Fantasy Book Adventures

Writing advice, book reviews/recommendations. This blog is usually PG/ safe for work. Run for fun, by a 27 year old autistic and OCD she/her human being.

[im-defalut]

i'm completely and totally tired of the infantilization I suffer as a disabled person

it's not cute how friends get visibly uncomfortable when While Talking About Their Sexual Lives I add something about mine

it's not funny how train revisors talk to my caregiver (that doesn't even speak the language) rather than me. even the taxi driver whom has to drive me home talks to my teacher rather than me

it's not fine when people assume I can't possibly be intelligent or capable of advocating for myself, or of managing my money. it's not cool when they patronisingly praise me for not wasting my money, and then use that to deny me further aid

it's devastating when doctors and specially psychologs don't trust me when I express I struggle with some things or experience others. it's mind blowing how much I have to dumb myself down to not be thrown out of the consult becouse I do my own research since they don't fucking care about me

We deserve Autonomy,

We deserve that people trust us with Our Experiences,

We deserve that they trust us when we say we Can Do it and when we say we can Not,

We deserve to not be Talked Down to,

We deserve to be treated like Persons and I mean Whole Persons, with wants and desires and sexuality and preferances and gender.

We Deserve To Be Believed About Our Experiencess

We Deserve Help And Not Just To Survive. We Deserve To Thrive.

[ofthe1nterior]

Elena Ferrante, “Writing That Urges,” Incidental Inventions

[likeadevils]

so i have a mildly popular “reblog and put in in the tags” post going around and its. very clear how many people don’t know how to interact with a tumblr post

so, first of all, tumblr’s culture has changed a lot in the past couple years. there’s a genuine community effort to not start any drama, and ironically a lot of the current hostility is an effort to keep things calm. there’s also a change in how people interact with posts, so if you haven’t been here in a while please skip down to the tags/replies/reblog with text section.

for newcomers: you should be reblogging posts about as liberally as you would like something on twitter. if you only like stuff and have never reblogged anything, people will think you are rude/a bot. you’ve probably heard people talk about “cultivating your dash,” and thats because this platform is 100% centered around your dashboard. trending matters less, unfollowing and blocking in order to shape your dash into it’s best form is widely accepted, the majority of the content you’ll find and interact with will be because of your dash, and the only way to put things on your dash is to reblog them. tumblr users are deeply distrustful of algorithms and have largely turned off the “see posts your friends have liked” function (i recommend you also turn of the various algorithms in settings → general settings → dashboard preferences).

so, once you’ve reblogged a post, there’s three ways to add content to it. the tags, replies, and reblogging with text. all of them have different connotations

the tags: an inside voice. originally they were meant for organizing your blog (and they’re still used for this), but they’ve also morphed into a way to share thoughts that aren’t funny/insightful enough for non-followers to be interested in. when in doubt, put your comment in the tags

replies: basically talking to your friends in class. your followers have no way of finding your replies (they don’t pop up on the dash, nobody gets notified except for the original poster) so chances are, only the person who made the post is gonna see your comment. it’s for quick one-offs that you’re okay with other people overhearing, but really is only made for one person. they’re like a public dm

reblog with text: an outside voice. you’re getting up on a stage in town square and entertaining people. make sure it’s funny or insightful— bottom line, add something new to the conversation. you should use this the least

general rules of thumb: 

when in doubt, reblog. people will judge you if your blog is only personal posts and you only interact with other content by liking it.  

the only things people will judge you for reblogging are personal vent posts. leave a like to give a little virtual hug

if a post is asking about your personality/opinions (i.e: tell me what’s the last tv show you watched, that kind of thing) put it in the tags 

also if you see a nice edit, gifset, or art, reblog and say something nice in the tags! it’s that nice sweet spot of common enough that no one will notice but uncommon enough to make the artist’s day

[ao3commentoftheday]

If you're a creative person and you've got something you haven't finished, take a moment and think about whether you actually want to finish it.

Is it something that you're eager to work on again? Something that sparks something inside of you when you think of it?

Or is it something that feels like a dead weight around your neck? Like a homework assignment you're dreading having to do?

It's important to remember that starting something doesn't mean you have to finish it.

If you spend all of your time forcing yourself to finish things that you hate or that you're not interested in anymore, you won't have time and energy left to spend on the things you love.

Appreciate the time you spent with that creation. Enjoy the part of it that you have. But don't feel like you need to get through that one before you can move on to what you really want to do. Just do it.

