When I began working on "The Ledgerkeepers" novel, I knew that I would want to fair spend bit of time with the world building. There was so much to figure out and create before I got the actual writing of the novel going.
Geography, flora and fauna, language(s) transportation, quality of life, currency/trade, clothing, economy, death, myths and legends, climate, superstitions, history, education and on and on.
I spent quite a bit of time working through and fleshing out all of this even though less than 5% of it will end up in the world as actual written detail, I DO think it's important to have the fantasy world built out in your head before you dive in and start writing in it. While characters, plot and action will be the core of the writing, it helps to know what the world around them is all about so you can experience it as the characters would.
In recent months, when I went ahead and began the actual storylines for the characters, I found myself swimming in that sea of details because I am an admittedly terrible organizer. Time and again I found myself spending far too long looking for those things I had already worked out months before. It was often like looking for a needle in a haystack. Many times I had a good idea where the right section of notes was. Others, it was a shot in the dark.
Very frustrating.
The writing program I use, Scrivener, has several wonderful ways to organize notes and details just like these. My problem was that I had written most of the pages of world building notes before I started working with Scrivener, so I needed to go ahead and transfer them all over from Mac Notes.
Well, I recently got all of those notes printed AND transferred and, out of curiosity, I decided to put all of the notes in one project folder so I could check the word count on all of that world building.
It crossed over400,000 words. Given that a novel will be in the 100,000 word range, that floored me.
I've basically written FOUR books worth of NOTES about the Bewildering Pine world in the last 18 months! It now occurs to me that the world is the haystack and the book that I am trying to pull from it, is the needle.
But I am SO glad I did all of the world building. When I am writing a scene and I know the style of clothing a Lutin elf wears or the type of hat a Hob sports, if I want to write about the types of street food or the fillings for a tart or drop the names of a few of the wagering games played in the secret basements of pubs, I smile.
Those are the details that I can just write without having to create them in the moment.
Next month we will begin the dive into the world itself. I hope to focus on the map for the next few fourth Fridays. I love maps and I think I could sit and create them all day long. . . I've spent hours on the one for the Bewildering Pine and it is nowhere near complete.
So come back then for the next installment!
Hoping YOUR world magical and bright! Thank you for dropping by. . .
Nicolas XO
Showing posts with label fantasy world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy world. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
New Work - First Friday Post - May 4th
Happy May everyone!
The month is off to a wonderful start here with perfect Spring weather, (which most say is still to cool but perfect for me!) and lots of Spring love as the birds find their mates and start next building. Our feeders and container garden are full of Red Finches, Juncos, Swallows, Starlings and both regular and Golden Crown Sparrows.
Also, the annual reshuffling of the crows has taken place. I go from having a flock of 30 or so all autumn and winter, a murder of juveniles I believe, as I know that crows go through this social phase and it always starts in the late summer after they all hatch and fledge.
From late summer on, the whole group visits me each morning and they know my whistle and will come whenever I am around town and have a treat for them! I've been "followed" from the bakery or the Post Office several times, starting with one or two who put out the call when I whistle and, by the time I get back home (just a few blocks away from either) it may grow to a dozen or more! Crows have the ability to recognize faces and I have seen them, on many occasions, sitting on theories in town and they turn their heads and look down at me as I walk by. If it's one of "my" crows, they'll follow. I usually carry a pocket full of dry treats for them during this time.
They also know how to call me. I will sit at out front windows in the mornings writing and, if am distracted and don't notice the rising light, they fly from the back of the building around to the front, taking up a place on the wires and they'll let me know, in no uncertain terms, what time it is. ;)
Come March they all suddenly disperse and for a few weeks I get a break. I may not see a single crow in the mornings then. Some of that seems to revolve around daylight savings time and the change in the light. . .but I assume that this is also the pairing/nesting phase and they are busying other things. :)
I always leave food out for them but never see more than one or two at a time. Then, suddenly, they start to return. First one pair. Then another, and then, this morning, twelve crows waiting at the break of day! Soon though it will be just the males who will stockpile food in their mouths and try to carry as much back to their nests as they can manage. I've watched countless times as a crow tries to fit one more salmon cat kibble or piece of egg in it's mouth only to lose the whole mouthful.
But my favorite part will come in late summer. Once the young are hatched and fledged, the adults bring them by to teach them about the morning"routine". Though by this time it is hard to tell a young crow from their parent in size, the easiest way is to watch them land on wires where the young crows haven't quite got the hang of it all yet and bob back and forth trying to learn their balance in the wind or rain. I never get tired of that! And if I'm lucky, I'll get a few days where the adults are still feeding them. The group lands and the young stand their with their mouths open waiting to be fed. This is at the very end of the raising stage so it only lasts for a day or so until the parents decide to make them fend for themselves.
I love these avian hallmarks of the seasons. Each year we wait with that strange anticipation, as if in fear that any or all of them might not return. . . but they always do. :)
So on to some new work for the season as well!
I hope you enjoyed the peak at the latest work and I look forward to sharing more as time goes on.
I'll be changing up my routine a bit. I am close to launching a separate blog/site for my Makings of a Maker posts. I feel like I would like to write in greater detail about the processes of making a living from art/craft from start to finish but without it being tied to me here or at Etsy.
I know that probably does not make much sense but I want it to be separate from my shops, which I will mention where necessary but I think it would be more helpful to allow people to find their own way to what works for them without the influence of my own or any perception that I have something to sell. Those weekly posts seem to get the most views/reads, near double to my others, so that has been encouraging.
It may be month or two away but, when it comes, I will swap out that weekly post with one abut living in a small town (pop 800) which I also hope will inspire some. I was reading an article recently about the number of 20 somethings who cite having feelings of despair and anxiety over their futures and while I know 20 somethings aren't about to move to small towns in droves, I want to speak to the way that it was simply the knowing that I always HAD choices was, I believe, a big part of why I never felt that despair. The awareness that I was making choices and that I was creating my world, not the other way around. . . Anyway, more on that to come.
Thank you, as always, for dropping by!
nicolas
xoxo
The month is off to a wonderful start here with perfect Spring weather, (which most say is still to cool but perfect for me!) and lots of Spring love as the birds find their mates and start next building. Our feeders and container garden are full of Red Finches, Juncos, Swallows, Starlings and both regular and Golden Crown Sparrows.
Also, the annual reshuffling of the crows has taken place. I go from having a flock of 30 or so all autumn and winter, a murder of juveniles I believe, as I know that crows go through this social phase and it always starts in the late summer after they all hatch and fledge.
From late summer on, the whole group visits me each morning and they know my whistle and will come whenever I am around town and have a treat for them! I've been "followed" from the bakery or the Post Office several times, starting with one or two who put out the call when I whistle and, by the time I get back home (just a few blocks away from either) it may grow to a dozen or more! Crows have the ability to recognize faces and I have seen them, on many occasions, sitting on theories in town and they turn their heads and look down at me as I walk by. If it's one of "my" crows, they'll follow. I usually carry a pocket full of dry treats for them during this time.
They also know how to call me. I will sit at out front windows in the mornings writing and, if am distracted and don't notice the rising light, they fly from the back of the building around to the front, taking up a place on the wires and they'll let me know, in no uncertain terms, what time it is. ;)
Come March they all suddenly disperse and for a few weeks I get a break. I may not see a single crow in the mornings then. Some of that seems to revolve around daylight savings time and the change in the light. . .but I assume that this is also the pairing/nesting phase and they are busying other things. :)
I always leave food out for them but never see more than one or two at a time. Then, suddenly, they start to return. First one pair. Then another, and then, this morning, twelve crows waiting at the break of day! Soon though it will be just the males who will stockpile food in their mouths and try to carry as much back to their nests as they can manage. I've watched countless times as a crow tries to fit one more salmon cat kibble or piece of egg in it's mouth only to lose the whole mouthful.
