With this in mind, how are these vehicles operated?
During #JanuaryWorldbuilders by Kira, I mentioned that Cogheads can insert their consciousness - a cog-shaped heart - into any piece of industrial equipment/machinery, and operate them.
That's exactly how it's done here, but on a larger scale!
So, this is something I explained back during the #JanuaryWorldbuilders days! Items made of Cogitix aren't exactly satient, HOWEVER, their unique quality is that they have this magical aura which enhances your own, intellectual & analytical capabilities!
#JanuaryWorldbuilders
• Making progress towards finishing the first draft of Rooted Hearts (finishing would be cool but i don't want to pressure myself too hard)
• Worldbuilding/character building for the second idea i really want to work on + outline
#writing #writingcommunity
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I'm also one of the tools because there's a little bit of my experience with pain that makes up a part of the magic system.
I'll try Scrivener next - looks good for organizing stuff, but I'm keeping the vibes wall that's in front of my desk.
#LegendsOfAzdiera 🌈🐉
#JanuaryWorldbuilders
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I wrote the alphabet on tiny pieces of paper as a personal name generator but also used an old map that I got as a souvenir from a museum. If etymology is a tool, I've used that too.
I have a lot of tools 😅
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#LegendsOfAzdiera 🌈🐉
#JanuaryWorldbuilders
31: What apps/programs/tools have you used to help with worldbuilding?
Pen, paper, corkboard, a whole wall, colorful sticky notes and ink, Wikipedia and library books, various visual arts including photography, drawing, collages…
#LegendsOfAzdiera 🌈🐉
#JanuaryWorldbuilders
bsky.app/profile/kira...
1/31 #JanuaryWorldbuilders
I’ll admit, I’m not too fancy: Word documents, the Notes app, and notebooks tend to be my main worldbuilding tools. I do love Fantasy Name Generators for character name ideas. What an awesome site!
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31
I've tried both CampfireWriting and WorldAnvil for worldbuilding. In general I found them more frustrating than helpful, but I know folks who find them very helpful.
These days I just take copious notes in a word doc and various spreadsheets
I'm going to cheat today 😈
Since this is the final day of #JanuaryWorldbuilders, THANK YOU ALL for your colourful, diverse, and amazing contributions! This was extremely fun to participate in.
Below, you will find a list of my personal thank yous + peeps whose contributions I've genuinely loved!
I've tried a couple different things, but the best that seems to work for my brain is Milanote, which is great for organizing my thoughts and research, but putting sticky notes on a big piece of cardboard seems to work the best for plotting
#JanuaryWorldbuilders
#JanuaryWorldbuilders Mostly I just use GIMP, Paintbrush, and Pages.
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: And finally: aside from "Ellipsus is pretty good and it's not hosted in the US", and "we should be wary of putting all our digital eggs in one basket no matter where we live", I in no way endorse any of the above method, but if you want to know more, I'll tell you. (17/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: To get input names to chain, I've had good luck googling "site:github.com CSV Greek cities" (for example) and opening the resulting open-source list as a spreadsheet. For people's names, I have some JavaScript to scrape lists from BehindTheName. (16/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: A list of Swedish municipalities gives me words like "Krona", "Norrland", Helsing", and "Österås". (I only have 51 entries, which is why you see actual places and words emerging.) A list of Italian names outputs "Ivanni", "Federicola", Massio", or "Vittore". (15/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: Markov chains aren't genAI; they statistically predict phonemes based on a short list of inputs, not the massive models LLMs rely on. They can also run on your old TI-85 calculator, so don't worry, I'm not destroying the Amazon or poisoning marginalized communities. (14/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: A few people have asked about my approach to conlangs and SF/fantasy names. I use the old "let's mash some words together" trick, but with Markov chains and lists of words/names/placenames from specific real-world cultures. (13/17) www.samcodes.co.uk/project/mark...
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: When it comes to fact-checking things like coming up with the distances between real-world stars--say, Groombridge 1618 and Struve 1321--that's just some Python code swiped from StackOverflow. (They're 4.992 light years apart.) (12/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: I also keep a list of all my research, so I can link articles, sites, or jot down what I got when I last asked an exoplanet atmospheric researcher about gas giant cloud composition or a fellow writing group member about the fastest way to clean chicken bones. (11/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: These wikis include custom infoboxes, plugins, and styling to handle things like timelines and charts. (How else would I organize multigenerational family trees for six-year-olds who appear in one scene and have three lines of dialogue? I mean, come on.) (10/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: For organizing worldbuilding and consistency guides, I use a self-hosted private Mediawiki—the software that powers Wikipedia or Memory Alpha—for each series or standalone. I tried one big one, but that was a terrible idea, as was having one per sequel or spinoff. (9/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: Standard Notes syncs with my phone, their web app, and is end-to-end encrypted. It's also now owned by Proton, but is not part of Proton Drive or Proton Mail. (8/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: For notetaking, I use Standard Notes. (Despite its site's embarrassing DALL-E 2 slop illustrations. In fairness, they haven't updated them in years, and they look like shit, so it's hardly the MOST energy-intensive plagiarizey nonsense, but c'mon, just go to Freepik!)(7/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: For managing the aforementioned reverse-outlining spreadsheets, I'm still on Google Sheets. Proton Sheets isn't production-ready IMHO.) I make direct hyperlinks from the spreadsheet to scenes in Ellipsus, and track at what percentage of the book a story beat occurs. (6/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: I'm sure approximately 0% of you want to know that Ellipsus is far easier to override with client-side userscripts than Google Docs. I wanted to get the number of words from the beginning of a doc for my a reverse-outlining spreadsheet, so now that's on the toolbar. (5/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: Note to self: finish migrating to Proton Mail. (4/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: For actual writing, I've switched from Google Docs to Ellipsus. It's not yet feature-complete, but does most of what I need. It's also hosted outside of the reach of Project 2025, so I have faith my gay aliens holding hands are not going to get me banned from Gmail. (3/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: For the past year, I've been moving off US-based cloud services. It's not because of the Canadian boycott of American goods; I'm just taking precautions against hypothetical anti-gay censorship laws. (Yes, yes, "politics". Hush. All writing is political.) (2/17)
#JanuaryWorldbuilders 31: *sharp intake of breath* (1/17)
Hey #JanuaryWorldbuilders!
I’m quite straightforward in this. I have one big planning document that I keep all my world building bits and pieces in.
This includes important locations, character bios and also the approximate story structure.
I add to it as I go and it is pretty gigantic now 😂
Final day of #JanuaryWorldbuilders! Thank you, @kiraofthewind.com, as always for hosting!
I will always heartily recommend @worldanvil.com even at the free tier! It's a bit of a learning curve but a great place to organize your own worldbuilding wiki.
I'm contemplating making...
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