Mastering Immersive Descriptions: Crafting the World of Tides of Fate

Have you ever read a book where you can smell the trees and vividly see the scenery, sights, and sounds of the world the author created with such ease that it feels like you've been completely teleported to another dimension? Escapism, coupled with a good story, is why many of us love to read fiction and fantasy books so much. To travel to and experience a world that is not readily available in reality. It's also why many authors choose to write. To immerse themselves in their own little world crafted from the creativity of their imaginations, that is tailored to their every whim. However, on the flip side, have you ever read a book where the descriptions jolt you out of the story and bring you back into the reality you're so desperately trying to separate yourself from? Yeah, me too. Sentences like "The forest was dark. The trees were green. Esmerelda was crying." fall flat and seem unrelated to each other, but in order to craft a truly immersive story, in my opinion and what I found that readers like and works for me, is to combine immersive descriptions, and worldbuilding, at the same time.

Scary right? Oh yes, but it's so so so much fun too once you get the hang of it!

Immersive Descriptions V.S. Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding 101

For those of you who don't know or who may even be somewhat familiar with the concept of worldbuilding, I'll give you a crash course.

Worldbuilding is the foundation of your world. (self-explanatory, I know) But it encompasses a large range of elements that I'll break down for you a bit, while also giving you some ideas of what to keep in mind when you're writing your stories.

Worldbuilding has to deal with

• The history of your world

  • Where did they come from? Where did they go? Where did they come from, cotton-eyed Joe?

    
    

• The rules of your world

  • If applicable, that could include, but not be limited to:

    • Laws

    • Magical elements and their parameters.

      • Like, can anyone wield magic, or is it just one person, and what is the extent of their magical capabilities? Can they lift things with their mind? If so, what is the extent of that? Can they lift a car, or only a pebble? Is there room for growth or not? And so on.

    • Technology and its parameters.

      • What is the level of technology here? Advanced, normal (like present day), or archaic? Or maybe somewhere in between.

        
        

• Societies and Cultures in your world

  • What those different cultures are and how they operate within the story. If there are any special traits specific to that culture, and if they share any of the same traits with others, and why.

    
    

• Geographical location and environment

  • Where are you in the world? (even if it's a made-up world)

  • What is the environment like?

    • cold

    • wet

    • warm

    • hot

    • humid

    • surrounded by an ocean

    • middle of the desert

  • Are there any creatures native to this environment? If so, what are they and what do they look like, and how do they come into play in the story if at all?

    
    

• Religion and Philosophy

  • In many stories, religion and philosophy play a big part, especially in stories with a lot of political intrigue, because the king and queen might be subject to the whims of a church or religion or vice versa.

    
    

• Economy and Trade

  • Knowing the economy and trade can also play a major role in the backdrop to your story. Say, for instance, the nation is poor, because the economy and trade are poor, that is going to change how people treat one another in your story and the city that they're in. For instance, a poor town will have more slums, more homeless people, people who are less friendly, more crime, and more dangerous situations. Whereas a thriving economy and trade will have more friendly people, less crime, and might be a safer backdrop.

    • This can also have effects, such as a contrast. A character coming from a poorer sector of a town into a rich sector, or to another country, or what have you, that is wealthy, and seeing the difference, and adjusting to that environment. Like using a fork for the first time when they've only ever eaten with their hands. Seeing tables filled with food only half eaten before being thrown out when they're used to having nothing and fighting for scraps.

    • Or a rich kid, princess, or king, going from a thriving economy and thrust into a poor one, having to navigate through grime, danger, and swindlers, will have a much harder time adjusting, leaving room for a ton of situations. Going from always having a full stomach to feeling starved after only one day.

      
      

• Conflict and Power Struggles

  
  

• Language and Communication

A lot of this you may not even need to go into depth on in your own books, but it's just stuff to keep in mind as you're writing, or maybe skim over depending on the level of importance it has for the reader to know.

I had a hard time with worldbuilding when I was first writing Tides of Deception because, well, to be honest, I never thought I'd publish it. I was purely writing for fun, so when I did decide I wanted to publish it, and hired an editor- shoutout to Kate Black, she pulled me aside and said something along the lines of, "Hey, you really have something here, but you REALLY need to add some worldbuilding into the early chapters!" And boy was she right.

She's like, "Girl, I have no idea where I am, what these people believe, and why this dynamic is the way it is at X, Y, and Z."

So I went back and found a few good places where I could seamlessly integrate in some worldbuilding, but that also helped to further the story. This leads me to the other point of interest.

Immersive Descriptions 101

Immersive descriptions usually focus on sensory details that help readers to experience the world you've created through either the characters' eyes, their own eyes, or both, depending on the vibe you're going for.

