World-building

World-building is a vital part of anything you create, whether it's a world for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, a world for a fantasy novel, or an entire universe populated with aliens for a science fiction idea. Because of how prominent and important world-building is, there are a variety of sources available online for crafting worlds. 

I should admit now that world-building is my favorite part of the creative process. When I wrote my first novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I did barely any world-building before I started, but I did establish a system of magic and a few important facts about the world. It needed to be more in-depth the more I wrote and, due to the fast pace of novel writing during NaNoWriMo, I didn't have time to fill in the blanks more than what was needed during the story. 

That leads to an important thing to keep in mind. While world-building is vital to the writing process, it is important not to get bogged down sharing every little detail with your audience in your novel. Sure, you may spend weeks figuring out the tiniest nuances of why Culture A is different from Culture B despite the fact that they share the same country, but unless it is relevant to the story you're telling, you don't need to share it. Many readers aren't interested in hearing about the calendar system for Culture A, unless there's an important event that happens on a certain day and they need to know how long until then for plot-related reasons. 

You might be thinking, "Then why waste time on world-building if most of it isn't going to be relevant?"

The answer: Because you as the creator need to know these things to keep the world and rules consistent or have reasons why they aren't. You need to know how the world informs plot and character. You need to know when the celestial event that heralds the coming cataclysm happens so you know when to have the heroes (and villains) take notice. You need to know why Culture A and Culture B are different and how their minute differences play a role in the war they've been waging for generations, even if your characters are actually from Culture C, because the war between Cultures A and B will have effects on other cultures. You need to know the biomes and climates of that planet the characters briefly visited because it's unlikely to be just one type of climate and the life forms there are going to be varied based on these environmental factors. You need to know why things are the way they are in your world because that impacts your characters and plot, even if you never share all the information with your readers. 

Now, onto the fun bit: the world-building sources. These are just a few that I've used that have been helpful to me.

On the subreddit r/worldbuilding, there was a challenge that involved using December for world-building. Thirty-one topics which were grouped into six separate facets of world-building can be found here. This came in handy to me, especially for my science fiction idea. I'm still in the process of world-building but my idea is to answer all of those topics for every alien race involved in the project. It's very clear that this would also work for a fantasy setting. This isn't a complete list of every detail for world-building, but it is a start. 

Another month-long world-building source is 30 Days of WorldBuilding, found here. Not only does it provide some ideas for world-building topics like climate & variety and education, but it also provides days dedicated to characters and plot hooks to show how closely connected these are to world-building. It also includes exercises that you can do whenever you have the time and different formats for you to download the guide in so you don't have to use the internet for it. 

One of the first world-building guides I found when I was starting out was "Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions" by Patricia C. Wrede (available here). As you can tell, this is a very in-depth list of questions pertaining to every facet of world-building. Some of them are repeated where they overlap with other categories, but this is a complete list and one that I relied on a lot when I was starting out with novel ambitions. 

A source that has been particularly helpful for me since I've started my science fiction project has been the Universe Builder, found here. It includes a variety of aspects that are common in science fiction such as interstellar travel and AI interfaces as well as galactic neighbors. This has helped me figure out details about what is possible in my science fiction setting and what some of the technology looks like as well as how different alien races interact with each other and with humans. 

These are by no means the only world-building resources out there, but these are the ones that have been helpful to me over the years. Check them out and if they're helpful to you, great. If not, that's okay. There are thousands of world-building questionnaires and guides and templates out there that you can try out. 

I'll admit that I don't always world-build, especially if the setting is more or less modern day Earth, such as with The Agency, but even then I do make notes about what is different between the real world and the world I'm working in because this will help make things consistent later and consistency is the key to having a novel as close to plot-hole free as you can make it. 

Even though I don't world-build all the time for a project, I enjoy world-building and will spend months crafting a world because I want it to make sense and want every culture of that world to have evolved organically based on the setting. This means that I also do a fair bit of research regarding biology, history, and geography. For example, if I want to have a dragon species in Antarctica, I look at the climate and geography of Antarctica, look at some animals that live there, then figure out what that dragon might look like. Researching history gives me an idea about how wars may effect the borders of the countries in the setting as well as the economy, education, and even attire. 

World-building reminds us that things don't evolve in a vacuum. Cultures, with a few exceptions, don't exist without interacting with other cultures and borrowing aspects from them. Characters don't spring up with their missions, opinions, trauma, and philosophies without having a history that was developed through interacting with their world. Plot doesn't happen unless there is a world for it to happen in. World-building is vital to character and plot development. While you may not share all the work you put in with your readers, world-building is necessary to make sure everything comes together and your readers will thank you for putting in the effort and the work. 

