Halloween’s over for this year, in the U.S. tomorrow is the time to turn the clocks back an hour as Daylight Saving Time ends, and the chill of fall is fully upon us, And with that comes the annual November event called National Novel Writing Month—or at least it used to be NaNoWriMo (now there’s a mouthful) until its organization imploded back in April due to mismanagement and an unwise consideration toward allowing authors to use AI to help write their novels. It didn’t take long after that for the whole organization to fall apart. Ah, well.
To explain what it was, I’ll let this quote from the organization’s website provide you with some background:
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.
Well, even if NaNo-etc. no longer exists, any time is a good time to work on your writing, so if you’ve got plans to launch a project this month in the spirit of NaNo, it just so happens that StarWarp Concepts has a book that’s perfect for writers!
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is our popular how-to book for writers and gamers in which bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (For a Few Gold Pieces More, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
What you’ll find in its pages is information that’s vital for just about any writer, especially when it comes to world building, and Rich shows you how to do it:
- Avoiding the pitfalls of naming characters, regions, and countries
- Applying the technique of “outside in” to develop and then refine ideas for your world
- Creating a world your readers can relate to, regardless of its technological levels
- Identify how to create backstories and conflict by observing how your world comes together
- Adding details to make your story richer without overwhelming your readers
- Identifying useful resources for research
From its first publication, the book has been a hit with not just fantasy writers, but role-playing gamers as well. When it debuted in October 2015 at the e-book distributor DriveThru Fiction and its sister sites DriveThru RPG and RPGNow, it immediately shot to the #1 position on all three as their top-selling title, and then remained for weeks as DriveThru Fiction’s #1 Hottest Nonfiction Book and #1 Hottest How-To for Writers! If you’re a writer or gamer, you might just want to check it out. In fact, it’s currently being used as a textbook in the Interactive Media & Game Development program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worchester, Massachusetts!
“I think Terra Incognito is a solid introduction to the subject of world building. The book succeeds in helping the aspiring writer in creating a skeletal framework for which to hang the moving parts required of a believable fictional setting.”—The Gaming Gang
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is available in trade paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats, so visit its product page for ordering information.
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