Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Writing


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A new feature: Worldbuilding

As a spinoff of the massive work I’m doing on the Hope & Glory project, I’ve rebooted my old collection of Worldbuilding Resources as a new feature page here on Karavansara.
You find the relevant link on the top bar, under Features.

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The page collects articles, books and software for writers interested in worldbuilding – that is not only the Tolkien-esque chore of spending thirty years drawing maps and noting down Elvish irregular verbs, but also quite simply the task of providing vivid and active detail to your story.
Or game.
Or whatever.

Check the page out.
If you have any suggestions, if there’s anything you think I left out, please use the comments on that page to give me a pointer.

I’ll post updates to this Feature occasionally.


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I’ll remember April

I took a look at the statistics and noticed that not only Karavansara is lagging, but this actually happens every spring.
And I can suggest a reason.
As every spring so far, I’m feeling lethargic and tired, and I’m writing an awful lot.

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The lethargic and tired thing is seasonal, and will probably drag for a few weeks more – until, with temperatures hitting +25°C, I will become uncomfortable and tired, and will probably start sleeping by day and working by night.

As for the writing thing, it is true that spring usually sees the start of a number of new projects, and due to a number of causes, looks like this year I spread myself pretty thin… Continue reading →


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Researching far and wide

Something I often discuss on these pages is the joy (and pain) of doing research when writing.
Being a naturally curious individual, I actually enjoy doing research, and quite often I see writing as an opportunity to explore some issues that interest me.

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Also, the amount of research is connected with the volume of work I am planning.
For a quick short story, say, set on Titan, the moon of Saturn, a selection of articles on the topic, plus the usual resources found online are normally more than enough.
Something particularly interesting and useful for the story might emerge, and then I’ll go in deeper on that single detail, usually while revising the first draft.
But in general, let’s say that, as a rule of thumb, a 6000-words story should be based on no more than one weekend of reading and note-taking. “For Dummies” books are a great resource when writing short fiction1. Continue reading →