Be free. Be happy. Be creative. And remember that hobbies aren't homework assignments. They don't need to be finished to be enjoyed.

[serphena]

Her nature is that of the forest itself. Beautiful and terrible, serene and savage, maiden and beast. She is the Lady and Witherfang both.

[projecttreehouse]

how to write convincing dialogue

did you know that show, not tell applies to dialogue, too? while dialogue can be used to further your narrative, it can also be used to showcase your characters. here's how:

-what is your character hiding? most people don't say things at face value. they hide what they mean within their words and tone, but in writing, you can't verbally hear the character's tone. ways to convey non-verbal tone include: contradictions between words and actions, context behind the words (ie. the scenario, character's actions and feelings), syntax (ie. fragments, repetition, awkward phrasing). also consider who the character is hiding information from: is it the reader? the characters? both?

-favorite words or phrases. does your character use a certain phrase or word a lot? do they often put their prepositions at the beginning or the end of the sentence? these are questions to ask when you're arranging the syntax of the dialogue. everyone has a specific way of talking. make sure you give each character a distinguishable voice.

-personality. this is how you can create a distinguishable voice. is your character confident? are they shy or hesitant? do they repeat the phases of others because they have nothing to add to the conversation? are they confrontational or do they beat around the bush? ask questions like these. if your character is confident, they may make bold statements and appear sure of themselves unlike shy characters who use words such as "maybe" or "should" or "think." to boil it down, think active wordage versus passive.

-observe others. don't look solely at television or other books. sit at your local coffee shop and listen in on conversations, then try and break it down. are they hiding anything? do they frequently use any words or phrases? how would you describe their personality? the better you get at breaking down conversations, the better you can create convincing ones, whether shallow, deep, or as a narrative device, because even if you use your dialogue to move your narrative along, it should still be compulsively convincing.

one way to tell if you've ticked all these boxes is if you can tell who is speaking without any tags.

happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.

[gamwthnzwhmou]

Reblog if you had a Tumblr for 5+ years

[heywriters]

Hey I've been working on a WIP for about six months now, but I'm nowhere near finished it even though I said I'd be finished by now. How do I finish writing my books faster, any tips/methods?

I am not the best person to give advice on finished stories! I tend to let stories simmer, or I take breaks that end up being quite long. So I can give you some advice, but know I rarely practice what I preach.

Remove distractions from your life. Easier said than done imo, but a quiet room, noise cancelling headphones, and airplane mode are the first steps to just sitting down and writing.

Write while the inspiration is fresh, and do whatever it takes to stay in that mindset. I got about ten chapters into a novella once because I slammed it all out in the same month the idea struck. Then I lost the muse for two years 😅 but did finally finish it!

Don't stray from the outline. If you have a set deadline for draft one, closely follow the original plan. If you get better ideas along the way, write them in the margins/notes and refer back during the revisions stage.

Don't edit while you write. Avoid rereading your progress if the temptation to edit is high. Just keep writing.

Schedule time to write every day. Many writers swear by this, though I've never done it intentionally. It does train your mind to think "okay, writing!" at the same time every day, and that's pretty awesome, but everyday life can make this tip difficult.

Set a word quota. I don't like this advice because it limits me personally. I used to aim for 3.5k words a chapter, and the quality of my writing suffered because I would add filler. If you feel a quota per day or week would work for you, aim for something small, at least to start with.

Skip some content. lf you have ideas for subplots or scenes that can be added in later it might be worthwhile to do so. Maybe a side character's arc is going to take extra time or your environment descriptions are lengthy. Save them for later drafts and focus on the main ideas.

Keep your head up. If sticking to a careful schedule is stressing you out because you cannot meet self-imposed deadlines, give yourself some slack. If at any point the writing itself is lowering your mood, exercise self-care and do something good for your body and mind. Listen to music, eat a snack, go for a walk, whatever will uplift you. Most importantly, if your personal life is worrying you or deserves much attention, forgive yourself for putting a story on pause to deal with those issues.

+ If you appreciate my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

[reininginthefirewriting]

Okay y’all time to share what kinds of disabled rep you’d like to see more of! I’ll start:

Disabled characters falling in love

Families not seeing their disabled child as something to apologize for and getting defensive when other people apologize on their behalf

Mobility aids!! (Including service animals)

The character’s disability being more than a personality trait but less than a burden

Character arcs that involve accepting their disabilities rather than finding ways to fix them

Accessible environments and tools to accommodate characters in their everyday life!!!

