Hi, everyone. If I may state the obvious, I'm new here, so I'll follow the directions and introduce myself.

My name is Jonathan (you may call me that, or "Jon", or even address me by my "handle"). I graduated from Calvin College in 2009 with a degree in computer science. And from childhood, I've had a story in my head that I feel called to write---which is what brings me here. I also write poetry (usually short blank verse) as it comes to me, and (I mention this last for completeness) I'm designing a pen-and-paper / play-by-email strategy game. Lastly, I blog regularly about these topics, and others; you can find the link on my profile.

I call "the story in my head" the Shine Cycle. It began as a few brief episodes when I was in elementary school, but has grown quite out of hand since, into the first two centuries or so of the history of two continents of an imagined world (and elsewhere, as their countries spread even beyond that world and even into our own universe in the future) after their creation, including the effects of the unexpected, abrupt arrival of a group of several dozen people from our world early in the second century.

I've put a general shape to most of the plot, in the form of a very high level outline. For the most part, my modus operandi is to increase the level of detail of the outline, hopefully until I can write from the outline easily, and to prepare a variety of background material, including histories of major characters, so I don't end up with a character needed in two places at once as well as descriptions of places and explanations of speculative elements.

But even though I'm mostly working on background material, and on my poetry, I am slowly but (I hope) surely writing. I have one completed novelette (fantasy and quasi-mystery), set late in the history, that I originally wrote for a (very open-ended) class assignment and am now revising, and a couple of planned novels from various places on the outline that I've begun writing.

(Thus ends my introduction of myself and my work.)

Welcome to the Holy Worlds, Mr. King. *extends hand* I am glad to meet yet another fantasy author who writes for the glory of God. Believe me, we are exited to greet new members, and we hope we will be a help and a blessing to you as you develop your story.

And, as a welcome present, here are some muffins. I made them for you; they're Banana Bread.

And watch out, you will soon be showered with more than just muffins.

Welcome to Holy Worlds!

Hello!
I am going to do something weird this intro...
No walruses.
No songs.

Just a simple...

Hello!

So... Hello! Welcome to holy worlds!

Hello Jonathan/Jon/Kingjon, welcome to Holy Worlds! I have to say that I am intrigued by your Shine Cycle and hope that you will elaborate upon that topic in the forums. I am very happy that you have joined Holy Worlds and look forward to reading your work on it.


And I brought brownies (I hope you like chocolate). *passes out brownies*

Welcome to Holy Worlds, kingjon! (I'm afraid we'll need a suitable nickname for you so we don't get you and Jonathan Garner mixed up.) O.o

It sounds like your story idea has been on an incredible journey through the times. (I'm also fascinated by its title.) I hope all goes well in its unfolding. ^^ I am certain we members on Holy Worlds can assist you if you run into mental road blocks or need help with brainstorming.

Once again, welcome to our lovely forum!

~Calen

Hello there, Jon; welcome to Holy Worlds!

What?! Another Jonathan? Whatever will I do? That's worse than Katie and Kaitlyn! *shakes head * Johnny seems a bit young... Well, have no fear; I'll come up with something. I always come up with something.

*tosses glitter over her shoulder as she runs around the room *

Computer Science, huh? So what got you interested in that field? * is not nosey *



*The self proclaimed computer illiterate's eyes do this * That sounds very cool and complex. How exactly would that work, and what types of strategy would be involved?

We have a thread for putting the links to HW member's personal blogs, which you might like to check out. Lots of members check there regularly for new blogs to explore. *trusts one of her Trusty Link Elves will find the link for you *

So, what type of plot have you been following for your story? Can you label it as high fantasy or... the other type of fantasy (the name escapes me now)? We also have a Sci-Fi side of HW, if your story has any science techie type stuff that you would like to discuss.

*realizes she did not say welcome * Welcome, sir, to our fair lands of Holy Worlds. We focus on building a strong community of Christian writers who desire to impact the World for Christ, and then try to help develop them and ourselves. So I'm sure you'll fit in just fine.

Here be the link to the thread full of blogs:

http://www.holyworlds.org/forum/viewtop ... =32&t=1551

And welcome, other Jonathan!

Hello and welcome!

*Blows boatswain whistle announcing the arrival of King Jon* *Salutes* Welcome aboard Holy Worlds, mate!

I, too, am in the process of writing a story I feel called to write, although it does not sound like my pre-writing is as in-depth as yours is... congratulations on taking time to pre-write! That is something I definitely need to work on and gain patience for...

Whenever you get the opportunity, feel free to post poetry, short stories, parts of your novel, or your novel in progress here. We all love reading other's work!

Once again, welcome! Enjoy your stay here.

Well, hi! We are absolutely delighted to have you join us! Have a cupcake.

Your stories sound fascinating. As you may've guessed by the posts above me, we'd love to hear more about your stories and help you progress with them in any way we can.

