Why Have World History In The First Place?History has defined our modern existence. It is what has led up to this point, this world, here and now. And since history is so important to our world, why wouldn't it be when creating a fantasy world? Time shapes and molds any world, and this is true of fantasy worlds as well. So lets learn about how to create general history of a world. RelevanceObviously, you don't want to devise an entire history that has absolutely no relationship to the story you are telling. While it can be beneficial to have a general idea of history, you aren't going to want specifics for every little event in history. You wouldn't ever get to actually writing! I would recommend you have a general idea of major wars, uprising, political shifts, etc... but not a ton of detail. The history you should focus on is what is pertinent to your plot. For example, if you have an ancient evil re-emerging, you should have a very good idea of the history surrounding said evil. You should know how they rose to power, what horrible things they did, how come they haven't re-emerged until now, etc... And you should know what ripple effects they've had. Was a new country created by them that's still in existence? Did the class system get completely upset and put a different species in charge? Consider all angles of events relevant to your story. Keep A Timeline!For any history or story, it would be wise to keep a timeline. You should really know what happened first, how far apart events were, and so on, or else your story will seem messy and not thought through. Timelines don't have to be fancy graphics, they can simply be a list with the dates and events in order. In fact, please do keep it simple. I spent far too much time trying to find a good, free, online timeline graphic maker before I realized all you need is a list you can view. But How Do I Reveal My History?This is a tricky thing. There are a few paths you can take, and I'll recommend which I prefer. One way you can reveal history is by something like a prologue, giving the history that is relevant to your story. I would not recommend this way for the most part, because I feel it's too much exposition. I made this mistake with The Castaway Hero, and I am still kicking myself over it. The second way you could reveal history this through bits and pieces of dialogue. Have a character refer to "the battle of troll hill," or "the great treaty," in passing. This makes it easy to hint at a larger history, without going into info dumps of history. The third way I know is having a character monologue it. This is my kind of middle ground, and I use it a fair amount, especially in the upcoming sequels to The Castaway Hero. I personally prefer to have an ancient character give these, and only when it's important. For example, The Giant in The Castaway Hero delivers some info about how The Peacekeeper Stones wound up in special temples and sanctuaries, and how this ties in with how he knew of the hero's before their arrival. To End.I hope this has been helpful to at least get you started on the history of your world. This is not meant to be an in depth guide, but in the near future I plan on going a bit more in depth about how to really flesh out history and events, and implementing history into your world. And now for the shameless plug.
If you found this helpful and want to support me, please consider purchasing my debut novel, Stones of The Middle Lands: The Castaway Hero, available on Amazon HERE and Barnes and Noble HERE. If you have already read The Castaway Hero, please leave a review on all three platforms. It really helps us authors to know what you liked, what you didn't, and it makes us actually feel appreciated. Also be sure to check out my ever growing collection of short stories HERE. I hope you enjoyed, and until next time, keep on writing!
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The Future Is HERE!Welcome to the future ladies and gents! A few months ago, I came across this amazing video all about GauGAN, an artificial intelligence or AI, that could turn rough sketches into full blown photo realistic scenery. Sadly at the time it was not open to the public. Until a few weeks ago I thought this was still the case. And then I saw a video of a common person using it, and I was ECSTATIC! Finally my dream was being realized, I could make any scenery I wanted, easily! So, that's what I'm talking about today, the amazing software known as GauGAN. GauGAN: The AI PhotoshopSo how the heck does GauGAN work? The AI software has scanned millions of images, learning what bushes, mountains, oceans, dirt, clouds, and a ton of other materials look and interact with each other. Incredible, right? So in order to create a stunning image, the AI had to see more pictures than you will probably ever see. All just to serve our whims. When you create an image in GauGAN, all you have to do is select what material you are painting with, whether that be clouds, mountains, or water, and start drawing. You can see in the picture up above how really simple my image on the left is. It took me all of about 2 minutes. After that, all you have to do is select that you agree to their terms, and press the arrow. It takes a few seconds, and you have a brilliant image, completely generated by a computer. Now there are several other options that I won't go into here, but I will talk about a really cool one. You may have noticed on the picture above that there are several other smaller pictures. You can select any of them to have the AI modify your image to fit with the color scheme of any of those pictures, or even your own if you upload an image. Now we can go from THIS: To THIS: In just a few seconds. Amazing! So what are the implications? What Does This Have To Do With Writing?So this technology has a lot of implications all over the map. But for me what is so exciting is the application it has to writers. While we writers are not the most artsy of folks when it comes to images, we do have images in our heads. This technology of GauGAN allows us to easily visualize places right in front of us. In fact, I have already created a mock up of a new place in my second book, The Pretzle Mountains. And it was so amazing to see it, without even hiring out an artist. So make sure you check out GauGAN, it is incredible. Just press the button below. Until next time, keep on writing!
