I had been working on a series of posts about worldbuilding when I read this wonderful debut YA Fantasy novel by Tomi Adeyemi , Children of Blood and Bone . Drawing on her Nigerian heritage, Adeyemi weaves the story of Zélie Adebola who sets out to restore magic in the country of Orïsha. The story is told by three shifting first person points of view: protagonist Zélie, an escaped Princess Ameri, and her brother Prince Inan. The setting never really came alive for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story world presented and the plot kept me turning pages. Let's take a look at some of the worldbuilding choices. Names:  Zélie, Tzain, Ameri, Jailin, Baba, Mama, Inan, Lekan Olamilekan, Kwame, Mother Oya, Saran (king), Roën, Nailain, Kaea, Zulaika,Folake, and Zu. Language: Adeyemi draws from West African Yoruba (eg. sún èmí okàn sùn, sùn sùn èmí okàn sùn). Exclamations: Oh my gods. Thank the skies. Maggot is an insult. Clothes: dashiki, ipélè, and a jeweled headdress fo...

Recent negative press about social media and the internet aside (with some foundation for concern), there has never been a better time or place for writers to meet, to share, and to help other writers. There are many wonderful resources you can utilize to bring your story setting to life, from thesauruses, to blogs, to classes. Here is a short list. 1. The Story Building Blocks Build A World Workbook approaches the many layers of worldbuilding through a series of questions, with places to take notes and add images. Available in print and e-book. 2. Writers Helping Writers has a series of thesauruses  (settings, emotions, traits) among the prolific number of helpful books, articles, and free advice. 3. The Writing World website has many resources on all aspects of writing, including their article on  Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life. 4. SciFiIdeas.com has a  25 Different Sci-Fi Settings  list. 5. 101 Writers’ Scene Settings : Unique Location ...

Fantasy and Supernatural stories are full of angels, demons, dwarves, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, gremlins, halflings, hobgoblins, orcs, ogres, trolls, vampires, witches, and warlocks. Cave-dwelling Gollum is a favorite of mine from J. R. R. Tolkein's The Hobbit . Alice in Wonderland had the hookah-smoking Caterpillar and perpetually rushed White Rabbit. In Frank Herbert's Science Fiction novel Dune , there were giant sandworms that gave me nightmares. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has too many to list fascinating creatures: thestrals, Hippogriffs, dementors, and ridgeback dragons. Hagrid had a menagerie including boarhounds, giant spiders, Fluffy the three-headed dog, and blast-ended skrewts. The offshoot movies Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them are populated with the niffler, obscurus, bowtruckles, and doxies, to name but a few of the enormous list of magical creatures . In my realism-based series, Mythikas Island , I kept the thr...

I once read a book in which an author waxed prolific about plants for pages upon pages. It did nothing to inform the plot, he just loved plants. I don't remember the title, author, or story line, just the excruciating experience. So my first piece of advice is resist detailed botany lectures unless the specifics of a plant play a part as a poison, medical experiment, or man-eating villain. Whether your story world is real or fictional, the challenge is to make the setting come alive for readers who have never been there. Here are a few examples: “As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.” —Willa Cather, My Ántonia "It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed t...