Artifact 0037LH

This is the first story I wrote for The Agency. I wrote it before I knew that the Agency was going to become a recurring project of mine. As I said in my last post, this was inspired by a spooky happening in someone's life that they shared on a website that I can't remember the name of. To hear this read, pop over to DandyTimeCafe on YouTube. 

So, without further ado, here is an excerpt from my project The Agency.

Inspiration for The Agency

 My last post gave the rundown of The Agency and I cut it short before I went into detail about the inspiration behind it because I draw inspiration from a lot of sources and knew that the inspiration section might get a little long. Still, I wanted to share the inspiration with you because I like to give credit where credit is due and possibly point other writers to sources of inspiration they might be able to use in their work to put their own spin on things.

The Agency Inspiration

The Agency draws inspiration from a variety of sources. The format for the stories were first and foremost inspired by The Magnus Archives, a podcast involving an archivist and the supernatural centered around the Magnus Institute. It's a great podcast so feel free to check it out here. 

The Agency is also somewhat inspired by the SCP Foundation, at least as far as there is an agency that works to contain entities that cause unusual events. That's where the similarities end, however. Admittedly, I'm not that familiar with the SCP stories, though I do love that it's a collaborative effort. You can find them here.

When I joined Reddit, I found that there was a user who posted stories on r/nosleep that were in transcript format as well, though theirs involved more description. Their stories were weird, eerie, and sometimes scary enough that I thought twice about reading them at night. Their stories kept me hooked and even now I get excited every time I see they've posted a new one. If you're fond of the transcript-style of stories or just want to read something unsettling, you can find their work here. 

"Location 078U", one of the stories in the collection, is inspired by the creepypasta story, "The Disappearance of Ashley, Kansas" (available here) and also the short story "The Night Wire" by H.F. Arnold, written in 1926 (found here). If you've got the time, you should consider giving these both a read. They have some similarities and contributed to the creation of "Location 078U."

Aside from things found on the internet, The Agency is also inspired by real world events. The lost colony of Roanoke, Centralia, the Dyatlov Pass Incident, the Salish Sea and the feet that wash up on shore, Chernobyl, the Bermuda Triangle, the RMS Titanic sinking, the destruction of the Essex, the Tunguska Event, and the Flannan Isles lighthouse with the vanished lighthouse keepers are all sources of inspiration for stories in The Agency. Currently, the only ones written inspired by real life events are the ones inspired by Centralia and the Tunguska Event.

Going on a different tract, I once read a post on a website that I can't remember the name of now given that it was several years ago, that had stories of real-life creepy events that effected one person. One of these stories was about a lighthouse statue, a wicker one, that this person saw at two different suicides and in photos of a couple others. The same lighthouse. This story in particular stuck with me, clearly, since I can remember details about it but not where I found it or whose story it was, and inspired the first story I wrote for The Agency. 

In my spare time, I also enjoy listening to the YouTube channels "Top 5 Scary Videos" and "MostAmazingTop10," as well as "Buzzfeed Unsolved Network." I can't remember for sure which of the first two it was, but one of them mentioned a well that is supposedly cursed while there's been at least two mentions of a house being watched for its "second coming." Naturally, these three channels are full of inspiration. In the case of "Buzzfeed Unsolved Network," it's also good to watch if you're interested in cryptids, aliens, ghosts, demons, and unsolved disappearances and murders. This also inspired an entry based in part on the Cecil Hotel. 

Another source of inspiration comes from my familiarity with role-playing books, specifically the World of Darkness game lines. In particular, the book Mysterious Places inspired two different entries, only one of which has been written ("Location 014Q"). 

I've also drawn inspiration from movies that I've watched. An artifact that the Agency will need to retrieve was inspired by the Syfy movie Snowmageddon while a location the Agency will likely quarantine (if they can figure out how) was inspired by the movie YellowBrickRoad. Snowmageddon is a good movie for a bit of holiday horror with a dash of action while YellowBrickRoad is more of the cerebral "what did I watch" kind of horror movie. 

I'm also inspired by cryptids, folklore, and historical events. For example, Spring-Heeled Jack sightings from 1837, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and the Devil Whale are all sources of inspiration

I'll end this with one last source of inspiration. One as of yet unwritten story was something that happened to me when I still lived at home with my mother and her dog. She bought a long red coat that she loved, but she only kept it a few nights, then took it back because when she hung it in front of her closet (it wouldn't fit in her closet), her dog would sit on the bed and stare at it all night. The coat went back to the store and everything went back to normal. Naturally, that's inspired an artifact for the Agency to send collectors after. 