Disabled characters being able to hold their own

All the characters standing up to the ableists and giving them what they deserve (they can get their foot rolled over by a wheelchair. As a treat)

Cool ways disabilities are incorporated into fantasy/sci-fi genres!!

The other characters asking disabled friend if they want help instead of assuming they need it

Let! Them! Have! Hyperfixations!

Disabled characters facing and overcoming challenges without their disability being undervalued

Disabled characters saving the day

[apocellipse]

found families of disabled characters, all understanding and accomodating each other so thoroughly they barely need to discuss it aloud anymore

disabled characters visibly receiving therapy, treatments, care, and medication

disabled characters taking their care into their own hands after being failed by the modern medical system

disabled characters doing incredible things not in spite of, but because of their disability

disability giving characters a conpletely unique viewpoint and method of navigating the world

sci fi and fantasy adaptive devices

physically disabled characters having multiple overlapping conditions, not just one

characters who don’t have a diagnosis, whose symptoms don’t fit into what a doctor expects to see

characters with NG tubes and G tubes

characters in wheelchairs who sometimes choose to walk with a cane

blind characters with canes

families who all have the same disability, but different symptoms or comorbidities

DISABLED PARENTS WHO AREN’T ABUSIVE OR NEGLECTFUL

[theres-bees-in-my-head]

Could I add a couple?

Characters not feeling disabled enough//Internalised ableism and having to learn to accept it

Ambulatory wheelchair users

Sensory needs

cluster B's written as actual people and not monsters

same for dissociative disorders

Amputees who don't use prosthetics

Disabled characters who don't do incredible things

Parents that are carers for their kids

[avelera]

The Causal Chain And Why Your Story Needs It

The most obnoxious thing my writing teacher taught me every story needed, that I absolutely loathed studying in the moment and that only later, after months of resisting and fighting realized she was right, was something called the causal chain.

Simply put, the causal chain is the linked cause-and-effect that must logically connect every event, reaction, and beat that takes place in your story to the ones before and after.

The Causal Chain is exhausting to go through. It is infuriating when someone points out that an event or a character beat comes out of nowhere, unmoored from events around it.

It is profoundly necessary to learn and include because a cause-and-effect chain is what allows readers to follow your story logically which means they can start anticipating what happens next, which is what is required for a writer to be able to build suspense and cognitively engage the audience, to surprise them, and to not infuriate them with random coincidences that hurt or help the characters in order to clumsily advance the author's goals.

By all means, write your story as you want to write it in the first draft, and don't worry about this principle too much. This is an editing tool, not a first draft tool. But one of the first things you should do when retroactively begin preparing your story to be read by others is going step by step through each event and confirming that a previous event leads to it and that subsequent events are impacted by it on the page.

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character

A Multi-Step Guide Written by a Visually Impaired Writer and Blogger

I’m hoping this blog will over time develop its own following, and when it does people will inevitably see my bio and notice what I included: I’m visually impaired.

Yes, a visually impaired writer, and I’ve written with two blind characters before so I have some practice in the field.

So, inevitably, someone is going to ask how to write a blind character.

Or, at least, I hope you’ll ask someone who’s actually blind or visually impaired about writing a blind character before you get too involved with your new WIP.

All parts will be tagged #blindcharacter in my blog, and I will add links to every post as I finish each part. Follow my blog for more writing advice.

Note, this post updates fairly often and old versions are still floating around out there. The most current version of this post is pinned to my blog with any new guides or links you might of missed.

As of 10/20/2020, this is the most extensive and screen reader friendly version of this post.

Part One: Crafting the Blind Character

In which I tell you how to begin making a blind character who is more than a cardboard cutout

Part Two: Narrative Choice, Visual Description, Verbal Description, Social Interaction

In which I give you a basic rundown on how to write from the perspective of a character who can’t see and still make the narration descriptive

Part Three: Tropes and Clichés to Avoid

Your blind readers will thank you for not being the 5000th person to do this and manage to actually finish your story. (Do you have any idea how many stories I’ve noped out of within two chapters because of these clichés? A Lot.)

-New- Part Four: Canes, Guide Dogs, and O&M

Everything I can tell you about 1) how to learn how to use a cane 2) how a cane works 3) how to describe what your character experiences with their cane 4) everything I know on guide dogs

Part Five: Small Aspects of being Blind You Never Thought Of

Or, really, very normal everyday things for blind people, the inclusion of which will make your characters more real and authentic. It’s the tiny details.

