Start with What They Do, Then Let the World Follow

Worldbuilding through action means your character interacts with their environment before you describe it.

  • Why it worksAction grounds the reader in the moment. In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins shows us Katniss hunting, preserving food, and trading at the Hob before explaining District 12’s poverty. We understand scarcity through survival, not through a history lesson.
  • How to do itLet your character perform a routine task specific to their world. In Dune, Frank Herbert opens with Paul Atreides undergoing the gom jabbar test. The ritual reveals political tension, cultural values, and supernatural stakes—all through action and dialogue, zero narration dumps.

Do

Show the character doing something only someone in this world would do.

Avoid

Pausing the story to explain how the world works.

From My Work

In Salt & Bone, the world reveals itself through scavenging routines:

I checked the canned goods first—dented meant bacteria, rust meant slow death. The expiration dates didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did except the seal.

The apocalypse shows up in Lisa’s muscle memory, not in backstory.

Let Objects Carry History

Every object your character touches has been shaped by the world they live in. Use those objects to reveal culture, conflict, and change.

  • Why it worksObjects ground abstract worldbuilding in something tangible. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses the Handmaid’s red dress, the Commander’s study, and even butter as objects that reveal Gilead’s oppressive structure through touch and use.
  • How to do itChoose objects that only exist because of your world’s unique rules. In Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel uses the Symphony’s caravan—patched together from scavenged parts—to show both loss and adaptation without explaining the collapse directly.

Do

Make your character interact with objects in ways that reveal their function and significance.

Avoid

Describing objects without letting the character use them.

From My Work

In Salt & Bone, currency has changed:

She slid three batteries across the table. AAAs. I picked one up, felt the weight. Still sealed. Worth more than gold ever was.

The trade shows the world’s values without stating them.

Use Discomfort to Reveal What’s Changed

When something feels wrong to your character, readers lean in. Discomfort signals that the world operates differently than ours—or differently than it used to.

  • Why it worksDiscomfort creates tension and curiosity. In 1984, George Orwell uses Winston’s fear of the telescreen to reveal surveillance culture. The unease does more work than any explanation could.
  • How to do itIdentify what would feel unsettling or alien in your world, then let your character react to it. In The Road, Cormac McCarthy uses the father’s constant vigilance—checking locks, hiding, avoiding roads—to show danger without naming it.

Do

Let physical sensations (fear, nausea, exhaustion) reveal environmental threats.

Avoid

Telling readers why something is dangerous before showing the character’s reaction.

From My Work

In Salt & Bone, the silence reveals more than words:

The woods had gone quiet. No birds. No bugs. Just wind through dead branches. I stopped walking. When the forest held its breath, we did too.

The apocalypse lives in absence, not description.

Show Social Rules Through Violation

The fastest way to reveal how a society works? Have your character break a rule—or watch someone else break one.

  • Why it worksViolation exposes consequence, and consequence reveals power structures. In The Giver, Lois Lowry shows the Community’s control through small infractions—riding a bicycle before the proper age, taking an apple, speaking imprecisely. Each violation teaches us the rules without stating them.
  • How to do itLet your character cross a boundary and face immediate fallout. In Red Rising, Pierce Brown opens with Darrow singing a forbidden song. The punishment that follows reveals caste brutality, cultural suppression, and rebellion—all in one scene.

Do

Use reactions from other characters to show the weight of the rule.

Avoid

Explaining the rule before anyone breaks it.

From My Work

In the Death Series, supernatural rules reveal themselves through consequence:

I touched the doorframe and felt the hum beneath my fingertips. The wraiths were still active. Good. Because whenever one of those things showed up to try and buy my soul, we’d be ready.

Magic’s rules show up in fear and memory, not in lectures.

Let Movement Reveal Geography and Danger

How your character moves through space tells readers what kind of world they’re navigating—and what threatens them.

  • Why it worksMovement is instinctive. Readers understand danger when a character runs, hesitates, or avoids certain paths. In The Maze Runner, James Dashner uses the Gladers’ strict routines—never entering the Maze at night, always closing the doors—to build dread before explaining why.
  • How to do itTrack how your character navigates their environment. Do they take shortcuts or avoid them? In Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer uses the team’s slow, cautious progression into Area X to reveal wrongness through atmosphere and movement rather than exposition.

Do

Let physical obstacles and choices reveal the layout and logic of your world.

Avoid

Stopping to describe the environment before the character interacts with it.

From My Work

In Salt & Bone, movement shows survival instinct:

We kept to the shoulder, eyes on the tree line. Highways meant visibility. Visibility meant trouble. Better to lose time than lose everything.

The world’s danger lives in her choices, not in explanation.

Worldbuild Through Ritual and Routine

Repetition reveals culture. The things your characters do every day without thinking expose the world’s values, fears, and structure.

  • Why it worksRoutine feels authentic because it’s unconscious. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin uses Gethenian social rituals—kemmer, shifgrethor, the Foretelling—to build an entire culture through behavior rather than definition.
  • How to do itIdentify the small, repeated actions unique to your world. In Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi uses prayer rituals, magic incantations, and caste markings to establish Orïsha’s spiritual and political landscape through practice.

Do

Show your character performing the ritual without over-explaining its purpose.

Avoid

Front-loading the meaning before the action happens.

From My Work

In the Death Series, rituals reveal the supernatural stakes:

Every night before sleep, I pressed her thumb to the windowsill and whispered the words. Three times. Never twice, never four. The house needed to know I was still breathing.

Magic becomes real through habit, not through exposition.

Final Thoughts

Worldbuilding through action keeps readers immersed in the story while building the world around them.

When we see characters navigate danger, use objects with care, break rules and face consequences, and move through their environment with instinct and routine, the world becomes real. Readers don’t need a guidebook when they can feel the world through every choice a character makes.

Show the world through the doing. The rest follows.

Extras

Table Of Contents
  1. Start with What They Do, Then Let the World Follow
  2. Let Objects Carry History
  3. Use Discomfort to Reveal What's Changed
  4. Show Social Rules Through Violation
  5. Let Movement Reveal Geography and Danger
  6. Worldbuild Through Ritual and Routine
  7. Final Thoughts
  8. Extras