#a little wordbuilding type of thing

[uzumaki-rebellion]

Fanfic Writers...

So earlier I was reading a thread about Fanfic writers abandoning their fics, or deleting their accounts when they were no longer interested in writing anymore, because they felt the need to move on to other things (other types of writing, or life is lifing, etc), and I have to say this...don't delete your fics.

You never know wo needs to read that story (completed or not) years from now after you have forgotten/abandoned them.

Lemme give you an example.

Years ago, after the new Star Trek reboot came out in 2009 I was busy working a difficult job and struggling to write anything and just make a living. I'd always been a Star Trek fan since I was little. LIke seriously, I had a Klingon language handbook in highschool, I own a Star Trek cocktail dress, a messenger, bag, and a tiny replica of the Enterprise (that used to light up). I hadn't read or written fanifics in years, so I was out of touch with the fandom. When the reboot movie came out, I loved it, but I had hit a rough patch in a long term relationship, a lot of my friends were moving away to different cities and countries, and I was feeling depressed and not really finding much happiness.

About six years after the first reboot movie came out, I tried to find and old livejournal account I had that I used to write Blade, X Files, Star Trek, & other fics with. Perusing fandoms I dipped back into looking at new Star Trek content on other fanfiction websites and stumbled across some great new Star Trek fics that were amazing (My thing was the Spock/Uhura pairing). Baybee, when I tell you those stories from various writers lifted my spirits and gave me something to look forward to at the end of a hard day or week of draining work! I laughed, cried, fell in love, felt enraged, surprised, and so many emotions reading made up stories from strangers all over the world. A lot of these fics had been abandoned or the writers had left the fandom and weren't writing anymore by the time I found them...but I still had their stories. One particular writer had a 4 book Star Trek series that was better than the studio sanctioned movie book adapatations I bought at SF/F conventions or online. Just A+ writing and wordbuilding.

Reading those fics bolstered my confidence (and dopamine) to go back to living life again as best I could, and also writing my own fanfics again. I took time to write this particular writer to tell her thank you. I never heard from her (didn't expect to), but I was grateful to be able to read their work over and over again when I was feeling low, or needed to revisit old familiar friends.

All this to say, pleadingly so, don't delete your stories. Someone years from now, someone like me, may find your work and latch onto it as their lifeline to keep on getting up in the morning...have something to come home to. Or need that story you made up on the fly to give them a new way of looking at the world that will help them cope and keeping trying to make it out here.

Your stories are needed, your unique voices are needed on here, even if you no longer write anything for fandoms.

Le Fin.

#Writerly Things #Readerly Things #Don't Delete Your Work #You might save a life

[glitch-man]

My Hero Academia

I have a lot of problems with this Anime/Manga. I used to be a big fan of it back in like 2016-2017 when it was getting really popular and the anime was in its first two seasons. But now I have so many problems with it, and that's not to say that it's the worst anime/manga around or anything. I just have a lot of frustration with it that I need to vent I guess. There are going to a lot of Manga spoilers, so you might not want to read this if you aren't caught up or anime only.

A starting point is a little difficult to really come up with so I'm going to start with the main character Deku.

Deku is not the best protagonist. Personality wise I think he's fine at least, heck I'd even say I like him personality wise. It's just that he is not well utilized by the story. His arc in the manga just seems to be gaining confidence and getting better with his powers. That's not a terrible arc in it of itself, but I don't think MHA does a particularly great job of it. In the whole of it it feels like the only real reason he isn't confident at the start of the story is because he doesn't have a quirk. And once he gets One for All the main reason he isn't confident is because he can't use it properly. This again really isn't a bad thing in it of itself. Yet, when put together it makes him feel way flatter than he should be. It makes it feel like his only real flaw is that he can't use his power properly. He doesn't have any other problems in regards to his attitude or personality. The immediate impulse for a lot of people would to make him darker/edgier, but he doesn't really need to be morally grey to be interesting he needs a flaw that is meaningfully shown. For example he feels like he isn't enough and in spite of having one of the most powerful quirks and the mentorship of his idol he still feels insecure and not enough or a flaw that is sort of shown he has, but it isn't meaningfully expanded upon until the Dark Hero Arc (and even then the quality of it there is arguable) he's overly self sacrificing to the point of pushing people away and hurting himself and others due to it. These aren't amazing suggestions honestly, they are just some examples of ideas of flaws that could be used to give him a greater level of depth. But also it mildly implies that being quirkless is his main problem and that is not great honestly.

And quirklessness in the context of MHA is not handled well. There are 3 types of discrimination in the world of MHA. The first that is shown is being quirkless, the second is having a villainous quirk, and the last is having some amount of inhuman appearance. The way these are shown in the narrative all have their own problems, but let's start with quirklessness. This is set up extensively in the first chapter, it is the initial conflict of the series. And it factors into the plot so little. There are three characters in the manga that were born quirkless, and all of these characters in some way get a quirk. There are characters that lose their quirk, but most of those are characters in spinoff material or literally just lost their quirk like with the last 20 chapters. Ragdoll being the only character that lost their quirk and has had a genuine emotional reaction to it (Also Mirio, but he got his power back). She is obviously upset because she essentially has become disabled, being unable to do something she was previously able to do losing her job and passion in the process. Which is upsetting in context, but being quirkless is only really shown in the narrative as a bad thing that people want to avoid and is tragic when it happens. In the world of MHA it is around 10 to 20 percent of the global population, for reference 10 percent of the real world population is left handed.

Why is all of this a problem? The story spends so much of the first few chapters on Deku being quirkless, and it is in effect a large bit of wordbuilding that goes unused for most of the story and the affect on the story is minimal. There is no scene in the manga where quirkless characters are discriminated against other than Deku. Deku doesn't see someone discriminated against for being quirkless and get mad about it. There is also theme that hero society is corrupted and flawed and quirklessness is never highlighted in regards to its flaws. Either for how they get treated or how the destruction of hero society would effect quirkless people. This doesn't have to be the biggest deal because this is a superhero story that has superhero main characters, it wouldn't be great if was just ignored all together, but the fact that two other forms of discrimination are highlighted as a bad thing and a core reason as to why 'hero society' is flawed. Yet is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And you can look at it as a superhero version of a disability and it cares so little about that. And I am not trying to say that MHA is problematic because of it and the people that created it and enjoy it are bad people. I'm just pointing out a problem I noticed.

