Hello everyone! I hope your week has seen you well so far. Mine has been interesting, and today will be a continuation of it. Work has been setting up classes to help everyone who isn't relocating get back into the workforce, which is really nice of them to do. I'm learning a lot, and while I might not have reached that 'Holy crap I need a job right now!' stage of panic, I'm making sure to write down as much as I can so that when/if that happens, I'll be ready.
For now though, let's try and focus on things that are nice. Like writing! Last week we talked about how doing some research will save you from pain and suffering when making a story set in a real-world location. Today I want to expand on that a little, since it's not like worlds you're completely making up won't need that too.
Let's say you're making a fantasy world, on a planet in some far off galaxy where things are rad and magic really works like it does in D&D or Harry Potter. Now you've already established your laws the world will follow (reference back to those posts about world creation), and now you need to actually design it. What's it climate like, is it similar to Earth, how many races are there. This is like research in that you'll need to look up how different climates actually are, especially if you're not familiar with them. I don't care how smart you are, if you live in say, Hawaii, you aren't going to instantly know exactly what things are like in Wisconsin in July on a Tuesday every year. (and if you do, then....what about Georgia?)
This is different from establishing the laws your world has to follow in that anything you design with the world is already going to be following them. You'll also need to come up with the food chain of the world. If your human-like race is at the top of it, figure out what made them get there. If they only think they're at the top, what don't they know about? Is there a piece of society that worships a long-since-forgotten deity? Go look up how people used to that in our world, maybe similar to the Mayans or feudal Japan or China, or even Ancient Egypt. Is magic frowned upon, and if so how does society handle it being there? Go look up information during the Inquisition, which would be helpful if you're trying to make it suspenseful and dramatic for the main characters.
My point is there's always going to be something you need to do research on, even if you don't think it would be necessary. While it's fun to pull stuff out of hats and make everything up, and I'm not saying that isn't possible, if you have some kind of basis for that thing you're putting together it will make things incredibly easier to keep track of.
Thanks for stopping by today. It looks like we're almost up to 2000 views, if we can do that by the end of Friday I'll put up something nice for everyone on Monday! I hope we get there, I believe in you, I always have!
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