L.Y. Levand's Blog, page 3

World Building, Part Ten: Culture

Now that you have the basics of your intelligent life down, it's time to get into the nitty-gritty details. Every group of people has its own culture, whether it's something that developed in a vacuum, or it's culture from many places all crammed together.

This post will about finish what I have for culture, but if there's something I missed, let me know!

Step one: Money. What sort of monetary/trade system do they have? They may have coins, they may have paper. They might use bits of shell, or scraps of wood. How does this work? Is this money dispensed by the government? Why or why not? Does that trade center decide the value of each item up for barter? What different denominations are there? How your people get and spend their money or other things is something you need to think through, especially if you're going to need it in any part of your story. A fantasy whodunit will probably have some form of money involved, in bribes, motives, or something else. You may also need to know this if you're dealing with a merchant or trader, or your characters go to market.

Step two: What kind of buildings do your people have? If your people are nomadic, they'll probably have tents, or something similar that can be taken down and put back up. If they stay in one place, they might have log cabins, stone structures, or even metal and glass buildings. It all depends on how long they've been there, and how much scientific or magical capabilities they have. Depending on what these dwellings are made of, you may want to think about architectural idiosyncrasies. Perhaps this people has a penchant for arches, pillars, or eight-sided buildings. You'll also want to think about how they decorate them. A tent might have paintings on the side, or ornaments dangling from poles. A stone building might have pillars, carvings, or painted designs. Maybe most of these buildings are arranged in a specific pattern. These little details can be important when describing different places in your stories.

Step three: Religion and superstition. Religion and superstition can go hand in hand. If, for example, a religion in your story demonizes birds, the people are likely to come up with ways to protect themselves from those birds. If there is religion in your world, especially if it's going to play any part in your story, you'll need to think about the basics. Even if you have an atheistic character, they're likely to think poorly of religion, and you may be called upon to explain why. Your people's religion can center on one deity, or many. If you decide on a religion with multiple deities, you'll have to think about how worship of them will change from one deity to the other, and if these deities are patrons of things. If you have one deity, there's likely to be vast differences in how people think, worship, and interpret any sacred texts or signs. If you have religious conflict, this can be very important. Is this religion widespread? Why or why not? What causes people to believe or not believe in it? How does it affect their daily lives? What kinds of superstitions are likely to arise from their beliefs?

Step four: Businesses. What sort of businesses thrive in your world? You might find it helpful, here, to write a short bio on how a person or family started a business and then made it a huge success. This can be helpful for several reasons. One, you'll need to know what kind of business will succeed at all. Your people need to have a demand for it, or it won't work. Two, it might shed some light on any government dealings your business will have to go through, which can give you insight to the government. Three, it will help you decide what kinds of businesses to include in your story, as well as what kinds of people will be running them. Four, it may make you consider things like business competitors, which can offer a lot in the way of plot and conflict.

A business, like I said earlier, needs to provide something for which there is a demand. So, what do your people need? Obvious answers are food, clothing, and shelter. So there's likely to be healthy trade in food, cloth, and construction. The tricky part is the businesses that don't have to do with necessities. Things like flowers, sweets, toys, and services. Those will depend on your people's needs and desires.

Step five: Knowledge. How does your civilization pass on knowledge? Do they have schools? Maybe their parents teach them at home, and their children go into the same trade as their parents. Or, maybe it's like here in the US, where kids pick a profession and then get the appropriate schooling. There might be a sect of religious or magical people who are responsible for this, or the government might be. Maybe they value book learning, or they push on-the-job learning. It could start young, or it could start a little older. Maybe they have very little education, and everything is passed down orally.

You'll also want to consider what types of knowledge are more valuable, or esteemed. A doctor who goes through years of training, for example, is generally highly thought of, while someone who learns construction might not be, simply because the doctor is in the business of saving lives. Someone who has studied magic, as another example, can be highly sought after if magic is complex, difficult, and valued, but someone who has studied magic can also be ostracized if magic itself is viewed as a dark art that causes pain and suffering.

Step six: Language. If, like Tolkien, you want a full language, then go for it. Otherwise, a basic understanding of it, plus translated versions of the sentences you'll need should be sufficient. For simplicity's sake, you may choose to use the same grammar rules as English, rather than attempting to use a different set. If, however, you are familiar with other languages, such as Japanese, Spanish, Italian, or French, you may also decide to borrow certain elements of those as well. If you have multiple languages, you can mix them up a little and give each a different sound. Having different languages in your world gives it depth, and also allows you to invent words that don't have English equivalents. It also allows you to contrast different cultures without getting too detailed. (For a quick, easy guide to creating a simple language, click here.)

Step seven: Regional/cultural idiosyncrasies. Different areas have different specialties, and this is something you may want to take into account. As an example, a city near the sea will likely have a bustling seafood market or two, as well as a vibrant selection of local seafood based dishes. Another example, if there is a city in the desert, water is likely very valuable, and may be guarded more closely than jewels. Perhaps, like the Japanese, your people like to use chopsticks. Or, like the French, have specific foods their nation is known for like baguette bread or wine. This can help you if your characters travel to different locations; having to deal with different cultures can make the situation seem more real and relatable to a reader.

Step eight: Typical family structures and habits. This can vary quite a bit, depending on the life cycle and family-raising habits of your people. Your typical family could be the standard mom, dad, children, or it could be more complex, grandparents, children, grandchildren. There was a television show once that had a race of alien people that required three people to produce children. You may choose to do something similar, or you may choose to have them reproduce asexually. Depending on how this works, the familial relationships will have to alter to fit. If, for example, you have a typical human household of a man, a woman, and their children, you're likely to see relationships similar to the ones you see in real life. But if you have a family that's composed of three sexes, the dynamics change. Perhaps one works outside the home, one works inside, and one tends children. Perhaps two work outside, and one works inside and they all tend children. Their relationships with each other may alter, too, as well as any courtship process.

