Creating Places: 2 (The Art of World Building) - Hardcover

Ellefson, Randy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1946995096 ISBN 13: 9781946995094

Publisher: Evermore Press, LLC, 2025

Synopsis

Creating a unique, immersive setting one place at a time

A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists

CREATING PLACES (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #2) is a detailed how-to guide on inventing the heart of every imaginary world - places. It includes chapters on creating planets, moons, continents, mountains, forests, deserts, bodies of water, sovereign powers, settlements, and interesting locales. Extensive, culled research on each is provided to inform your world building decisions and understand the impact on craft, story, and audience. You’ll also learn how and when to create history and maps. Experts and beginners alike will benefit from the free templates that make building worlds easier, quicker, and more fun.

Learn the difference between types of monarchies, democracies, dictatorships and more for realistic variety and believable conflict. Understand how latitude, prevailing winds, and mountains affect climate, rainfall, and what types of forests and deserts will exist in each location. Consistently calculate how long it takes to travel by horse, wagon, sailing vessels, or even dragon over different terrain types and conditions.

CREATING PLACES is the second volume in THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, the only multi-volume series of its kind. Three times the length, depth, and breadth of other guides, the series can help fantasy and science fiction creators determine how much to build and why, how to use world building in your work, and whether the effort to create places will reap rewards for you and your audience.

About this title

Review

"With CREATING PLACES, Randy Ellefson has penned a sequel to his CREATING LIFE that walks story creators through worldbuilding along an entertaining road that runs everywhere, making sure nothing is missed. Plentiful examples are provided, and a veteran worldbuilder can find just as much fun and comprehensive reminders in these pages as a novice. Some books are nice to have, and a rare few are "must haves." Like Ellefson's preceding book,CREATING PLACES is one of that rare breed: an essential reference work. Unlike most references, this one is fun to read. Not to mention a goad and spark for the imagination!" - Ed Greenwood, creator of The Forgotten Realms® and dozens of other imaginary worlds

"...It also has advice along the wayon writing that I'm sure novice writers and perhaps some established ones toocan profit from. I recommend this book as a basic reference; at worst it is areview of necessary concepts, and at best it will upgrade you from a mediocrespeculative fiction writer to a superior one." - NY Times Bestselling Author Piers Anthony

Edition details

• Publisher: Evermore Press, LLC
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1946995096
• ISBN 13: 9781946995094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 391