This may include, but is not limited to:

• sights

• sounds

• smells

• touch and texture

• vibes

• etc

It can also help to enhance the emotions and depth that you wish to convey in any given moment.

This helps so much because instead of saying something like:

"She walked down the hall and touched a tapestry," Making for a rather dull sentence that gives little to no insight into their surroundings, their feelings, their motivations, etc, you could try this instead.

You could say:

"Her shoes clacked as she walked down the marble hallways, the sound mixing with the whispers of maids chatting in the distance as she caressed an old tapestry, enjoying the nostalgic fragrance it emitted."

These immersive descriptions help to pull your reader into the world. This, especially when it's combined with the aforementioned worldbuilding, can be a powerful thing. It also helps you to refrain from info-dumping on your readers quite so much, thus jarring them out of the story.

Combining Immersive Descriptions And Worldbuilding

This is not something you have to do all the time, but it seriously helps to immerse the readers. Instead of saying, "The grass is green." "The sky was blue." You can tie it into what your character is thinking or feeling at any given moment, thus weaving the story and the worldbuilding, and the immersive descriptions into one beautiful work of art. Don't get me wrong, this will take some practice, but once you get the hang of it, you'll find that your storytelling ability will improve drastically.

If you've read my series, The Tides of Fate, you'll know exactly what I mean. Here are a couple of free snippets from Book 1, Tides of Deception, for you.

"The cool night air enveloped the scene in silence, broken only by the rhythmic chirping of crickets and the gentle buzz of insects. Amidst the solitude, she watched as Othello ran up to a man in the center of the training grounds. Then, the silence was abruptly shattered as the second man delivered a resounding smack to the back of Othello’s head, his voice rising as he reprimanded him for his tardiness."

Here I set the scene. It's cool, it's night, crickets are chirping. So, time of day, temperature, and sound. Solitude, so not a lot of people around. Silence. Silence shattered by the sound of a smack and a reprimand. This ties into the story while also setting the stage from the point of view of my main character. You see what she sees, feel what she feels, and it immerses the reader while also getting a slight feel for the world that surrounds you.

Here's another one:

"The sweat dripped from her brow, stinging her eyes and soaking her hair as if it were pouring rain, but Cassia didn’t dare stop running. She learned the hard way what happens if you show even the slightest weakness in front of Lysander, and she didn’t want to know what the admiral would do if she wasn’t back within the allotted amount of time. It had been nearly ten years since she took up training with her brother under Lysander’s tutelage, filled with vigorous exercises and obstacles designed to push one to the very brink of their physical and mental abilities. Then, just as you’re teetering on the precipice of the abyss, you’re kicked right into it, and each time, she clawed her way back out with a newfound strength. Now, it was almost over."

Instead of just saying, "she was running", I describe how she was running, and why, and the effect it was having on her and her motivation to keep running even though she's obviously running hard. And seriously, WHO LIKES RUNNING?! Besides Forest Gump, I mean, but c'mon haha.

No, there's sweat, but where? What is the effect that the sweat is having on her? Then I get to get into why she's running. Then it gives me an excuse to be able to go over what she's been doing in the last ten years, with who, and how far she's come in the extent of her training. I used this as a way to be able to build on the world we are already in.

I personally prefer to be subtle with my worldbuilding, integrating it seamlessly into the story through my characters, what they're thinking and feeling, and how they interact with the world around them. By doing this, describing the world becomes more natural as opposed to being heavy-handed and just straight up saying all of the rules of the world and what it looks like. That's kinda boring to me.

There will be a time and place to lay it all on the table, and this is usually best suited to early on, especially if it's important. There's more than one way to accomplish a job. If the story takes place entirely underwater, that would be a good thing to introduce early on! However, you don't necessarily need to lay everything in the worldbuilding section of this blog on the table at once. You can ease into it by tying it into what the main character is doing, thinking, and feeling, by combining it with the immersive descriptions. This is a more subtle way to go about breathing life into your story that helps to immerse readers early on, suck them into your story, and keep them there until the time comes that they have to get back to reality. But when they do get back to reality, you want them to miss the world you have created, and you do that, in my experience, more successfully when you combine immersive descriptions and worldbuilding.

I am a plantser by nature. See my other blog on that here if you have no idea what I am talking about haha. So 9 times out of 10, I don't plan what I am writing, I just write, but I can see it in my mind as I go, as though I am the character I am currently focusing on. I ask the questions, where is she going, what is she seeing, what is she feeling, what is she smelling, etc, and pick and choose what is relevant in that moment. If you're walking through a crowded market, sometimes you don't notice all of your senses at once until one grabs your attention. A brightly colored umbrella, the smell of a BBQ that makes your stomach rumble, and a loud bang behind you of a firework going off. Some are more relevant than others when you are writing a narrative, but all can be used to immerse your reader in your world.

