I look at Titles in my Chandler's Ford Today post this week and hope you find it helpful as I share some thoughts on where to find good title ideas. I also discuss the uses of titles. But now to look at the topic from a different angle...

Firstly, the world in which your story is set - do they use titles to denote rank? Do these differ between species? Are some species excluded from any titles at all? How are titles given? Can they be earned and, if so, how?

Secondly, property (you knew it had to come in somewhere!) - how does your world distribute title to property? Can anyone own property? Do your characters have to earn their right to obtain title like this? Or is all land owned by one feudal or royal overlord and all title is held by them?

Can title (of any sort) be challenged or revoked? Who would do so and why?

Now there are some thoughts for story ideas for you!

Image Credit:  Pixabay - captions on the CFT post.

The basic building blocks for putting a fictional world together are, for me, as follows:-

1. Species - Who will live in this fictional world? One species, a couple, many? If more than one, how do they interact with each other and if they don't interact at all, what is the reason for that? If you have only one species, how are they sub-divided? Do you have the majority of the species living in an area and a minority live elsewhere? What are the reasons behind this?
   
2. Government and Society - This ties in with 1. How are your species governed and by whom? Are they governed well or badly? Can governments be changed? How is society organised? What is expected of everyone and does that vary from species to species? If so, what are the differences and why do they exist? What happens to rebels? (You can pretty much guarantee there will be those who do not like the status quo and won't accept it so what happens to those who do this?).
   
3. Survival - How do the species survive? What do they eat/drink? Is their world an agricultural one and what shape does this take? Do they farm crops as we would know them or farm something very different? Climate and weather and their impact can come into this category too. How much do your readers need to know?
   

I look at Summer Reports in my CFT post this week and discuss, amongst other things, what a good report should do, irrespective of whether someone is academic or not. I also give a summer writing update for me!

But from a writing viewpoint, what reports could you write, for whom, and how could they help you?

1.  Character Reports
I use Scrivener and in their story template they have outlines for characters (and settings) which you can fill in with as much or little detail as you want.  You can of course create your own, but I have found these enormously useful in working out what my characters are really made of and, therefore, I write them with more conviction. I hope they come across that way too! So writing a report on  your characters can help you discover things about them, help you give depth to how you portray them and so on.

2. Report on your Story
I find it useful as part of the editing process to look at the story as if I hadn't written it and was discovering it for the first time as a reader would. I look at what my overall impressions are, what I think worked well and, as importantly, what didn't! The crucial thing is to be totally honest here, otherwise this idea won't do anything for you.

Sometimes my "report" here is just a series of notes such as Character A comes across well, they've got great humour, but where do their flaws come in? Is Character A too perfect? Once you've made notes like this, put the story and the notes aside for a while. Re-read the story after a week. Look at your notes and see if you still think the same.

If you have trusted beta readers available, this is where they could be invaluable but total honesty about what works and what doesn't is key here. Keep in mind you want to produce a story that is as good as you can make it. If several people tell you something doesn't work, take this seriously. If one says that, then it could just be opinion and you will then need to decide if it has weight or not.

So reports then are useful to a writer but honesty is key. I can't stress that enough.

Image Credit:    As ever, the wonderful Pixabay. (Thank you, folks).  Captions on CFT post.

There are certain pointers which will indicate your created world is working and hopefully will encourage you to develop it further.

1.  You know how the world is run. (There has to be some sort of government).

2.  You know who are the powerful and who are the downtrodden (some things are just universal!).

3.  You know the immediate setting for your story intimately. You need to be able to portray this, almost as if it were a character in its own right.

4.  You know where your characters fit into your world (and whether they fit in well or not. Do they defy convention or follow it religiously?).

5.  You have some idea of how your people survive in terms of food/water/sanitation/employment provision. I can't think of any created world where characters don't have to eat, be able to resource themselves etc.

Not all of these details need to make it into your story. We don't need to know everything about politics in your world but we do need to know what matters to the story (which I think is going to be a new mantra for me but it is a useful one!).