From Norway to Fantasy Part #2

Exploratory Dialogues, , , , , , ,

I started Tales of the Drui in November of 2008. In 2010, I found a collection of videos that helped with my research…okay…kind of helped.

Norway For Noobs by Chris Nikopol. Chris, if ever you see this. Thank you! I am a huge fan here in New York!

I couldn’t stop laughing for a week!

So I started with Chris and went on from there. “Wait! Angela! You said you started writing in 2008, but these videos didn’t come out until 2010!”

That is right my observant friend! I wrote the first two books of Tales of the Drui without doing any research on Norway until two years after I wrote the books. What was I doing writing those books without researching Norway!?

I will tell you.

I studied Norse myth and designed the story around Norse Mythology only. At this time, I sucked. I mean, my writing blew monkey chunks. It took me seven years to write because I kept getting better. In actuality, I wrote Dolor and Shadow five times. Each time, I was better and managed to expand. Each time, I dove deeper into the story and my skill and carved out a new layer of detail.

The first three years I spent designing the plot. In 2010, I designed the details and shaped the setting. I realized my story was horribly lacking in visual description. Hence my journey into Norway. This is where Chris Nikopol’s videos helped me begin.

I studied the terrain, the flora and fauna, the climate, the wonders of Norway, and the geography. I began with the geography.

I will cover geography on my next post, but for now, enjoy the videos of Chris Nikopol!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_-nBsNYWNM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OiwzHviUSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywHEvVVzXU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRNch0YplLw

About the Author: Anna Imagination

Biographical Info... What you seek is my Story. Every Soul is a "Blurb" as one would read on the back of the book. But can people be "unwrapped" so easily? Most importantly, why try? I have long since learned to preserve the Savory that comes with Discovery. Learning of another Soul is a Journey. It is an Exploration. And it does not do the Soul Justice to try and condense a Soul Journey into a Bio.