Starting your new story

This should help you answer questions and get you started on your new story or book.

INTRO

Recently I have been working on the beginnings of a new book, more specifically the planning stages of a new book. It's been quite some time since I've really planned or written anything big, and I had forgotten just how much time and work it can take. This can be very tedious, very fun, or more likely, a bit of both. So I thought, for those interested, I'd write some words to help you get started. Plus, it gives me a break from my actual work, and I like helping people when I can.

Most everyone knows that you need to create characters, places, events, and dialogue. After all, you wouldn't have much of a story if you're missing just one of those things (with a very few exceptions).

What I plan to provide here isn't just how to create a character, or a place and their names, but more of the template I am using. Questions to ask yourself that should be answered, and information that should be filled in about each character, race, species, city, animal, food, and the like.

My template uses a lot of things you'd need in a fantasy or science fiction style book, but much of the information can be used in any writing. For example: if you are using real places, people, or events in your story, you won't need to think up names, dates, future events, where things are located, what the world looks like, etc. But, you will likely need to do much research to get the facts right. Especially the history of people and places, and the geography of the place (streets, businesses, what type of people are there, chief exports, you probably get the idea). Now, on to the good stuff.




RACES/SPECIES

First off it should be noted, some of the info in the different subjects may be interchangeable, for instance, things like names, history, and locations may be used for a race, as well as for a city. Also, all of this can be done in whichever order you feel most comfortable with.

Now, for the more in depth part. Think of a name, obviously. Try to be creative, but not too complicated. A super long name, with lots of syllables is not usually a good idea. This becomes more important with names that come up often, like character names and city names and will be explained more in depth as to "why", later.

Physical traits. What are the telltale signs that they belong to a certain race or species? Are they short, tall, stalky, thin? Are they dark or light in color? What about their hair if any? Are they human like, spider like, horse like? Do they have tails or maybe wings? How many heads or limbs do they have? Maybe they are unlike any earthly creature. They may have three legs, and two tails, one with spikes and one with electrifying properties. Use your imagination, but try not to make them so extreme, that it's hard for the reader to imagine it. You don't want to have to keep reminding the reader what anything looks like. If they are likely to keep forgetting a description of something, you may want to rethink it and simplify it some. Keep the user happy with easy, but not overly simplified reading. If you have pictures in your book, you can be a little more complicated.

Beliefs. Does your race/species have any religious beliefs? Do most believe in a certain God or Gods? Are they atheists? Are there multiple religions among them? Maybe they don't have a high enough thinking to believe in anything. Also, what kind of moral beliefs do they have? Usually as a whole, certain races or beings have some kind of general consensus about what is right and wrong, and there are always outcasts. Also remember, beliefs change with time. Human religions and morals have changed dramatically over the years. In no way is our society like that of the Egyptians or Mayans. Also keep in mind, different parts of the same world often have much different cultures. Elves in the northern continent may believe in multiple Gods, where Elves in the southern continent are mostly atheists. Religious war anyone?

Personality. Are they generally kind, benevolent, peaceful? Maybe cruel, and uncaring. They might be neutral. Are they honest, deceptive, maybe judgemental? Also think about whether or not they are well educated. Can they read or write? Do they make quick decisions, or take their sweet time, possibly slowing many processes down or down right annoying the heck out of other races.

Relationships. Are they friends or foes with the other species, or lands? Maybe they are neutral and never interfere, or maybe they help both sides. Why? Were they in past battles with other people? Did another species help them out? Think of the reasons for their friendships and hatred toward others. Maybe it's just miscommunication, or misunderstanding. Can they work it out? Think of a backstory, past events that caused these relationships. Maybe there isn't a reason and they are just a cruel race, but even then there may be a reason why. Have some fun with it.

