I just learned to use Onenote in training for my new management position and I said “this is basically Scrivener!” and nobody knew what I was talking about.
I love Scrivener. I use it for all sorts of things including my story bibles, but also lists of stories I am interested in, various TH-cam series I am watching for sims challenges and notes on what each one does or doesn’t do that I like for doing the challenge myself eventually (this also contains all of my notes for a save I am building). I even have one that is a travel version of my genealogical brick walls since I don’t own a laptop (technically I do, but that’s just because I haven’t disposed of it seeing as the battery will not charge and it’s old enough it has Vista on it) and I do own an iPad that has Scrivener on it.
@@StoryGirl83- ooh, how do you find writing on an ipad? I have a laptop but i really hate how slow and bloated windows has become and the constant updates and reboots so have been loathe to even switch it on for the past year...
@@nagillim7915 It depends. Scrivener itself works really well on the iPad. I can type okay on the iPad as is, but in the past I’ve had a keyboard case for my iPad and I absolutely loved that thing. Using it it was really easy to type and if I was in a situation where that wasn’t as viable an option, I could just use the regular on screen keyboard. In general though Scrivener on iPad does most of the things Scrivener on desktops does and any features it doesn’t have (keywords for example) can transfer back and forth without issue if you also use a desktop or laptop version. And when on Scrivener for iPad certain features, such as moving your cursor are made even easier than they are normally on an iPad since you have actual buttons on the Scrivener built in keyboard, if you use that rather than a physical one, so you can tap the screen in the right place or you can backup without deleting by using the keys, whichever works best for you. I have taken my iPad with Scrivener and my Ipad without Scrivener with me for camping and other vacations where I could not get to my desktop for half of the month of July while doing Camp NaNoWriMo with a normal goal of 50,000 words and it was much easier when I did have Scrivener for getting things in there, counting words and such. Microsoft bloat is a mess. I have a program on my computer that forces Microsoft to wait to restart after an update until I tell it to. My computer doesn’t like this, but without it I would not be able to deal with the stupidity of Microsoft’s update system.
I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Shaelin is an absolute genius. The intricacy of this alternative world is almost more than my mind can take!
This is so invaluable. I don’t write fantasy, but the way you connect threads and ideas to societal structure to how they will be presented in the novel via character pov is so universal. This gave me so much to think about. Thank you!
This task is #1 on my bucket list. Everything since high school is in notebooks and folders in an old steamer trunk. Thanks for the super helpful and clear outline on Notes.
I use Scrivener for my worldbuilding. I have family trees, character interviews, timelines, information about locations, powers characters might have, and more. I have not attempted to make any maps yet, but I could put them in there if I wanted. The character profiles sometimes include images that capture the general look of the character in question. In the main one I am currently writing the general layout of the story bible section (it also contains the actual stories themselves which I can look at in a split screen with my notes if I need to) is the following: - Entities - Characters (includes character interviews, family trees, various groups) - Objects & Artifacts - Newsworthy (which is where timelines and historical events are) - Framework - The World (this is were both geographical stuff and powers go among other things) - Society - Glossary (includes terms I need to keep definitions consistent on as well as spellings that might get mangled) It’s a lot more detailed than that and not everything is filled out, but when I have the info I have a spot for it. ------------ For a sandbox world I am building, I am currently using Campfire, the offline one, Pro, I think. I don’t think it’s still available. I don’t know if I like it very much, but I have found a way to use it that works for me and since I bought it, I figure I should at least try to use it. I will say character profiles on there look amazing. The tools are useful. I just don’t know how to utilize them well. Right now I am mostly using it to collect info and catalogue that info. I did set up a project for a series I am working on so I could see how different tools work and it looks descent. I don’t see me getting the current version since it’s online only (so far as I understand, I haven’t looked very closely) and I dislike things that require the internet to access my writing. Doesn’t mean I won’t use them just that they aren’t my first choice.
@@gingersnap5245 Scrivener is a one time payment. I payed $20 (half off as it is usually $40) in December 2012 and haven’t paid since. The version I have is no longer updated, but I don’t have to buy the new one unless I want to. If you lose access to scrivener you just go to the scrivener folder and everything is accessible from there. It might take a bit to find what you are looking for due to the file names, but everything can be read as text or image files, so it’s all accessible via other apps.
I'm making a similar worldbuilding bible in Notion, which I absolutely love. since I'm also making one big world to set several stories in, I was having trouble organizing story info VS general worldbuilding, but I love how you've set things up! I think I'll do something similar in my own project. awesome video!
I never thought of One Note for worldbuilding but it makes sense; especially because they have an app. I'm learning Notion so I can transfer my writing projects from Scrivener because it does not have an app. It makes a difference. We creators get ideas sporadically and having portable writing software is a necessity.
Another really great planning note software is Obsidian. It shares alot of the note aspects like indepth folder systems with onenote but it has community modding as a key feature. However! It is a bit less approachable than one note.
I definitely second Obsidian - it looks really intimidating at first but luckily markdown is very easy to get a hang of and is used in other websites and programs for formatting text. The community mods are part of what always leads me back to Obsidian once my projects become to complex for Notion.
I really, really like your layouts. Been attempting today to get OneNote to do it like that, but it hasn't been cooperating. 9:40 Fun fact: there are different types of monarchies, seeing as different families will have preferences for *how* they rule.
I’ve used OneNote for years for Curriculum planning. This past year, I’ve not been able to keep Sections alphabetized. The pages alphabetize fine on my iPad Pro. I think the OneNote desktop Windows version is the best. I hate that😂 because I enjoy my iPad.😊
I have this book where I manually write everything down. I even draw maps. All my fiction work, although unrelated, take place in the same universe so that huge notebook helps me keep track of everything. All the names of the characters and their date of births and everything in between. I dread switching to digital “world building”.
You could scan the pages you’ve already made so you have a backup. You could use a software like Notability, One Note, or Good Notes 6. (Scrivener doesn’t handle a ton of images well so I don’t recommend it for storing heaps of those.)
Adding on - a lot of phones (I know iPhones can do this) can scan documents directly in the notes app, so you can then copy the text into a word processor instead of having to transcribe anything or work from photo scans! Super super helpful if you have a ton of text to scan and want it to be editable.
This looks great! I’m not doing high fantasy but I am building a speculative world where I am setting various stories in, so something like this would be very helpful for me.
