As a general rule, if the Chosen One prophecy can be removed from your story without affecting the plot in any way whatsoever, you should probably remove it.
that’s a pretty brutal reading of the New Testament
I’m having trouble worlduilding. Building a society, let alone a whole universe is overwhelming. I feel like i’m going in circles trying to have my setting make sense. Any advice on how to start or where? Research methods? I’ve been stuck for weeks.
First, take a deep breath! I know it’s overwhelming, but world building can be incredibly fun, too. 🙂
Second, you do not have to plan out every detail of your world before you start writing. All you really need to figure out are the basic details and anything really important to the story. The rest can be figured out along the way or after your first draft. You will be amazed at how much develops naturally as you get a chance to explore your new world in the first draft. Plus, you can flesh things out and add details when your first draft is complete.
So, what are the basics?
1) Where does the story take place?
Universe > galaxy > solar system > planet > continent > region, nation, or kingdom > city, town, or village > important “sets”
Focus on the thing that are important to your story. If the solar system doesn’t matter, don’t bother with it. Just know the basic details of the planet (is it earth or a planet like earth?) and the continent where the story is set. Then, the closer you zoom in on the locations where your story actually takes place, fill in more detail. Have a general idea about geographical details like mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans, What is the specific setting where your story mainly takes place? Is it a high-tech futuristic metropolis? Or maybe a ramshackle civilization built on the ashes of a scorched earth? Is it a city, town, or village? Or perhaps an entire kingdom or nation?
You may want to think about doing a general map of the areas important in your story. I love these maps from Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha universe and Mary E. Pearson’s Remnant Chronicles:
When it comes to figuring out specific settings, you can look to Google for help. For example, “what were medieval villages like” or “castle layout.” You may want to look to the real world for inspiration. Leigh Bardugo modeled Ketterdam after a cross between Las Vegas and Venice. Tumblr can also be a fantastic resource for picture inspiration. Just search tags for things like: city, cottage, castle, winter, abandoned places, etc., and you can find any number of photo blogs with endless visual inspiration.
2) When does the story take place?
If you’re writing speculative fiction, like fantasy, sci-fi, or dystopian, you’ll need to figure out exactly when your story takes place and what things are like at that time. A lot of fantasies are modeled after medieval and renaissance England, but there are lots of other eras and places that would make for interesting fantasy inspiration. You may want to do a general timeline of your story’s events including important dates and events in the back story.
3) What is this place like?
Once you know when and where your story are set, and once you have some inspiration for the when and where, you can start to look at what your world is like.
What level of technology is available in your world? Is it the same for everyone or dependent upon location or social class? What sort of transportation do they use? What type of military technology do they possess? What kind of technology is used in the home? Do they have television or radio?
How do they get around? Is there magic? Do they live in castles or sky scrapers? Are there important details in the history of this place? What are the people like? What different cultures can be found? How do these people live their daily lives? How are their basic needs met? What type of medical care do they have? Do they have a religion? Are there any gangs, guilds, or other important groups? Do they have an education system? What language do they speak? What plants and animals live in your world, and how do people interact with them? Do they hunt and fish? Do they have livestock? Do they have pets? Do they gather plant life? Do they cultivate crops?
4) Government and Infrastructure
What type of government does your world have? Who are the important players? What about the government makes it oppressive? (It isn’t easy to find unbiased information about oppressive governments. Whether you agree or not, this article has some ideas about things the US government is doing that qualify as oppressive. This article discusses ten steps to a closed society. Between them, you should find some ideas for things your government might do. How does your government relate to other governments? Are there any current conflicts?
What type of economic system does your world have? What currency is used? What industries bring money into your world, and who buys the products? What is imported and what is exported? To and from where?
What is the system of law? What are the laws and how are they enforced? Is there a judicial system? Lawyers? Police? Prisons and jails? What are the consequences for breaking the law?
This should be more than enough to get you going. Anything else you can figure out along the way. And remember, even with all of the things I mentioned above–if they’re not important to the story, don’t worry about them. Don’t feel like you have to flesh out every single plant and animal that populates your setting.
——————————————————————— Have a writing question? I’d love to hear from you! Please be sure to read my ask rulesand master listfirst or your question will not be answered. 🙂
A few followers have asked for tips on writing romance into their stories or as the basis of their stories. Here’s a list of sources that might help out.
trying to find that one post where y’all speculate about Finn realizing he needs to provide a surname, and he just goes with “Dameron” because that’s the first one which comes to mind (none of his old friends had surnames or even names beyond their official designations, and he can’t remember that much of his family)
and Rey is like “yeah solid choice, makes sense, I like the sound of it” because Rey is a feral desert child and doesn’t know any better
and of course Poe is charmed, and is like “sure I am happy to provide jackets, surnames, my elite piloting skills, my hand in marriage: anything for my friends”
and idk at some point, someone is like “okay Rey do you have any other name, what’s with the mononym shit” and she’s like “uhhhhh DAMERON” because really if it works for Finn, it can work for her
and the long and short of it is: they see nothing unusual in this and completely miss any implications, and eventually this nonsense gets back to the Resistance fighters and Poe’s entire squadron smirks at him for days
Are Poe’s parents still alive? Because he’d be getting messages asking for an explanation why they had to find out third hand that he got bonded, at the very least?
I have been thinking about this and I have decided that I was completely wrong: this entire mess is Poe’s fault, he totally started it.
accidentally! and with the best of intentions! he woke up in the desert with the ship and Finn both missing, and while he feared the worst, he still had hope. when he made contact with the Resistance, he tells them about Finn and has him listed as MIA; he felt responsible for the kid, he felt awful that this boy took a courageous leap with a total stranger & got smashed to bits in the desert for his trouble.
