#i had so much fun with the worldbuilding too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

queenofbaws · 3 days

Text

! Pride Month Challenge 2024 !

Well hi there, everyone! With May winding down to a close and June just around the corner, it's about that time again...the time where @jadedsunshine, @unicornaffair, and I host our yearly create-a-thon! 🥳

What's the Pride Month Challenge, you might find yourself asking? Well, this year it's a little bingo game we've put together, featuring some classic tropes. The aim of this particular game? Make something!!! Anything! Just get those creative juices a-flowin' and see if you can snag a B-I-N-G-O along the way!

This challenge is open to everyone and anyone who wants to take part, whether you know the three of us or not! We're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for the stuff we create, so if you decide to join in on the fun and games, feel free to stick that tag on whatever you make, too! If you're interested in more details, you can check below the cut or reach out and ask ;)c

Either way, happy almost-pride, and happy creating!!!

I don't write fic - can I still participate?

Ab. So. Lutely!!! We've done this challenge for a few years now (we've missed a year or two for weddings and other life stuff, whoops!), but in the past we've had people doodle, sketch, draw, make edits, create props or other physical art, and even curate playlists! The three of us are writers, so you're very likely to see fic or ficlets from us...but you? Oh. Oh, you can do whatever your heart desires!!!

Are there word limits/expectations for a finished product?

NO!!! :D Zero. Literally zero expectations. We aren't putting together an exchange, we aren't holding a competition, we're just trying to get the spirit of creation in the air. That's it! So whether you're writing 50 words or 5,000, whether you've made a rough sketch on a notebook page or fully lined/colored a scene, you're good! You're so good. As long as you've made something, you've earned a stamp on that bingo card, baby!!!

What if I don't want to do something fandom-y? Can it be OCs/original work?

OF COURSE!!! 100%. You don't even have to ask!!! Show the world your OCs! Tell the world about your story's worldbuilding! It's all fair game :)

What if I don't want to post what I made?

Don't sweat it! Again, this is...the farthest thing from official. This is for fun, and this is for the sake of making something. Sharing your work can be nerve-wracking - don't feel like you have to! We'd love to see you playing along with us, of course, but as long as you've made something that you're proud of, you've earned that stamp! No ifs, ands, or buts!

Is it cool if my creations aren't necessarily pride-themed?

Totally! We host this challenge during pride month because (1) it traditionally works better for the three of us than NaNoWriMo because of our schedules, and (2) we're queer creators ourselves! But if you're feeling a prompt and can't find a way to make it relevant to pride, PLEASE don't sweat it! As I've been known to say (and then get laughed at for saying), this challenge is no rules, just right, Outback Steakhouse :P

Let's say I get a bingo...what do I win?

:) Nothing. <3

Wait, really?

:) Really <3 Hehehe, in all seriousness, this challenge has been a fun way for us to sit down, take our minds off of life and our bigger projects and just...make some fun stuff! In our humble opinion(s), being able to point at a finished piece and say "I did that! I made that!" is its own kind of reward. The bingo board itself is really more for bragging rights ;)c Which, of course, we encourage wholeheartedly. Nothing wrong with a little bragging!!!

We hope to have you along for our month-long adventure! Again, we're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for our own stuff, so if you'd like to use that tag - or tag any of us!!! - in whatever you end up creating, feel free!!! We love seeing what everyone comes up with, and this challenge is always so much more fun, knowing other people are taking part! <3 Hope to see you along for the ride!

*The bingo board was made by the lovely @jadedsunshine 🥰

#pridemonthchallenge2024 #queenie writes challenge stuff #<- i'll also be sticking that tag onto the things /i/ make personally in case anyone wants to blacklist or keep an eye out!#PLEASE feel free to reblog and PLEASE feel even freer to play along at home!!!#we love doing this challenge so so much and we're so excited to get back into it!!!

45 notes · View notes

cilly-the-writer · 11 months

Text

SHADOWS OF SORCERY | Part 22 | “Shadow of Darkness” | 1,285 words

Note: The final part!

Maybe Elora’s fears had been unfounded.

The Power Authority did not press very much about what happened. The investigation was quickly wrapped up, given that James Hemlock had confessed to everything and given that his abundance of magic cores further proved his guilt. A report was written up and Elora’s parents were to be released first thing in the morning.

They were brought to the school and as soon as their figures appeared through the path in the forest, Elora ran to them and her firelights tagged along right behind her. Beaming bright in the sunrise’s fiery glow.

“Oh my—.” her mother got out just before Elora and her firelights bounded straight into them.

“I knew you didn’t poison me!” Elora sobbed into her mother’s shoulder as they embraced her right back. She sank right into their warmth. It was like she was feeling all her “missing” at once—she felt all those days without them crashing together at the bottom of her throat. It was so pent up in her chest that she refused to let go for several more minutes.

It took a lot of coaxing to get her to let go and believe they would not leave her.

Imogene waited in the distance to catch up with them at the appropriate time. As soon as Elora had cried it all out and explained a few pieces of the story (she couldn’t tell them everything right now anyway), they all went to sit down around the school patio furniture outside the school’s residential building.

Imogene conjured plates of food and they all ate and talked.

It was the most wonderful morning that Elora had had in a long time. But after a long while, as they approached the afternoon, her parents insisted that she not miss her studies. They told her that they would not be going anywhere. They would come back to visit in the evening after they took a look around the house and made arrangements to settle back into society.

Elora reluctantly let them go.

She found it hard to study though. She flicked her pen around between her thumb and index finger, stopping to reread the passages where she kept getting distracted. She was too happy about her parents’ return to think about anything else.

Until a knock came at the door.

She went to open it and she found Charlotte standing there with a smile and a small red gift box in her hand.

“I know you don’t really need it anymore—,” Charlotte said, “—but my father was able to get one and he said it was yours if you still wanted it.”

She opened the box and a plant core glowed at the center. Vibrant like a marble with strokes of green leaves and petals of deep purple. Just like the Luminess core pictured in Imogene’s plant study books.

It was floating in a smaller box of purple light.

“He put it in a magic seal so you don’t actually have to claim it. I know—well, you know…”

She was alluding to the poison core, suggesting that she wouldn’t be offended if Elora was skeptical. Elora held her breath and picked it up. If it was really a Luminess core… then she could feel its ambient magic.