I'm seconding Airianna's questions about the fantasy game. I am most intrigued by the concept!

No, no, it's simple. We'll just call this guy "Jon" and always call Mr. Garner by the full Jonathan. It'll work fine. Trust me, I was once in a group that kept three Jennifer's straight by calling one Jen, another Jenni, and the third Jennifer.

*is not convinced, due to the fact that some people call Jonathan Jon already... *

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.


I've been dealing with computers since middle school, so when I took a CS course in college on a whim I found that the subject matter was easy (until 300-levels, anyway) and more importantly that I "fit" in the department.


How it works: Each turn, the players give the Judge (in my current campaign, me) their strategies for the turn, and then I tell them the results; when this was my friends in school that I saw every day, this was passing paper back and forth, but now we send emails instead. I've also written some helper software (just a map viewer right now, but I'm working on more) to make playing the game easier.

"What kinds of strategy are involved": Each player takes the role of the commander of an isolated military outpost on an imagined world. And by "strategy" I do mean strategy; I've built in an information lag so the players usually can't be in charge of tactics. But I try to be open to whatever ideas the players have. So far in my current campaign, the players have been mostly concerned with managing (increasing) their peoples' limited resources and bootstrapping their technological level (since one of the game's distinctive features is that a player can "invent" advances by explaining them in terms his or her people can understand), but we're still in the very early stages.

If you'd like to know more, feel free to PM or email me, or check my blog.


I'm aiming for "mythopoeic fantasy", by which I mean fantasy resting upon a thick, solid worldbuilding foundation, though I draw heavily from, and sometimes twist, "standard" fantasy elements and tropes. Basically, the sort of thing I like to read. Probably closer to "high fantasy" than anything else in that system of categorization.

I do know about Holy Worlds Sci-Fi, but I hardly have the time to follow one new forum, let alone two ..., and many of the scientific / technological elements would (I think) be as awkward a fit there as here because so much is so intimately involved with what I call "applied metaphysics," which is what makes the Shine Cycle definitely fantasy. But I may end up there too; we'll see.


For me, the background material, at least the timeline and consistency-checking, is partly simple necessity given the sheer size of the task before which I find myself, and partly (I'm sad to say) mere procrastination.

I intend to post some of my "background material" here, once I lurk for a bit (there ought to be a FAQ entry explaining the purpose and contents of the various forums and subforums; figuring out where I should post what will take some time and study) and rework the material I've already posted to my blog into a form more suitable for this venue. My poetry is less of a fit for here, as it rarely even borders on the fantastical (daydreams yes, fantasy-the-genre no), and in any case I've already posted so much of it on my blog I wouldn't know where to begin it here.

Again, thank you for the warm welcome. Would that some of the cupcakes and/or brownies were substantial, and here!

*fascinated* Thanks for typing out that long explanation!

Yes, the subforum system around here can take some getting used to. Read the descriptions under the forum names, and if you need any help, just holler! That's what we green people are here for. (And blue, and purple, and yellow, and white... but I'm green so I speak for myself.)

Welcome to Holy Worlds! We are very glad that you have joined us and I look forward to hearing more about your story.



No, Philli, you can't do this to me! Please don't call him Jon...that's what I call Jonathan Garner. So that could get quite confusing for some -er- one of us. *looks to Airi for awesome nickname*

Yes, those descriptions are helpful, but a document with examples clarifying the lines between forums for similar or related topics, and at least one comprehensive example of how various facets of a subject (your shared world, for instance) would fit in the various forums would be a most useful supplement to the FAQ.

(As an aside, the FAQ entry or otherwise introductory post on what you call "Essences" that newbies get pointed to should, but doesn't, begin with some explanation aimed at those who have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about, instead of launching into the details of the syntax you use.)

I think that I'll write a "signature" for myself to link to my blog, as well as adding it to the thread of them; I'd for some reason assumed, when I wrote my introductory post above, that it'd be readily accessible in a couple of clicks from my "name" next to any of my posts.

Welcome to Holy Worlds Jon!

Beware of sugar overloads in this thread!

Hope you enjoy your time here - can't wait to see what you've written


Marsh

Sugar? What are you talking about?!?! *pours another pixi-stick into his mouth*

Here have your one of a kind welcome cake just for you!
*Presents cake with Welcome Jonathan Garner crossed out to where it says only Jon*

Looking forward to seeing your writing. I know you will fit write in!
Welcome to holy worlds!

Be still my heart! A long post. Thanks so much for taking the time to fully answer my questions, kingjon. I'd love to find out more about the game, as I am very fascinated by this. I will be sure to check your blog for more details.

Welcome to Holy Worlds, kingjon!

I believe there has been talk of an FAQ document like you describe. Believe me, we've had trouble with this before!