I've been starting to flesh out the world bible for my hard SF setting, so this video is very timely! I was hoping you'd cover this topic at some point.
I think the best representation of a closed system story line is the tv show Lost. I can easily see how each character, location, and motivation would be laid out in a "story bible" for that particular show. Thanks for the channel, I got some good advice from a few of the videos.
I use OneNote religously for my RPG games to keep a 'bible' of People (NPC's and PC's) Places, and Things (monsters, items, tech and/or Magic). Then a section to keep brief notes on game sessions for recaps and as a timeline.
Non-fiction is all I've written pretty much but now trying my hand at a fantasy epic fairy tale thingamajig, so this is just what the doctor ordered. Very helpful even just the broad categories.
Completely off topic but you and Lil Simsie have IDENTICAL voices (or at least that’s how they sound to me specifically) it’s very interesting to me! I also use OneNote religiously at this point so thank you for this vid!!
Absolutely crazy I have been using onenote for years for business and never thought about using it as a resource for worldmill building or fiction writing in general. Awesome post and thanks 😊
I love this soooo much. Examples are so helpful for me. I’m definitely taking notes to implement this system for my world building as well. Thank you for sharing! Your organization is excellent as well.
In my experience there are two main types of tools for world building: Blank sheets (which include tools like Obsidian, One Note, as well as manila folders and paper notebooks), and tools that prompt common world building activities (think World Anvil). Some tools (like Scrivener) can fall between one type and the other, so the main question to me is how much do you want the tool to "prompt" you to conduct such activities. I think just about anyone can benefit from having experienced working with Word Anvil, because the constant prompting can elicit a stream of creative action. For those who already have a clear idea they are trying to document, the Blank sheet type of tool is suitable, it just puts more onus on the author to construct their own organizational systems.
This reminds me of the worldbuilding method I use, called the Worldbuilding Leviathan! Lots of writing websites and blogs have resources on it for anyone who’s interested. This sounds like a very straightforward method Shaelin and I look forward to hearing more :)
A friend and I impulsively decided to step away from a RIFTS game I was at the time, volunteered to run. And we, this friend and I started instead developing what was supposed to be a one shot kinda joke dungeon if my memory of the original concept is accurate. Well I very quickly learned we have a very different approach to developing dungeons, because I'd been shown how alive and engrossing a dungeon had the potential to be if it was built with the world it was going to be set in in mind from its beginnings of designing. We'll that was over a year ago, now there is millenia plus of history myths, concepts, and just onion style layers of details, with returning focus always coming back to this starting seed of a dungeon. While I would love to gush about the specifics of the details all I can say really is its leaning into its randomness of numerous setting aspects while still touching on trope-esque points like a world that reached a higher level of advancement than earth has yet, engineered on its own universe collectively then fell supposedly to its own ignorance and hubris leaving them with alegendary unreal forgottenpast and they're back in medieval times in nearly every way. Anyhow... even more recently I picked up some spots on it to develop stories in its mythological era or so I'm calling it, as its so far back in the world's past and your video here reminded my my world building bible is barely started and sitting at my feet right now. Basically nagging to be further fleshed out to hopefully give my future players a deeper level of persisting on the world they might be playing on. Which is compounded, by its distant and much older sister world's... and their worldbuilding bibles. Over the years I've made something like two dozen (27) other worlds with equally as rich and elaborate details and lore, like a world that mixed Dune, Fallout, D20's Urban Arcana and Dresden Files while leaning more into Constantine than Dresden... or the world that basically turned Pirates of The Carribean and Water World, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Mon Kalla Empire and Empire of Gungans out of Star Wars, into a world all its own of course throwing in something akin to Warcraft and Warhammer Classic. And without forgetting my two pet projects that were entirely original as much as I could fit into each world without forcing it of course... I've rambled too much about this but after talking about it, it quotient be protest to not thank you for the rekindled inspiration so.. Thank you for this video, I'm pretty sure this made me want to revive and revise while I write up the world guides for the settings I've talked about here. Thank you again. To no end.
i find cool, that you give personal insights to your world! i have seen someone else not doing that, i dont know, but i like that you give personal insights in this video!!!
I like this world building guide, especially how you listed planetary system. Not only do certain planets/ objects in your solar system affect each other gravitationally, but you can if you so choose you have the locations/alignments, composition/properties (maybe magical properties of other bodies) of different planets and moons affect the magic system in your world in vastly different ways. Multiple moons around someone’s world can affect lycantrophy for instance if thats a thing. Onenote is great for this, but i tend to go in too deep and lose myself in designing it.
Idk if you know of Campfire, but I'd reccommend it. There is a free version, but most likely with as massive a world as you have it would not be enough for you. However, you can pick and choose which parts you pay for. It has a modular system so if you need a lot of sections in religion, for example, and go over the amount you get for free then you can pay for that section alone and keep using the ones you don't use as much for free. Even all together though, the total for everything is only $14 a month I believe, which isn't a whole lot, but its super customizable which I love.
If you are still researching closed systems, i recommend the wool trilogy. I wont spoil anything but it is very much "i cant even imagine what a river is" and all about making due with the resources they already have. Including scarcity of paper and how they reuse it
Thanks for making this video, it was so fun to see how you worldbuild! OneNote really seems to work for you too. I have one fantasy world & one sci-fi world that I build & keep track of in Obsidian which I love especially for its bidirectional linking feature (and it has a mobile app as well) - apart from that my notes look really similar to yours.
