Most world-building advice tells you to draw maps, invent currencies, or list the outer garments of the elite.
That’s important—but when you look at the page, your setting can still feel like flat cardboard.
That’s because memorable fiction doesn’t care only about superficial decoration. It cares about power.
When the power structures of your world are flat, your antagonists automatically default to mustache-twirling evil. Because your "evil empire" lacks multi-dimensionality, your protagonist's decisions feel too pat, your climax approaches too fast, and your narrative drive completely stalls out in the muddy middle.
To create a historical or speculative world that breathes, traps your characters, and mirrors the profound socio-political tensions of actual lives, you have to build it from the inside out. You have to map its sovereignty.
This is how you write a deeply impactful novel that subverts power structures—and changes hearts and minds through unforgettable entertainment, not through preaching or lecturing your reader.
My Sovereign World-Building Game is a text-based, choose-your-own-adventure style diagnostic experience. In about 15 minutes, you will make critical structural choices that uncover the hidden, imperfect power dynamics of your setting and inject systemic tension directly into your narrative soil.
Stop building backdrops. Play the game. Map your empire.
Testimonials
“…if it wasn’t for Margaret, I probably wouldn’t have finished this book.”
- Carmen C.
“[Margaret] latched on to a few issues that I had struggled with… It was really eye-opening for me, and it made me look at my novel a new way.”
- Phil L.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the game take to play?
The prompts are designed to be fairly quick (a paragraph or short list at most). The estimated time to complete the game is 15 minutes, though you can certainly spend more time on it if you wish! When you’re finished, you’ll have a mapped understanding of the power structures underpinning your world building, as well as how your character(s) can subvert that power.
What's the format of the game?
The game is currently housed on an Inklewriter page so that you can play it. I'm currently working on making an ePub version you can download, but for now, you'll want to bookmark the link so you can come back and play for other stories!
What do I do after I finish the game?
You can use what you’ve developed about the power structures of your story’s world to write a tale that feels lived-in and realistic (whether or not it takes place in a world known to contemporary humans). You can also take the next step, which entails working with yours truly on either The Deep Truth Mini Blueprint or the Spark to Story flagship container — instructions and information can be found at the end of the game! I'll also send you a brief series of 3 emails about this game and next steps, taking you from understanding the power that controls your fictional world to the bones of your narrative.
Price
$0
This package includes
- The Architecture of Awe: Discover how the powerful use physical space to manipulate your protagonist’s nervous system.
- The Visual Language of Authority: Decode how the “eye” of your culture is trained to recognize power through soft control and daily rituals.
- The Tactile Empire: Stop describing random objects and start using the material world to show how hegemony spreads through the quietest details.
- The Somatic Grounding: Bring the massive, systemic forces of your world directly into your character’s physical, sensory experience on the page.
- The Undercurrent of Agency: Map out how your character(s) subvert the very power structures you developed!
After you get the link to play, I'll add you to my newsletter so you never miss a beat! You can unsubscribe at any time, and I'll never sell your data because that's gross. I send out a weekly newsletter.