(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Given the importance of religion in human culture, it’s not remotely surprising that it’s often served as the underpinning for a leader’s right to power. In European history we most … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Every government and every leader has some basis on which it claims the right to power. This is true whether the leader in question rules over a tiny village of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Some worldbuilding topics are so large, it’s hard for me to figure out which approach is best for tackling them. In more than two years of this Patreon, I have … Continue reading
My first novel was also my first experience trying to create a fantasy world from the ground up. With Tolkien as my only model, I waded hip deep into Scottish history and Auld English linguistics to come up with character, clan, place and object names for my fantasy trilogy, The Mer Cycle.
Here’s what I learned: whatever names I use, it pays to simplify their spelling wherever possible.
Continue reading(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) As this goes live, I am in Yosemite National Park, where I hope to take many lovely photographs of nature. Lots of art forms have developed new materials or techniques … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Like sculpture — but unlike what I’ll be talking about next week — painting, in the broad sense of “color applied to a flat surface,” goes back a long way … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Thanks in part to the use of materials that often preserve well in an archaeological context, sculpture and carving are one of the earliest art forms we have evidence for. … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Spoiler: I’m not going to definitively answer the question in the title by the end of this essay. Humans have been debating this question for an extremely long time — … Continue reading
New Worlds, Year Two: More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding by Marie Brennan Explore a world of your own . . . Science fiction and fantasy are renowned for immersing their readers in rich, inventive settings. In this follow-up … Continue reading
So you’ve put together this lovely, complex, detailed world. How do you convey it all to the reader, without infodumping? … Continue reading