But more about 'Hero Society' and the main antagonist Shigaraki. I don't really like Shigaraki all that much. He has some good things about him, like his power is interesting and his backstory is really good, but as a character in the narrative he doesn't really feel like he does anything. Shigaraki has very little agency in the narrative IMO. He mostly gets directed to go do things by other people or he does stuff that doesn't really feel motivated by anything in specific. This problem comes to a comedic crescendo when (spoiler) All for One implants a part of his consciousness into Shigaraki and effectively takes over his mind and body literally taking all of Shigaraki's agency away. Part of the reason Shigaraki's actions don't really feel motivated is because his stated motive is "the end of hero society" and like that is such a vague goal. The reason it is so vague is because MHA does a terrible job of showing all the corruption and problems inherent to it. He is being presented as being correct about the flaws, but misguided in his methods. But outside of backstory the only time before the final saga, which starts around 300 chapters in, the only meaningful time we are shown any of the problems that affect people are Deku being discriminated against for being quirkless (which as I said before doesn't really matter) and Shinso being disliked for his Villainous quirk. All of the other times are backstory (Which FYI is mostly just Shigaraki's backstory) and lip service that we are told instead of being shown. The only morally corrupt we get shown is Endeavor, who gets a lot of his absolute worst traits retconned a once he starts getting developed and also he gets a redemption arc. And then we are shown it so much more once we get into the final arc and at that point it feels hollow. This overall makes me not really like Shigaraki, he feels directionless and like he just kinda does things for the sake of it. Also he just feels overpowered at this point in the manga to a negative degree. And the whole "All for One takes over Shigaraki's mind" thing is terrible, confusing, and I hate it. All for One is a weaker antagonist, he has more agency but his motive is far more boring.

On the topic of Shigaraki getting his mind taken over let's talk about Star and Stripe real quick. She feels like such a utilitarian character to me. She exists to weaken Shigaraki and explain why the other countries of the world aren't helping Japan. I like her design, her power, her personality, but regardless she feels like she exists for a very utilitarian purpose.

Next up let's talk about Ida and Uraraka. They feel way underutilized as characters. Both get a decent amount of focus early on, and then drop off in terms of importance after the Hero Killer Stain arc. Ida only really gets focus in all of the various exam/training/mock battle arcs which IMO are too plentiful in the story and make the pace drag more than it should and take focus away from other parts of the story. Uraraka is similar, but she also got to fight Toga in the current arc. Both just get set up as really important characters before all of their focus and importance going to other characters, like Todoroki, Bakugo, Endeavor, and Hawks. Obviously both still get focus and are highlighted in arcs, but most of he big moments and narrative tension go to other characters. Honestly I like both of them, but it is a little annoying that they feel like they have been pushed to the background. Uraraka gets it worse because she just gets demoted to Deku's love interest for most of the story before her weirdly, I guess romantic is the word I'd use, fight with Toga. They get underdeveloped and underdelivered.

Toga is a character that is also underdeveloped and then she has all of her backstory dropped on you in a strange sympathy play. I don't hate the idea of her backstory as a way, but again it's just kind of dropped on you at a bad time. Plus her morality of being a literal murderer makes it kind of less sympathetic. The intensity of it all compared to the relative mundane nature of it makes it just not hit properly. It feels like her backstory of people not liking her because of her quirk and such is fine, but it is dropped at a bad point in the story and isn't properly presented.

This is similar to Spinner's backstory just getting dropped on us along with the discrimination of people with non-human appearances being poorly shown. We are told this is a problem, we are not shown it. The one exception being the one time the character 'Ordinary Woman' is discriminated against. She doesn't even have a full name.

Todoroki is overall one of the better executed characters in the story, but I am not the biggest fan of how the story centralizes on his family drama to the disservice of other aspects of the story.

Yuga is in theory a character I really like. But the execution on him is kind of bad. He is mostly a joke character with some moments of depth and bravery. But he is suddenly revealed to be a traitor with like one scene of build up like 100 chapters earlier. The traitor subplot being ignored and barely acknowledged for hundreds of chapters and then it is suddenly brought back up and ends almost as quickly. He needed more development before the reveal and more focus on the traitor subplot.

And then we have Bakugo. I don't really like him either. Not because he bullied Midroiya, but he just doesn't do anything all that interesting in the narrative. He does have some good hidden depths, him being uncorruptible and inspired by All-Might like Deku, he's far smarter than he seems, and he seems to respect Uraraka due to her performance in the tournament arc (at least as much as he can). And I will admit I am probably forgetting a lot of things about him to. But, I do think that overall he just doesn't do enough in the narrative to make me really like him as a character. He's like Shigaraki, there is a lot to him that is good, but the sum of those aspects doesn't feel greater than the whole.

There are obviously other things, the female cast is not the best written, Mineta, the fan service-y design of some of the characters, The terrible, terrible pacing of the last 100 chapters of the manga. At the least the pacing in the Final War arc. There are so many little problems that don't feel like they are that bad on their own and show up early on, but then they get worse and more problems show up later and suddenly all of these problems mix together and it just is frustrating.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #izuku midoriya - criticism #ragdoll - criticism #hot take ragdoll is actually really hot #especially when she is in her office worker clothes #rant post #anime #deku - criticism #shigaraki tomura - criticism #all for one #star and stripe #iida tenya #ochako uraraka - criticism #spinner - criticism #bakugou katsuki - criticism #shouto todoroki - criticism #enji todoroki - criticism #endeavor - criticism #yuga aoyama - criticism

[cursedvibes]

If you don't mind me asking but what is your advice on writing stuff? (plus: I love your depiction of Jin's and Kenny's relationship)

Hm, that's hard to say. Generally, I would say to look at different stories, see how they're structured, find what you like about them and try to replicate that. It doesn't necessarily have to be books or other written media, although that helps the most with grammar and stylistic devices. Movies or games can be just as helpful in this case. For me, I take a lot of inspiration from indie horror games, especially for writing oneshots. It helps me capture a tense atmosphere in a short amount of time and often also puts me in the right mood for writing.