Her fingers cooled at its touch and the tension in her shoulders from (trying) to study faded with its magic. It was like a breath of fresh air. It was the real deal—a real Luminess core. Elora smiled and thanked Charlotte with a big hug.

After they let go, Charlotte’s voice cracked as she went to speak again.

“There’s something else I wanted to tell you, Elora. I just—.” Charlotte moved to step inside her room and close the door. She cleared her throat to say it without sounding like she was going to cry. “I know… I know you’ve been hiding something. My father thinks he knows what it is, based on a report about some kid who was playing at one of the regional playgrounds… and I just want you to know that it’s okay. He won’t say anything.”

Elora stared, having stopped breathing until Charlotte finished talking.

“I know that’s why you got close to me… It’s okay. You don’t have to be friends with me anymore. I won’t tell anyone. I know I’m very quiet and I’m not very fun to hang around with. I don’t want to be a burden or impos—.”

“Charlotte!” Elora pulled her back in for another hug, squeezing even harder. “Don’t say that! You’re not a burden. You’re my friend!”

“Really?” Charlotte’s voice broke as the tears streamed down her face.

“Yes,” Elora pulled away to go seek out her tissue box and hold it out to her, “you’re my friend… and you can call me Flora.”

Charlotte’s lips quivered as she dabbed a tissue around her eyes. She sniffled a little bit before she went on.

“That’s pretty.”

A soft smile grew on Flora’s face.

Once Charlotte regained her composure, she had even more news to tell. She told Flora that her father had saved something from all of the cores that had gotten confiscated yesterday. He had gifted one of the magic cores to the Regents Academy of Magic and the Dreamer Club would receive special privileges to access it first.

“What did he save?” Flora asked.

Mr. Gallison had saved the magic preservation ability. Convincing the Power Authority of its usefulness, thanks to Charlotte’s intense ramblings about their search for such an ability.

The very next day, they went to the magic holding room where it was being kept.

The magic core floated above a pedestal, suspended in gravity as its light captivated like a glass moon, the deep violet glowing as they approached it. They had invited Jaelin along too. He fought the smile forming on his face as he set his hands on the glass around the pedestal.

He stood there, recollecting everything he had learned from his grandfather about dreamer magic systems (from seals to magic networks and magic interfaces)—a gift he did not possess—and applying it to his developer magic. He formed a set of silver wristguards and they appeared over the glass; then he turned to Flora, explaining his design intention in extensive detail. Very. Extensive. Detail. Flora wasn’t sure when he was going to finally shut up.

Eventually, he passed the wristguards off to her and Flora held them to the glass. Her purple casting magic glowed at her fingertips as she held onto the wristguards. Instilling them with her own casting magic.

They didn't stick around the magic holding room for very long. They went straight to one of the magic practice rooms afterwards. It was time to test out their prototype.

“Whoa!” Imogene held her arms out in front of herself, inspecting the detail of the wristguards’ floral embossings and smiling wide as she swung her arm out. A bright purple field appeared over the wristguard—about the size of a frisbee.

With another motion, she whisked the energy disc across the room. Almost striking Kaden in the chest before he jumped back and it sliced halfway into the wall beside him instead.

“Hey!” Kaden narrowed his eyes. “I’m not training with you if you can’t control that thing yet!”

Imogene recoiled at her mistake.

“Sorry!”

Charlotte and Jaelin hid their laughter off to the side, having expected some troubleshooting. But Flora didn’t hide the smile that cracked on her face. She couldn’t help but smile at the couple of firelights that went over to pester Kaden after that—weaving in and out around him until he lightened up a bit.

Feeling her own thoughts drifting out of the shadows of darkness.

#scheduled #wip: SoS #writeblr #fantasy #writing #the final part!!!#loved writing these idiots #i had so much fun with the worldbuilding too #and I just HAD to bring that ability back into the ending hehehe #also spoiler but >>#Jaelin is technically the only one who doesn't know Flora has a mind control ability #like JAELIN WAS SO CLOSE TO FIGURING IT OUT TOO #him finding out would be hilarious #potential bonus scene or sequel maybe hmmm #but only if something comes to me #definitely switching back to my main wips for now though!

6 notes · View notes

puppyeared · 2 months

Text

littlest furth shop

@laikascomet

#i think i had a little too much fun with this lol #i also wanted to draw road boy and other characters but maybe when they actually get introduced #i do have a sketch of him with a lil chainsaw.. im not gonna be normal when he gets introduced man he looks so sillygoofy #if you squint laika's eye marking is a clover yue's is a crescent moon and mars' is a star ^_^#i wanted to give laika an accessory too but i couldnt think of anything.. maybe a stack of pancakes??#im curious to see the apocalypse side of the story too.. like so far we have an idea of the comet fucking everything up #and im assuming that lead to a ripple effect causing the apocalypse but exactly how bad?? i cant wait to find out #rn im kinda piecing stuff together.. larkspur delivers mail in a beat up van so that might mean all transportation is grounded #the buildings we've seen so far are intact like the observatory and turnip's house but idk if thats the same for big cities #laikas playlist only includes songs downloaded on yue's computer and there hasnt been internet in 20 years.. but radio signals might #still work.. if yue grows his own food we can assume that mass production and distribution also isnt a thing anymore #sorry im a sucker for worldbuilding.. and the furth puns are fun to me. i like to think toronto would be clawronto.. and vancouver wld #be nyancouver.. barktic circle.. mewfoundland and labrador.. canyada....#christ i have so many drawing ideas. willow if youre reading this im so sorry youre probably gonna expect to see a lot of drawings frm me #like. i wanna draw laika in the akira bike pose so sosososo bad. IT WOULD BE SO AWESOMECOOL. ill teach myself to draw bikes if i have to #i also wanted to animate laika leekspin.. man #my art #myart #fanart #laika's comet #laikas comet #laika #mars #yue #furry art #fur #littlest pet shop #lps

2K notes · View notes

faislittlewhiteraven · 25 days

Text

Been having some ISaT tech level and timeline (as in 'when backstory things happened') thoughts and want to ramble a bit:

Tech

ISaT's setting is based on your classic sword and sorcery fantasy JRPG so its easy to assume that tech wise everything is 'fantasy medieval' and call it a day but consider:

Body Craft is at bare minimum is magic sex changing surgery (earliest known equivent in our world dating to 1930) that any old person can learn to do safely on themselves in only a few months, and more likely has many many broader applications like regular old surgery, the 'combat healing' Mira and Sif use, etc.