Part Six: Should You Cure Your Character’s Blindness? (Short Answer: No)

There’s no way to write a cure for your blind character that doesn’t make blind readers hate you. Sorry. We came here to finally experience a relatable character who experiences the world like us, but none of us are getting cured so seeing this character we learned to love become something alien from us in the end feels like a slap in the face

Writing Blind Characters Falling in Love, an Advice Post:

Someone asked what being blind and falling in love have to do with each other. Honestly, blindness changes your perspective on everything and it makes an impact on every relationship you have. This includes some things that you definitely do not want your character’s love interest to be/do.

Writing Blind Jokes (Should You Do It?)

You know those flow charts of “should you do x?” going around? It’s like that, but screen reader friendly. Should you write blind jokes. It’s pretty complicated and there are a lot of possible scenarios and details to consider.

A small essay addressing the frequently asked question on giving your blind character a superpower to help them “see.”

It’s became a popular question, so to make the answer easier/faster for everyone to access, I wrote what will usually be my initial answer. Below there are a few links to some notable past questions on this subject.

Mourning My Vision, it’s More than Depression. 

A small personal essay addressing the nuances of the mourning period you experience with a new disability. The mourning period is mentioned in other guides, but this is more detailed.

Dealing with Heightened Senses, a video by Molly Burke with additional commentary by me

While Molly talks about the myths and truths about heightened senses, I talk about the correlation with blindness and neuro-divergency and how co-morbid disorders/disabilities might affect sensory processing.

Satirical Commentary on the phrase “that blank look in their eyes” used too often in fiction to identify a blind character

a:tla, I’m looking at you (and my eyes aren’t blank)

I Found a Lost Piece of Blindness History

My grandmother told me about her blind aunt and how she sent letters. It led me to speculate about all the O&M things people develop on their own but never get a chance to pass onto other blind people. Technology and techniques are lost in history and reinvented, including the white cane ad guide dogs.

Includes a little history on the introduction of guide dogs into the 20th century

The Following are Answered Anon Questions

Making Your Blog More Accessible

Making Links Accessible to Screen Readers

Reblogging to Add an Image Description to Someone Else’s Image

Why I Write Image Descriptions

Writing Blind Characters

Advice for a Character Who was Born Blind

Over-Protective Parents of a Blind Character, Why They’re Over-Protective and How to Avoid Crossing a Line

A Blind Character in Victorian Era Historical Fiction

Is It Bad Not to Have Guide Dogs in a Fantasy/Historical Setting Without Guide Dogs (short answer: it’s not bad)

Someone Asked About My Thoughts on a Medusa-like Character Blinding Herself to Avoid Hurting Anyone

Talking about Popular Blind Characters In Media

Does Daredevil’s Echolocation Negate His Blindness

Someone Else was Asked How to Write Daredevil Fanfiction

Blind Characters with Superpowers

World Setting where the General Population has a Superpower

Superpowers that don’t involve sight, Five questions to ask yourself if this superpower is a bad idea or a good one

[writingquestionsanswered]

I've heard a lot of people talking about doing writing exercises before they delve into writing their projects. What are examples of writing exercises? Do they just write whatever comes to mind in a certain time span and then move on? Sorry if this is a silly question to ask

Guide: Writing Exercises

Much like physical exercise, writing exercises serve a variety of purposes. They can be used for:

daily upkeep (i.e., writing practice)

preparation for a specific “event” (e.g., a project, story, or scene)

to hone a particular skill (e.g., description or character development)

for fun/to blow off steam

Writing exercises can be any length, from a few sentences to several pages. You may choose to spend a little time every day or week doing writing exercises, or you may do them occasionally for fun or when you feel like you need to.

Different Types of Writing Exercises

There are many different kinds of writing exercises, and which one you choose to do depends on your needs and desires at the time:

1) Journaling is one of the most popular writing exercises. For many writers, writing about our own lives is a natural way to exercise our writing skills. It can also help you process things in your life that may influence your writing in some way. Some writers do journaling in the form of blogging.

2) Writing Prompts are another popular type of writing exercise. Prompts can be anything from a word or theme, to a picture or story idea. You can find writing prompts all over tumblr, social media, and the internet. There are also writing prompt books.

3) Creative Exercises are really just more elaborate, structured writing prompts. For example, you might take a character from your WIP and drop them into your favorite book or movie to see how they behave. This can be a great way to learn more about your character. Or, you might try writing a short story based on the first or last line of a famous novel.

4) WIP Tangents are when you do a deep dive into your WIP’s setting, characters, or conflict by writing a short story that is peripheral to the events of your story but not actually part of it. In other words, it’s kind of like writing fan-fiction of your own WIP. It would be like if Tomi Adeyemi wrote a short story about the Queen of Orïsha in her childhood to get to know the character better.

