I'm not much of a world builder. I never have been. I model almost everything off of the real world and just take what my story hands me without questioning it. I only mocked up maps once, and that was because I couldn't keep north and west straight in my world, and I had to figure out where the Northern Sea was.

So this is probably one of my favorite forums, because I can discuss worlds in general, rather than specific points of world building. And now I have a problem. Lightning Ranger was my first novel, I wrote a whole thirty pages in large red crayon when I was about twelve. I've rewritten it six times in completion. I'm working on it again.

Originally it was a game my sister and I would play. She was half the characters, I was the other half and we had a million weird, fantasy elements before we even knew Fantasy existed... It was kind of a cross between Robin Hood and the Lone Ranger with some medieval fantasy elements, including torture. (My sister and I used to be obsessed with torture.) I've since drifted more towards medieval, and added some Spanish or Arabic elements until I'm completely lost and confused as to what kind of world this is, anyway.

My newest brilliant idea was to set it during the early dark ages, when virtually anything can be made up, because no one really knows anything about it, under the rule of King Arthur. The MC marries a princess who is the daughter of a King named Mark, and it occurred to me that I could use the legend of Tristan and Isolde, change it to suit me, and give King Mark of Cornwall a daughter. But then I have all sorts of problems, like... would he be given a trial in that day and time? Not likely, and there's still the Spanish/Arabic elements. I don't know what role either place played during the dark ages.

So I've also considered making it a completely new, fantasy world but I'm just having trouble envisioning the whole thing. I'm not entirely certain what the problem is, I'm not entirely certain what my options are. Any help would be appreciated.

Well, I have to admit your world sounds rather like ours, all a bit confused and different depending on where you are. You perhaps might want to take everything you have and try writing it down so you can see where you need to work on things, or where you don't need to.

Janin of Yen,

I would start with your characters - who they are, what their goals are, and what conflicts from each other and the world will interfere. Once you have this, your world should work in conjunction with the story, and you can decide what type of climate, animal and fauna life, and magic is necessary. I've made a map in this stage, but it isn't necessary.

I agree with Varon about writing this stuff out, maybe on your computer so you can organize it better. One thing I'm learning is the importance of collecting "stone points" in an easy to read file so you don't get lost in all your brainstorming. By "stone points" I mean all the facts you want to write in stone, so your story develops a foundation. Without these, I've found my story changes all the time and I never get anywhere. Once I've decided my stone points, I brainstorm, but only in cases of extreme brilliance will I allow anything new to alter my stone points. I'm going to work on a stone points section on here for my story in progress.

Keep up the work and don't give up when it gets hard or you're unsure where to go. Read a book or something else to take your mind off it for a bit and I bet the answer will come to you.

I find it best to make out a map first. Just the geography and maybe some national borders. Then I've made two naming languages that are basically business languages that are used one each in the east and the west. Then I go through and name rivers and forests and mountain ranges and countries, etc.

After that I go through each country one by one and I write out a simple culture including religion and government and everyday life. Then, (I haven't done this step myself yet, but it's something I've been meaning to) you go through and write out a complete paper on each of those categories. It also might help to develop flora and cobha and magic before you do the details of culture, but I've only done the concise descriptions so far, so I wouldn't be the one to ask.

And finally, you write out the simple history for each country, then a more detailed account, and you do it for every area of world building. Makes me weary looking at my own method. A good method for organizing everything that you need to do is the world subforum rater. I probably wouldn't be the best person to ask, though.