I'm making my own Worldbuilding Bible. Where I'm collecting ideas, and thinking about where I want to take things. I realized something as I made the continents. My characters will probably never see these other continents, maybe one(a nearby one), but that's way later. So I started thinking about how can I bring life from these other lands, and show what sort of people they are based on a few characters. Maybe knights worldwide started gathering on this continent for a specific quest, however, knights from this order/land wear a particular set of armor that makes them prone to insults. Maybe a specific set of clerics and priestesses go on pilgrimages to the land of the gods(being the city you're in/they're passing by). Thieves running from their hometown as they're wanted men. Veteran soldiers returning from the front lines. Lots to say and do. The only show I can think of where they traveled everywhere was Avatar the Last Airbender, but even then they didn't visit every Earth kingdom or Fire Nation village. They focused on getting to a big city, and random encounters along the way. Then again their quest requires traveling, I gotta figure out a quest that requires a lot of travel(like Lord of the Rings). The point is, the only important places are the villages, towns, and cities the characters are going to run into. You can railroad these locations in terms of "*swamp is out of the way of everything* Oh they need to pass through this poison swamp(which has a really cool encounter), how tragic, *changes map so the swamp is in the way/a quest pushes them into the out of the way swamp*"
with the Realms bit I noticed that some of the parts are subsections of others in the world building system: { Gov: - friends - foes - Neighbors - Kingdom/City Structure Faith: - Desc. [possible to link if file is near same for many other notes] Social: - Culture {History here cause culture is intertwined with history} - Clans {class structure [cause aristocrats and priests aren't the only ones with class], and a base of operations [they got to have a place to congregate and plan]} Resource [anything exported or made within region] Climate: - Geography - Flora and Fauna - Food [cause animals and flora and fauna] Reference [source of the wells of creative thought] } this is just a thought, have fun world-building! Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!
I just recently picked up Obsidian for my note taking, as it solves some pain points I had with other note taking apps. And learned some stuff from the tutorials there. And although I think you should use the tool that works best for you, there where some questions and thoughts popping up while watching this video. So one major issue I have is the folder structure thing in general. Like in your Religion example, sometimes Information can go into one place or another and folders force us to make a decision on that. And depending on the perspective, what ever decision you made feels like the wrong one. In some cases you need a placeholder in one place that links to the other place (like you did), but that also means you are one additional click away from the information. Back when I started using Evernote I loved the idea of using Tags instead, as a note can have several tags you can navigate through your notes using them instead of folders. So that specific note on a religion would have the tags #Religion, #RegionA and #RegionC and show up when I filter my notes by either one of them. Now with Obsidian linking notes together and using properties and dataviews allow me to go even further: When I write a character profile I can provide links to regions religions, other characters and so on, hover over the links to get a preview of their notes without opening them or even include their entire notes when appropriate. And I can add tables or list based on queries going trhough all of my notes that list all characters that live within a specific city, are part of a certain political faction within my world or other stuff I provided some kind of metadata for. I really enjoy the benefits from this so far, but on the other hand you obviously have to provide and set up and maintain all this meta data, and sometimes the way you organize the meta data might change and break things. Like when you decide you want to use a broader term instead of religion (because sometimes there is no god but a philosophy that defines the values of certain people) or want to be more specific (sub-cultures within a culture), you might have to go through all the notes and might have to adjust them (especially when search and replace isn't an option because you have to make a decision). Also stuff might evolve throughout the story. Characters may start of as rivals in story A and story B, each taking the perspective of one of the cahracter, before they finally realize they should band together in story C to achieve their common goal that they always had without knowing. That is some stuff that isn't reflected well in static metadata and always needs some description. So how do you (plan to) deal with the stuff listed above? Or is this not an issue for you? As a side note, I am a little confusied about the characters folder below the story. I think it should either be a top level folder or a subfolder of general just like the name bank (especially if they are unsued characters). Why did you decide to place it there? EDIT: Another thing I forgot to add: When you talked about Sea Spire you mentioned the need to do some additional research. I personally like to have the research notes also within the same notebook as the world, just sitting in a separate section. So I can easily refere to the research material within the notebook without swiching apps.
I shelve the character folders within the story folders because the different stories have different casts of characters, so having one general folder for characters doesn't really make sense. My research folders will also go in the respective story folders that they belong to. The above issues you mentioned aren't issues for me, but that's why everyone sets up their worldbuilding bible differently - this is what makes sense for me and the information I have.
@@ShaelinWrites Thanks for your reply. I agree: The best way to organize stuff is the way that works for you individually when you need it. Exchanging ideas about it might just inspire some changes, maybe some of them might become relevant much later - or never. And the benefit of any digital notetaking is, that is comprarativly easy to reorganize when necessary.
So far I do everything by hand. I created my world threw art. I draw then come up with names, Where they are located and any background or history for it. Yes it is harder to do and don't recommend doing that way but my computer is fried so don't really have a choice. However World Anvil is good and when I get a new computer I will be using that. But I still feel more comfortable drawing by hand. So getting my art on to my new computer and on to world Anvil I will have to figure out.
Thank you for this video. I've been thinking about what to use when working on worldwide. I really like OneNote, so it's good to see it in action. Now I need to find out there's a way to meant sure that my data is mine, which I think that this does that but I want to be certain.
Thanks for this video... I am someone who likes the organization of worldbuilding for stories but I struggled doing it in Word, and I didn't care for some of the other dedicated and subscription apps out there. I don't know if onenote wll be the answer for me, but it seems like a good idea and should at the very least get me started (I have been dreading and putting off my world building) because I didn't have a way I wanted to organize it. Thanks for this suggestion!
this is an interesting idea, but i can't really read anything you show, so it's kind of hard to understand exactly how you formatted all of this. Might have been a better idea to use either a setting already released, or a familiar one like LOTOR so we could see everything. or perhaps as a tutorial on how to make this using an existing setting
Control F its a keyboard shortcut on windows to alow u to find any word type a word into the new searchbar and their be a number 1/xx and arrows to pass through every time a word pops up in a document use that to find and replace if a tool lacks it
I never knew you could create dropdowns like that! I feel so dumb XD Thanks, this has really helped me with organizing my work. Now I must reorganize for my D&D and other stories!
I just realised two things well three things, the first is that I'm either crazy or a genius, the second is that I still don't understand how I'm creating such a complex world and now I've realised that I have too much information compared to all the writers I've been searching on TH-cam for help, and the third is One Note? Having Notion or Obsidian? why? Well that's all, love u.
Thanks for sharing this! I think my brain is wired for this kind of organization and I've only been jotting on a notebook with pseudo bookmarks on another app, but I think this way my brain can work with this much better.
I love the thought of world building and I do most of it in my mind. I've tried putting it in an application before but I keep losing track and getting bored of the process. Somehow putting too much details on paper, whether digital or physical, also makes me less interested in the stories. Like I'm still exploring the world itself while writing the story and if I know too much going into it, I'm bored and it all just comes crashing down
My worldbuilding bible consists of a map I drew by my own hands, a spreadsheet containing a timeline of events and bloodlines of different families, and document holding the POVs of different characters even if said pov's are included in the books. It's just a way to get to know my side characters better, get to know the entire world better.
