World Building and Resources #ourauthorgang

By Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

Well, if you've been reading all my blog posts and perhaps following along, you've come a long way. You've got a map with vegetation and elevation and climate all sorted out. Now you are ready to place resources on the map.

Knowing where the resources are is important because it will determine the cost of items and how common things like wood and iron are. If they are common and cheap then you can have buildings made from wood and you have iron tools for farming, combat, and all the others we need tools for.

It is also start to help you determine trade routes and where nations and roads develop. If all the iron is in the mountains where the dwarves live then humans will be trading with them for it; perhaps trading food or wool or clothe. And control of trade routes has made empires out of small nations so it is something to pay attention to.

You don't need to think of all the possible resources, but you should have an idea of the common ones and note this for the goods and services that characters in your stories need. This may seem like a lot of work for no benefit but this level of details adds realism. Of course it is where you probably need to also apply Tenet 1 (it's there for a reason!).

Once have your resources placed, you can have a look at the political map. We'll talk about that next time.

World Building and Vegetation #OurAuthorGang

By Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

Obviously if you need to create a world for a story or series of stories, you need to have specific locations in mind so you can give the reader a sense of place. Each location can only exist in the context of a larger world and if the world is like ours that means there's vegetation growing about.

Vegetation grows only where conditions are favorable. If your world is a frozen ice planet, you needn't read any further. But for the rest of us, knowing where there are forests, grasslands, farmlands, and the like will help you give your world a sense of realism. Equally important is knowing the type of vegetation that's growing. This is where climate comes in.

Rain forests exists in the tropics, not in temperate zones. Northern forest are all coniferous, Temperature forests can have deciduous trees. Note the amount of water available in each area. Dense forests need more water (more rainfall) than sparingly forested areas. And actually it is the other way around, the more precipitation an area receive, the more densely forested it can be.

Where there's less water available, grasslands are likely. And these can range from tundra to scrublands, to wide plains of grass.

Once you figure out what your settings or world is like, create a map showing the forests and grasslands.

Likely where lands is irrigated, you'll have farms. In a medieval fantasy world like mine, large areas of lands must be set aside for farming to support the cities towns in the region. Otherwise everyone starves.

Note all this on your vegetation map or combine it with the elevation map to create a composite.

With all this done, you're ready to consider other types of terrain like deserts and swamps. We'll look at those next time.

Building an Elevation Map #OurAuthorGang

Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

You want to build a world for a story or series of stories. You have the general points sketched out and you are thinking about the map you need. You can, of course, draw it -- or generate it -- at any time. But let's consider a few aspects of the geography first.

Geography not also defines the shape of land masses, but also an area's climate and resources as well. If your world has a molten core like ours, then volcanoes are possible and the surface is can be made of sliding plates which determine where the mountains are, and the shape of each continent. It will also tell you where there are quakes (usually along fault lines where two plates abut). Make a map of the elevation and the fault lines. It will help you later.

The US Geological Survey web site provides such topological maps of the United States, which can serve as an example. Your maps don't need to be that detailed (remember Tenet 1) but you should note where there are mountains, hills, and flat areas. Remember to provide a transitional area between mountains and flat terrain. Often there are hills in between.

Also keep in mind some mountains have volcanoes hidden among them. And not all hills are grassy knolls. Some of forested and some are barren. You don't need to consider this in the elevation map but it is something to think about for later.

Once you have these detailed sorted out you are ready for the vegetation map. We'll consider that next time.

Elevation from My Fantasy World, showing mountains and lakes

World Building and Astronomy#OurAuthorGang

By Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

When building a whole world, I like to start with the big picture and work down. You don't have to do that, of course. You can start small and work up, but I start at the top and work out the details the way they would be if the world was real. So I usually start with the astronomy of the world. This includes things like:

What is the spectral class of the star the world orbits?

How far from this star is the world? This is another way of asking how many days are there in a year?

And while we are on the subject:

How long is a day? How are months determined? Typically it is based on the phases of the moon. If the world has no moons, you'll need another method to figure that out. You'll also need to think about what, if anything, affects the tides on the world (assuming there are oceans to influence).

What does the night sky look like? What are the constellations? How do they fit in the mythologies of the world? What are the signs of the zodiac?

