World Creation

Creating a world is always fun, but it is also hard. And sometimes, you can really screw up, if you don't know how to do it.

There are dozens of fantastic examples for perfectly created worlds, and millions of examples for badly-created ones. In this article, I will talk about creating a world to be the best it can be.

First off, you need an overall concept. It should definitely be something you want to write. As an fellow peer of mine has once said, "Writing is like marriage. Never commit until you can't believe your luck." You're going to be spending thousands of hours writing in this potential world, and it should have just that: Potential.

Now, if you're sticking to this universe or making a different one, you have to start with the basics of your idea. Say you're writing a fantasy, and you want to create a magic system. Think of magic like a science - there have to be laws, they have to be followed, and nothing can contradict. You can't just throw science out the window because you have magic - it all has to have a process. It's like taking away gravity and going "Wee! Everybody can fly!" I'm not saying that you should be piling on infodumps about how your magic system works - you shouldn't. It's usually best to show it in action. If you can't show it in action, maybe add a teacher or mentor to your book - or maybe just someone who knows more about magic than your main character.

Now that you have your basics worked out - the laws of physics, magic, whatever else is in your story - you should work on the aspects of making sure it all matches up. The cardinal law of creating a world is that nothing can contradict. This cannot be stressed enough.

After you work out your basic laws of physics, you should be looking at character creation. Most writers will already have a main character and immediate setting in mind. Ask around, tell a few people about your world and your characters, and make sure that your creations aren't too perfect. (This is called having a "mary sue"). Your character should not be a mesiah, or be more powerful than gods, etc. (Unless, of course, your character is a mesiah, or a god. Then it's suggested that you give them some kind of drawback.)

For an in-depth world, history is a must. Timelines can be a fantastic advantage to this. Set a time for the 'present' of your world, and add a past to it. An example is like this:

2001: Present.

1999: Slightly in the past. x event happened here.

1009: Far in the past. Something amazingly important must have happened for this to be remembered in history.

Next, you should add to the conflict of your world. (Since what is worth writing about if there is no conflict? There isn't anything to say.) As an example, my story Revelations was originally a religious war between two groups with superpowers. I added a third group, gave it a past, and let it fly. Then I added a time traveler to tie up more in the plot and to improve the overall readability of the book. The second cardinal rule in world creation is that every little thing is big. Even if it doesn't seem big to you, your reader will definitely notice everything. This conflict can vary, from the lives of individuals to something that might need an entire army. If it does involve an army, it's usually better to make it an individual conflict somehow - give your character a better reason to be in the army rather than 'I felt like it'. Adding individual conflicts are a great way to make the reader connect with your main character.

After that, it's pretty much your own decision on what to do; a creative license is a very good thing for a writer to keep on him at all times, since writing is all about being creative and making the old things seem new, and the unreal seem real. When you've finished all of these steps, your plot should be ready to be written - that is, if you haven't begun already from excitement.

"World Creation" Article Copyright (C) James Cohen, 2009.

Starting Your Novel

Before you write anything, poetry, a novel, a song, etc., pick a theme or point you want to get across. Maybe you want to praise or criticize a philosophy (example: place the greater good over your own interests). Maybe you want to inspire people just in general life. Maybe you want to persuade them to follow their hearts over their minds. When you do this, show the reality of it. Show the sacrifice it takes to work for the greater good, but also show the rewards. If you do it right, then the readers will agree with you. Perhaps you want to simply share an experience with us. The point is, everybody's got something to tell the world, and it's a sure thing that many people will care. A story about nothing is a nothing of a story.

Plan out what's going to happen before you start to write. Many people like to just jump into writing, and after a couple chapters they discover they have no plot or aren't skilled enough to write the path the story has taken. Plan the main plot, come up with your main characters, and make an antagonist at the very least. I would highly recommend planning a few subplots as well, because if they are well done then the story boost tremendously in interest value. Having numerous subplots and characters tend to make the reader's "lost" in the book. JK Rowling does this expertly in Harry Potter. She gives readers many characters, and most people love all of them, felt connected to them.

