![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyseishou posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nano_writersStephanie Bryant's 30 Days of Worldbuilding assumes for the most part that the world we are building is earth-like (sun-type, moons, seasons, etc.). This is not as restrictive as this may sound at first as there may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy.
Tim Boothby in his World Building tutorial, also lists additional advantages of basing your work on an earth-like world:
But the universe is a wide and varied place indeed and for our Nano Writers that want/need to create truly alien worlds, I can recommend the following resources:
World Builders - online "step by step information and hundreds of links to help you design your world"
World-Building - A Writer's Guide to Constructing Star Systems and Life-Supporting Planets by Stephen L. Gillett (Science Fiction Writing Series edited by Ben Bova, Writer's Digest Books, 1996).
And as for our historical/adventure/mystery/thriller writers:
Why not take this opportunity to research your "world" and follow along with the exercises? Your stories may be set in the "real world" but how well do you really know your setting? The name of the tallest mountain in Ireland? The length of the Yellow River? The cause of the Great Fire in London, 1666? The Bakufu response to the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake? What was fashionable to wear? To eat? Penal codes? Places of worship?
Research that you do now will not only enrich your writing, enhance your characters and enliven your plot but more importantly - will not steal valuable writing time from you in November!
And a reminder: there are 90 days left until the start of NaNoWriMo! What have you written today?
Tim Boothby in his World Building tutorial, also lists additional advantages of basing your work on an earth-like world:
- I read those damned science books.
- Distances are easier to relate to… "It would be like walking from New York to Chicago."
- Its much easier to determine approximate climates, figure out on an earth map where a place would be and you can google temperatures, rainfall, flora and fauna, and even common crops and growing seasons.
But the universe is a wide and varied place indeed and for our Nano Writers that want/need to create truly alien worlds, I can recommend the following resources:
World Builders - online "step by step information and hundreds of links to help you design your world"
World-Building - A Writer's Guide to Constructing Star Systems and Life-Supporting Planets by Stephen L. Gillett (Science Fiction Writing Series edited by Ben Bova, Writer's Digest Books, 1996).
And as for our historical/adventure/mystery/thriller writers:
Why not take this opportunity to research your "world" and follow along with the exercises? Your stories may be set in the "real world" but how well do you really know your setting? The name of the tallest mountain in Ireland? The length of the Yellow River? The cause of the Great Fire in London, 1666? The Bakufu response to the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake? What was fashionable to wear? To eat? Penal codes? Places of worship?
Research that you do now will not only enrich your writing, enhance your characters and enliven your plot but more importantly - will not steal valuable writing time from you in November!
And a reminder: there are 90 days left until the start of NaNoWriMo! What have you written today?