Cameras and photos are rare enough that Odile comments on it (namely she's happy the group get a photo in the House due to them being 'so rare') yet are also common enough that everyone in the party knows about them and doesn't question the existence of a camera beyond being surprised that the mirror was one. (In our world cameras date back to the 19th century, with the earliest manufacturing of them being in 1839).

Printing presses and ways to make plenty of paper to feed those presses given absolutely everyone in this game can read, expects everyone else to know how to, and both mass produced book series and newspapers are a thing. (Note: Printing presses have existed since waaaay back but it's the mass paper manufacturing that makes newspapers and The Cursing of Chateu Castle possible that really has my eyebrows raised here, especially since neither Siffrin or Odile find either odd in any way, indicating such things are common everywhere, and while newspapers have been around since 1604 in our world, mass produced fantasy books didn't really take off until the start of the 20th century).

Food production and storage: despite being in the middle of a national disaster that almost certainly cut off trade networks and access to most suppliers for literal months now, Bonnie, a small child, is able to easily get their hands on fresh Pineapple, curry ingredients (for samosa), potatoes, plantains etc with no issues or anyone commenting on this being unusual or lucky. Oh and the only character who even brings up the concept of potential starvation is the Fishing One, and only in a sort of 'we're not at risk now but sooner or later...' kinda way due to noticing that the fish they fish up for fun are disappearing and likely being frozen. So yeah, that heavily implies Vaugarde has very good food storage tech/Craft (possibly better than ours), and likely also good food production and harvesting tech/skills also.

The Island's incredible knowledge of the stars: while the oldest known orrery in our world is dated from around 205 to 87 BC (ancient Greek, earth centric model), the fact Sif -who would've learnt this as a child/teen- is so very certain that stars are big balls of fire made up of gas is interesting as that's something our world couldn't prove the theory of until around the 1900s (note: it'd been theorized a LONG time but Sif talks like its complete facts to them . Additionally the earliest existing record of a telescope in our world dates to a 1608 patent and we see one of those in game.

Post posting EDIT: A wonderful user qds-place pointed out that Mirabelle has anti-anxiety medication in her room. This is in both ISaT and SAaP and though we're not sure what form the medication takes (pills? Valium? Megitech esc Craft boosters???) the fact they specifically have 'anti anxiety' medication at all (as opposed to idk dragging Mira off and drugging her through the gills) is kind of impressive and if it IS modern anti anxiety pills those could be as recent in creation as the 1950s! So um. Some high levels of tech implied in chemistry there <3

So... yeah. All this, plus the fact that the highest tech implied area, The Island, literally specialised in the study/Craft of turning wishes into reality (for a long enough time period that Wish Craft is culturally so ingrained in the King and Sif that they do it without thinking and it seems intertwined with their nation's religion) has been completely erased from memory to the point anything heavily associated with them has been forgotten, and also we only ever see Dormont aka a little village well away from the cities, it's not hard to conclude that you can basically justify giving the ISaT world any level of tech you want, so long as you lock any of the truly 'setting breaking' stuff like planes and rockets behind The Island's forgetting curse (I would've said trains too but thinking about it trains were invented in 1802 so it's honestly easy to imagine that they totally exist in the ISaT setting/Vaugarde but aren't ever on screen because rail is way too dangerous to consider using while the Curse is active and potentially time freezing things on the tracks).

Side note: We know absolutely nothing about Vaugarde's transport system but as a fan of fantasy RPGs it is honestly a travesty I have yet to see a fic that has flying dragons/wyverns or other fantasy mounts in setting. Like, ok yes, the party would probably have wanted to use those but maybe they don't like the Curse and fled? Maybe the King's Curse targeted them first? Maybe all their handlers dropped the heroes off in Dormont and said 'Well Saviors it's been fun, but well me and Scales here are off to Poteria until things wrap up so best of luck to you' before buggering off?

This isn't really a serious complaint just. Me reminding myself/potentially other fanwork writers out there that there's a lot about the setting we just don't know about and limiting all travel to walking, horse drawn carriage and boat is not actually required. (Also please mix up travelling to the Island. Boats are a wonderful classic and have great thematic vibes for Sif's original leaving of the Island but like. Imagine the sheer in-universe wtf of the memories of The Island suddenly coming back and people on the north coast suddenly realising there's a massive bridge, subway or underwater tunnel leading there that everyone just forgot about - potentially filled with all kinds of Sadnesses that need taking down. Or Warp Panels in a House of Change, idk XD).

Timeline

Canon notes first:

Bonnie is a preteen (8 to 12), Mira and Isa are in their early to mid 20s (with Isa slightly older), Sif is late 20s to 30, and Odile is 40+ Nille is stated to be around 18 to 20.

Siffrin ran away from home when they were a teenager (13 to 17? 18?) and this is heavily implied to be when the Island was Forgotten.

Bonnie (in ISaT specifically*) says that Nille told them that when it happened all the adults were talking about it, hence why they think The Island is close to their village. *In Start Again a Prologue, Bonnie says that they themself remember the adults talking about the Island disappearing, which er. Is a bit impossible given they likely weren't even born yet when that happened but that can be explained away by AU differences, InsertDisc5 still finalising details between SAaP and ISaT, and/or OG Siffrin having been in the loops so long they weren't actually listening when Bonnie was talking and just 'scripted' in their head something 'close enough' to what Bonnie was saying to get the idea (note: mentioned that idea before in my post here on the differences between the House and King in Start Again vs In Stars and Time for anyone curious so er please feel free to give that a read if you haven't already).

Odile mentions remembering 'when it happened' as well and has been 'travelling for years'.

The King 'appeared out of nowhere' sometime in his adulthood, and lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King.

The King became the King as was freezing people in time long enough before his attack on the House of Dormont that everyone inside knew he was coming, there were a wall's worth of newspaper articles about him, and everyone was expecting Euphrasie to defeat him.

Mirabelle's quest began 'almost a year ago' and Sif lost their eye 'recently'.

Thoughts on the above:

Calculating when The Island was forgotten:

Sif being mid 20s to 30 and having run away from home as a teen means that The Island has to have been forgotten somewhere between 9 to 17 years ago with nine only possible if he ran away at age 17 and is only age 26 now, and seventeen being the far opposite if he ran at age 13 and is currently 30.