How many planets are there in the star system your world belongs to? What are these planets like and how far away are they? Are any visible in the night sky from the world?

Some or all of these questions may be irrelevant for your world. Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Middle Earth do not bother us with these details. And they rarely come into play in my fantasy novels. But they have and it is better to have answers at your fingertips than have to stop and fumble for answers.

Notice all of these questions place the world in a star system. You can design the planets that orbits that star and decide on the number of moons for your world. This can be fun and may even teach you a few things about our own planet.

For my world, I decided early that the sun, Arien, was like our sun, Sol, a yellow G3 star. And that my world was about the same distance from it as Earth is from our sun. The only change I made was I shortened the year by five days so the calendar math came out even. That meant my world was a little closer to Arien but not much. That would affect the seasons and temperatures a little but not by much.

Then I decided on two moons, Ibilik and Ezer. One of the moons affects the planet's tides and the other is too far away to do much of anything. The moons are always fifteen days out of sync with each other and the time it takes for each moon to cycle through its phases is exactly 30 days. That gives me 12 months of 30 days each.

To keep things simple, I kept seven days to a week because I found most people had a hard time if I changed the calendar too much. (My original plans were a 10-day week; the only problem with that no one could remember whether Cooksday was before or after Highday. So I abandoned it that part)

Then I designed the night sky for the northern and southern hemispheres. This ended up being important because my characters stargaze and my bard needs to know what the constellations are called and what stories there are around each. I went this far because the Greeks named most of our constellations and their mythology still surrounds them, if you care to learn about it.

So you can see that these details relate back to important aspects of the world as a whole. You may choose to ignore them, but if you don't you can add real flavor to your world.

Next time another deep dive.

The Arien Star System

Maps, maps, and more maps

by Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

Let's talk about maps and their role is the world building process.

Wait a minute! Why do I need a map? I don't write about fantasy stories. 

Well, first of all maps aren't just for fantasy stories. And second, most stories will benefit from thinking about the locations featured in them and placing them in the larger context of the world in which they exist. You may not need many maps and you may not even have to create them yourself but even a short story about a single location could benefit from a map. It can be a simple floor plan where the action takes but it's a good idea to plan a little so the story can flow naturally around and through the location. 

Of course, some genres scream for maps more than others. Fantasy stories pretty much requires a fair bit of world building and lots of maps. You need maps of towns and the surrounding area and you need area/world maps showing typography, vegetation, resources, political boundaries, wind currents, ocean currents, latitude, roads and, trade routes. You don't need all this all at once and if you apply Tenet 1, then you’ll only build want you need as you need it.

Space faring stories may need maps of planets and star systems.

Period places and historical fiction may benefit from maps of the period.

And if you write some other genre you may find a map here or there beneficial because it helps you describe a location.

Obviously depending on the needs of your story, you may be able to find the maps you need as you research for information about your world. This is most likely for historical fiction and stories involving real life locations. But others genres require you to create your own maps.

How do you do that? Well, you need a graphics program like Photoshop so you can create them. Another option to investigate is random generators. They can create world or area maps quickly if you don't care about the shape or typography of the world. If you do, you need to roll up your sleeves and draw something yourself.

I use Photoshop for my map of Thalacia because the roads are in one layer, the vegetation is in other, and so on. I use a trick from wargaming and place a hex grid on the map so and figure out where to place trees, coastlines, cities,and other objects. Hex grids are used to simulate natural boundaries. The grid is in its own layer so I can hide it easily.

To create town maps, I’m using a new program I found called Cityographer. It does some of the work for you and then I export the map and edit it in Photoshop.

For floor plans I use Dungeonographer and draw what I need.

As you can see there's a lot to do, which why Tenet 1 is so important, only create what you need.

So with a few maps and some general notes on the world, you’re ready to take a deep dive. Actually you'll need several. We'll look at one those next time.

Happy world building!

Tenet 1: Build Only What you Need #OurAuthorGang

By Rich Feitelberg

http://feitelberg.net

So you want to writing a fantasy story? Great. One thing you'll need is a world to set it in. The term for doing this is world building. It's a bit of a misnomer because the world part isn't what you think. It's a frame of reference thing.