On essences I shall agree with you whole-heartedly. It's a bit of an inside joke how hard it can be to get started on those things. Have you seen this? It's been archived since a new firstX tutorial came out, but I think it's helpful. This was the article that finally make essence "click" in my head, and I was able to make a few simple maps.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1778&p=32272&hilit=simple+essence+mapping#p32272

There has been talk by the tech guys about putting a URL button on the bottom of posts. But for now, most of us have our blogs in our signature.

There is an FAQ (actually two, if you count the one built into the forum software ... actually, the thread title is "Newbies: Forum Guide", but it appears to be an FAQ in all but name, and is the sole link in the automated welcome PM I got when I registered. The mention of "essences" there (which I'll quote in a moment) is the reason I mentioned them in my parenthetical complaint/suggestion.

From that thread:

... which actually isn't as bad as I remembered, but still isn't entirely clear on what, exactly, you're all talking about. And the linked blog post is written in the precise, thorough, comprehensive style (that I tend to write in myself) that is at best a gift in a discussion between people who know the topic (and often each other) very well, but at worst causes unfamiliar readers to bounce if (when) they, again, don't yet understand what you're talking about.


Like I said, it's not getting started that's the confusion, it's what an "essence" even is, why you'd want to "map" one (or is it mapping them, like you'd map a grove of trees while "mapping a tree" doesn't really even make sense?), why you'd need some kind of special syntax (let alone the plethora of syntaxes that seem to have been produced) to do so.


No, I hadn't seen that; the syntax that post introduces is indeed clearer than the others I'd seen (so I thank you), but it still assumes familiarity with the terms (jargon, even) and subject matter---which makes it not a good introduction to the topic as a whole.



As do I, now. (And I've now revised some of the bit-rotted pages on my blog that someone happened on after following the link in my profile, and took my year-old word that a website I'd since neglected was "more up to date." Though the battle to keep archive pages up to date with recent posts, when I write a post in each "department" a week and rarely touch the Pages, is still ongoing.)

I apologize, I believe I misunderstood what you were saying about the FAQ. We do have an official FAQ, as well as various help guides in the Library and Q&A. Last I checked, we don't have a document describing the purposes of the different forums like you described, but it is a good idea.

On essence, many of us have tried to get Jay (Sir Emeth) to speak in layman's terms, but that's a very hard thing to do. If you would like, I can try to define essence and explain the purpose to you via PM. I'm not much help with the format of the maps (I do do a hybrid freestyle as far as format goes), but I understand the concept and usefulness of essence.



I started blogging just last fall, and I had quite a struggle with this. Lately I broadened my horizons and started putting up different kinds of posts, so that's helped with the search for content. I, too, have a schedule of posts - each day of the week is reserved for a specific kind of post. I don't have a post in each category every week, but it helps keep things organized and spreads the posts out in different categories so I'm not posting a slew of one type of post in a row.

When I started posting regularly, as opposed to whenever the mood struck me, I started by posting a poem three times a week, but I soon realized that at that rate I'd run through my archive of old poems very quickly. So I created my schedule (which you can see in my signature here)---one post about each of my main projects each week, plus a "miscellaneous" post. I call those my "departments", as if it were a newspaper, rather than categories because I use categories to further refine the archives. (Though I'm overdue for a mass recategorization.)

I know what you mean about using up the archives! Your system looks very effective. I've also found that having a schedule encourages me to write in the various categories - if I know I need a world-building post for Wednesday, I have to write one!

Yes, I've noticed that too---though for me writing a blog post doesn't take much effort if I have something to write. About once a month or so I try to have a "status update" post in each of my major projects (the Shine Cycle and my strategy game), and having that post on my schedule to write (I'm trying to keep a couple of weeks ahead on my blog ...) provides significant incentive to buckle down and work on that project so I'll have something to report. Or if I'm planning on writing about some aspect of the Shine Cycle universe that I hadn't thought much about yet, that makes me sit down and do the necessary pondering. And posting a poem a week has provided the extra incentive I needed to finally get around to revising and in some cases finishing a lot of old poems that weren't presentable yet; it's hard to say whether it has anything to do with the slight increase in the number of poems I've written.

I've found some of my beta readers to be very encouraging in keeping me writing, as well as helping me stay on schedule.

Greetings and welcome, King Jon! Might I say, I enjoy your nickname immensely. Pardon me for thinking of the Disney movie with the lion that sucks its thumb...

My name's Dawn/Estar/Even/Evenstar/Star, by the way. *sprinkles glitter around* Enjoy discovering Holy Worlds!

What movie is THAT?

The animated Robin Hood.

Ha! Haven't seen that one in ages. Thanks, Jonathan.

*loves the animated "Robin Hood" *

Aye, I shall watch it verily within a fortnight! For thence thy hath saideth that hither!

Good to know I'm not the only one who would recognize that.

Are we talking the one where Robin is a fox? I loved that as a kid.

That's the one.

Hehe. *grins *