I’ve had a thought.
I stumbled across the book Creative Blogging: Ninja Writer’s Guide to Character Development by Marilyn Flowers and Shaunta Grimes a few weeks ago and I haven’t read it, but the blurb looks intriguing.
It mentions that an author built her world or got to know her characters by blogging about it and them. Now I haven’t read the book so I don’t know how accurate my interpretation of the blurb is, but it’s still intriguing. To post about your world and thereby build it, while still maintaining your blog.
I’ve considered this before. But it’s always felt a bit daunting. But then, I share part of my world on Instagram through mood boards and so on so this idea is not foreign to me at all. I’ve played with the idea on World Anvil as well.
World Anvil is a digital world building tool for author and RPG players. It’s a little confusing for my analog brain, but I love the scope of it. You can basically make a small website for your world on World Anvil. Kind of like a FanWiki but by yourself. Several templates are available on World Anvil and you can create your own as well. To be honest, there is so much you can do on there that it’s a little overwhelming, and I think that’s why I’ve shied away from it. But I actually love the concept of it and usually get completely lost in the world building.
Then there is the question of how much to share. You don’t want to give away your world for free. What if someone steals it? The horror! But the thing is, you need to start somewhere. I’d say it’s more secure to share valuable tidbits of your creations on your own personal blog than to just post random spoilers of it and share your whole plan/plot on a forum. And don’t we have to share some things for free in order to grow an audience? I think there’s a fine line, but I for sure think there is something in sharing aspects of your stories for people to get invested in it over time.
But what’s the point? And who cares anyways? I mean, not many read my blog. Hardly any people at all. I’m okay with that. I blog for myself and with the hope that in the future people will scroll through my posts and find things interesting. I also think there’s an audience out there for me that I just haven’t quite found yet and I want to reach out to them over time. I’m in it for the long run.
In the end the most important is to actually write the book, though. I’m sure a great blog with a vast world is intriguing and might support the marketing of your book, but if there’s not a book to actually market, then what’s the point? Nothing can or should take away from the big mission: completing the damn book.
But here’s the thing. I world build anyways. I do it for my own sake. I do it in order to write my book in the first place. So why don’t I share some of that world (spoiler free of course) with you in blog posts? I might even make it look pretty to look at (I find Canva relaxing after all.)
Considering no one actually reads my blog at the moment, I don’t know who I’m consulting with this blog post. Like most of my posts, this is my thinking on paper and reflecting on my writing journey. Maybe in five years time (2028, gasp), when there is hopefully a book to hold in my future readers’ hands, they can find this blog post and read about my plans.
Anyways, I think I might give it ago. Let’s try. It might not be anything for me. Or it might be amazing. You’ll never know if you never try.