#spec advice

[jomindraws]

Hi! I am a fellow spec worldbuilder and am wanting to dive ever deeper into what i make because spending months on a singular world is not enough apparently lol. Any chance you could share what resources you use in your worldbuilding?

Sure thing! I've fallen into my own, convoluted system over time, but I can give you some resources to start! You don't need a subscription to a complex program-- just using Docs is good enough to organize! For complex organization, I like to use Obsidian which is also free ( and very very helpful).

If you're looking for some basic guides to start the geography of an Earth-like planet, I would look at Artifexian's tutorials... he has a sort of follow-along guide for a lot of tectonics etc, but its not necessary to follow exactly to the tee.

For spec bio/evo, Biblaridion has a FANTASTIC spec evo series which should get you a rough grasp on spec mechanics. Atlas Pro also has some good videos for following along Earth's paleontology and animal evolution to give you some ideas as well.

As for programs, like I said Docs works fine, although some form of Excel/Sheets/etc is good for calculations. I cannot recommend Obsidian MORE, it is a lifesaver. As for drawing maps and such, GPlates is OKAY for tectonics, but its not intuitive whatsoever. Although I make my maps on Clip Studio Paint, there are free alternatives like Krita you can use (or you can try Adobe Illustrator if you're feeling frisky). (For research, a lot of aforementioned ones should cover your back but I do recommend searching your local library for any books about ecosystems, phylogenetics, tree of life adjacent things, etc.) A lot of spec worldbuilding is pretty much a stone's throw into a dark chasm, so you have to use your own intuition and logic for a lot of it. Remember that the farther you stray from Earth-like, the less hard-science materials you will have to firmly go off of - BUT, the less boring and more """alien""" your life can get. So by all means, make your system life on an ice giant orbiting a dead pulsar !... but be ready to fudge some numbers.

[elbiotipo]

Some notes on worldbuilding with carnivorous cultures:

Animals feed more people than you think. You don't kill a cow for just one steak, this is a modern misconception since we're removed from the actual animals we eat our meat from; a single cow has several kilos of meat. In fact, slaughtering a single cow often means a feast time for possibly dozens of people. Every part of an animal can be used, and you can see this in cultures that live by ranching and transhumance.

Here, you should look at the Mongols and the people of the Eurasian Steppe, the people of the North American Plains, the people of the Pampas (fun fact; Buenos Aires was called the "carnivore city"), European and Asian cultures that practice transhumance, and those of the Arctic circle.

There are many ways to cook meat, but arguably, the most nutritious way to consume meat is in stew, as it allows you to consume all the fats of the animal and add other ingredients. In fact, mutton soup and stew historically was one of the basic meals for the for people in the Eurasian Steppe, who are one of the people with the highest meat consumption in the world.

Of course, meat spoils away easily. Fortunately, from jerky to cured meats, there are ways to prevent this. In pre-industrial and proto-industrial societies, salted meat was the main way of consumption and exporting meat. This makes salt even a more prized good.

Often, certain parts of animals like eyes, the liver, the testicles, the entrails, are considered not only cultural delicacies but as essential for vitamins and nutrients unavailable in environments such as the poles. The Inuit diet is a very strong example.

Pastures and agriculture have often competing dynamics. The lands that are ideal for mass pasture, that is, temperature wet grasslands, are also often ideal for agriculture. So pastoralism has often been in the margins of agrarian societies. This dynamic could be seen in the Americas. After the introduction of cattle and horses, the Pampas hosted semi-nomadic herdsmen, natives and criollo gauchos. The introduction of wire eventually reduced this open territory, converting it into intense agriculture, and traditional ranching was displaced to more "marginal" land less suitable for agriculture. Similar processes have happened all over the world.

This also brings an interesting question to explore. Agriculture is able to feed more people by density. What about species that DON'T do agriculture, because they're completely carnivorous? The use of what human civilization considers prime agricultural land will be different. They will be able to support much higher population densities than pastoralism.

Pastoral human populations have developed lactase persistance to be able to feed on dairy products even in adulthood. This mutation has happened all over the world, presumably with different origins. In any mammalian species that domesticates other mammals such a thing would be very common if not ubiqutous, as it massively expands the diet. Milk provides hydration, and cheese, yogurth and other such products allows long lasting food sources.