World Building, Part Nine: Dominant Species

Hey, everybody! Our vacation went a little longer than planned, since Seth had to have oral surgery the week we got back, but he's doing much better and we're both getting back to work now!

Our last post was a really long one on animals, which means it's time to move forward. That post was directed specifically at animals with intelligence on a lesser level than humans. The next few posts we're going to be working on the creatures/people that have human intelligence or higher. In other words, the dominant species on your world.

This post we'll be looking specifically at the people themselves, but in the future we'll be moving on to things like culture.

Step one: Where do these people live? You'll need your maps for this step, especially if you mapped out some major cities, crossroads, or landmarks on them earlier in the series. Where they live will dictate things like architecture, imports, exports, what sort of crops or businesses they have, and forms of transportation. This will also affect the clothing you choose for your characters, and what creatures live in the surrounding areas.

Step two: What sets them apart from humans? Is there something that makes them different from the people you deal with in the real world? A common difference is the ability to use magic, but it's certainly not limited to that. I've read books with humanoid characters who look like bipedal cats, so you can choose anything you want, so long as it's consistent with the rest of your world. If, for instance, you have a world entirely covered in water, you may choose to give your characters the ability to breathe underwater, or webbed fingers and toes. If the location is a desert, perhaps a supernatural ability to locate water, or a way for them to store water like a camel.

Step three: What diet do they have? Are they vegetarian? Why? Do they prefer meats? What kind of foods these civilizations eat will determine what sort of marketplaces spring up. If your people eat primarily vegetables, then there are going to be more places to buy, sell, or grow plants. If they enjoy meats and cheeses, then there will be farms for raising animals, dairies, and butcher shops. You'll want to look at what plants you have growing where for this, as well as what sort of creatures will live in this area. People are more likely to eat something in abundant supply close to where they live than they are to spend money to import other items, so keep this in mind.

Step four: What kind of governing and hierarchy systems are in place? Do they have kings? Queens? Chiefs? Is this town, city, village, governed by a council of elders? The type of governing system will help you decide how the hierarchy works. Typically, the more powerful a person, the higher up the hierarchy they are. If your story has any political maneuvering, this kind of knowledge will serve you well. It may also help you describe what sort of life your characters have, depending on their position in society.

Step five: Are there multiple races of the same species? An example of this would be races in the real world. While black, brown, red, white, and yellow-skinned people are all human, they are also all different with different cultural backgrounds and special traits that set them apart. Is your dominant species the same way, or are there multiple highly-intelligent species that live in harmony or conflict? Either way, a basic knowledge of the different species or races may be extremely helpful. If there is conflict, such as war between two or more groups, you may need more detailed knowledge of them. There is also the possibility of division within these groupings, such as a civil war. This would be something to consider if your intelligent species is all the same type and doesn't have to share space with another race or species.

Step six: What values do they have? What do they consider wrong? What do they consider right? Every society has things that are encouraged, and things that are discouraged. What you choose for these people will dictate a lot of how they live. A society that believes all life is sacred may be strict vegetarians. A society that believes war is divinely sanctioned will, naturally, be involved in a lot of battles, and warriors are likely to be high-value citizens. A society that is the opposite, completely pacifist, may very well end up being assimilated into a larger culture, to become a small subculture. If they value artistic expression, there are likely to be places teaching arts of varying kinds, with artists held in high esteem. All of these things will have an effect on how society works, and what your character will see and experience.

Step seven: Repeat for as many races/species you desire.

World Building, Part Eight: Animals

So we've finished with plants for now, although you can go back and do it as many more times as you wish. We're moving on to animals this week, and I plan to cover everything about animals I wanted to get done in one post. This is because animals are so much more complex than plants that there's really only so much guidance I can give you, and also because I'm going to be gone next week. I'm going to be visiting family that I haven't seen in over a year, and I plan to do zero work while I'm gone, lol. This post is longer than normal for both of those reasons. Enjoy!

For the sake of simplicity, I'm including all forms of non-plant life in this, with the exception of whatever species (human or otherwise) your characters happen to be. This might include insects, bacteria, beasts of burden, predators, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures.

Step one: What does your creature eat? This will give you an idea of the population of the creature, as well as where it needs to live. You'll probably want to keep the lists of plants and where they're located nearby for this part. If your creature is an herbivore, they're going to eat plants, and they'll probably have one specific kind they prefer. If you're going to have herds, they'll need food that grows in large quantities. If you have a predator, a carnivore, you'll need to remember that herbivores outnumber them on a large scale, so there aren't going to be many. If your creature is an omnivore, they're more flexible and a lack of plants still means they can eat meat, and vice versa.

Step two: How rare is it? If it's common, like a popular beast of burden (think cattle or oxen) then there are likely to be herds of them. If your animal is more rare than that, how many are there? Is it a large population that's just very good at hiding? Or is it a very small population? The rare animals are likely to be more expensive for characters to acquire, and much harder to find. The common ones, on the other hand, may be cheap and easy. Animals that produce something in demand will be more valuable, especially if there are not very many.

Step three: Where does your creature live? Where it lives will give you some idea of what it will need to look like, and how it will need to behave. So think carefully before you choose. You may want your maps for this to sketch out a range for it; this can give you a guideline to help you decide if there are going to be variations within the species based on location (an animal that lives in a marshy area may have stronger legs for walking through mud than the same animal that lives in a drier area).

