Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding consistency without endless preparation
An optional craft exercise with an invented example.
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You have names for the rivers, a calendar, and three generations of rulers. You still do not know what happens when your protagonist reaches the ferry. Try moving the preparation question closer to the scene: what must be true for this person to make this decision?
In his official FAQ, Adrian Tchaikovsky describes preparing detailed settings before drafting, while also experimenting with how he develops a story. He generally leaves the final ending open. This is his account of his own process, not evidence that every writer should follow it. Source: “Are you a planner or a pantser?”.
The small working note below is an original editorial exercise. It is not Tchaikovsky’s prescribed method.
Start with one usable fact
Consider this invented setting: a town’s public ferry stops running when the evening bell sounds. Iona reaches the landing after the bell with a parcel her brother needs before morning.
You could design the town’s entire transport history. For this scene, begin with three notes:
- The public ferry has stopped for the night.
- Iona can see a privately owned skiff on the opposite bank.
- She does not yet know whether its owner will take her across.
The first note sets a limit. The second leaves a possibility. The third belongs to the character’s uncertainty. Keeping these separate helps you decide what the scene must reveal, without answering every question about the town.
Now write Iona’s first attempt to get across. Perhaps she calls to the skiff’s owner and discovers that payment is not the obstacle: the owner will cross only if she accompanies him to retrieve a net caught downstream. That invitation gives you a decision to write. The larger setting can develop around its consequences.
Keep uncertainty in the right place
There is a difference between Iona not knowing something and you having established contradictory facts. If an earlier scene says private boats cannot travel after the bell, the skiff needs an explanation or the earlier statement needs revision. If the earlier scene says only that the public ferry stops, private travel is still an open possibility.
You do not have to explain that distinction in a paragraph of exposition. You might show it through Iona’s surprise, a posted notice, or the boat owner’s refusal. Choose what the viewpoint character would encounter.
For your working notes, try marking a detail as settled, provisional, or unknown to the character. Those labels are for your convenience. They are not a requirement to freeze an unfinished story.
Try a scene-sized preparation pass
Choose one scene you want to draft. Name the immediate decision. List up to three setting facts that affect it. Leave a separate space for questions that do not yet affect the choice.
Draft the scene until a missing fact actually stops you. Mark that point in your notes. Decide whether you need research, a fictional choice, or simply permission to leave the answer open for now. Afterward, record any new fact the scene establishes so you can find it during revision.
The three-fact limit is an optional constraint for this exercise, not a measure of adequate worldbuilding. Use fewer or more if that better serves the work.
Another workable approach
You may prefer to discover the setting while drafting. Write the ferry scene first, then extract the facts it implies: who can cross, what it costs, and what the bell changes. Reconcile those discoveries with surrounding scenes during revision.
Or you may enjoy extensive preparation for its own sake. Keep it if it helps you write. This exercise is intended for the moment when preparation has stopped helping you enter a scene; it is not an argument against detailed invented worlds.
Source and limits
Tchaikovsky also credits setting preparation with reducing later revision in his own work. That is a personal explanation, not a demonstrated general effect. His FAQ notes exceptions to his usual process. Source: “How do you write so much?”.
The ferry, characters, working-note labels, and exercise are original to this guide. Real historical, scientific, or cultural claims would need their own sources; inventing a fictional rule does not verify a real-world fact. Primary sections checked September 20, 2026.
Sources
- Source: “Are you a planner or a pantser?” — See the scope and limitations in the guide.