To narrow down the timeline: Given Sif ran away from home because he 'didn't want to eat his veggies' and 'just wanted to scare [his] parents a little bit' it's probably safe to assume Siffrin was likely on the younger end of the teen spectrum (teens run off all the time sure but with loving parents and over veggies? That screams 'kid who has not yet learned that freaking out the parents will get their ass grounded and/or yelled at a LOT and is therefore best saved for doing fun forbidden stuff that ideally the parents will never find out about' XD) Additionally given Siffrin can't remember his age/birthday etc but Isabeau outright says near the beginning of the game "But you're older than most of the people here?" meaning Sif must be visibly older than Isa or Mira, so he's probably closer to 30 than not.

Those alone would imply the Island likely disappeared closer to the '17 years ago' side of things BUT Nille (tops 20 years old) told Bonnie that "[the Island's disappearance] was all the adults would talk about for ages" and kids usually can't remember anything prior to 4 years of age so with that in mind...

I'd say The Island most likely disappeared between 13 to 16 years ago.

Nille stuff:

This is more a general mention but. Nille is tops 20 years old. Bonnie is between 8 and 12 and doesn't remember their parents at all.

This means Nille ran away with Bonnie and gained emancipation and custody of Bonnie (if Vaugarde has formalised that kind of legal stuff) while she was at most 12 years old herself and could have in theory been as young as 6..!

Regardless, it's very likely the original home situation was that bad, Nille deserves a ton of credit for raising Bonnie as well as she has and I'd say it's very VERY likely she had a lot of help from villagers in Bambosche and/or the local House of Change in doing so. ...But also Bonnie is very adamantly 'my sister and village' and not 'my sister and [specific names who live with us]' so there's clearly by the time Bonnie was 4 or so they were living in their own place so... Yeah. Lotta drive for independence there too it seems (so the party might have more trouble adopting Nille into their group post ISaT than Bonnie might expect).

King stuff:

Already an adult 13 to 16 years ago so at bare minimum 33. Given his vibe probably much older though.

Newspapers get printed pretty quick though for there to be so much speculation and research done into his background so quick, either Vaugarde has some form of fast messaging system (something like a Chappe telegraph on top of the Houses of Change? Odile I think does mention that they'll have a message sent to let Nille know they'll be returning Bonnie...) or the King was freezing stuff for IDK around a month or two before reaching Dormont? Alas can't find out how long it takes to walk across all of France out very easily (I'm sure the numbers are out there but my brain is pudding rn) but if we had those numbers we could probably make some guesstimates based off the rough sketched map of Vaugarde InsertDisk5 did... Which I would link but apparently the tumblr post I had it linked on has been deleted???? 'wails at this very unhappy development'

Mira's journey and Sif's eye:

We really don't know a lot but almost a year ago gives us somewhere around 9 to 11 months to spread the journey out along and after eye removal surgery the patient can out and about as soon as 2 to 6 weeks after, maybe sooner with magic healing (though full recovery/growing used to the changed spacial awareness -which Sif clearly does not have- probably can't be sped up and takes around 3 to 6 months) so um. I'd guestimate Sif's eye injury is really recent; like two months ago tops recent. ...Which sorta explains a lot of why Bonnie is not dealing with it right now and also why the others might be trying to avoid bringing it up (since Sif clearly loves avoiding the issue but they haven't yet realised that maybe they really should bring it up even if it annoys them anyway?)

Odile with some Ka Bue speculation:

When it comes to The Island, how did Odile, presumably living in Ka Bue at the time, remember 'when it happened'? Was the Island well known enough even on the other side of the world that it's disappearance made waves? Or was Odile herself or someone she's close to paying attention to the region? (Like maybe her dad or a friend is/was into politics or trade, keeping up with overseas news and got concerned it could happen to Ka Bue? I'd say 'I remember when it happened' line implies it was more immediate knowledge than being informed by a messenger much later though...)

As for Odile's 'years of travel' I have to wonder, what's left behind for her in Ka Bue? She brings up going back there quite a bit, might just miss home and possibly her father if he's still alive, but given it took her years to get here for something so personal rather than idk 'materially rewarding' I think Odile might have some kinda family estate or something back in Ka Bue... Something she wasn't worried about potentially losing while far away, but solid enough to want to return to, beyond her father who she'd definitely want to see again if he's still around. (...But given how open she is to chilling about Vaugarde a few more months with the others, I really don't think he is alive, since well, given their respective ages and travel between Vaugarde and Ka Bue apparently taking years, there'd definitely an uncomfortably high chance of him passing away while she's gone and that seems like the thing that'd stress Odile out so... Yeah. Probably got an estate in Ka Bue she'd like to take the Family to visit/possibly sell off if she decides she'd like to live with them in Vaugarde so... Just my off the cuff headcanoning here and hoping that gives others ideas or something).

---

Anyway that's all the ramble I've got in me so... yeah! Hope this was interesting and useful for those needing a bit of a 'possible tech'/timeline calcs breakdown for the Island + a few more vague things and um. Probably will post a long winding ramble about my attempt at a ISaT Selkie AU fic I've been working on next <3 (Not to be confused with looped-140-and-counting's already existing and quite wonderful Selkie Siffrin AU which already has a completed oneshot fic, a snippet of sequel, two snippets of prequel/Sif flashbacking and I believe a comic too, all of which I highly recommend <3)

#isat #isat spoilers #useful notes #in stars and time #speculation ramble #isat timeline notes #hope some of my isat fans out there find this useful for their fanworks <3 #I know its pretty basic stuff but I find having things laid out clearly handy for working out backstory and what to change in AUs so yeah =#i link interesting things. read selkie sif fic rec plz #isat nille #isat siffrin #isat bonnie #start again a prologue mention! (sorry there's not more than that XD)#thinking too hard about what I can and can't get away with in the big beautiful void that is 'left open to speculation' worldbuilding <3 #the forgotten island allows so many shenanigans people are not taking enough advantage of and I will call this out XD #also isat features a surprising amount of 'more modern-ish' tech or magitech that can basically do the same or better so like #Also had way too much fun wiki walking and going 'ohhh that's more recent than I thought. Cool!' and would highly recommend it #please ramble back to me your own random thoughts and notes as I love them even if I'm never sure as whether or not (or how) I should reply

92 notes · View notes

allastoredeer · 3 months

Text

I'm going DEEP into some worldbuilding for Pentagram City and all the politics surrounding the Overlords and this is literally how I feel right now

I'm feeling a little deranged ngl HA HA, oh but I'm having so much fun. I'm so excited to get into the inner-working of Pentagram City, the Overlords, Sinners, the Royal Family, and how it all works together in one big society.

