Organizing characters and new animals in a Fantasy Story setting

Originally, I was going to write a review on a game. But I decided to put that on hold for a later weekly blog post.

My creative juices for my story have been flowing strongly this week and so I decided to write about that instead. I can't stop thinking about it. The battles between tribes, and introducing animal companions for one of my main protagonists.

At this time, I don't feel comfortable sharing "assets" of my story, such as the actual character names or terms I plan to use in my story, but I was interested in talking about what goes into World Building for stories.

I've seen a lot of fantasy anime, played a lot of games in fantasy settings, and read several books involving fantasy settings naturally. And a lot of what they have in common, is how they provide a map for the fictional setting the story takes place in. Naturally as I write, I create a map detailing the towns and terrain that the characters visit. I feel that I was able to make progress on fleshing the Terrarin of my World out more. My story has the unique feature of taking place in Two different Worlds at once. So this means 2 World maps to create at the same time. The Work in progress title for my story is actually "Two World" until I can think of a good title. Strangely enough coming up for a Title for my story is tricky.

I've gotten help from websites such as World Anvil, to get useful tips to use in World Building. In real life, a lot of cultures around the World are actually influenced by the Geography of the planet. It explains why Countries like Japan have had isolationist policies in the past as they are considered an Island nation, or why the buildings and cultures of European countries feel similar from common shared elements in a few ways.

In the same way, I feel that this is important for my story, to develop a natural way of worldbuilding the people in my story along with the different opposing factions. Before I really started writing, I created a basic layout of my 2 World maps, and from there they would influence the direction of the story, and the types of creatures and people I would have. Aside from the assistance it gives in world building my story and laying out the vision I have in my mind, it's just simply fun to create World Maps, which is why I do it. My World Map will evolve with my story, and while I have continents that the characters won't travel to in this story, they're still there so that I can use them for another plot line in a later story potentially.

I had a writing project previously that I decided to scrap, since I wrote it back when I was in high school. I didn't like how I represented some themes in the previous story and felt I was inconsistent about giving side characters a stronger role, so about a year or 2 ago, I decided to start fresh instead. I've been trying to develop a few of the main characters before getting into the actual writing for the most part so I could plan out the story better.

Another way I've tried to help myself is by creating Spreadsheets to document my characters, animal and plant names. In my story, I want to use a lot of made up words since I enjoy it, and naturally I still would need to ensure my readers can follow along as well, so I have spreadsheets to hold the names and info I've come up for elements of my story so I'll have an easy reference. In the past, I tried to do this on a word document, but it became apparent it was far more difficult to organize and refer back to notes I made years ago. A Spreadsheet is a lot cleaner for pure stats and info overall. It is harder to detail systems in a spreadsheet, so I might still use a word document to detail the "magic system" I have in place (It isn't actually "magic" in my story).

While it is most likely better for writers to start out with a short story. I find it difficult to bring myself to make a short story. In the games I play, I enjoy big and grand adventures, in some games and books, the story often times is too big to be told in one game or book, and spills into direct sequels. I enjoy that type of storytelling, which is why I also have to make my big writing project into something huge.

I'm far from being able to consider myself a true writer I feel, but I'm hoping with the new spreadsheets I've created for my fictional character names and terms, that it will help me organize and plan out my story better so I can get more written in faster time and potentially lead to publishing one day.

If anyone who reads this is an author or aspiring author. It would be interesting to hear thoughts and discussion on what goes into writing as well as any tips that can be shared for myself or other people.

An Introduction. What is this Blog about?

Hello, and welcome to my Blog.

My name is Aurora3500. Some of my friends call me just Aurora or Rory. Either is fine with me.

This is my 1st blog post, and I thought I would start it out by introducing who I am, what this blog will be for, and what you can expect from it.

Who am I? 

I consider myself a passionate fan of several kinds of Video Games, Anime, Manga, Visual Novels, Light Novels, and Novels overall. The Fantasy and Sci-Fi genres in particular I have large interest in, but I also take some interest in other kinds of genres with the exception of sports which I am not a big fan of.

Why start a blog?

I've had the idea of starting a Blog for a long time now. It seems like a great way for people to write out their interests and passions on their own platform and to talk about anything they want. When it comes to my thoughts, I tend to hold in a lot of random thoughts and ideas without being able to bring them up in a lot of conversations. Frequently they are about games and anime, but beyond that it can also be from thinking about themes, analysis, philosophy, or some of the more detailed or "meta" concepts surrounding my hobbies.

By starting a blog, it is my hope that I can sort these thoughts out by writing them down, and discussing them with others. While I do go on some discussion forums to discuss specific topics. It can be difficult to find others to talk with about more obscure or less known games/anime. Having my own blog platform allows me to post about and analyze these hobbies. Maybe meet new people who also know about some of these things, or give exposure to a game or anime one might not have heard of yet.

What can you expect from this Blog?

My goal is to publish a new blog post every week at minimum. Maybe more depending on my free time and desire. Every week you can expect to see a new article where I cover a game/anime/manga or something else. Sometimes it might not be about a game or manga specifically, but about a theme seen in several games, or a concept introduced in a game and applied to other games. Some weeks I will be more busy than others and might make it every other week if this happens.

Frequently these posts will take a form of a review about a game or any other series. I plan on providing a few screenshots from within the game itself when I write about games. Due to this, it will be restricted to PC games. As I don't have an easy means of getting screenshots on other game consoles and getting them on my PC.

I will write reviews for a lot of the games I've played over the years, as well as some reviews about Anime or Manga. But I am also open to suggestions of games you'd like to see covered. If there is a game or anime/manga you would like to see me cover, feel free to post about it in any of my blog posts, or send me a PM on Twitter. I can't guarantee that I will cover a suggestion for sure or not, but if there is enough support for it, and it is a game I own or is not too expensive to buy, I will attempt to make it a priority to play and review your suggestion.

Other times, it might be tidbits of info about my own story. In my free time, I am working on a Story that I hope to get published one day. I might make a post talking about a tidbit of my story to show to anyone, or to get feedback from.

My Expectations for you

Overall, I love seeing discussion on the things that interest me. When I publish a new blog post, it will be available for anyone with a Google Account to comment on. I encourage you to share your own views/ thoughts and perspectives about the topics I write about and to see new discussion among several people be born from there. Perhaps interesting tidbits about a game or anime that I didn't cover in my main blog post or discussion of a character. Anything is fair game when it comes to discussion. Naturally it isn't required that you comment on blog posts, but it can be more engaging to have more people contribute their own thoughts into the discussion.

My only ask is that discussion is kept civil and respectful. No harassment, name calling, or slurs will be permitted, and if it happens, such comments may be deleted. I want my blog to be an open place where everyone feels safe to be part of the discussions that take place. There is a difference between disagreement and disrespect, the former is perfectly fine. As long as the subject and not the person is debated.

Concluding Thoughts

I plan on having my 1st real blog post about a game published this week. The subject I write about will always be a surprise until the post is published. Until then, you can potentially look forward to what I have to write about.

You can find me on Twitter here. I'm more easily able to answer PMs (Private Messages) on there if you have any questions.