World Building: The Country of Vawdrey

As I continue to write stories and posts about Tiaera, I find that world-creating is a fun pastime in itself. At first, it was tedious and boring. There we were, Jack and I, trying to get our Realmwalkers chapters done and all had to stop because we found out that it was potentially dangerous to use someone else's world to write about for commercial purposes as authors. It wasn't harmless fan fiction that was written purely for personal enjoyment. Jack and I meant business. We wanted to write a book together and offer it up to the world and earn something from it. Thank you to all who made that dream come true! We really appreciate your support and encouragement.

Anyway, I knew nothing about mapping or cartography and to this day I still don't know much, but I do know how to draw and so with Jack's help in figuring out aspects about earth's geology and atmosphere, he helped decide what Tiaera's size and countries should be. No, it's probably not accurate info. In fact, we decided Tiaera should be smaller than Earth. But that's fine! Tiaera is not Earth even if some of its inhabitants are human and live lives like those of Earth's medieval-renaissance periods. After all, this is a sci fi/fantasy story. The images had to be quick and simple so we could move on and get back to our story. Using MSPublisher, I managed to make several global and sectional maps.  Some fantasy world builders tend to use special programs like Autorealm, ProFantasy Software, and DnDjinni. I didn't want to use anything that was difficult or expensive, so I used what I have: MSPublisher and Photoshop. Realmwalkers contains some of those maps.

This image and info is next to the title page in Realmwalkers.

Here are a couple of graphics I made using these programs and a regular mouse to draw with. I hadn't gotten my wonderful Wacom table w/stylus when I did the artwork for Realmwalkers. I hope these drawings will inspire you if you are in the process of writing a book that might be enhanced with a map or two. Maps are very useful tools when you write a story that involves more than one city or town. Jack and I referred to these maps often while our characters traveled from country to country. I highly recommend creating or using maps to make your story more accurate and realistic. Maps help me keep from becoming confused as to what town is where and what race or races live there. Yes, if you can't draw or afford any of the programs currently available, you can make charts or lists to help out. I could have done that also, but since I can draw, I did what I enjoy.

Since I am currently writing a story about Audrey, I have decided to re-create and update the country of Vawdrey where this storyline takes place. Vawdrey is not a big country at approximately 687.5 miles from east to west.  We figured that Tiaera is about the size of Mars, not Earth.

This is the simple and quick drawing I used for the book. This graphic also shows the NW section of the country of Lythopia

And here is the newest and updated version of Vawdrey showing Chardonvale, and the druidic monastery and cloister where Carlyn and Audrey live and train.  All graphics are copyright protected.

Again, I hope these images will inspire you if you are writing a novel. You don't have to be an artist and you might discover, as I did, that world-creating can be fun!

Pinterest

I am now at Pinterest and uploading parts of my Tiaera blog there. I hope to gain more readers with my graphics and stories. Pinterest is a good place for sharing images much like Photobucket and Facebook. Here is the link to my profile there. Check it out!

EV Medina at Pinterest

The Summer Heat or Writer's Block?

It's July and the temperature here is going to 112 today.  I spoke with a good friend yesterday and she asked about my latest book "Sirens of Swansong." I frowned. I began to explain that in the midst of all my research and preparations, I find it hard to work on my third book. I explained that I still blog and I even plan to go back to doing Yahoo Content articles again, but work on the book remains further down on my list of priorities these days.  She was visibly disappointed and offered that with all the work I have done to promote Realmwalkers these past few years, the joy of writing has lessened since another book will mean a whole new campaign of marketing.

I have blamed it on the summer heat, saying to my husband that it's just too hot to write. We have plenty of air conditioning and we do get out to cool movie theaters, restaurants, and other locations. I am reminded that in the three years of working on Realmwalkers and The Priestess and the Ravenknight, that the summer heat was never a problem. But this year is different. This summer finds me doing little in the way of research about mermaids and the world of Tiaera so that I can continue with my third book.  I have about sixty pages started, the layout is done and I have a notebook filled with character sheets, historical data, story notes and inspiring graphics.

My Sirens Workbook

I have tried to keep motivated on my project by watching pirate and mermaid movies on TV or checking out mermaid/pirate books from the library. I am currently listening to an audio book about mermaids.

But I do not write.

Writer's Block?  Could this be?  Am I "burned-out" and need this time off?

My friend thinks it's possible. She suggests I take this time to do whatever little projects I can to keep me writing in some way or some form. Continue with my blogging, do some short articles, work on a journal and keep on doing whatever writing I can do until I am able to get back to my unfinished book.  Maybe the cooler temps in the autumn will get me back to work on my unfinished book.

Write! Write! Write!  I see that advice in every book about writing. I have started a story about Audrey, my little gnome. I can keep doing posts here about her also. In any case, I will deal with the temperatures here and keep cool, go swimming and write whenever I can. I will find some way to keep motivated, even if it's only to blog here with something I hope you will all find interesting.

If you have any advice or suggestions on how to keep motivated to write, I welcome your feedback. I know all writers go through this sooner or later. Whether it be burn-out, writer's block, or triple digit temperatures, I will finish my book somehow. I just wrote this down and so I can't take it back now.

I will finish my book, as soon as I am able to.