#RAHHH I'm having so much fun #GOSH I love worldbuilding #world building is the best #I had to take quite a few creative liberties as we still don't know a LOT of how this world works #I'm also not up to date on an Bible Lore so I'm not dwelling too deep into that LMAO #but developing politics for a silly made up show?#the only politics I'll talk about LOL #hazbin hotel #world building #Pentagram City

61 notes · View notes

fragmentedblade · 3 months

Text

Boothill's presentation being entirely on the twitter post makes me think he will be irrelevant in the story in the long(ish) run, and that the game itself won't dwell on him almost at all

#Kinda like Argenti but Argenti seemed to be part of a larger lore and worldbuilding #Boothill doesn't even give me that vibe #Cool design though. I do love revenge stories and western films so...#*sighs* I guess I may consider him if he's fun to play with and the story is interesting. I hope he takes Aventurine out of the grave #(Or do I? Emotionally I do. Rationally I think I may lean more towards 'keep Aventurine dead' tbh)#Imagine if his revenge is against the IPC in general and Aventurine in particular but when he gets there Aventurine is already dead #The enormous fail that would be hahaha #Automaton cowboy is such a good design though I would have liked it more had they taken the automaton way enhancing the clockwork thing #instead of the cyborg one with the futuristic air. What can I say I do love automatons and clockwork #and to me they're far superior aesthetically than cyborgs. Not into cyborgs and robots at all. Sorry Screwllum. Herta most beloved design #I wonder if his gameplay will revolve around some killing himself mechanic #I don't know what to say I do love those things gameplaywise. I love the risk they add and how they make one strategise a little more #Even beyond the story and the lore‚ Blade is still my fave character to use. So fun so flexible and ironically so reliable despite the risk #Abfksndk rambling #I am thinking of Aventurine and I'm thinking of Fu Xuan. I think I'll skip Robin unless they go dark-dark with her #but I'm still considering Sunday if they make him shady. I was looking forwards to Firefly but I've disliked her writing a lot #so for now she's a big skip. I wouldn't mind getting Topaz given I love the FUA mechanics and the SU #but I like other characters more and I don't like her design at all so I'll skip her too #Couldn't care less about IL (I have him in an alt account and I don't like him at all) so that's a big skip too #I like Screwllum but not enough for now. Hmmm I guess I could get one shielder since I do love them as characters #and then save until one character really convinces me. Boothill‚ Robin‚ Sunday hmmm I hope Sunday is shady and grey #I wonder if they'll bring Huaiyan. I would give a leg for Huaiyan. Yeah I've not moved on from the Xianzhou I love that place #and I adore Huaiyan and the Zhuming. I so hope we'll get to see that ship #I talk too much

15 notes · View notes

padfootastic · 1 year

Text

should just dedicate myself to miss imp’s blog because here’s another- thing i wrote based off her prompt. @impishtubist thank u for always getting the creative juices flowing for me 💀

(this summary sounds like a whole bunch of nothing bc i was having fun being all ~whimsical and shit, but basically: harry becomes lord black, the tapestry repairs itself, and he finds a surprise addition on it)

________________

Magic was a fickle thing. No one knew where it came from nor how it operated. But ignorance is not the same as irreverence—every wixen in the magical world was brought up with the knowledge that Magic was to be both feared and respected. There was a sentience to it that was beyond the scope of mortal comprehension and there were warnings—stories of grave misfortune bestowed upon those who neglected this fact.

Under the broad gamut of Magic, however, lies one particularly under-studied field of Family Magics. Not much is known about it, except that families who have a long lineage to call upon have some…quirks to their magic that others don’t. Certain types of magics come easier to them, an affinity, if you will. That’s not to say that others can’t have any of their own. The Malfoys might be relatively newblooded—despite their attempts at rebranding—but their propensity for Charms hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Weasleys and their fertility magic has, despite their social status, impressed a community with such low birth rates.

So, it is fair to say that Family Magics are alive and kicking, distributed by a power unknown to everyone. The Blacks, at the height of their power, were feared by everyone—friend and foe alike. Their prowess with offensive magics was nigh unbeatable and even now, with its current state of disrepute, the old guard talks about the family in tones of awe and trepidation.

It’s what makes the fates of Sirius and Regulus Black particularly tragic. That these two, heirs who were the envy of every single family, ended up fading into notoriety and obscurity, respectively—leaving behind a family crumbling into ruins.

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black…reduced to a house elf and a dilapidated house, both on the verge of falling apart.

That is, until now. Fate and Fortune colliding to breathe new life into old blood. With some personal discoveries along the way.

Tap for the full ao3 version!

17 notes · View notes

thetruearchmagos · 4 months

Text

Should I let the response to my posts decide what I focus on writing and posting?

#on the one hand is nebulous 'artistic integrity' and 'doing what I enjoy'#and on the other is actually feeling joy at the idea that someone cares about what I do #hell I'd have fun with basically anything in the 12 Worlds #but it's obvious that some topics generate enjoyable interactions with people and others don't #I mean I'm probably cutting down activity in general once school starts #so either way; less of everything. It's just a matter of relative degree...#feck #[or I could be reading too much into the dead silence that met my dining worldbuilding post. Fuck I had fun with that and no one cared #enough to say anything]#[I keep doing this whole thing but everytime I wind back in the same 'routine' anyhow. Guess it's just getting it off me chest.]