But my favorite part will come in late summer. Once the young are hatched and fledged, the adults bring them by to teach them about the morning"routine". Though by this time it is hard to tell a young crow from their parent in size, the easiest way is to watch them land on wires where the young crows haven't quite got the hang of it all yet and bob back and forth trying to learn their balance in the wind or rain. I never get tired of that! And if I'm lucky, I'll get a few days where the adults are still feeding them. The group lands and the young stand their with their mouths open waiting to be fed. This is at the very end of the raising stage so it only lasts for a day or so until the parents decide to make them fend for themselves.
I love these avian hallmarks of the seasons. Each year we wait with that strange anticipation, as if in fear that any or all of them might not return. . . but they always do. :)
So on to some new work for the season as well!
 |
| A Classic "castle" tower scene. |
 |
| Potted Fairy House |
 |
| One of the new creations I've been working on: Stone Troll!! |
 |
| Windmill with Tulips and delicate sails! |
 |
| Egyptian Otter statue very similar to one in the Met Museum. |
 |
| Thoth as a baboon and Khonsu as a kite/hawk. Both lunar deities. |
 |
| Gardener's house featuring large polymer flowers. |
I hope you enjoyed the peak at the latest work and I look forward to sharing more as time goes on.
I'll be changing up my routine a bit. I am close to launching a separate blog/site for my Makings of a Maker posts. I feel like I would like to write in greater detail about the processes of making a living from art/craft from start to finish but without it being tied to me here or at Etsy.
I know that probably does not make much sense but I want it to be separate from my shops, which I will mention where necessary but I think it would be more helpful to allow people to find their own way to what works for them without the influence of my own or any perception that I have something to sell. Those weekly posts seem to get the most views/reads, near double to my others, so that has been encouraging.
It may be month or two away but, when it comes, I will swap out that weekly post with one abut living in a small town (pop 800) which I also hope will inspire some. I was reading an article recently about the number of 20 somethings who cite having feelings of despair and anxiety over their futures and while I know 20 somethings aren't about to move to small towns in droves, I want to speak to the way that it was simply the knowing that I always HAD choices was, I believe, a big part of why I never felt that despair. The awareness that I was making choices and that I was creating my world, not the other way around. . . Anyway, more on that to come.
Thank you, as always, for dropping by!
nicolas
xoxo
Friday, April 13, 2018
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - April 13th, 2018
Does Friday the thirteenth mean anything to you?
While that particular superstition holds little meaning for me, I did grow up with a whole host of little self-created superstitions, mostly rituals and to keep my young self safe from the things that went "bump in the night'. Especially when watching scary movies. I'd lay on the couch, completely wrapped in one of my grandmother's crocheted afghans, no part of my body other than my head exposed. At commercial breaks, IF I wanted to get up for a snack, I had to be back on the couch and fully covered when the movie resumed . . . or else!!!
I look back now at them all with a sense of nostalgia. The power of the mind, the strength of a young spirit to fight the unseen in the shadows and to believe he could prevail.
From those days forward, I have always been a lover of folklore, superstitions urban legends and strange beliefs.
The last year or so, it's been a blast diving into the world building of writing a fantasy book that allows me to create some of my own folklore for the world of the Bewildering Pine. Beyond that, for me, the real treat has been uncovering the folklore and superstitions of other cultures as I've taken that dive in again through reading and research.
A few of the things I've unearthed that have stuck with me are:
Celtic:
The plainest girl will be beautiful if she rises early on May Day and bathes her face in morning dew at sunrise.
Estonian:
Frost is regarded as an ill spirit named Morozco and frost-cracks or breaks in a tree are attributed to him. The cracking sound is the snapping of his fingers!
Romani:
A moth hovering around a candle flame, means a letter will arrive in the morning.
Scandinavian:
The new Year was an auspicious time for healing. Deemed the "seam of the year" it was considered the best time for ritual curatives.
Do YOU have any favorite folklore or old beliefs you love?
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Inspirations and Oddities!!!
I couldn't choose a single story or video that captures the whole idea but, in Catalonia Spain, they participate in these amazing festivals.
"A person dressed as a demon shoots off fireworks during a correfoc, meaning "fire-run," a traditional party in which participants dress as evil mythical creatures and delight in wild pyrotechnic displays."
> I stumbled upon this inspiring sculpture and in-progress making-pics. AMAZING!
Big Fish!
> I LOVED this article and the accompanying images of
"Flying Foxes"
> And finally, I'm looking VERY much forward to the release today of Netflix new Sci-Fi-Fi series, "Lost in Space", a reimagining of the late great 60's show ( who could ever forget the guitar playing robot!) . I got to watch the original in syndication over the years of my childhood and it inspired many wonderful adventures and one or two cardboard box, Jupiter 2's.
I'm hoping to be taken away yet again with the new series. . . and without seeing anything more than the trailer. . . Parker Posey in the role of Dr. Smith???!!! COME ON! That alone makes me quite happy. Looking forward to starting the adventure this evening!
I hope YOUR week has been inspired and at least a little odd!
Nicolas
xo
While that particular superstition holds little meaning for me, I did grow up with a whole host of little self-created superstitions, mostly rituals and to keep my young self safe from the things that went "bump in the night'. Especially when watching scary movies. I'd lay on the couch, completely wrapped in one of my grandmother's crocheted afghans, no part of my body other than my head exposed. At commercial breaks, IF I wanted to get up for a snack, I had to be back on the couch and fully covered when the movie resumed . . . or else!!!
I look back now at them all with a sense of nostalgia. The power of the mind, the strength of a young spirit to fight the unseen in the shadows and to believe he could prevail.
From those days forward, I have always been a lover of folklore, superstitions urban legends and strange beliefs.
The last year or so, it's been a blast diving into the world building of writing a fantasy book that allows me to create some of my own folklore for the world of the Bewildering Pine. Beyond that, for me, the real treat has been uncovering the folklore and superstitions of other cultures as I've taken that dive in again through reading and research.
A few of the things I've unearthed that have stuck with me are:
Celtic:
The plainest girl will be beautiful if she rises early on May Day and bathes her face in morning dew at sunrise.
Estonian:
Frost is regarded as an ill spirit named Morozco and frost-cracks or breaks in a tree are attributed to him. The cracking sound is the snapping of his fingers!
Romani:
A moth hovering around a candle flame, means a letter will arrive in the morning.
Scandinavian:
The new Year was an auspicious time for healing. Deemed the "seam of the year" it was considered the best time for ritual curatives.
Do YOU have any favorite folklore or old beliefs you love?
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Inspirations and Oddities!!!
I couldn't choose a single story or video that captures the whole idea but, in Catalonia Spain, they participate in these amazing festivals.
"A person dressed as a demon shoots off fireworks during a correfoc, meaning "fire-run," a traditional party in which participants dress as evil mythical creatures and delight in wild pyrotechnic displays."
> I stumbled upon this inspiring sculpture and in-progress making-pics. AMAZING!
Big Fish!
> I LOVED this article and the accompanying images of
"Flying Foxes"
> And finally, I'm looking VERY much forward to the release today of Netflix new Sci-Fi-Fi series, "Lost in Space", a reimagining of the late great 60's show ( who could ever forget the guitar playing robot!) . I got to watch the original in syndication over the years of my childhood and it inspired many wonderful adventures and one or two cardboard box, Jupiter 2's.
I'm hoping to be taken away yet again with the new series. . . and without seeing anything more than the trailer. . . Parker Posey in the role of Dr. Smith???!!! COME ON! That alone makes me quite happy. Looking forward to starting the adventure this evening!
I hope YOUR week has been inspired and at least a little odd!
Nicolas
xo
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - February 9th
It's time for Inspirations and Oddities, my monthly, second Friday post.
I am hoping you all are well in Blogger Land! I look forward to catching up a bit more on my favorite blogs in the coming weeks. A busy time ahead for us that culminates with a train trip home for me in March. I love the 2-day cross country train experience. This may be the last time I do it though (time/cost etc) so I am going to make the most of every moment!
So on with the oddities and inspirations for this month!