Believe it or not, writers blunder!Even the best of us mess up at times. So we're here today to showcase five of the biggest writing blunders you can do! Don't feel bad if you are guilty of any of these, it means you still have more to work on! Lets dive right into it! Blunder 5: The "Perfect" First DraftAll too often, people stress out because their first draft is "not the best", or "it's not good enough to be published!" The fact of the matter is, first drafts are supposed to be messy. The first draft is basically you telling yourself the story. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be written! You will have plenty of time to perfect your story with consecutive drafts. The first draft just needs to be written in the first place to provide you with a jumping off point. Blunder 4: Info DumpsThis is one that I am all to guilty of. An "info dump" is when you just throw a ton of information at the reader. This could be a ton of exposition, or loads of details about your world that you might find interesting, but is not essential. Even if it is essential information, it shouldn't be dumped in a heap in front of the reader. Cut out the needless info dumps. If you need to get certain information across to the reader, have it revealed bit by bit. An off comment here by character X, something the hero notices out of the corner of the eye. As an added bonus, this also helps add suspense and mystery. Blunder 3: Normal Life is BORING!Look, as fascinating as you may find your hero's everyday life to be, the reader probably wont. We don't go looking for the book "The Average Life of Average Joe." No, we look for tales of adventure and heroism, things different from everyday life. If people wanted to read about everyday life, they can look back in their journals. So cut out the couple chapters or whatever of everyday life and cut right to the action, the variance from daily life. Blunder 2: Overusing Cliche'sLook, I like cliche's just as much as the next guy. But these things are called cliche's for a reason. They are overused WAY too much. Now I'm not saying cliche's are completely terrible. In fact, a cliche' can be a wonderful jumping off point. But every line should not be cliche! People don't just suddenly fall in love, they tend to do it over time. No one is a completely pure hero. What you should do however, is take a cliche, and turn it on its head. Make it new and original to you and your story. That is how some of the best hero's and plots are created. Subvert peoples expectations and make it new and exciting to the reader. Blunder 1: Messy POVIn case you didn't know, POV stands for "point of view." A problem a lot of writers deal with, especially amateurs, is keeping your POV consistent. If your story is being told in the first person, it should not halfway through a chapter switch to third person narrator. It's fine if you have different POV's across different chapters, in fact, some of my favorite books do this, and I even switch perspectives for a few chapters in my novels. But just don't change it when halfway through a chapter. To End (and customary plug!)I hope this has been helpful for you. Please remember, if you are guilty of any of these blunders(and you most likely are), don't feel bad about it. Just work on improving. If you notice that you really do overuse cliche's, just stop and start looking at ways to change them. If you do have info dumps, start spreading information out in nuanced ways. You are capable of overcoming these blunders.