2 notes · View notes

ghosts-and-blue-sweaters · 1 year

Text

Thank you so so much @biathediamond @icyfox17 @salineroses and Pinestripe for sending in such darn lovely asks for the AU game!! I’m having a lot of fun with them :D

#making this post because I’m not too sure when I’ll actually post them #(if you know me than you know that my stories are never Short. they are going to be longer than three sentences lol)#bia I actually had a little idea for a fic a couple days ago that fits your prompt! so that’s fun :D #no spoilers but Wilbur ends up in jail multiple times #and Techno is probably gonna be there too (not in jail just in the fic)#Phil is a single dad and he is Trying #foxie your prompt is very interesting! I never really write in that genre so this’ll be a fun change of pace :D #I already have a few ideas for worldbuilding and stuff and WILBUR IS GONNA WEAR A COOL OUTFIT #I’ll probably give him a sick hat because why not #it’s very lord of the rings-esque if I do say so myself #SALINEROSES!!!#I JUST GOT YOUR PROMPT LAST NIGHT #AND USUALLY #I NEED TO THINK ABOUT IDEAS FOR AT LEAST A FEW DAYS BEFORE I ACTUALLY WRITE ANYTHING ABOUT IT #BUT YOUR PROMPT FILLED ME WITH SUCH INSPIRATION THAT I STARTED WRITING RIGHT THEN AND THERE #AND I WROTE OVER ONE THOUSAND WORDS #!!!!#it’s seriously such a fun idea and it’s been so EASY to write and I love it yes yes yes thank you soooo much #and Pinestripe!! :D #your prompt has become my Beloved #I am holding it to my chest like a baby bird #my beloved #all this to say I really really appreciate you guys sending in the prompts!#it’s been such a blast to work on :D #my post #oh and if anyone wants to send in prompts just check the pinned post

3 notes · View notes

springcatalyst · 1 year

Note

*banging on your door* I'D LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT JULIAN, LILIANA, UND BROOKE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

What are their final thoughts in the dark silence of night before they sleep? How do they sleep?

How do they choose their clothes when purchasing and dressing?

What is a fear that they cannot pull themselves away from? They need it, and they hate it.

OMG HELLO HI HELLOOOOOOOO i am taking ur coat like a victorian gentleman and inviting u inside. These are so specific and dramatic i love

AHEM

Sleep, rather, the moments right before it, is when a person is at their truest. You can’t really hide from it. So those final thoughts are typically a lens into the basal forms that make up a character.

Liliana is a character that’s very true, very genuine, so her sleeping mind doesn’t show much that you wouldn’t expect, because there’s not a lot that she hides, at least not from herself. She’s obsessive: stuck (though ‘stuck’ implies that she’s here by some force other than her own) in this quest that she’s been trailing for years, getting closer but not in any way that’s tangible. She goes to sleep with ‘what next’ floating around in her skull, and dreams of a goal reached. And she sleeps like the dead, but only because she puts it off for as long as she can. Not that she avoids sleep itself, though, rather she stays up and works until she can’t stay upright anymore. She is laser-focused, set on her task. It can benefit her, in certain conditions, but mostly it leaves her running on so little sleep she has trouble functioning. Her being a satyr means her sleep schedule doesn’t quite align with a ‘typical’ one anyway, but she definitely fucks it more and also that’s not set in stone atm.

Julian, on the other hand, is a liar and he hides just about everything about himself, including from himself. Julian and Liliana are similar in a lot of ways but this is not one of them. So his unconscious truth doesn’t always align with what he appears to be. It’s careful. It’s somatic: a sort of ‘is the door locked is the knife within reach is the cane by the bed,’ but it’s also theoretical: more a ‘who here do I trust (in the most basic sense of the word) or who do I watch out for.’ He absolutely is the impulsive asshole he looks like, but the little bit of careful caution that remains beneath plays a role in his continued safety (relatively speaking). Julian is also a pretty light sleeper, growing up with five siblings (lmao) there’s a good amount of noise in the mornings or if something is wrong at night, so he’s just kind of grown accustomed to waking up, even if it’s that barely-awake state, to evaluate the noise. And he rises with the sun- mostly old habit, but it’s also convenient for guaranteeing some time unobserved, for safety or just for some quiet.

Brooke is different in that the thing that follows her into sleep isn’t as much a thought as it is a feeling. Brooke spends a lot of time busy, not necessarily with the intent of keeping her mind securely in the present, but that’s the effect it has, no matter. So when she isn’t doing something- following or fighting or helping or hurting -she gets that little moment of quiet calm and it’s occupied by guilt. The weight of it kind of lingers above her, the knowledge of what she was a part of, the remembrance of what she’s constantly trying to undo. Brooke lives in the shadow of a debt to repay, and it catches up to her when she has a moment of still. She is an uneasy sleeper, heavy to the ongoings of the waking world, but she rarely sleeps straight through the night, nevertheless. She doesn’t dream, just wakes with the feeling that she did, even as it evades her.

I feel like this is already so long and that’s just the first thing but like, you gave me the opportunity so I’m taking it <3. Choice of fashion is a little less dramatic but I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it anyway. Clothing basically serves three functions: utility, expression, and comfort. For the sake of character designs I usually focus on the first two unless it’s particularly relevant, which it isn’t for these three so much.

Brooke is mostly utility. She has casualwear, of course, but honestly I haven’t really designed much of it and usually just draw her in her armor. Which is pretty obviously utile, but it’s also familiar. She keeps this leather armor, embossed around the edges (that I’ll actually design and make mean something eventually but... not yet apparently) and either similar or just the same to the kind she wore with her family, their guild. Familiar isn’t always a good thing, but it’s all she knows. If I’m being real she’s still being developed, especially storyline specifics, so not a lot is decided. I’ve thought about switching around the colors, the blue I typically give her can be a changed version, removed from its ties to before, which was maybe a gold or a purple, something more implicative of importance. Or of having her rid herself of the armor completely, so caught up in breaking her bonds that she makes herself vulnerable... but I’m a little too attached to how the armor looks... basically, she’s just balancing the safety of utility with the unrest of something recognizably hunter.

Liliana is mostly expression. She doesn’t need anything particular from her clothes, so chooses what makes her feel good. Nothing too extravagant, because she is still wrecking shit and needs to not be hindered by what she’s wearing, but she dresses to look good and be scary, when the need arises. She wears dresses and skirts despite the fact that, as a satyr, she really doesn’t... need to? Because satyrs, post-cataclysm, live closely tied with humans in particular, though fauns as well, depending on locale, and as such have absorbed some social elements of theirs- like clothing and gender norms. She abides by those norms, gender in particular (to a certain degree), not because she has to but because she wants to- because, you know, trans. She carries a good amount of things with her on average- swords and knives and lockpicks and money and various other whathaveyous -but rarely carries them all at once, taking them on or off her person whenever she thinks she may or may not need them, but her belt remains on no matter, because that’s what she needs to have any of them at all. Her compass, too, stays on her at all times, but that’s more sentimentality than use.

