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The other approach which I believe is expertly displayed in the works of one of my favorite authors, Joe Abercrombie (side note, his books are not appropriate for young adults so please research before sharing his titles with your youngster). Joe Abercrombie does not front load his novels with the world his novels are set in, but rather lets the narrative reveal the intricate and rich world over time. One gets the impression that the characters (and in fact in interviews Mr. Abercrombie has stated the the character Logan Nine Fingers was the origination of his series) came first and the world came up around them as he told their story.
Personally, I avoided writing fantasy for a long time because I was only really aware of Tolkien's process, a task which seemed so out of reach and amazing that I would not have any hope of attempting. To be responsible for what everything looked like, smelled like, where everything was located, what the towns were named, what the people were called...are they even people...
And then came Ms. Rowling. According to J. K. Rowling, she got the entire idea for Harry Potter while riding on a train, jotted down what she could during the ride, went home and started writing. The idea that such a rich and fantastic magical world could be derived by an idea and just sitting down and writing was compelling to me. I've always been a, just sit down and start writing, the rest will come, kind of author.
So, with an idea inspired by the filthy little German Shepherd puppy who had found her way into our lives, I just started writing and Satorium seemed to invent itself just as any character might. As the books went on, I have done a bit of more traditional world building. I had to draw a map at some point to keep things straight and I had to do a bit of day dreaming on the deeper background of some of the characters and races. For the most part though, my world building technique is one of discovery rather than actual construction. My unsatisfactory answer to the original question is, it just comes to me. If at some point it no longer does, perhaps I'll have a better answer because what Tolkien did was a lot of work and I'll be more than happy to tell you how hard it is and how I miraculously accomplished it. Until next time...Calo anor na ven
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