Love your explanation on how to organize everything! I was really curious about the resource spreadsheet at 13:10 for Seaspire. How did you come up with this list of resources? I'm working on a world where that level of resource management plays a huge part, but I have been having trouble coming up with a cohesive list for *all* the possible raw materials a society would have access to. Would love your input, thanks!
This was brilliantly done. Thanks for this info. I have a question though. I don't know too much about One Note so want to ask. Is there an export option? I know authors aren't too big on giving things away plotwise and such but there's people out there who do love world building, fantasy cartography, etc. So I'm trying to find the best way to design something online that features "some" of these designs as a type of interactive element. How good is One Notes at exporting what is written down? I really like how you organized everything. It would be neat to see something like this online so people could access what we want to share as a tease to the worlds we create in our minds.
Organizing manga series looks THE SAME! I have been thinking: people need a go-to guide for organizing the writing! (I dont feel like making a video like this)
Can I do something similar with Google keep? I prefer to keep my stuff consolidated to Google for ease of access and sharing ability. Haven't tried keep yet, but seems similar.
I'm interested in doing worldbuilding for... partially for fun but also for maybe a future short story series or something. Any tips for map making like programs? Because I don't plan on doing anything right away (if ever) with these plans I don't want to spend money on it right away at least. I also have the artistic talent of a nat.
The free version of Inkarnate is pretty good!! I used it for years before getting the paid version and if you're just starting out and have no artistic talent it's super easy!
Pro tip: If you give a character name or place name written down to 5 different people and get 3 or more different pronunciations back, it's a bad name
Hey I was wondering, speaking of worldbuilding, could you gi over Steven Erikson's (Malazan Book of the Fallen) writing guides? He has some great articles he'd written about crafting world and characters.
It appears you are using an iPad or some type of IOS. Can you please tell my how to alphabetize Sections, please? I’m currently setting pieces and parts of a Memoire and refuse to purchase any book writing apps until I’m at a point where I’m ready to publish.
Omg I can’t believe I found your channel again. I used to watch your videos when I think you and Emma were friends and just starting off. I was also in your beta group. Did you ever complete that book or publish anything that I can buy? I tried searching for your books but couldn’t find anything under your name 🥰❤️
Omg you were here for my most awkward era lmaooo. I ended up shelving that book and doing a huge genre switch and moving away from fantasy for a long time, but the novel that will *hopefully* be my debut is currently on sub! I do have a bunch of published short stories though and a lot of them are free to read! They're all in my description/linktree
@@ShaelinWrites yea I saw your short stories but was looking for a novel. I’m so proud of you! ❤️ glad you never gave up on your passion. I’ll be subscribing so I won’t miss the launch of your debut 😄
Writer to writer: what if the world, or setting, if you will, is in the real world? What I mean is I created more or less a large city in the real world (our earth), maybe even marked as blank land on a map, but not just "anyone" can go there. Know what I mean? Like a town humanity may have heard of but can't go to because of reasons beyond mankind's comprehension. How would I make the map for that small area? Just get a map of the earth and sum up where it would be by country, then go deeper into the state to plant the world? Or slap it over some body of water to make an island
I've just downloaded this - such a silly question, but how do you get the full app to be in dark mode? I can only get the notes section to have a dark background by clicking the "view" button then the little moon. Not having any luck with the left side (where the dropdown menus are) thus far...!
These were the automatic settings for me, but I think if you go preferences > general there's a 'turn off/on dark mode' setting that changed it for me!
Honestly I had not heard of Obsidian until people started talking about it on this video! I see why Notion would be the preference for a lot of people, but it was more than I needed for this project, so I went with the simpler option just to bypass the Notion learning curve (since I wanted to get started right away and had never used Notion before). This has worked great for me, but ultimately the purpose of this video was to show the structure/system, and I think the specific tool you use is just personal preference.
They are very similar, yes. OneNote is just more visual and in some regards more customisable. I personally stopped using Onenote because of how complicated I made it. Evernote is just easier for me to stay focused.😊
I just learned to use Onenote in training for my new management position and I said “this is basically Scrivener!” and nobody knew what I was talking about.
It's more Evernote or Joplin (which I use).
I love Scrivener. I use it for all sorts of things including my story bibles, but also lists of stories I am interested in, various TH-cam series I am watching for sims challenges and notes on what each one does or doesn’t do that I like for doing the challenge myself eventually (this also contains all of my notes for a save I am building). I even have one that is a travel version of my genealogical brick walls since I don’t own a laptop (technically I do, but that’s just because I haven’t disposed of it seeing as the battery will not charge and it’s old enough it has Vista on it) and I do own an iPad that has Scrivener on it.
@@StoryGirl83- ooh, how do you find writing on an ipad?
I have a laptop but i really hate how slow and bloated windows has become and the constant updates and reboots so have been loathe to even switch it on for the past year...
@@nagillim7915 It depends. Scrivener itself works really well on the iPad. I can type okay on the iPad as is, but in the past I’ve had a keyboard case for my iPad and I absolutely loved that thing. Using it it was really easy to type and if I was in a situation where that wasn’t as viable an option, I could just use the regular on screen keyboard. In general though Scrivener on iPad does most of the things Scrivener on desktops does and any features it doesn’t have (keywords for example) can transfer back and forth without issue if you also use a desktop or laptop version. And when on Scrivener for iPad certain features, such as moving your cursor are made even easier than they are normally on an iPad since you have actual buttons on the Scrivener built in keyboard, if you use that rather than a physical one, so you can tap the screen in the right place or you can backup without deleting by using the keys, whichever works best for you.
I have taken my iPad with Scrivener and my Ipad without Scrivener with me for camping and other vacations where I could not get to my desktop for half of the month of July while doing Camp NaNoWriMo with a normal goal of 50,000 words and it was much easier when I did have Scrivener for getting things in there, counting words and such.
Microsoft bloat is a mess. I have a program on my computer that forces Microsoft to wait to restart after an update until I tell it to. My computer doesn’t like this, but without it I would not be able to deal with the stupidity of Microsoft’s update system.
@@nagillim7915I also use an iPad to write. I have a Bluetooth keyboard for it and it works very well for me ☺️
"I'm somone who takes notes on my phone while I'm out of the house, on the go... about to fall asleep-" is the most relatable sentence ever
Are you following me around? Lol
I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Shaelin is an absolute genius. The intricacy of this alternative world is almost more than my mind can take!