From the book world I wanted to recommend "I Kill Giants" which, I just found out is being made into a movie! This really caught me by surprise. It's a story was originally told in graphic novel form and it was a story that really touched me. I am such a fan of comics and yet I am still amazed at the difference in the genre from my own childhood. More and more are being turned into movies and shows it seems and this one will be wonderful I am sure.
Here is the trailer for I Kill Giants
What I like best, having read the graphic novel, is that this trailer gives away NONE of the true depth of the story but still looks pretty amazing!
And this is the graphic novel cover. The art inside is all black and white and borrows from the Manga style quite nicely while still being very original.
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Nature never lets us down. . . Perfect for almost any story where you'd like a bird to be used a snitching plot device, I give you Australia's Superb Lyrebird (that's the actual name, I'm not giving it extra praise with the addition of superb, but it earns it I promise you!)
The Lyrebird of Australia
And one about beautiful and mysterious Lichens!
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Ok, and lastly, an odd inspiration for sure. . . I have mentioned before that Sofie and I are always on the lookout for that perfect, magical place/house/cottage to buy. We can't afford many areas of the country and we are picky, only wanting to do this once in our life. . . all of which have pushed us to widen our search. Even if we aren't planning to move to many of the places we may peek at, I have to say they can be very inspiring. There is a lot of enchantment out there. A LOT! And, of course, we're in no hurry as we love where we are at but the dampness is proving to be a bit troublesome for finding home that isn't affected by it. Also I'm starting to feel the lack of snow and it's making me nostalgic as I'm still a Northeast, 4 distinct seasons kid at heart.
Finally, the cost of housing here is making us both blue. When the perfect place comes along, we think we will just know. It helps to be able to do what we do from anywhere just as long as internet is available and a post office and decent grocery store are within reach.
Some of the towns we have put on our watch list are:
Elk Horn, Iowa
Otttumwa, IA
Berlin, NH
Weiser, ID
Burns or Baker City, OR
Wiscasset, ME
or just about any town in NH, VT, ME really as we both love old farmhouses :)
But really, almost anywhere that is not too near a major city and where the weather is not too hot for too much of the year and the houses are truly affordable. And, of course, it must be magical. . .
Anyway, the first house I posted here, the one in Tennessee, already sold!
In it's place I've decided to post one that likely will not sell but that gives you our ideal of "charm".
We like to call it the "Witch House", and it's more than a bit out of our price range. . . and it's in a remote part of Idaho in the Sawtooth mountains where the last 40 MILES of road to the town is gravel soooo, yeah, that wouldn't really work either!!
But who wouldn't want to live in a Witch House?
This one in Crumpler NC almost fits the bill. we would just prefer a large work space instead of all the small rooms but that scenery!!
Our priorities for a home are: a large workspace that's well it by natural light, access to nature (if not our own land), garden space and charm. Also, a shop/garage space would be great to allow us to try some of the creative ventures we cannot do here like soldering/jewelry, casting, high temp firing, acid etching, wood burning and more. We've little to no concern for entertaining, putting up guests and the like if it means sacrificing any of our creative desires. Besides, we still want to have that "fortress of solitude"feel around us as we do now :)
Well I think that's it for this week! Back to a post on packaging next week and then world-building/mapmaking the following week!
XO
Nicolas
I am hoping you all are well in Blogger Land! I look forward to catching up a bit more on my favorite blogs in the coming weeks. A busy time ahead for us that culminates with a train trip home for me in March. I love the 2-day cross country train experience. This may be the last time I do it though (time/cost etc) so I am going to make the most of every moment!
So on with the oddities and inspirations for this month!
From the book world I wanted to recommend "I Kill Giants" which, I just found out is being made into a movie! This really caught me by surprise. It's a story was originally told in graphic novel form and it was a story that really touched me. I am such a fan of comics and yet I am still amazed at the difference in the genre from my own childhood. More and more are being turned into movies and shows it seems and this one will be wonderful I am sure.
Here is the trailer for I Kill Giants
What I like best, having read the graphic novel, is that this trailer gives away NONE of the true depth of the story but still looks pretty amazing!
And this is the graphic novel cover. The art inside is all black and white and borrows from the Manga style quite nicely while still being very original.
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Nature never lets us down. . . Perfect for almost any story where you'd like a bird to be used a snitching plot device, I give you Australia's Superb Lyrebird (that's the actual name, I'm not giving it extra praise with the addition of superb, but it earns it I promise you!)
The Lyrebird of Australia
And one about beautiful and mysterious Lichens!
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Finally, the cost of housing here is making us both blue. When the perfect place comes along, we think we will just know. It helps to be able to do what we do from anywhere just as long as internet is available and a post office and decent grocery store are within reach.
Some of the towns we have put on our watch list are:
Elk Horn, Iowa
Otttumwa, IA
Berlin, NH
Weiser, ID
Burns or Baker City, OR
Wiscasset, ME
or just about any town in NH, VT, ME really as we both love old farmhouses :)
But really, almost anywhere that is not too near a major city and where the weather is not too hot for too much of the year and the houses are truly affordable. And, of course, it must be magical. . .
Anyway, the first house I posted here, the one in Tennessee, already sold!
In it's place I've decided to post one that likely will not sell but that gives you our ideal of "charm".
We like to call it the "Witch House", and it's more than a bit out of our price range. . . and it's in a remote part of Idaho in the Sawtooth mountains where the last 40 MILES of road to the town is gravel soooo, yeah, that wouldn't really work either!!
But who wouldn't want to live in a Witch House?
This one in Crumpler NC almost fits the bill. we would just prefer a large work space instead of all the small rooms but that scenery!!
Our priorities for a home are: a large workspace that's well it by natural light, access to nature (if not our own land), garden space and charm. Also, a shop/garage space would be great to allow us to try some of the creative ventures we cannot do here like soldering/jewelry, casting, high temp firing, acid etching, wood burning and more. We've little to no concern for entertaining, putting up guests and the like if it means sacrificing any of our creative desires. Besides, we still want to have that "fortress of solitude"feel around us as we do now :)
Well I think that's it for this week! Back to a post on packaging next week and then world-building/mapmaking the following week!
XO
Nicolas
Friday, January 26, 2018
The Bewildering Pine - Inspiration Is Found All Around - 4th Friday Post - January 26th
Hi Everyone!
It's time for my fourth Friday post again.. Fourth Fridays area peek into the world I am creating for my fantasy novel titled, "The Ledgerkeepers"
I'll be focusing over the coming moths on the things/places/tales from our world that have inspired my fiction and stories for this book.
Some of you know I began the world building for the book over 18 months ago. A slow process that I immersed myself in fully. I was well aware when I began that I might only use 1/10th of what I create, at least in the first book, but I needed it all to have the world make sense to myself as the narrator.
Choosing what to show is not difficult. Most of it is dictated by the characters actions and the setting they move through but there are always some bits of coolness that you just want to have in there no matter what!
So with my plan being to unveil the near complete Bewildering Pine map here next month, I wanted to talk abut about what inspired that map from our own physical world.
I knew the world was going to be set in a post cataclysmic landscape. The entire geography shifting and leaving many of the inhabitants of the pre "Great Upheaval" world in survival mode. How that might shape this world physically was a lot of fun to ponder.
The idea of a place surrounded by immense sea walls on three sides and incredibly high mountains on the fourth that rose up splitting a larger landscape and basically creating a large bowl shaped land t to the south hat rises to outward towards it's edges and slopes downward from north to south. Accessibility or departure is only via the bay whose natural defenses are tricky and dangerous in their own right and nearly imperceptible from the Great Sea beyond.
The climate is sub arctic but warmer several months of the year to allow for a massively productive growing season (the short-season). An ancient Pine forest spreads along the base of the mountains and there are two rivers that originate in the mountains. There is a round peninsula at the furthest point south that holds a large bog where all the runoff collects and saturates the loamy soil. It's a fantasy novel so I was able to stetch the bounds of reality a bit. It was only necessary that these things were all possible in the climate and then I could bend them to my writer's will a bit.
