Finally Character designing! about time i did this.

 

The long anticipated post that is so late. I would have done this earlier but I have been a hump, and stuck with designing one of my characters.

As I noted in another post far in the past, characters can sometimes be crafted by events and sometimes events are crafted by the characters. You must decide this beforehand. Chase two rabbits at the same time and you end up catching neither. Work on either a character or event first before doing the other.

I have noticed growing up and writing with my friends that characters are designed in two ways:

Based on a person

Or

Based on an archetype with a few tweaks

Both are dictated by the type of story you are writing and the tone you are aiming for. Do not forget this!

Both methods are sound and can yield some interesting characters worthy of development. I personally favour a mix of both. Some of my characters are based on my friends and family personality wise, while some look like people I see on the streets.

In terms of my book Elohim I have come up with a system. This system can be adapted for any fantasy book, and is easy to organise, by race or affiliation.  

Name/ true name / Title

Age

Race / species (in the case of demons and animals)

Physical description:

Life details

Noted abilities

Of course it started with my main characters. At the moment I have six main protagonist but the story follows Ichiro mainly. They are the ones to which the main conflict revolves around. That makes all others supporting cast, however some of these characters are not intrinsic and are only seen once or twice to prompt particular actions from characters or provoke thought in readers. Without saying too much about the complex nature of my narrative as well as keeping things simple, the characters, much like the words on the page, are implements or tools in moulding the narrative, so their application must be precise. As they say in drama and theatre “there are no small parts, just small actors” (if I got that wrong please tell me).

The majority of my characters are archetypes with various tweaks. All of my main protagonist bar one have two sides, two demeanours that are shown in different situations. This makes them complex but not necessarily 3 dimensional or any deeper than a kitchen sink. It takes work and careful thought. Just more to bear in mind. Of course I am talking from experience.

Sometimes characters pop up while in the flow. I have had it happen a few times. Doesn’t mean they cannot be there.  Always take the time to think about what kind of person/character you want them to be and the rest will fall in to place.

For me the hardest part of character designing is visualizing how they look and developing their speech. The latter is far harder and is the way readers distinguish between characters, but this will be covered in a future post about writing dialogue and speech.

Aesthetics are an important part of character design, as the way you describe how a character looks aids in the reader’s visualization of the story. So naturally giving every characters a distinguishing feature in their form or dress is the best bet.  For example my main characters all have something that sets them apart from each other and their race. Like Xanxas:

Xanxas prefers to maintain much of his demonic features in his human form, which includes his heavily muscular body, white hair and beard, red eyes, sharp canines and slightly blue tint to his skin. Like his angel counterpart (Lucifel) he looks roughly in his early 20s.  In his demonic form Xanxas has four arms, sharp protrusions from the elbows, large horns on the head, a tail and tattoos all over his arms.

Taken from his physical description in my notes.

These features will be mentioned every so often to remind readers who the characters is and what he looks like.  Any mention of his defining features will alert readers to his presence.

Coming back full circle. All characters have a history, a back story and personal experiences. They are not completely blank, they have lived a life that you as the writer must create.  So their backgrounds influence what they say and do. Another thing to bear in mind.

I think that somewhat brings this to a close. I hope I was helpful, if I was not, I will step up my game!  But I have to be told how. So please comment.

As always thank you for reading. Nurture every thought and watch it blossom!

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The next post is undecided and will have to wait till late may after my exams are complete. Hope you my dear readership and wait that long.

Snap shot writing and THE FLOW

Would you not agree?

Greetings people of the internet and my dear readership. This is for all the people that thought I was either dead or had given up on this Blog. This post will be split into two sections as you may be able to gleam from the title.

So this post is about what I call snap shot writing. It is not writing something on the spur of the moment. It’s a term I use for observational or sensory writing.

This is one of the few things I would recommend as a warm up to writing.  Taking each sense in turn in any particular order just go with it. My preferred order is; Sight, Touch, Smell, Taste and finally Hearing.

I was meant to have a prepared piece, however the stresses of life have prevented me from doing so. But I may find the time and place it here once it’s done. So keep a keen eye on this blog post for it. If any of you feel like it, comment your snap shot writing. I would love to read them.

That was really short right? Love when a plan come together. Now for something I want to really take a stab at.

The FLOW:

It is a concept that everyone should understand in their own way. My friends and I float this term around as an expression. But what do we mean?

One of my elders said “The Flow is a mental and spiritual place where your ideas take physical form.”

