Eighth Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex for Writers and Creatives

by Sabrina Klein (Editor), Patrick S. Tomlinson, Kerrie L. Hughes

You want to build a world. Twenty authors want to help.

It begins when you have that moment when you can close your eyes and see a world no-one has seen before. It might start from a grain of sand, the way light filters through the trees, the feel of satin robes, the smell of cooking soup, or simply a wish for somewhere, somewhen else. It happens for different reasons for different people. Something, anything can pull your mind from the boundaries of our mundane world and set it to creating somewhere else.

Featuring Maurice Broaddus, Tim Waggoner, Matthew Wayne Selznick, Donald J. Bingle, Janine Spendlove, Bryan Young, and fifteen more authors, these essays range from crafting believable ecosystems, creatures, and legal systems to the ways you can most effectively share your world with your audience.

Eighth Day Genesis is meant to help writers, gamemasters, and all creative people with their worlds. The depth of your world is important…even essential. Worlds should be able to be touched, smelled, seen, and heard. Each of these things is vital to creating reality. The smallest details can illuminate volumes. It is surprising what details with bring forth entire feelings, associations, and images. Stereotypes can be broken, archetypes deviated from, and wonder spilled forth like gossip from an old friend.

This book will help you fill in those details and create the world you've always imagined.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

310 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2012

Reviews

[Andrea D. McCarthage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, though I wouldn't call it useful. It's a neat compendium of thoughts, but nothing stands out as a tangible idea or piece of advice. It's worth a look for a prospective beginner GM, but if you're experienced it's unlikely you'll have much use of it.

[Kseniya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts a little bit slow, but honestly, I can really tell that every single person who submitted an essay into this book really cared about what they were talking about and had a passion for what they were doing. I can really see people's heart and soul going into every word that they composed. Sure, a lot of things were pretty obvious, but the book still gets you thinking and it organizes everything by subject, from most to least obvious. You may think you know everything, but it still gets you when you least expect it. I also love the little "about the author" sections after every essay. Some are straight up funny, like the one that said something along the lines of "she has no marketable skills" 😁👍 the writers are all honestly great!