I am going to do the fantasy world building exercise 30 Days of WorldBuilding that I found on this
The introduction is that you will take 15 minutes a day for 30 days to create a fantasy world. Everyday you write down the exercises (like homework) in a notebook or blog. I will use this thread. Here we go...
Day 1: Climate and Variety
In essence, you are supposed to look at maps and look at the climates they are in. Quickly look at them and write down a list. Then, read the list and write down 1 or 2 words to describe the climate in that area. Use adjectives if possible, but nouns are okay. I have done that and here are my results:
Antarctic: cold, frozen, lost
South Atlantic Ocean: vast, watery, travel
Mato Grosso Plateau: warm, lost world, isolated
Peru-Chile Trench: sunny, warm, barrier
Central America: warm, community, homeland of mom
Sonoran Desert: hot, journey, isolated
Coastal Range of California: ocean, barriers, quest
Sierra-Nevada Mountains: majestic, monumental
Great Basin: vastness, heartland
Great Lake Desert: dry heat, alone, ruins
Ozark Plateau: separated, river ways, cultures
Northwest Territories: frontier, cold, adventure
Nunavut near Arctic Circle: very cold, unknown culture and language
I don't know if I did this exercise exactly right, but I did see the different climates of Earth. Its obviously very cold at the north and south poles. The website mentioned the "Midnight Sun" where the Sun can shine 24 hours a day. And it gets more temperate closer to the Equator.
I sort of see why I did this exercise, because it showed me the different climates and how I felt about them. I think its a good start. End Day 1...
Note: this won't be an actual 30 days. I will do more than 1 day in a day. Especially if its the weekend. Carry on...
Day 2: The Physical Planet
It started by talking about physical geography and how it affects weather. He also said that if the world didn’t have a tilt, then you could have a world where it’s one type of weather all the time (Game of Thrones Winter is here). The exercise was to ask yourself what role do you anticipate weather playing in your story? Do you have a lot of travel that you want to complicate with bad storms? Are you going to snow in your mighty heroes? Will there be a mighty battle determined by sudden flooding? You actually don't need to know right now. My exercise for today is to jot down ten plot devices that relate to weather, and what you think they do to the story. My main goal is world creation, but its also a story too:
1. A gigantic flood destroys an army before it destroys a peaceful village.
2. A worldwide storm changes the lives of the people and forces them to go underground.
3. The tilt of a world I stopped and it changes the weather forever and the lives of people all across that world.
4. A bloodstorm (it actually rains acidic blood) has an apocalyptic effect on the people, the weather and everything really.
5. A tsunami destroys the coastline of a populated region, and the people think the gods are punishing them.
6. An earthquake destroys a nation and it releases long buried giants who wreck the world.
7. A snow storm freezes a village and a young wizard in training is the only one who can unfreeze his family and friends.
8. An intense heatwave literally burns people to death and survivors have to live in caves in order to live, and they blame the gods too.
9. An eclipse of the Sun and Moon signals the brave warriors of the light to rise up against the dark technomancers of the Anti-Matrix.
10. A rain that lasts for a year floods everything all across the world, and the survivors live on boats tied together hoping that one day they will see dryland…and they blame the gods for this too.
This exercise made me look at story-lines related to weather. This is world creation, but that leads into story creation too. I recall Game of Thrones Winter is coming and one day it will be Summer forever. G.R.R.M needs to finish this books or hire someone to finish it for him. No offense. Okay good end Day 2…
Looks cool. Interesting site. Here is a linkified link
Looks cool. Interesting site. Here is a linkified link
Day 3: Mood and Setting
Here I picked the mood and setting of this story set on a fantasy world. My exercise was to look over the list of climates I made on Day 1. Then close your eyes and think about what kind of feeling you like to have when you write or read. Write down four words that fit into that feeling: two adjectives, a verb, and a noun:
Mysterious, interesting, fighting, and imagination.
Now return to the page with your list of climates and emotions. Do any of them match up? If they do, you have your climate.
Two were close: Mato Grosso Plateau: warm, lost world, isolated and Ozark Plateau: separated, river ways, cultures. For whatever reason I have plateaus listed twice. A close second, or third, were the Sierra-Nevada Mountains.
If I had no clue he said to pick the two you liked best and come back to it later. Its odd that when I think plateau I think about the Lost World TV show, which was really idiotic most of the time. Think about it, those adventurers were led by a genius scientist to the top of this plateau and he is able to figure out not only how to survive there he even built this awesome 2 story house and they seemed to have every possible thing they needed, and yet he couldn’t figure out a way to climb down from this plateau? I never understood that, but I still liked the idea of the show it was very interesting to look at...especially the two female leads...
Also I picked the Ozarks Plateau due to the Netflix tv show called Ozark (which is incredible) and it is a very interesting place. Its isolated, separated from the rest of the USA, and it has it’s own unique culture. The idea of plateau must appeal to something in me so I will trust the process.
That’s the mood and setting. Adventurers going to a new realm and having some sort of adventure there. On a plateau that's a mix of the TV shows The Lost World and Ozark. Wow. End Day 3…
Day 4: Cataclysmic Events
For 15 minutes, jot down some of the Really Big Land Features you want in your story and just think "what if that were made by...." Write down a couple of causes for those features and scars, and stick it all into your notebook. Which scars are slow-force scars (like plate tectonics), and which are fast-forces (anything that takes less than 10,000 years is medium-to-fast in geological scales).
The plateau that this story takes place on was formed as magma deep inside the world pushed toward the surface, but failed to break through the crust. Instead, the magma lifted up the large, flat, impenetrable rock above it. The cataclysmic event created it and the volcanic mountains.
In this world’s dragons were wiped out when a cataclysmic event tore it apart. This event may have been caused by an ancient, sentient race who abused their power.
A cataclysmic event created The volcanic mountains. They were formed by volcanoes. The Volcanic Mountains were formed when molten rock (magma) deep within the earth erupted and piled upon the surface. Magna is called lava when it breaks through the earth's crust. When the ash and lava cooled, it built a cone of rock. These cones of rock formed a mountain range. This took thousands of years, which was very quick by geological standards. The ash from the lava was sent into the atmosphere and it blocked the Sun. The plants of the world died and the dragons slowly died too. However, the dragons in the oceans survived and other species went into hibernation. They woke up later on, and there are many species still alive on this plateau.
There was an prehistoric, sentient race in the distant past and there are archeological artifacts from them still. There was a vast flood about 10,000 years ago that was created through magical or divine processes. This vast flood caused a mass migration as people moved to higher lands.
Vast, powerful storms from an ocean flooded areas and formed new lands. Powerful fire storms are formed from storms that start in the oceans and mix with magma from beneath the surface. The results is that these two forces mix (due to magical energy all across the world) and cause these fiery storms.
Day 5: The Map
So, today's exercise is to draw out the physical contours of your map, and then identify at least three places that your people might live. You don't need names for them yet-- we'll worry about names next week, when we give our people language. Just draw a dot on the map or maybe sketch a little "house" symbol to indicate that people have settled that area.
I did that using a map of the Ozarks Plateau. There are so many rivers there and it was easy find 3 or more places where people live. I will definitely cheat and use real Earth maps as my geography.
End Day 5…