Now that I’m feeling better, I can put this put. It’s a neat image that I found on Pinterest. The website gives you a timeline on Food, where specific food began, and the start recipes with certain food items. This is a great tool if, like me, gets obsessed over learning if people ate ice-cream during a certain period of time or not.
It’s been a bit hectic this last few day. I went on a mini vacation and my connection to the internet wasn’t that great. Hence, the delay in posting. It also didn’t help that my flights kept getting moved around because of the weather. Needless to say, it was a long week.
For today, here’s a post I found on pinterest concerning court positions.
Instead of a writing prompt, today I want to share something that I wrote. It’s a story that I created a long time ago but it has only recently made any progress. Somewhere online, that I don’t remember now, I read that oneself isn’t a bad writer. It just so happens that your current skills aren’t enough to realize the image/ ideas that you have in your head. This resonated a lot with me. That’s why, I’m proud to share what I have written.
A light rainy mist began to fall against the stained-glass window as Lydia stood motionless in the headmistress’s office. The soft rain kissed the window portraying the first wave of the heaven stars falling from the sky. Lydia could feel the warmth from the fire burning in the hearth to her right against her body. The warmth had seeped into her clothes, relaxing her muscles and spreading a small drowsy spell upon the trainee. But despite the warmth and the laziness of the day, Lydia remained in her posture; hands straight down her sides, back straight and eyes looking forward.
The headmistress shuffled around a few parchment sheets upon her large oak desk. Her head dress was titled slightly back exposing white blonde hair. Upon entering the room half an hour ago, Lydia had noticed the dark circles underneath the usually cheerful brown eyes. On further inspection, Lydia could faintly see all the flaws in the headmistress’ attire; the wrinkles and the once beautiful shade of beige had turned into a light yellow.
“You graduate in six months.”
“Yes ma’am,” Lydia answered, tightening her stance.
She waited for a few minutes hoping the headmistress would keep talking. However, the silence continued.
“If I may,” Lydia began. “Why exactly have you summoned me?”
“Do know about the town of Loukussa?”
“It’s a mining town,” Lydia supplied. “They located near the Artican Mountains. It’s not very prosperous at the moment because of the lack of use for Kravite.”
“A heaven star fell near Loukussa a few moons ago,” the headmistress explained. “The Northern Order sent in their warriors and they were successful.”
Lydia frowned but kept her silence.
“However, activity has been reported near that area and Gylaw fears his followers are starting to think of him as incompetent. Due to this, Gylaw has called in a favor.” The Headmistress placed the parchment sheets on her desk. “The Northern warriors’ faces are known, and we want to keep this a discreet as possible. If you return from your mission successfully then consider yourself a Jeweled Knight.”
“Thank you for the opportunity, ma’am,” Lydia said. “I won’t fail.”
“You are to report tomorrow at the east gate. Further instructions about your mission will be provided then.”
“I understand.”
I believe that no matter what type of story you write, there’s going to be lore involved. The story/world that you create is going to have history. I don’t mean history of how you came up with the idea. I mean, history as in the world and everyone in that world is going to have a past.
Lore is one of the last things I think about through the creative process. Typically, I tend to dream up of a certain type of character and try to place them in all types of settings until I find one that they fit in. I don’t think about the lore until much later. It usually comes into fruition all on its own.
As the story develops, the ‘truth’ of the world starts to unravel bit by bit. I find it easier to let the lore develop on its own. If I need something to be held true like a kingdom invaded a thousand years ago or something along those lines then, I just have that happen.
The way I tend to create the lore is by starting out with general concepts. I look at the big picture like a major event. After I have some of that figure out, I look closer at the details. I mentioned an invading army before. With looking at the details, I figure out why the army invaded, what was the cause, who invaded who, etc.
Personally, I think having an overall concept of what you like the lore to be is a good place to start. There’s nothing concrete and the details/concepts can be molded to whatever it needs to be for the story.
At times, when I set something in stone before the story, I find it difficult to incorporate it into the story. For some reason, my brain is stuck in that little box I created before and I end up stressing myself. It’s good to have some flexibility when writing lore and everything else. Sometimes, inspiration strikes when you least expect it.
In most of the stories that I write, I tend to have a group or organization of sorts. It’s typically a group the characters meet or join, or are a part of a group at the start. Regardless, there’s a group.
This also means that this group has to have a structure. They rules and regulations and leaders and chain of command. You get the picture. When I create a organization for whatever story, I like to start at the bottom. I’m going to use an organization for a story I worked on a while back. The story has stayed in my drawer for a long time but I do revisit it sometimes.
So, at the bottom I have the trainees. They are the new people, the new hires so to speak. They still need to go through training, hence the name.
Next, up the ladder are the recruits. These are the guys who have already completed their training. The training period is six months. If they can last for six months, they are recruits. While the naming of this part of the ladder could use a change, for now, they’re known as the recruits.
Above the recruits, you have the junior members. These guys have been in the organization for at least 2 to 3 years. They have seniority and most errands fall on them. They are the ones who help train the recruits.
Then, I have the Senior Members and the Instructors all on the same tier. Sometimes, these people are senior members and instructors. The Senior Members are responsible for training the junior members, and recruits. The instructors train the trainees and sometimes the recruits.
We have the Lieutenant next. This person is like the second in command. He gives out all the orders. He reports directly to the Captain.
The Captain is at the top of the tier for this organization. The title is self explanatory. This person is the boss. All orders come from him. He doesn’t interact with the trainees, recruits or the junior members. Most of his time is occupied with reports and making sure supplies are going to where and who they need to go to. Below is the diagram I made.
Now, this is a very simply. Plus, this also a branch of a larger structure. The Captain answers to the region commander who then answers to the territory commander, etc. Any organization can be expanded with higher or lower tiers. However, I like to keep it small to start out with because otherwise, it gets confusing and.
Not only that but there are times when I don’t even need to know who is above the Captain. When the story calls for it then I’ll go ahead and develop it. Sure, it’s nice to have everything figure out but that can be a pit fall. I find that it doesn’t allow much for flexibility. However, every writer is different. What might work for others might not work for you.
Lastly, I think the hardest part of creating an organization is finding an appropriate name for this organization. There are a lot of generators out there that can help out. Or perhaps the name is already set in stone. For this organization specifically, I don’t really have a name for. The story this is from hasn’t developed quite well enough that not having a name will be a problem.
Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Kassandra.
Dabbling in the Art of Writing 