Strengths and weaknesses. What are they good at? What are they bad at? What are they most scared of? Maybe they are just scared of the unknown and overly defensive for no reason. If they live in caves, light may be blinding. If they live in light, they may fear caves. Water creatures may be able to go on land, but move slowly and can't stay dry too long. Land creatures may fear flying creatures because it's hard to keep looking up. How long do they live? This could also affect how slow or fast they want to get things done. Think about how these things affect their relationships with other beings.

Descendants. Are they descended from another race? Maybe 2 races bred and created slightly different offspring. Maybe some took to the caves while some stayed in trees because of a major event, and evolution changed them. Maybe some are land dwelling and others sea dwelling. Think of humans and mermaids.

Create a history. How did they come to be, or how do they believe they came to be? What languages do they speak and write? Think about how this affects their relationship with other races. What wars were they in? Did the place they live have a catastrophic event? What tools, weapons, and materials can they make? How does this differ from the past? Did they invent it or get ideas from other races? Maybe they collected weapons from wars and improved on them. What do their homes look like? Keep in mind, what they can make depends on resources they can either collect, trade, or steal. Also, how rich they are can affect this. Maybe the Knights are rich, and the average person is very poor and live in huts. How did they get rich or poor? How has government changed?

Location. Where are they located in the world? Are they spread all over? Do they live in trees, caves, deserts, water? What kind of climate? Are they better adapted to a hot climate? If so, the desert dwellers may be much healthier and much better fighters, than those living in snowy areas. They may be able to survive anywhere, but how well? What kind of hardships come with living there? Desert dwellers can't collect trees without a huge travel, and probably have no rivers or lakes, so how do they get wood and water? How did they get here? Do they even know?

Fighting style. Are they born leaders? Followers? A mix? Are they brave or scared? Large creatures may fight solo or in small groups. Small ones might run in groups or packs. If alone, do they run, stay, call for backup? Do they have favorite formations? Are they loyal to a leader, or maybe likely to switch sides? Maybe they are easily bribed. What weapons do they use? Do they make, buy, or steal them? Maybe they use magic. If so, is it powerful? What kind of limits do they have? How fast does it wear them down? Maybe magic ages them and shortens their life.


PLANTS AND FOODS

Be careful here not to go into too much boring detail about these if you do create new plants and foods. But you'll want to think about what foods are popular in different regions or among different races. Think about the textures, and smells and colors of these things. Also think about plants that might be used for medicinal purposes. What might be used for making local alcohols, and what might be traded for other resources. Maybe there is a rare plant that heals wounds quickly, and can be traded for many other things. Or maybe someone wants to steal a harvest of it.


CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES

Location. Where is it in relation to other places. What continent or realm is it in? Also keep in mind you will usually have smaller towns outside of a city, and villages beyond that. You may not need to create many villages, if any, but you also may want to create a few, to recruit people from, to hide out in, or do secret things in. What landmarks are nearby? Are there forests nearby? Where does the water come from? What is the climate? A desert isn't a likely place for a massive city, because of the need for water. Neither is a place near the ocean, as the water isn't drinkable. But maybe they have technology that allows them to filter the water? If you have a major city in an unlikely place, you'll want to be able to explain why this is so. Maybe the people have evolved to adapt, or maybe technology allows it. If you can't explain something in your book when a reader asks a question about it, this isn't a good thing. So ask yourself lots of questions as you go along.

Who lives here? What races, plants, and creatures are here? Just one race? Maybe it's a criminal city filled with thieves, or some kind of hideout. Is the city welcoming of all types? What kind of animal transportation is used, if any?

Defenses. Are there city walls and gates? Maybe archers? Are they ready for war, and why? Is there a reason to expect an attack or are they overly cautious? Maybe not cautious enough. You'll also want to ask yourself if they can even afford the defenses. A very poor place can't afford upkeep. On the other hand, maybe they are poor because they spent it all on defense and the people aren't dying from attacks, but starvation instead.

What's here? What kind of landmarks are here? Statues, relics, places of worship? Are there valuable items people might be after? Some kind of artifact maybe? Are there secret rooms, tunnels, torture chambers, or dungeons? What is purchased or traded here? Are there pubs, and what kind of people attend them?

