Randy Ellefson's Blog

Many of will build more than one setting in our career. While this can seem intimidating due to workload, we can often reuse what we’ve done. For example, one absolute monarchy is much like another in its broad strokes, as is a religion, military group, or countless other elements. A god of war in one world is likely similar to another. We can tweak the details, reusing the basics. Reuse your own work whenever you can, following the Rule of Three, this time for your work instead of an analogue. Just as we don’t want the audience to recognize we’ve modeled a power on Japan, we don’t want them to realize our new book has a monarchy that’s just like the one in our last book.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found help, encouragement, and inspiration in it. I’ve enjoyed writing it and creating its offshoots, like the podcast that has tens of thousands of downloaded episodes. What started as a handful of articles has grown to multiple books totaling at least a quarter million words of advice. If it ever seems too much to take in, remember to do it in pieces and enjoy the process. Above all, never forget that world building is fun!

Please take a moment to review the books online. It’s more important than you might think, and if you’re an aspiring writer yet to publish, you’ll eventually find out just how terribly difficult it is to get a book review. Established authors already know. We creatives must stick together and offer support. I hope I’ve found yours in the four years it’s taken me to author The Art of World Building.

So where do you start? Where your heart lies.

The post Last Words appeared first on The Art of World Building.

Tracking

The WBC (World Building Coalition) might find it helpful to keep a running list of decisions that have been made so that everyone stays aware. This will be especially useful if a new WBO joins. Maintaining this list would be the WM’s responsibility.

Meetings

The WBC should attempt to meet periodically, such as once a month, to discuss group concerns and make decisions. This meeting can be in person or online. A possible agenda might include:

Members in attendanceAny official business, such as legal, voting, or membership changesUpdates of shared WBC items and progress, problems, resolutionsDiscussionIntended work to be done by next meetingIncoming requests, such as those by authors wishing to write stories thereMembership and other dues or changes to themTools

The WBC will need to share files. This includes documents that everyone can work on, and WBO-specific documents that a WBO has rights to alter but others can only read, to make use of the WBO’s work. Google Drive is free and provides both word processor and spreadsheet files. Programs that allow tracking of another’s suggested changes may be useful.

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World building can go on forever, but it must start somewhere. This section discusses the reality that some members of the WBC will inevitably leave the coalition. When this happens, ownership of their creations may (and probably should) fall to others. Otherwise, members of the WBC who want to use or suggest changes to the person’s possessions cannot get resolution.

The WBC should agree on a rough time frame to complete shared items, such as gods, continent maps, and names of world oceans, for example. Some suggested options for a WBC to decide upon follow. Whether these options exist should be included in the WBC’s Covenant.

Option 1 – Perpetuity

In this option, a WBO never loses their rights. No one can alter what they’ve decided and codified in written world building files.

Option 2 – Transferred

A WBO can transfer their rights to another WBO, whether that person is an existing member of the WBC or a new, replacement one brought in for this purpose. This transfer must be approved by the WBC. The WBO must advise the WM of this request, upon which the WM will help coordinate discussion, voting, and transfer (or rejection), and any appeals or counteroffers by the WBC to the WBO. The WBC should have good, defined reason for rejecting the transfer. These include assessing the new WBO as unskilled or not a good fit personality-wise.

Option 3 – Suspended

A WBO might be unable to participate for long periods of time, due to illness, bereavement, loss of interest, or just needing a break. The result might be inability to meet requirements, such as voting on shared resources, another WBO’s request to make changes to the WBO’s creations, or use them. In these cases, the WBO might intend to return and not lose stake in the WBC. The WBO will suspend their participation, but since this may negatively impact the WBC, the WBO may agree that another WBO, such as the WM, will take over responsibilities in limited fashion as a WBO Regent. Given the possibility of monthly expenses for shared hosting, an WBO might still be required to pay their share or risk expulsion.

Option 4 – Abandonment

In the event that a WBO abandons their stake in the WBC, ownership can be assigned or taken by someone else with agreement by the remaining members of the WBC. The definition of abandonment is important and may include a timeframe upon which members are expected to reply to WBC business and failure to do such results in a declaration of abandonment. A three-month window seems plausible. A formal decision by the WBC should follow several written notices to the WBO with adequate time to reply.

