Worldbuilding

If one waits for the right time to come before writing, the right time never comes. -- James Russell Lowell, poet and critic.

I'm really rusty on world-building. To the point where I had to ask myself where to start when I said "brand new world nothing I have done before." I'm currently researching to remind myself how again, after blowing a raspberry at my personal library that felt remarkably devoid of that particular issue.

So by the time I reached work, I had to ask myself why the only thing I had close to world-building is a writing science fiction book on create alien worlds (with scientific principles instead of one transplant Earth environment stretched over the whole planet with some unusual astronomy features). But what I am looking for is more creating on the fictional universe, which includes species, planets, rules of logic, the quirks that make it unique, etc. And what the hell went wrong with my brain suddenly?

If one was really a writer, then one must write, and write now, while the hand still kept its cunning, while the technique was still in one's head, while one was still in touch with one's public. -- Harriet Vane's thoughts in Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh

So I have lost the technique. And it's really not that surprising. Putting aside the stressed-out, can't-write periods of mental commotion, I have been working on non-fiction, fanfiction (which has been universe expansion but not creation), Zy's universe (which I know but needs more fleshing out), and historical fantasy (Elizabethan that I already have a fundamental grasp on). It's probably been a decade since I've done anything from more scratch than those. I could look up an exact date, but I'm trying not to depress myself.

So I have lost the technique, and must relearn it. Being a constant student is one way to insure success.

Quote from Lawrence Block's prayer.