Taking from other media and stories is one thing, but then you have to find the thing that works for you. Just play around with what you like and see what works best for you and feels most comfortable. Like, I personally tend to focus a lot on emotions and sensations and usually create a very narrow perspective from one character, but other people are really good at wordbuilding, character interactions/dialogue, action (quick and complex movement is so difficult to convey in written form), erotica (writing smut is hard, it shouldn't be underestimated. I struggle a lot with it) etc. That's what you have to find out for yourself. Lean into what you are good at and what you like to write about and explore that. It gets said a lot, but practising and just keeping at it really does help a lot. With experience this gets much easier and more fun. Not everything is a masterpiece, but it will always help you, even if it's just by realizing what you are not good at.

As for the actual writing process, everyone has their own little rituals. Just make sure you're as comfortable as possible and somewhere or in a mindset where you can get immersed. For example, I write best in the evening or at night and I like to listen to music during it because it keeps me in the mood I want to capture. What kind of music depends a lot on what I'm writing, but generally it's ambient and/or synthwave. I have a whole playlist for it. But everyone is different. A friend of mine writes at work or on the bus and also always first writes by hand in notebooks before typing it in a Word document for publishing. I could never do that, but that just shows how this can vary a lot.

Lastly, I would say start small. You don't have to create gigantic world-shattering events from the get-go (although go for it if you want to), just start with a conversation or one scene you have stuck in your head and that can be enough. I also always try to tell myself that as long as you like what you write and you have even one person who likes it as well, that's already a massive success.

#asks #I hope that helps?

[sobeksewerrat]

you know…. I wouldn’t mind if you talked about Zipp in your rewrite idea that you mentioned 👉👈

...You will live to regret what you have just unleashed. Not only are you asking about terrible built up brainrot, you are also asking about my second favourite in the rewrite.

(P.S I am working off the movie and Make Your Mark here since my little sister refuses to watch Tell Your Tale and doesn't know about the comics and can barely even read, and I only watch MLP with her)

Anyways, LONG ANSWER INCOMING.

Before beginning with Zipp, I need to fix up some wordbuilding so bear with me!!

I won't go into full detail because that needs its own post but I will go basic overview of Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood.

So, in the movie Izzy mentions how unicorns thought all Earth Ponies were dumb asf. And we also saw Canterlogic tech to counter that.

Well, in my rewrite, earth ponies (being extremely paranoid about unicorns and pegasi and having no magic ever) advanced themselves and made a lot of technology basically to combat them. Eventually, the became the most advanced of the ponykinds, and they are the only place with WiFi and stuff (if I am forced to keep it).

For Bridlewood, I will lean HEAVILY into the superstitious stuff. I imagine unicorns will fall into stories about magic being evil and start living with nature and not really advance much due to the amount of fear generated by them losing the main thing that helped them everyday.

Now: Zephyr Heights. I don't like that it is in the clouds. I barely remember G4 (I was a little kid when it came out and I won't rewatch it). However, I remember vaguely that pegasi had a special type of magic that allowed them to walk on clouds and live on them.

Since G5 is a direct sequel where they have no magic- that literally wouldn't make any sense. Instead, they will live on the mountain in the movie and somewhat adapt to it.

And for how it is I want it to be a 70s and early 2000s mashup, because I think that would be cool (seriously no other reason sometimes you gotta pick aesthetics over logic, that or lean heavy into medieval royalty shit. nothing is set completely in stone with the worldbuilding)

Still sorta figuring out how the "only royals can fly" lie stuff will work out but whatever.

Anyway, ZEPHYRINA!! I love her omg.

-> Her Role as A Princess:

Definitely hates it. Not to borrow too much from Dash, but she is definitely a free spirit. Unlike her mother and sister, she doesn't like the spotlight and doesn't make many public appearancs, so the kingdom views her as a mysterious enigma, and she is the subject of MANY conspiracy theories (which are amped up to 1000 after their lie is exposed and the whole thing about working with other ponykinds to restore magic comes up).

She definitely reads all the conspiracies about her, out of pure curiosity and to see how accurate they are.

I sadly don't have this part fully fleshed out as I am conflicted between having her family permanently dethroned or not (on one hand, great drama. On the other, it wouldn't feel right not having Pipp as a princess) so moving on-

-> Detective Zipp Storm! (Also bit of backstory)

I am so excited to talk about this!! (I am an Ace attorney, Danganronpa, Detective Conan and Ahmed Khalid Tawfik fan, of course I am excited abt mystery)

[Pre-Make Your Mark/Movie]:

You know how Izzy got Sunny's lantern and that's why she went to Maretime Bay? Well, why the fuck doesn't Zipp get one too?

Basically, after Izzy recieves the lantern, she is beyond excited to have new pony friends! So, she makes her own lantern with its own letter and sends it off.

Only this letter reaches Zipp, who was sneaking out of the palace trying to practice a way to fly.

And that one letter leaves Zipp confused. She was sheltered her whole life thinking unicorns and earth ponies were evil and wanted to kill the pegasi and she was skeptical of the letter, even as a child.

She hid it away and would reread it every once in a while, thinking over the message inside about how she had friends in Bridlewood. She was sheltered and kept inside the Palace almost her whole life, she didn't really have any friends. The letter made her feel less lonely, somehow.

That tapped into her ever-growing curiosity and she wanted to research more about unicorns.

So Zipp would spend hours in the Royal library (which will definitely be bigger in my rewrite) digging up old books on Equestria before losing magic (since most newer ones were about her pegasi ancestors exclusively). Her main objectives were to find out more about the other ponykinds and to find a way to restore the pegasi's ability to fly and return to living on the clouds.

She would also stare at old murals and statues at stuff, analysing the shit out of them.

That's why she wouldn't be very scared of Sunny and Izzy when they wind up in Zephyr Heights (I am planning to keep the movie's general plot similar).

I wanna avoid spoiling too much of the movie and the series' plots and we're moving to "still unsure of this/planning" territory.

So we're gonna do this part with bullet points

Zipp definitely gets a design shift between the movie and make your mark. I am still planning out both of the designs (mainly as gijnkas cuz I can't draw horses)

Zipp and Misty's relationship will probably be the most fleshed out. They had so much potential. Zipp starts out being skeptical, starts trusting Misty a bit after realizing she's just awkward, they have a few heart-to-hearts, they become really close, then BAM! The reveal happens and Zipp is just feels absolutely betrayed and stupid and maybe cries a bit. And afterwards they start repairing their relationship bit by bit, but it takes a while since Zipp isn't really willing to go back to being close friends again.

