To my dearest friends and followers,
and to my fellow creatives,
and to my fellow creatives,
I had a story to tell which was unplanned for. It was about a character who wasn't even going to exist in the beginning. However, a little seed floated through the air and blew back and forth, begging to be planted. I watched it pass right in front of me until I reached out and grabbed it. I found a nice place for it in between the pages of my notebook and I placed it there for safekeeping. When the time was right, I took it out and I planted it. Once that seed had been grounded, it grew and grew as I fed it and nourished it. What it grew into was a tiny winged boy who was not of this world. He was a bit impudent, maybe slightly arrogant, but exceedingly charming. Above all else though, he was dead.
They say the dead don't talk. But he did. He spoke to me so much. I didn't expect him to talk at all, so the fact that he did threw me off guard. And then he wouldn't stop talking. I couldn't shut out his voice, for though he was small, his voice rang in my head. What he said was this: write my story. That was it. Someone who possibly might not have existed at all was now demanding to be the center of attention - to have his story told. How could I deny him? I had brought him into this world, and it was I who would give him what he deserved and tell his story, for his story had captivated me - he had captivated me.
I did my research and I began to write. I soon realized I didn't understand him or his world enough to know everything there was to tell. So my muses ceased to sing, the lights went dark, and I placed his story aside.
And then I found The Essential Worldbuilding Blueprint and Workbook by Scribe Forge. I bought it and I diligently worked though it for 2 months. That's right, I finally finished the world building for my book, The Death of Jack!!!!!
I feel like I understand him and his world better than I ever have. I understand how things work, I know the history to his world, I know how the people live day to day. I feel once again ready to write his story. And I couldn't have done it (at least, not to this extent) without the help of Scribe Forge and their wonderful resources. I promised I would report back to you with my final thoughts on this book and if I recommend it to any other writers out there...this is my final review on the Worldbuilding book: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It asked really thought provoking questions and touched on so many topics. I've filled up nearly 60 full sheets of paper with hand-written notes.
The Worldbuilding book even offers a section of "finer details" to write about things in your world that might not be discussed in the questions, such as art, fashion, architecture, sports, holidays, etc.
I made my own list to write about for the finer details section, such as relationships (dating, courting, etc.), weddings (specifically what a wedding ceremony is like in the fairy realm), how certain events came to be (no spoilers), etc.
The team at Scribe Forge did such an awesome job putting this book together and compiling these questions. I definitely recommend getting it. I know it benefited me so much, I can only hope it would benefit someone else half as much.
My only complaint about this book is the order of chapters. It has the Building a Social Structure chapter AND THEN the Religion, Mythology, and Philosophy chapter. I worked on them in the opposite order, as I believe to fully understand how a society works, you must first know their religious beliefs, for what they believe about the world and themselves will be heavily reflected in how they run their society. Anyhow, that's just me being nitpicky.
As I stated last week, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo again this year and I feel more ready than ever to get back into writing Jack's story!!
Thank you so much for reading!!
Yours truly,
Me
Additional:
Visit my website to check out my first novel, The Story of Hollyhocks
Check out The Essential Workdbuilding Blueprint and Workbook by Scribe Forge
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