An aspiring authors blog about writing and creating a whole new world.
Well, I’m a bit late. Just a bit. Better late than never! That said, I have no idea what I’m going to write about so I think this one will be brief!
I’ve had lots of ideas recently, it’s all exciting! I’ve really been fancying writing something lately which makes a change, that’s for sure! I might even try a chapter, it’s coming together rather nicely in my head, It’s just names I’m stuck with. As long as I live, It will still take me at least 30 years to think of a name for a character, then I’ll change my mind at least twice. So keep an eye out in 2104, a minor character who shows up probably once will have a name! That’s certainly faster than I normally am at least. Name or no name, I hope to have started a chapter, snippet or something. Aha, I say that quite a lot. Like, every day!
I’m thinking names today and as I said earlier, I just can’t. But it’s proper important isn’t it? Ah, nothing like good English. I’ve been reading again lately and have finally gotten round to reading Game of Thrones, I’m hooked! But before I start rambling, it got me thinking about the names used. When I thought about it, I think I only saw two names that were names that I knew of. A lot of them seemed completely fictitious but they worked, in my eyes they fitted the characters wonderfully. Does that mean that either:
Is it because I simply ‘got to know’ the character with these names?
Or,
Is it simply because the names fitted the characters?
Reading the second idea back, I’m not sure quite if it can work like that. I’ll go into that shortly. I think the first is considerably more feasible, in a weird way it’s just like knowing people for real. I can’t really think of anyone that I know as having a different name, the same goes for characters I learn of in books. In a way that’s what I love about stories, fiction. What is said there goes, the words make the world. However, I seem to recall something about names almost working in tandem with the personality and traits of the characters, more akin to the second idea. What do you think? Let me know below!
That wasn’t all that good. I’ll definitely go back to this when I’m a little more awake!
Thanks for reading and more on Thursday or Friday! (Or so I say!)
Hello!
It’s certainly been a while, there’s been all sorts going on. Right now I’m in a bit of a limbo, all sorts of things going on in all sorts of places and as a result, about a year ago all this stopped. The writing, the blogging, the planning and the ideas all had to take a backseat to life. But it’s all coming back very soon!
I’m starting a new job tomorrow so I can’t be all that precise, but in the next few days I’ll get the blog going again and set a schedule for posts, probably twice a week. For now, here a bunch of links to all my previous posts (New to Old) have a read of them if you’d like!
Note: Some of the links seem to be broken and replacing them doesn’t seem to do much! I’ll try to fix them, but if I can’t just copy and paste them into the address bar. Sorry folks!)
A look at life and death within fiction – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/a-tale-of-life-and-death/
The inconsistency of creating a whole new world – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/an-inconsistent-world/
The idea of reality – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/how-real-should-a-reality-be/
A look at changing ideas – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/the-ever-changing-path/
Gender Stereotypes within fiction – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/a-little-progress-a-bigger-question/
Looking at lead characters – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/all-for-one-or-one-for-all/
Trying to make a start – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/beginning-the-beginning/
Introducing new characters – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/insert-readers-name-here-meet/
Secrets! – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/secret-secrets-and-not-so-secret-ones/
Organisation – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/organisation-of-an-unorganized-mind/
Magic in a world! – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/magic-an-awkward-explanation-for-everything/
The Beginning – https://tobirthaworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/and-so-it-begins/
Thanks for reading!
Thanks Guys! Last post I hit 10 followers 😀 Next up, 25!
Sadly, the writing itself has gone backwards. It’s now back on the beginning, and it isn’t going anywhere fast. 4 times now I’ve started and scrapped it, the idea itself isn’t really changing much. Well, not the base idea at least. I think now I’ve found the ideal scenario to kick everything off. That said, a lot can still be changed, I could even say everything can be changed. There are a few things I don’t want to change like the characters which the prologue revolves around, those two are staying. Everyone else mind can still be chopped and changed, within reason of course. Upon consideration I think I’ve been far too rigid on the scenario itself. I haven’t even considered alternatives, there are countless ways in which the two characters could encounter each other. I’ll have a good think about that and let you know if anything good comes of it!
Note -Now I think of it, the title seems a little odd so far, it might make sense with the next bit. No Guarantees…
Another problem I’ve come across, is the ever-shifting foundations upon which I’m trying to ‘build’ the prologue and ultimately the entire world. That sounds kinda cryptic, I should try and use that at some point! To add some clarification, I mean magic. As mentioned way back when I posted once every blue moon, the entire world is based around magic and magic users. The big issue here is that since I came up with the initial idea to make magic dominant and began adding form to a mass of ideas, it’s changed probably well over a hundred times! Some changes have been tiny and some huge, but the whole idea of magic has never been a constant. In all the books I have read involving the idea of magic it has always been rigid once the idea is set and currently I don’t have that. For the next few weeks that’ll be my priority on the writing front. I wish it wouldn’t take so long, but it’s gonna be a big and complex job, that alongside Uni will take up most of my time. Hopefully though this will give me the push I need to get things going!