Option 5 – Quitting

A WBO can simply quit, permanently forfeiting all rights to their possessions, including using them in any way, such as in stories. To do this, a WBO must submit, in writing, their resignation, which becomes final upon acceptance by the WBC. However, the WBO can ask to come back at a later time at the discretion of the WBC. Another member of the WBC can take over the WBO’s territory but must abide by many previous decisions so as not to impact other members of the WBC who were given rights to use material in this WBO’s domain.

Option 6 – Terminated

To protect the WBC’s investment of time, energy, and the integrity of the shared world, a WBO’s participation in the WBC may be terminated due to violation of the covenant. Termination should be majority, not unanimous, because two WBOs can engage in collusion to violate the world’s principles. The terms under which termination may occur should be explicitly stated, as with everything, in the covenant.

Option 7 – Expirations

A WBC might decide in its covenant that membership in the WBC is automatically renewed annually, provided that each WBO reaffirms their continued interest in remaining.

Option 8 – Death

The death (or permanent incapacitation) of a WBO automatically transfers all WBO rights to the WBC until such time as the WBC formally votes to assign rights to another WBO. Until such time, any changes to the WBO property requires a simple majority vote of eligible WBC members.

Option 9 – Disbanding

All good things must come to an end, and that can include the WBC, which should prepare for this eventuality and determine what happens. It seems obvious that future world building will not occur, but what about usage of the WBC’s properties? This can be permitted for use in stories, for example, provided alteration of the world no longer occurs, unless that alteration is only to territory or items controlled by the former WBO of it.

If shared files are online and require payment for access, this can be achieved via downloading to each former WBC member’s personal computers. However, if using sites that do not provide for downloading, continued access could become a problem. Consider the platform that is intended for this purpose at the outset.

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The WBC must decide what items will be shared and what will belong to each WBO. As suggested by the Continent Master role, it is wise to let each member of the WBC own a continent. However, other divisions can be made, such as Sovereign Power Master or Settlement Master, Forest Master, or even Species Master, Plant Master, and Animal Master. What these have in common is that someone has responsibility and authority for an item and cannot be overridden by other members of the WBC (unless failing in their duties). By contrast, there are shared issues that the entire WBC must decide upon, such as by majority vote. These are often planetary-wide concerns. A potential list of shared items includes:

The number of and placement of continentsThe name of world oceans and bodies of water adjacent to multiple continentsThe number of gods and basic disposition, if the gods are real and worldwideWhat species/races exist, especially if worldwideThe number and features of moons and other heavenly bodies such as rings, other solar system planets, and sun type

The post WBC Creations appeared first on The Art of World Building.

World Building Coalitions (WBCs) could have the roles defined here.

World Master (WM)

A World Master (WM) is the overriding authority for a planet (or group of them in a solar system, for example). This can also be a called a Universe Master (UM). This person has tie-breaking authority during any voting. Responsibilities include moderating disputes, laying out rules, and general administration of everything in the WBC except what has been delegated to others for ease of management. This person is the “boss.” In most instances, the WM will be the one who created the WBC, but if the original WM steps down, another member of the WBC may take his place.

World Master Backup (WMB)

In the event that the WM is unavailable, such as being on vacation, a backup who has the same level of access should be appointed. The WBC will need to determine how much authority this person has, but generally, the WMB is responsible for ensuring the forward progress of the WBC can continue in the temporary absence of the WM.

World Building Owner (WBO)

A World Building Owner (WBO) is every member of the WBC. Each should have voting rights, presumably equally. Each must sign the covenant and, if there are any dues for legal fees or hosting of shared files, pay their share.

Continent Master (CM)

While sharing a world building project is the point of a WBC, it makes sense for each member to have their own continent, with them as its Continent Master (CM). They are the owner of that continent, responsible for its name and everything on it, from land features to settlements and inhabitants. This allows each member relative freedom to do as they please on their land mass while using shared resources of the WBC/world, such as species, races, plants, animals, and gods.

A CM may carve out a period of their continent’s time that belongs exclusively to themselves while allowing other members of the WBC to use or influence the events of their continent with the CM’s approval, either in the past, present, or future. This might include others using or inventing history, characters, and items that originate or impact the CM’s property. As the CM is the owner, he has final approval over whether such alterations are allowed. It is recommended that this approval take place prior to significant development work by another WBC member, and once approved by the CM, it cannot be rolled back. The CM becomes bound by the invention just as if imagined personally. The CM also then acquires ownership and responsibility of the item.