What about hunting? Early humans were apex predators and we are still ones today. However, humans can eat plants, which somewhat reduces the hunting pressure on fauna (though not the pressure of agrarian expansion which can be even worse). An exclusively carnivorous species (for example some kind of cat people) would have to develop very rigid and very complex cultural behavior of managing hunting, or else they would go extinct from hunger before even managing domestication. These cultural views towards hunting have also arosen in people all over the world, so you can get a sense of them by researching it.

It is possible for pastoral nomadic people, without any agriculture, to have cities? Of course. All nomadic peoples had amazing cultures and in Eurasia, they famously built empires. But they traded and entered conflicts with agrarian societies, too. They weren't isolated. Most of nomadic societies were defined by trade with settled ones.

The origin of human civilization and agriculture is still debated. It would be probably completely different for a non-human carnivorous society. One possible spark would be ritual meeting points (such as the historical Gobleki Tepe) or trade markets growing into permanent cities. But in general, pastoralism, hunting and ranching favors low-density populations that would be quite different.

Fishing, on the other hand, is a reliable source of protein and promotes settled cities. One can imagine acquaculture would be developed very early by a civilization hungry for protein.

Other possibilities of course are the raising of insects and mushrooms, both very uncommonly explored in fiction besides passing mentions.

Of course, most carnivorous species have some limited consumption of plant matter and many herbivores are oportunistic predators. The main thing to ask here is what the daily meal is here. For most human agrarian cultures, it's actually grain (this is where the word meal comes from). What about species that cannot live with a grain-based diet? You will find that many things people take for granted in agrarian society would be completely different.

As I always say: the most important question you can ask is "where does the food comes from?"

I hope you found these comments interesting and useful! I would love to do a better post once I'm able to replace my PC (yes, I wrote this all in a phone and I almost went insane). If you like what I write and would love to see more worldbuilding tips, consider tipping my ko-fi and checking my other posts. More elaborate posts on this and other subjects are coming.

[cjlouwho]

Something from Tommy’s past shows up that disturbs Buck’s mind because he thought his guy was pretty perfect. Tommy doesn’t dwell on this past thing. Admits to it, hates that it happened, but it was a very long time ago and he’s made amends and grown a lot since then. But Buck spirals because the young Tommy he’d made in his mind doesn’t match up.

He gets good advice from Bobby, and his sister, and even Josh. But there’s still a nagging in the back of his mind. Until Eddie calls him mid-crisis. At Eddie’s, he’s told that Christopher finally talked to him but none of it was good. He can’t let go of the mistakes Eddie made, and Eddie’s having a hard time letting go of it himself. All that keeps going through his mind is how he’s a screw up and really doesn’t deserve Chris’ forgiveness. Buck’s adamant that Eddie needs to forgive himself. He recognizes what he did was wrong, he’s working to be better, he doesn’t deserve his whole life to surround this one mistake. He doesn’t have to be defined by that.

Oh.

That’s when he realizes he should take his own advice. Everyone deserves a second chance if they’re willing to make a change. He goes to Tommy after leaving Eddie’s place, because his relationship with Tommy is one worth fighting for, and he’s gonna do whatever it takes.

[thelamb1429]

As someone who’s aroace spec who does feel a bit of romantic attraction, here’s some older brother advice to any other aroace spec people who like romance but don’t feel the attraction a lot.

No butterflies in your stomach? That’s perfectly fine, yknow? At the end of the day, if your partner makes you feel at peace, safe, remembered, content, then your heart not racing when they’re around is not a big deal. If they kiss you and you don’t feel jittery, but you feel calm, happy, taken care of, then that’s love. Love doesn’t have to be ground breaking emotions and physical sensations, love can be wanting someone in your future forever, love can be falling asleep in someone’s arms, love can be many things, and the lack of typical physical sensations doesn’t mean you can’t love.

If you love your partner but they don’t give you butterflies, that’s okay. Butterflies mean nothing when compared to feeling secure, understood, loved, acknowledged, etc.

Love’s about wanting the best for someone and walking hand in hand to make it happen for you both. It’s about having someone who cares about you to come home to at the end of the day.

