Tag: Worldbuilding

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Developing Beauty Standards for Fictional Cultures

Developing Beauty Standards for Fictional Cultures

Posted on by R.M. Archer

Beauty standards have been a topic on my “to blog about” list for a long time now, and honestly a topic that has intimidated me, lol. But I reached a point in my worldbuilding book where I had to push past that fear and write about them anyway, so here is some of my advice for developing your fictional culture’s beauty standards (and a sort-of sneak peek at my book)!

(As a side note, I find it amusing that this ended up coming out so soon after the release of the new Uglies adaptation. That was not intentional, but it does seem oddly fitting.)

General Beauty Standards

Before getting into your culture’s specific Continue reading “Developing Beauty Standards for Fictional Cultures” →

Book Review: World-Building for Writers by H.C. Harrington

Book Review: World-Building for Writers by H.C. Harrington

Posted on by R.M. Archer

I recently discovered the existence of a couple of worldbuilding books I hadn’t previously come across in my searching, to my mingled dismay (that I had managed to miss them) and delight (that there are actually more authors writing about this topic). One was a series, and its collected volumes are huge, so it’s on the list to get later, but one was a reasonable impulse-buy price so I grabbed it, so here I am today with a review of World-Building for Writers!

What is World-Building for Writers about?

You Can Build A World

For many authors, there’s nothing that slows down their writing process more than world-building. Whether it’s deciding on what types of fantastic beasts to include in their stories or how to name characters and locations convincingly H.C. Harrington, Amazon Best-Selling Author of the Daughter of Havenglade Series, explains step-by-step how to create deep and engrossing worlds while saving time.

World-Building For Writers breaks down hundreds of examples of effective world-building from novels, films, and television to demystify the process, make it enjoyable, and help readers unleash the inner voice they never knew they had for creating worlds.

Prepare to enter the realm of your own imagination.

“In your hand is a map of creative imagination, good habits, and practical examples to ensure that you build a world that’s fun and functional, that births heroes, cultivates epic tales, and inspires awe in readers.”-Dustin Porta, author of The Dragon’s Hide

Review

Let me get the negatives out of the way first, most of which are fairly minor or Continue reading “Book Review: World-Building for Writers by H.C. Harrington” →

Building Fictional Organizations

Building Fictional Organizations

Posted on by R.M. Archer

Corporations, guilds, book clubs, cartels, unions, non-profits, religious sects… The world is full of organized groups, and your created world is probably already no exception (and if it is, I have questions). This post is all about how to take existing groups–and/or create new ones–and ensure that they are as purposeful, dynamic, and impactful on your characters and world as they should be. To help make things more concrete, I’ll be using the calligraphy guilds of Calligraphy Guild and Grantech from Lightning and Short Story Collection vol. 1 as examples throughout. Let’s get into it!

Core Purpose

In order for your fictional organization to hold together, justify its existence, and be distinguished Continue reading “Building Fictional Organizations” →

Book Review: World-Building from the Inside Out by Janeen Ippolito

Book Review: World-Building from the Inside Out by Janeen Ippolito

Posted on by R.M. Archer

There are a few reasons I don’t usually review craft books: 1) I don’t read that many, 2) I don’t feel equipped to review most of them, and 3) I’m more likely to lump them into a resource round-up and have a brief summary that contains most of my opinions on them and thus not feel like a full review is necessary. But this one is a worldbuilding book, so I feel equipped to comment on it, and I have enough thoughts to fill out a review (plus, I’m not doing another round-up any time soon).

This book has been on my TBR/wishlist for years, and what finally prompted me to pick it up was research into comparative titles for my own worldbuilding book. It’s really hard to find worldbuilding books that are really focused on the worldbuilding craft rather than being some sort of workbook, but this one is, so that was point 1 in its favor. Point 2 was reading the introduction and finding the premise focused around “cultural worldview” (which was actually in bold)! So I grabbed a copy for research. I will acknowledge upfront that the nature of my reasons for reading the book make it hard not to think about it in terms of comparisons between this book and mine, but I’ll do my best to be fair in my assessment.

What is World-Building from the Inside Out about?

Go to the heart of your world and build it well!

Memorable world-building enhances story, attracts readership, and sells books! Find the core of your science fiction or fantasy people and instill your narrative with universal themes and concepts derived from real-world cultures.

-Explore different religions and governments with concise entries that include ideas for plot and character development
-Develop key aspects of your society without getting caught up in unnecessary details
-Learn how the deeper effects of appearance and location can enhance your narrative

World-Building From the Inside Out challenges you to go deep and build fantastical worlds that truly bring your story to life!

Note: Janeen will be revising and re-releasing this book soon, so the new edition will likely be much stronger and the weaknesses I addressed here may be addressed in the revision.

The first thing that stood out to me about this book Continue reading “Book Review: World-Building from the Inside Out by Janeen Ippolito” →

Birth Rites & Celebration in Fantasy

Birth Rites & Celebration in Fantasy

Posted on by R.M. Archer

As I promised in my last post about death (and funerary customs), this week I’m flipping things around and talking about new life! Birth rites and celebrations, to be specific (and not to be confused with birthday celebrations, which I covered a few weeks ago). So, without further ado, let’s look at how your culture might handle births and Continue reading “Birth Rites & Celebration in Fantasy” →