Hehe thank you so much!!
This is so invaluable. I don’t write fantasy, but the way you connect threads and ideas to societal structure to how they will be presented in the novel via character pov is so universal. This gave me so much to think about. Thank you!
This task is #1 on my bucket list. Everything since high school is in notebooks and folders in an old steamer trunk. Thanks for the super helpful and clear outline on Notes.
I use Scrivener for my worldbuilding. I have family trees, character interviews, timelines, information about locations, powers characters might have, and more. I have not attempted to make any maps yet, but I could put them in there if I wanted. The character profiles sometimes include images that capture the general look of the character in question.
In the main one I am currently writing the general layout of the story bible section (it also contains the actual stories themselves which I can look at in a split screen with my notes if I need to) is the following:
- Entities
- Characters (includes character interviews, family trees, various groups)
- Objects & Artifacts
- Newsworthy (which is where timelines and historical events are)
- Framework
- The World (this is were both geographical stuff and powers go among other things)
- Society
- Glossary (includes terms I need to keep definitions consistent on as well as spellings that might get mangled)
It’s a lot more detailed than that and not everything is filled out, but when I have the info I have a spot for it.
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For a sandbox world I am building, I am currently using Campfire, the offline one, Pro, I think. I don’t think it’s still available. I don’t know if I like it very much, but I have found a way to use it that works for me and since I bought it, I figure I should at least try to use it. I will say character profiles on there look amazing. The tools are useful. I just don’t know how to utilize them well. Right now I am mostly using it to collect info and catalogue that info. I did set up a project for a series I am working on so I could see how different tools work and it looks descent. I don’t see me getting the current version since it’s online only (so far as I understand, I haven’t looked very closely) and I dislike things that require the internet to access my writing. Doesn’t mean I won’t use them just that they aren’t my first choice.
Bro that sounded so awesome so I decided to get that app but it’s 25 DOLLARS?!?!?!
What happens if you stop paying for Scrivner? Do you lose all your work?
@@gingersnap5245 Scrivener is a one time payment. I payed $20 (half off as it is usually $40) in December 2012 and haven’t paid since. The version I have is no longer updated, but I don’t have to buy the new one unless I want to.
If you lose access to scrivener you just go to the scrivener folder and everything is accessible from there. It might take a bit to find what you are looking for due to the file names, but everything can be read as text or image files, so it’s all accessible via other apps.
I'm making a similar worldbuilding bible in Notion, which I absolutely love. since I'm also making one big world to set several stories in, I was having trouble organizing story info VS general worldbuilding, but I love how you've set things up! I think I'll do something similar in my own project. awesome video!
hope it works out for you!!
I never thought of One Note for worldbuilding but it makes sense; especially because they have an app. I'm learning Notion so I can transfer my writing projects from Scrivener because it does not have an app. It makes a difference. We creators get ideas sporadically and having portable writing software is a necessity.
Glad that more people are finally using this app. I've always thought it is amazing for worldbuilding
Another really great planning note software is Obsidian. It shares alot of the note aspects like indepth folder systems with onenote but it has community modding as a key feature.
However! It is a bit less approachable than one note.
I definitely second Obsidian - it looks really intimidating at first but luckily markdown is very easy to get a hang of and is used in other websites and programs for formatting text. The community mods are part of what always leads me back to Obsidian once my projects become to complex for Notion.
@@elffkinnie ima tripple that. obsidian is amazing. using it for that purpose currently
I love Obsidian! There is a third party plug in to create timelines as well.
I really, really like your layouts. Been attempting today to get OneNote to do it like that, but it hasn't been cooperating.
9:40 Fun fact: there are different types of monarchies, seeing as different families will have preferences for *how* they rule.
I’ve used OneNote for years for Curriculum planning. This past year, I’ve not been able to keep Sections alphabetized. The pages alphabetize fine on my iPad Pro. I think the OneNote desktop Windows version is the best. I hate that😂 because I enjoy my iPad.😊
_hums with excitement for these stories_
as the writer, sameeee
Worldbuilding with Shaelin is back!
and here to stay!
I have this book where I manually write everything down. I even draw maps. All my fiction work, although unrelated, take place in the same universe so that huge notebook helps me keep track of everything. All the names of the characters and their date of births and everything in between. I dread switching to digital “world building”.
You could scan the pages you’ve already made so you have a backup. You could use a software like Notability, One Note, or Good Notes 6. (Scrivener doesn’t handle a ton of images well so I don’t recommend it for storing heaps of those.)
@@kokoro_flow this is an excellent idea. Thanks. I’ll do so. 🙏🏼
Adding on - a lot of phones (I know iPhones can do this) can scan documents directly in the notes app, so you can then copy the text into a word processor instead of having to transcribe anything or work from photo scans! Super super helpful if you have a ton of text to scan and want it to be editable.
I'm writing a futuristic world that has a mesh of steampunk, cyberpunk, atomic punk, and solar punk.
This looks great! I’m not doing high fantasy but I am building a speculative world where I am setting various stories in, so something like this would be very helpful for me.
I've been starting to flesh out the world bible for my hard SF setting, so this video is very timely! I was hoping you'd cover this topic at some point.
I think the best representation of a closed system story line is the tv show Lost. I can easily see how each character, location, and motivation would be laid out in a "story bible" for that particular show. Thanks for the channel, I got some good advice from a few of the videos.
I use OneNote religously for my RPG games to keep a 'bible' of People (NPC's and PC's) Places, and Things (monsters, items, tech and/or Magic). Then a section to keep brief notes on game sessions for recaps and as a timeline.
Non-fiction is all I've written pretty much but now trying my hand at a fantasy epic fairy tale thingamajig, so this is just what the doctor ordered. Very helpful even just the broad categories.
I love how this is structured!
Completely off topic but you and Lil Simsie have IDENTICAL voices (or at least that’s how they sound to me specifically) it’s very interesting to me! I also use OneNote religiously at this point so thank you for this vid!!
Wow this is so true lol
Absolutely crazy I have been using onenote for years for business and never thought about using it as a resource for worldmill building or fiction writing in general. Awesome post and thanks 😊
Oh I am so busy right now, but I am so jacked to get to watch this one!