For some reason I capitalize randomly when I type – Weird
Thanks for Reading!
Don’t Forget, To Birth a World is now on Twitter. Follow me @tobirthaworld. Space for microrants! Much appreciated!
Just to get this out of the way, sorry for missing the Friday post, hopefully though I can get things back on track!
Reality. What is reality? Can it be defined? I don’t think so. But the wonderful thing about stories is that it’s little more than putty and the author can do as they wish with it! I’ve got to admit it’s one of the things that I love the most about creating a story, creating a world if you will. But as long as I can justify it and explain it, anything goes! I nearly said ‘within reason’ but, why should there be limits? Limits just hamper the story, I like to let my imagination run free! Yeah it can make things a tad messy and many, many times it’s screwed up previous ideas that I’ve really liked, and I’ve had to scrap or change things drastically. Despite the mess it makes, it’s totally worth it.
But should there be a limit? Whilst I don’t think so, I’ve still allowed myself to fall within some of the restraints of real life. But I feel that the more alike fantasy and reality are, the easier it is for the reader to get caught up in the story. It seems more believable, and in a way allows the reader to relate to a story, or specific characters and their circumstances. In my eyes the further an author steps from reality, the harder it becomes to portray it in a way that will keep the readers attention and keep them enthralled. But when spinning a tale, can you go too far?
Just noticed the time! Going to call it here, although I look forward to diving back into this in a later post.
Side Note – I have no idea how to use colons. This is bad, ah well.
Thanks for Reading!
Happy Wednesday Everybody!
Hopefully I’m back on schedule so I can ramble at you with some form of Regularity!
I’m now on twitter and I don’t even have the slightest clue how to use it! I’m guessing I can have bite-sized rambles at you with it, considering I’m a computing student I should probably know these things. Also, I started using Goodreads a while ago so I popped a few widgets down the side so you can see what sort of stuff I like to read, the sort of stuff that inspired me to give writing a go, let me know what sort of things you like to read!. I’ll have a gander into other stuff when I get the chance.
Well the topic for today’s ramble is change. A bit of an odd one when talking about writing I guess, but here goes. Over the past few weeks, months, however long it’s been since my last post I can admit that there has been no change at all to my writing. However, I’ve not stopped thinking, developing my ideas. I should really get all this stuff written down! However this causes big problems as if something changes, it can cause horrendous inconstancy in what has already been written. Ok then, this would be a big problem, had I more than 1000 words actually written, but that’s essentially 1000 useless words. The thing is, I’m worried that this might happen as I get further into my writing. This’ll mean bigger changes, perhaps the loss or huge swathes of work. I’m not entirely sure how to work around this but I guess I’ll just have to take it as it comes and improvise. Don’t get me wrong though, change is wonderful I’m like a small child when a new idea pops into my head and fits in all snug and lovely.
I had a huge blank when writing this. So I’m afraid its not a great or long read, hopefully my head will be screwed back on for my Friday Post!
Thanks for Reading!
Hope you’ve all had a good weekend! Mine has been almost entirely comprised of Uni work, and I’m still not nearly done! At least this time I’m happy to say some progress has been made on the writing. Well by ‘some’ I mean 200 or so, but hey, its better progress than I was making last time!
Before I continue, please bear in mind that the following is simply from my own experiences from the reading of fantasy fiction. No offence is intended, and please accept my sincerest apologies if offence is caused.
Today I’d like to talk about quite a large subject within the writing of fiction in general, and especially it seems within fantasy fiction such as I’m attempting to write. I’d like to talk about the role of gender within fantasy fiction, the various stereotypes that seems to occur consistently throughout fantasy fiction.
It seems to be that in many fantasy novels that I have read, the protagonist is generally male. Now I’m not saying that this is always the case, increasingly as I read from a wider range of authors, female leads are becoming more and more common, but at least by my own experience, it is by no means equal. It does seem this way throughout the entire roster of most characters within fantasy books I read, that there is a larger male presence, but I personally don’t understand why. It could be generally down to the whole stereotypical hero image, more often than not the hero is male, a knight or the like. But does this idea simply hail back to times before events such as the suffragette movement where society, at least in Britain was largely male dominated (Just realized quite how large a timescale that was, but I think it makes my point). On the idea of male dominated cultures, most cultures within fantasy seem to be so, but once again this could hail back to my previous point.
Personally, whilst within my writing there will be male dominated cultures based of a slightly medieval world, I wish to keep gender stereotypes to a minimum, though in places they will still be used. I think I’ll just try to maintain a balance. That doesn’t mean that there’ll be a clean 50:50 split, and some stereotypes will be met.
Do you think gender stereotypes are an issue within fantasy fiction? Let us know below!
Thanks for reading!
-Sam
To Birth a World 