5) Free Writing is exactly what it sounds like. You sit down with a blank page and follow your stream of consciousness wherever it wants to go. This is no rules writing--don’t worry about using the right words or punctuation, don’t worry about polish or editing, don’t fret about cohesiveness or theme. You just write whatever wild things are happening in your head.

Writing Exercises to Get You Started

Start a journal and write in it every morning or evening. Write about something interesting that happened that day or the previous day, but with a writer’s eye. Examine the people involved, consider emotions, embellish sensory details.

Find a random word generator online and get yourself a list of three to five words. Now, interpret these words any way you’d like and write a short story incorporating these ideas. For example, let’s say your list is blue, countdown, and pizza. You might write about a girl who is preparing for her 16th birthday (countdown), which will be a poolside pizza party (pizza/blue.) Or, you might write about a depressed man (blue) who is waiting for a food delivery (pizza) while waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve (countdown.)

Look online or in books on your shelf for a poem with an interesting title. Now, turn that poem into a short story.

Take a character out of your WIP and put them on a row boat, alone in the middle of the ocean. What are they thinking about? What do they wish they’d done differently? What do they do to survive and what do they do to try to get rescued?

Take a character from your WIP or a newly created character and choose a random day in their lives. Regardless of when or where the story takes place, imagine there’s a reality show camera crew following them around. What is there entire day like from beginning to end? What do they do? Who do they interact with? What are there relationships like?

Where to Find Writing Prompts & Exercises

Creative Writing Prompts @creativepromptsforwriting FYCD Writing Prompts @fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment Tumblr Writing Prompts Tag NaNoWriMo Blog Writing Prompts Tag Reedsy Weekly Writing Prompts ThinkWritten 365 Creative Writing Prompts Writer’s Digest Writing Prompts Tag Writing Prompt Books on Amazon

WQA Writing Exercise Posts

Want to Write, Can’t Come Up with a Plot Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists Want to Write, Can’t Come Up with a Plot Get Excited About Your Story Again How to Rekindle Your Motivation

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hey! I’m not sure if you have any advice on this, but I was wondering about how to structure short stories? Over the last couple of years writing full length stories really overwhelms me and I wanted to try writing short stories instead until I feel like I’m back into my groove. I’m just really unsure how to structure it - what’s too short or too long? how do i introduce characters/goals/inciting incident in such a small time frame? Thank you for all your help :)

Structuring a Short Story

Short Stories Aren’t Condensed Novels

Short stories don’t have the same structure and elements as novels because there’s just not enough time for all of that. For that reason, they’re not really about inciting incidents, character goals, and the push and pull between protagonist and antagonist, like novels. Instead, short stories are more like “the story within a bigger story.” They’re short explorations of themes, ideas, and the realities of the human condition, often with some kind of twist.

“One Slip in Thousands” - If The Hunger Games Were a Short Story

For the sake of understanding a little better, let’s talk about how we might make a short story out of The Hunger Games. Now, you might be thinking, “WQA, that’s just not possible! The Hunger Games is an almost 100k word story, how would we trim that down to 5,000 words or less? Well, like I said above, we don’t “trim it down.” We find the story within the story.

Personally, I love short stories with a twist, so if I were turning The Hunger Games into a short story, I would focus on Prim getting chosen for The Reaping, because that was a pretty darned good twist. I’d begin the story just where the book begins, with Katniss waking up and getting ready to go hunting with Gale. I’d dial back on the District 12 a bit and concentrate more on what Katniss’s life is like as a result of where she lives. Then, she’d hunt with Gale and I’d zoom in more on how she feels responsible for taking care of her mom and sister, how her mom couldn’t survive if anything happened to her or Prim, and about how she hates to risk taking extra reaping entries in exchange for more tesserae, but it’s worth it to be able to get more food for her mom and sister. And then, the Reaping, and Prim’s name gets called. I would end it there, in that moment of horror before she volunteers herself. “One slip in thousands.” What a twist.

THG Short Story Analysis & Further Thoughts 

There’s no inciting incident, no goal, no protagonist struggling through the obstacles put in place by the antagonist/antagonistic force. It’s just a story about a girl whose mom and sister are her whole world, and she risks her life every day to keep them safe and fed. And the biggest risk she takes is trading extra entries of her name for the Reaping in exchange for extra food for her mom and sister. So, the biggest risk to that which Katniss holds most dear–her mom and her sister–is that something happens to her, either when she’s hunting illegally with Gale or she gets chosen for The Hunger Games. And, in our short story version, at least, it’s actually the thing she expected least–that her sister’s one slip would be chosen–that ends up destroying everything she holds dear.