So in thinking of the form and function of the landscape, I simply looked to our own world for examples that gave me the "ok" I was seeking. I could have done all this research on the internet but I went to the main branch of our county library to try and capture some of that old-time investigative fun of looking through a stack of books!
So that's where the world began. Well, my fantasy world. Having a starting point gave me the canvas for making the map, which is an ongoing work as well, and I hope to share it with you next month on fourth Friday!
Thanks for reading!!
Nicolas
PS: I recently listened to a short Sci-Fi-Fi story called "Repairing the World" by John Chu as read by Levar Burton on his Levar Burton Reads podcast. What I loved most about the futuristic world the story is set in was that there were only a few indicators that it WAS in the future. Rifts in the fabric of time that can be repaired and the use of mechanical dragonflies as messengers. The story is completely about the main characters and the prejudice that survives in that future world, the way society views people on it's fringes. Leaving a very real and scary notion that things may not get better in every way as we move forward in time. . . Well worth a listen though!
It's time for my fourth Friday post again.. Fourth Fridays area peek into the world I am creating for my fantasy novel titled, "The Ledgerkeepers"
I'll be focusing over the coming moths on the things/places/tales from our world that have inspired my fiction and stories for this book.
Some of you know I began the world building for the book over 18 months ago. A slow process that I immersed myself in fully. I was well aware when I began that I might only use 1/10th of what I create, at least in the first book, but I needed it all to have the world make sense to myself as the narrator.
Choosing what to show is not difficult. Most of it is dictated by the characters actions and the setting they move through but there are always some bits of coolness that you just want to have in there no matter what!
So with my plan being to unveil the near complete Bewildering Pine map here next month, I wanted to talk abut about what inspired that map from our own physical world.
I knew the world was going to be set in a post cataclysmic landscape. The entire geography shifting and leaving many of the inhabitants of the pre "Great Upheaval" world in survival mode. How that might shape this world physically was a lot of fun to ponder.
The idea of a place surrounded by immense sea walls on three sides and incredibly high mountains on the fourth that rose up splitting a larger landscape and basically creating a large bowl shaped land t to the south hat rises to outward towards it's edges and slopes downward from north to south. Accessibility or departure is only via the bay whose natural defenses are tricky and dangerous in their own right and nearly imperceptible from the Great Sea beyond.
The climate is sub arctic but warmer several months of the year to allow for a massively productive growing season (the short-season). An ancient Pine forest spreads along the base of the mountains and there are two rivers that originate in the mountains. There is a round peninsula at the furthest point south that holds a large bog where all the runoff collects and saturates the loamy soil. It's a fantasy novel so I was able to stetch the bounds of reality a bit. It was only necessary that these things were all possible in the climate and then I could bend them to my writer's will a bit.
So in thinking of the form and function of the landscape, I simply looked to our own world for examples that gave me the "ok" I was seeking. I could have done all this research on the internet but I went to the main branch of our county library to try and capture some of that old-time investigative fun of looking through a stack of books!
 |
| This image really started the whole notion of the sheer cliffs and a very inaccessible landscape from the sea. |
 |
| This pic of the Andes mountains was perfect to inspire the mountain range which I wanted to be volcanic, sharp-featured staggered ridges and massively tall/impassible in my low-tech world. Also, it inspired a legend of the mountains being the remains of the last living giant's teeth. . . and that led led to an expression of surprise used among the folk: "Bezik's teeth!" |
 |
| These bogs and the walkways that run through them are the inspiration for a similar area, known as Berwick, in my world. |
 |
| And this strange landscape in the Faroe Islands gave me the idea for the "bowl" shape with rising cliffs out at the edges. |
So that's where the world began. Well, my fantasy world. Having a starting point gave me the canvas for making the map, which is an ongoing work as well, and I hope to share it with you next month on fourth Friday!
Thanks for reading!!
Nicolas
PS: I recently listened to a short Sci-Fi-Fi story called "Repairing the World" by John Chu as read by Levar Burton on his Levar Burton Reads podcast. What I loved most about the futuristic world the story is set in was that there were only a few indicators that it WAS in the future. Rifts in the fabric of time that can be repaired and the use of mechanical dragonflies as messengers. The story is completely about the main characters and the prejudice that survives in that future world, the way society views people on it's fringes. Leaving a very real and scary notion that things may not get better in every way as we move forward in time. . . Well worth a listen though!
Friday, November 10, 2017
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday - November 10th
“The circus arrives without warning.
No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
I intend to utilize these Second Friday post to share short inspirations and links to discoveries in our world that have inspired me and my work, if not become part of the world I create.
This week though, I wanted to share with you just one and that's a book that has instantly claimed a spot into my all time favorites.
"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
I won't make this a review because it's been out for a number of years and many of you may already have read it or decided it was or wasn't your thing.
I am glad that I did not read it until now. It would neve have had the same effect on me, on my heart, even five years ago when it first came out, though I may have loved it then too.
This is meant to be more of a "thank you" to the author, for every once in awhile a book or other form of media comes along that takes us somewhere unexpected. And in this case it occurs to me how, when we read those first words of a book (like those I began the post with above) we have no idea what is in store.
Nothing could have prepared me for what lay ahead and how much I would fall under it's spell. And the fair question to ask would be "how do you know it is one of your all time favorites when you just read it?"
To which the only reply is "Because I simply did not want it to end."
That happens so rarely. I love books and I love reading but 99% of the time I am quite ready for a book to end. Not in a bad way but in an excited to see how it gets wrapped up way. To complete the narrative and allow me to move on to the next in the never-ending stack on the floor.
I often wonder why no-one writes and approaches more stories in a serialized version but with no intention of ending it. Of course, when authors do this they are often derided for it. Robert Jordan comes to mind and the words "first of a trilogy" seems to induce eye rolls as often as not these days. When I think of my favorite books, they all struck me this way. I wish they had gone on, not in a grand sweeping story arc. . . but just the world, the characters, the magic.
The one thing these favorites all have in common is the world they take you to is usually quite enchanting and magical. The Night Circus is no exception.
If I had to choose one other thing I adore about it, that would be the descriptive prose. I have read so many writing advice blogs where people seem to be so against overextending the use of details and description and if that is you, then this book will likely not please you. Every chapter is awash in the details and they are always, in my eyes, nothing short of enchanting.
It's like the author took every mundane thing in a scene and said "but what if?" and then went two steps furthers. Clocks, tents, clothing, food. . . nothing is mundane and ordinary and yet, it all perfectly works without seeming to be "too much".
If you are a fan of audio books then this is a must too as the reader, Jim Dale ( he read the audio book versions of the Harry Potter series) is beyond amazing in his delivery, characterizations and accents.
The book was written originally as part of the NaNoWriMo, over three successive years, and writing it and the following success of it seems to have had a profound effect on the author as well who writes, "I wrote book about a nocturnal circus. . . and then my life became one."
And it is a book that is really about storytelling itself under it's complex and magical surface. Just when you think the story is resolved as the end draws near, there are more chapters that unveil this aspect very clearly. Passages like:
“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”
All great storytelling, be it in book form or the stories we attach to our own experiences and lives, shares that truth I think. It's why I am so set on telling a story with/for everything I create.
Beauty, execution and form may attract but we stay for the stories. . . especially the ones we have yet to tell.
And magic. . . you should of known it was about magic. . and despite the wonderful magic that is laced through almost every chapter of the book in one form or another, the revelation of the magic is in it's accessibility and presence in the most mundane of things. And I was stopped in my reading tracks at the character explanation as to why it is not more prominent in the world. In our world.
"All of this, this is not magic. This is the way the world IS, only very few people take the time to stop and note it."
And yes, there is a thread of a love story woven into it too but that's the magic of "The Night Circus" as well, that aspect of the story might be the fourth or fifth most prominent thread and it's written and handled in such an endearing way.
