The World Builder's Workshop

This is a forum for world building of all kinds. Bring us your fantasy settings, your Sci-Fi game worlds, your horror stories yearning to rend flesh... This community is devoted to seriously examining the work that goes into building original worlds. We provide their authors with intelligent criticism and useful resources to help in the creative process. Although anyone is welcome to read this community, we require that an application be provided and approved in order to post. This is to maintain a reasonable level of quality in the work that's being discussed and the opinions and criticisms that are offered. Should you wish to apply, see Applying for Membership below.

Here are some examples of things that may be posted here:

• Descriptions of original worlds or settings
  
• Discussions of techniques used in designing such worlds
  
• Original languages
  
• Maps and images of original worlds or settings
  
• Discussion of difficulties inherent in creating such worlds
  
• Gaming systems and other items related to worldbuilding

In addition to posting their own works, creators are welcome to provide links to resources and materials that they find particularly helpful. We do ask that if you want to put more than 1 or 2 images up, or if your images are particularly large, you put them behind a LJ Cut.

All original material posted here is obviously under its author's copyright.

The Rules

• When posting more than a paragraph or two, please put the bulk of the post in a LJ Cut and use the visible portion for a summary. That doesn't mean that if you're posting a few sentences about a new thought or question and don't put a cut in you'll get in trouble. However, if you post a small novel without a cut, you'll be asked to fix it. Use your common sense. If It's taking up more than half the screen, you probably want to cut it.
  
  
  
• No flaming, no namecalling, no cruelty and no personal attacks. While we support detailed and constructive criticism of our members' works, we do not condone direct criticisms of the members themselves. If you want to flame, take it to IM, take it to E-Mail, take it anywhere as long as it's not here. This applies to people responding to criticisms as well. If you feel a critic was attacking you personally, take it up with a moderator, don't take it to the post.
  
  
  
• Please comment on other people's works. They work hard on their pieces and come here to get input just as you do. If we all make a conscious effort to do this, it will not be necessary to implement a comments per post minimum. We'd rather not have to do that...
  
  
  
• No Plagiarism. Period.
  
  
  

  Applying for Membership

  
  Because we're serious about what we do and want the input of other serious creators, to be admitted to our community you must submit an application including one piece of writing about your current project. Before you decide to apply, please glance through our rules and make sure that you're willing to abide by them.
  
  The application will then be rated for clarity and originality by the existing members on a pass/fail basis. Members rating entries will also explain their ratings and offer reasonably detailed responses to the application piece. After anywhere from a few days to a week depending on the number of responses offered, your rating will be averaged. Should you pass, you'll be admitted as a full member. In the case of a tie, the moderator may ask for additional member responses.
  
  Should you wish to apply, write a paragraph or two telling us who you are and why you want to join our community. Then, in the same post, place your submission behind a LJ Cut. The title of the post should include the word Application and the name of your setting. Your piece should not be longer than a few pages, but otherwise it can be anything from the description of a city subdistrict to a discussion of your world's cosmology. It may include a map or drawing if you have one available, but the lack of one will not count against you, as not everyone has access to a scanner. Please edit your work for grammatical errors and use a spell checker, as part of successfully conveying the feeling of a new world is being able to write about it coherently and intelligently.