Another decent week. On the writing front, I’m keeping up on my microfiction, but I spent a lot more time worldbuilding and moving the Burus Mapping Project forward. Home improvement activities continued receiving needed attention as well, the kitchen being our focus this weekend. The rest of this upcoming week has lots to keep me busy, with an appointment to get our taxes done on Thursday and our first inoculation injections on Friday. Hallelujah. I’m not sure if we’re getting the Pfizer vaccine or the Erskine Super Soldier Serum, but I’m good with either.
The mapping project gaining steam has helped to refine various ideas about my constructed world of Burus. That’s because I’m not a proponent of extensive worldbuilding before writing. Instead, I flesh-out only what’s needed story-to-story while staying in line with general elements that need to be consistent between tales, if any.
My initial idea for Burus was to create a go-to constructed world for when I write something that falls in the category of “Quasi-European Medievalesque Fantasy”. I enjoy writing stories with that flavor. By building shared lore, concepts, and characters, I could save myself the effort of crafting everything from scratch each time. Plus, building interconnection and canon between your books and stories has proven itself a consistent net-positive for authors.
But I didn’t conceive of Burus in full and then start writing from there: I started writing about it one piece at a time within a very loose sketch of the whole. After writing over nine stories in the setting, I have most of the parts finished that I need to complete the machine. Rough blueprints of assembly remain intact in the initial written outlines, even if some concepts no longer synchronize with the setting.
Working on the map, I’m fitting the individual pieces together and discovering the full shapes they become when joined. Major things are turning out as planned. Some peripheral details are showing flaws or failing to connect to the whole. On those I’m making modifications or creating new bits to replace them, and that’s been challenging, frustrating and fun. Regardless, the map has been an excellent visualizer to join the geography together and imagine or re-imagine the surrounding cultures.
Take care, everyone. Be safe and keep writing!
~Jason H. Abbott
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Aethereal Engineer 
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