An article on world building.

It’s worth a read and follow. L. M. kling always writes great content and tools to have about writing. This post was no different.

I enjoyed it but of course I have thoughts as I contrast my own views on world building and how I have deleveloped my ethos on the subject.

Everything starts in my head first with a concept or a conversation. A lingo in between a fictional person talks and element of mystery in how in who and what they are that colors the world around them.

I have a philosophy or school of thought about it that I have used over the years that has best helped me in exploring plot and story in regards to the type of stories I write.

Build a lead charecter and a story will build itself around the character. – Walter B. Gibson

I enjoy this concept because it is very much in line for how my mind works with world building or crafting a world.

I start with the charecter. I let the charecter reveal himself to me in his interactions with other people around him. In his lingo. In the events that happen to him and history and his culture and personal behavior when something happens to them and creates conflict or a color in them and the world around them.

The landscape is around the character and what they eat when their sand or the habit of smoking a particular cigarette when stressed out. Nothing is happenstance. It’s a discovery. A mystery unfolding that have write out with each form of conflict that arises and is dealt with in the manner that character handles it by the rules of the world they were born into.

If you can’t tell by now. I love D&D and other such role playing games. I’m an imagination heavy kind of guy. Current characters can only exist in a current in a certain way at a current time given the environment their born into.

Yes. Occasionally there are outliers however those individuals are the rarity not the base rule for everyone and there is a story behind them.

The Craftsman

AI image of man sitting down to write facing his laptop.

He sits at his table.

His laptop is booted up.

His note book of dreams and notes from the day before is open.

The time has arrived.

He went from his bed dreaming strange fantastical mysterious places only the mind could craft

To sitting down at his writing desk facing his instrument of craftsmanship.

He stares at the screen. It’s blank wall holds him captivated.

His timer is going. He hears his phone in the distance. He ignores and waits until he’s bored of waiting and finally puts down one word that make him relax and get to the work ahead. Two words.

That’s enough for today.

How to write a novel in a month….Nanowrimo

Alright let’s get right to it.

Whether your writing a novel for the month of November I.E. Nanowrimo the writer’s month or would like to know the process I’m going to give it to you short sweet and to the point.

Details. 50k words in one month. That’s 1,667 words in a day or more. Yes, it can be done. I got it done and it was a fucking rush getting it done finishing in the end.

Beginner level

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Start with what you know and what subject or genre of fiction you’ve read you know the structure of how it goes. Once you got an idea of what your writing is….start writing. Don’t plan out anything more start writing.

Get a writing schedule for each day and time of writing. Keep to the schedule. Keep writing. Don’t give up just keep going until you’ve finished it. There are 24 hours in a day. All you need is 1 to 2 hours or 40 minutes a day. You can get it done. Keep going. Keep writing. Keep pushing.

immediate

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Get yourself a good writing app that counts your words and have a set number of words you want to do that day and keep to it.

Fill in the holes in your beginning, middle and end to fill out your story or the thesis of your book. Keep writing and going. Keep to your schedule.

Master

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Yesterday you did 1,889 words today shoot for 3k in under two hours. Use your writing app and notes to keep track of your structure and story but and some days something fucked up is going to happen to throw you off.

Fuck it. Write 4k words to make up for the days something happen to throw you off. But, I’m not saying anything you don’t know. You were a beginner once. You kept with it. Your writing kept getting more and more easier.

Warm Regards

GuardianDogg

New writing habits!

I’m struggling with the current book and still using the new writing app.

It still sucks on my phone and is pretty useless. I have android and I don’t know what it’s like on Apple.

New book is a squel to the book I wrote on the app as a trial book experiment. I’m in that weird realm with my writing where every time I put in the work every day I have no idea where it will go.

I have the ending in my head but this time I’m trying to figure out what the beginning is and how deep will the story go.

There is action, adventure  but those have become a side theme to the philosophical frame work of the nature of power.

Three new writing habits

1) I’ve fixed my thinking on finishing a story faster using the tools I’ve learned from books I’ve read. 2) I’m experimenting more on breaking structures in my normal story telling style. 3) I’m learning how to better implement philosophy and behavioral science into my story.

So far this year I’ve written three stories. November kiss?! Will probably be a good time to chance a 30k words draft this year.

Warm Regards

Guardiandogg

How much is to much explanation for fantasy bullshit (writing craft)

I was just having a discussion with best friend about this topic this morning in a series of random circulating themes about stories and why telling the audience to much shit can back fire.

Case and point. Buffy the vampire slayer. An American television show I watched toward bat shit ending the season series cliff fall. Man I rocked with this show hard and was addicted to just see where it would end.

But, I have to admit that show lost me in respect for the craft of writing fantasy when the writers revealed that Buffy’s supernatural strength came from one a couple of black dudes kidnapping the first slayer girl tying her down and allowing some mist shit demon to rape her.

The weirdness of the episode always took me completely out of the story if I didn’t purposely try to forget that episode existed. The writers broke a rule in writing I found remarkable stupid.

They tried to explain in stupid detail magic bullshit. I’m not saying creating a magic system for your make believe world isn’t worth wild. But, even when brillant writers don’t shit the bed as bad as the source of Buffy’s powers the shit is risky explaining magic bullshit.

Think of the marvel universe of movies and stories. Not perfect but the rules of story once established they aren’t fucked with to much.

Superman’s source of power is the yellow sun. That shit was established years ago and hasn’t really been fucked with that much or overally explained. It is what it is.

I still don’t know what type of mist shit demon that shit that raped the girl was. It still is bullshit to me to this day or why or how they trapped that shit in a box and I don’t care. To much bullshit.

Warm Regards,

Guardiandogg

Reverse engineering World building (writing craft)

I’m working on my current book and I’m finding out that it is very different from the world I originally thought it was.

The genre of the series started out in the real world with Urban Romance and classic western values. Trouble is it’s been more then five years sense I started writing in the world and I have of course changed as has the vision of the world with the introduction of new characters that do not fit in the real world.

It’s new for me. This discovery that the world’s history is counter to what I thought. I like it.

I have an idea of what type of world it is because I’ve explored thoughts of a time shift of events that happened in the civil rights era. Though to be honest the conversations, characters and ideas of family are fantastic to see being played out.

Though I’m getting ideas of how major the change is.

Once the charecters were established in the first book I don’t try to change their motives or guide them I just let them tell the story by their reactions to what gets thrown at them.

This book or series is really fun to write. I started writing seriously when I was twelve but right now it’s finally paying off. I’m writing something that is not only entertaining to me I’m writing about characters that feel real. It hasn’t been easy to get to this point but right now…..

Hot damn! What a time to be alive.

Warm Regards,

Guardiandogg