So now you've got your plot down, and you know what your story is about. Do you want to use Earth as the setting, or do you want to create your own world? New worlds can be very interesting if they're original (like Tolkein's was). A great way to get readers hooked is to show some differences between your world and the one readers are familiar with, though not fully explain them right away. Phillip Pullman does this rather well in His Dark Materials with daemons. We get to see how they behave and see how important they are, but we don't really know what they are. It gives the readers something else to keep them thinking about.

If you are using Earth, then what time does your story take place? Present day? Thousands of years ago? The future? There are many tools that can get readers interested in your story before they even know the plot. Planning out the basic structure of these will help you add more depth to them once you start writing. Knowing the time it takes place is especially crucial on Earth, because you must know the speech patterns in use then, the culture, etc.

So after you've picked out something you want to tell us and planned everything out, your story should be ready to roll.

Welcome to the ''Be Creative'' Blog!

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Be Creative blog! I had always looked for another service to offer to budding writers (bar the forum), and a blog for articles composed by the staff seemed like the most obvious thing. Now with our recent activity boom, this seems like as good a time as ever to start it.

I have already posted Jsquared's article on Critiquing and the All Forum Battle Chronicles. Soon we will be adding new articles dealing with writing, the All Forum Battle, and much more. Check back often!

The Art of Critiquing

By Jsquared

When you critique, you have two people. The Editor, and the Writer. You need to have a SYMBIOTIC relationship between the two. Most people probably think, "Oh, I am the writer. All I have to do is write away, and give it to the editor," Right? WRONG.

The writer has several jobs he must do when people look over his work. These are a few of them.

1. They need to highlight to his editor what he wants looked at. Perhaps, ask about specific thinks you would want your editor to comment on.

If you throw at your editor just a big piece of literature. They are going to look at you and go wait, what? What do you want me to focus on?! Diction, syntax, grammar, flow...or should I just do everything?! Is there anything specific that you want me to see that works?

One time, I asked a friend to take a look at one of my chapters, and they sent me back the chapter, and it had a bunch of grammar fixes. I facepalmed, because that was not what I wanted. I wanted to know if the chapter flowed right.

Some questions you can ask can be like, "Is my word choice strong enough here? Do I evoke this emotion enough? Did this speech move you? Does this section make you want to get out of your reading chair and do some action?"

If you tell those critiquing what you specifically want in addition to other things they do, it makes there job easier, and it makes your writing better since they know what you want.

2. When your editor asks a question, please be there to answer. I do not think I need to explain this.

3. Do not blindly make changes/accept what your editor says. Editors can make mistakes. They may miss something, or they may not realize why you put something in your writing, which is why you need to do rule number two. Make sure you put a lot of thought into the suggestions those who look at your work say. Sometimes they may say something, and you had a reason.

IE:"Hey, you didn't say much about this guy, elaborate more."

"I wanted to help characterize him as a shady character,"

"Oh, ok,"

or

"Repetition is bad. You kept going never again..... new sentence never again..... new sentence never again.."

"I was establishing my pathos. Did the repetition add emphasis for you?"

"Yes,"

"Then it works,"

HOWEVER, BE OBJECTIVE about it. If you go looking at their comments thinking they are wrong, it will be counterproductive. You need to have a valid reason to go against what your editor says. And a simple ,"Well I think what I wrote was better," Just doesn't cut it, nor does rationalizing a possible error.

4. Take your critique like a man, and fix what must be fixed.

Your readers obviously should not have any put downs in their critiques. However, you should not hold a personal vendetta against them if they have a lot of comments on what needs to be improved. They are only doing what they can to help you. If you are going to write and ask for criticism, then be ready to take it. And do not be stubborn. Swallow your pride, and change what needs to be changed, or improve what needs to be improved. This is the most obvious, and most important part of the writer's job. You can get away sometimes with numbers 1 and 2, and sometimes it is better to not do number 3 because it is easy to screw up on it, but you cannot avoid number 4. If you ignore number 4, then don't bother asking people to help improve your writing at all.

While the writer has those jobs. The editor has a lot of things he has to do.



1. For the love of God, please do not comment on a piece after only reading it once unless you are reading for entertainment and are going to praise the writer. If you have a thought, please reread the excerpt pertaining to that idea--I'm looking at several of my fanfic readers right here.

