Let me paint you a picture…

I’m sitting comfortably in my jeans and bright orange Dragonball Z inspired t-shirt with my MacBook Air on my lap, open to my writing. My black and tan dachshund is laying against my left leg, curled up with his face hanging over the edge of the couch while my tricolour cavalier king charles spaniel lays solitary at the other end. I glance down at my red leather Lannister themed notebook and wonder if there’s anything else I should write.

Scene 13: Chapter 6

Who: Character X (Viewpoint), Character Y (Introduced), Character Z (Final Scene)

Where: Location (Locale) [Area]

What: X joining group, Meets Y, Group Ambushed, Z dies.

Why: X to lead group eventually, Y is mentor type character, Z demonstrates dangers of evil magic.

Needless to say, I’ve got a few more details than that… Sorry for being vague! Anyway, it hits me… I hadn’t thought the when would be important. I’d always pictured the story taking place in 18-19th century Vienna, don’t ask why, I couldn’t tell you. Now up until this point, that story had been written with that locale and time period in mind. So for my own peace of mind I write it in.

When:

I stare at it for a moment.

Then a few minutes.

Suddenly the world is upon my shoulders as if I alone was trying to figure out how the universe came into being. Sadly, this is not far from the case. When is a very simple question. When? Thursday. When? Next week. When? The Middle Ages. When? Four hundred years before Christ. No sweat, right?

Wrong.

There is no Christ in my world. Nope. So that doesn’t work out. How do they track time? Days? The same. Easy. Months? Probably likewise. Years? Could be measured by the seasons, no brainer. What’s the date then?

Oh no.

What is the date? How is the date formed? I message my partner in a minor panic.

So I glance into the back of Return of the King as I was told. Good ole Tolkien will surely help me out! It is as I suspected. He began from year one. He also had a calendar. Not to mention family trees.

I glance down at my page again.

When. When? When?!

I return to my laptop and load up Jefferson’s story, create a new file and shake my head. If you’ve been reading along, it’s things like these that always get me side tracked.

Not only am I creating a world for this story, but also a story set around a millennia after its events! Oh the madness.

I start typing away and realise I don’t think I gave the world a name. Ten minutes of research through Latin words and foreign gods I come across my prize: The world will be named Tellus.

That’s Latin for Earth, so that’s great. But I hate the way it reads: Tellus. Tell us. Bah! But I quite like Ellus, so I stick with that. Then I create a world where the universe began completely filled with light (It always starts in darkness, so I play with it). Then I throw in some spirituality (Ellus is a parallel to Gaia or Mother Earth) and her decision to share her power begins her own evolution. I’ll spare you the whole thing but she starts off encased in ice, lava is her blood, heats the world, eruptions create land masses, massive eruption creates the moon (Her son Maenon) and together they work tirelessly to bring life to her surface. As things live and die they evolve, the first deaths bring about new life and the circle continues until intelligent beings begin to separate themselves from the animals. Thus ends the first age (millions of years) and enters into the second, age of the Watchers.

Ellus is so proud of her creations she grants the first four humans to die power beyond their wildest dreams as they are pure and untainted and therefore will not abuse their power. The first one is Elyon, a strong female who was the only one to be able to communicate with Ellus. Shortly after her rise, three more Watchers are granted power: Gabriel, Alexander and Lucifer. Gabriel can sense purity, while Lucifer senses corruption. Alexander is granted the power of judgement, as he can sense both sides. Together they build the heavens, a realm known among them as Nirvana. After this Alexander is sent to Aeornum to begin passing judgement on the souls of the dead and dying.

Alexander discovers a rift in Aeornum into a land of fire and darkness. He senses that the corruption facing the humans is coming from this realm which seemingly coexists with Aeornum. (See, so distracting) Alexander reports back to Elyon who sends Lucifer to guard the gates to Tartarus (The Demon Realm). Elyon then sends Alexander back to Aeornum to recruit for the coming war as she believes Ellus cannot control the growth of the demon realm.

The next age begins with the first ever war between Demons and Watchers until with the recruiting skills of Alexander they manage to force the demons back beyond the gates of Tartarus. During this age many holy relics and Watchers are lost while many heroes arise. Cerberus is tasked with guarding the black gates, a new Watcher who fought for his soul when Alexander came calling. Alexander returns to Aeornum in his position of judgement, while Elyon and Gabriel sit high up in Nirvana.

After the war, people begin tracking the seasons as they notice the cycle repeats. They measure the year by its own life cycle (spring = birth, summer = prime, autumn = elder, winter = death). They count these cycles so as to honour those who died fighting the demons each year at the beginning of spring.

So in short, my story is set twelve hundred or so years (or cycles) after the events of the war. Tales of demons are nothing more than stories, society is in a relative peace and some believe in the Watchers while others laugh at the thought. The order that Jefferson becomes a part of is founded just over the millennia mark and his story is a small blip in the grand scheme of things. The good news is though, his story affects my other story in a dramatic way as the rise of magic in his time brings the acceptance of use to the forefront of every King’s mind. While some punish magicians, others incorporate them into their armies and personal guard. Over the next thousand years the evolution of magic takes shape from Good and Evil magic to a multitude of different uses, powers and abilities. Jefferson and his order? They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

And to think.

All I had to do was ask when!

So remember, when setting up your own scene book, try the following:

Scene ( # ): Chapter ( # )

When: Year, Season or Month, Day. (Possible Age or Era)

Who: Character X (Viewpoint), Character Y (Introduced), Character Z (Final Scene)

Where: Location (Locale) [Area]

What: X joining group, Meets Y, Group Ambushed, Z dies.

Why: X to lead group eventually, Y is mentor type character, Z demonstrates dangers of evil magic.

Or something similar. If you’d like any help starting one, let me know and I can see what I can do! I’m obviously still working it out but I’d love to hear your feedback on either how you’d set up your scene book or if you like my quick back story on the creation of Ellus!