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Brandon Sanderson teaches Fantasy Writing and Worldbuilding

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

If you regularly read The Worldbuilding School then you’ll know that I’m a big Brandon Sanderson fan. Especially his view points on worldbuilding and writing. So to find two of his lectures published on Youtube is too great an opportunity to miss sharing, even if they are 4 years old. The reason I’m a fan is […]

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Brandon Sanderson, writing

Mass Effect: Bending Your Own Rule Is Ok – BUT DON’T BREAK IT!

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

Mass Effect: Bending Your Own Rule Is Ok – BUT DON’T BREAK IT!

The recent magic articles on Sanderson’s First and Second law has brought up a number of interesting discussions about internal-consistency and learning how to bend the rules we have created as writers without losing the trust or acceptance of our readers. When you bend your own rules in an acceptable way cool things can happen […]

Filed Under: 7 Skills, Featured, News, Science, Tutorials Tagged With: Mass Effect, narrative cohesion, scifi, story, writing

Sanderson’s Second Law Of Magic – The Power Of Limitations.

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

Sanderson’s Second Law Of Magic – The Power Of Limitations.

This article follows on from the article “Have You Mastered The First Law Of Magic?” Sanderson’s Second Law Of Magic “Limitations > Powers” Brandon Sanderson, 2011 Essentially this law is saying that adding limitations to your magic system are what will make it both interesting and memorable in your readers mind. They force your characters […]

Filed Under: 7 Skills, Science Tagged With: Brandon Sanderson, magic, writing

Introducing The Authors Guide To Drawing Maps

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

Introducing The Authors Guide To Drawing Maps

This is a quick article to introduce The Authors Guide To Drawing Maps. The guide currently features 4 of the tutorials on drawing maps that can be found on The World Building School, however they are all presented on a single page so it’s now even easier to follow the tutorials and draw your own […]

Filed Under: 7 Skills, Cartography, Featured, Tutorials Tagged With: author, drawing, maps, tutorial, writing

Quidditch To Be Made An Olympic Sport?

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

Quidditch To Be Made An Olympic Sport?

Quidditch should be made an Olympic Sport. As we all know Harry Potter is the biggest story franchise of all time. However what you may not know is that the famous wizard sport is also fastly becoming a popular sport for muggles. Come Rio 2016 it would be amazing to see such a new sport […]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Harry Potter, Olympics, Quidditch, sport, writing

How To Weather The Storm Of Prevailing Winds and Oceanic Currents

by Nathan 'Vancano' Smith

How To Weather The Storm Of Prevailing Winds and Oceanic Currents

The worlds weather is driven by both the Earth’s rotation and the seasonal variation in solar energy that each hemisphere absorbs. However patterns do form in the weather and they will play an important role for your civilisations, characters lives and the stories you write. So the next step in building your world is to […]

Filed Under: 7 Skills, Cartography Tagged With: meteorology, ocean, wind, writing

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About Vancano Smith

Vancano is the founder of The Worldbuilding School. It's his goal to make worldbuilding easier for the many people who build their own imaginary world - whether it's for fun or profit. As part of this goal he uses his skills in Cartography to draw maps. Read More…

Coming Soon!

This is where I hint at the projects, articles and reviews I’m working on:

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  • World Anvil Review
  • Dawn of Worlds Review
  • Triangle of Worldbuilding

 

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