World Shaping

I've probably mentioned this before, but my favorite activity is world building. More than drawing, or plotting stories, I love crafting worlds which I can then populate later on with characters and stories. When I usually decide to put together an outline for a story, I typically start with the setting. I then expand on the concept of the world (how things work, like pieces of technology or magic, what civilizations exist, etc). Having established a basic foundation, I start adding characters and try to figure out what the overall plot of the story would be. Sadly, that's usually as far as I go with my story building, because at that point, I start delving into past histories of the various aspects of the story, be they characters, nation-states, various states of technology/magic, and all that good stuff. I obssess so much over the backstory, that I completely gloss over the original story and essentially create a full story that takes place as a backstory to the original.

Which is exactly what happened with White Currents. Too bad, because originally, I started up White Currents to avoid all that. I wanted it to be a small, self-contained story, following one character through irrelevant journeys. I guess it was presumptious to believe that I could actually do it, and escape my tendancies.

But I think the way it turned out was a good thing. In the end, I got what I believe to be a well developed world, and it incorporates many ideas which I just love. It's become a playground for much of my interests and obssessions, which is something I really try to restrict in my stories and story worlds. I hope that means that I'll constantly stay motivated for it. My interest in White Currents waxes and wanes very frequently, as can be evidenced by my updates on this blog (but which is also attributed to my hesitation to actually write down my thoughts in an open journal...). But I think I've found a way to keep myself motivated, and that's through co-development of different ideas set in the same world, which appeals to my different interests. We'll see how that pans out.

I think I'll start posting details about the world of White Currents soon. A lot of it is still developmental material. I'll just post what I'm thinking regarding the world and the stories. Sure, it'll contain a lot of spoilers and stuff, but since no one reads this (Yea, you too, Sean ;), I don't think it'll be a big deal. Once I get final ideas down, I'll see about cleaning up the blog or something... if I even get a readership, that is.