New Year, New Projects

Happy New Year to everyone! As the title says, I've got some new projects I'm working on. One is a weird-horror anthology called The Agency, featuring an agency that deals with the supernatural, paranormal, and unusual and is divided into 7 main branches and 24 support teams. The other is a currently untitled science fiction project that is still in the beginning "world-building" stages, but I may post more about it here once in awhile. 

Now, given that this is a new year, this blog is going to be a bit different from how it has been in the past. I'm going to be posting regularly for starters. Next, I'm going to start sharing information about writing projects as well as excerpts here and there. I'll also include writing tips that work for me and links to articles that have helped when it comes to world-building. 

Also, I need to shout-out my friends over at DandyTimeCafe on YouTube for giving me the courage to be more open with my writing. They're amazing and if you love literature, but don't have time to sit and read, go listen while they read some of the classics.

The Agency

A weird-horror anthology that contains the strange and unusual from a lighthouse that shows up at the scene of certain suicides (Artifact 0037LH) to a mushroom that burrows into the skin of anything it touches (Specimen 024SB) as well as the untold story of what really happened in Centralia (Location 024C) and the truth behind the Tunguska Event (Inmate 003). Not to mention a cult surrounding a wish-granting quarry (Location 014Q) and small town with their own take on "God is in everyone" (Location 062EP). 

I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, let's meet the Agency. 

Divided into seven main branches and 24 support teams, the Agency has quite the reach. The seven main branches are: 

• Field - Known as collectors, they're the ones on point the minute something strange and unusual happens. They receive weapons training and are given brief rundowns of what to expect when they go into a location or go to retrieve an artifact, tome, specimen, or entity. They aren't always given all the information. Sometimes, when clearing a soon-to-be-quarantined area, they work with support team Alpha, soldiers with specialized training that assist with extractions and body retrievals. 
• Museum - Known as curators, the Museum is where all the artifacts collected are housed. Much like a standard museum there is a look-but-don't-touch policy in place. The curators and a couple other support teams (namely Omicron researchers and Omega scientists) are the only ones allowed to touch the artifacts, but all things considered, most do not want to. 
• Greenhouse - With a name like that, it only makes sense that the ones working here are known as gardeners. The Greenhouse is home to all manner of dangerous plants and thus requires precautions be taken. Full coverage outfits are expected in most of the Greenhouse and it isn't uncommon to meet a gardener or Omicron researcher with missing fingers or scars from violent encounters with the specimens. 
• Library - Created only after an encounter with a constantly screaming book that wouldn't shut up until moved from the Museum, the Library houses all the books collected as well as books that are less supernatural, but contain occult rituals that the librarians and the Omicron researchers may find useful. 
• Prison - Controlled by the wardens, the Prison houses all the entities that the Agency is able to apprehend. The Prison is divided into different cell-blocks labeled from A to D and houses entities that can be considered apocalyptic should they escape or mostly harmless except under certain situations. The wardens are the ones here most often, though they also have support team Zeta act as janitors and others from different divisions or support teams are allowed to visit prisoners. 
• Containment - The division that spends the least amount of time actually interacting with other divisions or support teams other than Zeta, the custodians are in charge of securing the locations and guaranteeing that the areas stay secure with nothing entering or leaving them. In the case of certain locations, the custodians merely make sure to document incidents and minimize security leaks while in others they are authorized to use deadly force to keep the area secure. 
• Archives - The ones who document all the strangeness and keep both an audio and written record, the archivists and support team Iota (archival assistants and translators) are the most removed. It is uncommon for them to leave their department, but sometimes they will take statements in the field. Otherwise, those who are approached by the Agency after seeing or experiencing something supernatural are brought to the Archives to give their testimony. 

All stories in The Agency are formatted with the designation the Agency gave them as either Artifact, Inmate, Location, Specimen, or Tome as the title and include a brief overview of the description and history followed by a testimony (or testimonies) written as a transcript(s). Some entries are longer than others due to the number of incidents involving whatever is being discussed as well as how much history Omicron researches have tracked down about the subject. 

Not every story will involve the same characters, though there may be a cameo here or there of some of them if the time frame is right. One recurring character to keep an eye out for is Superior Callum Read, the head of the Agency. Pay attention to him and the dates that he's mentioned. 

An important note is that anyone can become an employee of the Agency if they show enough promise or the supernatural event involving them is severe or life-changing enough. The Agency will offer employment and find jobs that suit them in the various support teams or main branches depending on what the person did before their life was dramatically changed by an encounter with the supernatural. 

That's all for now about The Agency. Keep checking back for more about the Agency and its employees as well as my other project, tips, writing advice, and even excerpts from The Agency.