Step four: What is it used for? If your story has intelligent life like humans in it, then they'll likely use animal products. Is this animal eaten? Raised for its hair? Bred for milk? Is it a common pet or beast of burden? If it's an insect, it might be captured for use in cosmetics. Perhaps it can be used, like goats, to clear weeds from fields. Or maybe, like bees, you have a swarm of insects that produce something that's consumable (like honey) or used for something else (beeswax, perhaps?), or even used as a catalyst for something else, like how bees pollinate various plants to help them produce fruit.

Step five: If it has a practical use, is this creature raised specifically for that purpose? Some animals, like cattle, are raised for their meat and milk on a large scale. Other animals, like mountain lions, are not. That's probably because the meat either isn't that good, or trying to raise giant, predatory cats on a large scale is extraordinarily stupid, but my point still stands. If this animal has a use, is it raised at all for that reason? Is it too dangerous to do on a large scale?

Step six: Is this creature dangerous to humans? Is it, like a mountain lion, dangerous because it's large and predatory? Or is it like a poisonous spider? Maybe it's harmless to humans, but deadly to its prey. If it's dangerous, how is it dangerous? Venom? Size? Temperament? Perhaps it's magical. If your characters come across any of these creatures that you're inventing, you'll need to know if they're dangerous or not, and if so, how they're dangerous. Or, conversely, if it's not dangerous at all. Maybe you want a cute, cuddly fur-ball that loves people and is so not dangerous it's safe to leave with newborn babies.

Step seven: Where on the food chain does this creature fit in? Does it have any natural predators? If it's a carnivore, what does it eat? This is unlikely to be important in a story, but it may come in in details to give your world some depth, if, for example, your characters are wandering in a forest and come across a predator hunting another animal. This may also help with step eight.

Step eight: Does this creature have any special survival mechanisms? Can it blend into its surroundings like a chameleon? Does it have poisonous skin? Perhaps it can imitate the sounds or smells of a predator, or can run very fast. Remember, there is a food chain, and every animal on it has abilities and instincts that help it survive. Camouflage is a well-known defense tactic, but there's also speed, flight, some creatures excrete smelly or burning substances, and some, like squid, can release a cloud of ink. If this is a fantasy story, you can add to that the possibility of magical defenses. Invisibility, telepathy, the ability to pass through solid objects. What kind of defenses does it have?

Step nine: How intelligent are these animals? Intelligence in creatures can range widely. Chimps and gray parrots are highly intelligent, while insects are not. You can have many animals, ranging in intelligence from very smart to operating purely on instinct. But you'll need to decide now. If there are any creatures intelligent enough to form any sort of primitive (or otherwise) society, then that will affect other things in the world of your story. If there's a village or city of some sort, that's going to affect trade routes, and you might need to think about how that society is going to affect other things as well, like availability of certain products, and how this group of intelligent or semi-intelligent animals interacts with people. It can also offer interesting subplots.

Step ten: What does it look like? Now that you know what it eats, where it lives, what it's survival mechanisms are, what it's used for, and how intelligent it is, you should be able to use those details to put together a description for it. If it eats meat, for example, you'd give it sharp teeth. If it's self-defense is camouflage, then it's going to look like the area it lives in. If it's an insect collected for use in cosmetics, it probably glitters or is brightly colored. You'll want to take into account its habitat, and the way it either hunts or forages for food as well. If it eats fish, it'll probably need a beak, or hands of some sort to catch them with. If it lives in the jungle, it will need to be equipped for that, too. Possibly with long, powerful arms for swinging through trees and vines, or a long and thin body for creeping through undergrowth. If it's intelligent, you might want to consider giving it clothing of some kind.

Step eleven: What is this animal's life cycle? This might not be a vital part of your story, but like many other details, it can, if used correctly, provide more depth to the world. If you know, for example, that this insect begins as a caterpillar-type creature, and then forms a chrysalis before hatching into its adult form, you can use it as an example much like we'd use caterpillars and butterflies. If you know the life cycle of a young predator, you could have a character care for a baby until it's an adult, and then release it. If the life cycles of different animals coincide with seasons, you can use the different stages to make your descriptions of the seasons more vivid. You can have live births or eggs, child-tending or abandonment, mating for life or mating for a season, a long cycle or a short one. The possibilities are endless.

Step twelve: Does this creature live alone or in groups? If it lives in groups, is there an alpha male? An alpha female? Is it a family group, or several family groups? How much interaction do they have? If, like in Tarzan, you have a character that spends a significant amount of time with a group of creatures, you'll need to think about how they communicate, and how they help each other and maintain order. If they have a high level of intelligence, there may be relationships and codes of conduct. Each individual may have a specific job that they must perform. If your creature is solitary, how and when does it reproduce? Does it have any positive or negative relationships with others of its own kind, or other creatures?

Step thirteen: Does it migrate? If you have an animal that lives in large groups, there's the possibility that they will migrate, either for mating purposes or with the seasons. Birds, for instance, will fly south for the winter. Maybe your creatures do the same, seeking out warmer weather. Or, conversely, perhaps they head north because they require the cold for some stage in their life cycle. This could be another way to vividly describe seasons, and immerse a reader in your world. It could also serve as an obstacle to a character (example: they have to be somewhere by a certain time, but the annual migration is affecting travel). For sea creatures, they may migrate to warmer or colder waters for mating purposes and/or to give birth.

Step thirteen: Now you'll need to either repeat these steps until you have all the animals you'll need, or borrow some from the real world. Either is fine and both have their benefits. Creating your own is (in my opinion) more fun, while borrowing real ones makes the process go faster. It's up to you. ;)

And, I'm off! This blog post is quite a bit longer than my usual ones, so I hope that keeps you busy for next week, too. Have a nice two weeks, everybody!