Quinnan, who wrote one of my previous blogs on world building says “the flow is a mental, physical and emotional state to which you can achieve optimal performance.”

I agree with both of these.  But I have found that the FLOW is not just mental, emotional and spiritual, it is also physical. When training or doing exercise I find that I get a rhythm, but in the realm of writing I must be in a state of harmony and comfort to which all the energy within yourself and the ambient energy around comes out in your writing, or anything you do for that matter. 

It’s important that when you are doing anything creative, you want to do it and that you love doing every part of the process. Sometimes the joy is in the simple act of creation and building.

Hopefully that all makes sense? It’s really simple I swear. I just make things sound complicated. Just a habit I guess.

I guess that wraps it up. Warming up with a bit of writing is one of the best ways to get in the flow. Always remember that.

Nurture every thought and watch it blossom!

As always thank you for reading. This post feels a bit rushed. Just a heads up. Im going to be a bit busy for a while with various things, so posts may be few and far between or late like this one. Please be patient with me.

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The next post will be on: my current method of character design. I know about Bloody time!

World Building: History and Lore

Greetings Readers!

Almost to the end of world building. Though character design still remains that this still the end of world building.  This post will be split in to two sections. Ways of presenting lore and history and constructing fictional lore and history. Im doing it in that order because that is how I approached it.

Now as my friend highlight in the previous post in his sections outlining history, tradition and religion (go back to refresh ourselves if u need to) and summed up in this quote:

“History is the backbone of our very society! And the kidneys! And the liver too if I were to wager.” This quote from Bartholomew Oobleck in Rooster Teeth’s series ‘RWBY’ perfectly sums up the importance of our history and ancestry

As important as it is how one does express this history and lore? For this Im going to take a page form one of media that does this well. GAMES. Tv and fill does it too but I think the interactive nature of games just edges it out ahead. Anyway tangent over. Games are able to show off lore and history of a games world in various ways, mainly though NPC conversation (which many people do not bother with), in game collectables (like books, or items that have information attached or sound bites/ audio logs) and parts of the actually story. Some franchises dispense the lore outside of the games though graphic novels and books. (But more on that later). Franchises that do this well are ones with multiple entries (main and spin off) are derived from books and are not necessarily story driven. Games in my experience that do this well are of course the Elder scrolls series*, the Jak and Dexter series, the pokemon franchise, The Witcher series, The kingdom hearts series, the final fantasy series and a few more.  All these games overtly or covertly display aspects of that universes history and mysteries that may get to explore. On many occasions a single mystery or story can span multiple entries in a series and may never be answered or explored. That’s part of the fun and intrigue. Then some people compile the information on wikis for others to read.

Me saying all this doesn’t really help unless any of us decide to create a visual interactive medium such as a game. However in a written story things become an art in its self. Though I haven’t gotten in the point in my own work as of the time of writing this post, I have thought of the ways to which lore can be shown. Much like the NPCs in a game, DIALOUGE is going to be the most used thing. Readers will have to go by what you want to show and tell them. In the case of my book, on many occasions my characters look to tombs, their reading of information is imparted to readers that way. One favoured technique for showing the past is rather basic and expected, FLASH BACKS. Telling events of the past. Another ways of showing history and lore is having a separate book for it. I know that sounds cheap and extra work. But I realized that books that are just about the world is very easy to do considering that is what you start writing while world building.

Now as for constructing history and lore…..this is where things may get incoherent from my end. Perhaps talking about this in respects to my own work would be helpful.  With completely fictional work, once can start with the very beginning of the world’s birth. Whether from a big bang or sculpted by the hands of gods. Or not start from here. The best place is to start working on the events that actually happen in the story you are writing first then work backwards. Any wars/ conflicts, holidays, ceremonies, traumatic social economical events (if civilization is advance to have those) religious events etc etc. the list can go on. In terms of my book Elohim I did just that. Starting with a creation myth.

“After the birth of the universe, pools of Aether came together and gave birth to the first Urukai (don’t know it was just one or more) they had control of the universe but there was not much in it. So they, using the Aether prompted the creation if the three planes and the celestial bodies within them. In the upper plane filled with light, Atmos. In the Lower plane, Grima. And in the middle plane they found it has split in half. Both keeping balance and in harmony with the other. So they prompted the birth of the twins Gaia and Magnus. On each of their celestial children they left parts of them self/ves. Even with their children there was still not much in the universe. Aether is the blood of the universe and from it came life in the form of beast and plant. Over time man rose from the binding of beast. In the Upper plane man came in the form of winged angels. In the lower man came in the form of bestial Grim. And on Gaia, in the form of Humans. The Urukai found that not all humans were in tune with the Aether.”