Alright, that's enough. Next week I will get back to inspirations and oddities the way I intended them to be presented. Thank you, as always, for reading along. :)
And THANK YOU Erin Morgenstern. I cannot say enough about the magic I found within this book or how it has inspired me. I just wish it had not had to end.
nicolas
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Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:
1st Friday of Each Month - New work ( New to the shops and a look at the making of one item each month)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
Friday, October 27, 2017
The Bewildering Pine - Fourth Friday October 27th
Welcome to my first Fourth Friday Post. Every month, on the fourth Friday I will be writing about, and sharing insights into, the Bewildering Pine; a world I've been creating, in one form or another, for as long as I can recall.
I should start by explaining and separating the two main parts of this series and that world.
One, the "Bewildering Pine" is the fictional world where my first (in process) novel length book, "The Ledgerkeepers", is set. It's a fantasy world that pulls from the many influences and inspirations I've had over the years for just such a world. The world is populated by "old world elves", simply referred to as folk, and not the High elves of modern fantasy.
And the second aspect, the Bewilder and Pine, which is the creative outlet for my miniature making. It's my Etsy shoppe and where many of the larger ideas I have been formulating began.
Here, I really want to focus mainly on the book, that world and it's ties to my childhood and adult life but some parts of that world are derived from the experiences and products in the shoppe, and the shoppe in great part inspired the book and everything else that will come beyond it. . . so I will want to dive into both over the coming months.
Today, for the first installment, I do want to focus on what the undertaking of the writing of this book has meant to, and done FOR, my own heart.
It would be easy, I think, for an outsider to look at my miniature work, my writing here and my views on life in general and assume I am stuck in a loop of nostalgia and whimsy, not that there would be anything wrong with that. . . and to a degree it's true. :) I've come to a place in my life where I tend to keep most anyone who I feel is too caught up in the outside or "real" world at arms length. Not because I want to pretend that world doesn't exist but because I believe how much that world affects us is almost entirely up to us most days.
Simply put, if I allowed that world to inundate my daily thoughts and emotions, I could not do what I do for a living. It's not an escape, it's the way I go about and make sense of that very same world while at the same time, giving life to, and protecting, another world I've held within for so many years.
Somewhere along the way I decided that we each have our roles to play, I won't say it's our destiny or our calling. . . or even our path. . . just that we may choose what we do with each moment we are given and for me, that choice slowly over the years became one of deciding that I wanted to put as much beauty and joy into the world as I can every day.
I discovered early on in the Etsy/maker-of-things world that the more I attached stories to my little creations, the more people responded to them. The more stories I created, the more the world that is now the Bewildering Pine of the book, started to creep in and influence my making and the stories I wrote to go with. Tart Carts, crooked towers, shop and village names, houses with different architectural styles, little enigmatic elves who live in the woods or in hermit like solitude. Monks with face like mimes. Old tongues and sacred traditions lost. With each addition another little piece of the puzzle fell into place.
Now, this is going back some eight years to the beginning. In the last few years, the separation had begun to widen in my heart and in my creative desires. I started spending more time on the "side project" which, at the time, I could not have told you what exactly it would become. The world of the book is now vastly different from the world of the Etsy shoppe.
There are still bits and pieces that remain constant but as characters, locations and I suppose, most of all, the plot for the Ledgerkeeper's story started to reveal itself to me, I saw the chance to speak about more than just a fantasy world. It's aim is to be a novel that speaks to cultural identities and traditions, how things change, why things change, and, of course, how everything is not what it seems when story is a foggy subject at best.
As for the writing, this has been a crash course. I've never even attempted to write something like this before. Not seriously. Poetry yes, short stories, yes, letters of all kinds to friends and family, yes.
But to sit down and say, "Right, I want to write a novel!" No, that never crossed my mind once really.
What I've learned more than anything in the last year since I took up the task is WHY so many people start writing a novel, a short story, a memoir and then quit. Because it's reallllllly HARD and it requires something I feel blessed to have been able to find in an already busy life. The space and a routine to do so!!
I believe it's the hardest creative thing I've ever set out to do. It requires persistence, time commitment, belief in it and in yourself. More than all of those, I think, it requires a desire to say something through your fiction. To tell your story or offer a viewpoint.
Nothing has ever brought me face to face with my own resolve and motivations like writing.
I chose the genre of fantasy for obvious reasons. Mostly because at the start of a fantasy story or novel is the world building part of it. That world that only exists in your head has to be fleshed out. Mapped out too. Not all at once but, at some point, you have to think about it all. The cultures, the limitations, the food, the climate, the magic etc.
Often you'll hear writers offer the advice "Write what you know". For some, like David Sedaris, that can mean your close family. For others like George RR Martin, that means the world you've been toying with in your head for your whole life.
To me, the love required is the same and evident in both I think. So yes, write what you love as well as what you know. The great thing is, you can learn so much that you don't know when you start! I may have a fantasy world in my head but it's littered with real world objects and situations that need to be right for the story. How does a water clock work? How were certain vegetables farmed 500 years ago? What happens when you have two moons, not one. The list is endless.
I love fantasy. Myth, legend, magic, the realm of Faerie, elves, surreal nature.
The funny thing is, I've decided to go a whole lot less in the original direction I assumed I would.
I've left magic off the board in this world for the most part. What magic does exist is born more of our own old world beliefs and traditions and the faith of folk in that. I've seen first hand in my life how powerful that can be. So, if it's tinged with magic in the Bewildering Pine, it has roots in something you may recognize. There are no great powers, no mages and wizards. No dark forces. . . at least, not magic ones.
The main characters as well as most of the supporting ones are all based on people I have known as well. From childhood friends to folk I know in the small town I live in currently. All wonderfully unique in their own ways and human to a fault.
I personally fall in love with books for the characters, not just the worlds the author created for them to dwell in.
My favorite books of late all share the core foundation of having very strong characters as well as the world around them being interesting too. But that doesn't mean they have to be a total creation of the imagination.
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Green and Ancient Light
The Queen of the Tearling
The Foretold
The Night Circus
All of these portray vastly different worlds: Four parallel Londons, a non-descript,"post war" European setting, a realm from our very own possible future, an Amazonian tribe/landscape and the underbelly of 19th century London.
What they all have in common are main characters that are stronger than the need to suspend your disbelief because they are relatable. Now, I won't ask you to read any of those if fantasy is not your thing. . .but if you want a short story that sums that same idea up, of the character being more important than the system of magic and the world, I'd suggest seeking out "The Night Market" by Holly Black. It's simply one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's got a bit of fantasy, a bit of magic too, but it's all revolving around the main character, her love of her family and the ending is the true magic of the story, of the world. . . of each of us in our world. It's well worth the read.
So here I am. over a YEAR into this project and just moving forward every day. I spend two hours each morning from 5:30am to 7:30am sitting in the silence of the early hours at the laptop writing, researching, plot sketching, exploring.
Each day starts with feeding and loving on our cat, Bhu, then venturing out to walk to the old-school bakery which is just a block away from our place and opens at 5:30am ( I know, lucky right?) and the day starts with something like this
Finding that space, that time and making it a routine was key to getting along with the writing. It has also been the best adventure ever! Bringing this world to life and creating the characters and all the little details is like nothing else I've done. I 'm hooked. It's no longer hard. No longer a chore. It's just one more thing in my daily routine and I try not to let anything keep me from it.
In the future I want to talk about the beauty of routine and how it is such an important part of my days. I learned it at retreats visiting a Zen monastery years ago. Their set hours for meditation, meals, down time, work etc were a novel idea to me who, as a creative soul, could not stand the notion of incorporating that into my own daily creative world. Yet. . .
Immediately I saw why it worked but I still fell off the "routine wagon" very quickly afterwards. In the last 8 years or so, learning to keep to a schedule has become essential with all that I want to accomplish and make.
The routine I have now is set in stone and it has to be a pretty extraordinary thing for me to break it..
I'll also want to discuss finding your "voice" thru writing. For me, that has been the hardest part of taking up a novel. Different writers create in different ways. It was yet one more reinvention and I seem to have found my own methods to get me there along the way.