And it’s not that there can’t be any of those things–an inciting incident or goals or the push and pull between protagonist and antagonist, it’s just that they generally aren’t, and if they are, not in the same way as in a novel. There just isn’t time.

Read Short Stories to Learn How to Write Them

The very best way to learn how to write and structure a short story is to read a lot of them. Here are some of my favorite ones that you can read for free online:

The Lottery by Shirley JacksonThe Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. LawrenceWhy I Live at the P.O. by Eudora WeltySweat by Zora Neale HurstonEverything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’ConnorThe Swimmer by John CheeverYoung Goodman Brown by Nathaniel HawthorneDesiree’s Baby by Kate ChopinThe Garden Party by Katherine MansfieldA Rose for Emily by William FaulknerThe Return of a Private by Hamlin Garland The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Other Helpful Posts:

Keeping Short Stories Short Tips for Starting a Short StoryWriting Short Fiction

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[allthingsschwab]

Wise words from the Schwablin Queen Creatives, take note

[leave-her-a-tome]

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

[the-gneech]

I hadn’t heard of most of these, I’ll check ‘em out!

[sippingon-whiskeyncoke]

Canva is great, I use it for mood boards and it has an app.

[inkwell-attitude]

all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is

[fatal-blow]

okay so i know i said most of this in the replies but it might be easier to actually reblog and say stuff instead lmao

Cities - go near water!  freshwater lakes and rivers (rivers especially) are the best places for cities because A) source of water and B) travel and trade is much easier cus you can put your boats like right there.  Basically ever relevant city ever was built on a lake or a river.

for rivers in general - because gravity, rivers run from mountains (forming from melting snow and ice (this is why they get fat in spring–more stuff melting)) to lakes/ocean where they can empty out (and even lakes will have rivers leading out that eventually get to the ocean), which can help when mapping out where those start and end.  rivers are also much thinner and faster in steeper elevations and very slow and wide when the land is flat

mountains - i like to think of what the tectonic plates look like because that’s what makes mountains!  mountains are also never standalone they’re always in mountain ranges (archipelagos are really just underwater mountain ranges babey).  a cool trick I like to do is occasionally separate mountain ranges across continents, because over time the tectonic plates shifted and literally split the range in half.  These mountains are really old tho so they’ve eroded and therefore it makes them smaller and rounder (like the appalachians) as opposed to relatively young mountain ranges like the rocky mountains which have taller and sharper peaks

Another mountain trick: if your mountains run along the ocean, the ocean side of the mountains will get a LOT of rain while the other side will be very dry–almost desert-like, in fact.  think of temperate rainforests in British Columbia vs the drier conditions in the canadian prairies

forests - depends on how warm the area might be.  coniferous forests are found further north (before you hit the tree line, and then it’s only tundra onwards) but as you head south you get leafier trees, and the leaves tend to get larger too

If you think about general elevation too, you’ll have places that might be swampy (wet + lower).  if your world has an ice age like we did, then glaciers may have carved the land, leaving piles of soil in the south that was left when the ice receded and places where the bedrock has been bared north of that (like the Canadian Shield in Canada–the reason we see that is because of the glaciers)

You might also have a land that’s dotted in a shitton of freshwater lakes as well because the meltwater filled the holes that the glaciers scraped out (this is why canada has so many goddamn lakes)

and if the ice age was more recent than it was in our world, then you might not even have the forest re-growth and it could be a lot of open plains

tl;dr i like to think of major climate events that might have also shaped the land on top of some basic rules

[possiblypedanticrpgideas]

The Artifexian has an entire series on building your world from literally the stars down and then the ground up.

Worldbuilding Videos - YouTube

All my worldbuilding videos

Though, for fantasy, you can make the world operate on entirely different principles:

With that done, the actual topic of city placement can be covered by videos like this:

Or

Once you have your places, if you want help naming them in realistic ways, this video can help:

This one is on architecture, which is definitely a subset of cities:

But for a more relevant practical guide on making settlements realistic:

Here’s a quick guide for making demographics:

[inkwell-attitude]

holy shit?

[mackievanstan]

My friends and I got together and said we have to do something. We realized there’s power in numbers. We have a great opportunity right now to change the scope of the world.

iamaman.vote