About Grathew

Hello world,

I am Grathew, a worldbuilder who writes stories, and welcome to Grathew's Gazette: A home for worldbuilding advice, interviews, thoughtful stories, and ideas that inspire worlds of their own.

I Write Because I must

I believe that stories are a uniquely human thing, and can change tomorrow for the better. To accomplish this I have delved into what makes great stories great stories: Worldbuilding. It isn't the loud preachy shortcuts of modernity; it's the skillful crafting of the backdrop and the decisions that flow into and out of it. Therefor by worldbuilding one can pay attention to the subtle choices, silent rules and the mechanics that build the verisimilitude of a work. As I learn by building, and apply what I learn to what I build I discovered I had to write it down. There's only so much one can keep in their head after all.

Regardless if it's an exploration of deep space: covering politics of interstellar government, and uncharted worlds or the cozy cottages of a fantasy village where gossip flows with wine and the magic of youth never truly fades everything here is built with intent. To paraphrase my X bio: Build it like Tolkien, Use it like Lewis, and have as much fun as Dahl.

This isn't to say I have not done it other ways, in other mediums. I have been inventing stories for as long as I can remember, and telling them to anyone who's near by willing or otherwise. As I want to be the best storyteller out there, I started my quest to become a better one.

I started learning

I started where most people start, looking up how do I make this work, or how do I make this better when it comes to my story. From characterization to story elements to setting bits I was trying to learn it all. Not just what the 'rules' there were but how people broke them. Since the best break the rules to good effect. Thus knowing how the good break rules and get away with it can teach a lot.

I found a pattern, the entire curriculum could be summarized as 'ends justify the means'. That didn't sit well with me. What good is it learning how to develop an evil empire if it is functionally cardboard cutouts setting things up so that the heroes can act out on stage?

After that realization I decided to shift focus and instead of working to get a better story I started to build worlds. My first ones were messy, unkempt, and more amusing rather than a good project. Sometimes the math even added up. Thus I went though learning how things worked. Geology, biology, astrology, economics chemistry, physics, I dabbled with most topics and learned enough to get started. This is when I started sketching out Slonminma a w0rld I am still working on to this day.

Then I went to the Internet

Once I got a good while though enough of my learning I went off to the internet and started asking questions. Now this of course got me into trouble. Some of the internet got mad that I was asking questions, others got mad I wasn't asking the wrong questions. yet some started listening. This of course lead to me getting into a shouting match with the void. After a few iterations I ended up starting the gazette.

Which gets us to now. Where I'm still learning how to build worlds better, and tell stories within them better and sharing my knowledge with the world.