li·brar·y
/ˈlīˌbrerē,ˈlīb(ə)rē/
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noun
a building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for people to read, borrow, or refer to.
“a school library”
a collection of books and periodicals held in a library.
“the Institute houses an outstanding library of 35,000 volumes on the fine arts”
a room in a private house where books are kept.
“there was a library that Uncle Hilbert used as his study”

from google OXFORD DICTIONARY

Ahh libraries, they are a place of dust, wood, paper, silence, and so many things I don’t have all the time to discuss. In my early days I frequented the place, in love and every so adoring its many dark and dank cramped isles that hosted knowledge but historical or even modern. But it was more than just my love of books that kept me in the libraries—I also fell in love with with all other moving parts of it. Fondly there were the reading Contests, the battle of the Books, the book Clubs, and so so much more.

For me those early memories of picking up a reading log to read a hundred books by the end of the summer and turn it back into the library for gifts and prizes—oh it made my heart jump, I was excited. I adored the moment and I lived for the experience.

Alas as I grew older and taller, the books got bigger, the pages got longer and mind on those pages started to wander. My smile was shrinking…my enjoyment decreasing.

Where was the mystical wonder of picking up a fantasy book and getting a Dragon shaped plastic prize ring from a reading contest? Where was the excitement of checking off a box on how books I had completed in a month? A month! Yes, a month! I went like lighting and bright like a sparkling thing!

But gone.

Gone.

Those days were gone.

And the years went by and the nostalgia died. Those sweet moments packed way like children toys in the attic.

But I craved it still. I craved that wonder—that wide eyed endorphin rush of cracking the spine of new book or smelling that old musty nose twitching smell of the older one. I wanted that wonder of being in that library reading those books and being around a community of others who read like there was no tomorrow. Yet such a thing seemed like a memory of the past.

People don’t necessarily read in libraries anymore. Nor do they participate in reading contests and get those fun little prizes from those libraries or their school.

Nowadays, we have phones, internets, and computers and the world is so moving at over 25 billion seconds a blink, words, sentences, sounds, everything so fast you can’t even think. Long story short, we’re living fast so fast we might outrun the Flash.

But halt! This a proposal.

What if we could rewind the clocks back a bit but somehow keep moving at this digital pace?

What if we could revive what’s old but imagine something new and great?

And if we could, what would we do with it?

I say make something more than great and something that could make people inspired to create. Does that drum up the sound? Does that drum up the noise? Crowds gather come all, make the noise! Let’s build and recreate. The past is not the past but indeed it’s the future that’s the vision.

This was a loveletter. A poem. An ode. A song. A reminder that’s what’s gone is not truly yet for long.

Fantasy stories can be pretty hard to master so we’ve been talking and we asked:

1. Of the stories that you’ve read, how heavy is the worldbuilding from a scale of 1-5? Additionally, how do you personally define “heavy worldbuilding”?

2. What are your general expectations of a fantasy story?

3. What are some things that the fantasy genre is notorious for? (Objective)

4. Conversely, what are some things that you don’t like about the fantasy genre/fantasy writers? (Subjective)
5. Have you read eastern fantasy? If not, please move directly to 5b. Otherwise, please talk about your experiences in delving into that subgenre and how you fell in/fell out of love with it. 5b. When reading stories with a total culture change/totally distorted perspective, what immerses you the most? What alienates you the most?

6. What are your thoughts on using ethnic lore/culture as inspiration for fantasy stories? For example, Polynesian mythology/witchdoctor-ing or Irish folklore.

7. Right now, in this moment, what do you feel like reading? Light fantasy? Snarky tweets? Your own unfinished story, perhaps? (I do want a genuine answer, but you could also just shamelessly promote your work if you wish lol)

Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Thoughts by the writer ‘June’. Be sure to follow them on their social and hear more of their creative writing tips and tricks or thoughts.

1. I think an amazing book you should reference for worldbuilding is everlasting nora by marie miranda cruz. it uses great flashback scenes to give the read more emotional attachment to situations the main character finds herself in. heavy worldbuilding for me is building up to an important event of a book without exposing most of the character’s so-told “secrets.” i use this effect in my book by purposely using words like, “the thing,” or “an unfamiliar [insert noun here].

