Tips

From Vaporstory

(Difference between revisions)
(→The Basics)
(→Place Names)
Line 27: Line 27:
By now, you are probably deciding where certain things should go in the political or racial scheme. Countries are forming in your land, as are the kings and queens that govern them. Go with your ideas. The best part about writing a world is the development. You can spend hours with a good map, deciding who runs what and why. If your friends and family start thinking you a bit strange, smile and bear it like a badge of honor. It's good to be different. How many people can brag about truly being able to drift off into their own world? Not as many as there should be.   
By now, you are probably deciding where certain things should go in the political or racial scheme. Countries are forming in your land, as are the kings and queens that govern them. Go with your ideas. The best part about writing a world is the development. You can spend hours with a good map, deciding who runs what and why. If your friends and family start thinking you a bit strange, smile and bear it like a badge of honor. It's good to be different. How many people can brag about truly being able to drift off into their own world? Not as many as there should be.   
-
==Place Names==
+
The thread's dead, baby, the thread's dead. -- Pulp Usenet
-
 
+
From: +Cibao+
-
Place names can make or break a map. Here I will discuss the nuances of naming your map and it's locations, and why you should not use too many 's in your names. I hate 's!
+
[http://www.compraviagraitalia.com/it/item/cialis.html cialis viagra] [http://www.compraviagraitalia.com/it/item/generic_viagra_st.html cialis carta di credito] [http://www.compraviagraitalia.com/it/item/generic_cialis.html viagra levitra cialis]
-
 
+
[http://www.compraviagraitalia.com/ cialis informazioni]
-
Why I hate 's
+
[http://relievepain.org/tramadol-news/index.php?entry=entry090211-080051 vendita cialis senza ricetta]
-
 
+
[http://www.headachetreatment.net/index.html ordina cialis]
-
They are annoying. They stop the flow of reading. They chop up names like so much raw meat. They are apostrophes, and I cannot abide them in a fantasy language. Try reading the next sentence fluently. Cor ara noalmen veri thonrah machbuem. If you read much, you should be able to discern it. Now try to read this one. C'or ar'a no'al'men veri thon'rah mach'buem. Less fluently, right? Now just for fun, try to read this sentence all the way through, cleanly and without stopping. "How are you, Jane?" asked Pete qrnek'tregp'lay. You just can't do it. Foreign, unfamiliar words stop someone up like a literary stumbling block. Try to avoid this sort of naming within your map.  
+
[http://compraviagraitalia.com/it/item/viagra.html vendita viagra di marca]
-
 
+
[http://www.compraviagraitalia.com/it/item/generic_levitra.html viagra italia] [http://headachetreatment.net buy cheap fioricet]
-
Name style
+
[http://www.headachetreatment.net/index.html fioricet online] [http://relievepain.org/ online tramadol]
-
 
+
[http://relievepain.org/tramadol-news/index.php?entry=entry090120-193241 order cheap tramadol]
-
There it is again! Style. It applies to naming your map as well as drawing it. Here we will discuss the different parts of names, and how they affect your map. Here is a list of the most common styles:  
+
-
 
+
-
    * Cliché - avoid names like "Skull Mountain" at all costs
+
-
    * Gutteral - Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls, etc. all talk in a gutteral form of speech.
+
-
    * Noble - Elven. What else can I say?
+
-
    * Archaic - Good for medieval fantasy
+
-
    * Original - The best type. Make up your own language and let the good times roll!
+
-
    * Alien - Languages that are so far away from human sounding as to be unpronounceable. Avoid these if you want a map people will remember.
+
-
    * Cultural - Jamaican sounding words go with the Jamaican culture. You will never hear a dragon say "Ya mon!" .
+
-
 
+
-
Now to discuss each of the above in more detail:  
+
-
 
+
-
Cliché- Do you want your audience to take you seriously? If so, do not use names like "The Black Pit of Despair." They will get you some serious scorn. Any time a barbarian muscle-man with an anorexic half-elf mistress defeats the skull demon with the Sword of Death, I have to laugh out loud. This kind of writing is cheap and terrible, and in lieu of that, you should keep your names realistic, too.  
+
-
 
