Beyond Set-Dressing: The Sovereign World-Building Game
An Interactive, Branching Narrative Experience for Writers of Deep Truth
Most world-building advice tells you to draw maps, invent currencies, or list the outer garments of the elite. That’s great, and important — but when you look at the page, your setting still feels like flat cardboard.
That’s because memorable fiction doesn’t care only about superficial decoration. It also cares about power.
If you’re someone who cares about the underlying power structures in your story, you need to play this game right now.
To create a 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 the only way to help your protagonist find their sovereignty in a way that feels lived-in.
Developed by book coach Margaret McNellis, The Sovereign World-Building Game is a text-based, choose-your-own-adventure style diagnostic experience. In just 15 minutes, you will make critical structural choices that uncover the hidden power dynamics of your setting and inject systemic tension directly into your narrative soil.
“…if it wasn’t for Margaret, I probably wouldn’t have finished this book.” - Carmen C.
Step into the game to uncover:
- 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.
“[Margaret] zeroed in on the issues and gave me valuable information. Her insight was spot on.” - Lorraine N.
FAQs
How long does the game take to play?
It’s 6 steps with 4 embedded prompts. 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.
What’s the format of the game?
The game is housed on a Google doc so that you can choose how it works best for you to play. You can download it as a word document and type your answers directly into the prompts, for example. You could also handwrite your prompt responses. You can download it as a PDF, print it, and take it to a park to complete while you touch grass. You can use that same PDF digitally on a device and write with a stylus/Apple Pencil. It’s up to you! The mode of the game is designed to accommodate multiple writing styles so that you can stop worrying about how you’ll play and focus on the prompts themselves.
What do I do after I finish the game?
Think of my services as a progressive scaffolding designed to take your story from a raw concept to an airtight Blueprint. Here is the recommended path; you can choose your own next step based on your budget and timeline:
- The Sovereign Spark Audio Audit ($50): If you just finished the free game and want to make sure your world-building is actually working, start here. You’ll submit your raw notes, and within 2 business days, I will send you a private, 10-minute custom audio critique. (Completely asynchronous).
- The Subversive Novel Mini Blueprint ($250): If you want to translate your world-building into a working plot, this is your fast-track structural audit. You'll complete a targeted 21-prompt worksheet to map your character's agency and narrative drive, receive custom in-line feedback and an editorial summary, and we'll meet for a live, 30-minute Zoom strategy session to lock in your story before you write.
- The Blueprint for a Book Intensive ($950): If you are a serious writer ready to build the entire master skeleton of your novel from the marrow up, this is my flagship package. Using Author Accelerator's comprehensive 14-step structural build, you will receive a formal, multi-page editorial letter diagnosing your story mechanics and in-line coaching, paired with a live 60-minute strategy consultation.
Wherever you are in your writing process, you can choose the next journey that matches your current creative needs and scale up when you're ready.
“[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.
Stop building backdrops. Play the game. Map your empire.
Subscribe below (it’s free!) to enter the gates and give your story the rich, unforgettable texture it deserves. The link to the game will be in your welcome email!