2. Many fantasy stories i’ve read have always started and ended the same way. the main character (usually a peasant male or princess female) finds themself in a situation and they’re sent off on a legendary quest to save the world. i want to see more character vulnerability in these stories, showing the raw character development we usually see in throwaway characters.

3. I’m not entirely sure but def for making the main character a villain near the end of the book lol. school for good and evil did this so many times, i always expected one of the characters to become a wanted criminal.

4. I don’t enjoy the complicated world they make. i hate reading fantasy novels where one concept comes in for one chapter and never reappears in the book. for example, the main character could come across a village, ask a blacksmith what happened in the village or to a certain person, and then that blacksmith is never mentioned again in the story. i want all the concepts of a book to be reused in some way.

5b. Again, back to everlasting nora. this book is based in the Philippines and the greetings used in the book are from its native language. it also connects with the culture like honorifics, actions that the character does, her way of respecting elders, etc.. at first, it was hard to read the book because i was korean and had no way of connection to its culture. but it was easier to adjust than other books i’ve read with a cultural change. it even came with a glossary at the back lol..11

6. I think it’s a great thing to include in your story! i’m doing it with my book (using french, greek, roman, and irish culture in my mine) to convey friendships, love, family, and bravery and honor. i think it’s an amazing way to make the reader aware of some of these beautiful cultures in the world, and another way to make your character more raw rather than the basic girl who moved from across the country.

7. I feel like reading a highschool drama book about anything a highschooler has or could experience, similar to euphoria. as someone who’s in highschool, i want to have characters that are going through the same thing as me. i want to read a paragraph of a girl who doesn’t think she belongs and think, “wow, i can relate to this girl.” and also my book lol (ozymandias: casum majestias on wattpad guys lol)

Fantasy stories can be pretty hard to master so we’ve been talking and we asked:

1. Of the stories that you’ve read, how heavy is the worldbuilding from a scale of 1-5? Additionally, how do you personally define “heavy worldbuilding”?

2. What are your general expectations of a fantasy story?

3. What are some things that the fantasy genre is notorious for? (Objective)

4. Conversely, what are some things that you don’t like about the fantasy genre/fantasy writers? (Subjective)
5. Have you read eastern fantasy? If not, please move directly to 5b. Otherwise, please talk about your experiences in delving into that subgenre and how you fell in/fell out of love with it. 5b. When reading stories with a total culture change/totally distorted perspective, what immerses you the most? What alienates you the most?

6. What are your thoughts on using ethnic lore/culture as inspiration for fantasy stories? For example, Polynesian mythology/witchdoctor-ing or Irish folklore.

7. Right now, in this moment, what do you feel like reading? Light fantasy? Snarky tweets? Your own unfinished story, perhaps? (I do want a genuine answer, but you could also just shamelessly promote your work if you wish lol)

Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Thoughts by the writer ‘Cheshir’. Be sure to follow them on their social and hear more of their creative writing tips and tricks or thoughts.

To be honest, I have recently wrote a fantasy novel(I won’t share its name as I want to respect our host’s wishes), and in that novel I didn’t build any heavy building.

2. I believe or you can say I like a light fantasy. I love reading. I mean it. But what draws me in a story, is not its heavy world or magic, rather its the plot/ story itself. I will read any story as long as its plot is interesting. I don’t care about anyother thing.

3. In other words, I like character buliding, how the author builds characters relations, their emotions, their backstories. All of it have heavy impact on me.

5. I prefer story content and besides I also love anime fantasy. I am really in love with animes and have watches countless ones.

6. And the thing I dislike the most in the fantasy is harem. I really mean it. I want the story to be heartwarming. Isekaid stories also are good but I personally prefer the opposite ones. As those stories really determine the potential of the protagonist, when he/she trains hard enough to reach highest level. But in isakeod stories, he is already overpowerd, which makes it interesting for the time being but gradually loses it way. Besides, now-a-days, anime market is full of isakeod stories, so there should be something new for the reader to enjoy.

