While I keep writing and practicing with the short stories I've been working on (I'm really trying to get up to one story a week), off-and-on for the past couple months I've also been working on something ... large-scale is the best way I can describe it. Large scale like Emberwilde Comes (my pokemon fan-fic) or my failed The Sovereignty superhero storyline which maybe one day I'll go back to work on, in that I plan to keep it going for a while. Unlike Emberwilde Comes this one I'm working on/ have ideas for isn't a fan fiction story and instead based off an original idea, or at least a Writing Prompt idea that got way, way out of hand. It's also a story that I'll probably need help and input from the people so bored that they waste their time reading this thing (Hooray! audience participation, or Boo! fuck your group project). So, because I'm stuck I figure I'll write a post about the issues I'm having, and like most times when I ask for advice, I'll probably just end up ignoring everything you say and do whatever I want anyways (how do I still have a job?).
Setting: Setting is a big problem I'm having in putting this thing together. Most of my stories are set in the present day or some generic, bland fantasy world and are usually so character-driven that I don't need to spend a lot of time on the setting because I assume my readership can figure it out, close enough. I'm planning for the new story to be set in a traditional swords and sorcery fantasy world except the issue I'm having is how to put the world together. Where should the castle go? Where should the other castles go? How big should the forests be? Will there be a sea element and will the ocean need to be nearby? After working on this on-and-off for months now, I thought I would have a better handle on this, so much so in fact that I even went out to buy a graph paper composition book.
Right now I've got just a smidgen more than jackshit. Obviously the big plan as I go further along is to make this thing look more and more like the traditional fantasy maps you'd find in other fantasy books: filled with castles and mountains and towers and villages, all of it with lore attached to them. But then I forget I've got zero artistic ability so the map will still look like shit, but hopefully at least to scale, you know, because of the grid.
Names: I suck at names, there's no denying that. If you've read any of my other stuff, you know it's pretty much insert generic white guy name here and I'll move on because for the stuff I'm writing I don't care what the characters' names are. But for the longer stories, names have meaning (or at least they should) so I can't just give the characters stupid names and move on (why do you think the main character of Emberwilde Comes just goes by The Bearer? I couldn't think of anything else to call him). But also, for something like this, the name of the characters and places are important since I really only get one chance at it. I can't write it, then the next week decide to change it if I think of something better because that's just going to throw off my two readers.
Organization: Keeping everything together and sorted is also something new that I'm tackling. For most one-shot stories, everything just goes in one notebook for several pages (unless I think of something else in-between then I use arrows to let myself know to skip to the next page, or dog-ear the pages I need to go back to). And for Emberwilde Comes, I just use a dedicated notebook with the continuous story going from one side and I've been writing some notes about events I want to use in the back. Since it's fan-fic, I can also very, very easily look up information on characters, places, pokemon, etc if needed/ if I want to. As I said earlier, I bought a book filled with graph paper for maps and I guess I'll write the story in there too, but I also grabbed a second, smaller notebook to jot out different characters along with some traits, descriptions, etc which, as I mentioned earlier, isn't going so well. I've heard of other ways other authors keep track of things in their stories but it's embarrassing to compare myself to them. Plus, where would I even get the money to pay someone to manage a wiki page for me, and where would I even find space to put a giant wooden door.
Seeking Help/ Procrastination: Obviously since something like this is new to me, from all the larger issues I mentioned to the more specific things like world-building and character development and writing endurance, I tried to go outside my own head and the regular media I consume to find information/ inspiration.
I dug these two books out from under my bed at the same time I looked for other older books to re-read (there's so many books under there.) Then I spent an entire night looking through the book of weapons, even those that wouldn't apply to the setting. I didn't even crack open the other book which would probably help my writing more since I did use it as a textbook in class. Also, last week I heard Gecko Books in Kaimuki was having a going out of business sale. I used to visit more often when I attended UH but haven't been by for a while. It felt nostalgic going back and wandering those cramped aisles and trying to look for things without understanding the shelving system. Plus, you know, sale prices. So as I'm struggling to create a new fantasy world and characters to fill it, working on building everything from the ground up, I decided to buy something I thought might help with all of that.
I mean, maybe this will help me develop characters and make dungeons/ maps and write out quests. I know that I can't listen to a three-hour game of Critical Role as I just don't have that much uninterrupted time at work. And who knows, maybe it will be useful if, you know, I ever get around to reading the booklets and playing the game.
Finally, through all of this, I forgot the number one most important thing to do - actually write the story. I got so distracted with planning and putting this whole thing together that I haven't started writing the story yet. My bet, which is a pretty good one playing the odds on my terrible writing style, is if I start writing, all these other details I'm worrying about will resolve themselves and just fall into place.
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