Anyways yeah i need sleep hope this is semi comprehensible

[ravenclod]

are friend crushes a thing? i know they are in the sense of "oh i want to be friends with them " but what if youre already friends?? like you giggle and kick ur feet thinking abt them and smile and want them to be happy so much and love hugging them n it sounds weird bur cuddling w them but u dont get butterflies or imagine dating them or kissing or get blushy crushy or get nervous and giggly or whatever. please help

[troythecatfish]

[aro-culture-is]

sorry if this isn't the place to ask, i'm just feeling really dumb right now and the blogrunners here are very good at explaining things in a kind way i can understand: how do aplatonic people think of the people in their lives if not as friends? i don't ask to be judgemental, i'm really sorry if my question sounds rude, i just want to know if most aplatonic people see their (nonromantic, nonsexual) relationships as purely transactional or if it varies from person to person. i maintain a lot of impersonal transactional relationships myself so i get that, i'm just curious

hiya! i think this is something that's more of a personal question that varies among aplatonic folks.

we (the blog runners) are a system, with some members alloplatonic, others apl-spec, none who primarily identify as apl currently. Our apl-spec headmates usually call individuals we're close with our friends, in a similar way to how ace people can have sex and aro people can have romantic relationships - it's not exactly the same, but they don't feel strongly about not calling those people friends. they feel no particular drive to hang out with specific people, thought they may do so for an assortment of reasons. those are often either transactional, about maintaining relationships with people that our system values, or about community building and care, which we are very driven towards. (as in, regularly start up connections for the purpose of community building and forming affinity groups)

I'll also encourage other folks under the apl-spec to respond to this via reblogs!

note: Our blog preference, to be clear, is that we do not receive follow-up asks from anons on previous topics, as it just gets pretty confusing to navigate. when our inbox used to be in the 6-7 hundreds regularly for this blog, we'd often have asks from over a month prior appear and disappear from the inbox by just... refreshing the same page. thank you for understanding!

[realthoughtsreal]

Aceness

Um guys. Fellow aroaces.

How the fuck do you find people to date?

Seriously, what f secret am I missing here?

I want love so badly.

[fatedroses]

Emotions running high.

[aceysun]

hey so i have a question

im a allosexual lesbian and my gf told me today that she thinks she may be asexual. i told her that its fine and not a big deal. that it didnt change anything more me. were only 17 and having sex wasn't really on my agenda anyways.

id rather die than make her uncomfortable or make her feel like shes wrong for being ace but still a part of me is disappointed. and i feel awful for that. id never ever ask anything like that of her but part of me still is sad i suppose that we wont have that part of our relationship.

im not in a relationship with her for sex or her body or anything. i love her as a person above all else. and like i said i cant stand the idea of her even feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable or guilty about it. i feel bad for feel sad about it.

i want to be supportive ofc but do you think its okay to still be a little sad about it? what should i do to be sure i dont fuck it up?

that was so rambly im sorry @-@

Definitely a very valid question to have. I think its very understandable that you're a bit sad about it, it can be difficult to know a person you love don't have the same feelings for you as you have for them. Feel it, talk to your friends about it, write it, and if you do it in the right way and in the right context you can tell her its something you're struggling with.

I think the most important thing to do is to support her, this can be a very hard time (I know it was for me) and listen to what she has to say!

one thing you can do is to look up the split attraction model and talk about the other types of attraction you feel for each other. It can be comforting to know what other things are mutual and how much else there is except sexual attraction!

[aaa-battery-not-rechargeable]

Hi! Do you have any advice on figuring out whether I'm aro or just want to be single for a while? I know that I'm on the asexual spectrum. But I'm not sure whether I'm aro, or just unhappy in my relationship. Thank you for any advice <3

hmmm i think it's worth evaluating what 'attraction' means for you. maybe look at some resources on how to identify 'romantic attraction', i know tumblr has a lot of blogs that can help

my asexuality and aromanticism go hand in hand, so it was harder for me to find and use the aro term, because for awhile i just didn't consider the possibility of being both. aromanticism is a worldview for me too, so it was hard to pinpoint which experiences set me apart from folks who do love

i've been in several relationships, and i understand the unhappiness. it could totally end up being that you're aro and that would explain it, but being aro isn't the only reason you could be unhappy with a relationship

regardless, i just encourage you to do what you think is best for you, and if that means being single for awhile (regardless of if you're aro or not!), that is a totally normal thing to want, and you should prioritize your own peace and boundaries before anyone else's feelings. you have the right to say you want to be single, aro or allo.

godspeed brother, i've got ur back

[sunsetsands]

More akada drawings, this time surrounding different facial shapes. I want to avoid them all just looking identical. Not sure if it’s easy enough to tell them apart, though.

[deadnatura11]

Someone pointed out that Eddie meeting the cheerleader kid's father was very similar to an early scene he shared with Ana, and...