I know, I know, just a bit more. But I have to fit in my obligatory schpeel somewhere. If you want to read my first novel, The Castaway Hero, you can get it on Amazon HERE and through Barnes and Noble HERE. Until next time, keep on writing! Where Do Ideas Come From?Something I get asked relatively frequently is "Where do you get your ideas? What gives you inspiration for your writing?" Well, I'm here to talk to you about ideas today. More specifically, sources of ideas. To start, lets talk about some of the places I've found inspiration and ideas. Where My Ideas Have Come FromWe can't start talking about ideas without going into where the idea for Stones of the Middle Lands: The Castaway Hero came from. Well, That's a long story, pun-intended. It all started years ago when my mom decided to have me construct a map of a made up place. As you can probably guess, this turned into the early map of The Middle Lands. From there, I was inspired to actually write a book by a lovely young author named McKenzie Wagner. And it kind of snowballed from there. Another interesting place I found an idea is in something my family does. Whenever there is something like a fire, explosion, or large police presence, my family has a tendency to run towards the danger to investigate. As I thought on that one night after we had run toward some danger, I had an idea for a book series. Now I can't say too much about it, in order to protect the idea for the series in the future, but I can tell you this: The main character in that series is heavily based on the idea of running toward danger instead of away from it. The place I got the idea for my short story, Hunted: A Revolutionary Short Story, is an entirely different source. That story idea came from an extra credit opportunity for school. Over fall break, I had the chance to write a historical fiction short story for a bit of extra credit. I hadn't really considered trying my hand at a historical fiction, so of course I took the opportunity. We had recently been studying the Revolutionary War in U.S. History, so I wondered, how would a story in the revolutionary war look if it were told by a Torie?(born american that sympathized with the British.) And thus the idea for the story was born. Where Can You Find Inspiration?So as you can see by the examples up above, inspiration and ideas can come from anywhere. Some other places you may find inspiration could be nature, things laying around the house, family, friends, even just everyday life. The key is looking for a story wherever you are. If you learn to find stories in everyday life, you can tell those stories on the page(or computer, however you write stories.) You could try observing something like two squirrels in the park and narrating their story. I may just be going into some activities you can try to get ideas soon. So go out there and search for your next story. Please feel free to share places you've gotten story ideas in the comments down below! To EndI know, I know, just a bit more. But I have to fit in my obligatory schpeel somewhere. So I hope you found this article helpful, and that it will help you find ideas for your next story. If you want to read my first novel, The Castaway Hero, you can get it on Amazon HERE and through Barnes and Noble HERE. If you have any interest in reading Hunted, A Revolutionary Short Story, you can read it for free HERE. That's all folks, and until next time, keep on writing!
Why Creatures Matter in WorldbuildingFirst of all, why would you want to include creatures in your worldbuilding? There are a variety of reasons. First of all, they may be relevant to your plot. They could be something the hero has to face, or they could be an ally, other species, or anything in between. These are especially prevalent in fiction. The hero's may be on a long road when they are suddenly attacked by some fearsome beast. It breaks up the monotony of travel, and gives you some fun conflict. Another reason to have a creature is that they reflect the environment. A lot of creatures are specially adapted to whatever environment they live in, and can be used to help emphasize how deserty, jungley, mountainy, etc... your world is. So especially if your story is a man verses nature type, this is a great reason to have creatures. So what are the most important things for a creature? Appearance, Type, Habitat, and Food SourceFirst and perhaps one of the most important parts of creature creation is appearance. What does the creature look like? A great example from my own book, The Castaway Hero, is the Grunkle, pictured above. This has one of the most fearsome appearances you will find anywhere. This is a creature of nightmares. Its entire appearance screams danger! Avoid me at all costs! This appearance also serves another purpose I will discuss a little later. Closely related to appearance is type. This is basic enough, by type we mean is it a mammal, reptile, fish, or something else entirely? Next is habitat and food source, which are also quite closely related. Where does your creature live? What does it eat? Often habitat and what it eats are also intertwined with appearance. If your creature eats meat, like the Grunkle, it will have adapted like that. The reason the Grunkle has such gigantic claws is because it eats meat. If a creature eats plants, then it doesn't really need things designed for killing. And as noted earlier, a creature that lives in a jungle is going to look quite different than something that lives in a desert. All things to consider when designing a creature. Magic, History, and AdaptationsThe next set is relatively small. First of all, is this creature magical. This is generally something to consider for a fantasy. Next is history. Now this isn't something like an evolutionary history, though that can be something to consider if you are creating creatures