And trust me when I say, this is SO important!
Speaking from experience, the entire conflict of OBBT literally comes in the form of the worldbuilding. You could argue that all story conflict comes from worldbuilding of some sort. Internal conflict of characters tends to be created based on external stimuli, aka, worldbuilding. Think about it: a character wants to change their station in life, but they can't because they are oppressed in some way. Why? Well, you tell me.
Great examples of the conflict of a story coming from (obvious) worldbuilding: OBBT, An Ember in the Ashes, Nevernight, and, yes, even A Court of Thorns and Roses!
Now, I'm not saying all your story's conflict comes from worldbuilding, because that's silly. However, worldbuilding can drive some of the internal conflict your character must overcome during their journey in your story. What makes us care about characters? That's a deeper discussion for another time, but a short version is - they have to be relatable. Giving us a reason to connect with them in some way (i.e. making them part of a subset of people who are being punished for a "crime" their ancestors committed centuries ago) and then having their internal conflict be a desire for freedom? A great combination to make your readers care.
Here's the long and short of it; there's not a perfect formula for something like this. However, you can think of it like this:
External conflict + internal conflict = relatable character!
Worldbuilding is foundational to a good story, and by proxy, is foundational to good characters. And conflict, which gives your plot shape, can be created simply by digging into your worldbuilding. Maybe your world has a group of people who don't want to be integrated into general society. Conflict arises when they are forced to do just that. Maybe your main character has been striving for a certain career their whole life, only to find out it's not what they thought it was. Bottom line, there are millions of ways to creatively dig into your worldbuilding to find conflict.
But what about if you already have a conflict band haven't done your worldbuilding yet? That's okay! The great thing about multiple drafts is that you can take that conflict, internal or external, and tie it back to something in the world. It's not a one-way relationship, worldbuilding and characters. They are constantly affecting each other. The causation flows both ways. And if you're struggling with your worldbuilding, but have a really clear picture of who your characters are, then use that knowledge to flesh out your world!
The wonderful and beautiful thing about writing is it's like a puzzle - while the pieces may fit together a certain way, the order you do them in is entirely up to you. They have an effect on the pieces around them, of course, and without any one of the pieces, your puzzle is incomplete. Thinking about the correlation between all your pieces is both the easiest and hardest part of being a writer.
Hopefully this completely chaotic look at worldbuilding vs your characters was somewhat enlightening. I'm not going to promise a topic for next time, but I do promise to keep these blog posts coming somehow!
Until next time,
Tia