So, I hopped back in our server for the first time in a long while, and got started on a little building. Nothing much, just making a house to keep my stuff at the moment, but I thought “Hey… Why don’t I build the pirate ship from my story?”
Hmm. I haven’t actually started on it yet because we urgently needed to hangglide around the house and bury each other in obsidian, and I might have had some beers (IRL and in game, we play with mods), and then my daughter woke up so it was time to log out and show her off on skype instead…
But that idea is stuck in my head. I should build the ship from my story in the server, a 1:1 replica of the big-ass pirate ship Sleipnir. Minecraft is like lego, I can build anything I dream up, so why not something for my writing?
It’d certainly be more productive than group photos in the wolf pen…
Do you plan out locations from your works, and what tools do you use?
Best regards,
D.R.Sylvester
D.R.SYLVESTER FICTION 
I’ve never done Minecraft. I think for some locations in my series, designing it and putting it out there might be pretty cool…
It would. You should. If you want to get started it’s the easiest thing in the world: you just download the game and pay about $30 to get an account (not sure what it is in your local currency). The wiki and youtube will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about what to do in game and how to do it. It’s like an infinite lego set (in creative mode, anyway).
If you want to build whole story settings quickly and easily there’s this thing called worldedit you can download and try (you’ll need a decent PC though).
Sjin from the Yogscast has lots of inspirational “Let’s Build” videos demonstrating this mod and the potential of Minecraft. In one series he builds Erebor from the Hobbit…
Good luck!
Aha, I need a decent computer, not a five year old clunker like mine! I’m going to look into it anyway. Thanks!
5 years might not be hopeless for worldedit, depending on RAM & graphics card. And Minecraft itself doesn’t need much pluck at all (unless you’re running one of the bigger modpacks and some shaders…)
Have fun mate!
Thanks!
I recently started playing Minecraft, and have found it to be a HUUUGE drain on my time, time that I should be spending writing. I have definitely thought of using it to build some of my fantasy locations, but first I have to actually get good at building things that look at least slightly plausible as constructions… I wish you luck in balancing your time with the newborn, and congrats!
What, Minecraft a time consuming distraction!? No, surely not… *thinks back over the last few years.*
Okay maybe you have a point. As for the building plausible things, yeah I hear you. It’s one thing to imagine and another entirely to put it in physical form. I’m wondering if an old fashioned pencil sketch map might serve me better. Still it’s tempting to be able to walk around and hang out in worlds of my own devising…
Thank you, and thank you! It’s all going well so far 🙂
Minecraft is awesome for planning stories, awesome I tells you. I mean it’s a lot more time-consuming than drawing on a piece of paper, but the result is way more impressive. I can’t draw for the life of me. And to get some sort of understanding of three-dimensional locations there’s nothing better than building something yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkbZQo0llgg&list=UUvJrwrDbQI7VZmrTCrSXqNQ A cooperation between hubby and I. I did the digging, he’s the architectonic mastermind. So… I have yet to write a story including a rollercoaster… but if I will…there’s the location 😀
Absolutely about the more impressive part! Unfortunately also agree with the time consuming bit… addictive as well. I’d love to check out your vid but it says it’s private? 😦
I’ve done a couple of minecraft vids but they’re more focussing on mods than vanilla MC. I don’t want anyone to think I’m some kind of massive nerd (he says whilst writing Pirate Sci-Fi)
Side note: You can make an RPG out of Custom NPCs mod, so if you REALLY had time to kill you could make a game out of your story… just so long as your story was set in a blocky fantasy world