Author: Sterling, Guest Writer Populating our fictional worlds with bizarre and wonderful creatures can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of world building. However, those who are not zoologically-inclined may struggle to find inspiration to design creatures that are truly compelling and unique. Despite the diversity of the animal kingdom here on Earth, creatures in popular culture are often built around the same basic template: vertebral, bilateral tetrapods with variations of fins, wings, scales, fur, and feathers. Though there is much fun and creativity to be derived from the four classes of tetrapods – mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians[1] – many creators might wish to branch out into less familiar territory.
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Author: Ash aided by Jeremy, Creator's Forge Staff If you've ever watched Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, or Game Of Thrones then you've probably heard characters speaking what may seem nonsensical, meaningless gibberish. But what you're hearing isn't gibberish— they're languages created by real people. The process of creating these unique languages is called conlanging and these languages are often called a constructed language (or more commonly, a conlang).
Author: Wyatt Hall aided by Oliver, Creator's Forge Staff Now that you have a basic understanding of what government is, it's time to apply that knowledge. In this article, we'll get into what the different types of government are, what they entail, and how to apply them. We'll also cover some of the factors that may influence your choice in government system, such as culture, economy, and geography.
Author: Wyatt Hall aided by Oliver, Creator's Forge Staff As one of the most commonly used types of factions, government is a good place to start our new Factions Series. Before we get into the complexities and nuances of government however, we want to take some time to establish the basics of government.
Author: Wyatt Hall, Creator's Forge Staff If you're looking to start a project or improve an existing one, I've found that establishing a plan can help with this process. It doesn't need to be a detailed, step-by-step plan, it just needs to define some of the main aspects of your project, specifically the vision, mission, and a summary. This format, one I simply call the "VMS Format" isn't a comprehensive plan, simply a starting point to help guide you as your project progresses in its development. VisionDefining your vision can be rather difficult sometimes. There's just so many options— you could make a graphic novel, film, video game, or something else. You might not start your project with any idea of what you want to make in this sense, no idea what medium you want to use. That's fine! The main advantage to determining what medium you will use is that you can narrow down the scope of what you need to write for your world. If you do know what medium you want to use, feel free to describe it. What are some of the key elements of the product? For a book this could mean how is the story told (the way the story of the World War Z book is something I thoroughly enjoyed) or for a video game this could be the features and structure of the game. MissionThe mission section may not necessarily apply to everyone, which is fine. Each person has a different reason for why they create, why they made their project. Sometimes this reason could just be an interest in some topic or issue, sometimes it could be the desire to make a point. Take this section as an opportunity to think about why you're making your world and why you're making it the way you are. A quick message to those whose work is meant to be making a point or spreading some idea, specifically a political or religious idea. Be careful with this; there's nothing wrong with including a message to your work, in fact, I encourage it. However, don't let the message hurt the story or the project as a whole— your priority should be to make a quality story and world, not to push your ideas "down people's throats." Some questions to ponder: Would the inclusion of this message hurt the story in any way? What is your audience— could negative reactions hurt the success of your work? SummaryNow, the summary section, this is the fun part. This is the part where you get to write about your world and the stories within it. Final ThoughtsAs a general rule, the vision and mission sections should be about half a page double-spaced, with the summary section taking one to two pages, more if needed. Sometimes you may need to write something longer than this rule, which is perfectly fine. Keep in mind whether this document is something you intend on sharing with others or if it's just for yourself (if it's the former, you'll want to make sure the writing is professional and easy to understand).
Not everybody needs to plan in order to create good work, but for some of us, including myself, it helps to have at least a loose plan for how you want things to go. You may not stick with it, you might change your plan over time, but having something to follow in the beginning can help you know where to start. Author: Wyatt Hall, Creator's Forge Staff I want to start this off with a series of questions: What is wrong with art having a message? I mean, isn't that the whole idea of art? To be an expression of one's self? Why is it that lately there's been such disdain for the political and moral messages in creative works? I can understand being against the whole issue of franchises pandering to progressives or "shoving politics down our throats," as I too oppose that. Work featuring political messages, in my opinion, should focus on the story first, with the political messages you want to convey coming second to that. For example, if you want to write an character who is LGBTQ+ in order to have a certain degree of diversity, don't make that the focus of their character. Write them as a human being, a character who people will love who just happens to be homosexual. Your focus should be writing a good story, not blatantly presenting your political beliefs— you don't want to alienate a portion of your possible audience. My issue with political messages in creative works is not the message itself, but rather, the way it is presented. I don't really object to LGBTQ+ characters in fiction at all— I object to characters written horribly and unbelievably. Here's the thing though... Unfounded HateIt's one thing to be against badly written characters who are made simply to push a political idea or agenda, but it's a whole other thing to label that as "politics in art." Politics in art, when done correctly can produce masterpieces like Star Wars. No, I don't mean the dumpster fire that was the sequel trilogy, but rather the original trilogy. The Empire was based off of Nazi Germany and Reagan-era America, yet it's perhaps one of the most known factions out there. Opposite ExtremesI've also recently noted people taking the aversion to politics in fiction to the opposite extreme. People afraid to share their work because they don't want to offend people or afraid to have any sort of political element in their work at all. This I feel is just as stupid as pushing politics excessively in media. If you're afraid to create what you enjoy because of the response, then why are you creating? Of course, if you intend on making money off of your work, keeping in mind your audience is critical. It's a tough balance to strike, but if you do it right, your work can be very successful. So what's your point?My point is we all need to calm down. Sure there are examples of politics in art being taken too far, but there's no reason why we need to get upset about politics as a whole because of it. It may be annoying to some, but it's perhaps one of the most important and ill-defined things in our world. Part of the problem I think is the negative connotation politics has nowadays. When people think of politics they think of arguing, corruption, and lies— not good faith discussion of real issues. We need to change that, we need more discussion and civil debates. That's why, in the Creator's Forge Discord Server, we openly encourage people to share their political beliefs, with relatively few rules and controls on it. All we ask is that it be kept in the off-topic channel and be kept civil, as we don't want people feeling alienated or hated for their beliefs.
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