No matter what any other writer or editor says, there are only two ways a story is driven. Either by characters or by the world those characters encompass.
Stories that are driven by the characters typically don’t have much world-building in them because it’s not about what the building looks like and its historical significance in the world of magicians so much as it is about what the characters themselves are doing at that building, why they are at that building, and what they hope to accomplish at that building.
Stories that are character driven are typically more fast paced due to the general lack of world-building and descriptions of surroundings. This is not to say that there isn’t any world-building at all in a character driven story. There are plenty of stories that have significant world-building but are still based on the characters and their actions within that world.
What I mean by character driven stories is that the story is influenced by the actions of the character(s) as those actions determine where the story goes and ultimately ends up. With and world-driven story, the surroundings, environment, and nature of the world influences the characters actions which means the world itself is leading the story, usually the political and economic system of the world are the prime movers in a world-driven story.
Stories that are world-driven require a significant amount of world-building to immerse the reader into the fantasy, so they can see how the rules, systems, and economies influence the character(s) on a physical and emotional, and more often than not, psychological level. Stories that are world-driven typically have more description about the surrounding environment and typically go into backstory about certain places to have the significance of that place set the tone for the story later on.
In short, if you’re a writer that likes to write more about the characters and their actions in the story, don’t worry about world-building too much. You won’t need it as much as you think you will. If you’re someone that likes to create massive and intricate universes, then you have a lot of work in store for you and you might need schematics for it.
Hope this helps.
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