World Building: The Planet Part III

It's been awhile I know! Being a mom and my own writing keeps me pretty busy!. But I'm back so here we go

After looking at the planets history and geography here and creating plants here, we are now going to look at animal life.

I have quite a bit of trouble with this one myself but I do what I can. With this there is SO much information that you CAN add that I just never know how much I SHOULD add. Here I'll go ahead and put it all just to be thorough but once again if you are going to use it pick and choose what you need for the specific animal.

Fauna

Name

I do this exactly as I do the plant name. No names yet! I have to go through the whole exercise to pick a name but it's bascially like this Biome + Type + Number (only if more than one of same type in same biome) 

Biome

Just as before. My biome is going to be the rainforest again.

Type

Here you really can go into quite a bit of detail. You can use Kingdom, phylum, class, etc if you wanted. I don't, however. I do use class because it is pretty simple and then come up with ways to classify the animals in that particular class.

I guess the only real way to explain this is to SHOW you so here's how I begin.

For this particular animal I'm going to be using the mammal class. Mammal

Next I'm going to determine how I'm going to group all the many types of mammals. You can probably find a website to do this for you but they were all either to extensive or not extensive enough for me. My classifying of mammals will look like this --  Ground, Tree-dwelling, Predators, and Hooved. Some could go into both, I know this, but I usually pick the more "detailed" group For example a horse is both ground and hooved but I would choose hooved in this case. This is just how I like to do it. Obviously you can create your own categories. 

Tree dwelling

When naming I will define this as the "Rainforest tree dwelling Mammal"

Characteristics

Size 

Here I look at the size of the animal. Height, weight, and length and I give a rough estimation but I sometimes I also name an animal that has about the same stature so that I have a clear idea of it in my head. I could say an average of 340lbs and a height of 63 inches but sometimes I'm not sure exactly what size that would be so I say, "black bear" or whatever and have a good idea about what size it would be. Other times however I don't need thi.

Quick note here if I'm going to use say a hooved mammal I do not used a hooved mammel for an idea about weight or size, this is because it makes me think of that particular animal and that's the picture I have in my head for it. And if thats the case then why wouldn't I just use that animal instead of making a new one. So use something other than the type of animal you are creating, if you do this. 

Weight: 10 lbs
Length: 16 in
Height (shoulder):10 in
Tail: 11 in

Features

Here you'll want to look at everything. Eyes, nose, mouth, body coverings and so on. You'll want just enough to be able to get a clear picture of what your animal will look like. This will depend on so many things. Is the animal predator or prey (for the most part), active during the day or night, location of the animal, and so on. I've picked a few features to use in order to get a idea about the animal.

Eyes: Large and round
Nose:  large, sticks away from face and connects to the mouth
Mouth: connects to the nose in a large snout
Body coverings: lightly covered fur, hands and feet do no have fur in order to get a better grib when climbing a tree, light tan or brown
Tail: Almost as long as body, wraps around the body and uses for hanging from trees like a monkey

This gives me the information I want so I'll move on but it isn't all I could have used..

Diet

This is pretty self explanatory. What does the animal eat?

Ground dwelling mammals like mice or other tiny animals and some fruits and nuts from trees though for the most part it is a carnivor. 

Behavior

 This includes a wide variety of information. Almost too much. If you are going through this do not feel as though it all has to be completed, it doesn't! Don't get burnt out before you even start writing the story. If the animal is used just for a main character to see in the field, rather than it being a companion of some sort, a lot of this will be a waste of time (though truly any worldbuilding is NOT a waste of time but if it burns you out... well it's not helpful either). Find out what you need and move on.

But this section can include things like.... Activity, Aggressiveness, Social, Play, Hunting, and Mating.


While I could do this in a list sort of style for me it's easier to explain in a little paragraph about the animal.


This tree dwelling mammal is mostly active during the night, which is how it hunts for it's a lot prey: while they are sleeping. The little animal is usually not aggressive just sneaky. If cornered it will become aggressive and females during pregnancy are also aggressive. They are very social animals and live in large groups at the tops of threes. To humans they seem to act like kids, running around and chasing each other for fun, although this is also for practice during hunting. Mating happens during all seasons. A female usually has a litter of about 2-3 little ones. They hang on to the mother most of the time. For the first weeks she doesn't leave there side and then after that she leaves them alone while she gathers some food for them other than milk. Later on she teaches them to hunt and so on. They usually stay close as part of a big family unit.

