World building Origins- A case study in doing too much

Several years ago, I participated in NaNoWriMo (rest in pieces). Now, I don't have an ounce of perseverance. Pushing through hard things is not something I excel at. However, I'd made it nearly to the 50K mark when I got burnt out (see?) and BLASTED through a series of books. I didn't like the books, but they did have one specific scene that I loved. One character sacrificed his own safety for the MC's well being. Vague, I know, but the details aren't really important. I loved it, but the execution of it was pretty roughly done. As one does, I said, "I can do that better."

deep narrator voice "She did not, in fact, do better."

With only a few days left in November, I began a new draft. It was a sleepy coastal romance full of sacrifice and devotion, but in my newbie state, there was no way for me to know how to reign in the story. I needed to know how things worked, I developed a new planetary movement  to describe why the earth worked the way it did, and created a BUNCH of fluff that I thought would contribute to this story. And it did! But it grew and grew and grew until I had more material than I knew how to do with. One city became two, two characters became ten, and then a hundred, and suddenly I was having to figure out the scientific ways that describe the features of the world because apparently I can't imagine anything simply. All of this information is highly important to that one story, but again, in my newbie state, I had no idea how to tell a cohesive story and use the information in the best way.

Ten years later, I still haven't finished that original draft. I question myself every day about what I've done to myself by deciding to continue this endeavor, but this world, Valra, is the product of that original idea.

For a little more context, I have always LOVED cultures. I love learning about new groups of people and the main question I find myself asking is "why?" Why do these people interact so differently from my own small region of the world. This developed into a deep desire to know, and I learn best by telling. So, in order to answer these questions I had to get really specific about the world, which obviously led to an overwhelming amount of questions. Again.

How do the cultures develop given the natural workings of the world? I wanted to know what marital norms dominated certain areas based on how the culture interacted with nature. I wanted to understand social convention and familial relationships. I wanted to know what tools and textiles looked like with the natural materials that came from a certain region. And then I had to figure out what land features defined different regions and how it represented the people there.

So I've been thinking, and writing, and developing, and I found that the best way I can understand them is to just write about them, about the people that live there and what they do in response to their natural space. Aaaaaaaand that's why we're here. Forthcoming is my never ending to do list of stories I've created to understand this world a little better.

Within the world, you'll find politics, natural features, characterizations, and world dynamics that are pretty similar to our earth, but also a little different.

Who knows if I'll be able to "do it better," but theses stories are just sitting in the waiting room with nowhere to go and I think that's the most depressing thing in the world. So, given some time and a little bit of elbow grease, I'll be able to tell you some of my favorites.