Over at Trilobyte studios, Blaze has some disagreements on my columns on worldbuilding and race. Check them out for some intelligent discussion that’s got me thinking.
Respectfully,
– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
Many, many years ago, I noticed American politics often boiled down to blaming things on God, Darwin, Or History. Later it came to me that, in some ways, worldbuilders did this as well.
These are three crutches we use rather poorly in our worldbuilding. Three excuses that let us hand-wave good worldbuilding and thinking, and shovel torpes in. We may not even realize we do it.
(Though if you think about it you’re probably being a bit lazy. It’s OK, everyone is now and then.)
Let’s look at how these excuses get us lazy – and make poor worldbuilding. (more…)
And hello to everyone! What’s up at the sanctum?
As mentioned since the Magic Power Generator keeps getting bloody interrupted, I wanted to do a jumpstarter or two (and honestly, I want to finish that one). My latest is an Undead Generator inspired by Cave Evil. I wanted something to make various horrific creations in the usual undead vein, which often seem to have reasonably specific patterns. Here’s a few of the results:
- Wraith of Rot
- Bloated Coffin Warrior
- Rotten Dragon of The Depths
- Wraith Flayer
- Blasphemous Crypt Render
- Eternal Crypt Dragon
- Icy Bone Mage
- Monstrous Ghost Wyvern
- Zombie of Tombs
- Stone Ghoul of the North
I hope to have this one done relatively soon – the structure is there, I just have to tweak probabilities and flesh out the database.
Respectfully,
– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
AlternaTEAS is a Steampunk/Urban Fantasy anthology published by Sky Warrior Books. The reading period is from March 1, 2015 to July 31st, 2015.
The anthology will include stories (from between 5,000-7,500 words — please query me if outside the boundaries of those already stated). Stories will be of intrigue, assignations and assassinations plotted (or committed) over a cup of tea . You are not limited to specific people or set in Victorian England. Japan, India and even the US have fine tea traditions. The more out of the ordinary a story is, the more I’m likely to keep it. Humor is not out of order.
Submission Guidelines:
- No story is considered complete if it does not have a ~100 word autobiography. I do not read incomplete stories. Period.
- Stories should be in standard accepted ms. format and submitted as an attachment in Word97, Open Office or .RTF
- Submission letters should have “AlternaTEAS submission” in the Subject line and be sent to ANTHOLOGIES@SKYWARRIORBOOKS..
COM or LACEGILLIGAN@GMAIL.COM - If you have a question, PLEASE contact me at Alterna_TEAS on FB or in email at the address given below.
- Your ms. should have contact information: Name, mailing address phone number and email address. If we can’t contact you, we can’t buy your story.
- Payment is author share divided equally among the authors. We pay twice a year.
- No simultaneous Submissions. We prefer no reprints.
- Further information about Sky Warrior Books can be found on their website at: www.skywarriorbooks.com
(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)
So last column I talked about stereotypes in creating races. Mostly it was:
- Don’t do it.
- Be sure not to mix up culture versus racial/species traits.
- Really, don’t do it.
- Did I mention conflating culture and biological traits really is bad?
However there’s a specific kind of stereotyping of races I want to call out in worldbuilding. One that’s insidiuous in real life and in fictional world creation. One that often goes unexplored.
The Positive Stereotype. (more…)
And welcome to the column with Most Controversial Sounding Title yet. Which, much like my columns on sex, is probably going to be far more pedestrian than expected. Which is good in this case.
What we’re going to talk about here is our races (in this case species) and races (the distinct groups within species) and culture.
Yeah, I’m gonna keep it clinical if I can. (more…)
(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)
Sentient races (which I’m adapting in the “species” sense) are almost certainly going to be very adaptable. They are going to learn, change, grow, alter, and evolve – even as individuals. The child of today is nothing like the adult of tomorrow, just as the engineer of today is not the engineer of 200 years ago.
Adaption is, in many ways, the very definition of intelligence: taking in, processing, and using information. The ability to be aware, to think, is what sentience is. Without it, one’s really a machine, even if a biological one.
So if you’re writing sentient races (or species, ugh, I keep hating to differentiate-yet-not here), they’reprobably going to be adaptable. (more…)
Hello gang, and yes, once again I vanished – and you’ll notice Way With Worlds was late.
The simple factor is things got crazy. I’m working on a job change, but also my stepfather passed away. Throw in the craziness on airlines flying too/from the funeral and daylight savings time, and I’m more than a bit wiped out.
Fortunately the funeral went well. My Stepdad was the kind of guy people always had a good story about, so just discussing him made everything a remembrance.
I’m hoping for some peace and quiet shortly. Oh, after the wedding I am going to. Yet, its not done yet.
So not giving up on the Magic Power Generator yet, nor the Plot Twist one. However I will probably do another “booster” to get my mind going – and I have a most interesting one inspired by both an RPG and a board game to try so stay tuned . . .
Way With Worlds is also going to keep exploring designing Races (where, yes, I often mean species). I’ve got a lot more to say on that from last time, and that should get interesting.
I hope everyone else is doing well.
Respectfully,
– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
And now, with the issue of race and species cleared up by largely just giving up (and using race for everything, including species), let’s talk designing races. Please note that in this case I will discuss race as an inclusively interbreeding, defined group – essentially species, as noted earlier.
Now I’ve covered some of this under previous columns on writing intelligent life – which I assume is largely what we’re covering here. In this case, we’re going to get into the nitty gritty about race creation.
Races start with the setting. Before you “run the race” you need to know the landscape.
OK, not the best joke, stick with me here. (more…)
It gets complicated.
Building “races” is a big thing in worldbuilding, especially in the areas of Science Fiction and Fantasy. People craft epicly different alien races. Games have different stats for the “player races.” Everyone seems happy when some fantasy world has Not Just Another Elf since so many races seem the same.
So if you’re worldbuilding, there’s a chance you need to create races. That’s the problem – when we talk about worldbuilding races, we’re not always talking races. If I’m going to talk race-creation I need to clarify what we’re talking about
We’re probably not talking about what you think we are. (more…)