Interesting Facts

This section is just a throw in section. Whatever else that hasn't been covered that seems important to me. I have no real outline for this section, just whatever comes to mind. For example...

One of these can be taken away within the first few weeks of like and given to a human as a companion. It will begin to think of the person as family and take fierce action as it grows older to protect the human. This is true even if the family returns to find the stolen one. 

 Drawing

I do not do this part but it is really good. If you have any artistic ability I would suggest going ahead and drawing out the animal. I do not because it would be a complete mess. But it is a good idea. 

And that concludes the fauna section.  If anyone did it along with me, post your animals!

World Building: The Planet Part II

Last week we looked at History and Geography of the planet in Part I. Today I'll show you how I go about creating plant life. I was going to include animal life here, however it turned out to be a much longer explanation than I anticipated so I'm just going to do plants.

Here I want to note something before I begin that I've already mentioned before. None of this is neccessary. Pick and choose what you want to do. The object is to write the story and if you are creating plant life just to create it, yes it will make your world more realistic, but it's... I won't say a waste of time but it's... time spent agonizing over what this particular plant (or animal, or whatever) should look like or do while it would be better spent actually writing the story.

The best advice I've found is finding a balance. But onto the post..

Flora

Name

This is something I come back to but I added here for organization purposes but for right now I'm leaving this section blank. I'm going to add it to my list of names I need to come up with. 

Biome

The first thing I look at when creating new plant life is the biome it will be located in. It will give quite a bit of insight on the plant itself. You are not going to find large trees with beautiful green leaves and flowers that bloom in the spring in the Tundra biome. It's just not going to happen. The tundra doesn't have many trees and when it does, they are usually stunted because of the lack of nutrients they receive. Have another look at the biomes and see what kind of plants normally grow there.

While doing this I would normally look at where my story is going to be located to determine which biome it will be in. If most of my story is going to be located in the desert and I choose the tundra to create this plant how is that going to work into my story? 

For right now though because I don't have an actual "area" yet, I'm going to randomly pick one. I'm going to go with forest and to narrow it down even further I'll go ahead and say a rainforest or tropical forest. 

Type

While the biome I chose has already given me a starting point here is where I choose the type of plant. There are SO many to choose from and it all depends on what your making the plant for. If you need it for something specific then choose what you need (a certain flower that cures blood poisoning when cooked with the seeds of a certain fruit?) but if your using it for plainly world building and just giving the area a foreign feel then be creative (a vine that is climbing the castle walls or a tall grass where serpents hide) Whatever you want.

As for me I'm going to say a flower.

Use

I already gave a prelude to it in the above section. This is where we will be looking at what your characters can/will be using this particular plant for. To start off think of all the things we do with plants.

1. Food - potatoes, beans
2. Heat - wood
3. Structures/furniture - wood
4. Oxygen - plants release it into the air while using up carbon dixocide
5. Medicine - Opium poppy (this is used in morphine)
6. Clothing - cotton

And that's not even all of it... we use them for paper, ceremonies, home decor, and definitely for landscaping. Can you think of anything else?

I'm going to create a flower that is used for a wedding ceremony. It is put in the hair of the bride by the groom which is later taken out and crushed and cooked and they drink it together after the ceremony ends. 

If you'll notice here now I have created not only a plant but tiny bits of information about the society just from a flower. That's the beauty of world building. 

 Description

This is the really fun part. Now you get to decide what it looks like. While this is FUN it is also really HARD (for me, at least). I find it's easier by looking up exotic plants to get a feel for something different and then making up the rest.

 My flower looks like a daisy in a way except the petals stick up in a rounded sort of way essentially making the flower look like a tiny teacup. They are usually white white streaks of pink or purple running through them but other known colors are solid white, pink, purple, or blue, or white with blue streaks. The most rare color is pink with white streaks instead of the other way around. 

The husband must find the flower so he usually goes looking for the most rare because it is said to give the couple luck.

Also another little tidbit of how this particular society works and how they think.

Other

This is nothing specific just whatever else you think you'll need or want to include. I don't have anything else to add so this section I would leave blank but here include everything the other sections didn't cover. You could explain how the plant is cooked, why it is forbidden to plant/pick/touch, the way it is used in a spell. Anything.