I want Zipp to develop a stronger friendship with Sunny and Izzy, since they were both technically the reason she started breaking away from the prejudice against other ponies ingrained into her as a kid and made her feel less lonely. Zipp and Sunny could easily bond over research about Twilight and the old Mane Six and cross reference eachother.

For Zipp and Izzy, I imagine that Zipp would generally be very stressed all the time, and Izzy would always try to get her to relax a bit (and maybe get her to do craft projects with her). They just kinda hang out, yknow? Idk I just want more platonic fluff.

Pipp and Zipp's relationship- well, you'll see once I start posting about it 😈

Hitch and Zipp will probably have the same relationship in the show and movie, I can't really find any way to improve it, honest.

Anyways, I am so sorry this took so long to answer, nd sorry if the answer isn't satisfying I've just been very busy.

Hopefully I will get to talk more about it soon <3

@cringelordofchaos

#sobek yes #writing rats #mlp g5 #mlp make your mark #andrea's mlp g5 rewrite #zipp storm #zephyrina storm

[somerandomwarriorsrewrite]

Links masterpost

This is a masterpost for all the links of things like lore, wordbuilding, maybe allegiances in the future? And etc. Notice that is a big WIP, so things here can be a little disorganized, but i hope that i can fix it with time.

Worldbuilding

Leader marks and info about it - A little guide explaining how leaders can look like, is a little outdated, since i discuss ideas for the title, when now the leader's title are "Star", before their name;

Cat's hand anatomy - The cats here have hands, look here to see how they look.

The ranks and more - The ranks here a little different, some things were added and some were changed.

Clan's body types - How cats from different clans, are different from each other.

The clan's writing and art - A little guide on how the writing and the art works in the clans.

Family trees

Fireheart's and Icefoot's family tree

Tigerclaw's family tree and some lore

Individual cats

Cricketjump's character profile

Scenes, ideas and sketchs

Leopardfur - Sketch and ideas

Leopardfoot confronting Pine - Scene

Brothers arguing(Fireheart and Icefoot about Lynxpaw) - Scene

Icepaw's mentor - Sketch and ideas

Firepaw's mentor - Sketch and ideas

#warrior cats #rewrite #warrior cats rewrite #warriors rewrite #links #masterpost #lore #worldbuilding

[redd956]

Worldbuilding Inspo 1

Another rendition of my worldbuilding prowess and inner creativity. Just this one isn't questions. It is ideas instead!!!!!

Theme: Horns

I see sooooooooo many characters donning a multitude of different horns, and yet I feel the worldbuilding hasn't gone far enough these magical traits.

Here some food for thought

Cultural Decoration

Adding working cultures to your wordbuilding is like adding seasoning to an already great dish. Perhaps the horned creatures of your world decorate their horns. Perhaps they paint cool patterns on them. Perhaps they embed or glue expensive gems onto them. Maybe cute little bows, bracelets, or vibrant ribbons are looped around them.

Maybe it is a sign of wealth, something to accessorize, or religious. Either way they do it.

Hierarchy

In our own world people will dislike or duke out over the smallest of differences amongst each other. Things likely aren't that different in a fantasy realm. So....

Horn hierarchy or societal opinions would haunt the masses.

Perhaps it's over sharpness and combat coolness. Maybe only the most vibrant colors are respected, and the royal family dons a particularly beautiful shade of purple. Mayhaps it's all divided into roles. Spiral horns are only scholars, and sharp pointed horns are soldiers.

Certain horns are related to minorities, or rivals

Magic

A world where the horns hold magic would he soooo cool. Like different shapes mean various casting types, thresholds, or amount of power. Colors and patterns could relate to the type of magic. Red fiery horns mean fire magic. Stark blue horns for waterbending. Black, dark magic, and Magenta being psychic. So many possibilities.

Perhaps the horns reflect magic. Sparking up with electric currents when powering up with lightning magic. Glowing a threatening crimson when using malicious powers. Two cute balls of light sitting at the tips for a priestess with unmatched light magic.

Just so much there...

#worldbuilding #horns #horned ocs #horned characters #worldbuilding ideas #worldbuilding inspiration

[bluerosesburnblue]

Maybe it’s just me, but i’ve seen a lot of people ask questions about kingdom hearts three or how the world works that we’re actually explained in three. I think a lot of people missed the fact that many of the worlds had a central theme regarding the organizations research, end of each of those worlds was meant to teach her something new or answer one of our questions about how the universe works. A great example is when people act like it isn’t explained how Roxas ‘grew’ his own heart.

People miss details all the time, for plenty of reasons. Though I know at least with my blog, I’ve got some followers who haven’t played KH3 yet and wouldn’t know certain things because of that

Though... there’s honestly only four worlds in KH3 that have some kind of overarching wordbuilding relevance as far as I remember. Toy Box and San Fransokyo both had active research being conducted in them about hearts; Toy Box was about how certain bonds can spark hearts in inanimate objects and how the strain to bonds between hearts can corrupt them, while San Fransokyo was about the emotions that structure a heart and how to build one from them. Arendelle has a little bit about the Princess of Heart succession if you read into it. And The Final World was very worldbuilding-centric with all of its talk of how death works. I might even count the Ienzo interludes because they expand on the function of Replicas

But honestly, how Roxas grew a heart is not a great example of what you’re saying because that was explained in DDD, not KH3. We were told back in 2012 that any Nobody can grow a heart, and the body and soul will try to replace what was lost the first chance they get. KH3 doesn’t expand on that at all unless you really try to extrapolate something from the San Fransokyo scenes that were more about data. In fact, I’m not sure KH3 even mentions it because they assume you know from DDD. So the people complaining about that may be the “skip any non-numbered games” type, in which case, like... duh, they wouldn’t pick up on that fact. They didn’t play the game that explained it

KH3 just didn’t offer much in the way of worldbuilding because it was too focused on trying to both wrap up past plot threads and tease future ones. This is especially obvious when you compare it to Dark Road, where I’ve found that every single update offers something new and interesting to the worldbuilding (how the worlds regenerating from darkness worked and the state of hearts pre-war vs. post-war being big ones)

I will give KH3 a good amount of credit, though: its worldbuilding was WAY better than KH2′s. KH2 gave us Nobodies and... that’s... it as far as I remember

