Worldbuilding for Masochists
Fiction & Audio Drama
About
A podcast by three fantasy authors who love to overcomplicate things for themselves.
Episodes
- Episode 180: Subgenre Spin, ft. FONDA LEE
Fonda Lee joins Worldbuilding for Masochists to discuss how SFF subgenres blend aesthetic and structure, exploring reader expectations and marketing
- Episode 179: That's Me in the Spotlight, Worldbuilding My Religion, ft. VAISHNAVI PATEL
This episode discusses incorporating real-world religions into fantasy worlds, covering respect, faith, gender roles, morality, and conflict. Guest Vaishnavi Patel shares insights on these elements and their impact on character arcs.
- Episode 178: Character and Conflict, ft. CARISSA BROADBENT
This episode explores how worldbuilding creates character opportunities and obstacles. Guest Carissa Broadbent discusses how the world shapes characters' circumstances, pasts, desires, and expectations, and how these interact with others'…
- Episode 177: Getting in Tune: Music in Worldbuilding, ft. MIA TSAI
Guest Mia Tsai joins Worldbuilding for Masochists to explore how music functions in worldbuilding for novels. The discussion covers using music to convey emotion, character responses to tunes, and diverse cultural roles of music, while als…
- Episode 176: Atmospheric Conditions, ft. H.M. LONG
This episode of Worldbuilding for Masochists features author H. M. Long discussing how to craft atmosphere in novels. The conversation covers mood, setting, sensory details, weather, lighting, and the use of literary devices to evoke speci…
- Episode 175: Folklore Monsters and Their Origins, ft. AMÉLIE WEN ZHAO
From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the characters in your world to tell. So where do folktales come from, and how can we use them in…
- Episode 174: Stress-Testing Your Worldbuilding, ft. ANDREA STEWART
We often start the worldbuilding process with a lot of exciting ideas, shiny notions, and fun experiments -- so then, how do you make it make sense? Even in an invented world with its own history, geography, magic, and other special condit…
- Episode 173: Talking about Writing: A Crossover Episode with SFF ADDICTS (Adrian M. Gibson, M.J. Kuhn, & Greta Kelly)
There comes a time in the life of every author when they have to do that truly terrifying thing: Talk about their book. In this special crossover episode with SFF Addicts, we talk about talking about writing! A lot of that involves the bea…
- Episode 172: Inquiries and Interrogatives
It's our first episode of 2026, and that means it's time for another listener Q&A episode! From nitty-gritty craft details like writing good dialogue and measuring your pacing to broader concepts like "How do you make worldbuilding fun aga…
- Episode 171: Eight Days a Week
As we turn the pages of our own calendars, let's think about how the cultures we build in fantasy and science fiction mark the passage of time! What shapes the patterns of life for your characters? Do they judge years and seasons and month…
- Episode 170: Save It for the Patreon
We know we’re worldbuilding masochists – But when is too much really, really too much? Some of us try to do all our worldbuilding at the start of a project -- and some of us do it as we go. However you work, where's the line between worldb…
- Episode 169: For the Cartography-Curious
Few things are more glorious than opening up a fantasy book and seeing a gorgeously detailed map right up front. So what goes into making that masterpiece for you to feast your eyes and imagination upon? In this episode, we discuss our lov…
- Episode 168: It's Bigger on the Inside... of Book Two, ft. APARNA VERMA
So: Whether it was always intended and contracted, you told the “standalone with series potential” fib, or the public has simply demanded more, you now have to write a second book in the same world. How do you expand the world while mainta…
- Episode 167: Spice Up Your Worldbuilding. ft. NIA DAVENPORT
So, you've decided it's time to turn up the heat on your worldbuilding. Maybe you're writing a full-on romantasy, or maybe it's a smaller component of your overall plot, but if your characters are getting down and dirty, how do you make su…
- Episode 166: The Histo-Remix, ft. ALIX E. HARROW
We use history a lot in our worldbuilding, whether as a direct re-interpretation or as inspiration for a secondary world that we’re creating. So… why do we do that? And what choices do we need to examine as we do so? Guest Alix E. Harrow j…
- Episode 165: Pour One out for Your Worldbuilding
From beer to gin, from caffeine to tobacco, from mushrooms to hallucinogenic snails, a culture's options for achieving altered states of consciousness through consumables are vast! So when the people in your culture want to get blitzed --…
- Special Episode: ArmadilloCon 2025!
