makes me so fearful and anxious that I can’t even escape into the world of a book to allay such negative emotions. I can’t relax enough to be willing to let myself get lost in a good book. Then again, I’m usually reading five or six books at a time, and my mood is extremely deterministic of the kind of media I consume for entertainment in general. I also run into the same problem with trying to write when I’m going through an existential crisis, but sometimes that does actually do the trick.

When it doesn’t though–when it hasn’t, as of late–I’ve found another creative alternative.  

It’s been years since I’ve tried to write a book that took place in a fantasy world. I write fantasy, yet, but it’s…”contemporary fantasy”, or “urban fantasy”, i.e., “characters have magic powers in the modern era, and they’re the kind that don’t really fit into any particular fantasy genre slot”. Though for the purposes of a pitch, I’d say “contemporary fantasy”. Which Google tells me that’s actually a thing (or at least it gave me a long list of books that clearly fit that description, so yay, I finally can stop stressing over that, I dunno why that took me so long to figure out). 

Anyway, back when I was doing that sort of thing, I wasn’t considering things like worldbuilding. I was still a preteen kid who just wrote whatever with complete abandon (like you do). Then I grew up and learned about things like outlines and taking story notes and creating character profiles, and I never got too into the actual concept of sitting down and building a world brick-by-brick. Though it was always something I did want to table for later. Because I do like the idea of that sort of thing.

I could just…never really get it that far off the ground in favor of other writing projects. 

And now, with all the time spent inside (more than usual even for me), combined with being faced with things being as bad as they could get without (maybe, hopefully) utterly falling apart, the part of me that:

• likes to simply take notes on things I learn about when I can’t bring myself to just write fiction
• gets little gems of inspiration while she reads (then again who doesn’t, I think that’s why we’re all here)
• has been watching worldbuilding and writing videos lately on YouTube (here are links to a few I’d highly recommend, from “Overly Sarcastic Productions” and “Hello Future Me“)
• just loves to draw maps, followed by one day recently searching for and finding a website/software that would allow me to draw one (which I found in Inkarnate, it’s awesome, check it out), and
• is at the point in the drafting of my current manuscript that it’s so close to being beta-reader ready I can almost taste it…

…I made a map, and then I opened a new PowerPoint project (I never use it for anything else anyway, which can I just say, if I could get a job that would pay me to use it on a regular basis, I would love that, just putting that out there) and started putting down some abstract ideas that are now slowly collecting and coming together into a concretely building fantasy world. 

All because the act of worldbuilding became soothing to me. Probably because of the obvious fact that imagining a world different from this one is in and of itself soothing to most creative fantasy writers like me. Probably. 

Which is great, since everything else has me swinging between serenity and sickening dread multiples times a day. And when I can’t bring myself to write or read and not wanting to fall down yet another YouTube rabbit hole or even fall into binging something for the sake of binging, working on worldbuilding for this particular idea I got in my head that won’t leave me alone, even at just the level of “picking at it”, makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something if I don’t manage to get anything else writing-related done on a given day (barring putting out another blog post). Which makes me feel better. And feeling better is always a plus when you’re otherwise anxious about everything. 

Actually, I’d put forward that if you happen to have an idea that requires a bit of extra worldbuilding because it takes place in a fantasy or sci-fi setting, why not take a crack at working at that a little? If you’re still stuck in quarantine/self-isolation. Or even if you’re like me and still have to squeeze out as much time as possible and you can only take even just five minutes to jot down a few things that come to mind while waiting nervously in the grocery line and your cart full of stocked-up supplies and wearing your face mask. Now more than ever, imagination is the best homeopathic remedy, aside from stress-relief teas and glasses and glasses of wine (don’t judge me).

Speaking from experience, it’s gotten me through the last approximately two-to-two-and-a-half months. Plus, there is that old pro tip that when you finish your first manuscript (that you plan on peddling to agents etc. later, anyway), that you have another book or story idea in mind and work on that (just in case). Even I had to admit that to myself that I couldn’t bet everything on one horse (which is something I end up having to do with nearly everything I try, to be honest, I’m stubborn like that). There are even websites for that stuff too, like World Anvil and Campfire. 

Or, if nothing else, feel free to draw a fantasy map or two. Inkarnate again, is a great online tool, but so’s good ol’ fashioned pencil and sketch paper (as a lefty, I do miss those thick graphite smudges on the side of my hand). Seriously, it’s like coloring therapy without having an actual coloring therapy coloring book on hand.

Or if you do have one of those, you can definitely do both. No one says you can’t. Or…apparently ASMRs are good for this sort of thing too? (I wouldn’t know I have yet to try any one other than the soap cutting ones, and admittedly, those make me sooooooo satisfactorily mellow.) 

Bottom line: have at it. You may just come up with some of your best worldbuilding work yet.