Have you considered Obsidian? Seems like it could actually fit better for this purpose
Main issue is that Obsidian is more convoluted to have a cloud save for (unless you pay for cloud)
yeah true, but if you use git it can be even more safe. Can be hard to configure on mobile though@@looplooplooplooploop
I love this soooo much. Examples are so helpful for me. I’m definitely taking notes to implement this system for my world building as well. Thank you for sharing! Your organization is excellent as well.
I'm literally writing a fantasy book right now and i desperately needed this video so Thank you 💘
I'll keep this in mind. I just started to digitize my different world building projects, so ill keep this in mind
In my experience there are two main types of tools for world building: Blank sheets (which include tools like Obsidian, One Note, as well as manila folders and paper notebooks), and tools that prompt common world building activities (think World Anvil). Some tools (like Scrivener) can fall between one type and the other, so the main question to me is how much do you want the tool to "prompt" you to conduct such activities. I think just about anyone can benefit from having experienced working with Word Anvil, because the constant prompting can elicit a stream of creative action. For those who already have a clear idea they are trying to document, the Blank sheet type of tool is suitable, it just puts more onus on the author to construct their own organizational systems.
This reminds me of the worldbuilding method I use, called the Worldbuilding Leviathan! Lots of writing websites and blogs have resources on it for anyone who’s interested. This sounds like a very straightforward method Shaelin and I look forward to hearing more :)
A friend and I impulsively decided to step away from a RIFTS game I was at the time, volunteered to run. And we, this friend and I started instead developing what was supposed to be a one shot kinda joke dungeon if my memory of the original concept is accurate. Well I very quickly learned we have a very different approach to developing dungeons, because I'd been shown how alive and engrossing a dungeon had the potential to be if it was built with the world it was going to be set in in mind from its beginnings of designing. We'll that was over a year ago, now there is millenia plus of history myths, concepts, and just onion style layers of details, with returning focus always coming back to this starting seed of a dungeon. While I would love to gush about the specifics of the details all I can say really is its leaning into its randomness of numerous setting aspects while still touching on trope-esque points like a world that reached a higher level of advancement than earth has yet, engineered on its own universe collectively then fell supposedly to its own ignorance and hubris leaving them with alegendary unreal forgottenpast and they're back in medieval times in nearly every way.
Anyhow... even more recently I picked up some spots on it to develop stories in its mythological era or so I'm calling it, as its so far back in the world's past and your video here reminded my my world building bible is barely started and sitting at my feet right now. Basically nagging to be further fleshed out to hopefully give my future players a deeper level of persisting on the world they might be playing on. Which is compounded, by its distant and much older sister world's... and their worldbuilding bibles.
Over the years I've made something like two dozen (27) other worlds with equally as rich and elaborate details and lore, like a world that mixed Dune, Fallout, D20's Urban Arcana and Dresden Files while leaning more into Constantine than Dresden... or the world that basically turned Pirates of The Carribean and Water World, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Mon Kalla Empire and Empire of Gungans out of Star Wars, into a world all its own of course throwing in something akin to Warcraft and Warhammer Classic. And without forgetting my two pet projects that were entirely original as much as I could fit into each world without forcing it of course... I've rambled too much about this but after talking about it, it quotient be protest to not thank you for the rekindled inspiration so.. Thank you for this video, I'm pretty sure this made me want to revive and revise while I write up the world guides for the settings I've talked about here. Thank you again. To no end.
i find cool, that you give personal insights to your world! i have seen someone else not doing that, i dont know, but i like that you give personal insights in this video!!!
I like this world building guide, especially how you listed planetary system. Not only do certain planets/ objects in your solar system affect each other gravitationally, but you can if you so choose you have the locations/alignments, composition/properties (maybe magical properties of other bodies) of different planets and moons affect the magic system in your world in vastly different ways. Multiple moons around someone’s world can affect lycantrophy for instance if thats a thing. Onenote is great for this, but i tend to go in too deep and lose myself in designing it.
Idk if you know of Campfire, but I'd reccommend it. There is a free version, but most likely with as massive a world as you have it would not be enough for you. However, you can pick and choose which parts you pay for. It has a modular system so if you need a lot of sections in religion, for example, and go over the amount you get for free then you can pay for that section alone and keep using the ones you don't use as much for free. Even all together though, the total for everything is only $14 a month I believe, which isn't a whole lot, but its super customizable which I love.
If you are still researching closed systems, i recommend the wool trilogy. I wont spoil anything but it is very much "i cant even imagine what a river is" and all about making due with the resources they already have. Including scarcity of paper and how they reuse it
Ohhh this is a great recommendation thank you!
Thanks for making this video, it was so fun to see how you worldbuild! OneNote really seems to work for you too. I have one fantasy world & one sci-fi world that I build & keep track of in Obsidian which I love especially for its bidirectional linking feature (and it has a mobile app as well) - apart from that my notes look really similar to yours.
Excellent video! I'm going to impliment this method immediately. Thanks!
I'm making my own Worldbuilding Bible. Where I'm collecting ideas, and thinking about where I want to take things.
I realized something as I made the continents. My characters will probably never see these other continents, maybe one(a nearby one), but that's way later. So I started thinking about how can I bring life from these other lands, and show what sort of people they are based on a few characters.
Maybe knights worldwide started gathering on this continent for a specific quest, however, knights from this order/land wear a particular set of armor that makes them prone to insults. Maybe a specific set of clerics and priestesses go on pilgrimages to the land of the gods(being the city you're in/they're passing by). Thieves running from their hometown as they're wanted men. Veteran soldiers returning from the front lines. Lots to say and do.
The only show I can think of where they traveled everywhere was Avatar the Last Airbender, but even then they didn't visit every Earth kingdom or Fire Nation village. They focused on getting to a big city, and random encounters along the way. Then again their quest requires traveling, I gotta figure out a quest that requires a lot of travel(like Lord of the Rings). The point is, the only important places are the villages, towns, and cities the characters are going to run into. You can railroad these locations in terms of "*swamp is out of the way of everything* Oh they need to pass through this poison swamp(which has a really cool encounter), how tragic, *changes map so the swamp is in the way/a quest pushes them into the out of the way swamp*"
with the Realms bit I noticed that some of the parts are subsections of others in the world building system: {
Gov:
- friends
- foes
- Neighbors
- Kingdom/City Structure
Faith:
- Desc. [possible to link if file is near same for many other notes]
Social:
- Culture {History here cause culture is intertwined with history}
- Clans {class structure [cause aristocrats and priests aren't the only ones with class], and a base of operations [they got to have a place to congregate and plan]}
Resource [anything exported or made within region]
Climate:
- Geography
- Flora and Fauna
- Food [cause animals and flora and fauna]
Reference [source of the wells of creative thought]
}
this is just a thought, have fun world-building!
Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!
Thank you, Shaelin. ☺️
This looks great! I'm considering World Anvil for continuing my notes.
My worldbuilding bible is a collection of notes in my Evernote. I do not have it super super organized. I feel like I should 😅So this is inspiring me
I just recently picked up Obsidian for my note taking, as it solves some pain points I had with other note taking apps. And learned some stuff from the tutorials there. And although I think you should use the tool that works best for you, there where some questions and thoughts popping up while watching this video.
So one major issue I have is the folder structure thing in general. Like in your Religion example, sometimes Information can go into one place or another and folders force us to make a decision on that. And depending on the perspective, what ever decision you made feels like the wrong one. In some cases you need a placeholder in one place that links to the other place (like you did), but that also means you are one additional click away from the information.
Back when I started using Evernote I loved the idea of using Tags instead, as a note can have several tags you can navigate through your notes using them instead of folders. So that specific note on a religion would have the tags #Religion, #RegionA and #RegionC and show up when I filter my notes by either one of them.
Now with Obsidian linking notes together and using properties and dataviews allow me to go even further: When I write a character profile I can provide links to regions religions, other characters and so on, hover over the links to get a preview of their notes without opening them or even include their entire notes when appropriate. And I can add tables or list based on queries going trhough all of my notes that list all characters that live within a specific city, are part of a certain political faction within my world or other stuff I provided some kind of metadata for.
I really enjoy the benefits from this so far, but on the other hand you obviously have to provide and set up and maintain all this meta data, and sometimes the way you organize the meta data might change and break things. Like when you decide you want to use a broader term instead of religion (because sometimes there is no god but a philosophy that defines the values of certain people) or want to be more specific (sub-cultures within a culture), you might have to go through all the notes and might have to adjust them (especially when search and replace isn't an option because you have to make a decision).
Also stuff might evolve throughout the story. Characters may start of as rivals in story A and story B, each taking the perspective of one of the cahracter, before they finally realize they should band together in story C to achieve their common goal that they always had without knowing. That is some stuff that isn't reflected well in static metadata and always needs some description.
So how do you (plan to) deal with the stuff listed above? Or is this not an issue for you?
As a side note, I am a little confusied about the characters folder below the story. I think it should either be a top level folder or a subfolder of general just like the name bank (especially if they are unsued characters). Why did you decide to place it there?
EDIT: Another thing I forgot to add: When you talked about Sea Spire you mentioned the need to do some additional research. I personally like to have the research notes also within the same notebook as the world, just sitting in a separate section. So I can easily refere to the research material within the notebook without swiching apps.
I shelve the character folders within the story folders because the different stories have different casts of characters, so having one general folder for characters doesn't really make sense. My research folders will also go in the respective story folders that they belong to. The above issues you mentioned aren't issues for me, but that's why everyone sets up their worldbuilding bible differently - this is what makes sense for me and the information I have.
@@ShaelinWrites Thanks for your reply. I agree: The best way to organize stuff is the way that works for you individually when you need it. Exchanging ideas about it might just inspire some changes, maybe some of them might become relevant much later - or never.
And the benefit of any digital notetaking is, that is comprarativly easy to reorganize when necessary.
I related so much to the making notes on your phone...inspiration comes at the most inconvenient times haha!
Great video! A lot of useful and helpful information!
So far I do everything by hand.
I created my world threw art.
I draw then come up with names,
Where they are located and any background or history for it.
Yes it is harder to do and don't recommend doing that way but my computer is fried so don't really have a choice.
However World Anvil is good and when I get a new computer I will be using that.
But I still feel more comfortable drawing by hand. So getting my art on to my new computer and on to world Anvil I will have to figure out.
Thank you for this video. I've been thinking about what to use when working on worldwide. I really like OneNote, so it's good to see it in action. Now I need to find out there's a way to meant sure that my data is mine, which I think that this does that but I want to be certain.
I'm a very visual person and if something is hidden away behind tabs it just doesn't exist. Miro was a life changer for me
Thanks for this video... I am someone who likes the organization of worldbuilding for stories but I struggled doing it in Word, and I didn't care for some of the other dedicated and subscription apps out there. I don't know if onenote wll be the answer for me, but it seems like a good idea and should at the very least get me started (I have been dreading and putting off my world building) because I didn't have a way I wanted to organize it. Thanks for this suggestion!
If you don't fancy onenote, obsidian is great as well. I prefer it
really cool organisational system and the world itself is very unique. I'm so curious to see what stories will be created in it in the future!
this is an interesting idea, but i can't really read anything you show, so it's kind of hard to understand exactly how you formatted all of this. Might have been a better idea to use either a setting already released, or a familiar one like LOTOR so we could see everything. or perhaps as a tutorial on how to make this using an existing setting
I use OneNote for my Worldbuilding as well!! Started using OneNote for it in probably 2018? Maybe early 2019.
I use Scrivener for the writing.
I’ve been playing around in World Anvil and so far so good
Control F its a keyboard shortcut on windows to alow u to find any word type a word into the new searchbar and their be a number 1/xx and arrows to pass through every time a word pops up in a document use that to find and replace if a tool lacks it
With Onenote, Ctrl F searches a page while Ctrl E searches the whole book
Hi,
Just wondering if you have tried to use Obsidian for this?
There you can also get a sort of what is connected to what overview of it all :)
You have a pretty organized layout there.
Your videos just spark 🔥me to start work on my own novel in my native language. But after 5 minutes it cools down. 🥶
I can't believe it! you made my life so much better with this single video, thank you Shaelin! You earned my sub that's for sure!
The resources list its amazing ♥
I never knew you could create dropdowns like that! I feel so dumb XD
Thanks, this has really helped me with organizing my work. Now I must reorganize for my D&D and other stories!
Haha, I also use onenote to jot down ideas and write my novels😂 the funny thing is I came here from doing just that😂😂
I just realised two things well three things, the first is that I'm either crazy or a genius, the second is that I still don't understand how I'm creating such a complex world and now I've realised that I have too much information compared to all the writers I've been searching on TH-cam for help, and the third is One Note? Having Notion or Obsidian? why? Well that's all, love u.