This episode was recorded live as a panel at ArmadilloCon 2025 ! We give a little history of the podcast, re-introduce ourselves for the in-room audience and any new listeners, and discuss the world of the Magical Nude Gates and our indivi…
- Episode 164: Worldbuilding and the Lens of Perspective, ft. MARTIN CAHILL
A point-of-view character's experience of the world will shape the information that the reader gets about that world. So, a lot depends on who that character -- or character s -- might be! How can you turn their knowledge -- or lack thereo…
- Episode 163: Gryphons and Dragons and Owlbears, Oh My!
Mythical and magical creatures are a staple of the fantasy genre, sometimes as obstacles for heroes to face, sometimes as healers and dispensers of wisdom, sometimes fulfilling roles both stranger and more mundane. If you decide to include…
- Episode 162: A Leap of Faith: Worldbuilding Fantasy Religions, ft. DEVA FAGAN
Fantasy religions often feel like reskins either of ancient Greek or Norse pantheons or of the medieval Catholic church. But what more interesting choices can we make when we're building faith within an invented world? Deva Fagan joins us…
- Episode 161: The On Ramp
In this episode, we're taking a closer look at something we refer to a lot when we're talking craft: the on-ramp. Which is to say, at the beginning of your book, as you're introducing your world, how much stuff can you throw at your reader…
- Episode 160: Cozy Worldbuilding, ft. SARAH BETH DURST
What makes a story -- and a world -- "cozy"? What are the conflicts, challenges, and obstacles like when, instead of taking the Ring to Mordor, you heroes are trying to keep a coffee shop afloat or open a pet shop? Sarah Beth Durst joins u…
- Episode 159: Holding Out For A Heroic Worldbuild, ft. JOHN WISWELL
What is the measure of a true hero? What a society consideres heroic can say a lot about their values, needs, and ethos -- but it's also something that can shift a lot over time and from location to location. Is heroism about physical stre…
- Episode 158: The Invisible Hand of Worldbuilding, ft. ELIZABETH BEAR
In one way or another, economy touches almost everything in a world. Even without currency or capitalism in the sense that we currently know it, the idea of obligations and repayment exert pressure on society. So how can we make interestin…
- Episode 157: How Far We've Come, ft ROWENNA MILLER
It's the start of SEASON SEVEN! And original co-host Rowenna Miller is back to join us in a reflection of how multiple years of doing this podcast has affected how each of us thinks about worldbuilding. What have we learned from our many a…
- Episode 156: From a Certain Point of View, ft. KATE ELLIOTT
It's one of the first choices you'll make when writing a story, consciously or not: what point of view are you writing from? First person singular? Third person limited? Omniscient? Something else? The POV can affect a reader's experience…
- Episode 155: The Rule of Cool, ft. JIM C. HINES
We often think about "making things make sense" in worldbuilding and building internal consistency, scientific realism, and other logic-based considerations into our fiction -- But what happens when your worldbuilding principle is “What wo…
- Episode 154: Judge Worldbuilding by Its Size, Do You?
We often think of worldbuilding happening on a grand scale, with huge maps and the sweeping narratives of nations and world-changing events. But that's not really the stuff that makes a world feel lived-in. The granular choices are what sh…
- Episode 153: A Long, Skilled, Satisfying Cunning Linguist Session
How can language help shape your worldbuilding? We're not necessarily talking about conlang here -- that can certainly be part of worldbuilding, but it doesn't have to be, and many works of speculative fiction manage perfectly fine without…
- Episode 152: Setting the Scene, ft AI JIANG
Sometimes, people will say of a book that "the setting is another character". But what does that really mean, and how can a writer craft it? Ai Jiang joins us to discuss creating worlds and settings that have their own personalities! From…
- Episode 151: Everybody’s Working for the Worldbuild, ft AUGUST CLARKE
In amazing fantasy and science fiction worlds -- Who's doing the work? Where does the food come from? The clothes? Who does the caregiving? Guest august clarke joins us to discuss the hands and bodies that create a society. Labor is someth…
- Episode 150: Team Efforts, ft. THIRD PERSON (Xen, Matt Roen, and Sara Wile)
Worldbuilding means getting to “play god” – so how does that take a different shape when you’re part of a pantheon rather than the One True Ruler of your world? Xen, Matt Roen, and Sara Wile, the creative trio behind Midst , a surreal sci-…
- Episode 149: Especially the Lies: Building Unreliable Worlds, ft. MARINA LOSTETTER
What happens when the world your characters -- or your readers -- first find themselves in turns out to be not quite what it appears? Marina Lostetter joins us to explore the different ways that a writer can play with an unreliable world.…
- Episode 148: Horny on Main: Smutting Up Your Worldbuilding
In honor of Valentine's Day, the season of Carnivale, and our own amusement, we bring to you this extra-long episode, where we heat things up and get a little down and dirty with our worldbuilding. What role does sex play in the world you'…
- Episode 147: Something Is A-Myth, ft. KRITIKA H. RAO
Mythological retellings have been having A Moment in fiction for a few years now. So, why do we do that? Kritika H. Rao joins us to explore the power and agency inherent in recontextualizing mythology for a modern readership! What is it th…
- Episode 146: A Matter of Character (ft SOPHIE BURNHAM)
The world a character exists in shapes their identity on many axes of power and privilege. So how do those various scales affect the emotional stakes of the story they find themselves in? Guest Sophie Burnham joins us to discuss building a…
- Episode 145: To Worldbuild or Not to Worldbuild, That Is the Question
And obviously the answer is yes! But in this episode, we answer your questions! We talk about the "rules" and common advice of worldbuilding -- and the ways in which we merrily ignore, redefine, or defy them. We pull apart some techniques…
- Episode 144: What Do You Do with a B.A. in Magic?