Elohim Creation myth as recited by Eternal Eraqus to young angels.

Then delving in to the formation of each of the now 7 races that make up the body of characters in my book. The angelic tribes have a civil war, then there is an event called the ‘great elopement’ which signals the birth of the demon race, and the subsequent war that starts between angels and demons. And I won’t say much more than that. Then I turned my focus on events that have a direct effect on my characters. As always when I make a note of characters I have to say ‘I will discuss that later in the post about character design’. Sorry folks I’m not going to slip that easily. Just now that a characters personal history can inform events.

Quinnan failed to mention is that he has constructed a calendar and a timeline of major events. If you would like a post on formulating a fictional calendar I’m sure I could put in a request for that. Either way, the CRITICAL ADVICE is to have a Timeline of some sort to keep track of things. Especially if you’re going to reference them.  I have found that sometimes it is better to obscure with lore and history. Some events must be grounded in specific time so other events can be placed in relation of a major event, but at the same times you can afford to be lose with dates.

The history and lore of a fictional universe doesn’t have to be detailed in its presentation but fully thought of in the event the events must be explored. J  Doing this will come fairly naturally as you go through the motions. The larger you universe is the more you will have to create.  So bare that in mind. 

Honestly I’m sure I could talk about this a little bit longer, but alas I’m still learning about this as such so I cannot impart very much.  So please do some research and perhaps share what you have learned with me in the comments.  Thank you,

*Link to the shoddy cast youtube channel which proves this with their ES lore videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/ShoddyCast/playlists 

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The next post will not be character designing, but what I like to call: Snap shot writing

World building 2: from the ground up

Greeting readers
I have returned with another world building post. This one however will not be written by me, it will be written by my padawan Quinnan who at this moment is undertaking a project from the ground up titled the Hexion Compendium.  Disclaimer: there will be obscure references. Without further adieu, picture first!

WE HAVE A NAME!

World building is one of the most exciting and detailed aspects of writing a story; it’s also one of the most important, especially within the fantasy genre. When writing a fantasy story the world in which you set it has to be one of the first things you put your mind to, whereas this commitment may not need to be so drastic with stories set in the real world. From personal experience I know that there is little as intimidating as the blank and empty notebook or A4 sheet of paper that will soon hold a map of and notes about an entirely new world. Aspects such as geography, geology, climatology, biology (both human and non-human), religion, tradition, law, history and language are all key to building a world. I aim to talk a little about all of the aforementioned aspects of a world.

Geography

If you’re reading this post for the first time, I would suggest reading the other sections first and coming back to this one.

Out of the aspects listed, it’s definitely the widest ranging and one of the trickiest to get to grips with. If you have artistic skills then drawing a map shouldn’t be too difficult – even if you don’t have those skills you can produce rough sketches and ask a more talented individual for a favour. When drawing the map of a world, always leave room for editing and be prepared to make alterations several times before completing the final version as the geography may need to reflect some of the other aspects of world building, hence its ‘trickiness’. For example, if you consider history while drawing you can add ancient or abandoned cities or mark famous battlefields of the past. If you consider geology and climatology, environments like forests, mountain ranges, deserts and blizzard swept tundra will be more thought through and strategically placed, adding to the depth of the world. Naming places in your world could also reflect the languages within it and the people or races that live there. Going back to making a map, don’t forget to make it the way YOU WANT TO. If you want to add a lake, river or city, put it where you want and not where somebody tells you it should go… not that you shouldn’t listen to constructive criticism, but you know what I mean.

Geology and Climatology

The construction of the earth itself and the patterns of the weather may not be a detail that you want to delve too much into unless you plan to have some link between it and the plot. If that’s the case, definitely read this section. When creating my world for my story I did next to no research into the patterns of the weather and decided that places would have either random weather or the stereotypes associated with them (i.e. it’s always sunny in a desert etc.) I did that because I decided that this aspect of world building wasn’t going to be high on my list of priorities, however if it is for you then by all means take as much time as you feel is necessary to develop this aspect of your world. Think about what may cause weather events, whether its down to a living creature or an uncontrollable force, it’s all down to you.

Biology

This aspect of world building closely links to character design. Personally I worked simultaneously on world building and character design, and I think that was the best way to go, because it allowed me to apply the same level of detail that I had put into my world into the characters. If you plan on including non-human races in your story, definitely make sure to record your ideas on their physiology, psychology and societies.

