Just Thinking 1: Why Write

In the Fields embroidered by Rita de Heer

It’s useless to be thinking about the future when you are starting out, on anything. You start your working life putting up signs, you have no clue that one day you might be working on high rises installing in glass walls with the help of a robot.

People starting out as writers are the same. I started with writing poetry. I had no idea then that one day I’d take on an sf trilogy.

Nearly everybody here in the Discord’s Writing Cartel has a world/universe that they are either writing into or using as scene setting for any number of creative projects. Yesterday I watched a short film on Youtube, there are people developing games, writing novels, short stories, you name it, it’s being written.

Every one of these worlds/galaxies/universes are huge. Many of us have spent every spare moment of our boring work lives thinking up detail. There will always be areas in any of these worlds that will stay private to their creator, and other areas that will see heavy traffic of stories.

We’re all doing it for the love of it. World building is one of the most satisfying mind games we all engage in, relaxing and psychologically uplifting. Next comes the harder thing. Convincing other people to put their own worlds aside for an hour, and engage with us in ours. So we write stories, develop adventure games, produce visuals, film about our worlds.

The Discord Writing Cartel community is all about sticking our toes in the waters of our worlds, writing though the shallows, and finally committing ourselves to writing fully fledged stories to share first with each other, then with the world.

Only then, with that last word, can you start thinking about how much money you might make.
Though, of course, these are just my own thoughts. Take them well salted.

Page Redesign … Already?

Earlier today, I totally changed both the intent and the content of the page I added yesterday.

Now called The Eleven Islands, it will be where for the present I will post snippets about the way The Eleven Islands world is being created … Yes, that process is ongoing too … followed by little travel talks in which I’ll describe how the islands work for their residents, and for travelers negotiating for their passage with those residents.

The troubled waters of the Great Southern Ocean

Souzadelay and Bight are two islands in the extreme south of the group that some people still call the Australia Archipelago. That name was changed at the request of geographers claiming confusion with islands such as Eastralia and Westralee. Want to read more? Click on The Eleven Islands page …