Poe has some vague notion that if Finn was ever found, he’d ask him to join the Resistance, or help him get settled in a new quiet life somewhere safe. He knows Finn doesn’t have anyone else, so he writes “Finn Dameron” and lists himself as next of kin.
when they reconnect, he’s so happy that Finn is okay (a bit distracted by how gorgeous the kid is, he hadn’t had time to notice before), and genuinely touched that Finn kept his jacket, that Finn was equally worried and upset over him. it occurs to him that the name thing could be awkward, so he explains his concerns, he explains next-of-kin notifications, and “you didn’t have anyone else that I knew of, so I wanted to make sure you’d at least have me.”
after that, Poe doesn’t think anything of it.
…but Finn! Finn is like, COMPLETELY VERKLEMPT, that this cool dashing hero person was looking out for him! Finn has people now – he has Rey and Poe, and the entire rest of the Resistance have embraced him wholeheartedly. also!!! next-of-kin, that’s SO NICE, he has kin now, he’s not just cannon fodder whose passing won’t matter to anyone but his squadmates. he’s a person, he has kin, he has people, he belongs. it’s so great.
he tells Rey all about it and she gets why he’s excited; it IS awesome. he signs everything “Finn Dameron” and she addresses her messages to “Finn Dameron,” it’s all very exciting. and she thinks about it, too, she thinks about next-of-kin, about Finn coming back for her, Finn choosing her.
when she rejoins the Resistance, she asks Finn if she can be “Rey Dameron” so that they can have next-of-kin too. (it simply doesn’t occur to either of them that they can get next-of-kin notifications without exchanging surnames; Poe did it that way, and it made sense to them, and they never thought about it beyond that.) and of course Finn agrees!
he forgets to tell Poe for another five weeks, and then mentions it in passing. Poe is like, professionally unfazed, so he just finds the whole thing charming. they are so cute and he can’t stop smiling over them; they are the best. and again, Poe moves on & doesn’t think anything of it.
…..and then. AND THEN, eventually, Rey finds out that she’s a Skywalker. [This was foreshadowed so heavily in the movie, I’m 99.999% certain they’re gonna go there.] and obviously there’s a lot of feelings and drama, but when it dies down a bit, she’s hanging out with Finn and they’re drowsily curled up together on his bunk because they want to talk FOREVER but they’re so tired but the have SO MUCH TO SAY.
Rey doesn’t totally understand what all of this means for her, what it means to have that family and their legacy. but she does know what it means to have THIS family, the one she has with Finn. so it makes perfect sense to make him part of her new family, to mesh the identity she’s inherited with the identity she’s made, so she asks him, “you are my people, you are my next-of-kin. do you want to be a Skywalker too?” and of course he’s like “YEAH!”
and like. throughout all of this, Poe is their buddy and means a lot to them, and they think of him as their people. (the entire Resistance has noticed how much the kids adore him & hero worship him, it’s hard to miss; they would tease Poe more about it, but he clings grimly to his virtue and hisses “CRADLE ROBBING” every time it comes up, so they mostly let it go.)
so when there’s some Big Dramatic Space Mission, and his squadron goes missing briefly, Finn & Rey are both really messed up about it. and then one of them is like, “…you know what we forgot to do?” and the other one is like “OH OF COURSE.” as his next-of-kin, they have the right to get his records updated, so that’s what happens while Poe spends several miserable weeks fleeing across the muddiest, swampiest continent in the galaxy. when he finally makes contact with the Resistance, he has acquired (1) space cholera, (2) space ticks, and (3) a new surname, though he doesn’t learn about that last one for a while.
His mothers find out around the same time he does, and they are Not Amused. “Why wouldn’t you TELL US,” they ask, and “it’s hardly classified, apparently your whole base knows,” and “we had to hear about it from your commanding officer, young man,” and “were you ever planning to introduce us, what do you have to say for yourself”
and like, there’s a totally reasonable and rational explanation for all of this – “it’s not what you think,” he says feebly, and his moms huff, unimpressed – but he’s still shaken up from the influx of engagement/wedding presents and General Princess Leia herself visiting his bedside to fix him with a gimlet stare and a completely deadpan, “Welcome to the family.” He’s had a long day, he might be married, and he’s not sure how but it’s at least 30% his own fault.
There is literally no iteration of this whole last name thing that doesn’t delight me.
The D’Qar base quartermaster has, thus far, issued SIX sets of unisex flightsuits with “Dameron-Skywalker” on the patch.
Poe: *gets back from ~space to find a rack of identical orange jumpsuits hanging in his closet* Huh?
Finn: I got us extras. In case they get dirty.
Rey: They look good with our jacket, too.
And so the Dameron-Skywalkers clotheshared their way happily ever after.
I’M PRETTY SURE WE ALL KNEW TO EXPECT A READ-MORE FROM ME ON THIS ONE. DID ANYONE NOT EXPECT A READ-MORE FROM ME ON THIS ONE? GOOD ‘CUZ WE’RE IN FOR THE LONG HAUL, KIDS.
mam nadzieję że na maturze w maju będzie albo mickiewicz albo słowacki i ktoś napisze w wypracowaniu słowackiewicz fanfiction rated M lemon don’t like don’t read
a concept: me, in my cottage, in front of the wood stove, sipping tea. looking outside, my bees are pollinating my expansive garden. my goats and chickens and cows are happy and safe. i feel content with my choices and my future. i unconditionally and recklessly love myself. the local children believe i am a witch.
starry-eyed 