Julian is a bit of both, but with him, a lot of the expression melts over into utility. The puffy shirts, while inherently pirate out-of-universe, are conveniently the opposite of form-fitting. They make him look bigger than he is like a cat puffing out, but also hide, you know, trans. Typically they’re white or otherwise lightly colored, because it’s cheap and function-over-form, but later era when he’s particularly full of himself he trends towards darker colors and black. Black, as a dye, is expensive to make, so wearing it is a way of making it clear that he is either important or dangerous or both- he strives to command respect or fear and it doesn’t always matter which. Julian, like Liliana, also carries some stuff with him, but the difference is that he has less, and so almost always has all of them. The exception is his sword, which is bulky enough to always have that unless he for sure needs it, he’ll leave it in favor of a knife (or two, counting the one in his cane). And because his right hand is typically occupied by his cane, his things are all strapped to his left, another reason he doesn’t always carry the sword- it gets in the way. Finally, depending where storyline-wise he is, he wears a couple little gold earrings- mark of a pirate. Been considering having it be a status thing, too: one for crewmate, two for first mate, three for captain, or something similar.

Fear is a really interesting one. I dig where you’re going with it, and I’m sure I’m about to exhibit some mental illness, but like, fear is possibly one of the most important things in a character, because it’s what’s really behind at least 90% of a characters’ motivations, isn’t it?

Gotta start with Julian for this one. He is afraid of a thousand entwined things in a way he will never admit and might not even be aware of. The way he is perceived is so important to him that he lives with the constant threat of what he’s built for himself being taken away. He’s so... I can’t call him exactly fake, because it’s not all false... he’s so constructed. Everything he is, is exaggerated. He is angry, and impulsive, and fast and rude and detached, but the way those things are presented is curated to be viewed in the way that he wants it to be. And because of that, because everything he is is built on a not-quite-lie not-quite-truth, he runs the risk of having it all crash down around him. That’s what follows him: the fear of being seen past it all, because he thinks that with that, he’ll end up right back where he was before. Not to be too insane but in my silly little character.doc that I have for fun there’s this segment that’s pretty much what I just said:

He is afraid of no longer being taken seriously

He is afraid of losing the image he has created

He is afraid of trust being broken and secrets getting out

He is afraid of being patronized or the subject of pity

He would have you believe he is afraid of nothing

Liliana, now that I’m thinking about it, is actually pretty similar to him. I didn’t even do this one on purpose oops. Her difference, though, is that what she is isn’t fake. She has this legacy, this name, that she reigns- people know of her, she commands that same respect or fear that Julian has to try so hard to. Part of that, though, is taken from her. She has her... I don’t want to call it a birthright, because that sounds entitled, but she has her birthright, then it’s stolen from her, and she rebuilds it even as she is on a hunt to reclaim it. And so her fear stems from the possibility of failure. If she never reaches her goal, if she truly loses what should never have been taken in the first place, then it’s all been for nothing, not only her work, but her father’s. And the longer she goes without reaching that finish line, the more she is afraid of ‘what if it’s too late’ and ‘maybe it’s already over.’ Because her failure is also his, what she’d lose is also his, and that’s worse than if she just failed herself, because she feels the need to honor what he built, what he left, and what he was, in his absence.

Brooke is afraid of exactly what you’d expect. A thousand what you’ve done’s follow her. She terrified of never making it right, of the possibility of her wrongs being something that she never can make right. She made a vow and she intends with all her being to keep it, but there is no endgoal, there is no ‘finished.’ It’s constant, and as such the constant threat of failure, of breaking that promise, whether by action or inaction, stays with her. She lives with it for so long that it begins to leech into her, more than it already was, so it becomes what drives her. But also... it’s what’s always driven her. For a long time, she’s driven more by what’s behind her than what’s before her, and all that does is make her steep in this guilt and fear, fighting for a repentance that she doesn’t even know if she deserves.

Okay I’m done being insane now, I hope my fucked up little guys provide enrichment to your enclosure but either way you’ve given me the GIFT of LETTING ME BE ANNOYING so THANK U AGAIN BESTIE. KISSING U KISSING U KISSING U KISSING U K

#ask #ocs #YEAHHHH INSANE ABOUT CHARACTERS YEAH BAYBEYY NORMAL ABOUT OCS #ur literally so real for this. i owe u my life #it took a while cause i had work and even now it is currently 1:31 am and the sunday of finals week but it's FINE #because im having FUN #god. it's so much. i always feel like i write a whole ass essay but like........ you let me do that. so i did that #liliana and julian got that. character foil parallel arc #liliana got that. revenge quest #liliana got that my name is inigo montoya you killed my father prepare to die #brooke got that. she got that all that #eheheh. fucked up little guys. i literally LOVE talking about them you don't understand #mentally well if anyone asks #dont mind the. casual drop that i have a useless word doc that i made just because i felt like it. it is 19 pages long AKJFSHLJKAFJKJD #a bunch of random worldbuilding shit too. the world shapes the characters and the characters shape the world i build around them. its good #dont worry about it. i have a normal amount of worldbuilding in my brain. not at all way too much #this is why i can't work on my FUCKING homework. head full of fantasy environment instead #anyhway. heres this.... yeehaw :)

2 notes · View notes

chisatowo · 2 years

Text

Gm I forgot to take my melatonin supplements last night and as a consequence I now have deep backstory hcs for deep cut. And by that I mean for Shiver, Frye and Big man had pretty normal lives fkgndjd