At this point in the Ledgerkeepers, I have a prologue and four very strong character chapters. One for each of the main characters. Each also explores a little of the world around them and each, before I found my voice, were wayyyyyy too long expositions of pure world building and description ( a common flaw in fantasy writing) and less of the characters. One of these chapters, for example, was near to 70 pages of discovery writing which I condensed and stripped away to what is now an 11 page first chapter. I found the characters and found THEIR voices, their motivations and their desires.
I'm excited to start sharing some of that world with you all here. And while I am not quite there yet, I want to put out there that I am going to be asking for Alpha and Beta readers in the coming months. (beginning in January most likely) If you have any interest in being among the first to read what I am creating, you can let me know and I will put you on the list of people to open the early chapters of the story up to as it falls into place.
As an alpha reader, I'll ask you to only focus on, and give feedback for four distinct things:
Thank you for coming by and reading! XX
Nicolas
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Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:
I should start by explaining and separating the two main parts of this series and that world.
One, the "Bewildering Pine" is the fictional world where my first (in process) novel length book, "The Ledgerkeepers", is set. It's a fantasy world that pulls from the many influences and inspirations I've had over the years for just such a world. The world is populated by "old world elves", simply referred to as folk, and not the High elves of modern fantasy.
And the second aspect, the Bewilder and Pine, which is the creative outlet for my miniature making. It's my Etsy shoppe and where many of the larger ideas I have been formulating began.
Here, I really want to focus mainly on the book, that world and it's ties to my childhood and adult life but some parts of that world are derived from the experiences and products in the shoppe, and the shoppe in great part inspired the book and everything else that will come beyond it. . . so I will want to dive into both over the coming months.
Today, for the first installment, I do want to focus on what the undertaking of the writing of this book has meant to, and done FOR, my own heart.
It would be easy, I think, for an outsider to look at my miniature work, my writing here and my views on life in general and assume I am stuck in a loop of nostalgia and whimsy, not that there would be anything wrong with that. . . and to a degree it's true. :) I've come to a place in my life where I tend to keep most anyone who I feel is too caught up in the outside or "real" world at arms length. Not because I want to pretend that world doesn't exist but because I believe how much that world affects us is almost entirely up to us most days.
Simply put, if I allowed that world to inundate my daily thoughts and emotions, I could not do what I do for a living. It's not an escape, it's the way I go about and make sense of that very same world while at the same time, giving life to, and protecting, another world I've held within for so many years.
Somewhere along the way I decided that we each have our roles to play, I won't say it's our destiny or our calling. . . or even our path. . . just that we may choose what we do with each moment we are given and for me, that choice slowly over the years became one of deciding that I wanted to put as much beauty and joy into the world as I can every day.
I discovered early on in the Etsy/maker-of-things world that the more I attached stories to my little creations, the more people responded to them. The more stories I created, the more the world that is now the Bewildering Pine of the book, started to creep in and influence my making and the stories I wrote to go with. Tart Carts, crooked towers, shop and village names, houses with different architectural styles, little enigmatic elves who live in the woods or in hermit like solitude. Monks with face like mimes. Old tongues and sacred traditions lost. With each addition another little piece of the puzzle fell into place.
Now, this is going back some eight years to the beginning. In the last few years, the separation had begun to widen in my heart and in my creative desires. I started spending more time on the "side project" which, at the time, I could not have told you what exactly it would become. The world of the book is now vastly different from the world of the Etsy shoppe.
There are still bits and pieces that remain constant but as characters, locations and I suppose, most of all, the plot for the Ledgerkeeper's story started to reveal itself to me, I saw the chance to speak about more than just a fantasy world. It's aim is to be a novel that speaks to cultural identities and traditions, how things change, why things change, and, of course, how everything is not what it seems when story is a foggy subject at best.
As for the writing, this has been a crash course. I've never even attempted to write something like this before. Not seriously. Poetry yes, short stories, yes, letters of all kinds to friends and family, yes.
But to sit down and say, "Right, I want to write a novel!" No, that never crossed my mind once really.
What I've learned more than anything in the last year since I took up the task is WHY so many people start writing a novel, a short story, a memoir and then quit. Because it's reallllllly HARD and it requires something I feel blessed to have been able to find in an already busy life. The space and a routine to do so!!
I believe it's the hardest creative thing I've ever set out to do. It requires persistence, time commitment, belief in it and in yourself. More than all of those, I think, it requires a desire to say something through your fiction. To tell your story or offer a viewpoint.
Nothing has ever brought me face to face with my own resolve and motivations like writing.
I chose the genre of fantasy for obvious reasons. Mostly because at the start of a fantasy story or novel is the world building part of it. That world that only exists in your head has to be fleshed out. Mapped out too. Not all at once but, at some point, you have to think about it all. The cultures, the limitations, the food, the climate, the magic etc.
Often you'll hear writers offer the advice "Write what you know". For some, like David Sedaris, that can mean your close family. For others like George RR Martin, that means the world you've been toying with in your head for your whole life.
To me, the love required is the same and evident in both I think. So yes, write what you love as well as what you know. The great thing is, you can learn so much that you don't know when you start! I may have a fantasy world in my head but it's littered with real world objects and situations that need to be right for the story. How does a water clock work? How were certain vegetables farmed 500 years ago? What happens when you have two moons, not one. The list is endless.
I love fantasy. Myth, legend, magic, the realm of Faerie, elves, surreal nature.
The funny thing is, I've decided to go a whole lot less in the original direction I assumed I would.
I've left magic off the board in this world for the most part. What magic does exist is born more of our own old world beliefs and traditions and the faith of folk in that. I've seen first hand in my life how powerful that can be. So, if it's tinged with magic in the Bewildering Pine, it has roots in something you may recognize. There are no great powers, no mages and wizards. No dark forces. . . at least, not magic ones.
The main characters as well as most of the supporting ones are all based on people I have known as well. From childhood friends to folk I know in the small town I live in currently. All wonderfully unique in their own ways and human to a fault.
I personally fall in love with books for the characters, not just the worlds the author created for them to dwell in.
My favorite books of late all share the core foundation of having very strong characters as well as the world around them being interesting too. But that doesn't mean they have to be a total creation of the imagination.
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Green and Ancient Light
The Queen of the Tearling
The Foretold
The Night Circus
All of these portray vastly different worlds: Four parallel Londons, a non-descript,"post war" European setting, a realm from our very own possible future, an Amazonian tribe/landscape and the underbelly of 19th century London.
What they all have in common are main characters that are stronger than the need to suspend your disbelief because they are relatable. Now, I won't ask you to read any of those if fantasy is not your thing. . .but if you want a short story that sums that same idea up, of the character being more important than the system of magic and the world, I'd suggest seeking out "The Night Market" by Holly Black. It's simply one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's got a bit of fantasy, a bit of magic too, but it's all revolving around the main character, her love of her family and the ending is the true magic of the story, of the world. . . of each of us in our world. It's well worth the read.
So here I am. over a YEAR into this project and just moving forward every day. I spend two hours each morning from 5:30am to 7:30am sitting in the silence of the early hours at the laptop writing, researching, plot sketching, exploring.
Each day starts with feeding and loving on our cat, Bhu, then venturing out to walk to the old-school bakery which is just a block away from our place and opens at 5:30am ( I know, lucky right?) and the day starts with something like this
 |
| French Press and a fresh apricot danish. Sorry about the lighting. . . but it WAS taken before 6 in the morning! |
Finding that space, that time and making it a routine was key to getting along with the writing. It has also been the best adventure ever! Bringing this world to life and creating the characters and all the little details is like nothing else I've done. I 'm hooked. It's no longer hard. No longer a chore. It's just one more thing in my daily routine and I try not to let anything keep me from it.
In the future I want to talk about the beauty of routine and how it is such an important part of my days. I learned it at retreats visiting a Zen monastery years ago. Their set hours for meditation, meals, down time, work etc were a novel idea to me who, as a creative soul, could not stand the notion of incorporating that into my own daily creative world. Yet. . .
Immediately I saw why it worked but I still fell off the "routine wagon" very quickly afterwards. In the last 8 years or so, learning to keep to a schedule has become essential with all that I want to accomplish and make.