 Back to Name

Since I've finished this plant creation I'll now put it in my little table as "Rainforest Flower" so I know what I'm talking about.

Next time I'll look at how I create animals but until then if any of you have created a plant according to this share it with me! I'd love to see how it worked for someone else. Or share with me how YOU come up with plant life.

World Building: The Planet Part I

Sorry I didn't post last week but I just moved into a new house and just got internet back on tuesday. I could have posted on my phone.... but the one handed typing gets irritating after awhile. But anyway, I'm here now. Better than never!

Last time we went over how I world build the galaxy. Now I'm going to move on to the actual planet. This has quite a bit more information than "The Solar System" so I've split it into parts. I foresee about 4 parts but until I write them I have no idea.... so we'll see!

In this section I'll show you how I begin creating my planets history and the geography. Let's get started...

History

This is just an idea, I guess, and I only begin with it because all of the rest of things influence it so I add things as I go a long. At first this section might only be a sentence. Something like "The world began 5.9 billion years ago."  but then end up in a paragraph or ten pages. This one is really up to you. If you look up the earth history... wow. You'll find quite a bit of information. Don't worry about getting that detailed. It's unnecessary and in my opinion a waste of time. Just get what you need to know and move on.

My history for my planet is going to start off like this...

Moon 2 has been in orbit of Planet D for about 6.8 billion years. Planet D "caught" the moon when it was just an asteroid. After many years the location of the moon caused it to begin to create an atmosphere which in turn led to the development of life because of the habitable zone where it was located.

I probably could come up with something better but it works for this. I'm not sure if an astroid could actually create an atmosphere but for now that's what happened. If need be I will change it later.

Also notice I'm still using moon and planet D. I haven't made my language yet so for now that's what they are going to be. I forgot to mention in the last post, however, that I do a table with names I need to come up with later.

Geography

Composition

This section is really quite simple. Just find out your planets water and land ratio. Make something up or go into deep thought about this. Don't forget that what you do choose will have an effect on planet life. A planet with 90% water and only 10%land is very different type of life than that of earth and think about all the problems you could come up with on a planet of 90% land and only 10% water.

Moon 2 is going to be about 63% land and 47% water

Map

This is easy enough. Create a map. Paper or digital. Whatever you want. I usually make a digital one and then print it off blank and make the rest of my maps there but because this particular world is only for the blog (well so far!) then I'm going to create all my maps on here.

First create a blank map just the basic outline of the land masses. I use paint but you can use whatever you want.  Now copy this three times and then leave one completely blank for maps you'll want/need later. ALWAYS have a blank one.



Then you'll want to have an idea of the sections. I'm not really sure what I would call it but think of it as the lines we know of on the earth like the Equator, the line of cancer, the line of ..... and so on. It's just to give an idea about where they things are located.

I classify these as FACE, LINE, and SECTION. It was the easiest way for me but you can come up with whatever system you want for it.  Lines are horizontal and a section is just one of the vertical lines whereas a face is two put together. Normally I would number them but I think you'll get the jist by the picture...



After that I create the countries. Still no names but I usually give numbers and letters. A continent gets a letter and then the countries on it get a number. These also go on my table of naming things.



I would make a one blank copy of these to save as well. JUST in case. You never know what you might need them for. But I've created too many maps and lost them because I edited it without saving a copy. Not good.

Quick note here if you are going to use my example of how to do this and use paint... don't color in your countries unless you have a backup copy. I did what I did above to make it more visually appealing... however if you do so then when you do want it in complete white... say to make the terrain map (below) you'll have to change it back to white then erase they part of the number because it will leave a smudge of color.

The last map you'll create (for now!) is a terrain map. Be as basic or as detailed as you want.



This is another section you will probably come back to so make what you need and move on but don't feel like you can't come back. You probably will.

I usually make quite a bit more maps than those but those are the ones I ALWAYS make.

Biomes

Here, like mentioned before, is another place you'll use a map. Create a biome map of your country (do this both on a blank one and one with country lines. It's usually easier if your using a simple program to do it on the one with the countries and then jsut delete the lines that separate it.)

Here are the earth biomes. Depending on how you want to look at biomes there are more or less but I like that website because I think it's just the right amount. But in case you want more (or less) here are a few more websites

A kids version but has quite a bit of information - http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/Another kid version - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/  Here are a few more. http://www.worldbiomes.com/ and http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/deserts.php

I came up with something like this just using the very basic of biomes.



