While I consider myself to be an expert on imagining whole new worlds, I’m admittedly lacking when it comes to researching the real world. That’s why I’ve invited Janet Oakley, an historian and award-winning historical fiction author, to apply her expertise to the topic! Enjoy her post and check out her […]
Yearly Archives: 2014
74 posts
One of the questions I get most frequently from readers is, “how do you come up with all the names?” It’s a hard question for me to answer, because it tends to vary quite a bit. When you’re building a world from scratch, not only will you need unique character […]
So, let’s just assume that you’ve gone to the effort to type the answers to all fifty, or at least most, of the worldbuilding questions from yesterday’s post. (Even if you haven’t, keep reading. This may be useful anyway.) What next? You have a bunch of information now, and hopefully […]
As promised, 50 crucial questions to ask when building a world. Feel free to copy and paste and adapt this list for your writing needs. For the Story World as a whole What is the basic geographic layout of the world, and where does everyone (including the beasts, humanoids, and […]
Like characters, settings are made of, you guessed it, questions. Somewhat early on when I was drafting what would become the Dreams of QaiMaj series, I discovered a gem of a resource on SFWA’s website, this amazing article by Patricia C Wrede. It is basically a very long list of questions. I […]
It’s easy to think of setting as a theatrical backdrop for the dramatic action of the story. But in all genres, from contemporary literature to the most fantastical world-building, the setting is far more than images on a green screen. Setting determines not just where your characters are, and not just […]