Everyone Has Lore: The Art of Personal Worldbuilding

"Drop the lore."

"That's not canon."

"I'm doing it for the plot."

If you've spent even a few minutes on TikTok, you've probably heard these phrases. What used to belong mainly to fantasy books and fanfiction forums has now become part of everyday conversation.

But this trend goes beyond just internet slang. It reflects a bigger cultural shift toward our love for deeper stories, emotional depth, and storytelling to express who we are. People want emotional arcs and plot twists—at the heart of it all is a desire to see ourselves as the main character.

So, What Does It Mean to Have Lore?

In a TikTok video by APG Canada breaking down Gen Z slang, “lore” shows up in a few different ways: there’s having lore, dropping lore, and even something called Dad Lore.

To have lore means there's more to your story than what people can see at first glance. The hidden details, emotional backstories, and inside jokes make you feel like a character in your own universe. If your friends find out you once dated a barista who became a priest, someone might say, “You have lore.” And that’s exactly the vibe.

Lore gives weight to even the most ordinary things. A video of someone folding laundry might feel simple, but if the caption reads, "You'd never know I used to tour with a punk band," it becomes something else entirely. It adds flavor, depth, and a touch of mystery.

The Drama of Dropping Lore

"Dropping lore" is when someone casually reveals something unexpected, often in the middle of a conversation, and it changes how you see them. It's when someone says, "Wait, did I never mention I used to be married?" and then keeps eating their sandwich like nothing happened.

These small, surprising reveals turn daily life into episodes of a show where everyone has a plot twist.

On TikTok, people constantly drop lore through storytime videos, comment threads, or emotional confessions. These stories draw people in because they feel like glimpses into someone's real-world character.

Dad Lore: The Stories We Never Knew

Some of the most emotional and surprising lore comes from parents, especially dads. This is where the term Dad Lore comes in, those shocking, touching, or downright unbelievable stories that dads suddenly reveal, often without warning.

One TikToker, Samantha, posted a clip of her dad, Dan Vicha, telling a tragic story from his teenage years. Out of nowhere, he shared how one of his friends had died right in front of him during a stunt on train tracks. His daughter had never heard the story before, and millions of people watched when she shared it online.

After that, others started asking their parents about their lore. One person shared that their father was in the Oklahoma City Federal Building just minutes before it was bombed. He stepped off the elevator shortly before the explosion, saved people inside, and later appeared on Good Morning America to discuss it.

These lores remind us that the people we think we know best often have entire chapters we've never read.

Lore Hits Different When You're Worldbuilding

At the center of all this is our love for storytelling—especially the kind where we create entire worlds. That’s what worldbuilding is all about. It’s setting the stage: deciding the rules, the setting, the people, and how everything fits together. Lore is what brings that world to life. It adds meaning through backstories, memories, emotional layers, and little details that make everything feel real.

For example, in The Lord of the Rings, the map of Middle-earth and the magic system are worldbuilding. But the legends behind the rings, the old battles, and the characters' journeys— that's the lore.

And now, people are doing it in real life. On platforms like TikTok and Reddit, you’ll find users creating their own fictional universes as passion projects. Some are building fantasy kingdoms. Others are crafting complex characters with rich backstories. It’s not just content anymore—it’s a whole world they’re letting you peek into.

How Smitten Stories Brings Your Lore to Life

We've watched the internet embrace this shift in storytelling, and it's clear: people don't just want to read love stories, they want to shape them. They want to create meaningful romantic plots that reflect their desires, experiences, and fantasies. There is a growing love for lore that a tool like Smitten fits right into.

Whether imagining a long-distance partner finally showing up at your door, dreaming up a flirty encounter with your gym crush, or rewriting your past love story with a better ending, Smitten gives you the freedom to deepen your lore by immortalizing those romantic stories.

Every prompt you enter becomes a new chapter in your personal love lore. You can think of it as your little cinematic universe, but for your romantic life. You're the protagonist, and the love stories you create are the canon.

Make Your Story Canon

With Smitten AI story generator, you're in control. You decide the tone, the tropes, the tension, the outcome. You're not just along for the ride, you're the one building it. It's not just fanfiction anymore. It's your fiction.

Try Smitten Stories today and start generating a universe where you're the main character.

Start your story here.