Alright, so while I was trying to find a simple name generator on the internet to help me out - I am HORRIBLE with original names - I stumbled upon something far more valuable. A woman named Stephanie Cottrell Bryant had created a series of helpful guides when it comes to world building. One of them caught my attention enough that I decided to not only use the guide, but also create this blog as a means to keep track of the daily exercises and sort of drive me to hop online each day in order to continue working on my world. Granted - I will probably NOT be on daily, because I'm lazy like that and my life is a mess. But I can still pretend I'm going to, right?
Anyway, the guide of Ms. Bryant's that I'm going to be relying heavily on is her 30 Days of Worldbuilding. It may not jump into the meat-and-potatoes good stuff that is fun when it comes to world building, but it seems to build the skeleton masterfully. So let's try it out, shall we? The italicised sections each day will be excerpts from Ms. Bryant's guide.
DAY 1: Climate and Variety
How often have you read a book or story on "the ice planet" or "the desert planet"? These things simply do not exist. Humans are immensely adaptable-- if there's a section of the world they don't live on, they will do their best to figure out how to get there. There are now people living on platforms on top of the sea, as well as people living in habitats under it. The Middle East, the most hotly-contested region in the world, is in the middle of a desert.
The reason why books and stories try to limit the climate to one type or another is because the author wanted to hit upon a mood or a theme by presenting the story in a setting that is somehow related to that mood. Who doesn't have some emotional response to a frozen wilderness or a lush, verdant field?
Today's exercise:
Get out a map or go to an international website like National Geographic. Look everywhere. Antarctica. Saudi Arabia. The rainforests of Brazil. The rainforests of Central California. Look at how the different climates behave and appear.
The first fifteen minute exercise is to write down all the different climates you can think of-- if you need to just say a city name, do it. Sometimes "Seattle" is more evocative than "northern damp temperate climate." Write these names down in a list.
Then, go through that list and write one or two words that describe how that climate, either the word itself or the way the place itself may have made you feel, if you've been there before. Try to stick to abstract adjectives; emotional words, if you can, but nouns are also okay.
Tricky exercise given the fact that I haven't traveled much. I have only been to New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Cape Cod, Orlando, Bush Gardens/Williamsburg, and white water rafting in Ohio. Not too many differing climates. But no excuses, let's see what I can do in 15 minutes.
Rainforest - exotic, mythical nature
Desert - death, die-hard inhabitants
Tropics - peaceful, honeymoons
Rainy Cities (Seattle, London) - dreary, industrial
Beach (is this a climate?) - playful, freeing
Tundra - cold, wasteland
"Dry Heat" (a la Texas/Arizona) - ranchers, desperados
Humid (a la Florida) - hot, vacation
Temprate (seasonal) - average, populated
Cold Temprate (is this a real climate?) - Canada, kanucks
Marsh - dangerous, uninhabitable
Swamp (that's different from Marsh, right?) - corpse, dark magic
Grassland - Open, potential
Savana - Arabian Nights
Mediterranean (another I'm not sure is a real climate) - Grecian, Rustic
Forests - Common, Bohemian
Alpine (like the Rockies or Alps) - Rugged, conquering
OK, I'm not sure I did this right. It was hard to come up with words that come to mind. I used this as sort of a word association thing. I have no clue if I did this correctly. *shrug* Maybe tomorrow's exercise will go better...
If you don't like this world, create your own. ;-)
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