The routine I have now is set in stone and it has to be a pretty extraordinary thing for me to break it..
I'll also want to discuss finding your "voice" thru writing. For me, that has been the hardest part of taking up a novel. Different writers create in different ways. It was yet one more reinvention and I seem to have found my own methods to get me there along the way.
At this point in the Ledgerkeepers, I have a prologue and four very strong character chapters. One for each of the main characters. Each also explores a little of the world around them and each, before I found my voice, were wayyyyyy too long expositions of pure world building and description ( a common flaw in fantasy writing) and less of the characters. One of these chapters, for example, was near to 70 pages of discovery writing which I condensed and stripped away to what is now an 11 page first chapter. I found the characters and found THEIR voices, their motivations and their desires.
I'm excited to start sharing some of that world with you all here. And while I am not quite there yet, I want to put out there that I am going to be asking for Alpha and Beta readers in the coming months. (beginning in January most likely) If you have any interest in being among the first to read what I am creating, you can let me know and I will put you on the list of people to open the early chapters of the story up to as it falls into place.
As an alpha reader, I'll ask you to only focus on, and give feedback for four distinct things:
- What bores you
- What confuses you
- What don’t you believe
- What’s cool? (So I don’t accidentally “fix” it.)
That's it! No long explanations are necessary. Just simple observations as you go. No other input is required at that first stage. I'll likely post the chapters here with password protection on them and send you the password when I am ready. I tend to like rather short chapters, 8-12 pages on average so it's not a lot of time commitment with each.
Here and there I'll be posting little excerpts on the open blog too. In addition to "The Ledgerkeepers", I am also creating a book born from the world building itself. An "atlas", I suppose, with many of the descriptive details of the villages, architecture, maps, belief systems, flora and fauna, folktales and the ancient origin stories for all of the type of folk who dwell in the world of the Bewildering Pine. As if someone were archiving the world from within the world itself.
Alright, I think that's going to be good for this month's opening installment. I know it was a bit scattered but we'll find a direction with it in the next month or two.
Welcome along for the ride! I look so forward to sharing more of the world with you in the coming months on fourth Fridays. I hope you will enjoy it too.
Welcome along for the ride! I look so forward to sharing more of the world with you in the coming months on fourth Fridays. I hope you will enjoy it too.
Thank you for coming by and reading! XX
Nicolas
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Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:
1st Friday of Each Month - New work ( New to the shops and a look at the making of one item each month)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Stories Moving Forward
I've been creating stories all my life. Since I was a child really.
At 11 or 12 I had two of those old Radio Shack single cassette players and I would write scripts for plays or stories and then, going line by line, I would record them by first speaking one line into one tape player then, stop, press record on the second while pressing play on the first, and then adding the next line of dialogue after the first tape played. And so on and so on for the entire length of the story. I'd do all the voices and all the narration. Even feeble attempts at singing improv theme songs on occasion. lol :)
Now, all these years later I found myself really feeling ready to create a book of short stories, or at least several small zines, that are centered around the worlds I have built thru and alongside my Etsy creations the last 6 years.
The Bewildering Pine
The Ledgerkeepers
Kitsurada: Land of Foxgoyles
The Troll Troubles
And many more
But as an adult, there are new challenges. Mostly an uncontrollable tendency towards self editing and doubt. Uncertainty about how to build a complete world because, after all, I am not 11 and I see the holes where they should be and what I have YET to create to make these stories work.
So how to get started?
Well, 10 days ago I began searching for that help.
It came in the unexpected form of a 30 day writing primer called the Fantasy WorldBuilder Guide. Thirty short exercises to help you start to flesh out and think about those things that make a "world" complete. Everything from climate and political atmosphere to, of course, the map, timeline of historical events, the people, the languages etc etc. Now I have seen these in one form or another before but none felt as helpful as this. In part, it helped me realize I HAVE thought of much of this but, the truth is, I am ready now and committing to the 15-30 minutes a day to do the work.
And the guide has sent me off in research directions I never would have thought of due to the links, ideas and great summaries about each section/exercise.I can't explain why but I recognize the difference in this guide is that it really allows you a range of investment. 15 minutes is all they ask and it's fine if that's what you want to spare but, if you are game, it is easy to se how an hour or more each day can be spent deepening the daily ideas on your own.
I have, I would say, doubled my world's depth in the first 10 days this way.
What the old world language is, what the trade and commerce and resources of the world are, how exactly my world's magic works, what the major conflicts have been (and I have to say, I am intent on writing a non-violent story/stories, so, that came with it's own interesting challenges!)
Best of all, the pieces I already had have started falling into place. The map being further and further fleshed out. The characters and types of creatures and myths. . . it's been truly exhilarating thus far.
20 days to go.
After that I will get back to the start again and go thru it once more, for 30 more days, and expand it all some more. I have plans for a large wall sized timeline/map/storyline to begin to be able to visually, in one place, see it all. And then,of course, time to start filling in the stories.
At this point, I am partial to a first book of short tales, sort of like Shaun Tan's "Tales From Outer Suburbia." and I know that the last tale will be either the lead in to a second book of shorts or, the basis for a larger novella to follow. It is, If I can say so myself, a very good "hook". :)
Many of you know I am completely invested in the idea that stories are what creates demand for what we produce. Be it organic produce, fairy houses, quilts, handmade books, masks, jewelry, etc etc. And we ALL tell our own tales our own way so I never think anyone should follow my lead if it isn't their thing. . . but I would also recommend a perusal through Austin Kleon's newest book, "Show Your Work" , where he says,
"Artists love to trot out the tired line, “My work speaks for itself,” but the truth is, our work doesn’t speak for itself. Human beings want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work effects how they value it.
At 11 or 12 I had two of those old Radio Shack single cassette players and I would write scripts for plays or stories and then, going line by line, I would record them by first speaking one line into one tape player then, stop, press record on the second while pressing play on the first, and then adding the next line of dialogue after the first tape played. And so on and so on for the entire length of the story. I'd do all the voices and all the narration. Even feeble attempts at singing improv theme songs on occasion. lol :)
Now, all these years later I found myself really feeling ready to create a book of short stories, or at least several small zines, that are centered around the worlds I have built thru and alongside my Etsy creations the last 6 years.
The Bewildering Pine
The Ledgerkeepers
Kitsurada: Land of Foxgoyles
The Troll Troubles
And many more
But as an adult, there are new challenges. Mostly an uncontrollable tendency towards self editing and doubt. Uncertainty about how to build a complete world because, after all, I am not 11 and I see the holes where they should be and what I have YET to create to make these stories work.
So how to get started?
Well, 10 days ago I began searching for that help.
It came in the unexpected form of a 30 day writing primer called the Fantasy WorldBuilder Guide. Thirty short exercises to help you start to flesh out and think about those things that make a "world" complete. Everything from climate and political atmosphere to, of course, the map, timeline of historical events, the people, the languages etc etc. Now I have seen these in one form or another before but none felt as helpful as this. In part, it helped me realize I HAVE thought of much of this but, the truth is, I am ready now and committing to the 15-30 minutes a day to do the work.
And the guide has sent me off in research directions I never would have thought of due to the links, ideas and great summaries about each section/exercise.I can't explain why but I recognize the difference in this guide is that it really allows you a range of investment. 15 minutes is all they ask and it's fine if that's what you want to spare but, if you are game, it is easy to se how an hour or more each day can be spent deepening the daily ideas on your own.
I have, I would say, doubled my world's depth in the first 10 days this way.
What the old world language is, what the trade and commerce and resources of the world are, how exactly my world's magic works, what the major conflicts have been (and I have to say, I am intent on writing a non-violent story/stories, so, that came with it's own interesting challenges!)
Best of all, the pieces I already had have started falling into place. The map being further and further fleshed out. The characters and types of creatures and myths. . . it's been truly exhilarating thus far.
20 days to go.
After that I will get back to the start again and go thru it once more, for 30 more days, and expand it all some more. I have plans for a large wall sized timeline/map/storyline to begin to be able to visually, in one place, see it all. And then,of course, time to start filling in the stories.