Fantasy stories can be pretty hard to master so we’ve been talking and we asked:

1. Of the stories that you’ve read, how heavy is the worldbuilding from a scale of 1-5? Additionally, how do you personally define “heavy worldbuilding”?

2. What are your general expectations of a fantasy story?

3. What are some things that the fantasy genre is notorious for? (Objective)

4. Conversely, what are some things that you don’t like about the fantasy genre/fantasy writers? (Subjective)
5. Have you read eastern fantasy? If not, please move directly to 5b. Otherwise, please talk about your experiences in delving into that subgenre and how you fell in/fell out of love with it. 5b. When reading stories with a total culture change/totally distorted perspective, what immerses you the most? What alienates you the most?

6. What are your thoughts on using ethnic lore/culture as inspiration for fantasy stories? For example, Polynesian mythology/witchdoctor-ing or Irish folklore.

7. Right now, in this moment, what do you feel like reading? Light fantasy? Snarky tweets? Your own unfinished story, perhaps? (I do want a genuine answer, but you could also just shamelessly promote your work if you wish lol)

Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Thoughts by the writer ‘Neptune’. Be sure to follow them on their social and hear more of their creative writing tips and tricks or thoughts.

1) I’d say the stories I’ve read are a bit lighter on the world building, they’re about a 3.5-4. And for me, heavy world building means having an established society, functioning facets and a well fleshed out world.

2) My general expectations are for things to make sense. Like there’s this story I’ve read on Wattpad, I’ll plug in the name if I can find it, that used real world science to explain how certain magic worked. For example, heat transfer? Thermodynamics. Flight? Newtonian Physics. And whatever couldn’t be explained was written up to runic abilities which I thought was cool!

3) Honestly, having overpowered characters with little explanation. Not that I’m complaining though lol, just some growth in their stories would be nice.

4) Sometimes the magic systems or world doesn’t really make much sense. And certain things aren’t clear.

5) What immerses me is a characters ability to explain or act on their cultural perspective. It’s an explanation of the culture and the ability to stick to its foundational principles. And it’s the opposite that alienates me. When something is said to be like A, but then when it happens it’s B instead if that makes sense?

6) I personally like reading stories with ethnic lore. It exposes me to things that I wouldn’t have known or heard of, and when done right, can actually lead to a fantastic story!

7) Honestly right now I like reading my friends story blurbs or writing prompts found on reddit. Also, re-reading an old story I wrote.(edited)21

Fantasy stories can be pretty hard to master so we’ve been talking and we asked:

1. Of the stories that you’ve read, how heavy is the worldbuilding from a scale of 1-5? Additionally, how do you personally define “heavy worldbuilding”?

2. What are your general expectations of a fantasy story?

3. What are some things that the fantasy genre is notorious for? (Objective)

4. Conversely, what are some things that you don’t like about the fantasy genre/fantasy writers? (Subjective)
5. Have you read eastern fantasy? If not, please move directly to 5b. Otherwise, please talk about your experiences in delving into that subgenre and how you fell in/fell out of love with it. 5b. When reading stories with a total culture change/totally distorted perspective, what immerses you the most? What alienates you the most?

6. What are your thoughts on using ethnic lore/culture as inspiration for fantasy stories? For example, Polynesian mythology/witchdoctor-ing or Irish folklore.

7. Right now, in this moment, what do you feel like reading? Light fantasy? Snarky tweets? Your own unfinished story, perhaps? (I do want a genuine answer, but you could also just shamelessly promote your work if you wish lol)

Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Thoughts by the writer ‘Ameron’. Be sure to follow them on their social and hear more of their creative writing tips and tricks or thoughts.

1. A lot of excellent fantasy isekai that I’ve been watching have such great worldbuilding with ratings of 5. Of course, I’m talking about shows like Re:Zero and Mushoku Tensei, those two have such a vast and beautiful world. I personally define heavy worldbuilding as when it goes in-depth into the history of the fantasy world, when this delves into its own lore, maintains its consistency, and provides interesting settings and characters.

