First, before we begin, I would like to thank KellyAnneBlount for this opportunity. I also want to thank all my followers and friends that I found and relate to on here. You guys give me so much support and I want to hug you all.

So what up, dirty spoons, it's me Reni, just another fantasy writer that likes to dabble on sinning and dead memes. As if you don't know already, I'm the author of several dark and low fantasy books, Magpie Hearts, Tales of the Braided Fox, and These Hungry Dogs. Yeah, these kind of things.

Before I even start or begin writing, I was out making designs and video editing, it's a hobby of mine when I'm bored or just tired, I just don't think I'm really made to write and looking back at my old works made me wonder what the heck was I even thinking.

But I haven't became a fantasy writer and it's a long journey of genre-hopping before I found a perfect, and satisfying outcome in my writing. I used to write a lot of science-fiction and urban fantasy, and some of them are extremely old and cringe-worthy. Even as of now, I still don't think I'm a flawless writer and unpublished quite a few books on Wattpad. Not to mention, I'm a nomad when it comes to finding a place to put my work online and I haven't found out Wattpad if it wasn't my lazy ass telling me to do so.

Fast forward 10 months, here I am with a post and my first ever Wattpad Block Party. Should I be screaming? Heck yeah, I am.

CREATIVE WORLD-BUILDING

00. LET'S START WITH THE BASICS

The first thing that a fantasy writer must always know by heart, new or experienced, must know of the term world-building. It's an essential or backbone of any fantasy books. It's more than bread and butter, or peanut and jelly on bread, or just bread. Salt and pepper, oatmeals in cookies...okay you get the point. Trying to get your readers to read your fantasy book while establishing the world is quite a daunting task. A lot of writers fall into a trap of massive info-dumping and really slows down the plot. And almost ninety percent of the time, a lot of these world-building points falls apart or doesn't even make sense. Perhaps it could lead to extra information that's unnecessary to the general plot.

While world-building is fun and you have the power to use your imagination, you ask yourself, how can you put all these information and toss it into your book without making critical errors? How can you write and world-build at the same time without the readers reading a huge block of text about the world? I may have missed a few burning questions or stuff but...yeah.

Well, the answer is easy, and with a few simple tips, you can flawlessly create an immersive reading experience for your fellow Wattpad readers.

01. INFO-DUMP IS OKAY

But wait, you just said info-dump is bad, right? Pfft, no and yes. Honestly, while info-dumping have a good purpose as to world-build but you still had to look for signs or reminders. Let's just say, your characters are heading somewhere relevant to the plot or just frolicking around mindlessly and stumbled upon a important place or object, or whatever it is, what do you do?

A normal person would avoid such info-dumping and just briefly glance it before they write the next part. A crazy person like me would info-dump, info-dump. Not enough block of text? Put more words, and more words. When I mean words and text, I mean use them expressively. You should ask yourself, how should a writer weaved these two together while it's still relevant? Ask yourself what is the character doing at the moment? Or they gazing upon an object or just interacting with another character?

Always questioned yourself before you start to dump a block of text down, and it that way you can established a clear connection to your character's actions through using background information on the setting or history.

Just remember, a lot of mistakes can come from dumping info into the first chapter, don't do that. I know there's a lot of published authors out there that did just that to established a very clear sign that this is a fantasy story but remember not a lot people can pull that off (like me). How I like to use info-dumping is basically sprinkle them here and there, just detailed snippets.

02. FOLKLORES? IN MY WORLD? IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK

Another creative way to shape your fictional world is through folklore or stories. Or I would like to say a story within a story. This is by far my favorite of all, just like info-dumping but it's the next level. This is where your creativity starts to flow. While establishing your world, there are a lot of things to handle at once, with the names, regions, etc, why not start with creating a fictional folklore or stories that your character heard or know of? You can actually have a lot of creative freedom, go wild on this.

Want to write a creation story on how particular forest or place is made? Go write it. Want to write a mythology or something similar? Go write it. Just basically have fun with the creative outlook. But just a clear reminder, make sure you are able to weave them into the story and plot without having a random fictional folklore stuck between the most random place.

If anything, MAKE IT RELEVANT. Although this is quite a challenge to have for both experienced and new writers, and as for me, I had times where I pulled out my hair and whack my head on the keyboard. I always found it easier for me when I want to write a said symbolic thing in the story and the plot. Actually put effort when writing fictional myths or folklores, I cannot stress this enough. Just like how you put effort in your writing, you should have a clear insight on how to handle a fictional story.

Express them through as if you are not telling the story but rather the characters and their interactions to do so. Let your characters become a storyteller or them having to interact with others and letting the story unfold.

03. FLASHBACKS? FLASHBACKS

Flashbacks are very important when it comes to characterization and surprise, world-building. Let me get this straight, flashbacks can be used in both ways, while telling your characters about their past, you can also sprinkle a little detail of the fictional world. Like what does the city or place looks like? How do the people live and what's the food there like? Walk your characters through the scene, be it a marketplace or a bustling harbor, and tell their story. How do they feel or see, think?

By using flashback, you are knocking both characterization and world-build at the same time. It's one of the easy but extremely effective way to showcase the world the readers. And of course, you don't have to info-dump or as I like to say, word vomit.

04. MAPS ARE GREAT

A lot of people would ignore maps or anything similar of but it's a core foundation of world-building. If you are like me, a visual person (or just don't want to write today), start with making maps. I found out putting names or places leaves me a good impression of what the world will be shaped or become.

Maps are a great place to get everything onto one place and it's fun to make actually. It's also a prime example to use for as a reference for yourself, in case you forgot anything or how to the place is called, and more. It's a simple way or backbone when it comes to creating a world, and quite frankly, maps are amazing.

Other than maps, creating a world index or pronunciation guides are great places to work with when establishing a fictional world. But it all really depends on what type of fantasy book you are writing. Some may require heavy or intensive guide, such as Lord of the Rings or Eragon. While others just need a simple guide, such as The Grisha Trilogy. Just think what fits best to your books, and always, always have fun!

05. DO YA RESEARCH!!!

You can be a writer, fantasy or not, if you don't read, read, read. Honestly, writing is like a practice or an important assignment that you forgot to do the past few weeks and it's due this midnight. Holy spoons, if this isn't me this year. It takes hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Creating a fictional world is hard, I get it, but reading other fantasy books can really help you improve, not only as a writer, but how the authors shaped their fictional world and make it breathing and alive.

Don't get discourage when readers are confused of what you are writing, just don't quit writing. Also don't get discourage when you are at a place where you are stuck in a writer's block. It's a good way to take a breather, and work your way through world-building and relax.

Writing is a fun, creative process, don't overwork yourself. Like my professor, or everyone had said before: to be a good writer, you must read, and to be a good writer, you must write.

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I may have missed a couple points but I'm open for any questions, comments - just ask me away, I will be more than happy to answer! This is has a wide range of topics to explore and fitting all in one post isn't enough. But for the majority, it covers the main points I would like to share and talk about.

Before I end this post, check out my newest book These Hungry Dogs which is a German-inspired dark fantasy. I've been a long time writer in writing Turkic-inspired fantasy and this is something a new and change for me. It has some elements from my old works and just brought to life again, with new and revised writing (I can say improved?). I'm excited to showcase this book and it means dear to me for the support when it's first published in December of last year.

Along with the new book, I am also giving away graphics or trailers to the book of your choice for three lucky winners. This giveaway is open internationally, so make sure you click the link below to enter!

I don't know how to end this so here's a gif, I guess.

★ ★ ★

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