Story and World creation tips

[Jerico]

I did have problems with creativity and idea generation for Worlds and stories, but I developed a formula to help me with this and for me it works. Therefore I would like to impart it for anyone else that suffers with this dilemma and similar mind blocks in the hope it may also help you;

1. Create a map of your World/Land/Realm etc. Doesn’t have to be a work of art even a doodle helps. Look at other maps for ideas and techniques to start you off.

1. 
   [*](This is the bit that really helped me). Create a historic timeline of any major or significant events from your World. I did mine from its creation, but start yours where you feel makes sense. Include things like cities/towns being founded, military achievements, scientific/architectural discovery, significant/famous people (maybe include your characters). The list is endless and it’s really up to you how detailed and frequent your entries are on this timeline.
   
   
   [*]From the above two steps ideas will have been born in your mind, probably loads of them. You need to ask yourself questions like; Is there just humans in this World or other beings? Is there magic and if so what are the rules/restrictions? What are the cultures and religions of the populace? Keep asking yourself questions about this New World and when you answer them, ask yourself why that is so. This again will generate more ideas and really start to develop your World.
   
   
   [*]Names of characters and places can be a big issue for some and guess what? It was for me as well. My way around this was twofold; Firstly, look back in history at names that are no longer really used anymore, there are some good ones, especially for fantasy Worlds. Secondly, I found delving into encyclopaedias was excellent for getting name ideas from and for sci-fi, what about science text books.
   
   
   [*]I then toy with a few different prologues and see which one really grabs my interest. From there you have a firm basis to start some drafting for your story or to maybe write some short stories set in your World and see what happens.

This method is by no means set in concrete and I don’t mean to teach anyone to suck eggs, but it really helped me and it would be nice to think I could help others by sharing it.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think also a lot of your world is decided by the sort of story you want to write. If your story is about the adventures of a king, he's probably going to associate largely with other royals, which means potentially the leaders of other countries, and won't have much to do with individual peasants unless some special reason compels him to.

On the other hand, if writing about criminals, chances are they'll live near some kind of town (unless they're bandits), and won't be all that rich compared to nobles, merchants etc. So a lot of the story might be set at night, when crime is easier to commit, in seedy places - unless, again, there's a good reason not to, which is often where the real skill and originality comes in.

Ultimately everything's got to make sense, which means that it's got to tie together, even in a fantasy world.

 

[queen_melia]

Thats pretty much what I've done and now my basic story is nothing like how I saw it in my head. As I started to write everything down I realised that nothing actually made sense but now its a much better story

 

[fire_elf20]

i agree the timeline is a huge help