Congo Gum

Now that I’m in the process of compiling my first anime environment review I came across a little piece I wrote before I started this blog. I’ve decided to finish it and here’s the outcome.

—

In any form of work there are typically three levels of detail; too little, too much and the right amount, or in other words, the perfect medium. Now I’ve been writing fictional works since I could hold a pencil and over the years this has been the one thing I’ve tried to develop most. Others may argue and say that things such as character development or story are vital to a writings success. While this is true to an extent, putting all your eggs into one writing basket is a bad idea.

One of the best weapons in any creator’s arsenal is the viewer/readers mind. Everyone has their own thoughts and preconceptions about everything and anything. Now how does this fit into finding the right level of detail? The best way to do this would be to look at some examples and then derive at the right level of detail. For this well use the following scene, (more…)

This will be the last article in the Back to Basics series. Hopefully over the last few articles I’ve covered the basics of what many writers have to consider and given you an insight into the process of creating specific worlds in fictional writing. In this article I’m going to briefly take a look at Terrain and Weather, I might also take a look at some other things to consider. But I’ll see how things go.

Terrain

In short, Terrain considers everything to do with the lie of the land. This can range from things such as what type of land it is, what features are specific to any given area, what natural features are included and how they affect other areas. To break this down even further we can look at a few distinct sections;

Height
Soil Type
Distinctive Features

Hilly, Rough terrain with water - Howls Moving Castle

For example a certain region may have a generally flat landscape with no real major change in height, the soil might be made out of clay and there may be a river running through it. (more…)

Topography has different meanings depending on what part of the globe you are in. For example in America they take it to mean the study of contours in line with a landscapes relief. Compare that to say, Europe, where it is still concerned as the study of not only relief and vegetation but also man made features, local history and even culture. For this article we will take it the latter sense.

Moving on from there we can see topography as the study of an area as a whole. The easiest way to imagine this is say for your character or story; you want to have them go for a walk around the town. But what will they come across on their way? What is going to have to be described or drawn to seem believable? We’ll split this into two sections and take a little look into what might be included in the topography for any setting.

What buildings will this helicopter pass on its way? Appleseed

Man Made Features

History and Culture

(more…)