#rat rambles #splat posting #I rly rly dont like ex octarian soldier shiver hcs but I think it could be interesting for them to still be from octo valley #without going too deep into my worldbuilding hcs I imagine that their family sort of split up turing the great turf war #so some of them were pushed into the underground like the rest of the octarians while some found shelter with the other two hero families #I just cant imagine that literally all octarians were forced underground to begin with and I feel like its especially possible for such a #culterally relevant family to be able to find some allies willing to help them wait out the worst of things #I also just feel like its implied that octarians have like been around in greater inkling society before octo expansion #and I dont just mean ppl like marina I mean octarians that have potentially always lived outside the underground #like that diss pair octoling I feel like at most his parents would have had to left before he could remember #I just feel like it would make logical sense for octolings and tbh octarians as a whole to not have literally all been shoved underground #anyways back to shiver long story short they were put under a lot of pressure to be the most flawless at not only shark taming and stuff #but also as a political figure since I imagine the half that went underground probably have to serve a pretty strong political role #but I also imagine the two halves have some contact but its become more strained over the years as the two picked up different ideals #but yeah after shiver learned of the other half and started to also crack under the pressure they were like yknow what fuck this #so at around 13 he snuck out along with master mega which was a troublesome ordiel but didnt draw enough attention to go too badly #and they showed up to the town the rest of their family lived in and they were like holy cow kid ur so good with that shark already woa #and they accepted them without much difficulty leaving shiver to relax and by relax I mean imedietely explode from the change in emviorment #and then abt a year later big man and frye came to crash on their couch leaving to them initially being the grumpy old man of the trio but #eventually the other two help them realise that being stupid is fun so they throw away their braincells #well more like big man has a whole character arc abt independance and such and then helps shiver learn to loosen up s biy #while frye is sitting in a corner being a nerd and trying to learn shiver's dialect of octarian since theyve only ever heard the outer #version from this half of shiver's family #and shiver is having to learn like 50 different laguages gjfbdjf #but yeah I hc that frye has a big interest in linguistics which is why even though frye and big man used to only interact for like a week #each year frye still went out of her way to becomr fluent in understanding big man's language #but like on a deeper level too since I imagine most in the greatwe world at large probably have to learn at least 2 or 3 laguages in their #lifetime thanks to the wide variety of animals theyre having to commune with on a day to day basis #god I am getting off track as shit why do I have to base so much of my hcs on even more worldbuilding hcs fhdjdhj #aaand now Im out of tags shit just know they all have character arcs and shit then move to splatsvile ok by

6 notes · View notes

ruindunburnit · 7 months

Text

LightBringer Ch. 9 is up, starting with the perspective of a certain High Priestess who just won't quit!

#LightBringer #NoHoper #fanfic #House of Night #Neferet #i had way too much fun with this chapter #by the way this is also the chapter where we see more alterations to the worldbuilding around Nyxism #so like #keep that in mind

0 notes

budder-tigress · 1 year

Text

It's Ramblin' Time!

Heyoooo!

I’m in a rambling mood, so, time to overshare about the Star Wars solar system I created!

This will be a 3-part series because even though I kept each of them pretty short, it’s too much info to fit in one post. I’ll put a simple drawing of what each planet looks like with each post :p (and I may do a visual guide for each species at some point too)

~for the sake of having fun with this while not spoiling the whole of my fic, these are general glimpses of the planets and their respective governments and people~

So, Welcome to The Calesia System!

Worlds will be introduced by their closeness to Calesia’s twin suns, Jīsa, and Tīra (The Wife and the Husband in the Arictian language [AKA the only one I’m using because making languages sucks])

Starting with...

Part 1: Micuvri & The Kytici

Section I: Planetary details

Micuvri is the closest planet to Calesia’s suns, is orbited by three moons, and has a very thin atmosphere. The planet's surface is a near-scorched volcanic bed, with sparse but well-evolved flora and fauna. The surface is dotted with enclosed settlements atop floating rocks and synthetic platforms, floating above and around the various active and inactive volcanoes across the surface.

The capital of Micuvri is a settlement positioned over the planet's largest volcano, Ash'lera.

Section II: The Capital- Ash’lera

The largest settlement on Micuvri, and home to the majority of the Kytici population on the planet. The obsidian palace sits in the center of 3 circular platforms, separated into rings and districts connected by walkways and bridges. The city uses thermal power from the volcano below the obsidian palace, Ash'lera.

Section III: Government

The Kytici government is a constitutional empire, the territories and settlements were each taken by force a millennium before Empress Gar’miva took the throne, and a constitution outlines what the Emperor/Empress can and cannot do with their power.

The Emperor/ Empress is protected by the Imperium guard, a specially-trained group of guards who wear beaded veils. Emperor Adri’la was a member of his grandmother’s Imperium guard until the beginning of the revolution, when he and Tae’yon (the future captain of Adri’la’s guard) defected to help Adri'la's older sister, Mai’lra, found the rebellion.

Section IV: The People

Kytici are tall (7-9 feet), multicolored humanoids with bald heads and long headtails. (3-6 ankle-length tails)

Some Kytici with high testosterone can grow fur-like facial hair, though it is seen as untidy to let this facial hair grow without grooming.

All Kytici have stripes, which change color depending on their body heat and heart rate, which can work as a mood indicator. These stripes grow in complexity as Kytici mature, and the markings above and below their eyes can be used to measure age, as they grow a consistent length yearly (around 1cm).

Kytici have an omnivorous teeth structure, though they tend toward vegetarianism.

Section V: A brief history of recent events

(Out-of ‘character’ segment of nerdy history)

In the fairly recent past, the old Empress, Gar’miva, went ‘mad’, sending the empire into decline and cutting off Micuvri from the other planets, causing the economy and the people to suffer.

The royal family grew tired of this, so a revolution led by crown princess Mai’lra worked to undermine her power and keep her from doing any more harm.

During a fight with the Imperium guard, Mai’lra was killed, and her brother, Adri’la, took her place as crown prince.

Under Adri’la’s leadership, the revolutionaries dethroned Gar’miva, and under Adri’la’s rule as Emperor, he has reopened trade with the other planets and is doing what he can to fix the destruction caused by Gar’Miva

This has been your nerd history lesson for Micuvri! Thank you for reading to the end! :3 Part 2 will be out tomorrow!

#finally letting out this rant i've had brewing since... october #I have the 2nd part ready and the third's on its way #i think i have too much fun worldbuilding sometimes #this feels like so little cause of how much I cut out #it's still a 600-ish word ramble about a single plant I made #i made this #my art #kinda fanfic #star wars #star wars fanfiction #star wars oc #fan guidebook

1 note · View note

physalian · 2 months

Text

You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).

MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.

Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.

The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.

So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.

The Character Cheat Sheet:

I organized it this way for several reasons:

I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction

All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).

The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)

It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot

Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget

Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent

*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here

On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.

The Word Count Guide:

*3/30 Edit to update this chart to its full glory. Column 3 is a cumulative count. Most of what I write breaks 100k and it's fun watching the word count rise until it boils over.

This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.

Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.

If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.

As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.

I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.

—

Google Docs

Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.

It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.

Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.

When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).

Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.

—

I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!

Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #organizing your book #outlining #shut up and write the book #google sheets #google docs

913 notes · View notes