Writing Tip #16: The Worldbuilding Edit

A writing tip a day every day for 2025

This week, I’m talking about the Six Stages of Self-Editing. I’ve alread covered:
- The Structural Edit
- The Character Edit

And today is the Worldbuilding Edit.

Those first two rounds of editing are heavy lifts. They often require full rewrites and even when they don’t, the editing process is deep and difficult. In light of that, I recommend a fun round of editing at this stage. You’ve done the big, heavy, difficult edits, and it’s time to fall in love with your story again.

Focus on food, fashion, and fun elements (like the magic, tech, or other setting-specific details, even for realistic fiction). Not just what these pieces look like, but specifically how they impact your character and the way she moves through the world.

You chose that setting for a reason, right? Even if it’s realistic, you picked it on purpose. Let’s look at regency romances as an example. They’re super common, but they’re rooted in reality to a certain degree. Yes, the dresses and the high-falutin’ language and afternoon teas are fun, but the time period and the setting itself pushes the story in a certain direction.

Those dresses are indicative of the social norms of the time. Those social norms also dictate behaviors, thus creating the unresolved sexual tension that regency romances are so famous for. Even when the romance is…