It's time my campaign setting got a big update. I want this update to consist of a pretty good overview of the nation, and I have the vision in my head of what it is, but for the life of me I can't figure out the words to do it in.
Has anyone else had trouble putting their ideas for worlds into words understandable by other players? How did you get past it?
Yes. A lot.
For me, it's because I'm trying to edit the words in my head before I can get them down on paper (or in the text editor). I simply just had to stop with the premature editing and then the words started flowing.
My wife has trouble too. She'll say to me what she wants to write but then be completely unable to write it down. She basically has be recite it right back to her so she can type everything down. A voice recorder or something like that would work just as well, but it wouldn't be as caring... Or something.
Your block may be something else. Find it and slay it.
I -constantly- have this issue when writing.
If you can, find a friend who can be an editor for any documentation. I have Flak and Elghinn from MCA productions, thank the gods.
(( Oddly, though, when I choose to rant it usually comes off almost poetic. It's only the rest of the time... @_@ ))
For describing an entire world / nation / city, I usually first try to break it down by it's core emotional elements and then visual elements, through constant questioning and answering.
Well for one it's underground, merely lit by eerie green torches. The stone built city is covered in dust and fine gravel and is tiered in a way that it would look like one gigantic building extremely high (or in this case deep) and a fairly vast radius. Many people have died fall off of the sides where rot ridden wooden fences have failed to provide security.
The city itself is more often than not frequented by intelligent undead, ratfolk and insect humanoids. Leaders of the city rarely last long, but recently the current leader has taken to hiring anyone with skill to keep him safe and the rest of the city in check through force if need be. From there you can add interesting characters and events.
Anyways, I know it's not as beautiful as other writers, but all of that was made based off a set emotion and then describing visual elements that would enforce the emotional elements using questions and answers.
That's my primary way at least, I may fall back to others if I can't get it to click. More often than not the others is just brainstorming with friends. Words are easy, online thesauruses and dictionaries are easy to come by. You want to describe a rock? What kind of rock? How does it look? Is it different in any way? If so how?
Anyways, I doubt that this will help, but I hope it does anyways.
Just getting stuff down on paper/screen is good. Don't worry about it sounding good. That comes later. Also bullet points and/or an outline can also be a good place to start to help organize your thoughts. If you old enough, a drink or two might be helpful for the initial draft.
I kind of like your style as it applies to basic overviews of locations, Third Mind.
Vorpral and Ansel have a good points. I can be a bit picky about formatting and editing.
As for the alcohol, I would if I weren't at Job Corps.
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You might actually want to ask this question in the Ask James Jacobs thread. He's rather forthcoming with his answers and you might get an interesting response.
Yeah, see? The man's a saint. Hells, I feel inspired by his response and I feel better about all the single paragraph notes I have all over the place in Evernote.