Religion

Creating a religion, or indeed more than one religion, can be an arduous task, but may be an essential part of your world if that’s the path you intend on going down. I haven’t put a huge amount of effort into the religious aspects of my story in terms of spending hours and hours poring over religious texts and other sources of possible inspiration, but I definitely wanted to make sure that anything related to religion made sense in terms of lore and history. That was mainly due to the fact that at least two religious beliefs in my world are governing plot points early on in my story. When thinking about religion in your story it is important to remember that it doesn’t have to exist at all. If you don’t want to have religion as a theme or aspect of your world then you can drop it in favour of adding more detail to the other aspects. That’s what I did, and I still have a balanced, lore entrenched and detailed world. Don’t be afraid to leave behind aspects that you may not be interested in developing.

Tradition

This may sound like religion again, but bear with me. Religion refers to beliefs and stories that characters in your world believe in. Tradition refers to rituals and actions that those characters perform as a part of your world, and while traditions can be born out of religion, they aren’t always. Tradition can also refer to festivals or special occasions that your world celebrates, and can be a worldwide, national or regional event. An early tradition revealed in my story is the anniversary of a town’s founding – not born out of religion, and only takes place in that specific town. When creating traditions, remember to link in the historical aspects of your world. Traditions are always of great historical significance (fictional or not), and so try to come up with reasons or events that would lead to traditions being born. A town’s foundation is but one simple example.

Law

The laws of the land are a crucial societal aspect of your world, and need to be taken into consideration at some level. What laws will your world have in place? What will be the punishment for breaking them? Why did these laws come into being? These are questions that you should at least think about when designing your world, but not all of them have to be answered. Adding laws to your world will add a sense of depth and influence the way you make characters behave, and so it would be more than foolish to completely ignore the impact law has on your world.

History

“History is the backbone of our very society! And the kidneys! And the liver too if I were to wager.” This quote from Bartholomew Oobleck in Rooster Teeth’s series ‘RWBY’ perfectly sums up the importance of our history and ancestry. To not apply this sense of importance to the history in your story would result in a more two-dimensional world than you perhaps had hoped for. Many other aspects of world building rely on history: geography, law and tradition most of all. When I was creating my world, I recognised this, and realised that I would have to create some events that happened before the time period in which my story was set to give the actions and speech of the characters some context and logical reasoning behind them. Doing this made my world richer in the sense that historical aspects of my world can be used as plot points throughout the story, and not just once.

Language

By far one of the most in-depth and technical aspects of the world building process, languages can be created or adapted within your story to a number of effects. I personally have had to create three languages for three of the non-human races that I created. When doing this, grammar structure, writing and pronunciation are sub-aspects that I had to think about. Of course languages are an aspect that comes into play most of all within the fantasy genre, and so it was essential for my writing a book of that genre to utilise the linguistic aspects of my world. Oh, and a personal tip: keep a dictionary of the words you create. There’s nothing more frustrating than coming up with a word in another language that perfectly suits your purpose only to forget it – make sure to have a notepad or separate Word document to keep all of your words and important linguistic features in. I have done the latter, and through using a table have managed to keep track of three different languages and their translations into English.

So, I’m well aware that this has already been a long and extremely detailed entry by myself, so I’ll stop here. I hope that when designing your world you will do what I did and develop the above aspects in the way you want to develop them, and at the individual levels that you desire. Good luck to you, future world builders!

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I hope that my young friend was helpful. We have been working closely together for a number of months so I have been a minor influence on his work, more so on his execution rather than idea development.

The next post will hopefully be the last on world building. World building 3: history and Lore.

As always please, share, +1 and comment. All of that stuff will help me make better blog posts and target topics you want me to write on.

 

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World building: how I currently do it

 

I'm starting to like these images

A member of my writer’s guild pointed out that while my steps are good, they become rather convoluted. I agree however the nature of the process of world building can be equally as convoluted as my description of the step. It all boils down to what is comfortable for YOU.

That aside, I wish to use this post to outline the current process of world building for my current project, without hopefully giving too much away.

Tip: Always be prepared to have a note book for each project and even dedicated folders. Staying organise is essential.

As I described before, my initial premise for this Brain child (what I refer to my projects) is based on my interest in religion and themes I associate with it. My first step was consolidating the themes I wished to explore and consider. This is what I came up with:

·         Duality:

§  Order and chaos

§  Freedom and control (domination)

·         Fate and destiny

·         Rebellion against natural law

·         Organised religion and faith

·         Authority

·         Truth

·         The hero’s Path

·         Family and unity

·         Memories, history and legacy.