World Building Part Seven: Poisonous Plants

It's time for poisonous plants. Poisonous plants can fill an important function in a story; if you have a villain or antagonist that attempts an assassination or murder, you may need a poison. If you have a character that's been poisoned and needs an antidote, they'll need to know what poisoned them in order to save their lives. They can also be used to add conflict. While traveling, a character or group of characters may be unable to find food because the local plants are toxic.

Step one: Where is this plant is located, and how widespread is it? This can be important if you need your characters to know how to cure poisoning. If the plant is widespread and well-known, antidotes are likely to be as well. There's a reason villains like to use little-known or rare poisons; they're harder to cure. There's also the possibility of using a common plant that's generally nontoxic, but becomes poisonous when prepared correctly. This will also make the poison more difficult for your characters to cure, as they're unlikely to suspect a common, safe plant to be the cause.

Step two: Does it have anything that distinguishes it from a safe plant? Poisonous frogs and butterflies are brightly colored to alert predators that they're toxic. Do your plants have something similar? Are they brightly colored, or do they have a distinctive smell? Plants and animals that are poisonous or toxic have usually developed that as a way to protect themselves. That protection is unlikely to do them any good if none of the usual predators recognize it. That said, there are plants that are toxic that are almost identical to non-toxic ones. Either way, you'll need something that makes it possible to tell them apart. Sea anemones form a symbiotic relationship with clown fish. The clown fish is safe inside the anemone, but the anemone is dangerous to other fish. Could you use a symbiotic relationship to differentiate it?

Step three: Which part of the plant is dangerous? The leaves might be toxic, but the roots might be edible, or vice versa. Maybe the entire plant is poisonous, except for the berries. You'll need to decide which part is dangerous, and which is not, or if it's all toxic. This could come into play if you have characters that do any traveling in the wild. If they need to forage, they may need to know what they can safely eat; they may even need knowledge of poisons to hunt or set traps for animals.

Step four: How is it prepared and used? This can go for how it's prepared to make a poison, or how it's prepared to nullify the toxins. It could be juiced into a liquid; you know the usual glass bottles used to put poison in goblets or similar. It could also be dried and powdered, to be hidden in cooking. If it can be cooked or prepared in such a way that it's no longer poisonous, this could be useful, again, for a character traveling in the wild. A safe plant that can be prepared to make it toxic can be useful for hunting or setting traps.

Step five: How does it work? Does it need to be eaten? Injected? Breathed? And once it's been introduced to a living system, what does it do? A poison can manifest in different ways; stomach pain, vomiting, difficulty breathing, all sorts of things. And since you're inventing this one yourself, you can choose pretty much anything you'd like. You could even make it a poison that only affects people who use magic, or only a certain race of people. But if there are going to be any poisons used in your story, you'll need to know what they do, how fast they act, and if they're lethal or just dangerous. Maybe they're lethal, but only if left untreated for several days. Maybe it only causes mild discomfort, and maybe it will kill you in a matter of minutes or seconds. But you'll need to know, especially if you plan on using it.

Step six: What can counteract this poison? If there is an antidote, you'll need to know this, too. Especially if you have a character that you're planning on poisoning and you don't want them to die. You are going to need to know how to keep them alive for that to work. Some poisons have antidotes, some don't. Some poisons, the only thing you can do is wait for the toxins to flush out of the system, and some of them there are things you can do to fight the toxicity itself. Sometimes all you can do is fight to keep a body alive until the poisons have run their course. What is the best, or most well-known, treatment for this poison?

Step seven: Repeat steps 1-6 as often as needed or desired.

World Building, Part Six: Herbs

Hey everybody, sorry I didn't get a post done last week. Five weeks ago my husband's grandfather passed away, and my husband's grandmother passed away unexpectedly last week. It's bittersweet; she said that she didn't know how she could live without her husband, and told people that she would be joining him in a few weeks. They were happily married for decades, and couldn't live without each other. If you need a reason to believe in love again, there you go.

We had to watch my young sister-in-law for a few days and then go down for the funeral, so that kept us busy. We'll also be helping take care of their belongings, so posts might be a little sporadic for a while. Thanks for understanding.
This week we're doing herbs. I decided to do a separate post for herbs; many are used in smaller amounts than typical vegetables for flavoring, and many have medicinal purposes as well. So we'll be looking at those separately. Like most of the other plants we've worked on, herbs are a small part of a world that may or may not be important for you to have details on. Whether you need it or not is up to you.

Step one: Is your herb medicinal, magical, aromatic, or used as a spice? You could choose one, two, or all three. You might even pick a different use entirely. But if you're going to work on an herb, you need know what purpose it has, especially if you're using it in your story. You might have a character that gets hurt and needs to tend a wound, or one that gets hungry and has to find plants growing wild. There may be, like in many fantasy stories I've read, herbs that can be burned or used in other ways to increase some type of power. You'll need to know what these are if you'll be using them, and what they do when used.

Step two: Where can you find it? You may decide to use your maps here, or not. Either way, if your character needs to locate this herb or it's being used, a basic knowledge of where it grows can be useful. If it needs a warm climate, then it will be harder to find in colder places, and likely more expensive to purchase. If your character has to locate it, knowing where to find it can make writing about that adventure easier. If it's an aromatic or common spice, it will likely be grown in kitchen gardens, so that's something you may want to consider as well.

Step three: How is it prepared and used? If it's magical, it might need some ceremony for it to work properly, or to be mixed with something else. If it's a spice, is it dried and ground, or used fresh and whole? Does it need to be peeled, chopped, cooked, or mixed with other things? It could be juiced, or made into a tincture. You might want to design your own spice blend if you have a culinary character, or decide what types of foods it's used in. If it's medicinal, you'll want to think about how it's used in that situation as well. Are bandages soaked in it? Is it used like rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide? Is it ground into a powder or made into a paste and spread on wounds? Is it for bruises or cuts? An aromatic might need to be dried, or picked fresh; is it pressed for oil, burned like incense, or dried in little bags?

