Ancient history is something I enjoy studying, but it wasn’t until this past school year when I was studying it again and also reading The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock that I considered the idea of building a world based on it, and I’ve realized since starting just how much I was missing out on. Ancient history is a treasure trove of cultures and details, and it can be a lot of fun to live vicariously through your worldbuilding research. Here are some of the benefits of basing a world on ancient history. Continue reading “Worldbuilding Based on Ancient History”
Tag: Worldbuilding
Camp NaNo Prep: The World
Second to characters, the world is what generally catches a reader’s interest in a story, assuming it’s done well. The world affects the characters and outline (at least to some extent), so it shouldn’t be neglected.
Now, I speak as a speculative fiction writer, so all of my stories take place in worlds that are at least somewhat fictionalized (even my contemporary stories don’t adhere to specific real-life places most of the time), but this is at least somewhat applicable to all settings. Continue reading “Camp NaNo Prep: The World”
Wildlife in Worldbuilding
Fun fact: I used to HATE developing wildlife for worldbuilding. It fact, I loathed it so much that I just altogether avoided it. Until I found this post by Hannah at Ink Blots and Coffee Stains and realized it didn’t have to be as hard as I was making it. I didn’t have to make everything up from scratch. Now I really enjoy developing new creatures. Plants are a bit trickier and I generally don’t develop those unless I have a very specific purpose in mind for them (for instance, they produce a certain color of dye or have magical properties), but creatures I can do. (You should check out Hannah’s post for more info on plants, because she actually gives them a whole section rather than a measly single point like I did.) So here are some things to consider when developing fantasy species. Continue reading “Wildlife in Worldbuilding”
Worldbuilding Resource Round-Up
Today I have a round-up of worldbuilding resources for you guys that I’d intended to post last month and ended up replacing with a post on info-dumping. Hopefully these resources are helpful. :) Continue reading “Worldbuilding Resource Round-Up”
Music In Writing
Yep, we’re back to music. Because music is awesome, and it can actually be a really cool storytelling tool. Yes, this post is different than my “Music and Writing” post. That post was about listening to music while you write, while this one is about actually putting music in your writing and using it as a tool. It was also supposed to go up yesterday, but I got distracted by music while I was writing it and didn’t get it finished when I meant to and then forgot about it. Oops. But it’s here now, and only a day late, so I consider that something of a win, at least. Continue reading “Music In Writing”