You need to read something AT LEAST twice before you comment on the writing, and the first time, you have to read it all the way through without stopping. If you do one go through, you will miss things. So many times I have seen a question asked, or a reader thinks they see a loophole in a plot point, when close reading could have easily disproven them or answered their question. There is nothing more frustrating to a writer, then having to answer the same questions several times when all the reader needed to do was read a bit more closely. You will never find everything in one go through of a chapter.

Why am I looking at some of my readers? You cannot tell me you can read through an over 7 page chapter in 10 minutes two times.

2. Do address the specific questions your writer asks, Do I need to elaborate? You could give a brilliant critique, but your writer will still be mad at you if asks a specific thing of you and you do not do it.

3. Never ever put down a writer. Push their thinking with questions as well.

Do not say "Oh, you do not have enough description." "I would suggest you describe things better," Is a better way to do it. Do not say, "Doing this will ruin your story," say "I think what you just did might be detrimental to your story,"

Also, when you critique, you should ask questions which will make your writer think. For instance, if we are looking at description, and lets say, we are talking about a house. Don't just say, describe the house more. Say, "What color is the house, how many stories? How many rooms? How big is it?" etc.

Or, if it deals with the central contention (NOT a small thing that has little consequence, otherwise you are asking a question that does not need to be asked), maybe you could ask, "Wait, why didn't he just do this?" Then the writer can go, "Ah, people are going to think that, I have to write something that will explain that," This part can help with twists and big scenes well. It is this rule that can help make your book believable. Remember though, you should not be negative when you do this.

4. Do not criticize because the writing does not follow formula.

This is a big no no. Do not say, "Oh, I heard in school you have to follow this five paragraph format, and you have to have First. Second, For example and so on," BREAK that habit. If you go "All the good stories have long updates," you will miss out as well. Those so called formulas only inhibit the style of a writer. This will lead to a lack of creativity. If you have absolutely no good reason to criticize something other than "Someone told me," then that's breaking this rule. So if you learned any so called "rules," throw them out,

5. Do not just look at what looks like excess description, or repetitions, and say BAD!

Description and repetition can be used to help emphasize points, and ultimately establish your rhetoric. Your rhetoric is going to make or break your writing. The beauty of writing, is you can claim anything so long as your rhetoric is strong. A great example for Inheritance fans, would be the Eldurnari talk, and the hummingbirds and Oromis being quiet. While CP has a lot of pointless description, in this case, he was using Oromis halting his talk when the hummingbirds came near to show just how secretive the riders were about the eldurnari.

There are cases where this is not the case, and it really is just superfluous description. Then you can attack them for that. Any repetitiveness which would cause direct characterization or other direct revelations, are also bad. Things specifically spelled out to a reader=not good. Overuse of the same adjectives, is also bad.

6. Explain to your writer what works, and if possible, why their rhetoric works,

This is simple. Your author needs to know what he's doing right and how he is doing it. Lets say, your goal in a chapter is to characterize a really annoying character, so they do so by making them pester away with really pointless, repetitive questions. Then you can say, "I really hate this character! They are so annoying! They make me want to hit something!" Then the author knows he has established pathos, and achieved his exigence, and his purpose perhaps. Pathos is how do you put emphasis and feeling into something, this is why politicians say "My friends," it makes them feel more human to their constituents. Exigence is what the writer wants to make his reader do when he is done reading, and the purpose, is why that excerpt was written. Say why the chapter hooked you, not just oh, you hooked me from the beginning.

Those things I said are only a few things. To give a quick primer on 3 things (Which are not the end all, be all of rhetoric,) you have Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. I already explained pathos.

Logos would be like your logic and such-this is establishes by doing things such as drawing conclusions from facts.

Ethos would be establishing credibility, be it through sources, or stating your credentials.

7. Except for poetry and songs, conciseness is always good, '

While you should have a balance of simple and compound sentences. It is always a good idea to make your writing concise. Do not become overly wordy, otherwise your reader is going to become irritated at having to read so many excess words. If you see an instance where an idea has already been established and the writer writes something similar but with slightly altered wording, such as, "The dead man died," or "The weeping baby cried," or "The Look for repeated phrases like the ___ of them, or for the moment, or at the moment, etc. Many people throw in a "that" where it is not needed-mostly in dialogue. However do not mistake this with repetition, as there are times where it is for emphasis. How do you spot the difference?

