07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

Religion 101

Novels, Prompts, Workshops, Writing
Religion is an important part of our world and our history, and it will probably be a major factor in yours as well. Religion is used both as a tool to liberate and as a tool to oppress all kinds of people throughout history and even today. It's used as an excuse for various wars that are really about land and resources. People have a great need to believe in something greater than themselves, especially people living in rough times. Those who endure the most suffering often have-and really need-the most intense faithfulness. As living conditions for people in general get better we stray away from religion and find different paths, some along various spiritualities and others in science, but most of us have a spiritual root of some kind.…
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07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

A Prompt and a Question

Novels, Prompts, Workshops, Writing
Recommended Reading Today's recommended reading is about religion and education: ~Fantasy Education Rant: Some General Ideas ~Creating Convincing Religious Characters Question(s) of the Day: 1. How do people tell time? Do your people have actual clocks? In a more industrial society, your people will probably use clocks to tell time and have things like hours and minutes. (I usually have clocks with hours but without minutes counted in my world) If the majority of your people are farmers, odds are they'll judge time by the sun. Perhaps even more important is how they judge months and years. Are years short, each one being just a season? Are months judged by the moon? My worlds usually have 'mooncycles', each new month starting on a new moon. How many months make up…
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07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

Language 101

Novels, Prompts, Workshops, Writing
Today we're going to talk a bit about language. Unless you're writing a book that takes place here on Earth in either modern or historical times, odds are your characters won't be speaking English. You probably won't want to create an entire language for your kingdom, but an idea of how their language works and a few words might be helpful. As a start, briefly study some languages other than English. Look into grammar rules such as word order and punctuation. As one example take a look at some information on Irish Gaelic, one of the most interesting-and most ancient-human languages. I'll throw out a link for some Japanese Grammar too while we're at it. Making Stuff Up This isn't a language making course, though one (or a dozen) could…
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07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

Prompt and Questions

Novels, Prompts, Short Fiction, Workshops, Writing
First, since the prompt is likely to take you away from this blog, let's tackle today's questions. Today's questions will be about religion, which is crucial to understanding the whole culture that your characters live in. Religion is of varying importance to varying cultures throughout the world and throughout history. Your world might be predominantly non-religious, but it might be like ours a couple hundred years ago, almost entirely ruled by religion. 1. Does religion influence education? How so? Religion, especially if there is a state religion, almost always influences how people are educated in any given country. The effects could be as simple as a bias in teaching or as complex as the temple itself providing education. Your church could be in charge of your schools. In the Kingdom…
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07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

Culture 101

Workshops, Writing
Today's exercise is designed to help you give the culture you're working on depth and realism. There are many different levels of culture building, things like language, religion, history, law, and social custom. Today's post is divided into sections: reading recommendations, religion, and law. Reading Recommendations Before you start this exercise, if you have a spare half hour, check out these rants by limyaael: ~Language Rant 1 ~Religion Rant 1 ~Medieval Societies Religion You probably already have a vague idea or two of your kingdom's religion(s), but today we're going to make up a fact sheet and establish some basic information about it. If there are multiple very separate religions, create a fact sheet for each. If there are sects, don't bother; we'll deal with sects on a later day.…
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07Jan 2011 by diannagunn

Welcome to October First!

Novels, Workshops, Writing, Writing: The Process
Well, folks, it's October first, that time of year again. What's so special about October first here at Fictional Worlds? Well, it's time to officially begin preparing for Nanowrimo, and it's time to start this year's Nano Prep writing workshop. For those of you who aren't participating in Nanowrimo, it's still a great way to start building a novel, and I hope you'll stick around. For this year's workshop you need to already have a basic idea for your book-an idea of what kind of world you're working in, an idea of who your characters are, and a vague idea of your plot-but when I say basic, I really mean basic. While last year's workshop was designed more for the epic fantasy novel, this workshop is meant for books focused…
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