#kingdom hearts #the organization's role in olympus and twilight town boils down to 'where's the black box???' #and frankly i'm not sure marluxia did ANYTHING in the kingdom of corona except go 'oooooh a princess' #so that's at least three worlds where there was NO worlbuilding related to the organization #kh3's worlds are super hit or miss with that stuff so i can see why someone who played corona first would assume there's nothing #vs someone who played toy box first and was IMMEDIATELY hit with worldbuilding #pennedprince #liz answers

[lordeasriel]

a general question about hdm world building when writing fic cause I found it really unique in the sense of having so much wordbuilding but also so little like Lyra’s world is so vivid yet it is also filled with loads of empty patches like okay there was a Swiss war but what was it about and how is the brytish government structured etc. Really just wondering how you find writing fic for this fandom as I feel it’s hard to remain in ‘canon’ when canon can be so vague

Sorry it took me a while to reply to you, I was thinking about how to respond because this is a very complex question lmao

Writing for HDM to me is fun, that's the beginning and the end of it, I do it because I enjoy being so deep into this world, it's comforting, but it's also difficult. Like you said, Lyra's world suffers from a patchy style of worldbuilding, we have information that comes in various degrees of depth; using the example of the Swiss War, we know it happened and we know it had to do with the Magisterium, but we don't really know how and why exactly it happened, and because Philman writes new stuff as he sees the need for it, we are constantly getting information that conflicts we what we already knew (the daemons, the world itself, even with characters). I remember prior to the release of TSC, we were discussing the fact Marisa must have been an only child, because her personality was far too caustic for someone with a sibling, yet Philman just came out of nowhere and added a sibling to her. And it makes sense, but it shatters your whole view of the character, and you have to rethink this character with the new information you have, if you want to continue to write canon.

I write stories in general with 2 things in mind: 1) I write from a character's perspective and emotions, so I need to know and - more importantly - understand that character; and 2) I write that character as a part of the world, so I need to understand and know the world. For characters like Marisa, Asriel, Lyra, Malcolm, and other main characters, we have lots and lots of information, direct and indirect, that we can use to create our interpretation of the character. These are much easier to write because we have a lot about them, and because they have a lot of screen/page time as well, we spend more time with them, but then you have characters like Marcel and Madame Delamare, both related to Marisa, and they have very little information on them themselves, but because we know a lot about Marisa, how Marisa behaves and all that, we can take those things and connect them to these characters and build their profile from that. Then we have characters like Glenys Godwin, Thomas Nugent, the Master of Jordan, characters who have so very little information a lot of what you know and understand of them come from you making things up to fit the little the book gives you, and that is also perfectly fine. It's just less consistent.

Now, my definition of writing Canon Compliant fic, it's what I do and how I do it, it's that you need to write within canon, not just what canon says. For example, we know daemons can separate from their humans if they want to and they can both survive; this is a new concept (which we call the New Daemon Lore, because it adds on the old lore from the original trilogy) that is canon, so you could write lots of interesting daemon relationships that can fit into this new information, but if you decide to write that no, this cannot happen in any circumstances, then you no longer are within the boundaries of canon. I hope this is making sense lmao

Another example is that Philman retconned Mrs. Coulter into being blonde, and this has divided the fandom, but the point is the newest entry to the world is this and this is canon. However, Mrs. Coulter is considered a blonde in LBS, while in NL (despite some editions changing it) she is still said to be a brunette. So, if you decide to say Marisa died her hair either in LBS or NL, that would still be canon Compliant because 1) in Lyra's world hair dye already exists (in TSC) 2) it's a perfectly valid response within canon.

So to me, it's more important to write within the boundaries of canon than trying super hard to mimic what we already know it's truth. To do that, I do a lot of research on old countries, languages, I do research on the great wars, as Philman uses lots of countries that existed prior to WW1. For example, we know that Lyra's world is a little behind technologically, but they had nuclear tech and they had phones, but Lyra still writes letters, so we can assume that phones weren't everywhere and super accessible - it's the sort of information that we get from reading the book but it's not super obvious like, it's something you assume from having read the books and having other types of information. Other information, like, we know Oakley Street is always headed by a Counselor of the Privy Council, a position that is appointed by the Prime Minister in our world, so we can assume Lyra's world also has a prime minister - but their king seems far more present than the Royal Family is in our world. Lyra mentions too that she takes care of herself, when it's assumed she got pregnant, and from that we can assume two things: 1) There's types of contraceptives in her world (and in TSC there's also big pharma companies so we can assume pills existed) 2) Abortion is a thing as well. So from here you can work out reasonable scenarios for your story; in a world controlled by the Church, how is the situation of abortion? How does contraceptives work? How was sex before marriage treated?

I mean, it's a mix of common sense, research and creative freedom you have to sort out to know how to deal with it. Philman himself is the master of this world, so he can do whatever and we as fic writers, we adapt or we die lmao I mean we adapt or we just don't write canon compliant, but you don't need to write a super canon compliant fic to make it good. Currently I am working on a similar docs to the timeline, but it's a sort of big History Book of Lyra's world geography and culture so it's easier to access, but like you said, the information we have is dubious and scarce, so lots of what I will be doing there it's research and guess work.

Sorry this got so long but yeah, in conclusion, writing for HDM is hard, if you intend to be super canon compliant, but my advice and my experience is: you should worry about staying within canon instead of going straight for cold hard facts of canon, not being flexible about it. Do research on things, silly things like "when was birth control invented" or "how did medicine was made in the early 1900s". Philman being old and with a scholar background, he has lots of knowledge that we can only get by doing research; he comes up with things, especially pre Old War things, because lots of his favorite authors are from the Victorian era and prior to that. But more importantly, make sure you are entertained with the world you are trying to shape from his work; focus on what you think needs addressing in his world. What would you like to see and, then, did Philman ever hint at that? Those are the important questions, imo

You shouldn't treat canon so stiffly because it's a fluid thing, especially for HDM. Philman can just release another book and just change everything lmao He kinda does that a lot, so it's good to be light headed about this.