How do the people in your world learn things? Lessons learned might come from formalized institutions, but knowledge might also get passed down through families, through guilds and trade organizations, or through the wisdom whispered in a…
- Episode 143: Children of the Revolution
In this episode, we discuss purely fictional, 100% not-at-all real, nothing to do with contemporary life ideas about rebellions and revolutions. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons is coincidental. Completely . Continui…
- Episode 142: Law & Order (DUN DUN)
So once you've got a government, what can that government do ? What does it regulate, and how is it, itself, regulated? Laws can be created for a lot of reasons, some good and some bad. Sometimes they protect a citizen's opportunity to do…
- Episode 141: More Perfect Unions
Government is a set of rules agreed upon, and politics is how a society determines those rules. So how do you create the systems by which civilizations negotiate those levers of power in your fantasy or sci-fi world? On the sliding scale o…
- Episode 140: Practical Magic, ft. ROWENNA MILLER
As with the last two “back to basics” episodes, we thought we’d spend some time looking the thing that (usually, though there are exceptions) makes fantasy fantastical – the magic! How do we build magical systems, and what questions do we…
- Episode 139: 2 Crunchy, 2 Curious
We’re spending a couple of episodes going back to the basics of worldbuilding, talking about the questions that it’s often fruitful to ask oneself when you’re doing this wild thing. Last time we did the physical world, so now it’s time for…
- Episode 138: Crunchy Questions
Every once in a while, it's good to go back to the basics. And for us, that means the basics of worldbuilding! When you're getting started out with a new project, building a world from the ground up, there are a lot of things you can take…
- Episode 137: Smile and Be a Villain, ft. CHLOE GONG
A villain may not have excuses for their behavior -- but they probably have reasons . How can worldbuilding feed those reasons? Antagonists are often those characters who are both the most willing and the most able to seize control of powe…
- Episode 136: Live from WorldCon in Glasgow!
We were all in the same room! And that room was in Scotland! In this episode, your WFM co-hosts were able to record a special episode at WorldCon . We chat about ourselves, our works, the Traveling Light anthology, and our favorite compone…
- Episode 135: Philosophical Acts of Translation, ft. KEN LIU
What can translation and transmission of ideas and stories over time teach us about a society -- and about storytelling? Guest Ken Liu joins us to talk about the intertwining of philosophy, imagination, and translation. As writers, we can…
- Episode 134: Print The Legend: Weaving Myth and History into One, ft. NALO HOPKINSON
Where does mythology come from? How does it tie us together? What does one world's mythology tell us about its people, how they view themselves, and their interactions with the divine? We speak to Nalo Hopkinson about myths, mythologies, f…
- Episode 133: The Devil in the Details, ft. M.J. KUHN
A perennial question that our listeners often have is: How do you organize your worldbuilding? Do you have templates to use? Charts to fill out? Once you start imagining all your fantastic choices, how do you keep track of them all and the…
- Episode 132: Just a Small Town Worldbuild, ft. CHERIE PRIEST
A lot of the time, fantasy worldbuilding invokes huge maps, spanning civilizations and continents, with characters traversing vast distances on their epic quests. But what about the worldbuilding that happens with a tighter focus on an int…