WBO Regent

A regent is someone who is temporarily handling another WBO’s responsibilities. This optional role must be agreed upon by others in the WBC. Any decisions made by a regent must be honored by others as if the original property owner had made them.

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If all of this seems like far too much work but something we still want to have, we might consider working with one or more partners. This would allow us to divide up the work and even focus on areas we excel at while leaving our weak areas for someone else to do. If all of us are authors, then all of us can write in the resulting setting. One caveat is that we’ll have to be very aware of what everyone else is creating, and they might want to do some things that we don’t want. One solution is to divide up continents, each of us taking certain kingdoms. One advantage here is that the gods or species can be the same across the world, but we can do different things on the smaller scale.

Tread lightly, however. More than one relationship has been destroyed by disputes over ownership, so if you embark on something like this, you should consult an attorney and draw up a legal document specifying your respective rights. This would include under what conditions someone can leave the partnership. For example, if you leave, you can no longer write books on that setting without getting approval from the remaining members in the partnership because they are still making changes and you must comply with those. This is true while you’re in the partnership anyway.

What follows is a thought experiment about how multiple people can participate in a World Building Coalition (WBC). If you and others decide to enter into one, this may lend ideas on how to go about defining roles and responsibilities.

What Is It?

A world building coalition (WBC) is a collection of individuals who’ve agreed to build a world together, sharing the labor and fruits of that labor. While some items, such as overall world feel, gods, and many life forms will be shared, other items (like kingdoms) will belong to world building owners (WBOs) who have ownership of them, such as say over whether proposed changes are accepted.

Why Do It

World building can take an enormous amount of time depending on how far someone is willing to go. By contrast, skimping on it is likely to produce mediocre results. To mitigate these problems, like-minded individuals can form a coalition, with agreed upon roles, responsibilities, and rights.

Who Does It

Authors are the primary ones likely to create and participate in a WBC. However, gamers, hobbyists, or others who have no intention of ever writing a story can also form a WBC either for entertainment, or to effectively license the use of their world to authors. This can not only free some authors from the need to do world building, but allow those not given to storytelling to do creative work that results in published stories. These WBOs may have written agreements with a given author to share in the profit of any published works, though crafting those agreements lies outside the scope of this book. Interested parties should consult qualified entertainment lawyers.

The Covenant

Members of the WBC should agree to a covenant that lays out their rights, roles, and responsibilities, and other things to agree upon, such as terminology (are you going to call elves a species or race?). This includes “severability,” meaning what happens when someone leaves the WBC and whether they retain their things or have them transferred to someone else. Or even whether they can, or if they can get them back.

World Types

There are questions to decide upon at the outset and stick to without alteration. One of these is genre. Is the world intended for fantasy, SF, steampunk, or something else? What kind of world this is should be cast in stone early on. The exception is when the WBC decides that a long history exists and what was a medieval-like fantasy setting two thousand years ago is a space-age SF one today. This allows creators to have variety and even decide that another member of the WBC can author stories in a given time period, provided that they meet the approval of the WBO of that part of the world.

Another decision is about technological level. Does the world have guns? Cars? Spaceships? How technologically advanced is the planet? Some areas can be more advanced than others, such as the Europeans being more advanced than Native Americans when Europeans discovered North America, but generally you’ll want some guidelines.

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World building (and authorship) can produce many files that should be structured internally. The downloadable templates included in this series, and shown in each appendix, shows ways of doing this but there are some specific instances to cover.

As just mentioned, we may want to include multiple instances in a single file instead of one per file. For example, let’s say we have elves and dwarves. Do we create a file for each or one file that has both? This will depend on our use of technology. The Navigation Pane in Microsoft Word makes it easier to jump around within a file. This allows us to place all of our species into one large document, which reduces file clutter and the numbers of windows we have open when working on multiple species at once, a frequent reality the farther into development we get. This happens because they’ve become so intertwined and updates to one often necessitate updates to another. A problem may be large file size, which can open more slowly, but this is seldom an issue.

