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.