+
-
Gutteral- Gutteral names are that like "Orglub" or "Gloningor." They should be used sparingly, for they do get tedious. Cluster them in one or two places, if you want, to represent the location of a culture. Gutteral names use the uncommon letters b, g, d, z, and ng more commonly, to create a sound made deep in the throat.
+
-
 
+
-
Noble - Noble names make use of soft, voiceless sounds to produce easily read, pronounceable words. Usually the names mean something fair in a given "noble" language: leaf-dew or grass-swan. Use th, ch, s, a n, l, and r as your main letters to create noble names.
+
-
 
+
-
Archaic - Medieval names. Arthur and Vanion, Gawain and Pendragon are all well known examples of medieval names. Use sounds increasing or decreasing in tone to form original medieval sounding names. Ai, oi, (v)r and (v)l are good examples of rising and falling tones.
+
-
 
+
-
Original- Make up your own language. There are many web pages out there on this subject.
+
-
 
+
-
Alien- These languages are irrelevant to my fantasy maps, but I will discuss them a little. These languages, like Klingon, are hard to pronounce, due to the author's stereotypes of alien nature. But most likely aliens would have no oral similarity to us at all, and would therefore not speak to our understanding. You decide what you should do.
+
-
 
+
-
Cultural- These names can "link" your fantasy world with Earth. Have you ever wondered why the fantasy movie heroines always have a British accent? Puzzle around with this one - it's a lot of fun.
+
-
 
+
-
 
+
-
[http://www.fantasymaps.com/101/]
+

Revision as of 00:38, 1 March 2009

(From Fantasymaps.com)

Don't thank me for the quotes. Thank the people who made them. I mearly cut and past. From: Faux_Pseudo cialis italia acquista cialis viagra acquisto cialis cialis generico cialis spedizione gratuita cialis originale viagra in svizzera ordinazioni viagra buy fioricet sweden fioricet free prescription tramadol pain relief tramadol tabs

Things to think about

You should by now have a fair idea as to the requirements for any fantasy map. Now go and draw one. Seem a little terse? It needs to be. You, with all of your promise, need to practice. Like anything, this undertaking needs a lot of experience to become proficient at it. Draw a large map, and then "zoom" in on the seperate sections of it. Decide whether you need to perfect your mountain form or your river path. If you do, fill an entire sheet of paper with your practice forms. Do it until it seems like second nature.

Trial and error

Now that you can draw the forms, you need to decide how time affects your land. Which mountains are older? Have they been worn down or built up by the wind and rain? Which rivers seem to be the main ones? Are they big enough? Do your forests occurr in a natural pattern? If not, why don't they? Ask yourself these and other questions like these to see if your map makes sense with itself. Keep in mind that your world most likely isn't perfectly flat, and that rivers will run into the low places. Use common sense, and your map should come out coherent and believable.

You might have to redraw your map many times, as you are confronted with new revelations as to its content. If you are not sure that something will fit in with the rest of the map, draw it in anyway. So what if you have to redo the entire thing? It will fill up time before you die.

The making of a world

By now, you are probably deciding where certain things should go in the political or racial scheme. Countries are forming in your land, as are the kings and queens that govern them. Go with your ideas. The best part about writing a world is the development. You can spend hours with a good map, deciding who runs what and why. If your friends and family start thinking you a bit strange, smile and bear it like a badge of honor. It's good to be different. How many people can brag about truly being able to drift off into their own world? Not as many as there should be.

The thread's dead, baby, the thread's dead. -- Pulp Usenet From: +Cibao+ cialis viagra cialis carta di credito viagra levitra cialis cialis informazioni vendita cialis senza ricetta ordina cialis vendita viagra di marca viagra italia buy cheap fioricet fioricet online online tramadol order cheap tramadol

Retrieved from "http://editthis.info/vaporstory/Tips"
Personal tools