#asks #thank u for the message i hope i made any sense to u #but i also hope i was helpful in any way #i feel like i came out a bit entitled #but yeah i hope i made sense lmaooo #hdm worldbuilding

[script-a-world]

Hello! I want to make a country that has a snowy North and a tropical South. Is that possible? Are there countries like that irl? Where would this region be placed on the globe (im using the one we live in) I also want island around both ends. Would their climates be different from the regions theyre near? Im sorry if these questions are foolish, Im not sure how to start with worldbuilding. Its all very overwhelming

Feral: Welcome to the wonderful world of… worldbuilding! You’ve started off with a really interesting and not at all foolish question!

What you’re describing, a country that stretches far on the North-South axis, is fairly rare especially without a comparable East-West expansion, or some additional restrictions like large bodies of water or mountain ranges or another territory whose people are not easily conquered. For example, the USA stretches from the Arctic circle in Alaska to 18.61 degrees above the equator in Hawaii, but you’ll notice it started much smaller, New Hampshire at its northernmost and Georgia at its southernmost, and one of the very first things the states did once they gained independence was expand westward.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself; let’s talk definitions first. “Snowy north” is difficult to define, which we’ll get to, so we’ll start with “tropical south.” A tropical climate is “characterized by monthly average temperatures of 18℃ (64.4 ℉) or higher year-round, and have high levels of precipitation” and is actually a larger category with several subcategories that further define it mostly via the type of precipitation to expect. The tropics is a region around the equator which contains tropical climates but is not limited to only those climates and depending on where you’re standing on the globe could easily be north of you. In fact, if your quest is merely to have a tropical climate and a snowy one (there are a few to choose from), there is absolutely no reason your country couldn’t be contained fully within the tropics because snowy weather has as much to do with altitude as it does latitude.

If you want to research modern countries with large climate variations, here are some starting points: Chile (which does stretch North-South without a much variation East-West), China, Bhutan (relatively quite small but with a huge altitudinal variation), Ethiopia, India (a subcontinent), Australia (a whole continent), and of course the United States.

Best of luck in your new adventures in worldbuilding! We got a fun ask a while ago about our “guidelines” for getting started on worldbuilding, if you wanna check it out. And please let us know how your first world goes - and don’t hesitate to come back with more questions!

Tex: Wordbuilding can be very overwhelming - it gets to the best of us at times! Feral’s done a great job at outlining potential countries to model, and I’ll add in a few links to help orient you on the subject.

The Köppen climate classification wiki gives a thorough overview of different climates, as well as example countries. There are some interesting… flaws with that system, which the Trewartha climate classification attempts to address.

One of my favourite ways to introduce varied climates in a comparatively small area (compared to like…. entire continents as one country the way IRL leans toward) is to drastically change the scale of elevation. Weather patterns can be visibly different a short distance from each other when this is done (Climate.gov), and can create some natural barriers to allow some variety in cultural growth when it comes to factors such as temperature and precipitation (Sciencing, Onthesnow).

I’m curious what draws you to the idea of not only a country - rather than a continent - with such relative extremes in climates, but also the presence of islands around this country. There are some islands with high elevations (Wikipedia), so theoretically you could have similar climates between island(s) and country if you wish, but what about this arrangement do you find so compelling?

The general idea behind worldbuilding is to work from one’s plot outward; what are the immediate needs to your plot? How does this type of landscape function - to the plot, yes, but also the characters and the cultures that reside in these places? One of the reasons why worldbuilding can become overwhelming is because the excitement of having your very own world - that you built from scratch! - can mask where this world connects to a plot (instead of having a plot attached to a world - I see you, Tolkien!).

Your questions are a very good starting point! There’s a lot of ways to branch out from that, and that part is ultimately up to you. Unless you’re building this particular world as the very valid method of practicing your skills, I would definitely suggest a plot-first approach to your world precisely to help tamp down on the disorienting feeling that a flood of information can bring.

Further Reading

Islands Portal - Wikipedia

Mountains Portal - Wikipedia

#pylons #climate #biomes #Anonymous

[writerofscribbles]

VICTORY! . . final word count: 50,009 . . finished at 2:34 pm on nov. 30

I know I didn’t update often, but I won  NaNoWriMo! I somehow managed to put 50,000 words down in The Wrath King during the hectic craziness of November. Through physical pain, a lot of hours at work, many creative projects taking up a lot of my time, and a healthy dose of self doubt, I managed to win Nano for the first time ever. I have been doing Nano since 2014 and I’ve never been able to keep it up past the halfway mark. I tend to lose focus, interest, or I let other things get in the way of my success. And honestly, even though I shouldn’t have, I let those losses effect me and my mental health. I didn’t believe I was worthy to finish a first draft and here I am, sitting 50,000 words closer to a finish draft of a project that has a lot of potential and good stuff. So, despite the fact I’ve only updated my tumblr with one update on how I was doing, I actually managed to finish and win Nano2019! And I couldn’t have done it without my amazing best friend, Taylor (@poetic-leigh-me), who has believed in me since day one and was always encouraging me to get those words down. <33

On one hand, I’m a bit sad NaNoWriMo is ending. I’ve felt inspired and picked up by all the amazing Nano content that’s been going on this month and the community always seems to flourish during this time of year. And The Wrath King is nowhere near being done. I estimate another 45,000 words need to be spewed out of my brain before I can call this zero draft done. On the other hand, I’ve always wondered if focusing so hard on word count is really helping me in the long run. I do think I need to get my first drafts done, so I can actually revise and make this dream of being an author come true, but I think I focus too hard on the word count and getting to it, that perhaps my content suffers. It’s a weird balance I need to figure out how to strike.

As a wrap up, here are some stats from my Nano!

wordiest day - -  nov. 17 - 4,478 words least wordiest day - - nov. 15 - 3 words (lol) scenes written - - 17

Now, my work isn’t over. I’d like to take December to work a little more leisurely, but still maybe (fingers crossed) be done with the first draft by the end of winter break (late jan.) I’d also like to work on more character aesthetics, wordbuilding aesthetics, and generally more stuff relating to The Wrath King, since it is pretty much my main wip.

Congratulations to everyone who put in any type of work this November. It’s always a busy time and I’m proud of you all regardless. 

happy writing <3

#nanowrimo 2019 #the wrath king #writing update #kt writes

[spookyandsleepy-blog]

Cool worldbuilding exercise - The Difference

1. Finish the sentence: In this world, some people... (Examples: have wings, can move things with their minds, during puberty grow to 20 feet tall)

2. Pick a percentage. How many people are like this? Example: 1%, 10%, 25%.

3. Now remake society and culture with altered demographics. Easy mode: use modern day world as a template. Medium mode: use some historical era as a template. Hard mode: no template, build that shit from scratch.

