#thisistheendasweknowit

Well, that's a wrap folks. It's been an absolutely fantastic semester. Okay, alright, not the best semester simply due to work-load wise and the terrifying summer internship hunt. However, this class has been honestly one of the best I have taken at Duke so far, and most definitely the most creative. I have enjoyed this class immensely and it has really provided me with a whole new perspective to view popular culture. Plus, I got to revisit my childhood.

This particular project has been great. I think I was a bit too ambitious on my part to actually build my own story world. I did enjoy it, but I had other work that constantly got in the way, and creativity is hard! There are a lot of other things within my story world I wish I had the chance to expand more on. Of course, hopefully this is not the end of it, I do want to write it into an actual story at some point, but as you can see, a lot of this semester has been world-building vs. plot-building and a story is no good without a good plot! It's the main difference between reading a novel and a history/geography book. Once I have a more specific plot rolling, I think I will actually have the ability to start writing, with enough luck and a good choice of classes, I may even be able to participate in NaNoWriMo next year.

All in all, it's been absolutely fantastic to really come up with strange ideas to make up my storyworld. I had the most fun thinking up the characters' backstories, and yes, I may have gone a bit overboard with the fire-breathing cows--it was fun alright. Moving forward, whether on tumblr or not, I do want to continue bringing in more characters and locations. I really enjoyed coming up with A, B, and C as well as cities 1, 2, and 3, but obviously an empire can't be an empire with just three and three. There are so many more characters I can create and so many more weird locations, not all of them appearing in the story of course. We don't want a Game of Thrones type of chaos, but it would be great to have characters there who will be useful when I need a helper in making a plot possible.

Speaking of plot, since I spent more of the time world-building, the plot itself lacks a full outline. I also need to figure out a way to have it build so that the exciting part isn't just when they are all in the Labyrinth, the story should be constantly interesting--I just need to find the necessary obstacles for the characters to face. I am thinking about them potentially quelling a rebellion, but I feel that the concept may be a bit overused, and I would love to throw them on a weird adventure, but they do have an actual goal in mind so it will have to be along those ends. Perhaps solving an assassination? Problem with that is that it would work better with smaller groups and would be a story with itself. Ideally it would be something that is a small part of the whole plot rather than a complete side story, which makes it very difficult.

Plot aside, I think it would also be interesting to talk a bit about the traditions and customs in different parts of the empire and the political structure. I had one post in mind where I was actually going to assign a trio of specific colors to each city/region and talk about how those colors related to city's perspective/outlook. Unfortunately, I set that aside as I thought it would be better to take the time to bring more characters into the storyworld. Another thing I regret missing out on is providing more drawings of the storyworld. I am not the best drawer, but it would have been great to have sketches of port city 3, fire-breathing cows, areas of the Labyrinth, and maybe even A herself. If I have time in between cramming for finals, I'll try to get some out.

One last thing, I do not have names for the characters and places. It's because I tend to be very picky about them and it usually takes me a few hours to pick even one name. Yes, I know, I'm weird, but I feel constantly bothered until I have the "perfect" name. And I don't think I can find that exactly "perfect" name until I have the rest of the plot and the storyworld nailed down. The one name I do have figured out is the name of the royal family itself i.e. Veltre. Names that start with the letter V are cool. Moving on, I do want to figure out names for the people/places/and things (oh yess, other weird animals aside from fire-breathing cows yesss), but I think it is a rather minor detail in the grand scheme of things. Names give the bestowed a sense of reality, but I don't think the elements in my storyworld are quite ready for actual names yet. Well, this is officially the end of my storyworlds project for, at least, this semester. I do want to keep working on it, so do keep an eye on my tumblr for potential updates over winter break. It's be great creating this weird adventure, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it and laughed at all the silliness. Absolutely fantastic semester, I only wish I had more time.

End scene. Roll credits.