The relationship between a world’s political structures and its economy is crucial, as money holds significant power. Economics shapes society, politics, and character lives. Factors to consider include economic systems, currency, industries, trade networks, labor systems, economic conflicts, and balancing economic development. Examples from science fiction and fantasy novels provide valuable insight.
Author Archives: Charlie Foxtrot
World Building (pt 4) – Politics & Economics
The post discusses the link between politics, economics, and world-building, using examples of monarchies and the Islamic Caliphate to illustrate how political structures influence economic growth. It emphasizes the importance of stability in political structures and suggests exploring the reasons behind seeking stability. It also highlights the significance of economic systems in world-building, teasing the upcoming post on building an economy.
Newer is not always better…
The post discusses the evolution of Stable Diffusion and UI options for generative AI image creation, particularly with XL models. The author tested different XL models with varied prompts but found that the newer models did not always produce better results than the original 1.5 model. Despite improvements, the author still prefers the 1.5 generation’s speed and appeal.
World Building (pt 3) – Laws, Ethics, and Morality
The importance of creating a captivating cosmology and mythology for worldbuilding was discussed in the previous blog post. Now, the focus shifts to establishing laws, ethics, and morality to create a robust social structure in the story. This includes creating legal systems, defining moral frameworks, and exploring the interplay with other worldbuilding elements to engage readers emotionally.
World building: an aside
The author discusses the challenge of world building for a story, emphasizing the importance of understanding how much and when to develop the world. Drawing from personal experience, they recommend starting with high-level world building using the Five Why’s technique to create a consistent world for characters. The narrative example from “Cosimo” illustrates this process.
World building (pt2): Cosmology & Mythology
This post emphasizes the importance of creating a captivating cosmology and mythology for world building. It delves into designing the structure of the universe, establishing physical properties, introducing celestial bodies and deities, and constructing a rich mythology. Additionally, it explores how these elements interplay with other world building aspects, such as moral frameworks and storytelling techniques, to create an engaging and memorable world.
World building: Crafting Rich, Imaginative Settings for Your Stories (pt 1)
This post discusses the importance of crafting captivating worlds for stories. It emphasizes the impact of environment on characters and the role of world-building in fiction. The author provides a roadmap for exploring five key elements of world-building and hints at genre-specific considerations. Subscribers will receive additional content and tools for world-building.
A bonus for subscribers
Creating Compelling Characters (pt 6)
The series on creating compelling characters using a character template is wrapping up, covering character context, physical capabilities, social connections, and conflict. By balancing internal and external conflicts and character arcs, a captivating and cohesive story is created. The character template is available for subscribed members, with more subscription-only content coming soon.
Creating Compelling Characters (pt 5)
This series explores the Character Template and its impact on creating compelling characters. It emphasizes the importance of emotional growth and progression, exemplifying how a character’s background and emotional challenges shape their story. The focus on emotional depth aims to resonate with readers and create a rewarding reading experience.
