world building

Daily Writing Check-in: June 10, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time:  1 hour working on pre-writing for Book 3 of “Pursuit of Power” trilogy.

I did a lot of brainstorming on the issue that came up yesterday. I’m slowly making my way through the huge questions I’m facing. I also discovered what would have been a huge plot hole in the outline I have so far, so had to fix that, which involved further geography lessons of the region in which this story takes place.

I answered some of the more pressing and complicated questions and got back to the character interview I’ve been working on, only to come up with another question about how to proceed. I’ll tackle that tomorrow.

I’m volunteering as a crew leader at my church’s VBS all this week, so I have to get up early every morning and spend 3 hours with a group of kids. It wipes me out every year.

On the plus side, my job, which I quit 2 1/2 months ago but have been following through on some projects since then, is finally really winding down. I am looking at no work, outside of possibly answering some questions, for the rest of this week. Hopefully the extra time (which will admittedly mostly be spent on catching up housework and relaxing) will afford at least a little extra writing time, and will help me break through these issues.

Daily Writing Check-in: May 20, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time:  51 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “Protector”.

I continued reading the first draft, making a few small changes along the way. I’m on page 50 out of 172 of this read-through. I also spent some time rethinking where some of the locations in the story will actually be in relation to the main country. I like my new plans, but they may yet change again.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 19, 2018

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 21 minutes putting my 2018 NaNoNovel into Scrivener by the scene, which I finished. Then I spent countless hours doing research for world-building for the same story.

So quick background–my NaNoNovel, “Protector” is the 2nd book in a trilogy, which in turn is part of a larger book series that takes place about 2000 years in the future. It is post-apocalyptic, but not dystopian. A world-wide technology ban has put the world in a medieval mindset in some ways, but also in some ways, the people are somewhat modern.

The majority of the books I’ve written for this world take place on a fictional island off the coast of what is currently Alaska. But “Protector” takes place on the continent of North America.

When I wrote this draft, and really up until this morning, I had planned for it to take place mostly in the New England area of the US. But I had a major realization today that threw off everything I had planned.

I was thinking of the continent as far too small of a place. Far too small. Distances between key locations were too far for what was going to happen, and it put the rest of the stories way too far away for what I had planned. A common enemy draws 2 characters from the main series of books into “Protector,” but they are way over near Alaska and British Columbia. Even with some non-traditional means of travel (for their level of technology), it was just too far.

So I moved the main country in “Protector” (currently called Altmoor) to the west coast of the United States. It took a lot of time to pin down a location where the story would work, given factions and events. But I think I have it pretty close. Details may change later, especially since I’ve never been great at understanding geology and topography when it comes to world-building. But for now, I think I’m settled. And I’m really glad I tackled this now.

Now I’m ready to start on goal #2!