What are you writing now?

[serria]

Share with us whatever it is you are working on now! Original fiction? Fanfiction? Poetry? Articles? Script? Tell me about it!

I have a ton of short stories that I'd love to finish, iron out and send somewhere to try to get published, as well as (in the much more distant future) a few novels. I consider myself pretty rooted in the fantasy genre (with some sci-fi as well), which is what my novels would be easily classified as... but weirdly, my short stories are pretty much non-genre or simply human drama. I have one developing fantasy novel in particular that's really shaping itself, but the more I work on it, the further away from finishing it I seem.

I also write articles for a local newspaper, but that's basically limited to community events or opinion pieces.

How about you guys?

World-Building

[sarillia]

I noticed that I'm not the only one around here who likes to write fantasy and come up with my own worlds. So how you do go about it?

For me it depends on which elements of the world will be most important to the story. I have one where the religion is very important so that's what I started with. Other times it may be a political story so it's the government that's most important. Or the family structure for more domestic stories.

Once I've figured out the elements that are most important to the plot, I go through a typical day in the life of my main character and write down any questions I have. What food do they eat? That will largely depend on indigenous wildlife in their climate and how sophisticated their trade networks are. Same with what clothes they wear.

So how do you all build your fantasy cultures?