If the 1% is different: You can pretty much make them secret. You don’t have to alter general wordbuilding. Most of the wordbuilding fun will be with how the secret society keeps itself both functional and secret. Even if you decide that it’s not a secret, you don’t have to alter that much. Maybe just the specific field connected to the type of Difference, but not much.(Sometimes, even 1% won’t be secret, like with the 20 feet tall example, because simple logic.)

If the 10% is different: No way in hell it’s a secret. It’s a significant minority, but minority nonetheless. And knowing human tendency to be assholes, your Different people will probably be discriminated against. Wordbuilding ideas: How does The Difference affect social (for example, family) dynamics? What do different religions and cultures think about it? How does the community of Different people works, do they have some resources for various little subgroups of them (young people, people with different types of wings, people with uncontrolled powers)? Precisely what sorts of terrible things do the “normal” people do the Different, if the discrimination exists? Are there some weird urban legends and misconceptions about them?

If the 25% is different: Time to do some heavy wordbuilding. The Different might be discriminated against or not. There will be resources and special products for them. The way society works will be drastically altered. 

#writing #have fun #worldbuilding

[wolfwordfall]

Story Idea Summaries:

Master list of all the ideas:

**In order of oldest to newest, roughly**

Unnamed (Another damn werewolf story) (ABANDONED):

“A boy moves into a small rural town with his single mother. He is alone and doesn’t know anyone yet, meeting just a single friend and a handful of bullies on his first days of school. The person that captures his attention the most though, is a girl who hangs out on the fringe of society, a girl with a hood always drawn over her head, always at public malls or squares by herself. His peers warn him against her, but curious, he eventually tries to make contact.

Little does he know, she is alone, completely alone. She has no family or friends. As a result of her dark past and inexplicable newfound werewolf shifting ability she has lost control and destroyed all she knows and loves. She is on the run and in hiding. She currently lives alone in an abandoned cottage in the woods. 

She is wary at first, and defensive of her odd secret, but the charming and empathetic demeanor of the boy wins her heart and they bond inexplicably quickly. But she could not hide for long, the boy soon follows her to the cottage in the woods on the most fateful day possible, only to find in shock that the creature was not entirely her. At her shouting plea to leave before she can harm him, he bolts and doesn’t return. She is both relieved and traumatized and no longer makes contact with him.

The boy however, ever emboldened to find out what was going on, continues to search for her. Having not seen a sight of her in public for weeks. Eventually, his search for her comes to and end as he finds her by a solemn lake in the woods, and asks her to explain everything. She relents, confessing everything about her werewolf curse and her lack of control when it takes over. 

He is in shock but acceptance, and agrees to help her through the curse. Together they go on a journey and discover the secrets of her dark past, help her evade capture against the manslaughter of her past, discover more about the werewolf lore and others who are like her, and find a way to ultimately deal with her condition and grow her purpose in the world”

Medium type: Novel

Overarching themes: Additonal werewolf lore; including hereditary werewolf traits, secret were societies, etc.

Reason for being abandoned: Cliche AF, Edgy as shit

St★r M★rked (ABANDONED): (Loosely inspired by “the sight” by David-Clement Davies)

“A young wolf, born with a star-mark, is prophesied to be save the five realms from destruction. Young Kayce is a wolf who grows up learning the dark secrets of the past of his pack, he eventually comes into conflict with a sinister wolf who felt betrayed and abandoned by his old pack, a brilliant-but-vengeful leader who with the help of his army of soulless monster-hybrid wolves known as “Shadows”, is on a quest to become the prince of all five packs. Kayce goes on a journey, met with many allies and the help of his pack, to defeat the forces separating them and unite all five of the packs against the looming threat that was prophesied to be their doom.”

Overarching themes: Forgiveness, family bonds, importance regardless of roles in society, etc.

Medium type: Graphic novel, comic, children’s illustrated comic

Reason for being Abandoned: Too cliche

The World Aftermore (ABANDONED):

“Kasia finds herself inexplicably transported  into a world where she is the last human on an entirely different Earth, after a post-apocalypse that ended the human race and marked the beginning of many others. The story begins as a normal day where she is raised for several years by the eldest member of a tribe of people known as the Linguakins, as she goes about her day amongst her peers who have taken her on as mostly one of her kind, save for a few elders who have been grudgingly pessimistic about the old linguakin woman’s decision to keep her. Things change quickly when a sudden attack brings the tribe into a frenzy, Kasia recalls the hazy dream she had in the morning of a prophecy and visions of what she has to do, and knows she must leave, she packs up and with her devoted friend Damik by their side they go on a wayward journey across the dusty landscape. They meet another unlikely ally, a cryptic and bubbly Oracle girl named Nadair, and together the trio meet and discover the various races and tribes of the land, and learn what they must do to bring peace and balance to their world instead of facing total destruction like the humans of the past ages”

Medium type: Novel

Overarching themes: Racism, Unity, individual wordbuilding/race lore

Reason abandoned: Cliches (racism/unity of races, prophecies)

Tale of Tails(Pending/Semi abandoned):

“Sirius is a yearling wolf that finds himself lost in a snowstorm, crying out for his pack. The clumsy and spirited wolf trips over a rock and blacks out. When he comes to he is in a dim cave lit by the low light of a fire, and peers into the faces of array of canid or canid-like creatures, much like him. Among them is authoritative and brash leader of a thylacine, a kind and caring arctic wolf, A polite but tough maned wolf, a serious and constantly bored hyena, a bush dog with a napoleon complex, a shy and avoidant fennec fox, and a peppy young fox bat. 

The incredibly unusual group helps him get on his feet and agree to help him find his pack again. Little does he know the random collection of adventures and discoveries about them he makes is all the pack he has ever needed. Conflict erupts when he does he find his old pack, and ultimately he makes a decision”

Medium type: graphic novel/comic/ short comic. Children’s illustrated comic

Overarching themes: “the blood of the covenant is greater than the water of the womb”, Star marked lore within this story as legend/story for the characters, interesting facts and traits about each species of canid/animal

On the Spot (Semi-abandoned/Abandoned):

“A young border collie cross dog finds himself suddenly abandoned on the side of a highway. Lost and confused, the intensely loyal and optimistic dog is on a quest to find his human, a young girl of 5 years old who he loves dearly. Along the way the newly strayed dog finds two new friends, a skeptical-but-intelligent pit bull, a three-legged and hot-headed chihuahua cross, and a puppy-brained , woefully goofy, sorta-dumb wolf-dog hybrid named Ravenous. The unlikely group of dogs must traverse the city streets and long roads while avoiding animal catchers and treacherous plights to find their way in the world and their true homes.”

