****I'll try to explain my process about how I come up with Maps and even Names of places/characters etc. while I do that, if you have any questions about anything not written here, or want me to go more indepth into a section ask me, and I'll try to answer as many as I can. Note I may not get to your questions immediately, that may take time given my schedule.****

This will probably be lengthy

So, you wanna create large kingdoms/continents/planets etc, or come up with names for species, places, or specific people?

Well, you've possibly come to the right place!

If you need names before you can design a place go to the name section, if you need a design before you can name go to the map section

First note that most of this stuff will probably take you days, heck maybe weeks or months. If you aren't serious about the time commitment than this will be hard to follow through.

Something I have noticed in my writing is that if I'm able to dedicate that time, I am so much more motivated to write and I have far less abandoned stories or ideas than the ideas that hardly ever get any planning done.

Im serious, you'll be more into an idea the more you think about it and work on planning it, not just the story but the people, the world, the customs, etc.

Maps

The Rough Draft

Brainstorm general ideas. None of these ideas are set in stone, just throw anything out there.

Maybe there is lots of water, lots of desert, maybe floating islands, maybe there are 5 kingdoms, or cities or towns or nations or whatever you want to call them. Maybe there are 3 or 1 or 10 who knows.

Just get some ideas out there.

Now you can either come up with the characteristic of those places or begin the rough draft of a map whatever works for you.

If you choose to draw first here are some tips.

For your first draft, maybe just create bubbles with lines connected them, and maybe color code them so you have a general idea of what will go where.

Maybe you have a kingdom named butt (i know thats a bad example bare with me) and butt has 3 really big important cities. So maybe you should color code butt and those cities so you know what is part if butt and what is not.

This draft doesn't need to be exact or look nice.

Here is an example:

If you want to lay down the characteristics of the places before you draw do that.

You can easily go online and find a bunch of world building questions to ask yourself.

Some examples could be:

1. What kind of climate do they live in
2. Any specific religions that have, holidays? Rituals?
3. How are [childern, elderly, sick/injured/disabled] treated? Viewed? For more fantasy purposes or scifi or etc [sorcerers, witches, monsters, aliens, robots, and so on]
4. What kind of food grows there?
5. What do these people value?
6. What do they do for fun?

These are some basics, here is a link to one of my favorites, it goes a bit more indepth:

https://www.wattpad.com/3596150-yuffie%27s-writing-how-to%27s-how-to-do-world-building

Want to do really indepth planning? Here is a really lengthy world building site: http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

Both of these places are great if you need a bit of guided help, BUT dont be pressured to answer everything. Hell i didn't answer everything when I created the Falling to Rise kingdoms

The Second Draft

By now you should have some idea of what is in your world and maybe even have a rough sketch of where things go. But now you need to add some detail. You need to start drawing the borders, the shape of the kingdom, lay down its size, and place down locations. Keep in mind once more you can change all of this later.

You can use any paper, but i suggest graph paper, because each grid can help you keep the sizes in mind and are good reference for distance.

For this draft get a rough size and shape, make it a blob or shapes. Anything that helps

Maybe even write out the names or temp names of the places if you have them and maybe draw out the general borders.

Now looking at the draft, it doesn't look very map like yet, right now we just have shapes. But we will fix that

Note, if you are doing this on paper then do not draw to hard. Make everything light. You should be able to erase what you write/draw with realitive ease.

Take your pencil and just draw, don't guide, don't try to purposely incorporate anything. If you want to draw a friggin loopty loop draw a loopty loop, if suddenly you want to make some sharp angles, or curves or heck no matter how random just draw it. Our land didn't form with the intention to look the way it is, so neither should your land have an intention (unless there is some reason like a god or something)

But assuming everything is random, make yours random too.

Close Ups

Look at that, it looks disgusting huh? Don't worry it will get refined.

But maybe you also noticed the lines arent all connected, that is because I'm very loose with the drawing. And don't be afraid to stray from the original plan-blob thing.

See now you need details, look at maps of the world of countries, and look at their borders and shores. Notice how they are smooth or perfect looking, unless you're weird like colorado and you are literally a box in the middle of no where (it is one of the US states if you aren't from the US)

But ignoring the weird ones like Colorado, you'll see the imperfection, that is what you want. You want something that looks natural but not too natural. Make sure you mix in enough random shapes and nice shapes. Once again DONT guide the pencil, let it do whatever (i feel like a weird life advice person) it sounds cheesy I know.

But if you have ever ridden a horse in the mountains, one thing my instructor said was not to control the horse too much, the horse has been in the mountains probably longer than you and will know how to travel up the rocks and logs better than you. They will know the better path.

Basically, unless the horse went off the trail, I didn't do shit, my horse knew how to climb the mountain.

Thats what you want to do, don't try to hard to control how the pencil moves, and don't disregard even the stupidest thoughts, if it comes to mind just do it, if yor hand wants to move a certain way just do it.

Now you're getting somewhere. It's starting to look map like.

The Third, Fourth, Fifth, and so on Draft

Now you have a general look of the place, you have some islands maybe, or some nice little countries. Hopefully you added in some borders.

But it may not be just right yet,

That is ok. 

Look at my first finished Falling to Rise Map

Now look at the new version

In my second draft I moved some of the kingdoms around, I reducethe number of islands and changed the kingdom borders.

Now one thing about the second draft I didnt like was it was way too bumpy

In the digital version I modified that and reduced the number of curves making the shape more simple. You can do the same too.