Government. What type of government is here? Is there one? Who rules? Maybe the city is in the domain of King Edward, but really it's being controlled by someone else. Maybe the Knights are all corrupt and taking orders from someone they shouldn't be. Conspiracy is always fun! So is backstabbing and corruption.

History. Like with races, create a history of how the city got to where it is. What wars it's been through. Does it have any legends or mysteries involved with it? Any alliances with other cities? How old is it? How long has it been ruled by the ruler or family of the ruler? Are there festivals, holidays, or ceremonies? How were they started? And when?


WORLD MAP/CONTINENTS

Here are some things to remember about creating your world. It may seem logical, but these can easily be overlooked. Rivers run downhill, and into an ocean, or Lake that will usually have another river flowing to the ocean. They may also flow into an underground Lake, or cavern to the ocean.

Mountains run generally in lines along tectonic plates. They won't form a square, or an x, or many other weird patterns in general. This can also create earthquakes and maybe volcanos. Also, don't forget about where storms may occur. Sandstorm in deserts, hurricanes near warm ocean waters, along with tornados, and snowstorms in cold climates are possibilities.

Roads, dont forget roads! You'll probably want roads running between towns and to water sources.


CHARACTER NAMING

I mentioned at the beginning to be careful about naming races, cities, and characters. Here is why. While a long name might seem creative, and sound cool, it also gets hard to read and pronounce. The reader doesn't want to have to pause each time they read it, nor do they want to feel stupid discussing your story, and not know how to pronounce it, or come close to spelling it when talking to other people. This may lead to people not talking about the character or book. No one wants to keep seeing the name "rkunstinston", for one it looks alien, is hard to read, and has a lot of syllables, thus slowing the reader down a lot. But, one way around a strange name, is of course, a shorter easy to remember nickname. Maybe that name could just be rk, or Rick, or maybe they are known as something totally different because of a physical feature or personality trait. Like lion, horse, the man, red, big red, etc. But if you do this, you probably still won't want a bunch of long names that you shorten with nicknames.

Another thing to consider, is that certain regions, or races, may have similarities in their names, or surnames. ie may show up commonly, maybe hyphenated names, or Mc. 5 elves from the same region are unlikely to be named Mike, Bellatio, Lacronda, Morris, and Terachotia. Ok, so the way the world we are in is, names can be nearly anything, but it is so much more creative and thoughtful as a writer to make names more race and region specific.



CONCLUSION

I'll keep this short, since this seems quite long already and I may add to it. Question, question, question. Question everything. You want the storyline, dialogue, and history of people and places to make sense. You want to be able to answer the questions others will ask. It is preferable that all questions are answered in your book or future books, but no one can think of EVERYTHING. So, answer what you can in story, and do everything possible to make the world around the characters, and their backgrounds make sense, so if someone comes to you asking a question, you don't go uh, um, well, I don't know. That's rather disappointing. You don't need to put in every single detail, but the details you add, should make sense in story, and in physics as we know it. If it doesn't, have a reason why. Like with magic.

One final thing, you may create hundreds of details about a person or place, and might create 10s of cities, that doesn't mean you have to include every one of those details or places in your writing, but you'll have them available if needed. It's better to create too much in your draft than to create too little. You might write a sequel, or prequel later too and end up including what you didn't use earlier. And there's always the chance you'll write something based on different characters, but use the same world, and those details you didn't need previously, may be needed now. Or maybe the same characters in another world or dimension? The possibilities are endless. Make sense, keep it simple enough for the reader, without too much simplicity, and add enough dimension and detail to keep things interesting, but not too complicated and messy and you should do ok!

If you read all or most of this, I thank you for your time, I hope you read things and came up with things you might not have thought about before, and, you're awesome! Most of all when you write, have fun, enjoy it! If you don't enjoy it, the reader likely won't either. Good luck to you your awesomeness!