Most of the time, if the repetition is emphasis, it is a paragraph where a lot of the sentences begin with the same words, such as this line from one of my previous chapters(72, Lover's Lament)

Quote:

Never again will I be able to taste your honey lips. Never again will I be able to gaze deep into your emerald eyes. Never again will I here the laugh of swans. Never again will I listen to the creatures of the forest with you, in the treetop. Never again will I be able to gaze upon our children with you. Never again, will I be able to feel what love is.

Notice the repetition of never again, will I. In this case, the repetition is not conciseness. Each never again has a different subject. Now if somebody does this technique four or five times in a chapter...then that gets into the ballpark of hammering them, because if you go He was....he was... he was.... and then go She had...she had....she had....., then Never again....never again.... never again....... and so on and so forth, then the technique becomes annoying and loses its power to emphasize.

8. Grammar should be the least of your worries,

Yes, grammar is important, but not as important as content. The most important thing with grammar, is putting things in the active voice. But other than that, grammar nazis are not going to help a writer improve. Most errors we make on the computer end up to be typos in the end. Oh run on sentences can be trouble too.

9. Examples. Always.

If you do not show an example of a so called error, or mistake, then do not bother elaborating on it at all.

If you say, "You contradicted yourself here," but give no example, your writer cannot either explain why he is not contradicting himself, or cannot make the changes, because there is no example.

If you say, "You repeated this idea too much," Your writer may just shrug you off if you give no examples of how they did it. They won't know if it was bad repetition or good repetition either. You always need to give an example when you talk about something that needs improvement.

10. Plot

If you like something. Say what made you like it. What did it make you do? How did it make you feel? If it was a twist, did you see it coming?

If you disagree with something with the plot, do not just say "It is bad because I think it is," or "I don't like it," and give some BS reason. This is no better than spam. You have to have a valid reason why. Saying it will ruin your story, without reason is a BS reason, and a put down, and again, spam. The same goes for if something good with the plot happens. Don't say, "I don't like this because you killed this person, and I liked that character," say, "I think that you could have elaborated more on this story angle, but you killed that character and now you cannot,"

And please do not make big deals about small things. All you are going to do, is make the writer think "Why the heck am I wasting my time answering such a dumb question, that ultimately will not effect the story, or could have been answered with close reading (Points to rule one again).

____________________________________________________________________-
I'd like to thank the WG editors who looked at this as I made it today and yesterday. This is not an end all, be all of critique. This is just a supplement to help look at the things WOTG highlighted in his critiquing, a guide thread. If you noticed, I did not give many things you can critique, only ways to do so.


For instance, if your author asks, can you criticize my description? Then you can go ahead and ask to push them, if they need more description, "What does the character look like? Where is he positioned in this scene? What are his surroundings? What is the weather like?" etc

These points can be applied not only to stories, but essays and even poetry to an extent. My goal in making this, was the hope that we could help assist the readers in making better contributions, and make those contributions have more weight.

The AFB Chronicles

The All Forum Battle-June 16-July 21st

As most of you know, on June 16th, the highly anticipated All Forum Battle commenced. The AFB is a place where forum members can battle against other members and ultimately see who is the ultimate fighter in writing, poetry, art, and/or debating.

Sparks flew when the first duels of the AFB commenced. Titans clashed in the form of forum favorites Jsquared of Homer's Legion and Paradox Fatal of The Opposition. The captains of each team also went to war when Captain Matty Lee(TO) butted heads with Rock God(HL). Captain Angelic Ninja(HL) pulled double duty, dueling both Cellar Door(TO) and Brisingr(TO). Paradox Fatal(TO) clashed with Phoenixstarr(HL)

When the first week cleared, Homer's Legion took a swift 100 point lead(Each win for a member gives 50 points to the team's score), on the shoulders of their captain. He scored poetry and art victories over Cellar Door and Brisingr. But Homer's Legion took a quick tumble. Matty Lee won a comfortable victory in a writing duel over Rock God to turn the tides. Then, Paradox Fatal proved why he is The Opposition's Champion. He won two close duels against a near flawless short story about a walk in the forest against PhoenixStarr. Then, he won a heated debate against the heroic Jsquared in a debate about Pirates and Ninjas. They each made a spammy topic into a close, serious debate, with the pirates sipping their rum in victory at the end.

