Book Review: Storyworld First by Jill Williamson

I was lucky enough to be on the street team for Jill Williamson's (author of the Blood of Kings trilogy which I adore) new book about worldbuilding.


Oh. My.

This book is amazing.

It's full of interesting worldbuilding information and tips and things to consider about creating things like:

• Maps
• Creatures
• Techology
• Languages
• Magic
• Government
• And a whole bunch of other cool stuff. 

I loved it. Jill talks about so many different topics and areas to play with, but without going into agonizing detail or touching too lightly. I'm definitely going to come back to it once I start worldbuilding again. (And her repeated messages of "only uses as much as you need" and "don't succumb to worldbuilder's disease" will probably come in handy when I do.)

A quick warning: This book is so full of information that it's easy to get overwhelmed. What I did was read the whole thing  and let myself get exposed to the ideas without worrying about remembering any of it. Sure, some of it stuck, but I wasn't worried about remembering every single detail or tip she mentioned. When I'm ready to worldbuild religions or to create a map, I'll go back and reread those sections. In the mean time, whatever stayed in my memory from the first read through is floating around in the back of my head subtly influencing how I think about things.

Five out of five stars for sure.

Other fun stuff:
Here's a link to Jill's page of free printables and extras from the book: http://www.jillwilliamson.com/storyworld-first-free-printable-worksheets
Here's the Storyworld First page on Jill's website: http://www.jillwilliamson.com/storyworld-first-creating-a-unique-fantasy-world-for-your-novel/
And hers' the Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22928249-storyworld-first

That's all for this post. I noticed that I haven't posted here in more than a month. Oops. I shall remedy this. I have half a dozen Fun with Notes posts in draft form as well as a new short story I want to post. So, you'll be seeing those.

And a lovely day/night/whatever to you.

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 http://www.jillwilliamson.com/storyworld-first-creating-a-unique-fantasy-world-for-your-novel/ - See more at: http://www.jillwilliamson.com/influencer-page-for-storyworld-first/#sthash.8QWzoaIg.dpuf