For example: "She walked through the busy marketplace towards the pub on the far end, the smells of the BBQ she passed causing her already hungry stomach to complain as she continued onward towards her destination. Yet, a brightly colored yellow umbrella caught her eye through the mist that drizzled in the late afternoon air. She would know that umbrella anywhere. Janine. All at once, a loud BANG behind her caused her to turn as she realized a firework had gone off, but when she whirled back around, the umbrella was gone."

It gives context. Where you are, the time of day, the weather, and the situation around you as you're walking along, as this character, thus fully immersing the reader in the situation.

Later on in Book 1, Tides of Deception, I give more context into the worldbuilding of the new area where my main character Cassia, finds herself by giving her a tutor who explains a lot that Cassia did and didn't know, then she also adds in her own knowledge about her country and we get some insight into the new one from her persepective. Below is the excerpt from that chapter, though it's a bit long. Not going to lie, I was bored to death writing it, but something to keep in mind, YOU may have a full and complete understanding of your world, but if YOU DON'T PUT IT IN WRITING, your readers WILL NOT. So this was one of those times I info dumped, but I tried to do it in a way that still served to:

1. Further the story

2. Give insight into my characters and their opinions and perspectives

3. Give literal insight into the world as I saw it as the author.

“I will start by giving you a brief summary of the history of Allagash.” As he said this, Samantha gave an audible groan, then regretted it as Nicholas shot her a look. “Allagash, as you may know, is a relatively small continent surrounded on all sides by a deep ocean trench, making the fishing in the area superb and allowing our spice industry to flourish. The history of Allagash is marked by a rich tapestry of conflicts and territorial expansion. Originally settled by nomadic tribes drawn to these fertile lands and abundant resources. Because of this, Allagash gradually transformed into a unified kingdom, and these tribes coalesced under a single banner. The emergence of a centralized monarchy led to the establishment of the capital, strategically positioned to oversee the island’s vast expanse and eventually becoming what you see today. As Allagash expanded its influence, it encountered neighboring territories and engaged in a series of territorial disputes.”

That’s one way to put the slaughter of everyone around them. Cassia thought. The only reason Nimuria hadn’t been taken over is because of its reefs.

“The mountain ranges that serve as a natural boundary became a focal point for conflicts. The rugged terrain posed both a challenge and an opportunity, fostering a resilient and self-reliant population in the highlands.” Nicholas said as he pointed to the northernmost area of the region on a map.

“The constant struggles for dominance culminated in a period of relative stability when a series of rulers sought to consolidate power and secure Allagash’s borders. However, this stability is fragile. The people there are devout in their worship of the gods and don’t like the way the capital does things. However, since we have appointed nobles in charge of those areas due to the size of Allagash, managing everything is much easier and more efficient.

The families that govern those areas are the Greeves, Rastons, Argyles, Braxtons, and the Freesions. Collectively, they’re known as the council; each has been trained in strategy and combat, and their children are educated here in the capital. They are taught how to oversee their respective lands, among other things, and are often referred to as the “Legacies.”

“In contrast to Allagash, the archipelago of Nimuria developed from volcanic activity in the region, its islands serving as natural fortifications against invaders. The shallow reefs surrounding the majority of the islands act as a deterrent, discouraging potential foes from attempting a direct assault. The main channel leading to the capital is a crucial point of defense, closely guarded against any potential naval threats. Isn’t that correct, Cassia?” He asked honestly, as if ensuring his textbook was correct and that she was paying attention.

Cassia nodded, “Yes, that is correct. In addition to that, our navy is also well versed in our waters and the tricky currents that flow near and through our islands, making them fast and adept at coordinating our defenses and, therefore, our offense.” Nicholas seemed surprised at her knowledge of her country’s defense strategy and nodded, pleased. But Cassia made it a point not to give any more information than what was common knowledge.

You get the idea.

TLDR: The teacher goes over the landscape, how the country was formed, and the reason things are the way they are, while Cassia gives her own insights through her thoughts of how she views the country she has now become a part of.

Conclusion

When you're writing, in my experience, combining world-building and immersive descriptions is the best way to draw your readers into your world. In doing so you seamlessly craft a story while building the world around your characters as seen through their eyes. It is incredible when done right, especially with an intense story in the mix.

An immersive story will stay with the readers long after they've finished the book and put it down. No one remembers EXACTLY what happened in a story every time, especially with people who devour books like free cookies, but they WILL remember how a story made them feel. What resonates with readers is the vibe, the feelings, the sensations, and a story that makes them go, "Wow, what a wild ride."

Stay tuned for more insight into the world of the Tides of Fate Series, Pro-Tips, and just all around fun.