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How do you start?

kinslayeur

Scribe
When I realized I wanted to write fantasy, I spent eight months developing my lands, how they interacted, how the characters were going to think, their abilities and weaknesses and backstories. Only then did I begin working on the actual writing. For me this has helped me not only with the first book, but I took the same process into starting on book two, only much quicker.

I have had people tell me that eight months to develop your fantasy world is a really long time. So it got me thinking about this. How did you go about your fantasy world(s)?
 

Queshire

Auror
Easy, I don't start. *ba dum tss*

It's been a theory of mine for awhile now that there's various different ways to go about writing. What you described is what I would call world first writing. Tolkien is the big name example of this. He crafted the world first and then had a story to let him play around in his sand box.

What Glutton describes is Plot First. It's starting with the plot and then building the world to support it, however from my talks with him, I think he generally does Character First instead, which... by this point I'm sure you can figure out for yourself.
 

glutton

Inkling
What Glutton describes is Plot First. It's starting with the plot and then building the world to support it, however from my talks with him, I think he generally does Character First instead, which... by this point I'm sure you can figure out for yourself.

Blazing force of Bae!
 
I kinda didn't. I started with four main characters for my WIP and gave them each enough quirks and unique traits to allow them to develop on their own, thought of a basic concept for the story, and then did some rummaging about for an opening scene. Then I narrowed my focus to an opening moment, an opening detail, and wrote an opening line. From there I started building up a daily habit of getting words down every day, untangling plot knots as I went, making up details as it suited me.

Several months later, I'm rewriting the finished draft, which was horrible (HORRIBLE), and only now am I developing the world, working in research, etc...really, piecing that first draft together into an actual story instead of four months worth of vomiting whatever popped into my head that sleep-deprived night. My views of what the world is like, what the story is, have changed VASTLY since the original conception of the idea.

Wait, no. There wasn't an original conception of the idea. I didn't really "get an idea" for a story. In fact, for most of the writing process, I had no idea how to describe the premise. I had just given up (temporarily) on another story after two years of writer's block and now I was panicked, having nothing to write...so I took some stray bits of ideas floating around and smashed them unceremoniously together, taking no heed to genre or how they fit together at all. Within a day I'd scribbled an opening paragraph onto notebook paper (with revisions and thoughts in the margins), within two I was writing.

This is the weirdest story I have ever written or read or known to exist, btw. It straddles multiple genres and is altogether bizarre. But oddly enough, it is coming together into a very unique but actually coherent story in this rewrite.

(What I described above is a variation on what I believe is called discovery writing. I used to be more like you, but this last experience has taught me to appreciate a less controlled approach. Letting a story grow, without trying to control or anticipate what it becomes, has been fun and liberating. Well, mostly. There were some hysterical tears involved.)
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Worldbuilding came first for me. But those worlds were originally intended as AD&D settings. I probably created upwards of a dozen 'worlds,' each centered on a different theme. Then I belatedly realized planets are BIG, and what I'd created were only parts of worlds. So I mashed them together until only two plus a few fragments remained.

Now, I did write stories set in those worlds, or rather parts of stories, as I seldom finished any of them.

For a long while, I didn't do much of anything with AD&D or writing. When I started writing again, I simply selected the world that fit the story best and started tapping away. Right away, I realized something: despite all the prior worldbuilding, there were huge numbers of things that needed fleshing out. Instead of worlds, I'd created skeletons for worlds.

The past few years, I have been toying with an idea, or set of ideas that pretty much demanded a new world. What I did here was to write some 'concept' short stories, and then think about the results and implications.
 

kinslayeur

Scribe
Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I am normally a pantser style writer, so when I decided to start working on a fantasy, it was outside my typical genre writing. I didn't want to write something that wasn't going to fit the fantasy genre, so I made sure to take the time to do it justice.

I'll save name finding for another thread.
 
With my soon to be released debut novel I began with very little of the world building developed beforehand, which was a first for me. I started writing the initial draft of the story with just the plot, and the two lead characters clearly defined in my head, and I basically developed the world building as I went along. It was only when I completed the third draft was my setting fully realised. I really learned a lot writing the novel, and the experience will be invaluable in improving my writing process moving forward.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I began with a world concept--what if all the monsters and magic and legends of the Middle Ages were real. Instead of tribes of barbarians invading the Roman Empire, it was orcs and goblins and trolls who invaded. That was about it.

