• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

100 stories

mbartelsm

Troubadour
For a long time, I've built my current world, but never wrote any actual story for it, and yesterday I realized that I only have empty nations and cities within an empty world. So I finally decided to start writing, since I have no writing experience, I thought maybe writing many short stories would be best for starting (100 being the goal, but since the first ones will probably suck I may write more).

How would you go about writing 100 stories of the same world? How would you come up with ideas to keep writing new stories?

I didn't knew whether to put this here or on writing questions, please move if appropriate.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Don't think about 100 stories.
Think about 1 story.
What is the first story you want to tell?
It could be anything, what do you want to us to read about...
 
Last edited:

Filk

Troubadour
I'd say CupofJoe has got it right, which isn't to say that you can't jot down short story ideas as you are writing something else. I would recommend starting with some action; a merchant caravan trip foiled by bandits or some sort of pursuit. What are some of your most unique and exciting characteristics of your cities? Maybe you could write a story about the architect who designed the palace somewhere. Try not to make it too epic or meaningful to your world as a whole, although it may end up heading there. You may end up writing a short story that begs you to turn it into a novel haha.

Also, if you keep it simple and you aren't happy with it you are less likely to fret over the piece and then you can simply move along to the next one. Just go ahead and type a thousand words with no filters. Maybe think of a character and describe a day in their life. The possibilities are endless, especially if you have avast world to write in. Don't let your world inhibit your writing though; I would recommend you be willing to change aspects to suit what you write. Also, don't let your stories be a history lesson.

Before I ramble on and on, good luck. I'll be awaiting your story in the showcase.
 
Last edited:
One tool if you have a large world: look at different corners of it and find unique things they have that someone would compete for (or try to destroy), or unique factors that could be a plus or minus in someone's struggle: the fight for a desert oasis, the political games of a trade city, the naval battle that's won by a sudden storm, and so on. Any of those is a seed for a story, and your world can give them to you by the bushel.

Now growing those seeds is the real work, but...
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
Well, for a start, come and join the Weekly Short Stories Group. Our aim, surprisingly, is to each write a short story a week. It's basically a small support group.

I think this is a great way to flesh out your world. In fact I'm doing something similar, in effect if not by design. I had a vague idea that my novel WIP's main city was fairly secular, as in the two pillars of government and religion, while both central to the lives of the citizens, were utterly distinct. The short story I'm writing this week developed in such a way that I found a means to explain why this is. I've got a few vague sort of ideas about other short stories I can write, and I've some certain world elements that I want to make into themes or at least recurring features (there's an ancient wall circling a huge area including my main city, which was left unfinished because the threat that required it was neutralised; then the stones were scavenged for, variously, shore defences, farmhouses and temples at various points, depending on the priorities of the citizens.)

Now, I've got the history of the wall sketched out, and because it's a wall, it's history is determined by people, but what they want and need. But also because of its antiquity and scale, even ruined and robbed it still has a place in the social memory of the citizens. So I've got a variety of ideas just centred around this wall. Some might never become stories, others will. One has a general of the city agonising over whether to lead his army across the wall and begin a civil war - like Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Others involve the wall be crossed by criminals fleeing their enraged and influential victims, or take place in the farms, shore forts and temples built of the wall stone. Having the wall like that with its history mapped out gives me a structure for stories for when I get stuck. Though at the moment, the story I'm working on is not wall-related.
 
I had an idea for a novel that, when I started really thinking about it, became a technical nightmare. The long and the short of it was that our world and another one intersect long enough to throw a lot of people over to one side from this one, and they have to learn to survive there. The thing is, not everyone is on the same side once they get there, and the POV would shift -- if I remember correctly, I wound up with a couple dozen protagonists who are all heading toward an ultimate overall goal in this fighting, but each one has their own voice and does their own thing to advance their side's cause. The starting character would tell his or her story, then someone who wasn't the protagonist in that one would follow and be the second story/chapter, etc.

Logistical nightmare! :cry:

But I'm still playing with the idea and the weekly short story group might just be what I need to explore it in more detail. So I would definitely say you could use it to flesh out your own world to get a good idea of it.
 

tlbodine

Troubadour
Sounds like a fun project to me. Don't stress too much about numbers -- just get the ball rolling, and once you start building momentum, it'll be easy to keep going. There have been some really interesting novels told in a series of interconnected short stories -- many of the works of Tanith Lee come to mind (Tales of the Flat Earth being my favorite).

if I were in your position, i would start differently than some of the others have suggested. I would start by making a whole bunch of characters.

If it helps, get a visual on the characters first. I like to use doll-making programs to do this. These are my favorite: Dress Up Games ~ Doll Divine

I find that the act of making a character, visually, helps me start thinking about what they're like. As you design them, start asking yourself: Who is this person? What's he like? Why? What does he do for a living? How did he get started? Does he like his job? What are his relationships like -- to his wife, kids, parents, friends, coworkers, neighbors, etc.? What's he unhappy about? What does he want?

As you start to get a feel for this dude (or dudette), you'll probably start to get a story idea. Maybe it's an origin story for how he got into the position he's in, or maybe it's the story of what happens when something totally unexpected happens in his life. Tell that story.

Then repeat with more characters. You might find that it gets easier with each successive character. After all, there is usually more than one person involved in a story, so you can spread from one person to the next, exploring every angle of the events in your world.
 
I have a long timeline (about 30 billion years) with millions of pages of history untold. So I can pretty much go into any era of the multiverse (oh, and it's a multiverse, six main verses and counting) and write away. In fact, this is what I do in my spare time.

My biggest problem is only telling SHORTS. Every short I start writing I have to manage very carefully to avoid it turning into a novel. My latest short story immediately became a novella, and I keep pushing back its release date because there's more I want to include. This is somewhat easier if the characters are not world-changers.

So anyway, I haven't directed this at the OP. Requested advice: think about your history, and think about all the different lands of your world. There are countless stories to be told

(aside: so I guess when people use the word "countless" they really mean, "quite large". I mean, if you think of the story of every individual that has a POV that's ever lived over the course of 30 billion years in six universes, this is probably no more than 2 thousand billion billion stories (2 sextillion))
 

Aspasia

Sage
I really like this idea -- I might also try it. I really enjoy worldbuilding and have quite a few different fantasy "lands" planned out -- maps and everything! -- but no story to go along because I have the worst time thinking of interesting plots and don't want to "ruin" the world by writing a boring story that I burn out on.

I think if you think of a short story as a worldbuilding tool -- writing a narrative instead of descriptions and facts about the world -- it makes it a lot easier to just write and explore the world "in person" than trying to come up with the "perfect" story for the world. At least, I think that would work for me :) . Is there any part of the world or culture that you don't know to well, or just haven't spent as much time on? Use a short story to explore it, and flesh it out without having to write descriptions and outlines.
 

Eradal

New Member
What I do for many of the worlds I build is I create a small section in my notes just dedicated in the lore and background of my world that I compile together and create my little stories
 

WooHooMan

Auror
Instead of doing full stories, I just got about 100 summaries ranging from 1 to 4 paragraphs.
I found that has worked very well for fleshing-out the setting and I’ve only really been working with this setting for about a year and a half.

And in between writing these super short stories, I’ve done a handful of short stories and one novel. It just depends if the idea can be left as a summary or if it wants to be a short story or whatever.
 
Top