Step four: How does it taste and smell? Medicinal herbs are generally bitter, although you can change that up if you'd like. Herbs are generally consumed, though, so if you're planning on using them in your story, you may want to have a description of their taste and scent. Their flavor and smell may also change based on how they're prepared; a dried herb may be more potent, or less. A bitter flavor might be canceled out if mixed with something else, and a strong smell might be commonly mixed with more delicate scents.

Step five: Does it interact well or badly with other plants? A flavor or use might be increased or decreased based on the things a spice, medicinal herb, and aromatic plant are mixed with. A magical plant might be more powerful if mixed with something else, or something in it might react badly with something else, making it toxic. A flavoring herb might work well with one other herb, but taste terrible with another. A powerful aromatic plant might completely overwhelm delicate scents, while a delicate scent might pair well with other plants that don't have a powerful smell. This might be a very small or insignificant consideration, but if you're going to be dealing with medical issues or cooking in any kind of detail, it could be useful. It may also help you develop setting; if it's common for families to burn herbs in their homes, you can describe it. Common garden herbs might also make an appearance in gardens, greenhouses, or windows.

Step six: Repeat steps 1-5 as often as necessary or desired.

World Building, Part Five: Edible Plants

Now that your common plants are done, it's time to move on to the plants that your characters will be eating. Like with the last post, you can choose to operate in one of three ways; plants that are real, plants that you've made up, or a mix of the two. Just like last time, if you choose a plant that is all or mostly present in the real world, you may need to do some research to make sure everything checks out.

Step one: Choose what type of plant it is. There are a lot of choices here, and what you choose may have an effect on how it grows or what you decide it ultimately looks like. It might be a grain, a fruit, a vegetable, a nut, a gourd (think pumpkin), or a legume. This might also decide how it's prepared or harvested. For example, if you have a crop of nuts, you'll probably have to think about shelling them. For a grain, you may or may not decide to have your characters grind it into flour.

Step two: Where does it grow? The kind of plant it is may dictate where it grows. A nut tree, for example, isn't likely to grow well in a place where the ground is consistently marshy. This step would be where you decide which countries grow this, possibly as crops. This also opens the possibility of assigning different places on your maps for fields, and deciding whether any countries/continents have reshaped fields for irrigation in order to grow it. If it's an easy crop, it's likely to be widespread. Like corn or wheat. Those two are in many, many different products, and so there are more fields for those than, say, something like lentils.

Something else to keep in mind is what sort of environment these types of plants thrive in. You'll probably need to reference your climate and temperatures for this. If, for instance, you want to grow a cold-weather plant in the desert, your people will likely need to build cooled greenhouses, or breed a hardier, heat-resistant version of the plant.

If you so desire (and I suggest it if your story is going to have any focus on travel, economics, or farming) you can mark your maps with what types of crops are grown where. This may be useful when you start writing.

Tip: My advice would be to choose only the most widespread crops to work on in detail, unless you'll need detailed information while writing. If a main character lives on a small farm, for example, they might grow crops seen less often in cooking, and if they're working in fields at all you'll need a little more information. You can do a whole list of crops if you desire, but if it's not necessary for the plot or the story, then you might choose to skip it.

Step three: How and when are these things harvested? This is likely to be a minor detail unless you have a character working in a field or have to consider harvesting times in your story. If this won't come into your story, then feel free to skip it. Otherwise, it might just be background information, such as a description in passing of a field, or of food on a plate. The method of harvest varies from plant to plant, as does the time when it needs to be harvested. As an example, you're not likely to find melons ripe in the winter, because it's generally too cold for them. Those you'd find in the summer time. So they're harvested in the summer or fall, and are harvested by cutting the fruit from the vine.

This is the step where you'll consider, if you haven't already, which parts of the plants are edible, and which are not. With a vine, if the leaves and vines aren't edible, your characters might need to hunt for the fruit or vegetable part of the plant. A plant with thorns will likely need to be handled while wearing gloves; if the thorns themselves are edible, then they'll probably need something like powerful clippers to cut them off.

Step four: You'll need to decide the life cycle of this plant. Again, this will probably be a minor detail, but if you ever have need to write about farming or gardening, it could prove useful. Whether it will or not is up to you. If you do decide this is something you want to do, then you'll have to think about how the plant propagates; bulbs, spores, seeds? Will it spread on its own, or does it need help? Will it continue to come back year after year (a perennial plant) or will it need to be replanted every year (an annual plant)?

You'll also have to consider how long it takes before this plant produces. Does it produce in the first year? A month after planting? Two years later? How often it produces edibles will play into how expensive it is to purchase, and how widespread it is. A plant that only produces fruit after growing for five years and dies immediately after harvest, for example, is likely to be expensive simply because it produces very slowly and only once in its life.

Step five: How is this plant prepared? This can include any processing it goes through before sale, and how it's then cooked. Using wheat as an example, it goes through a myriad of processes before it's sold as all-purpose flour. It's bleached, ground, packaged, and then shipped. If you have a wheat-like product, you might want to look into how it's handled after harvest. The same goes for roots, gourds, nuts, and other edible plants.

Something else you'll need to think about is how people eat it. This may very well play a part in your story, especially if you spend any time describing the food your character eats or prepares. A wheat-like plant could be used to make bread. Something like potatoes could be roasted or boiled, then mashed and topped with other things. Something similar to lettuce could be chopped and served raw.