If you know exactly where you want your story to take place you can make it more extensive. I just did forest but there are temperate and tropical. A grassland can be further divided into Temperate grassland, savanna, or steppe. Deserts can be arid, semi arid, coastal. Maybe your planet has a completely different one. Honestly the possibilities are endless.

And that wraps up Part I of The Planet. Part II will include Climate and Flora (Plants)... possibly Fauna (Animals) as well.

World Building: The Solar System

There are a million places to start. You could create a language. You could create a race. You could create a government. But as for me I create the world.

Obviously I'll skip this if I'm using our world but in many cases I'm not. And I like to start big then go small.

I guess you could create the entire galaxy but I don't write (or I haven't yet anyway) worlds where intergalactic space travel is possible so for me it would be utterly useless.

Well not useless because any amount of word building helps you get more of a feel for your world and honestly that's what world building is all about. So even if you aren't planning on using something the more you know the better. But either way, I don't do the galaxy.

I, instead, begin with the solar system.

For the purposes of these blog posts I'm going to create a new world as well. So after each section I'll give an example of the world I'm creating.

Here's how I start out...

The Sun(s)

1. How many? I once read a story (Can't think of the name right now!) that had a whole bunch of suns and the planet was in constant sunlight except for one time every hundred years or so (not quite sure, I read it a LONG time ago) so you can have as many as you want, just think of the implications it would have on the planet.

2. What type? There are a whole lot of options here and each has a different effect on the planet you're creating. There are supergiants, bright giants, giants, dwarfs and so on. They vary in color, size and temperature so many things on your planet will depend on what you choose.

As for me I'm going to be boring. I have one sun which is a yellow dwarf, like our own sun.

The Planet(s)

1.How many?

2. Location? Here you'll want to know the order of the planets. You don't have to name them yet especially if you'll make a language and want to name the according to that but give them a number or letter and decide which one is the planet your story will be on. This way you'll know the number of planets before and after.

3. Type? Most likely you'll have terrestial planet as your own planet but there are others such as gas giants and ice giants. 

4. Habitual Zone?

My world is going to have 5 planets. I'm going to use letters for my planets so A-E are my planets.

A: 1st planet from the sun, a terrestrial planet, and not in the habitual Zone

B: 2nd planet, terrestrial planet, and not in the habitual zone

C: 3rd planet, terrestrial planet, and during half the orbit not in the habitual zone

D: 4th planet, gas giant, in the habitual zone

E: 5th planet, ice giant, not in the habitual zone

The Moon(s)

In actuality moons are satellites but because of the connotations I'll refer to this section as moons.

1. Which planet? If you used letter to name your planets so far here you can go ahead and use the planet letter (say A) and then number the moons (so A1 and A2)


2. How many?

All together my solar system has 8 moons or at least at moons that I'm paying attention to because gas giants usually have a lot of moons but for now I'm ignoring them.

A: none

B: 2

C: 1

D: 3

E: 2

The Orbit

Here we are going to look at 3 things.

1. Shape? This will probably be either circular or oblong


2. Length? I usually do this relative to earth days because it's easiest but you can do it according to your planets own days. Also it's helpful to know that the further away the planet the longer the orbit AND the slower it goes. Think of that while you're coming up with the length.

3. Speed? I don't do this but you can. You can find information here about our own solar system to give you an idea. It's a QA but it'll give you the basic idea anyway.

You'll want to figure this out for each component you have except the sun unless you've created an entire galaxy because the sun too is rotating around the galaxy. For example our sun is rotating around the milky way galaxy.

Here's what I did...

Planet                          A                                B                                C                

Shape                      circular                  circular                   oblong   

Length (days)       172                          417                           543       

Planet                                        D                                E

Shape                               circular                        oblong

Length (days                      1057                           1560

You'll want to do the same thing for each of your moons. Or at least each of the moons of your planet. As for me I'm going to use a moon of planet D for my story so my moons for planet D are as follows

Moons                              1                                 2                              3

Shape                       Circular                    Circular                 Circular

Length (days)

The Solar System

Now that all of that is figured out, draw it to see how it looks on paper.

The Rotation

1. Direction?  This will tell you which way your sun rises on the planet unless your "planet" is a moon.

2. Length: As orbital speed told you the length of your year, this will tell you your planets day.

Take a look at my example.

