Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
I’ve yet to encounter a created world that does not make use of climate and weather directly or indirectly. That includes this one. Consider the history of earth and the interdependencies between life and climate become obvious (I hope). Read anything by Brian Fagan and you’ll get a taste of those interdependencies beautifully written. Examples … Continue reading “World-Building – Weather”
There are three basic questions when considering language in world-building: Does language play any role in your world? Does everyone speak the same language, or is there a variety? Do you need to invent any slang or terminology as part of the world-building process? Here I paraphrase Aristotle’s Poetics, “Avoid neologisms unless introducing some new … Continue reading “World-Building – Language”
To me, the key to keeping readers focused on your story is relatability (yes, I know. If you’re reading my world-building posts, you’re shocked). A story is relatable when the reader can imagine themselves in the story, meaning the reader accepts what happens in the story as something that could happen to them, meaning it’s … Continue reading “Relatability”
[Much of this series is excerpted from a post on Phoebe Darqueling’s blog] World-building is an interesting and amusing phrase to me. I don’t think it existed as such when I started writing professionally (1970s). Perhaps people understood it without naming it as such. Consider authoring concepts such as atmosphere, character, description, dialogue, narration, pace, … Continue reading “World-Building – Getting Readers Interested in Your World”
Noun: blurb1. A promotional statement (as found on the dust jackets of books) I’m studying blurbs. You know that stuff you find written on the backcover and/or dust jacket of most books? That’s the blurb. It’s underneath the endorsements (if there are any) and the grabber-headline. My study revealed that opinions differ (Duh!). Some … Continue reading “Blurbs”