Step six: You'll need to decide if this plant has any special properties. This can mean either in myth, or in fact. You could make a kind of lettuce that is said to improve brain power but doesn't, really, or you could make a root that if prepared properly really has magical powers. This can also factor into how expensive and widespread the plant is. Something wanted for improving physical prowess is probably going to be wanted by a large number of people. Keep in mind this is specifically for edible plants, not medicinal or herbs. Those will be later. ;)

Step seven: Repeat steps 1-6 as often as needed or desired.

World Building, Part Four: Common Plants

Sorry for the lateness, guys. We had a wedding yesterday, and since the post wasn't quite finished it got pushed back a little to today. But here it is!
Now that you have your maps and weather set up, it's time to make some decisions on plants. You'll need your notebook again, with the maps and weather pages. While writing stuff down (or sketching, if you'd like) you'll want to refer back to the maps. You may even want to photocopy your maps so you can write directly on them where different plants are located.

We're not going into a ton of detail today, so don't concern yourself too much with trying to make a huge list of plants you want to use. We're sticking with basics for now, common plants that are seen often on your continents. This is going to help you describe the terrain and background of any scenes that take place in a natural or wild setting. We're doing common plants specifically because these are going to be the ones seen most often. If a rare plant isn't a part of your plot, then it's not likely your character is going to see them. Common plants, on the other hand, are likely to be everywhere.

Step One: Decide what plants are the most common in one of the continents of your world. And by this I mean the ones that are most visible and seen most often, not necessarily the ones that are the most numerous (although that's almost always the case). An example would be trees. They grow in some form almost everywhere on land. Grass is another example. You need to decide which type of plant is the most common. If you have a place that's completely covered in water, it might be water weed, or algae. If it's a desert, it's probably some form of low-growing scrub or cactus. What is going to be the most common thing a traveler would see in this place?

This is one of the places where temperatures and weather come into play. If you have a very hot, desert-like continent, then plants that need water are not likely to do very well there. So consider the temperature and the terrain when choosing your plants. Refer back to your maps as often as you need to. You may also want to have internet access or reference books handy so you can check what sorts of existing plants thrive in different environments.

Tip: Don't forget to take notes. I did this once, where I went into detail on plants and either didn't take notes, or didn't keep track of them. Once I got the information itself settled, I had to go through a rough draft and fix every mistake I had made.  Take notes, and keep them together. If not organized by topic, then at least all in the same place.

Step Two: Now, are you going to use an existing plant for this common foliage, or are you going to make one up? Now would be the time to decide which of three approaches toward plants you're going to use. Primarily created plants, primarily existing plants, or existing plants with created elements?

The first approach is to create the plant from your own imagination. This can be a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work, especially if you're also going to be dealing with an ecosystem later. You need to know what the plant looks like, why it looks that way, how it grows, what uses it has, if it's affected by where it's growing (it might, for example, have a different color in a different location but otherwise be the same), and if it has different variations that live in very different environments.

The second approach, primarily existing plants, has its own difficulties. If you're going to use a plant that lives on this world, then you need to be certain that the places you want them are consistent with places they would actually survive. If your characters come across them, you also need to know what sort of things will happen if, for example, they're eaten. This generally requires a decent amount of research, and is (in my experience) usually not the default choice of a fantasy writer.

My favorite is the third approach; real plants with created elements. This allows you to pick a familiar plant, and then alter it to fit with your world. A type of grass, for instance, that grows in a mat floating on the water could be an option for a place that has no land mass. It's a familiar plant (grass) growing in a different place (on the surface of the water).

You do not have to stick with one or the other of the approaches through the entire world-building process. If you choose to do a tree this time, and decide to create your own, you're not bound to make the same choice when you go through again to do a type of grass. I happen to believe that a world is more well-rounded if you use all three at different times, so don't feel like it's a constraint. ;)

Tip: Don't try and cover your world in exclusively created plants. In other words, don't try and create a new version of every plant you see in real life to put in your book. First of all, that would take a lot of time and energy. Unless you need to do that for the plot, I would advise against it. Second, it could be disconcerting to a reader if there is nothing recognizable in the world you're building. It's possible to do something like that properly, but I've rarely seen it done so. Unless you think you can pull off having a completely alien world and having to describe every bit of it so it's understandable, again, I would advise against it.

Step Three: You'll need to make sure your plant would survive in the place you want it. This may require some research, as this step applies mostly to existing plants and existing plants with created elements. If you're going to borrow a cactus, then you need to make sure that it will grow where you decide to put it. You can also use this step to research the kind of survival mechanisms you'll need in a created plant.

Step Four: If you chose a created plant, then you'll need to design its appearance, uses, and, if you want to get really detailed, its life cycle (sketches can be helpful here). If you chose the third option, then you'll need to decide what changes you want to make to that existing plant; if you want a real algae to grow on the surface of your ocean, but want it to be a different color, you should think about what makes it a different color, and how that might change other aspects of the plant. The color could be a result of different minerals in the water, for example. This is the step where you would draw sketches and/or diagrams of your plants. You may also want to examine the temperatures, terrain, and weather of other continents to see if this plant might also be in existence there.

Step Five: Answer the why, if you haven't already. Why is this plant the way it is? You don't necessarily have to answer this question, since there's a decent chance you won't need to know it for your story. But if you do need it, it would be better to think about this now so you don't uncover a plot hole or inconsistency later. It also gives an added realism. If you know why this plant is purple in this area instead of yellow, you can decide that it's because of the minerals in the earth. The minerals in the earth might be rare, and could therefore impact the story. As an example, if the minerals changing the color of this plant are rare, then there might be a black market built around it, and by stepping into this area your character is in a lot of danger.

