Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Catavarie" data-source="post: 2714178" data-attributes="member: 30451">Okay...So you've decided what type of world you want to create, you've choosen a skeleton and its flesh...GREAT!!!Now what do you do?Well its simple to tell you that you fill it up, but then the question arrises, "With what?"This is where it starts to get fun and complicated (atleast if you like me and aren't a fabulously creative person).  Read some books, watch some TV, read a comic book...this is where you start do what ever it is that gets your creative juices seeping...personally I go for a jog around the lake by my house with my MP3 Player blasting some classic '80s Rock...but that might not be your thing.  Everyone is different and just because something gets all of your friends thinking creatively doesn't mean it will do so for you.  All of my friends would rather shoot themselves in the foot before going for a 3 mile jog...it the way they are...my best friend is possibly the most creative guy I know and he sits on his couch and plays Video Games to get his inspiration, another friend of mine is one of those natrually creative guys...you know the type...they see something and it sparks their imaginations no matter how mundane it is...We played in a campaign for 2 years where his inspiration for it was a toilet, I hate him sometimes.  The simple truth is that you can't create your own world untill you get your creative side working, so find what works for you and do it.The rest of this entry is going to sounds like a High School Writing class because it system works...Sit down someplace free of interruptions with a pen (I say Pen because you should never erase anything no matter how asinign you may think it seems once you've written it down) and a stack of paper, and just write...you could write words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, heck you can even write a novel it doesn't matter, this is what is known as freeform brainstorming, as opposed to structured brainstorming that comes next...it this part you want to just get out as many thoughts as you can about everything you are thinking about, this helps to clear and focus the mind on the next task. Do this for about 5 minutes.Now that You've gotten all your erronious thoughts out of your head sit those sheets of paper off to the side somewhere that they won't distract you.  Take a couple of deep breaths and just start to picture your world in your head, close your eyes if you like, just think about your world. Once you have a clear picture in your mind of your world start writing, same as before but this time focussing on your world as you write,  jot down names of people, places, wild life, topographical & geographical features, draw pictures if you like...at this point you are trying to get as much information about your world down on paper as you can.  Once You've written till you can't think of anything else or you feel like your hand is going to fall off...STOP! Just stop, put the pen down and walk away.  Don't touch it, don't think about it for atleast a day although I suggest 2 to 3 days.  This extended time from the creative process will allow your brain to basically Reset and start thinking fresh.  When you go back to the papers don't read them, just put them in a seperate stack of their own. Now we start the brainstorming process over again from the start, but don't try to remember what you wrote the last time instead start completely fresh, if you repeat an idea great, if not great (we'll get into this seeming contradiction later).  Do this entire process 3 more times for a grand total of 5 brainstorming sessions each time compling your Freeform Brainstorming sheets (I never said to throw them out <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) into a pile and your focused brainstorming sheets into another pile.Now we start going through the stacks of papers, this will take awhile so you might wanna save it for a day that you can dedicate strictly to doing this all day I suggest Highlighters, Sharpie markers, Radio, some snacks, and a Bottle of Asprin for the headache you'll inevitably get.  First go through the stack of Free form papers and highlight anything that catches your eye as being even remotely usable for your world...it might be your grocery list and thats fine jsut highlight it.  Next go through your Focused sheets and highlight just the things which reoccur over the different sessions, if something is written down in all 5 sessions then make sure you mark it good, because I'm willing to bet you that this is a major theme you want in your world.  If something only occurs once then leave it be for now. Once all repeated ideas are highlighted reread them, if they don't spark something in your imagination as you read it then mark through it with the sharpie. Why would you want to write on something that you don't have any passion for?  Eventually you'll have a bunch of paper with highlights and black marks throughout.  Now do the same for the non-repeated ideas if anything doesn't spark your imagination mark through it.  Now you may feel like your marking alot of ideas out once you get done but it will make things alot easier in the long run.The next step is something I actually enjoy doing but I think most people despise and thats Outlines...when i was in Juniour High i despised them myself till I start writting short stories and amature fantasy novels and eventually a series of comic books then i fell in love with outlines and I've never looked back, Don't think of it as a map that you write by...I think this is where alot of english instructors loose people to the thought of an outline...instead use it to group similar ideas and themes together...I suggest even doing this on index cards if you like that way you don't feel tied into a format.Once you have your Outline done and all your ideas listed and sorted look for any holes or gaps in your world which is rapidly forming now.  Just jot these down somewhere and don't worry about them for now.  Pick a section of your outline and start to flesh it out write as much as you can about that 1 index card of ideas and repeat for each section you have. Try to get atleast 1 page per 3x5 card, some you'll be able to write more and some not quite so much, but get as much out of them as you can.Now take these sheets of fleshed out ideas and place them somewhere safe while you work on the holes in your world.Take a break for a couple of days and then pull out your list of things your world is missing, for each thing on the list make out a index card for the topic and keep these in your pocket that way no matter where your at if inpiration hits, you'll be ready to jot down quick notes.  Once you get a few thoughts per idea flesh them out as mentioned above and add those sheets to the rest, pretty soon you'll have yoru world fully written.  But your not done yet...Relax for a few days again, take your mind off your world...no one said it was a fast process afterall and if you obsess over it your liable to either give up on it half way through because you get writers block or you'll decide your done when you've gone through it so fast that its full of ideas that even you don't understand when you go to pull it out for its first run in game.  Take a break. If you forget about it and happen across it in a week or two and then remember, "Oh yeah I was gonna finish that sometime!" then your deffinately ready for the next step.Read through your papers (if you find yourself trying to figure out what you were thinking then its time for some editing) clean up the phrasing and simplify descriptions make it easy to understand and use vivid descriptions. Then the final step is to organize the sections, make a table of contents and place it all in a 3 ring binder, make some maps.Congratulations you have a Game world.  And its just that a world...not a campaign...but it does give you somewhere to start.  And just remember that every great writer will tell you that they are better editors than writers.  Nearly every thing written professinally is redrafted and rewritten atleast 7 times before the actual editors ever see it, this is why you brainstorm  several times seperately. And also why you keep your work in a 3 Ring Binder...easier to change entire sections of text if desired <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

Verification