Lore

You know you're a nerd if you title a blog "lore", but I is what I is. :)

Anyway, I've been taking a break in the last few days from pumping out chapters to work on my "world lore" for the fictional world where my story is set. I've been trying to build three different languages, each with a 500 word dictionary.

I'm not just doing that so I can impress all my nerd friends with having three made-up languages. The reason why I am doing that is very simple: I need place names. What is the region where my main character grows up called? Who named it? The dwarves or the goblins? And what are the names of all the cities that my main character passes through on her way south? What are the histories of those places? What are the people who live there like?

A big part of writing fantasy is creating a world that has depth and a sense of reality. Now, you don't necessarily have to go as deep into world creating as I like to. But that's just it: I LOVE world building. I love writing new languages and histories. I enjoy creating customs and mini-communities within communities. I love the quirky sayings you find in foreign places and the questionable foods that you are forced to eat. It's all so much fun to me.

And, at least so far as I am concerned, world building has to start from the ground up. It begins with a place: where a group of people settled. Why did they settle there? What features of the land made them decide this was a good place to settle? What did they call the place (and the surrounding places) when they arrived? How did the settlement in that place change from it's point of conception until the time of my story? Are there any important past-events that will affect my character when she arrives there? What do the people there look like? How do they dress? Who are the prominent people there? How do they live? What do they eat? What do they do in their spare time?

As you can see, I can get carried away with world building. Just as with character building, you have to make choices about which places you really NEED to develop. For example, there are four or five areas that will be the dominant settings of my book. THOSE really need to be fleshed out. I need to be able to see/smell/hear/taste/touch them in my mind. But the others? I need to at least be able to know what they'd look like if I was driving through them in a car. I distinctly remember certain places I've seen on road trips even though I only just drove down main street.

And, as always, it is important to give the evil places (the home of the bad guys) just as much attention as the good places. In too many fantasy stories the villains and their settings are neglected. (Poor guys). It makes them seem flat and contrived in many cases. I'm not claiming that my villains and their settings are jaw-droppingly deep and complicated, but I'm going to do my best to make them and their worlds seem real.

So...that's what I'm doing during my three hours a day where I have time to write. I think it's going to take a few weeks to get my three languages to a semi-functional state. I just need them to work well enough so that I can name places and things without having to make up words out of thin air that have no meaning. After the languages, I am starting work on the histories of my main "areas". Don't worry, I'm still writing sections and chapters. I just have to leave blanks for the names and skip some of the setting descriptions until I get my world into a more fleshed out state.

(By the way, I have a day-to-day writing blog: http://admcclish.blogspot.com ) I post stuff there every couple of days, but I'm going to force my brain to remember to post some of those posts here!).

I got a little secret....

....that all of you Table-rs will be interested in!

I can't tell just yet but once I know all the details and it's all set up I will pass along the info!

:D

It's something that we've all been waiting for I'm sure. :)

So, fellow writers, just keep your eyes peeled!

P.S.- Sorry I've been absent so long....I'm still dealing with my PKD but now that I have good insurance things are looking up.

I'm still writing poems and journaling a lot so don't worry, I haven't stopped!

I'll do my best to work on a real post soon!

Check out my new website!!

MMA SPHERE

What do you do when you're not moving forward (fast enough)?

As most of you know, I have been talking about writing a screenplay for about 9 years... Roughly 2 and a half years ago, I finally started writing it, and yet here I stand... still unfinished. Don't get me wrong, I've completed 2-3 drafts of it, but the story still hasn't reached its full potential. Moreover, I know that I can do better.

To make matters worse (or is that better?), the story has changed numerous times throughout the writing process. I suppose it's because much of it is semi-autobiographical. As I change and experience more, my main character and his story continue to evolve, becoming crystallized and hopefully more focused.

So while the work is improving, I feel like I'm getting further and further from the finish line. Throw in recurring laptop issues (which have cost me somewhere around $350 to repair thus far), a busy schedule and an ongoing struggle to get in "the zone" and you'll get some sense of why I still feel like I'm at square one.

Part of me thinks it'd be better to put my script on hold and move on to some shorter (and easier to sell) proejct just so I can try to get something out there. I have literally more than hundred story ideas stirring in my head (some of which I could probably start writing immediately). But the other side of me feels like that's a cop-out. If I've devoted so much time to my screenplay, I should stick with it... If I don't maintain that commitment to a story I'm working on, I might end up with a stack of unfinished manuscripts and nothing to show for it.

Anyway, that's my dilemma folks... Thought I'd bring it to the group...

What say you??? Should I continue plugging away at my screenplay or shift focus for the time being?

Where the f**k do story ideas come from?!?!?

Really, the first step to writing something, especially in the creative realm, is to come up with an idea. It really perplexes me that some people can't seem to come up with things to write about. To me, generating story ideas is really all about those two little words that writers cling to incessantly: "What if...(insert story idea here)?" It comes down to imagination, to your ability to explore the possibilities or even develop some that aren't plausible within an everyday context (these falling into the fantasy, sci-fi and, often, horror genres). Looking back, I can see that I have, in fact, been exercising my imagination in some form for as long as I can remember, and being a writer is simply an extension of that. Anyway, to keep this post from rambling on too much (lol...), I'll get right to some tips that have helped me develop the 100+ story ideas that I currently have in stock.

-Carry a notebook with you at all times.
It's been my experience that inspiration often strikes at the oddest times, whether you're seconds from falling asleep, in the middle of a project at work or driving at 70 miles per hour (though I don't recommend writing and driving...:)...careful with that). For the last several months, I have been carrying a little black book (not that kind...) with me everywhere I go, and in that time, that book has miraculously begun to fill up with story ideas, song ideas, additional notes for existing stories... you could even write down some inspiring quotes that you come across... (The current Table quote would be a good one to start off your new notebook). Unfettered by the anxiety and self-inflicted pressure that you (or at least I) put on myself during the actual writing process, the best ideas often turn out to be the spontaneous ones. If you don't write them down ASAP, they'll be lost forever. There's no so thing as bad ideas... you never know when something will prove useful. Write it down!

-Read the news.
Likely, you're not going to get a story idea based on the wars in the Middle East or Obama's economic plan, but you'd be surprised at some of the wacky and unique stuff that goes on in the world. In the last week alone, I got two fairly awesome (if I do say so myself...) story ideas just from reading the AOL Welcome page. Keep an eye out for the latest happenings, and you might just find the spark you need to develop your own story idea out of it.

-Speculation is your friend.
As I briefly mentioned in the intro to this post, "what if?" is an unbelievable tool to identify story ideas. Though it can sometimes be a burden, overthinking things too much can sometimes be an advantage (guilty as charged!). Some of my favorite story ideas have derived from my own moments of paranoia, curiosity about what the world and people around me and other musings that would otherwise have been lost amidst the sea of thoughts that swim through my head each day. Remember: even the smallest seedling can turn into an amazing story with a little bit of creative nourishment (I'm speaking from personal experience...).

I'm sure there are many other little tips I could impart to you, but so as to not spend my entire Saturday in front of my computer screen (don't I already do that Monday to Friday!?!), I'm going to leave you with these three, since they are my biggest tools to develop stories. I hope this has been helpful, and if you have some of your own strategies about how to create memorable story ideas, please feel free to share! Every little bit helps... :)

Happy writing y'all....

Rob out.