Special thanks to Alyson Jensen, for seeing my writing as good enough to be featured. Thank you for the opportunity Sister-in-Christ.

Dear reader, please note, I am no professional, and I simply wrote out the way that I created my lands. You do not have to follow rule for rule to make an amazing land. Just enjoy the process. 

Are you having trouble deciding what your world should be like? Maybe how one place is different from the other? What if I told you that land development is my happy place in writing – and maybe I can help you get past this small writer’s block and teach you how fun it is?!

I hope you sighed with relief. No longer will things like landscapes and timeframes haunt you as you fall asleep. Instead, detailed dreams of lush lands leading into meadows that flow into the ocean with castles from the fourteen-hundreds will follow you into your dreams, making it seem as if you really have created a world.

Well, okay, maybe it will just appear on your pages. Either way, I hope this helps you enjoy your writing more. So, grab out a notebook and a pen! Humor me by writing out your personalized answers to the following sequence of questions – in yes or no, or one sentence, or even an entire paragraph. Or type them into the comments below! The important thing is that you write out your thoughts.

1) What comes to mind when you think of your land?

Rutted roads, planted fields, old houses?

Nothing? I hope you didn’t say that. But it’s okay, I’ll help you. Most of land development has to do with what will help your characters move forward in the story. If your main character hates bees and sand, then you most likely should include those rather quickly in your land. Because nothing shows true character like trials involving the things you hate the most.

2) Is this the only land that your characters will be in? Or is this one land in a world of others that they will be traveling through?

For me, my characters will be traveling from one land/scenery to the next all throughout the book.

Even if you have one land, the scenery should change at least twice to prove your characters are moving, to show that one thing your character really hates, to give your book that real life aspect, and so on and so forth. Also, what the land looks like affects what animals can inhabit there and what your characters will be eating most of. Unless your book is modern and they eat from a grocery store.

3)  If you are writing a fantasy: Do your characters have powers that are affected by the land (such as, if they have the power of fire, will the land prohibit them from using it, or help them)?

For example, if the land prohibits their power, try putting them in a land that is full of undergrowth, but dead as can be. If it helps, put them in a desert land with no growth and let him fire away at the enemies.

Do you have an image of your land yet? An idea of how it is helping or hurting your characters? I hope so. But if not, don’t stop here. I have more questions, and if that isn’t enough. There is a part two! So yes, more questions. Okay moving on.

4) What kinds of shelter and food will your characters have?

For example, small two-room cottages, wildlife such as quail and rabbits.

(Your answer may vary as the book goes on. Don’t panic. Start where you are writing and, later when you write somewhere else, decide for that time.)

Why do you need to know what your houses look like? Or what foods your people eat? Because these two things are going to be your biggest indicators of timeframe. For instance, if you decided they live in a desert and the only trees are palm trees, then they can’t have wood-planked houses. They would have sand floored houses, with desert grasses woven together for their roofs, and probably camel hide for walls.

But, if your characters are living in the mountains, next to a stone quarry, their houses are most likely made out of stone, and dirt floors. Unless you add an abundant forest behind the village, then they could have planked floors and wooden doors.

Do you see the difference? Go back and look at your answers from the last paragraph and plan based on that.

5) Is your book in modern times or historical times? 

For example, my novel is in the old day – as in no electricity, wells, and they raise animals for food.

This will affect what your buildings look like, what foods your characters have. Grocery or hunting, trading or selling. No matter what material you use, it will affect the kind of stone, or wood, it will affect the furniture, the fixings, if they have wells, or plumbing, electricity or oil lamps, perhaps even before that with lanterns and fires. Whatever you decide, try and make your homes fit your lands and your lands fit your Characters. Timeframes are hard, but they can work.

The End of Part One

Take a deep breath, and let it whoosh out. You just created your first land!

Don’t believe me? Look down and read all the answers that you were supposed to write out. Did you answer them? Can you piece them all together? Can you see that your world is taking on a shape, a character of its own? That your mountain is leading into a forest which is leading to an ocean? It’s now a huge part of your story, a critical one that can’t be moved, left, or forgotten.

This book world is the foundation of all adventures, of all conflicts, of everything that is going to happen.

Hang on, do you have a question? I thought I was asking those. Never mind, go ahead.

Where are all the details, all the people, you know, everything else? Aren’t those important?

Yes, of course, but if I had asked you who are your people, and what do they do – Would you have had any idea?

Maybe.

It is possible to create in an ‘out of order’ way. But this is where I started, so this is where we started.

I hope this new world of yours makes you excited! I hope it helps you create so many lands and worlds that you lose count, and they all blur and follow you into your dreams at night.

You know, one thing that world development taught me was just how magnificent God really is. Having to think up all the details and write it all out is a daunting task and I almost gave up. But, then I realized that all the facts I needed He had already given me. I didn’t have to think of how to make the earth revolve the sun, or how to make gravity work, I just had to write it into my book and thank God for lending me His imagination.

God bless your writing and inspire you, Sisters and Brothers in Christ!