Just as some subjects lend themselves to being in one file, others may not. For example, there could be so many settlements, such as more than fifty, that putting them in one file could make the document unwieldy. On the other hand, if we’re using the plant template from Creating Places, this is short so that having fifty plants in one file is fine. It’s all personal preference.

It’s recommended to keep a spreadsheet with multiple tabs. The goal is a high-level view of many related items at once. Those fifty settlements can all be listed here, with columns for city colors, symbol, location, year founded, allies, which species founded it, population, which armed forces are here, major products, what it’s famous for, and more. This is what I use when determining the age of every settlement at once, since I can see all of them in one place. Another tab can be for the world’s gods, with columns for alignment (good or evil), gender, season, element, traits, symbols, which species they relate to, and more. The same can be done with species, plants, animals, and their most important attributes.

We should strive to avoid duplication in our files. With the spreadsheet just mentioned, we might place city colors on that and in a city’s file. If we do this (and I do), make a mental note as to which is considered the authoritative source if they get out of sync. In my case, the spreadsheet rules because when changing something like this, I don’t want it to resemble another settlement’s colors and I’m therefore consulting my spreadsheet. We might also want to get into the habit of updating something everywhere, but lapses will happen.

Another issue is that the rabbit hole problem. Sometimes we’re busy with writing a story, for example, when we have a world building idea. We may know from experience that if we open a file to write it down more, we’ll get sucked into the world building rabbit hole and stop working on our tale. My solution to this is a file with a title akin to “Llurien Changes to Make.” This is my temporary location for ideas I’ll flesh out and integrate with the setting later when I have time.

But what happens when we’re away from that file or don’t feel like looking for it? We’ve all heard of jotting an idea on a napkin. The technological equivalents are the notes app on our phone, or a calendar item, or emailing ourselves. This is fine but at some point, we need to take each of those and move them to that “changes to make file” for one reason: having dozens of pending ideas in a single file is far better than eight in our inbox, seven on files on our phone, and the rest in calendar items that are going farther back in time, like emails, with each day. My random world building ideas flow from all of those into that pending changes file and, eventually, become integrated into the world files.

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This section talks about how to organize files so you can easily find your world building notes.

The post Getting Organized appeared first on The Art of World Building.

I produce and collect crazy amounts of files of many types and subjects. These include spreadsheets, word processor files, images, image editing files (i.e., Photoshop .psd files), raw and processed podcast and audiobook files, and more. There are PDFs and spreadsheets of sales reports from multiple vendors (Amazon, etc.). There are promotional images, whether final or draft book covers, advertisements, podcast episode images, and more. I run a publishing business, which results in receipts and accounting software files. It is endless. And of course, all of my world building files for each setting, including maps. Never mind all the personal stuff like photos, videos, taxes, and more.

For each book, it’s character bios, an outline, random notes, and of course the manuscript. When I hire beta-readers, each returns another file to me. The same happens with an editor. I save all of these in archives, only my final manuscript being a live document on which I work. I also produce eBook files (the program I use to do it and multiple eBook formats). The publishing branch alone produces dozens of files alone per book.

I typically work on my laptop at home. This is where all of my files are. My fiction (and music, as I’m also a musician) files are currently sorted into four main directories:

(Almost) never changes: retired stuff I’ll probably never touch. I rarely add to this unless I’ve ditched another idea or project. I not only don’t need to add to this, but I don’t need to look at it, but I save everything.Rarely changes: previous year sales reports, published books/albums I’m unlikely to revisit, previous years taxes, old versions of websites, PDFs (they don’t change). I seldom add to this and don’t work in this directory.Sometimes changes: frequently accessed files that don’t often change, like book covers and other images I might need to repost on social media.Regularly changes: my main working directory of stuff actively being worked on, and which likely changes every day. Financial transactions, current and pending book projects, sales reports, and promo materials.

What happens if my laptop’s hard drive dies? I lose all of my work. I’ve been doing creative work for almost forty years now. Can you imagine losing all of it in a hard drive crash? I have a free backup program that runs once a week. It takes each of those directories and creates a single backup file of each, shrinking them down to take less disc space. Literally every Sunday for eons now, you can find me dragging the resulting files to a backup drive on my home network. My backup drive is a RAID setup. What this means is that there are two mirrored drives. What I copy to one gets automatically copied to the other. If one dies, the other one still exists unscathed (and there’s always my laptop).

