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I am in the process of outlining my novel and and trying to create a believable fantasy world. It is difficult to avoid the standard world views found in traditional fantasy fiction. Even coming up with original names for the cities and villages seems like a daunting task. Does anyone have any online helpers of good books that help in this area? I have one book by Crawford Kilian "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" that touches on the subject, but leans more towards SciFi than fantasy.
Posts: 173 | Registered: Dec 2002
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If you have a problem making a character or setting feel "original" then maybe the important thing to really explore the details that set your creation apart.
A name, even a picture, cannot make a character into a unique individual. What makes a character unique is the way they behave (in the present and in the past). The same is true of cities and so forth, except of course that then you are talking about a sort of "collective" character.
The sfwa site is very good at asking the questions that force you to explore just thosse questions.
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That sfwa site was exceptionally helpful for me-- I went through ALL of those worldbuilding questions; by the end, I had about 30 pages (yep, 30 pages) of notes that really helped flesh out my world. That better enabled me to flesh out my characters and conflicts (afterall, who we are and how we react largely stems from our environment).
There are other sci-fi and fantasy help books out there; the one I use I think has a preface by Terry Brooks. Can't remember what it's called, but it's 100% fantasy and is very useful.
As to names, there's a character naming sourcebook (that may even be the title) that I use. As ridiculous as it sounds, another way of coming up with unique names is to watch movie credits... Look at the last names, and drop some of the syllables. Sometimes I change a letter here or there, but often, just dropping the first or last part of a name works well...
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Yeppers, I left and came back... Cosmi, thanks for noticing and for welcoming me back! Finished Officer Training School (USAF) and am at Goodfellow AFB awaiting my security clearance so I can start my technical training. JP, yeah just now got settled in to the point where I can start cruising the 'net and start writing again. That forced hiatus from my book was hurtful... it's hard getting back into the swing of things! But I'm going to try! Posts: 306 | Registered: Feb 2001
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