The second batch of duels commenced with The Opposition ahead 150-100. Jsquared began a rally for Homer's Legion by winning a squeaker against Isaiah JS. Their fight was a writer's duel about a musical prodigy. Jsquared flaunted his creativity, utilizing a modern event, the death of a superstar, Michael Jackson, and his story, in his short story. Angelic Ninja remained perfect, again besting Brisingr, this time in a writers' battle. This brought the score to 150-200 now in Homer's Legion's favor. Jsquared then cemented the lead by winning in a highly contested poem contest about death with Paradox Fatal. With newly recruited Evarya affirming the dominance of Homer's Legion by defeating Cellar Door in a writer's fight, Homer's Legion has a large lead heading into the end of July and start of August, ahead 300 points to 150 points.

Friendly Rivalry?

Two of the most heralded fanfiction writers from the Inheritance world, and forum friends, Jsquared and Paradox Fatal, began the fireworks with a debate about Pirates Vs Ninjas. While J2 narrowly lost, he rebounded and showed that he could hang with The Opposition's giant, besting him in a poetry contest. Many argue these two fighters are the best on their teams. The Opposition's Leader, Matty Lee, was quoted to have said in his fanfic "Retribution," that J2's short swords are second only to Paradox Fatal's blazing long sword. With each fighter boasting a victory, will there be an epic third battle between the two gladiators?

Duel of The Month

Paradox Fatal Vs PhoenixStarr is my pick. The two of them posted brilliant stories, and after the 1st two judges scored the bout, it was tied at 96-96. In the end, PhoenixStarr faltered by only three points against Paradox Fatal, in a contest where each warrior nearly achieved a perfect score. PhoenixStarr averaged 47 points per judge in that duel, and lost. How does that happen? A 94%, but you lose. 3 points away from an average perfect score.

Fighters of The Month

Paradox Fatal (TO) : He is the only fighter on his team to have entered the octagon three times. He has participated in 3 of the closest battles, and can claim 2 of the victories. Not only that, he is the overall score leader among fighters. He has fought the toughest matches.

Angelic Ninja(HL): While some may claim J2 is HL's hero, as he has more points, and needed to face the behemoth that is Paradox not once, but twice, we cannot deny the fact that Angelic Ninja has flexed his muscle, not only as being the first to 3 wins, but having a victory in three different categories.


Keep your eye on

Warden (TO): He was part of the round robin of J2, PF, and AN on Inheritance Forums. Any person who can write with those three is worth keeping an eye on.

PhoenixStarr (HL): While she has not participated in the AFB since her duel with Paradox Fatal, she nearly won a battle against arguably The Opposition's best asset, something few should be able to do. She even took one judgment from him.


Member's Opinions of the AFB

"The AFB has certainly found its footing within Be Creative. New warriors are joining weekly, which means a fresh insurgence of skill and talent. There are some up and comers, and I'll be looking for them on the battlefield. I have to say that the AFB has helped to bring this forum together. There is nothing more thrilling than setting yourself against another in a battle of witt and focus, and then having that outcome judged by your peers. Let the war continue."

-Paradox Fatal: The Opposition's Champion, the defender of the color pink.


"After being on the site for awhile, I really feel that one of the coolest concepts which has been put forth on it so far is the All Forum Battle.

Just to reiterate what it is, basically, we are on two teams, and you compete against another person in battles. These battles may be short stories, poems, debates, or art. You get the same prompt, and then your judged by three people. We keep track of points and everything, and at the end, there is going to be a final battle between the top 4(or 3) point getters on Sunfest's and Matty Lee's teams.

There's already been some cool things which have happened. Kull Conqueror's Short story contest with Phoenixstarr was probably our closest battle, and it was a good one. Probably our best duel yet.

Pirates and Ninjas, we had a debate on that. A serious debate mind you, between me and Kull Conqueror.

Whether or not it was meant to or not, I really think the All Forum Battle is a really cool concept and everyone should give it a try."

-JSquared, in a post on Inheritance Forums in the Advertising Hut