This is quite a handful but not impossible. For the next step I thought of the plot progression. This is where having a note book or a place to keep information together is useful. For me I prefer a digital format (an extensive PowerPoint) because I can access it from almost any digital device.

For the plot I plotted (zing) a sort of linear map of progression which I then separated into 4 parts. These became the 4 arcs of my book.  The following arcs were giving titles for what happens in each part. They are as follows: succession; paradise lost; vanished veil and Remnant/God slayer (the last is a working title). 

Once I came up with both these and my premises I started designing the world.  At this point I decided that I wanted to set the story in our world. For this the long road called research began for me. I started collecting all the things I already knew  (from book, film, TV and games) and going to friends, family and acquaintances for the things I was not clear on as well as advice on how to approach my particular themes. I researched subject specific terms that I may need to note down, as well as their meanings and the way I may have to redefine them for the purpose of my story. Then I decided to start researching the occult, which is a far broader topic than I first imagined. So much so that I’m still going through it - hard work to say the least. In the midst of research I started designing other aspects of the world. Earth was already set up so I had to build around it. Because the story includes creatures of angelic and demonic nature I must by default make corresponding worlds for them: Heaven and Hell. Taking various depictions of both from my research, both ended up a mishmash of different things that are layered and are as complex as earth is.  Both worlds feature governing bodies/regency, a myriad of different cultures and social divides and their own individual histories. To throw a spanner in the works I decided to create two more realms but they are not as important to the story, they just give me more settings to work with.

My next step was defining some of the principle creatures that inhabited the fictional realms: Angels, demons, Nephilium, cambion, and human. Much like the worlds these were formulated form various sources. The Urukai –the god race- are a fictional race that I created for this story. As you may be able to infer they have a large role in the story, so much so that my protagonist is one of them. But if I was to talk about them more than this I would give away too much.

At this point I have a lot of content. So I needed to start organising it, so I systematically started grouping things my PowerPoint:

·         Themes

·         Premise

·         section 1:

RACES and their abilities

·         Section 2:

REALMS

·         Section 3:

3.1 Large concepts

3.2 Other terms

3.3 Factions and sects

·         Section 4:

Character Bios

·         Section 5:story arcs

·         Section 6: Miscellaneous

The organization wasn’t just for my benefit but for the others that aid me in this project; they have been a big part of my progression to say the least.

The next part of my process was designing the characters around the plot. I will talk about character designing in a later post, so don’t worry I will get there. I am cutting that bit out so this post is not too long (I’m sure I could talk for days). Characters are not just part of the world they are used as plot points and devices that shape the narrative; at least that's my personal philosophy. They carry their own weight and can develop if you so choose. Characters don’t have to be archetypal or realistic, they can be as absurd or complex as you like as long as you mould them for a purpose. No character is truly insignificant, they have a role to play even if they are there for only a moment. 

Now last up, as I have progressed and learned more (at uni) I have added, changed and noted things. Some of these things get considered and added to section 6. As of yet I do not know how I'm going to use these things but the time will come.

At the moment I have started writing the opening chapters as well as several of the confrontations. But these parts are still fluid and subject to change. It’s a long road still and it won’t be done for a while longer. Of course, I'm still having fun with it all.

I guess that wraps up a stupidly long post (the very first of many. Im so sorry. I will not try to ramble and stay focused.)

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Please comment, ask questions and suggest topics. I want keep this blog going as long as I can.  

In the next post shall be: world building 2: construction from the ground up

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The PROCESS of creative writing (from my experience at least)

Starting of a series of several post about my experience of writing and development I shall endeavour to divulge some of the ways I start the creative process, but just before that….

I asked a writing friend of mine the following:

“If u had to teach someone what creative writing is using your experience what would u teach them first? ‏”

After a lengthy delay (due to her in deep contemplation of the question I had just thrown at her) her answer was as follows:

“I guess I’d teach them about free thinking. Just opening their mind to possibilities of another realm of existence in which they are able to craft anything they desire‏. To create characters who are moulded by their will‏. To use writing to create something for themselves‏. An escapism‏”

(this is a direct quote from her. I am not kidding)

A profound and brilliant idea, but some things are hard to ‘teach’, yet she has stumbled upon some things I would say are important.  Being able to freely explore one’s own thoughts is the first important thing. The other important things will be interwoven into my steps.

