30 Days of World-Building (Second Edition) - Day 3 - Mood and Setting

Exercise 3 - Read over your list from Day 1, then turn to a blank piece of paper. Close your eyes and think about what kind of feeling you like to have when you write or read. Write down four words that fit into that feeling: two adjectives, a verb, and a noun. Now return to your climate and emotions list. If any of the words match, you have your climate. If not, try to find the closest-matched words.

List - 
mysterious, intriguing (adjectives)
exploring (verb)
key (noun)

Climate - 
Temperate Forest/Plains (interspersed with villages and cities)

30 Days of World-Building (Second Edition) - Day 2 - Physical Planet

Exercise 2 - What role will weather play in your story? Any ideas at this stage are not set it stone. Instead, come up with (ten)* plot devices that relate to weather, and what they would do to the story.

Thunderstorm - interrupt and short circuit electrical conduits, making for a dark and horrifying chase scene or for a dramatic tension moment when electricity is crucial

Heavy Fog - impair vision, causing tension during critical dramatic or combat sequences

Snowstorm - complicate overland travel, detour character's plans, perhaps trap them inside somewhere they would rather not be

Cold Snap - cause sickness and death in communities unprepared, freeze retained water supplies, interfere with electrical devices, causing a temporary, but horrifying, darkness, both figuratively and literally.

Flash Flood - temporarily halt river transportation, carry plague and disease throughout the regions affected, complicate overland travel

*WRITER'S NOTE* Realistically speaking, the setting I've chosen will only work with a specific range of natural phenomenon. The chance of dust storms, tropical storms, or hurricanes is near 0%

30 Days of World-Building (Second Edition) - Day 1 - Climate and Variety

Around February and March earlier this year, I conducted a similar project for another work of fantasy. That project has (for now) been filed away, and will be revisited at a later date. Who knows when? Only time will tell. But I digress.

With NaNoWriMo a short two weeks away, I figured I would use this opportunity to prepare myself for the rigorous writing schedule that such an event calls for. The world I will be creating over the next 15 days (two posts a day - against what the project calls for, but I'm running on free time in between college classes) will be used for my up and coming NaNo story.

All I can say right now is this: It will be a supernatural/horror story with elements of Victorian/Gothic style, including the style of dress, architecture, social and judicial construction, and so forth. Perhaps with a twist of steam-punk tossed into the fray. I've always wanted to write something with a steam-punk edge. Perhaps now will be the kick-in-the-pants I need to start writing the damn thing.

Anyway, without further adieu, here is the first post in my Second Edition of 30 Days of World-Building.

Exercise 1 - Find an international map or atlas, and observe the different climates and how they appear and behave. Then, for fifteen minutes, list all the climates you can think of. After that, write one or two words describing either the climate itself, or how each of the climates makes you feel.

Temperate Forest - mysterious, inspiring
Plains - grandeur, happiness
Arctic - bitterness, insecurity
Tundra - cold, barren
Mountainous - majestic, insurmountable
Jungle - wet, dark
Desert - hot, barren
Beachfront - comfortable, carefree

College: A Virulent and Vibrant Beast

After tomorrow, I will have lived at the IPFW Student Apartments for one week. They say that you can't draw conclusions about anything after a short time, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. From the quiet roommates who never utter a sound to the obnoxiously loud individuals whose taste in music could be extensively questioned. But I digress.

As for the classes themselves, they are proving to be (not going to put my foot in my mouth and say they are a piece of cake) as difficult as I thought they would be - which is, honestly, not too hard. They expect you to read, do your work, and think outside of class. If you do that, you'll pass the class. On the same notion, I'm coming to approve of the structure of college classes, and the amount of freedom that you are allotted. IPFW is a campus full of many different people of many different ages, and as such, the professors and staff treat you similarly. It isn't like high school where the teachers pretend you don't know about things. In college, they nip that particular social problem in the bud. 

But of course, there are options for the not-so college worthy crowd. Nights of boozing and mindless chit-chat among fellow students who won't remember your face tomorrow, let alone your name. And as per usual, opportunities will arise to join with this crowd. Temptation will be fierce and abundant. I strive to not join that crowd. 

Also, I would like to say thank you to the wonderful messages of encouragement from all those who read my father's post from a week or two ago. The messages were very heart-felt, and I appreciated reading every single one of them. 

Well, that's that. Hope that I'll break in this college thing soon, and find those who wish to talk to me. And those that like to play pen-and-paper RPG's. My inner nerd has been yearning to play lately. 

Father's Day: Breaking the Shell

Too often, I have heard you treat yourself to a variety of notions that you are "not a good parent". 

I strive to think otherwise. Every time your children say, "No, you are awesome!", we mean it. We wouldn't lie about something like that. That would get us nowhere.

So let me simply indulge you by saying that you are the best father we could possibly have. By writing this, I hope to break that shell that you have spent years building around yourself. Our mistakes are not pinned on you. They are pinned on us, and us alone.

Thank you for being there for us, no matter how often we roll our eyes, oblivious to the reality of things. 

Thank you for raising us to treat others as we would want to be treated, no matter how often we seem to forget.

Thank you for gracing us with the privileges we have, no matter how often it seems we don't deserve them.

Thank you for introducing us to great music and cinema, without which we would trapped in the so-called allure of rap, dub-step, and sub-par horror flicks.

Thank you for the occasional morning smell of pancakes and bacon. I don't care if the mix comes from a box, they are the best pancakes on the whole damn planet (brownie points for guessing the reference, by the way).

And I personally thank you for opening me to the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Without that creative outlet, I wouldn't have developed this present love for fantasy. 

And last, but certainly not least, I credit you with being my inspiration for becoming a writer. I had always loved to write since I was young, but who did that come from? You. I saw your writing, and said, "I want to become that." In all honesty, I haven't reached your level yet. But then again, writing is a pastime all to one's own. No writer can reach the level of another. So, I guess I should say that I hope to emulate the talent that you hold in the field of writing.

Too often, you put yourself down. A trait that I too have developed. But I am trying to break the shell of despair that I build. And I think you should too.

From your eldest son, with love that should be shown more often