How are you using your world?

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Is anyone writing a series or multiple books set in the same world? Or anyone creating an RPG campaign world?

Are you writing in a different setting from modern Earth? Or modern Earth?

Does anyone have trouble creating places like cities, towns or villages where the action in your story takes place? Have any trouble describing these places because you have never lived where your story is set, in Medieval Europe or in a SF setting with aliens and cool spacecraft?

I'm asking because I have an idea for a description/setting sort of exercise project for creating places that you will use a lot and that need to be full of life and colour. (I have a capital city that a lot of things take place in).

Comments

[james-take-two.livejournal.com]

Do tell. Sounds fun.

And yeah, for sometime down the road there's a sci-fi story I wanna tackle...

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I have both stand-alone and series novels that I write.

Several of my series are set on modern Earth and several on other worlds, too.

I don't really have any trouble developing these worlds and cultures. My brain just seems to click with those kinds of things. I generally find that once the lives of my characters and the story develops, everything else evolves to fit what I've developed.

[mythrana.livejournal.com]

I am working on a series of books set in the same world which I created. Most of my writing is medieval style. It has several countries and for each one I created an information page so I can keep track of what I have created there. I also have a rough map so I know where all my major cities and sites of significance are. On the lands pages I include things like building descriptions, terrain, what goods the area is known for, which characters originate from there, as well as what religion they use and what other races or creatures are native to the land. A lot of my stories take place in castles or the countryside and wilderness so I do not do much with cities but I am working in that direction.

[demonlord-lover.livejournal.com]

I'm working in modern Earth right now for my series, but it's a veiled world where everything isn't as it seems.

[artsyprincess.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a shorter piece right now that's medieval (think convents and castles). I usually write contemporary, so I'm having a little trouble with the setting. More research would help with that, I'm sure, but doing an activity on here sounds like much more fun than going to the library. :) Maybe if I do your activity it will motivate me to go to the library too. :)

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

I ususally use the RPG campaign world method. I find just rolling the dice and taking what it says in, for example, the Dungeonmaster's Guide is good enough to cover the basic detail of whatever setting you want, especially when the dice call up something that ordinarily wouldn't be there - for example, a brothel in a highly religious community if the religion is something like medieval Puritanism (which you've already rolled up before) takes some explaining. Then I put in things deliberately that are necessary for the game - there has to be an old, ruined castle nearby even if the local economy is thriving. If you want eleves, you need forsst, etc.

To get the broader pciture I take a type of setting and then find an appropriate language for it. For example, if you have a large sophisticated city it's a good idea to use Latin as the basis for naming things since a large, sophisticated city suggests Rome. If you have an icy, mountain setting you should use something Scandinavian. I once had a a tropical island so I chose Swahili as the 'naming language'. And of course you can always make up your own language but having a real one gives the possibility that one of your players (or readers) can guess what you're aiming for.

Because it's a fantasy setting I will also throw in some anachronisms - paper money in one instance, for example. The players (or readers, except this one was a D&D game) had to find out why no-one would accept their metal coins. It turned out there was a large project going on which needed all the metal it could get - but really preferred copper and silver. Finding out why was one of the puzzles.

All that being said, I would like to take part in a world building exercise, too