Thanks for sharing this! I think my brain is wired for this kind of organization and I've only been jotting on a notebook with pseudo bookmarks on another app, but I think this way my brain can work with this much better.
u can use notion, it worked when i started my campaing
I love the thought of world building and I do most of it in my mind. I've tried putting it in an application before but I keep losing track and getting bored of the process. Somehow putting too much details on paper, whether digital or physical, also makes me less interested in the stories. Like I'm still exploring the world itself while writing the story and if I know too much going into it, I'm bored and it all just comes crashing down
I'm so late but this was so helpful for me!
My worldbuilding bible consists of a map I drew by my own hands, a spreadsheet containing a timeline of events and bloodlines of different families, and document holding the POVs of different characters even if said pov's are included in the books. It's just a way to get to know my side characters better, get to know the entire world better.
This is done so well its inspiring.
Love your explanation on how to organize everything! I was really curious about the resource spreadsheet at 13:10 for Seaspire. How did you come up with this list of resources? I'm working on a world where that level of resource management plays a huge part, but I have been having trouble coming up with a cohesive list for *all* the possible raw materials a society would have access to. Would love your input, thanks!
Cool video. Just a quick technical question for OneNote. How do you generate the dropdowns in the Section and Page columns? Thanks.
This was brilliantly done. Thanks for this info. I have a question though. I don't know too much about One Note so want to ask. Is there an export option? I know authors aren't too big on giving things away plotwise and such but there's people out there who do love world building, fantasy cartography, etc. So I'm trying to find the best way to design something online that features "some" of these designs as a type of interactive element. How good is One Notes at exporting what is written down? I really like how you organized everything. It would be neat to see something like this online so people could access what we want to share as a tease to the worlds we create in our minds.
Oh I love you. Just what I needed.
Organizing manga series looks THE SAME! I have been thinking: people need a go-to guide for organizing the writing! (I dont feel like making a video like this)
Amazing, I've been keeping all the details for 40+ novels in my head like an idiot 😆
Great info here, thank you for sharing!!
Shaelin - you are intelligent, talented and if I may say so, quite lovely.
“…and she’s really bad at it.” I love writing so much.
Hi Shaelin! Fan of your channel.
OneNote won't let me make sections groups for some reason.
This is impressive.
In my case, I use Notion, but 'cause the databases that you can create and the relations between databases are insane
Can I do something similar with Google keep? I prefer to keep my stuff consolidated to Google for ease of access and sharing ability. Haven't tried keep yet, but seems similar.
I'm interested in doing worldbuilding for... partially for fun but also for maybe a future short story series or something. Any tips for map making like programs?
Because I don't plan on doing anything right away (if ever) with these plans I don't want to spend money on it right away at least. I also have the artistic talent of a nat.
The free version of Inkarnate is pretty good!! I used it for years before getting the paid version and if you're just starting out and have no artistic talent it's super easy!
I'm drowning in MS word right now lol, This looks perfect...and free!
Pro tip:
If you give a character name or place name written down to 5 different people and get 3 or more different pronunciations back, it's a bad name
I just use world anvil, because it works pretty well
i want to see if you talk about writing a construction
Hey I was wondering, speaking of worldbuilding, could you gi over Steven Erikson's (Malazan Book of the Fallen) writing guides? He has some great articles he'd written about crafting world and characters.
Great insight...
Can you do a video on how you made your map?
I just used Inkarnate! Super easy and you don’t need any art skills!
It appears you are using an iPad or some type of IOS. Can you please tell my how to alphabetize Sections, please? I’m currently setting pieces and parts of a Memoire and refuse to purchase any book writing apps until I’m at a point where I’m ready to publish.
Omg I can’t believe I found your channel again. I used to watch your videos when I think you and Emma were friends and just starting off. I was also in your beta group. Did you ever complete that book or publish anything that I can buy? I tried searching for your books but couldn’t find anything under your name 🥰❤️
Omg you were here for my most awkward era lmaooo. I ended up shelving that book and doing a huge genre switch and moving away from fantasy for a long time, but the novel that will *hopefully* be my debut is currently on sub! I do have a bunch of published short stories though and a lot of them are free to read! They're all in my description/linktree
@@ShaelinWrites yea I saw your short stories but was looking for a novel. I’m so proud of you! ❤️ glad you never gave up on your passion. I’ll be subscribing so I won’t miss the launch of your debut 😄
Writer to writer: what if the world, or setting, if you will, is in the real world? What I mean is I created more or less a large city in the real world (our earth), maybe even marked as blank land on a map, but not just "anyone" can go there. Know what I mean? Like a town humanity may have heard of but can't go to because of reasons beyond mankind's comprehension. How would I make the map for that small area? Just get a map of the earth and sum up where it would be by country, then go deeper into the state to plant the world? Or slap it over some body of water to make an island
I've just downloaded this - such a silly question, but how do you get the full app to be in dark mode? I can only get the notes section to have a dark background by clicking the "view" button then the little moon. Not having any luck with the left side (where the dropdown menus are) thus far...!
These were the automatic settings for me, but I think if you go preferences > general there's a 'turn off/on dark mode' setting that changed it for me!
@@ShaelinWrites it worked, thank you so much!
youre so oily, i love it !
birds that grow from trees sounds mythical enough to me 👍every mythological creature doesn't have to be a demigod.
What is the best app social media for gets audience to be famous witter?
I use Mila Note!
In a world where Obsidian and Notion exist, why would you use OneNote?
Honestly I had not heard of Obsidian until people started talking about it on this video! I see why Notion would be the preference for a lot of people, but it was more than I needed for this project, so I went with the simpler option just to bypass the Notion learning curve (since I wanted to get started right away and had never used Notion before). This has worked great for me, but ultimately the purpose of this video was to show the structure/system, and I think the specific tool you use is just personal preference.
i feel like a savage keeping it all in google sheets now xD
I've never used OneNote, but it reminds me of Evernote. Question for anyone who might have used both: are they similar?
They are very similar, yes. OneNote is just more visual and in some regards more customisable. I personally stopped using Onenote because of how complicated I made it. Evernote is just easier for me to stay focused.😊
This is my endgame