Following on from the previous post about a writer’s tool kit, “No writer writes in a vacuum”. It is fair to say that all of us come up with ideas based on stories that we have already experience. This is where I’m gonna use a word that I was going to avoid…. But here goes…

FAN FICTION

Don’t deny it. You have all written one or thought about writing one. I make it sound like it’s something shameful, when it is not. If anything it is the best thing in the world….until you come across a really horrible one. *shudder* I have read some really bad ones in my time. Either way it’s a good way to start writing. So my suggested first step is:

1.       Write a bit of Fan fiction as a warm up. Warming up your ‘flow’ is an important step. It’s kinda like pre-hearting the oven. Most people don’t do it and it just takes longer for your food to cook. An alternative to fan fiction is writing what you see and hear, a memory, and poetry or music lyrics. The trick is to try something different things to start the ‘flow’ going.

A work of art starts with an idea, concept, impression, concern or a goal. My current project started with 2 threads. The first is two-fold, I haven’t read a book that dealt with the image of angels and demons  and  that I’ve been playing games that deals this this theme, the second thread was that I wanted to explore my understanding of religion and human’s innate disposition to developing figures like god to place their faith in. Your reason to write a story doesn’t have to be as grand and complex as mine but it can be something simple.  So my second suggested step is:

2.       Brain storm various things that interest or concern you then develop a story around them. This step is best executed with a friend or a group to which all of you start to build up ideas of the story, and it always fun to bounce ideas off friends.

Once you have narrowed down the ideas and you mix of concepts, conventions and the kind of story you want to have, I can start working on the plot and the progression. Now, I have spoken to a few writer buddies of mine and some of them have different ways of doing this. The way I do it is develop the over arching plot, so where the story ends up, then where it starts. Rather backwards. This prompts the creation of the main characters, as they direct the story’s path. So step 3 is a hard step:

3.       Develop the main plot progression while start designing the main characters (your protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) for a start) also decide from the get go the perspective you want the narrative to be told from. Of course you can experiment, but readers will find it more comfortable to stick to a single narrative perspective.

The next stage is the longest, hardest and the most immersive for writers. World building. Some writers take years developing fantasy worlds, while others set their story within the real world with a few tweeks which in its self can be fun. But don’t let this stage stop you from actually writing the story you set out to. But of course take as long as you need to. As part of your world building carry out research one the topics, places and concepts your story uses. And when you feel you have done enough,

4.        Start crafting your new world, and those that inhabit it. You can do this all in one go or as you go alone. Do whatever suits your style. For this again, I suggest doing world building with friends to bounce ideas off of them.

As my friend suggested above, the world you craft is one of your own will, emotion and though, and should be crafted with diligence and care. Writing like any art from has an element that is for to creator but also for an audience. You need to consider what you write for yourself or for a wider audience.

I will be back some point next week with my experience of world building.

Here is a link to my facebook group page "fields of thought": https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fields-of-thought-micro-community-publishing/1489007134689771

 

And a link to my pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/lancelotnspence/ 

 

What is a writer’s toolkit?

“No writer, writes in a vacuum” quote: Year 11 English teacher.

A quote that I hold by strongly. HI guys for this week’s post, I shall be answering the question “What is a writer’s toolkit?” The simple answer is, every life experience, every influence , every book, film and tv show you have watched, music you listen too, everything you have been told and taught by every human being you met (this is key as it has influenced your morals and sensibilities) and every moment of every day.

Yes I drew that out more than I had to but everything you see hear and experience is part of you tool kit as all of it informs and influences your writing.  In addition to this everything you have learned about writing, in all its forms

Having a broad array of tools when you start writing is the best thing imaginable. That is why some people wait until they are older before starting a writing career. Often traveling to many places, and learning a lot about the world outside of what they grew up knowing.  

A toolkit is not just defined by what you already know, it is defined and redefined by what you learn while in the process of creating. In my own writing I’ve had to do research, a vital part of the creative process which leads to world building (something I will discuss in a later post).  

Running out of things to say here…. This is far harder than I thought it would be.  Minor panic over. Back to subject.

Everything mentioned is important but the way you decide to implement those tools is the really cool thing that makes your creations unique.

I guess that will be it for now.

Next post will be on the start of THE PROCESS.

Here is a link to my pintrest : http://www.pinterest.com/lancelotnspence/
and to my community group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fields-of-thought-micro-community-publishing/1489007134689771