For example, the Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of Time and many other stories require a whole world to tell their tales. But Thieves' World doesn't. For that, you need a very detailed city and lots of characters.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, only requires the bits that are different from the modern world. So you need the school he goes to and some idea about magic and potions and the back story of some characters.

My point here is world building varies from story to story and gets me to my first point: build only what you need because building a whole world can take months or years and drive you mad with all the details. So I'll repeat myself: build only what you need.

How do you do that? Well there's no one way to do it. You can read articles online and even a book entitled, Planet Construction Set, which will outline aspects to consider. But all that's not needed to get started. A simpler -- and in my mind -- an easier way is to think of the world as a character in your story. Is the world modern? Medieval? Futuristic? Steampunk? Ancient Greece? Set in a specific period or location? In each case you'll need different information to define the world.

What's the technology level? What races or groups exist? What religions and government? As you answer these questions, you'll quickly sketch out and define the world and provide yourself with a skeleton for the information that will come later. Of course, to answer these question you may have to do some research on religion, government, technology, and so on.

Don't be afraid to do it. I will serve you better later.

That begs the question: how do I know when I've built enough? Answer: you won't. Or more precisely, you can't know, at least unless you start writing. You'll hit points where you need more than you've got. That's okay. You can stop and work those parts out. I don't recommend skipping over that point in the story; it will likely lead to extra rewrites and revision. I also don't recommend that you start writing until you have a general sketch of the world; otherwise, you'll be working without a net and decisions you matter later will introduce inconsistencies, which will lead to rewrites.

Example

Here's how I'd answer these questions for my fantasy world:
Is the world modern? No 

Medieval? Yes with magic thrown in.
Futuristic? No 

Steampunk? No 

Ancient Greece? No, but there are influences of ancient Greece in the world like the name of the country, Thalacia and its capital Andropolis. 

Set in a specific period or location? Specific period, no? Location yes; Thalacia  

What's the technology level? Medieval, no black powder weapons. But magic which can simulate modern technology if I let it. I decided not to because it would ruin the flavor I am trying to achieve. Magic as seasoning, not entree. When I write stories focused on my favorite wizard, then magic can be the entree.

What races or groups exist? Lots of them: elves, humans, dragons, giants, dwarves, gnomes, lizard men, goblins, and other associated fantasy races. 

What religions and government? Religions: several, the christian sect, jewish, muslin, and various pagan religions, plus most other races have their own beliefs. There are also older religions that have died out from humans of past centuries. 

Governments: Most races have some form of government, monarchies mostly. Humans government vary worldwide; in Thalacia, the feudal monarchy prevails. And most other races have a similar form of government with a strong single leader, like a king or thain or tribal chief or matriarch, depending on the race.

Once you know all this, or at least some of it you can think about maps. And that is the topic for the next post. See you there.

A Few Words to Say Hello #OurAuthorGang

A Few Words to Say Hello

By Rich Feitelberg
http://feitelberg.net

Hello everyone. I'm new here and thought I'd begin by introducing myself so you can get to know a little about me. My name is Rich Feitelberg. I'm a fantasy novelist and poet. I've written five novels in my fantasy series, the Aglaril Cycle, and a collection of poetry, Paraphernalia in My Pocket, and four collections of short stories. You can visit my website, feitelberg.net for details if you're interested.

                 

What got me writing more that anything is a steady diet of comic books (I'm a Silver Age junkie), Star Trek on TV (I'm talking Captain Kirk, not Jean Luc Picard), and an overactive imagination. I used to daydream a lot and imagine all sorts of adventures for myself.

I was fascinated by maps too, especially old ones. And it didn't take long for my to doodle and create imaginary lands for my adventures. Later, I got more serious about it and got into world building, role-playing, and character development.

So when I thought about what to blog about here, I immediately jumped to questions I've got from other writers are book fairs: "How did you create the map of your world?" They are referring to the large map I display at such events. It is a portion of Thalacia, the land in which my fantasy series takes place. It draws people in and sometimes helps me sell a book or two.

But the actually process of mapmaking and world building for a fantasy novels (or series of novels) is  a topic I think readers of this blog would enjoy. So that's the journey in front of us. Hope you'll stick around and join me on the voyage.