Building a World – W9D2 by Ben

Nov 12, 2015

For my individual self-designed challenge, I decided to build a world for a novel, from start to finish.
When I set out to do this challenge, I had my ambitions high. I planned to write two worlds and pump out 5 characters. I thought, “It should be no problem, right? I can get something done once an hour and it’ll be okay.” I was terribly wrong.
Worlds can catch you by surprise. Things evolve, oftentimes without you, the author, having any say in them. That occurred in my world building process. I became caught up in a single world, obsessing over the minute details. A whole day was finished and I had the majority of a world fleshed out.
The next day, I told myself I would work solely on characters to populate this world. As I began to create characters, I found holes in the world. I was drawn back to world building again and again. Soon, I found myself waist deep in developing an alchemical system for this world.
Jesus.
At the end of this challenge, I can honestly say that I feel accomplished. I’ve been tossing around story ideas for the longest time and forcing myself to sit down, actually thinking them through, was tough for me. However, I feel like I got real work done and this is just the beginning of multiple worlds.
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