This let me off the hook for a great deal of world building. I didn't have to invent climate, geography, economic systems (or so I thought, but I was wrong), flora and fauna (same caveat). This let me look more closely at stories. My first story idea was to recount how all this got started. Since my Altearth was identical to Earth in ancient times, I had to choose a point at which the histories diverged. That point naturally gave rise to my first story.

But I did not try to developed All About Elves, All About Dwarves, All About Orcs. Instead, I worked on that first story and what that story needed, and I did as much world building as that story required. It's tricky because whatever I decide for Story A is going to become a permanent part of Altearth and cannot be contradicted by Story B. Over the years there has developed a kind of dialectic between Story and World that has been both fun and challenging.

I realize my story environment is unusual, though hardly unique. I can't imagine having to come up with entire new worlds for every story, or even for every series. I'd be exhausted.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I started with the characters first. Wrote some short stories, decided to do an origin tale and it just expanded from there into a much longer tale. Since my original intention was to create a venue for continued short stories, I would kind of like to get back to that, but the story is not completed yet. When I began I had a vague concept of the world, and the direction of the story. Now that I am much deeper in, I am wishing that I had fleshed out the world more, and am considering doing an outline for the stories direction. I am thinking it might be useful to spend some portion of time putting the world on paper though. Maps, timelines, histories, mythologies, and such, rather than finding I need them and making them up as I go.

I don't worry about how long it takes. I just want to tell a good story, so if it takes longer to get there, it does not really bother me. I suppose my biggest regret is that my time is so limited, and writing very often does not get to be first, and so my pace is greatly slowed because of it. I keep thinking one day the kids will move out and I will get my writing space back...they do move out don't they?

Anyway, 8 months? Meh, stuff just takes as long as it takes.
 

kinslayeur

Scribe
I began with a world concept--what if all the monsters and magic and legends of the Middle Ages were real. Instead of tribes of barbarians invading the Roman Empire, it was orcs and goblins and trolls who invaded. That was about it.

This let me off the hook for a great deal of world building. I didn't have to invent climate, geography, economic systems (or so I thought, but I was wrong), flora and fauna (same caveat). This let me look more closely at stories. My first story idea was to recount how all this got started. Since my Altearth was identical to Earth in ancient times, I had to choose a point at which the histories diverged. That point naturally gave rise to my first story.

But I did not try to developed All About Elves, All About Dwarves, All About Orcs. Instead, I worked on that first story and what that story needed, and I did as much world building as that story required. It's tricky because whatever I decide for Story A is going to become a permanent part of Altearth and cannot be contradicted by Story B. Over the years there has developed a kind of dialectic between Story and World that has been both fun and challenging.

I realize my story environment is unusual, though hardly unique. I can't imagine having to come up with entire new worlds for every story, or even for every series. I'd be exhausted.

This is very similar to how I do things, but for when I had enough for the varying lands to work at least through most of the stories I plan then I moved into the next thing. I did leave naming characters and some of their traits for while I was writing because I wanted to get a feel for them in the moment and context.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
While reading Skip.knox above, I was reminded that I did not truly begin with characters either. First I had something I wanted say. But I will confess, as time has moved on, and I have become older and wiser, and the world has changed, I am not sure that what I wanted to say is still as important as when I started in the first place. I think I would have enjoyed being a faster author and more able to jump upon trends of the day, but that was not my gift. I still believe in my story and enjoy it, so...But actually it began with wanting to produce stories about things I did not see in culture and conversation around me.
 

Tom

Istar
I have had people tell me that eight months to develop your fantasy world is a really long time. So it got me thinking about this. How did you go about your fantasy world(s)?

Seven years is a long time. Yes, really. I first conceived of my fantasy world seven years ago, and it's taken this long to develop it to a point where I'm satisfied with it.

A little obsessive? Yeah. Worth it? Also yeah. If I'd slapped it down on paper seven years ago and never given it another thought, it would probably be a shallow world lost in an old notebook somewhere, completely forgotten. Continuing to develop it has let it grow with me, and it's definitely a lot deeper and richer for all the time it's spent percolating in my brain.