that are closely related, such as the Grunkle and Krunkle. What I mean by history is the history of a specific individual creature. If you have a certain creature that may be the last of its kind, what storied past has that creature had? What has shaped it? And the last thing in this chunk is any special adaptations and abilities. These can be quite closely related to habitat and how they survive. Turning to the Krunkle, it has a special ability to shift between a very dog-like form and a monstrous Grunkle-like form. Another thing to consider with the adaptations is why they have them. Has anything forced them to evolve like that? Uses, Threats, Domestication, and PertinanceAnd now for the final things to consider. First of all, how is the creature useful? Is it some kind of beast of burden? Can its body parts be used for something special? Is it quite edible? Can they be used in magic rituals? The next thing is simple. Is the creature a threat? Is it something that could hinder your hero's, or is it just another creature? Another simple thing to ask yourself is are these creatures wild or domestic? In The Castaway Hero, Grunkles are wild, while Krunkles are quite domestic creatures generally. The very last thing to consider is pertinence to the plot. This is almost certainly the most important part. If your creature has no relevance to the plot, why do you even bother creating it? So what you need to think is what purpose does the creature serve in your book? Are they just another obnoxious creature on the long road? Are they some kind of guardian for an object of power? And are they representative of something? For an example, lets return to the Grunkle. In The Castaway Hero, one of the characters is deathly afraid of Grunkles. But, as part of a challenge, he absolutely has to overcome his fear to protect someone he cares about. So in this case, the Grunkle literally represents fear and how the character overcomes it. So consider that next time you create a creature. To end offI hope you have found this article useful. Down below you will find a button which will allow you to download a copy of the template I use for creating my amazing creatures. I think this will help you all surpass even me in creating amazing, fascinating creatures! If you are interested in experiencing many of my creatures, be sure to check out my book, Stones of the Middle Lands: The Castaway Hero, out now on Amazon HERE and Barns and Noble HERE. Until next time, keep on writing!
Start with a mapSo, you want to build a world in which to tell a story. Well, as someone who has created a whole amazing world(in my humble opinion), let me show you how I got started. When I first started creating The Middle Lands, I began with a basic map. We begin with a basic shape (as you can see the general shape above^). From there you can create various features in the land. I would highly recommend keeping a key so your land formation markings are consistent, As you can see in the image above, I added mountains, rivers, and volcano's to this map. From there you can create names for the various regions in your world. In the case of The Middle Lands, you can see that all boundaries are physical, such as mountains and rivers. Now of course this doesn't have to be the case, you can have more political boundaries in your worlds instead.
When it comes to naming things, when I created the original map of The Middle Lands, I was a little less skilled and named things ridiculously like Kenada and The Ethan Lands, I pray that you do NOT do this! When I had to rename some of the places in The Middle Lands, I looked into the Latin and Greek roots for words associated with major features of each land. For example, Infernterra comes from two root words, Inferno, which means fire, and Terra, which means earth, which means Infernterra literally means "Fiery Earth", an apt description of that particular area. From there we named the major formations, such as the Valley River and The River Unknown. Now would be the best time for you to figure out where your major settlements or plot-relevant places are, and mark them. As you can see on this map, the River, Jungle, and Sea Temples are all marked as they are important places in this world. And there you have it, finish up the map with any more details you would like to fill in and you have a general map of a world for you to tell fantastical stories in. I hope this was useful and I plan on continuing to write more articles on world building 101. If you have any interest in exploring this world any further, please visit HERE to get The Castaway Hero on Amazon or HERE to get it through Barnes and Noble. Until next time, keep on writing! Hello folks, I am back, despite the fact that I am now sick as a dog! So for today's blog post, I would like to talk about what makes a great villain; according to YOU! So without further ado, here are the top 5 responses I got from all you amazing people on what makes a good villain. #5 - BetrayalThis is a very specific quality of a villain that requires specific circumstances to pull off. I have personally seen this in a few really great villains, but it is a rare quality of a good villain. This quality of betrayal is where the villain essentially hides in plain sight until the moment is right before striking. An excellent example of this would be in a plot along these lines: The hero enters their new world, and is completely bewildered. They meet a person who helps them out and seems trustworthy. They journey together to stop some great evil, building trust along the way. Then, when they arrive at where this great evil is, the companion reveals themselves to have been the great evil the whole time, devastating the hero and completely tearing the hero down. This would be a perfect example of a betrayal quality within a story. #4 - Heroic QualitiesNow