When you think “fantasy races,” chances are you think elves and dwarves, but they’ve been done so much. (Says the author who has elves in almost every one of her fantasy worlds… *cough*) How do we break away from these generic races? How do we come up with something unique and original? That’s what we’re going to explore today. Continue reading “Discovering Your World: Developing Fantasy Races”
Tag: Evergreen
Discovering Your World: Organizing the Info
Due to a week of massive sleep deprivation and the realization that I’ve actually already written a decent post on developing wildlife that said everything I’d say now (see here), I’ve decided to replace my intended post on wildlife with a post on organizing your worldbuilding, to keep things on-schedule.
Worldbuilding is a massive undertaking, and there’s a ton of information to keep straight. Chances are you have info scattered everywhere–a sticky note with a handful of city names, a map tossed in a desk drawer, a binder that has some of your worldbuilding but not all the stuff that you wrote down in various notebooks. Fortunately, there’s a cure for this! Actually, multiple cures, depending on how you like to work. Continue reading “Discovering Your World: Organizing the Info”
Discovering Your World: How Regions and Landscape Affect Culture
You’re building a world, and hopefully at this point you have a map. What do you do with that map? Aside from using it as a reference point for where your characters are and where they go, of course. How can you use it to further develop your world? Well, chances are you’ve filled it in with landscapes (mountains, forests, deserts, craggy cliffs…), which is a great starting point. A town in the forest is going to act very differently and produce very different materials than a town in the desert. So, how do you tap into these landscapes to develop your cultures? Let’s find out. Continue reading “Discovering Your World: How Regions and Landscape Affect Culture”
Discovering Your World: Fantasy Map-Making
Some of you may remember the “Deep Worldbuild Project” that I did in January and February 2017, a blog post series which continues to consistently get traffic to this day. I thought it was time to revisit that series and update it with some of what I’ve learned in the past two years. I’m going to cover most of the same things I covered in the original series (map-making, how landscape affects culture, wildlife, technology and magic, religion, and history) but with some new additions. Instead of seven installments, the new series is going to have nine, including a guest post near the end by Kate Flournoy. And, obviously, I’m starting with fantasy map-making!
Before we get started, I feel obliged to mention that I’ll almost certainly be referencing World Anvil* a lot in this series. At the time of writing this series I was not paid to promote the tool; I’ve since become a part of their affiliate program, but I promote it because I truly appreciate it and think it’s super helpful and recommend that y’all try it out for yourselves as well. (Also, there’s a free version that includes the core features and then some, so you can learn how it works, experience it in almost its full functionality, and fall in love with it before committing to pay for extra features.)
Additionally, I may include affiliate links for other products/sites. These (and updated World Anvil links) will always be marked with an asterisk, and a little note at the beginning or end of the post will give a brief explanation that purchases made through affiliate links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
With all the technicalities and explanations out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff!
I usually like to start my worlds with a map, or at least Continue reading “Discovering Your World: Fantasy Map-Making”
5 Traits Every Good Antagonist Should Have
Today, to finish out the last week before I get to start a super epic blog series I’m really excited for (you’ll find out just what that is next week when the first post of the series goes up), I’m writing about antagonists. I really like antagonists. It should probably be worrisome how much I like antagonists. But when they’re written well they can be some of my favorite characters in a book, at least for their depth. So we’re going to be talking about things you can focus on with the antagonist in your book to make them deep and resonant with your readers. (Hopefully your readers aren’t like me and won’t make them favorite characters, but…)
Also, thanks to Savannah Grace and her video on whether Loki or Thanos is the better villain for inspiration for this post. (She mentions a good number of other helpful traits for antagonists, if you want some more inspiration.)
1. Give Your Antagonist Motivation
No character is going to be compelling or interesting to read about if they don’t have Continue reading “5 Traits Every Good Antagonist Should Have”