I'm currently writing a Fantasy book called The Emerald Castle and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for me. Like in terms of developing the world and Characters, How the story will unravel etc. All advice is welcome.
I think it would be helpful if you based your world around an old story or fairy tale (or at least the setting). That will give you something to go off of, so at least you have a starting point. After you choose what you are going to use as the base, ask yourself three things: 1) What can I do to the setting to make it more realistic/meaningful to my story? 2) What challenges do I want the setting to present to my characters? 3) What can I change/add to my setting to set it apart from other similar settings? What makes mine unique? Once you have the setting figured out, I would pretend to be one of your characters, and put myself in that setting. If you already have plot points, then follow the story in your head (documenting it in a notebook of course) and see what surprising things happen in your setting and how your character(s) will interact with it. If you don't have plot points yet, then I would brainstorm plots points around the castle and the surrounding lands. Is the castle dying? Is there an evil force living inside the walls? Ask questions like this to get your thoughts flowing. I hope this helps!
This sounds crazy, but walk in their (characters) shoes. At least that works for me, and lets me get a feel for the world/universe they see and live in. I also think that adding some of those pesky tiny details, really flesh out a world/character as well. I agree that having a notebook handy is a good idea, as you can keep track of all the important things and story line in short form. Also handy if you need to keep notes on the research you do for the story. From what I understand, it is better to think of the whole process as an adventure, rather than another task or chore to complete. So have fun and don't let it stress you out. Best of luck.
I second Cave Troll, for me I put my headphones in and pretend I'm the character and just picture everything in my head, my best time to do this of a night and i just lay in bed and picture all the scenes in my head and then from there i research the ideas the next morning. So like in one of my stories i had pictured my main character performing an autopsy on a creature so the next morning i unfortunately had to look at everything related to performing and autopsy etc for scenery i try to remember places I've been or seen and then go from there for instance one day I'd love to go to Portland so i spend hours on the internet looking at houses, parks etc i read all sorts of websites etc and save any information i think I'll need to refer back to when the time come. Hope some of this helps basically your mind is your best weapon just imagine and your book world will grow from there x
