Hello everyone! Welcome, and thanks for coming back. I'm working on some bigger projects that will have to be distributed off of the blog. Because of that, my stories are going to be a little sparse on the blog for an undetermined amount of time. Don't worry though. I will still have some things for my fellow writers! Today, we're going to talk about world building. I hope you find this helpful, and if it doesn't fit your style, maybe you can use it as a guideline to create your own.
One of the projects I'm working on, I hope will become a series. I realized that I couldn't write much until I had a good setting, since I really want it to be big and adventurous. I searched tips and tutorials, and as usual I found my own way. Here's an outline of my world building process.
1. Races/People:
-The first thing I did was decide how many races/cultures I wanted in my fantasy world. I gave each race a trade/profession.
-After that, I divided them into groups that could coexist fairly harmoniously according to the compatibility of their professions. (Some races don't share land well with others.) This was to help me come up with a number of continents for my world.
2. Land Masses:
-At this point, the world is beginning to help build itself. In this case, I have about 12 races, and divided them up into 6 continents.
-I made a rough sketch of the map and labeled the land masses with the races that would live on each. Then gave the countries relevant names.
3. Landscaping:
-This might have been the easiest part, given the previous steps being done already. It's still building itself, I'm just guiding and recording. I designed the terrain based on the professions/trades of the locals. I thought of the natural resources they would need to get their jobs done, and scattered them around in my own artistic way. (The way I thought it looked prettiest.)
4. Towns/Roads
-Placing and naming the towns was fairly easy since the terrain was already down. I simply put the towns where it made sense. Some are near bodies of water, some near the mountain ranges, etc. Then the roads obviously just connected the towns, winding around the terrain as needed.
5. Culture, Politics, History, Religion:
-My least favorite part, 😁haha. It's probably the most complex part of world building.
-I'm sort of letting the history develop as the world does.
-Everything else is either developing around the history, modeled after real life cultures, or both.
-Last, I created the social norms, traditional family dynamics, and religions for each race.
I'm still working on it, but when it's all finished, I will have a whole world where I can create countless characters and adventures! Thanks for reading!
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