Meta: Interview

Interview

Where Did The Name For This World Come About?

Future’s Seen comes from the contraction “The Future has Seen”. Canon wise it means that I, the author, have seen the future and is warning others about it. In other words, “The Future has been Seen”.

What Inspired Your World?

My world is a Near Future dystopia. Dystopias are there not just as a way for the author to be angsty but can be a way to warn others of a perceived threat. Consider Nineteen Eighty-Four. It warns us not to memory hole things and that big government is an issue. My world is here to warn of misinformation. It was us in the Old World who allowed our physical sciences in my world to be infiltrated by misinformation from those who did the same with the “social” sciences.

Did You Think Future’s Seen Was Going To Be More Than 50 Articles On World Anvil?

In 2018, when I wrote a Google Doc, I didn’t know about World Anvil. I saw sponsors for it, but I always thought it was a paid-for thing. In July 2020, I got a World Anvil account and started writing. I just thought about turning the document into a series of articles and nothing else. It wasn’t until I happened across WriterGreg on my 29th birthday; I knew I could ask for help on article ideas and started my WIP document which, at present, is 10 pages long and doesn’t just contain FS stuff. It also contains GoT stuff, Lapin for life. On August 22, I did a sprint take over on WriterGreg’s Stream, to ask what questions I should ask about The Outside World. What I got instead was a string of helpful article points! At that point, I didn’t think I would have over 50 articles. It still astonishes me today looking at my word count on Google Sheets, and seeing my word count increase from 403 words to 58K - and that's not including my word count for Tourney of Tales, which must be over 75K. I have to thank WriterGreg for pushing me to write about The Great Rewind, Sable and HeffeLive for continually asking me for the name of the City, which is now Birdencaster, and lastly, Sable, for asking about why this world doesn’t seem to have issues with copper, which led to the Salvaging Industry series of articles.

What Is Your Plan For Future’s Seen?

FS Part 1 was always intended as therapy fiction. I would write to help myself out. For example, I might want to be accepted, so I would write a scene in which I was. When FS part 2 came about, I wanted to make a computer game called, unsurprisingly “Future’s Seen”. It wasn’t until I got to writing the salvaging series of articles, and showcased the Meta Introduction article, that I soon realised, I could create this world, and give people rights to make items that are based on parts of the FS IP, as long as I get a royalty of course!

What Made You Stop Going Down The Computer Game Idea?

The skill and time aspect is the main issue. I am still having issues with BB Code to this day. I wrote a new article and would hear a voice saying, “You’re going to need to build this for the computer game” - Which I didn’t enjoy. What I enjoyed more was writing about Forestry, for example. I could imagine myself starting there and describing what I saw during the writing of the article. At the time it was one long thing. It’s one thing to write a world, it's another one to want to stay there!

Are There Article Subjects You Will Not Touch?

Yes, I will never touch medical stuff. Not because I am squeamish, but because I know that there is going to be one person who is a medical practitioner or a historian who would be like “that's wrong, it would be like this”. It also doesn’t interest me that much. If I reinserted the hospital, it would be over one of them, and I would have to look up how many beds would be in each. I would also have to think about how the Great Rewind affected medical technology, something that would require me to go to London for its Science Museum. To a lesser extent, when I wrote FS P1, I wanted to have as little conflict as possible. I didn’t like wars, and I didn’t want my characters having arguments. Arguments, how I write them, either sound too polite or too academic. It wasn’t until I watched Matthew Colville that I thought he was right.

Are the nations in your Dungeons and Dragons campaign at war? If not, why not?
— Matthew Colville (The Politics of Peace. Running the Game #24)

There should be some conflict somewhere so when I get there I will reach out to Sable for help, using her brainstorm redemption. Last, I wouldn’t touch religion as in the UK, we have laws that can be restrictive, but I am happy to make up my own as I did with the Johnny Miller Article.

Did The Pandemic Affect Your Research?

It would be odd if I said it didn't. My military research still requires me to go to HMS Warrior in Portsmouth as it will be a good way for me to “see it” when I write. I can talk to experts and get answers from them that the internet may have jargon based issues. Such as when I tried to find out how much a kilogram of nickel is worth.

