Look What I Found

I've been working on building a world for my latest story (one that, hopefully, I will soon shelve in favour of finishing some of my others) and having a bit of trouble focusing my thoughts. I decided to go in search of some help online and found this. It's a list of fantasy worldbuilding questions from Patricia C. Wrede and it includes thought-provoking questions to make you consider every corner of your imaginary world, including physical and historical features; magic and magicians; peoples and customs; social organization; commerce, trade and public life and daily life. You should ABSOLUTELY check it out, whether you write sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, historical fiction or anything that takes place anywhere other than exactly right here, right now.

I've also added a link to the link list, with a helpful name like "Worldbuilding Questions" or something like that.

Happy creating, people.

Freelance Writing

Godchecker put the link to this article up on their twitter account. I read it, and thought, "Everyone at DevCo would love this", and (even though Bean's already got Godchecker on her twitter follow list thingy), I figured I'd at least let E have a go. >:D

Really though; it's a good article about freelance writing and why you can get away without pants it's awesome

Why You Should Freelance (Despite All That Face-Punching Business)

Good discussion question from this: would you ever consider doing full time freelance writing, or would you rather have a specific publication/publisher?

Argh!

So, I was mapping out bits of The Story that Rainbow Brite Spawned using bubbl.us, and all was going well. I was working my way through the main characters, creating thought maps that put me in mind of neurons, with intersecting lines and bits branching off...all in rainbow colours too, appropriately enough. It's also quite interesting to see in communicative symbols the sorts of patterns my brain works in...it's far from orderly.

Whatever. I saved my work...got off the computer for a bit...had some food...came back...

And the damn program had erased well over half of what I did, obliterating three character profiles completely and a good chunk of the fourth. And this just when I was trying to figure out how to print what I had so far!

I is not amused.

Reinforces the old lesson, though: BACK UP YOUR WORK.

I should also add that it hasn't done this to any of my other files. They all seem to be intact and without any missing bits, which is probably good...perhaps it was a one time glitch. Either way, if you use the program, I suggest printing a few copies every time you're finished. It's just safer that way.

Sacred-Texts Dot Com

Before I forget (again), I went and added a link in the Links section to Sacred-Texts.com

Check it out. It's an awesome website that has wonderful people working there. They've taken the time to type up and assemble every sacred text from every religion they could get their hands on. It's a wonderful resource, especially for the writer who loves to use mythology and religions from cultures around the world.

Seriously - they've got everything from Christianity to Buddhism to Wicca to Druids to Hinduism to Thelema to Shinto and Icelandic mythology. New texts go up fairly regularly, from what I can tell, and they've even got a CD-ROM you can buy with the entire collection on it.

Definitely a site worth checking out.

Links

If you want a link added to the links list in the sidebar, just comment on this post with the url and whatever the link should appear as, and it will be added ASAP*

*Devereaux Court Scribes only, please. If you are not a scribe and would like to join, click here.