Step Six: Repeat steps 1-5 as often as desired or needed. You might decide to only do one or two plants per continent, or you might want to do it for every little area. Maybe you only want to worry about the places your characters are going to be, or maybe you want to do it, in detail, for every place on the map. It's your choice. Just remember, we're doing the common plants right now. We'll be doing things like edible plants later. ;)

World Building, Part Three: Climate and Weather

In my old document for world building, I went straight into plants from maps, but after some consideration, I've decided to add another article between them. After all, when deciding what plants go where, you need to think about the weather and the climate. ;) (To see the first two posts you can click here and here.)

Step One: For step one, you'll need your maps again, and you'll probably want to use the continent maps for your notes, although you'll need your world map, too. The first thing you'll need to do is decide the median temperature for each continent for each of your seasons. This is a relatively unimportant detail, but knowing the answer will help you describe weather later, as well as decide whether the temperature is dangerous to travel in for your characters. For this you can either write the notes on the back of the map or a separate sheet of paper, or, if you'd like, you can put it right on the map. Putting it right on the map may be helpful if you decide that the temperature varies across the continent, and want to know what each location's median temp is.

Step Two (optional): Now that you know the median temp for your continent, you may decide you want to know what the normal temperature range is for each part of the year. What the low and high temperatures are for each part of the year can affect travel as well as weather, and how hot or cold it is will dictate to some extent what clothing your characters wear. If you need help with this step or step one, you may want to look and see how landscapes affect climate in the real world. As an example, being near a large lake will generally make the area colder.

Step Three: Now that you have your temperatures figured out, you need to decide what kind of weather each location is going to have. As with temperatures, landscapes can have an affect on the weather. If, for instance, you have a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, it's unlikely that the people living there will experience much in the way of high winds, whereas high winds are common on a plain. To make notes for this, you may want to write out a description of the weather, or, to save space, you could do a sample weather report for each season.

Step Four: Repeat with each continent. As you move on from one continent to the next, you'll want to keep an eye on where on the world map each place is. This is especially important if you're mimicking parts of the way the real world is. If you have an equator, then the continents near or on the equator are going to be warmer than the ones nearer the poles, and the places near the poles will be much colder.

Step Five: Unless you've gone into a lot of detail with your weather and climates so far, you may need to zero in on places important for your story. If your character goes on a long journey, you'll need to know more details about the places they go than the broad temperature and weather you've done so far. Temperatures and weather can vary widely in different parts of countries and continents, so if you have places your characters are going to be, then you'll need to do more detailed profiles of each location. It's not necessary to do this for every place on a map; only the ones important for your story. You may want to write out how these places interact with the averages of weather as well. If, for example, you have a major city in your story that has an average temperature higher than the continent's average, there are going to be cities elsewhere that are quite a bit colder. This can affect the city in a number of ways; if it's warmer than the areas around it, there may be groups of people that visit every year during cold weather, giving the city a financial boost in the winter time.

Step Six: Once you've completed steps 1-5, it's time to look at the results of your choices for climate and weather. As I mentioned in step five, a simple choice to have one city slightly warmer than the others can have a large-ish result on surrounding areas as well as the kind of activity the city gets. So you'll need to look at what sort of consequences each choice will give you. An easy way to get an idea is to look at places in the real world that have similar attributes, and examine how those attributes influence local economy and the surrounding areas.

Note: There's a lot of detail involved in world-building, and you may or may not need large chunks of it. If the story you're trying to write doesn't require knowledge about weather on other continents, then you should feel free to skip it. The same applies to virtually everything else. There's no rule that says you have to go through every step or your world is going to suck. In my experience, the more you know about the world, even if it doesn't come into the story, the better off you are. But you may decide differently, and that is entirely up to you. :)

World Building, Part Two: Maps

Hey everybody. As you may have noticed, this post is a little early, since I normally post on Saturdays.

Last Saturday, my husband's grandfather, who had been suffering from COPD for a long time, took a turn for the worse. All of my projects have been delayed, since we've been been watching my young sister-in-law and making the drive to see him as often as we can. He passed away on Wednesday morning, and the funeral is tomorrow, so I'm posting early. My blog posts should still be regular, but it could be some time before the rest of my writing catches up. Thanks for understanding.
We're on to part two! Last week we covered the rules of your world, and hopefully you wrote them down, preferably in a notebook, because this week we're going to need that notebook again.

It's time to get down to the physical characteristics of your world. We're going to start on a large scale, and work our way down to details. This means mapping. If you're not very good at drawing, then relax. You don't have to be. You're not copying down landmasses that appear in the real world, you're creating your own. And if you're doing this for a story, then there's a chance no one besides you will ever need to see it anyway. It doesn't have to be perfect, because you'll probably want to go over and change things later as you learn more about this place. So no pressure!

Step One: We're going to start with how many continents you want, and sketch them out like a world map. This can be as precise or as vague as you want. Maybe you decide you want two continents, and just draw two circles approximately where you want them on your world map. That's perfectly fine, and you can add detail later. This isn't necessarily art, although if you choose to go that route you can.

Some things to consider when deciding where you want your continents is if there's an equator, and if it works similarly to ours. If that's so, then you'll probably want to draw it in on your map for reference; a country on the equator is going to be warmer than one at the poles, for instance. If there isn't one, then you're going to have a great time figuring out why and how it works. Or, if there is one, but it works differently, how so? How did it happen that way?