We know the man is divorced.

Maybe he makes an assumption about Eddie and tries to initiate something which leads to Eddie thinking a few things over about his own life?

[batsplat]

maybe you know that before pecco first met casey, he said the thing he wanted to know most was how casey felt about vale! do you think they actually talked about it, and how do you think they discussed it with each other?

https://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2021/11/04/bagnaia-keen-to-pick-stoners-brain-on-rossi-rivalry/29836

(link)

I didn't have the possibility already to meet Casey, but I know he was in my garage speaking with [Pecco's current and Casey's former crew chief] Gabarrini, but I think I will meet him after the conference. And I will ask him many things because when I was young - it's the first time that I meet him, and when I was young I was looking, him and Vale fighting. And I would like to know what he's thinking about Vale.

well, pecco. probably not anything particularly polite at any given moment, but it's worth a shot

so I did see this at the time but it had completely slipped my mind, cheers anon!! very endearing, pecco truly living my dream (not the being a motorcycle racer bit or winning championships bit, but hunting down gossip on rivalries straight from the source). wants to ask casey MANY THINGS, this man is prepared. a true scholar!! it does make it even funnier how this was their first meeting... pecco really was already fantasising about asking casey about his number one feud before even saying hello. he's just like me fr. I support him in his fact-finding quest

anyhow - yeah it is fun because pecco ofc was enough of a ducati fan that he was supporting BOTH valentino and casey as a kid, which is like... extremely valid of him, he's so me... also, as has been previously discussed on this blog, he does have some credentials in zeroing in on the most interesting bits of his mentor's career, cf him making the enlightened choice at valencia 2021 to pay tribute to valentino with a 'che spettacolo' helmet. just unambiguously the most compelling choice he specifically could have made, I want to sit him down and have him walk me through his thinking (chronic overthinker so you know he did put in the mental miles) AND how he feels about that specific season. this is a man with a healthy interest in feuds I reckon. bringing this up mainly just as an excuse to revisit the photo with his cute sister

helmet only somewhat ruined by those ugly ass logos

some more key pecco background info is that he wants to visit some famous circuits motogp no longer visits one day, including suzuka AND - crucially - laguna seca. he also says he likes reading sports autobiographies... which, apart from the one from his literal mentor, you kinda have to assume the casey one would be basically at the top of the list? so I'm just gonna go ahead and assume pecco has read that thing. basically all of this is to say that if you gave pecco a free run at this, you can trust him to know his lore pretty well I reckon. he'd have some decent questions to ask

so we've established motive and ability, let's move on to opportunity. do I think they did actually talk about it... maybe! the way pecco talks about it in the presser, it kinda sounds like he wants to have a proper sit down with casey at the very first time of asking to grill him about the valentino feud, which to me sounds like quite a ballsy approach... but you never know, maybe he did manage to have a proper conversation with casey about it in the middle of a race weekend. (incidentally, pecco won that race, so he did manage to take the spoils on both his 'meeting casey' weekend and 'valentino retiring' weekend, fair play.) in the following year casey clearly did take on a reasonably active role in the team, so they had a decent amount of contact race weekend to race weekend. to quickly go through the archives:

from portimao 2021 (suggesting a PAY CUT to get casey lol)

silverstone 2022 (really is co-parenting, very sweet)

austria 2022 (poor fabio)

and phillip island 2022 (feat. the track walk)

given all that... I mean, idk, you have to hope that pecco with his obvious interest took his shot when he had it. like,, this was a bit of a one and done type deal, pecco had a year to properly exploit this situation... you've got to take that chance, right? I'm not sure I entirely trust pecco to work this organically into a conversation, but you don't have to let that stop you. you gotta get casey's thoughts on... riding a ducati... while fighting other riders wheel-to-wheel... when you're title rivals... and then hope casey doesn't try to start talking about the two times him and jorge overtook each other in the 2011 season, yeah

the way pecco makes it sound in the presser, maybe he did just flat out ask casey about the feud lol. like a real go-getter. I hope he phrased his opening question in the exact same way as he did in the presser quote, like yes please do ask casey what he's "thinking about vale". as for casey's response... my guess is that he probably keeps it cute, stays reasonably professional. there's a few general themes that tend to crop up pretty frequently when casey discusses fighting valentino, but he does mix it up depending on the occasion and the audience - he's capable of modulating the tone. you'll note that around the time of valentino's retirement, casey is considerably more polite about valentino while he's actually attending the race at portimao (where he also first met pecco, yes) than a few weeks later when he's shit talking on his own time. contrary to popular belief, casey can do diplomacy - he just often doesn't want to. in this particular situation, casey would probably opt to start out with all the diplomatic stuff he was actually saying in portimao anyway: about what a strong opponent valentino was, about how his career achievements had been validated through fighting valentino, about how there were some good points and some bad points but casey learned a heck of a lot etc etc etc