Medium type: Graphic novel/comic, Children’s illustrated comic

Overarching themes: Loyalty, common issues in dog-ownership and stray animal life, dog fighting, loss, family issues, and coping with past trauma

Kennel Story: 

“Spot returns in an unrelated tale, a dog who finds himself dropped off at an animal shelter, he meets many other dogs like himself on death row. Many of complicated pasts and stories to tell. Among his time spent their he meets a particularly quirky cat known as Mischief, who helps him discover and explain the going-ons of life in the shelter. Over the course of his time spent there, he loses friends and allies, with one escape attempt going largely unsuccessful. In the end, he is found by someone and is happily adopted into a new life”

Medium type: Visual novel, comic, children’s fiction

Overarching themes: Life, death, past experiences, individual stories, loss

The Mendeleon Paradox: 

“An independent scientist, played by you, discovers a severely endangered species on creature on the brink of extinction. These animals are called Mendeleons (Panthera Mendeleonus), a feline-type species that appears as a cross between lions/caracals/bees/Pisum Sativum. This is a choiced base or three-path story, and depending on which path or choices one has made, leads to different resulting endings. There are three paths: Sin, Neutral, and Philanthrope.

Sin path- You as a scientist choose to brutally and intensely breed and perform horrific scientific experiments on these creatures. The creatures are severely traumatized, become sentient and aware, and out for revenge, this leads to a dangerous and fateful ending

Neutral path- You as a scientist breed these creatures carefully and selectively, these creatures are well-cared for and maintained, they lead a natural and recreationally stimulated life. These creatures do not become aware, but are intensely intelligent and loyal animals. You are able to market these creatures worldwide as guard animals, military soldiers, service animals, and companion animals. They become commonplace and are actively thriving

Philanthrope path- You as a scientist breed these creatures enough to keep their population thriving and alive. You bond with them as if they were your children. These creatures become sentient and aware, and soon they begin to ask for things that break your heart but you agree to help make plans to help them achieve their dreams, this leads to a very revolutionary and new ending.

In all endings, you end up in a cataclysmic event that causes your demise, you face the god of death himself, Anubis, with his weighted scale as he judges your deeds”

Medium type: Choice-game app, choice-game visual novel, Three separate ending part novel

Overarching themes: References to mendel’s experiments on heredity, Harlow’s research of attachment on monkeys, metaphorical themes about paradox, etc.

Ideation among us (tentative name/unnamed):

“A washed-up student in medical school gets out after a particularly strained one-on-one assessment with a course instructor, learning that he has failed medical school. The devastated twenty-something has decided to walk the long way home in the dark and rainy night only to find himself meeting a particular character along the way, a shady individual by a bridge, who initially thinks he is there to commit suicide. Shocked and reluctant to have the person think he reached such conclusion, he frantically explains his situation, the individual listens to his plight, and without a thought grants him a job offer

Shocked, the young man goes home to his fiance, reluctantly telling her about his grim situation, they both mourn their uncertain future and hold each other in the night. Still perplexed by the odd invitation of the man at the bridge but curious nonetheless, he follows the instructions that were given to him carefully.

He soon learns that the opportunity he had been given was about as shady as the night. The man he soon meets is a dead-eyed man with a graying beard despite his youthful age, and ex-doctor turned underground assisted suicide facility leader, the man has experienced clinical depression for years exercises his only dreams and goals in life by doing what he can’t do to himself for others; grant suicidal people the ability to die. The young man soon discovers his role as an assistant and gets into the gritty and morally-gray, ambiguous world of medically-assisted suicide, helping many clients most of which are rich or easily able to hide their demise via contact through the technological advancements of the deep web, bitcoin, and other shady mechanisms of commerce and business.

The ex-doctor has gone about his business for the last 2-5 years, but he is getting restless, worn, and tired. He feels he doesn’t make enough of a difference. Things become more and more convoluted as an ongoing investigation commences and he slips up more and more, and it is only a matter of time before he gets caught. A disastrous ending approaches”

Medium type: Short story

Overarching themes: The rationality behind suicide, the workings of the deep web and illegal activity

Unnamed fantasy about a boy dragon slayer:

“A young boy and his friend are bullied and forced to leave the field they are playing in. The boy feels anger and rage at the injustice they have experienced. In a fit of disgust, he feels he must do something about it, and tells his friend he is going on a quest. The young boy learns of an ancient legend of a dragon who lives in a cave in a region far from his land, a vicious beast who destroyed many kingdoms and was known for brutality, and the boy knew he must go slay the beast and retrieve a relic to restore rightness to the world.

On his journey, he passes an elderly beggar, a thief, and (situation unknown), and his anger at the injustice of the world only grows colder, and his quest more dire. 

He soon reaches the dragon and his ultimate heroic deed to kill him and restore justice to the kingdom is at hand, but ultimately what is it that he must do when he meets the dragon?”

Medium type: short story, children’s book, illustrated children’s book

Overarching themes: Peace, forgiveness, justice, kindness

Maddie and the afterworld (tentative offshoot of “shedding the mortal bracelet”):

“After an unfairly short life, Maddie is dead. She soon forgets that however as she is thrust into a newfound existence of walking through various planes of reality, space and time intertwine and she can now be anywhere and do anything, Maddie must learn what she can do to navigate the afterlife.

Along her journey, she finds friends and allies, some of which like to meddle in the world of the living. Ultimately though, she finds a like minded soul in the living world, someone she feels intensely connected to and desires to indirectly help them make discoveries about themselves throughout their life. Their bond brings them unfortunately close-yet-too-far, only close enough to bond through their dreams, but far enough that the boy in question forgets about her in the land of his wakeful conscience. Maddie must find out how to help him without harming them both.”

Medium type: short story, novel

Overarching themes: LGBT issues

#writing #novel #shortstory #comic #summaries #books #book #graphicnovel #stories