World-building and setting for middle grade readers: six top tips

The world of children’s literature is a wonderful place for young readers to explore. Equally wonderful are the worlds inside the books. But how, as writers of fiction for 8-12 year olds, can we create a world so rich, believable and memorable that it will live on in children’s minds long after they have finished the story? 

Tip 1: Space and place

The first aspect you might consider is the physical landscape. Woods and wild places with an unsettling hint of magic are enduringly popular, for good reason: forests have a long history as contentious spaces where it’s hard to see what’s coming – or what’s behind you! Brilliant ground for stories, especially those that feature an outsider on a quest.  

You might decide to set your story in a real, familiar place – a city or town you know well or a favourite holiday spot. There’s much to be said for this approach (so long as it fits the story) as it cuts down on research. While often fun, research can lead you down so many fascinating paths that you forget to finish the manuscript and it can even entrench the tendency to procrastinate that haunts many writers. 

Tip 2: Can you see it, feel it, smell it?

When writing landscape, whether real or imagined, it’s important to use all the senses. What does the grass sound like when it moves in the wind? What kind of bricks are used for the buildings and what do they feel like? What does the city smell like in summer as opposed to winter? It can be helpful to create a colour palette for your work, to help you see your setting clearly through your characters’ eyes. This is closely tied to the season(s) you choose to work with, and the weather you might invoke to amplify a dramatic moment or signal a period of calm.  

If you’re creating a unique, original or magical world, all bets are off – snow may be blue, soil might burn human skin – the important thing is to construct it with logic and consistency.

Tip 3: Make it with a map

Many children’s writers love literary maps but worry about their own artistic skills. Sketching out the environment for your story, however roughly, can be a great help when it comes to aspects like scale, distance, proportion and position. The ‘quality’ of the drawing doesn’t matter as it’s for your eyes only.  

A map can help you with your storytelling in so many different ways: how many days will it take your heroine to reach that castle? How wide is the river she must cross? Do all the place names work when viewed as set?  

You can apply this to the built environment too. Home is the bedrock of life for young children so bringing to life a fictional home with lots of warmth and detail will engage them. You might draw the rooms, indicate where the staircase is, sketch how many windows there are. And of course add unique, memorable and funny details to amuse them (and you). 

Tip 4: Create cultural treasures

The physical world is a great place to start, but a richly imagined story setting has many other dimensions. These are sometimes called ‘cultural treasures’ and are all the things that make up a real society and community – whether contemporary, historical or one you’ve invented. This includes everything from belief systems to recipes; festivals to fashions; lullabies, legends and songs; jokes with a punchline that everyone knows; and sports and pastimes.  

Then there’s the serious stuff: medicines, laws, rules, punishments and the whole business of who’s in charge (and who wants to be!). The best plan is to create a tapestry of cultural treasures but weave them into your text stitch by stitch rather than explaining things directly.

Tip 5: What’s on the table?

Food is so important in childhood that it deserves a special mention when considering worldbuilding. It’s good to think about the rituals and customs around food that’s eaten every day; on special occasions such as a feast; at communal celebrations or major events; and in times of hardship.  

This could change as your characters move through their world, especially on first encounters or moments of danger: golden plates that shine like the sun in the palace you’ve longed to see, rock-hard ship’s biscuits on a scary maiden voyage, sour berries in that corner of the forest where you’re trying so hard not to be found. 

Tip 6: Build a happy reader!

A richly-developed story world encourages a sense of glorious immersion. For newly confident readers – children who’ve recently graduated from the enchanting world of highly-illustrated picture books and early readers – this offers lasting benefits. 

As a Middle Grade author, you’re conjuring a fictional world largely with words. When this is done really well something magical occurs, almost like alchemy: it feels real! This encourages children to read on, even if or when the work of ‘decoding’ the text feels challenging. It’s a vital part of encouraging and supporting children to read for pleasure. This in turn opens up opportunities to imagine, as a pre-teen, what it’s like to be someone else, perhaps someone from a different culture, era, realm or country. And this helps develop empathy – a key ingredient in the recipe for happiness not only for book-loving individuals, but society too. 

So let’s hear it for Middle Grade authors – published and aspiring – who are helping to build confident readers, one story world at a time. 

Kate is currently working on a middle grade novel set in a snowy, gently magical wonderland and is taking her own advice about setting! If you’d like advice and support with your own writing project, Kate is available for one-to-one mentoring.

She will also be leading an interactive workshop on ‘Worldbuilding and Setting for Children’s Authors’ at the 2026 London Festival of Writing on 13 June. Fine out more here.