Step Two: Decide your scale. If you decide your map is 100 miles per inch, then you need to consider that when adding other features. Are those two cities really going to be that far apart? Is that going to make trade between them unfeasible? How far away is this place from water? Is the distance going from one city to another going to make it difficult or impossible to have paved roads? Similarly, if your scale is bigger, say, five miles per inch, you're going to have room for a lot more detail, and will probably need larger paper. If you want to use such detail, then go for it. But if you don't require details such as the presence of every stream or small village, then a different scale will probably be more to your liking. You also need to keep in mind how long it will take characters to travel from one place to another. Otherwise you'll end up with a character either taking far too long to travel, or magically jumping unrealistic distances in a matter of days.

Step Three: Once you're satisfied with your work on step one, we're going to focus in on each continent, one at a time. To do this, you're going to need a fresh piece of paper, because now we're going into a little more detail. This isn't a world map, this is a continent map, so other continents and major oceans aren't going to appear. The focus is only on the major features of the current landmass. If you want mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, forests, or other major geological formations or natural landmarks, this is the time to add them in. If there are any special characteristics that are major or significant to your world (perhaps as a result of your rules in part one) then this is the time to consider putting them in. This might include things like volcanoes, waterfalls, or other formations and natural features. Again, this doesn't have to be artwork. It's a rough draft, so you don't have worry about making it look nice.

Step Four: Once done with step two, it's time to add man-made landmarks. Or landmarks made by intelligent life, whichever you have. This includes major cities, significant locations, and major artistic works from history. You don't have to name them now, or even decide what they are. Simply marking them with a dot and a label telling you what sort of spot it is (city, town, trading center, artistic location, etc.) should be sufficient for now. You'll be able to add more detail to these once we get into culture and history. For now, just keep in mind locations that are likely to be significant. A place where rivers join together is a good candidate for a trading center, a mountain pass is a good place to put a military installation. At this point, you can also add in roads, if you like, and mark crossroads as notable locations.

You may want to have (yet another) sheet of paper per continent to list details on, such as the height of a waterfall, whether a lake is saltwater or fresh, and notes on what you think should be at each notable location.

Step Five: Repeat steps 1-3 for the remaining continents, keeping in mind that difference in location on a planet means difference in weather, temperature, and climate, and therefore a difference in physical features.

Step Six: It's time to map oceans and seas. If you have clusters of islands, this is where you'd map them. You can either do another sheet of paper for each sea/ocean, or you can mark islands on the world map. The choice is yours, although I'd suggest separate maps for seas if you're going to have a large number of islands, or if you have a story that's going to partially take place in or on a sea. If you want to go into detail for your seas, this is also where you'd do that. If, for example, you're doing a story about mermaids, you might need to know the depth of the water, its salinity, locations of reefs, and other underwater formations. You might also need a basic working knowledge of currents, water temperatures, shipping routes, and the weather.

Step Seven (Optional): Rework your maps. If you were vague in the first six steps, you may decide to go over and work on the parts you've already completed to make sure they work well together. You may also choose to redo your world map to include details from your continents. This step is optional, since the information you need should already be there. This step is primarily a polishing step, and can either be saved for later, or not done at all, depending on your needs.

World Building, Part One: Writing the Rules

Five or six years ago, I did a blog series (my first one!) on world-building. Not long after it was completed, I collected all those posts into book format, and put it up for sale on Amazon. Its been there ever since. My husband recently suggested running an ad for it, so I found the old file, and took a good look at it. Long story short, I decided I wanted to revisit the series with everything I've learned since. Because I've learned a lot, and I think it's time to expand it. ;)

The first lesson is on rules.

Yes, rules. Or, more accurately, physical laws or realities.

One of the best things about being a fantasy writer is the chance to write these yourself. For people who either don't like or aren't good at doing research about the real world, you can escape it, so to speak, by creating your own. Unfortunately, this gives rise to the idea that fantasy is an easy way out. I met someone once who thought that fantasy writers were lazy, and some of them surely are. But there's a reason fantasy novels are expected to be longer than regular fiction ones.

Just because you can write the rules yourself doesn't mean that world-building is easy. On the contrary, once you write those rules, you have to follow them, and that means everything you want to happen in your story has to fit within that framework. You can't just fall back on earth-rules if you wrote ones that were different; you have to make your story work with the rules you have. If, for example, you decide that the sky is going to be green, you are probably going to have people wanting to know why it's green instead of blue. Does light behave differently? Is there some sort of particle in the air that does that? How does that affect clouds?

Your story and the rest of the world has to be consistent. If it's not, readers will find out. So, writing your rules might be easy. But following them is not. And that's where the creativity comes in.

Say you want a world with no naturally-occurring water. You probably don't, but think about the implications. If there is no naturally-occurring water, then how do creatures survive? To solve this problem, you have at least two options. Either water is unnecessary for survival in this world, or it's imported from somewhere else. If it's unnecessary, that gives you a plethora of other questions, like why not? If you choose to have water imported from somewhere else, then what is that somewhere else like? What are the political and economic consequences of that? Perhaps that other place decides to cut off the water. What then? You have the bare bones of a story right there.

But, once you decide the answer to that question, you have the inevitable. What kind of plants and animals grow and live there? How do they survive? What kind of economy grew up in this place? Is water more precious that gold? Is it a poison to creatures who don't need it to survive?

All of these things have to be consistent with the rules you make. You need to follow the logical progression of your rules in your story. And that means if two of your rules conflict, then either you have to change them, or you have to make it work somehow.

So, feel free to make any rule you desire. But be prepared to do the legwork, and make it all fit together.

Now choose your rules and write them down. This is important. You may need to reference them later, so get a notebook, a sheet of paper, something to write on. My suggestion would be an empty notebook, especially if you plan on writing a book set in this world. On the first page, write down the things that make your world different from the real one.

On the next page, write down the consequences of those rules. For example, a world that has no animals will as a consequence have large groups of intelligent life that are either cannibalistic or vegetarian. Keep these consequences in mind as you choose your rules.