Hi.
Aiming to send these out more frequently, while also filling them with more useful material. We’ll see how that works out. (You can of course unsubscribe at any point if you decide it’s not your thing)
Fun research!
First up, I wrote a brief piece on how I’m approaching world building for my next project. Rather than a pile of scrappy notes, I’m taking a more characterful approach. More here.
Elle Griffin’s stuff
Last week I stumbled upon Subtack writer Elle Griffin via her fascinating article The one where writing books is not really a good idea. Her work is unusually well-researched for online blog-type material (I think she has a background in journalism, which would explain it), packed full of interesting stats and actual analysis instead of just hot takes. It’s provocative, at times depressing, at times inspiring and essential. Coincidentally, given my interests, Elle comes down on serialisation being a potentially useful route for authors.
Elle has another article similarly thought-provoking called No one will read your book.
Cool maps
Lastly, take a look at this incredilble Map of the Internet:
You can see an astonishing super high-res version here.
Thanks for reading!
Simon K Jones
JRR Tolkien approves.
Let us remember that volumes like "The Simarillion" or "The Lost Tales" are all Tolkien doing world building for "Lord of the Rings." Even "The Hobbit" was basically a side-story, based on world building Tolkien had been doing for nearly twenty years, written for his son.
Yeah, LOTR... Tolkien began developing Middle Earth around 1912, all working up to LOTR, published in 1954. Suddenly I don't feel bad I've been building my Pangaea setting for a decade. It's HARD to build an entire world that needs a pre AND post Atlantian history, and charting out how all the cultures changed after the destruction of Atlantis actually rotated the entire globe almost 90 degrees and changed the axis of spin... What happens when your "Saharan tribes" suddenly find themselves living in the Arctic?