The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman offered fantastic advice for emerging writers, by explaining that the more they commit to figuring out the fictional world of their story, the more its plot will develop organically – or at least, to the reader, it will appear to. Of course, Kirkman’s success with series like Walking Dead and Invincible makes it clear that this method worked spectacularly for him.

The Walking Dead Deluxe #92 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – continues the full-color reissue of the groundbreaking zombie series. The incredible thing about each Deluxe issue is that it contains Kirkman’s annotations on the plot of the series, with the author regularly referring back to his notes and early drafts to give readers a detailed behind-the-scenes insight into the creation of The Walking Dead.

As Kirkman noted, and as has been exhibited consistently throughout his Deluxe annotations, his attention to the details of world-crafting proved to be crucial to the longevity of the comic.

Robert Kirkman Explains Why “World-Building” Is Essential For Writers

The Walking Dead Deluxe #92 – Written By Robert Kirkman; Art By Charlie Adlard; Color By Dave McCaig; Lettering By Rus Wooten

Whether a writer is crafting the most spectacular sci-fi odyssey, or a realist drama, it is essential to the success of fiction that the world of the story be more than just immersive – it has to be captivating, offering the audience a fully-functional reality to step into. In other words, “world-building” is an essential, foundational step in the writing process. Especially when it comes to an ongoing narrative, such as The Walking Dead, or any long-running comic book series telling a serialized tale, detailed world-building undergirds successful storytelling.

Writing is, first and foremost, a process of discovery. As Robert Kirkman described in his annotations to The Walking Dead Deluxe #92, in order to truly discover the nature of a freshly introduced character, they must have been introduced into a coherently built fictional world. This allows the story to develop organically – while at the same time giving it the appearance of a careful design. Kirkman explained:

This is why I find world-building to be the most fun aspect of writing. You can just throw characters into stories, and then build as you go. As long as you’re careful and keep it consistent along the way and be sure never to contradict yourself, you can make it seem like everything is planned meticulously, while at best, half of what happens is, at least in my case.

For any writer who is still working to feel out their own creative process, this should be advice worth taking notice of.

According to Kirkman, if the world of the story is consistent, characters’ actions, reactions, and interactions will rise out of that – making a “plan” for the story less important than steadily spending time in the story-world, and discovering what happens along the way. That is to say, the best stories often arise from the conditions set by the writer during the world-building process, rather than being figured out in advance. Meaning, while world-building is crucial, an equally important skill writers must develop is the ability to recognize the “right” beats as they come.

Robert Kirkman Constantly Adapted To The Growth Of The Walking Dead’s Story

How The Series Evolved Over Time

Robert Kirkman’s comments about world-building in The Walking Dead Deluxe #92 come in the context of the first appearance of a fan-favorite character: Paul “Jesus” Monroe. As Kirkman writes in retrospect:

I clearly hadn’t figured him out at all yet. I only knew he could fight .

Jesus would go on to be a fixture of The Walking Dead comic until its conclusion, almost exactly one-hundred issues later. Rather than part of some grand plan, the character’s role expanded naturally as the series progressed. Kirkman was forthright with the idea that the character only became who he was over time, as the author figured out how the character fit into the story-world.

This isn’t to say Robert Kirkman didn’t make any plans for his characters in advance, or chart out ideas for future Walking Dead arcs as the story took shape. Rather, it is valuable to emphasize that these pre-writing steps are, in themselves, organic, rather than rigid, pieces of the puzzle. Like any aspect of a story, an outline, or an idea, must be malleable, growing and taking on new forms alongside every other aspect of the story. For successful writers, one of the most indispensable skills they must cultivate is the ability to respond effectively to changes as they arise.

Robert Kirkman exemplified this ability throughout The Walking Dead,keeping his plans and ambitions for the comic’s story fluid, allowing them to develop arc-by-arc, issue-by-issue, even beat-by-beat. Ironically, the end result of this process looks to the reader as if the series followed a “meticulous” plan. Writers, however, can benefit from studying Kirkman’s writing process, and understanding the evolution of The Walking Dead over the course of its run in the context of Kirkman’s comments in The Walking Dead Deluxe #92.

The Organic Progression Of “The Walking Dead” Made It A Critical Success

And A Worldwide Phenomenon

There are many factors that go into making a piece of art – particularly a piece of fiction, and particularly a comic book series – commercially successful, and the factors behind the achievement of pop culture notoriety, as The Walking Dead has, are even more complex. What makes something artistically successful is graded by an entirely different metric, and The Walking Dead remains critically well-received in large part because of Robert Kirkman’s fidelity to world-building, and his dedication to allowing the story’s development to proceed along a coherent course.

While some might think of world-building as being concerned with setting, or the reason for the zombie outbreak, it is much more than that. World-building also involves the “how” and “why” of characters’ actions, as well as the tone and style of the story; all of these things, and more, guide what feels organic, or inorganic, in a piece of fiction – meaning all of them are as important for a writer to have a firm grasp on as the speculative mechanics of the story.

Emerging Writers Can Learn A Lot From Studying The Walking Dead

Robert Kirkman’s Success As A Blueprint

The Walking Dead is known for its shocking violence, and its tendency to dispatch characters graphically at unexpected moments. Each of these were core elements of the world of the series that Robert Kirkman prioritized establishing in the early arcs. As abrupt as character deaths often were, they were a key part of the series’ success, one that Kirkman recognized the necessity of, which he then cultivated expertly, death-by-brutal-death. From the series’ dialogue, to artist Charlie Adlard’s visual style, the way each vital element of The Walking Dead grew over time makes for an incredibly resourceful study for fiction writers.

Robert Kirkman stands as one of the most commercially and critically successful writers of the past twenty-plus years; as a result, any shred of writing advice he is willing to impart holds a great deal of value. Writers who want to follow in his footsteps in the comic book medium, or adapt his process to fit their own way of writing fiction, will be rewarded for studying the patient world-building throughout The Walking Dead, which helped to elevate it to one of the most beloved stories in decades.