World-building: Thought Starters – Guest Post by, Diana Peach…

An interesting and thorough post by author Diana Peach on the many things to develop when writing fantasy novels.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Many thanks to Chris for letting me chat about world-building. It’s been a pleasure to hang out and talk about writing. In this final post of the series, I want to share thought-starters for each of the major systems that make up a world.

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, in a discussion about world-building, stated that writers don’t need to completely change every major system in a world. Pick a few big elements that are linked to the plot and then dabble with the details on the rest. Let your imagination run wild.

The Environment

Whether designing a natural or human-made world, give it personality – strengths, weaknesses and quirks, and a complex diversity of elements that both support and sabotage the characters’ efforts. Don’t forget to account for food, water, air, and shelter, and to employ all the senses in descriptions. Think outside the box. You may have longer or…

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