All of my worlds start with characters first. After I establish their personalities and stories, I go about constructing a world around them that feels like they could realistically be a product of. For instance, with my main character Tomrin I knew that he was nobility of some kind, and a foreigner living in conquered territory. So then I built a culture around him that would support those elements. It's a really inefficient method if you're wanting to get things up and running quickly, but for me it works.
 

Insolent Lad

Maester
I would have to say I have spent my entire life building my world(s). I am not a young person (in my sixties) but there are bits and pieces of ideas I had as a preteen that pop up in the worlds of my books—changed and developed a lot, of course. I also create my world first, at least in part, for my mainstream stuff. I draw up street maps and house plans and so on, I know where the grocery store is, I know when the local holidays fall. Having this sort of knowledge is not just for fantasy.

Probably the actual plot is the last thing to come along. Once I have developed a setting and some characters—partially, of course—then I see things that they could do in that world, how they might interact, etc. Of course, all that will develop further as I write (or outline).
 
C

Chessie

Guest
I typically start with an idea of plot and character. Then I outline/brainstorm, have several false starts on chapters 1 &2 until I find my groove (which means that I can delete and start from scratch a handful of times). I pretty much only use the outline to include the necessary scenes of a particular novel and I pants the in-betweens. I write as fast as I possibly can until the end, although the first few chapters are the slowest and I gain speed along with traction. Typically, by the time I'm halfway into a book, I know the plot is set in stone. I also write/edit in cycles, writing a couple chapters, going back and editing, etc all the way to the end. It's not uncommon for me to write 6-8 hours per day until the book is done. So I finish with a clean manuscript, which is a huge blessing and it's taken me ages to get to this point in my craft.
 
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I have had people tell me that eight months to develop your fantasy world is a really long time. So it got me thinking about this. How did you go about your fantasy world(s)?

I don't think eight months is too long. I think this will vary from person to person. Beyond world design, stories themselves can require a long time to gestate, anyway, maybe even years, and the time spent designing a world could allow time for that.

I've created only two worlds, and neither of them has been developed in-depth from sea to shining sea. I generally have an idea of the kind of world I want and a kind of world I need for a particular story and then just develop the elements I need in the world for the story to make sense.

But then I can add bits and pieces as needed. My current endeavor involves a world I'd already begun for a different story. I decided I wanted to write a romance novel, and I picked a secondary country (from the original story idea) for the setting. At the time, I hadn't developed that country much because it wasn't going to be a setting for the original story. But now that it's going to be a setting for this newer story, I'm having to fill in a lot of gaps. For instance, because a subplot in this romance story involves a type of monastery and a "training up in magic" arc, I'm needing to develop that specific magic and social/religious milieu of this country.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
All depends for me, I can imagine starting in many ways. For the epic fantasy I need lots of world work, history and future, whatever, the world and its events inspire the stories. The world's been in my brain for decades. Other books I've got plotted are one offs that can start with character or plot. One is heavily predicated on theme, too. So, my answer is whatever, I've no real process, LOL.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
All depends for me, I can imagine starting in many ways. For the epic fantasy I need lots of world work, history and future, whatever, the world and its events inspire the stories. The world's been in my brain for decades. Other books I've got plotted are one offs that can start with character or plot. One is heavily predicated on theme, too. So, my answer is whatever, I've no real process, LOL.
Yeah, my fantasy books are more complex and require a bit more time outlining. It's interesting how timing/approach differs from book to book depending on plot, characters, length, etc.
 

Helen

Inkling
When I realized I wanted to write fantasy, I spent eight months developing my lands, how they interacted, how the characters were going to think, their abilities and weaknesses and backstories. Only then did I begin working on the actual writing. For me this has helped me not only with the first book, but I took the same process into starting on book two, only much quicker.

I have had people tell me that eight months to develop your fantasy world is a really long time. So it got me thinking about this. How did you go about your fantasy world(s)?

For me, the world building comes pretty late - I'll start with plot, then character change, then theme (might sound like an odd order, but it's actually helpful) and they'll inform the world building.
 

kinslayeur

Scribe
A lot of great thoughts and now I feel better for the amount of time I have spent working on the world building. Thank you to everyone!
 
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