What Is Your Writing Process?

So the process is; get an idea, ask others what the template should be (I often have some idea), what they want to see in the article, then lay it out in Google Docs and fill that in with content. After that, I edit it twice, Then I send it to someone else for edits, change the text, read it back, insert it into World Anvil, add the BB code for the mention system, change the layout so it looks good, add images, add in sidebar text and lastly, update my word count spreadsheet. After insertion I go through streamers in this order; HeyitsAP, Siobhan, Laurabones, HeffeLive, WriterGreg, KahunaTheElder and then end on Sable.

Were You Always A Writer?

As a child, I would come up with stories. Unfortunately, I would say them while in the presence of the school staff and then they would get the idea for us to write a story. My stories weren’t "nice" as a child, so I felt restricted, especially as the school would read my story and be like “ok we need to call in your parents”. Coupled with being dyslexic and hating getting work back that might as well have been covered in red ink, and you can see it took me a long time to get into the writing circle. In my college days I would write articles on topics I wanted to see as part of British life such as a bank that was open later and on bank holidays, and open to all bank accounts. It’s odd for a writer such as myself to say this, but I am a faster writer than I once was and I can now turn out about a Maximum of 14 articles in a month. When I started it was about an article a month if that. I am finding it harder to have ideas now and have dry spells more easily. I write by seeing it so I have a list of items and if I can't see it I won't go down the route of writing it.

Were There Any Articles You Had Imposter Syndrome On?

Every writer gets imposter syndrome. Mine was on Forestry. I felt that people who lived in areas that had a forestry industry would pooh-pooh my article and not enjoy it. I was wrong of course, thanks to Siobhan for the comment and like!

Is It True That You Planned For World Ember 2021 In February Of The Same Year

Yes, I did!

Do You Find World Ember Easy?

Yes, I am an over writer so I will use 12 words when five will do just as well. I also like putting in tables for pretty much anything. This year’s World Ember for me, I will be writing about transportation and trade items. Last time I found I hadn't planned for it so this year I have, but quite a bit earlier. This year’s World Ember will lead into a Military Conflict in March. As in January, I will be writing Season 2 of GoT and editing it in February.

There Is A New Member Of World Anvil Who Is A Freeman, Got Any Advice?

I am a freeman too. One point is that we have a limit of 175 Articles. You will feel like that’s not a lot of articles and will feel like you will burn through them. You won’t, it is hard to burn through them all.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Have a permanently drafted article with the Document Template. The point to this is to test bb code, and you can test what the document will look like without sticking it to the actual article. It can also then be a plan article that no one else sees!
Lastly don’t be afraid to put your stuff out there, and to have it showcased. Also, if people badger you for answers, that is not a bad thing. It just means another article needs to be created! You will feel annoyed at the start but at the end, you will be pleased that you made the choice to make the article.

Have You Got Any Other Projects Going?

I write my character’s story in the Game of Tomes story universe and I have many buildings and interiors to finish in Minecraft. I am currently building the headquarters of House Lapin in Minecraft.

What Can We Expect From Your World In The Future?

You can expect at least one new military conflict, I just need to write the situation document for it and redeem Sable’s Brainstorm redemption. You can expect a whole bunch of new articles that I wrote during the Tourney of Tales in April. I think I’m up to 17 articles that will be inserted when I put them up.

And Finally, Why House Lapin?

The story goes like this; It was November 2020 and I am about to make my first word report in Greg’s Stream. I had narrowed my choices down to House Lapin and Meles. I thought Meles looks cool. It's like a melee, as in a melee weapon. I realised that this was not the case and I couldn’t pronounce it. For sheer luck that I couldn’t pronounce it, I go for Lapin. I then decided that if Lapin were to fall I would go to Meles. Little did I know that by the time Lapin did fall, Meles had already fallen for about 15 days! I can’t insert this into my character's story as it has already been written to be that I was already loyal to House Lapin even before I started playing Game of Tomes, so it wouldn't make sense for my character to be loyal then enlist, for the badgers. I am pleased I made the Game of Tomes more fun for others and that I increased the recruitment for Lapin higher because of my obsessive loyalty to House Lapin!