this quality is one that intrigued me when I was told about it. The person who mentioned this when I was inquiring from everyone what made a good villain had to actually explain it to me. According to her, this quality of a villain is when the villain has a heroic quality such as courage or self-sacrifice. Having qualities like this opens the villain up for being more realistic and even lovable. In addition, it opens up the opportunity for the villain to have a redemption arc. #3 - BackstoryHaving a good backstory is what I (and apparently all of you) think is a very important part of a great villain. A great villain has a tragically twisted backstory. What I mean by this is they have a sad and relatable backstory. Perhaps the villain lost their family, or had to deal with some kind of detrimental ailment. In any way, shape, or form, the best villains have something tragic that happens to them that turns them down the path to darkness. A great example of this would be Killmonger from Black Panther (I know, nerdy me bringing the MCU into things). His father is killed by his uncle, the old kind of Wakanda. This sets him down the path to where he wants not only revenge for the death of his father, but also wants to liberate those that are oppressed, (more on villains having a good argument later). So your villain needs to have a really sad or twisted backstory to be great. #2 - Confidence/MercilessConfidence is something that shows that your villain is powerful. When your villain is so confident that they will win, and when they remain chillingly calm in combat with the hero, that just exudes power. Great villains have the confidence that no matter what the heroes throw at them, they will emerge victorious. Once again returning to an example from the MCU, lets talk about Loki for a moment. Throughout every movie that Loki is in, he is calm almost the entire time(except when seeing the Hulk haha). This makes him so much more likable, as well as frightening. The second part of this quality is being merciless. When the villain doesn't care about granting mercy to anyone, even when they are willing to admit defeat, this shows you just how far they have gone. When you have a villain with no mercy, you just know how evil they are. #1 - Relatable/Moral or Logical ArgumentNow this is the number one quality of a great villain according to me, and especially according to all of you. A great villain has a decent moral or logical argument, and is also relatable. Starting with having a moral/logical argument, lets once again return to the MCU, this time with Thanos "The Mad Titan." When you look on the surface of what Thanos is trying to accomplish, wiping out half the universe, it just seems purely bad. But as Thanos explains, he is wiping out half the universe so that people can continue to survive and thrive. He believes that by killing half of all life, he is saving the rest of life and improving the quality of life across the universe. Now, he still sounds crazy, but he actually has a decent reason and logic behind his actions. And the second part of this is being relatable. When a villain is totally two dimensional, with no even remotely human qualities, they don't click with the reader. But when you add some humanity in there, such as realistic weaknesses or other human qualities, the villain becomes much more to the reader. When the reader can recognize the villain as a human(or alien, god, extra-dimensional being, whatever), they relate to the reader. To end1. Moral/Logical Argument and Relatable
2.Confidence/Merciless 3.Tragically Twisted Backstory 4.Heroic Qualities 5.Performs a Betrayal I am going to be perfectly honest with you guys, I have thoroughly enjoyed interacting with you while planning this blog post. I love hearing your thoughts on things like this, and I think I may start doing it more. I hope this has been helpful to you when you are creating your villains, or just as food for thought. I don't think I'll be able to look at villains quite the same again, and this has certainly been insightful for me. But I want to hear your thoughts in the comments. Are there any qualities of a great villain that you feel I missed or should be mentioned? I would love to hear your thoughts down in the comments. Until next time, keep on writing!
Join Teen Author Ken Mears as he explores the 17-step Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is a fabulous way to outline a story, and Ken will guide you through the basic idea of each of the 17 steps of The Hero's Journey.
Character outlines, they are essential. Follow along with Ken Mears as he talks about what he does for character outlines, and what you should include when creating them. For more information and a basic character outline template, check out this post on Ken's blog, The Writers Block: https://kenmearsauthor.weebly.com/the-writers-block-blog/wacky-words-character-outlines
Hello all you wonderful people! I have an exciting announcement. In addition to my regular writing and blog posts, I am pleased to announce that I am starting a podcast known as Writers World With Ken Mears. The idea of this podcast is to talk in depth about story, writing, books, and talk with some other authors, all for you to hear, enjoy, and learn from! So go ahead and check out the trailer on top and the first episode on bottom and be sure to follow the podcast on Anchor, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, or Radio Public! I hope you enjoy, and keep an eye out for new episodes and other announcements regarding the podcast. Until next time, keep on writing!!
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Welcome to The Writers Block!AuthorKen Mears is a new 17 year old author, here to share his wisdom, advice, and experiences with you, the reader! Archives
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