once you get that stuff out of the way... as discussed in more depth in this post, when casey's not outright insulting valentino, he does tend to focus on valentino's intelligence as an opponent - clever, cunning savvy, all that - which, yes, was often about all the off-track media shit, but also described valentino's on-track approach. depending on how casey frames it, there may obviously be more negative connotations to valentino's 'cunning', suggestions of the dirty and the untoward and the downright unfair - and there's typically something quite loaded about how casey talks about everything he learned from valentino. but emphasising valentino's cleverness is still probably the most likely starting point for casey when describing that rivalry to one of valentino's direct disciples - it's the compliment casey has long been the most prepared to pay valentino. beyond that... I tend to think that casey wouldn't be inclined to go into massive amounts of detail about the ins and outs of that rivalry with pecco. maybe if pecco catches him on the right day, he can get a little more - it's not out of the question for casey to delve somewhat into how tricky it is to fight against an evil lunatic quite an aggressive rider who is willing to make your life hell out on the track. maybe some talk about the actual nitty-gritty of fighting valentino that I do not have the technical expertise to imagine in any more detail. or maybe give pecco a spiel about how important it is to focus on yourself, just ignore what the other guy is doing, and so on - that'd probably strike a chord with pecco given the similarities between the pair of them in that regard. one of the reasons why casey was such a tricky opponent for valentino at the beginning of their rivalry was how immune casey was to the typical valentino tactic of just harassing rivals from behind. you'd probably want to focus on that aspect if you're casey, something about how it's important not to let your rivals get in your head. casey did say in early 2023 that pecco had needed to "calm a couple of things down" lol, so maybe he feels that's some advice that needs giving

what I will say is that I reckon casey would probably confine his anecdotes mostly to what valentino was up to on the track. at most a teensy bit about how tricky it can be to face an opponent skilled at putting pressure on you by using the media, but no lengthy diatribes about how valentino wasn't as nice to him anymore when they became rivals or any of that. in general, yeah, hard to see him being all that interested in giving pecco much to work with. casey's mellowed somewhat since retiring, but you probably don't want to push it too much. he's there to give riding advice, after all - not to satisfy the personal curiosity of valentino's prized protege. still, hopefully pecco got something fun out of him. I have to believe he's at least grilled valentino about his side of the rivalry at some point over the years... like I said, living the dream

[heywriters]

I’m attempting to write a romance in my otherwise fantasy adventure story, which ends in the love interest dying to further the main character’s goal of finding solace and fighting against the forces that bring death to her loved ones. Any tips on how to write it to steer away from cliches?

Romance and fantasy are genres that thrive on their tropes and cliches though! Most dedicated readers of either genre want what they enjoyed in other books, so it doesn't hurt to read repeat tropes. Maybe it would help to know what the pros and cons are of some are first?

Love Interest Dies to Further Story is a common trope when it's a woman who dies, but it can also be a man. The cliche itself isn't bad, I've used it myself and it changed my character's entire arc. Readers might get tired of it, but impactful deaths are useful! It has been done well in several stories, especially ones where the romance is secondary to the plot.

Love Interest Only Exists to Die is a less great trope, especially for the reader. The love interest may be a great character, but if they never have a real influence on the story or even the main character, keen readers will catch on "wait, this person's just fodder!" Whatever the stakes are for the love interest, they should be equivalent to those faced by the main character. It hurts more to see a loyal partner die than an obvious vehicle for angst.

Love Interest is Secretly Bad has a dramatic use, but unfortunately it gets abused often for shock value. When it comes out of nowhere it's especially unfair to the reader. It can be used to redeem a character last minute, for example "Yes, I did help them break into your house, but then I called the police because I felt guilty. I should have told you sooner."

There are tons more, but you do not need to worry about them. It would be better to just right the story any way that feels right to you. You can use the cliches I mentioned, put your own spin on them, and create something new and interesting!

Found an article on Writer's Digest that may also help -> 4 Tips for Writing Fantasy Romance

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[troythecatfish]