At this point, I am partial to a first book of short tales, sort of like Shaun Tan's "Tales From Outer Suburbia." and I know that the last tale will be either the lead in to a second book of shorts or, the basis for a larger novella to follow. It is, If I can say so myself, a very good "hook". :)
Many of you know I am completely invested in the idea that stories are what creates demand for what we produce. Be it organic produce, fairy houses, quilts, handmade books, masks, jewelry, etc etc. And we ALL tell our own tales our own way so I never think anyone should follow my lead if it isn't their thing. . . but I would also recommend a perusal through Austin Kleon's newest book, "Show Your Work" , where he says,
"Artists love to trot out the tired line, “My work speaks for itself,” but the truth is, our work doesn’t speak for itself. Human beings want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work effects how they value it.
You should be able to explain your work to a kindergartner, a senior citizen, and everybody in between. Everybody loves a good story, but good storytelling doesn’t come easy to everybody. It’s a skill that takes a lifetime to master. So study the great stories and then go find some of your own. Your stories will get better the more you tell them."
I, of course, agree totally with this as I feel my stories are as much a part of my ability to make living as a maker-of-things as anything else. Second only to never being satisfied with "good enough" and going all out in every way I can to make the buying experience wonderful for the recipient.
So maybe that is what has held me back in writing these new, larger stories. It's a total package for me and I do not think I believed I had any idea how to create that complete world with just stories and illustrations. Or perhaps it was just that I couldn't find the start line among all the floating pieces?
Well, the 30 day exercise certainly changed that so I want to recommend it to anyone who has any sort of make believe/fictional world you want to enrich and any stories you want to tell. You can find the exercise and thru it, many wonderful links to other great resources, here:
http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/index.html
And to close, just a little peek into two new pieces for you all today too!
Happy day to everyone and I hope the magik of Spring (or Autumn if you are down under) is shining brightly in your world and in your hearts!
xo
nicolas
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| Another colorful version of what has become quite the popular item. And the flowers just keep getting more out of hand! :) |
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| A blue-roofed Enchanted Tower seemed a nice change of pace. I want to play with different roof colors this summer. |
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Kitsurada - Land of Foxgoyles
One of the many new projects I'm determined to set time aside for this year is the developing of a few pieces of the larger fantasy world I have been creating. Fleshing out characters, timelines and histories, locations etc etc so that, in the not-too-distant future, I can create more stories and, hopefully, complete books about them. From children's books to fantasy shorts and perhaps one good full length book/novel or two somewhere down the merry road.
I began diving into this idea at the end of 2015 to allow myself a "running start" at the mountain ahead this year. :)
The first project I chose, though I was already strongly leaning towards it in November an December, was decided by a few lovely reviews and a message I received about my gargoyles in Bewilder and Pine. The review was from a customer who purchased a Fennec Foxgoyle and custom ordered one other Catgoyle to go with it.
The note was actually from a customer who purchased one of my very first Bewilder and Pine Foxgoyles almost a year ago and who kindly wrote to let me know that she not only loved it when it arrived but, that a year on, she still looks at it every day and smiles when ever she sees it in her home.
That note came just as I was beginning the long process of creating the map you see below and, with just a bit of doubt creeping in as it tends to on any new. . . and large. . . project, it was the last little "push" I needed to allow me to dive in fully.
Kitsurada is the mythical home of the Foxgoyles in my fantasy world. I have so much to flesh out so I cannot tell you much more right now but I chose this project to begin with for two reasons. One, I LOVE maps! Old maps especially and most games I played or made up as a child included some sort of treasure map, star map, forgotten world map etc etc.
This project began with an old 16th century map. Though I altered the main island, the form of it just seemed perfect and, being in the public domain, I borrowed that main landmass. wiping it clean of it's interior, I set about adding the forests, the lakes and towns, the ring of volcanic formations, the portolan lines, compass rose and scrolls. . . and the Japanese inspired wave pattern that runs through the oceans was what really brought it to life for me. The whale and ship are from another 15th century map and I created the Kitsu Isles to the right arranging them in a somewhat fox-like formation. :)
The volcanic spires in the sea that surround the land protect it from raiding parties of ogres and trolls making it an almost insurmountable defense. . . almost.
Each of the seven forests are named for one of the Foxgoyle Breeds that inhabit/protect the populated central part of the island. Fennec, Kit, Swift, Red, Corsac, Azaras and Sechura. There is also the mythic tale of a nine-tailed creature living on the Kitsu Isles. . . very much like the modern Kitsune Foxes.
There is a developing backstory to the foxgoyles origins and their purpose. But what is most fun for me is that the story grows with each iteration. I just finished the first of the Fennec and Kit foxgoyles for the shop this year (see a few posts ago) and just making those has given me a whole added dimension to the story as I went along working on them.
In the end, later this year, I hope to have the Foxgoyle story as a stand alone mini-book, hand-bound and printed with map included, to offer thru the shop or as a special addition to a Foxgoyle figure. Perhaps the book will have a mini-mini Foxgoyle to go along with it? Who knows!
Anyway, welcome to another part of my world. . . I hope it inspires and delights!
Thank you for looking!
nicolas
I began diving into this idea at the end of 2015 to allow myself a "running start" at the mountain ahead this year. :)
The first project I chose, though I was already strongly leaning towards it in November an December, was decided by a few lovely reviews and a message I received about my gargoyles in Bewilder and Pine. The review was from a customer who purchased a Fennec Foxgoyle and custom ordered one other Catgoyle to go with it.
The note was actually from a customer who purchased one of my very first Bewilder and Pine Foxgoyles almost a year ago and who kindly wrote to let me know that she not only loved it when it arrived but, that a year on, she still looks at it every day and smiles when ever she sees it in her home.
That note came just as I was beginning the long process of creating the map you see below and, with just a bit of doubt creeping in as it tends to on any new. . . and large. . . project, it was the last little "push" I needed to allow me to dive in fully.
Kitsurada is the mythical home of the Foxgoyles in my fantasy world. I have so much to flesh out so I cannot tell you much more right now but I chose this project to begin with for two reasons. One, I LOVE maps! Old maps especially and most games I played or made up as a child included some sort of treasure map, star map, forgotten world map etc etc.
I've always made them, even in my 20's and 30's I'd doodle them here and there on napkins or scraps of paper. And I cannot fathom a fantasy novel that does not include a good, informative map! And as I may have mentioned before, the series that brought me back to rediscovering my love of comics and really, my desire to delve deeper into the makings of childhood too, "Mouse Guard" by David Peterson, first captured my heart with the lovely map of that small mouse-centered world.
The second reason is my love of the many varieties of Foxes. And the idea of making the mythical creatures of this part of the world something based on "stone magic" appealed to me greatly.
Of course, the mythical creatures have their very own mythical creature too. . . ahh so much for reality. :)
But this is Kitsurada. . . still very much in progress itself.
 |
| Part 16th Century Map and Part Digital art and a Lot of Imagination |
The volcanic spires in the sea that surround the land protect it from raiding parties of ogres and trolls making it an almost insurmountable defense. . . almost.
Each of the seven forests are named for one of the Foxgoyle Breeds that inhabit/protect the populated central part of the island. Fennec, Kit, Swift, Red, Corsac, Azaras and Sechura. There is also the mythic tale of a nine-tailed creature living on the Kitsu Isles. . . very much like the modern Kitsune Foxes.
There is a developing backstory to the foxgoyles origins and their purpose. But what is most fun for me is that the story grows with each iteration. I just finished the first of the Fennec and Kit foxgoyles for the shop this year (see a few posts ago) and just making those has given me a whole added dimension to the story as I went along working on them.
In the end, later this year, I hope to have the Foxgoyle story as a stand alone mini-book, hand-bound and printed with map included, to offer thru the shop or as a special addition to a Foxgoyle figure. Perhaps the book will have a mini-mini Foxgoyle to go along with it? Who knows!
Anyway, welcome to another part of my world. . . I hope it inspires and delights!
Thank you for looking!
nicolas
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