Moon D2

Direction: Clockwise

Length: Same as orbit

Quick note here. The length of my rotation as you see above says "same as orbit". I did this because most moons are tidally locked to the planet they orbit. This basically just tells us that the same face of the moon faces the planet all the time. For the planet this would mean that the year is as long as the day.

Problems

There is no set number of things here just a place you can put potential issues with the solar system.

Anyone heard that our sun is going to expand and become a a red giant is some billion years? Its said that all the inner planets will be consumed, devoured by the sun. What if that were to start happening right now and not in a billion years? What would we do?

That's a problem. See anything like that for your own planet?

Some problems you'll want to fix because they won't coincide with planet life, however others leave them and have it another obstacle for your main characters. Man vs Nature is a great plot or subplot.

As for me I have a couple of issues I see. Here are a few: Tidal heating caused by the planet it orbits so closely. The length of the day and night. And although this isn't a problem per say I haven't quite figured out the mechanics of the way the sun will rise and set... so I have to do some research for that.

How are all your solar systems looking??

Here's a little extra thing. I made up a quick outline so if you'd like to use my worldbuilding method you can go ahead and use it each time without having to read though my own made up world : ) I'll add one to each section and you can put it together at the end of these blog posts.

I. World Building

A. The Solar System

1. The Components

a. The sun

b. The planet

c. The moon

2. The Orbit

a. Shape

b. Length

3. The Map

4. The Rotation

a. Direction

b. Length

5. Problems

Novel Building: An Introduction

Months ago before little Em was born I talked about the concept of Novel Building instead of World Building. You can read that post here.

Well after months of taking care of Em and little else, I have finally started blogging regularly again so I'd like to go back to that.

Novel building is very personal and I can almost assure you that what works for me won't work for you. Parts may but others you'll look at and either say forget that or think well sure but why not this way.

And nothing is wrong with that. Making it work for you is the key. And what works for one novel doesn't always work for the next. I, myself, was very upset learning that fact.

Anyway, I'll be back here posting in a week to get started on the process.

Next up: World Building: The Solar System

Trips and Writing

To write you need to be in a grove. Or I do at least.

I have to be doing it for a while writing so many words a day for so many days on one specific story to really get into the habit of writing. I write always but if its not for the same story I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere.

It used to be easy to do this but with a little one in the house its a bit more complicated.

Well, I'm trying to get back into that grove so I can finish a novel before I travel to the states in October.

Because during and after vacations its impossible to get anything done. The routine is off and your lost so you don't do anything at all.

So I want to finish the first draft so I can come home and get started on the rewrite instead of trying to pick up where I left off.

And I think 3 months is a good span of time for writing a first draft. I think it limits you in editing while you go and for me that's the key in finishing a project.

So this month I've been worldbuilding and outlining the novel. From July 1- September 30 I am writing 2000 words a day (yikes!) and hopefully by the end I will have 120,000 words counting Sundays off and a few days of review.

I don't actually want a novel with a wordcount quite so high. I want about 90,000 but sometimes I ramble (bet you guessed that already huh?) so I need wiggle room to cut out parts I don't want and especially the ones I don't need.

So that's my plan. Let's hope I stick to it.

A New Story to Finish

There is nothing in the world like the thrill of a new story. Its new and exciting and it leaves you dull of wonder and hope and possibilities.

And its wonderful. But I think there is something more amazing than the beginning.

The end.

Now those are some powerful words.

Has anyone out there heard of runners high? 

I've experienced it all of twice in my life. But at some point its quite literally like you don't want to stop. You run and run and even though you're tired for some reason your body wants to stay in motion.

The sensation is refreshing. Its breathtaking and oh so powerful. You get into this grove and its wonderful.

And every time you go running afterwards all you want to do is get that feeling back.

Don't worry I'm rounding back in on my point.

That is sort of what starting a new writing project is like for me.

I have only finished one novel but it was amazing. I love to write and I get into the "zone" quite a bit but nothing can compare to the final lines of the novel not even the start.
And every time I start a new project I think back to those moments as I typed the last line. And I want that feeling back.

Its not the writers high. That I've experienced a lot. So what would this be called?

Im not quite sure. All I know is its tough to get there but I'll keep working for it. Because that feeling is worth it.