And whether you arr doing it digitally or traditionally, yoy should aim to keep things color coded so you know what it what. Or give certain things certain shapes.

Triangles can be mountains, or stars represent capitals and so forth.

Just experiment and try what works for you and don't be afraid to go only and search how to do something.

Names

Ask Yourself

First ask yourself what genre of writing or whatever you are doing. Once you have decided that it will be a bit easier to come up with names.

Next decide are they on earth or not, this will help eliminate or add names you can use.

Next decide do any earth made religions exist on that world, now if you ask why to this, then it is because some names on earth are names that exist due to religion. And if that religion doesn't exist in your world then those names probably don't either.

So now you've taken care of some important questions.

Note this can work for both original/fanfic stories. Though I recognize a lot of fanfic characters have earth style names, you can fit that into your story, ignore the questions above, or modify the names of the fanfic people. Whatever you think will work

As a fanfic writer I know that Max or Jerome or Jess aren't very fantasy like names. That's ok. You can keep the names as they are and make the oc characters have names that fit the story or modify the original names.

Here is an example of what I did in a short story im working on

Max=Maximilius

Jerome=Jeru

Jess=Aphmau (her youtube name is pretty fantasy like to me)

Get creative. If you really struggle with coming up woth names that fit what you are doing read some books that are similar, watch some movies, go online and find some name generators.

Here is one of the name generators I use, it is more fantasy geared, but it may help: http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com

If some of those names don't work for you, mix and match, combine them, or modify the spelling. You can take an ordinary name and make it different.

Example:

Alice, an ordinary name can become Aliss

Or.

Mary can become Mar, or Mari. The pronounciactions of names may not even stay the same. Just get creative, but keep the names simole enough to pronounce. If you struggle or a friand or family struggels to peonounce what you have made it may need to be modified

Another great tip is make some sort of word doc, google doc, onenote, etc just for names.

I have an entire page of fantasy names I have come up with and I alphabetized it so I can easily find names.

Some examples include Zenith, Bohdor, Chex, Lutgardis. Vandri, Femi, Estus, Islaena, and so on. You can find inspiration for names anywhere, or maybe you noticed a name that you like from a book or comic, no harm in putting it down for future reference and inspiration.

You can take normal earth words and make them special. 

Crow can become Crowe, very simple you see.

Utensil can be changed into Uten or Tesili. Its is ok if you have to take out letters or even rearrange them.

Note, most of this is probably fantasy geared since I am a fantasy writer, but that doesnt mean you can modify what I do to make horror, or scifi or other genre names.

Deciding if a name works for you

Now coming up with possible names is hard enough, but choosing the name that fits may be even harder.

Maybe by now you have a small list forming (i really suggest making a document where you can put all possible names in, it really helps when you are stuck) but how do you decide what name fits your character or is the perfect name for a kingdom or species?

Well let me give some examples of how i do this.

Note the decision is geared towards the stuff you create. If you write fanfiction, a lot of character or even place names may be easily decided for you. But what about the stuff you make. Throwing in your ocs that you use in every story may be nice, but sometimes may need to spice things up a bit.

Im currently working on an original story and two of the characters are princes, (oh god cat, another kingdom related story). Since they are princes they need names that sound prince like. Now what prince like is is all up to you, for me Rudy or Tim dont have that sort of princy feel.

So anything that doesnt fit what your character is you can eliminate. Keep the names though for future use

Next look  at the personalities of the character, unless there is some sort of irony going on if your character is super peppy, give them a pn upbeat name.

One of the characters in my story is a blind prince, his name is Alaneo, his younger brother is not blind. His name is Beluar, however Alaneo calls his brother Chex. (Chex is his middle name) chex has a more playful tone to it while Beluar seems very proper and princy.

Just mess around with name combinations and sound them out yourself. This process may take many days or weeks. But the more you practice, it used to take me ages, but its gotten a bit easier for me  now.

But what about place names? What about them? It is the same with character names, think about the characteristics if that kingdom.

Lets takes one of my kingdoms from Falling to Rise, Duhita.

Duhita is a kindgom that prides itself on its festivals, the people there are very patriotic, and value strength and honor. The most important activities are dancing and fighting, there are huge festivals just for those acts.

Now to me atleast, Duhita has that sort of festival like feel to it, it sounds like a strong name. Maybe not to you, but the point is to find the name that fits to you.

Another example is Vragan, the main reason Vragan is called Vragan is because of the Dragon that lives in the mountains. Simple.

Now what about the names of species? Again, what about them? Its the same as before.

Now I don't create many species, but I'm working on it, but the one I did create are the Morvics.

I based the word morvic off of another word, here is the word and definition below.

Anthromorphism: Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities

Now I could have called them Morphics, but I lke asethetics and if you ask me, Morphic looks a bit ugly, so I replaced the ph with a letter that makes a similar sound, v.

If you ask why ai didnt call them hybrids like every other writer, it is because hybrid implies a mix of two or more species. Which is exactly what morvics are not.

Morvics are 100% not human and don't have any human in them, but they do have human characteristics. They can walk on two legs, they have oppsable thumbs, their brains are just as strong, but they arent human, which is why they arent called hybrids.

Coming up with names isnt easy, but you can do it, give yourself time and look online for help or at everyday words or objects.

If you have Any questins, ask me, i may be able to help. I hope this helps a little bit! :D

Also feel free to suggest what I can talk about next.

Note because I focus on my books more I will not frequently update this. This will be more come and go, and I also may not get to your suggestion either. It will be more about if I feel like it.