Building a World

Undoubtedly, the best part of writing is creating the world for the characters to live in and interact with each other. It could be in some far off land with magic, or a war-torn nation on a distant planet, or even your home town with a few tweaks here and there.

However, as fun as world building is, it's also the most daunting task.
As the author, you take the place of God, essentially. Creating the world and watching these sweet little creations of yours kill and murder each other for funsies.

"My sweet little babies!!"

Sometimes, the situations in your head don't make sense to the world you've just built and you find yourself with a paradox, or a character acting...well, out of character.
For instance, if I have a character who is all up their own ass helping a small child get his rubber ball from the gutter at the very beginning, people are going to think he's a nice guy.
Until he throws it into oncoming traffic.

A lot of world building comes from the world around us. Take the "Emperor's New Groove" for example.

The world in that was based around Aztec legend and aesthetics. They had a basis to start from for reference. The fact that literally everything is on the tallest mountains ever makes everything comical, but also shows what kind of power Kuzco has over the villagers below.

Or, look at my favorite series, Scott Pilgrim

It's set in the mythical land of Canada. Canada is a real place. I know people from Canada. They're very nice, and I've been told the sunsets are beautiful.

However, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Pizza Pizza, Rockit, or Chaos Theatre on the map of actual Toronto.

It's this kind of world building that keeps the series interesting, along with character development.

However, I'd be more likely to put up a poster of Scott Pilgrim's Toronto, than a poster of Scott's character arc, or of the actual map of Toronto.

Hell, I have a poster of the Achievement Hunter's Achievement City they made for their 100th episode of Minecraft. It changed after that, and then Achievement City got destroyed in a......malfunction.

(I don't understand why this is so small)

But, the theme still remains; Maps are neat. They let us be at a place, without being at a place, and really put some things into perspective.

So, next time you're writing something, try looking around where you live first. Find the locations of the bank, the coffeehouse, the supermarket, a bar. See how far apart they are from one another, or if they're on the main strip. 

In fact, look at the map. Find the places on there. Google Maps will work fine, especially since it can tell you how long it will take you to get from A to B.

Hey, so quick announcement!!
I'll page break here for anyone who doesn't want to read this and simply go about their day! If that's you, have a good day!!

I started school last week. I'm going for digital media and design. There is a good possibility that I won't have much time to write since I'll be doing homework and other such fun things for school, like learning about what makes my computer tick, how the internet works, where in the world Carmen San Diego is. 

That being said, I have many ideas for posts, but I have not been able to write them yet.
I am also considering making a personal blog. This way, I can differentiate between writing and telling either stupid stories or personal experiences, and sharing my artwork with those who enjoy that sort of thing.

I would also like to share more of my DnD experiences and ideas. However, this is something I want to hold off on so that I don't overwhelm myself with blogs to manage, and in the meantime can just be a nice writing excuse. Since I've been wanting to make this campaign for months now to basically no avail, I'm not giving up on it. As I've been playing with my group on Tuesdays, I've learned more and more things about the mechanics, the rules, the NPC's, and my fellow players. I may even just have a "segment" for DnD, in which I'll go over some stuff that I found confusing at first, my experiences as a player and a DM, and I may even share some of Callie's poetry. She's the bard character I play.

With all of that being said, I hope you have a wonderful day, or week, or month, or who knows how long until the next post.

For staying this long, you get a gold star!