Once a month, I take my files offsite to a trusted location. I keep two identical pen drives. That way I can fill up one at home and exchange it with the other one in one trip. If I only had one drive, I’d have to go get it, come home, fill it up, and then take it back. What happens when I need a new laptop? I buy one, transfer all my files, and then I take apart the old one, get the hard drive out, get a screwdriver to open the drive, find my hammer, and have a fun few minutes destroying the disc.

I sleep like a baby.

The post My Approach to Files appeared first on The Art of World Building.

Microsoft Office 365

While we can use installed versions of Microsoft Office, we also have the option to use the online or mobile versions. However, these typically offer a subset of features, being a less robust app. An O365 subscription includes all of them and using a browser to open a file in the desktop program takes a button click. It is fairly seamless to transfer files and folders between devices once we���ve synched then.

They presumably do robust backups, but if not, the files are also stored locally via Microsoft���s OneDrive, which means that, provided the files are synching properly, we have the latest with our device even if we don���t have an internet connection. And if we change the files, then the next time we���re connected, they will synch.

There are many apps included beyond just the word processor and spreadsheet programs (nearly thirty as of this writing). O365 has the advantage of being unlikely to go away anytime soon. One feature of Word that I use heavily is the ���Navigation Pane.��� We can use heading styles to create a hierarchy within our document, then easily collapse or expand it, and jump to a heading by clicking on it. It���s only available in the full, installed version of Word, which is one reason why I work there whenever possible.

O365 has an annual cost. Depending on what we purchase, it may include additional benefits, like the ability to have an email domain. This means that if we have a website, such as randyellefson.com, we also have an email address like mail@randyellefson.com so that we look more professional than using a Gmail one, for example; we can also add multiple addresses. If we���re selling books or games, we���re in business and this can be deducted as a business expense. These are not world building concerns but ones for our career.

This is what I personally use for not only world building, but for stories, email, calendars, and more. I just log in to O365 via the browser and access everything stored there; I keep many files out of O365 because they���re either personal or seldom needed.

My working experience in a day can be like this:

Before going to work, via my laptop, I update a file, which autosaves.At work, I open the file via the browser, see my morning changes, and add more.While waiting in line for my lunch order, I pull up the file on the mobile app and add more notes.Back at my desk during some downtime, I use the browser version again.Once home, I work on my main computer and still have everything I���ve done.Before taking my kids to an afterschool activity where I���ll have no internet, I make sure files are synched to a lighter computer, then go, and while they have fun, I work disconnected.At home, I ensure a synch and go back to working via my main laptop.At bedtime, the kids are having trouble sleeping so I grab the lighter computer again and work beside them as they doze off.I go back downstairs and resume working on the main laptop.

Aside from sometimes having to make sure a device has synched files, this is exactly what I wanted.

Google Docs

One of Google���s biggest selling points is that it���s free. It offers multiple apps online and as mobile ones for a phone or tablet, including word processing and spreadsheets. We can organize our files into folders. They presumably do robust backups. We can also share a file or entire directory with someone, such as a collaborator. We can download entire folders to our computer, then store them offsite if desired, so manual backups are an option. I haven���t liked the fonts and, since Microsoft Word is my main program, converting a Google file to Word produces poor results until I manually fix it, so I stopped using this a while back.

World Building Sites

Multiple sites have been created to help world builders create and store their notes. As variations exist between them and we���re not diving into each, only general observations are here. For the most up-to-date list, google ���world building sites.���

These sites are accessible from any device via login. Few if any have a mobile app and therefore, trying to use them via a small device���s browser may be unappealing. We���re unlikely to know their hosting practices, such as whether it���s hosted in their basement or at a professional hosting company. The ability to download our data may not exist, and if it does, we���d have to investigate what format it���s in. Can we easily port it to another platform?

Some sites provide writing prompts to help inspire invention. While this is good, that inspiration can come in many other ways that don���t pose risks. These sites propose to help with world building, and while they offer advice, that pales in comparison to the depth that books (including this one) offer. Some provide the ability to integrate items for an interactive experience for an audience, which may become of interest if it catches on with them. Until then, no one is expecting it and it might be good to store some amount of material for our fans to enjoy but keep our main files elsewhere.

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