2. My general expectations of a fantasy story are literally magic, op protagonist, elves, orcs, goblins, demon lords, etc.

3. Some things that fantasy is notorious for is harem… look I like harem but many of recent just put girls who align with many stereotypes and do it like any other or worse (oh, oops this is isekai but most isekai that I’ve seen are still fantasy). Some that its notorious for is also the very thing that defines it, magic. Magic is overused to the point that most writers do not feel the need to create an original power system and go with the basics, the elements, chanting, etc. without ever going too deep into them because they too know that we know and they expect us to have that bare minimum of knowledge. Some that it is notorious for is the op protagonist, because a protagonist of this accord most likely has no more room for development and this is where most writers suffer when writing a protagonist with this trope.

4. I don’t like that fantasy just has to be medieval. It can also be futuristic to some extent while still sharing some of the medieval qualities that everyone loves.

5. Definitely. I mean I think most of what I’m talking about is literally anime fantasy. I know western fantasy but im not quite as interested in them as before. I pretty much fell in love because probably of the sense of escapism. 5b. With a totally distorted perspective, it immerses me when it shows that a side can be good or perhaps showing us how evil does its work. Dunno.

6. Hm, seems cool, if used correctly.11

7. Light fantasy or a rom-com lol

Fantasy stories can be pretty hard to master so we’ve been talking and we asked:

1. Of the stories that you’ve read, how heavy is the worldbuilding from a scale of 1-5? Additionally, how do you personally define “heavy worldbuilding”?

2. What are your general expectations of a fantasy story?

3. What are some things that the fantasy genre is notorious for? (Objective)

4. Conversely, what are some things that you don’t like about the fantasy genre/fantasy writers? (Subjective)
5. Have you read eastern fantasy? If not, please move directly to 5b. Otherwise, please talk about your experiences in delving into that subgenre and how you fell in/fell out of love with it. 5b. When reading stories with a total culture change/totally distorted perspective, what immerses you the most? What alienates you the most?

6. What are your thoughts on using ethnic lore/culture as inspiration for fantasy stories? For example, Polynesian mythology/witchdoctor-ing or Irish folklore.

7. Right now, in this moment, what do you feel like reading? Light fantasy? Snarky tweets? Your own unfinished story, perhaps? (I do want a genuine answer, but you could also just shamelessly promote your work if you wish lol)

Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Thoughts by the writer ‘Cheshir’. Be sure to follow them on their social and hear more of their creative writing tips and tricks or thoughts.

1. I read some pretty light fantasy stuff, about 2-3 on the scale (besides wuxia/xianxia novels). Heavy worldbuilding, to me, goes along the lines of The Hobbit or official D&D campaigns, where the creator literally creates an entire world for us peons to explore. Wuxia stories are more of a 4 since they are still based on Earth, and I’d put the likes of HP and PJ in 3.

2. Western fantasy usually seems to involve quests that are either bestowed upon a hero, or forced onto a criminal. There’s a lot of “chosen ones” and friendship, which is cool. Wings always make an appearance, and alternate versions of humanity such as Elves.

3. Actually, I don’t know. That-that’s why I asked the question…

4. I don’t like it when there’s no sense of continuity, like the fantasy is just there for the sake of convenience. It is also very off-putting when writers suddenly inject a race that is specifically beautiful or promiscuous, but that I cannot explain why. Cannon-fodder face-slapping scenes are also pretty unenjoyable, since much fantastical logic must be taken into account, and it’s simply not fascinating. Then again, when there is an overload of detail and information in a fantasy setting, I get tired.

5. It was easy for me to make the transition from western to eastern fantasy because I already knew a bit of East Asian mythology. I also have a hobby of whim-fully learning different languages, most of which are Asian, so some of the words were easy to interpret on my own. Because I am still new to it, I seem to have a preference for eastern fantasy, but in the end, both are wonderful themes. Now, on immersion, I find that inner dialogue or author’s asides in new perspectives are very helpful. I like books that force you into a totally different perspective, so even if I feel alienated, I can cope.

7. Want to sleep… but I also want to read replies…I want to think about fantasy…