This is part of a series on fictional world-building. We've talked about how to get started , how to organize your thoughts , and how yo...

Today, we're going to talk about one of my favorite parts of world-building: maps! This is the third part of a series on world-building....

Last week, we talked about what world-building is and how to get started . Among other things, we learned that world-building is... well, it...

If you're writing any kind of genre fiction—if there are any fantastical or sci-fi elements in your world at all—you need to do some wor...

It's impossible (perhaps illegal, and certainly blasphemous) to talk about fantasy languages without mentioning the Godfather of Fantas...

On the post 5 Tips for Using a Foreign Language , Linda asked a very good question: "[What] if the characters are only speaking/thinki...

On Friday, I talked about making up fictional games for your world : take a real-world game and alter it slightly: to suit your world, to ma...

One totally optional, but (in my opinion) totally fun aspect of world building is making up fictional games for your world. Like holidays...

You guys know I love maps . And though I sometimes resort to quick and dirty tricks to make one, mostly my maps are a labor of love -- on...

(remix) I'm always surprised when someone who loves fantasy tells me they haven't read The Lord of the Rings . I mean, this book i...

"Part of the attraction of the Lord of the Rings is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attracti...

They say you should spend a lot of time crafting your world--the history, traditions, cultures, language. I think that's true. The more ...

Using the origins of slang I talked about last week , I came up with 120 slang terms and over 50 different idioms for the Air Pirates world...

Language evolves in interesting ways, often without its speakers being aware of it. Last time I talked about how slang comes from euphemisms...

A while ago, I talked about a method to make up fantasy languages that don't sound made-up . Today I want to talk about slang, where it ...

I normally love Google, but this Google Buzz thing is bugging me. The problem, as I see it, is that Google signed me up for a social networ...

On Wednesday, we talked about using foreign languages in fiction without (a) sounding like a dork or (b) confusing/boring the reader. The b...

One totally optional, but (in my opinion) totally fun aspect of world building is making up fictional games for your world. Like made-up hol...

Chapters Edited: 15 Scenes Edited: 47 Words Murdered: 2904 (5.2%) Confirmed Kills: 1 (Geez, that's it?) Mutinies: 1 Authority figures Sa...