Honestly, anon, all I would advise is to read a lot of sci-fi. More experience with the genre will let you see how often certain tropes are used, and what the conventions of the genre are. If you have a lot of knowledge in that area, you can make a better decision as to what would be considered “cliche and boring,” since both of those are a matter of opinion.

Honestly, I think this can work in either setting, it’s up to you. In either case, I definitely recommend avoiding stereotypes, and if you aren’t part of a minority group you’re writing about, ask people who belong to that group if you aren’t sure about something. Representation is great, and there are a lot of groups that sorely need it, but it needs to be written well and not turn the character into a stereotype. Remember above all that no matter what minority group someone belongs to, they are still a person. That group may be a big part of their identity, but it’s not all of their identity. They should be written just as well and in depth as any other character you would write that you have more experience with.

Also, if you’re part of a certain minority group, it probably comes easily to you to write about people specific to that group. Which is great, because then you can add to the representation for your group! I am a lesbian, so I often write about wlw (women who love women), since that is what I’m comfortable with and there needs to be more wlw representation.

AutoREALM is a program I’ve used in the past, although I haven’t in a while so I’m not sure what it’s like now. Other than that, I’m not sure. Followers, do you have any input?

Thank you!! I’m glad you enjoy the blog.

Hmm. Let’s tackle the sky kingdom first. Unfortunately, to have anything float in the sky that has a significant weight, it will need some sort of force keeping it up in the air. If this civilization has actual buildings, they would need something like jet packs or rocket propulsion to keep the buildings steady. There could also be big wind fans on the bottom (think helicopter blades, except not on the top). In either of these cases, I think there would need to be people in charge of monitoring and steering buildings. Because wind exists, it would be hard to keep them in the same place, so people would have to watch their trajectory at all times. I think their main focus would be keeping the buildings steady so people don’t fall down, and also keeping them moving in a steady direction and avoiding things like storms.

As for the sea kingdom...I assume the species occupying this civilization can breathe underwater? In this case, you can probably just have regular buildings, depending on how deep it is. I can see this kind of kingdom occurring in more shallow water, because the deeper you go, the more pressure there is from all the tons of water. The buildings would be attached to the bottom of the sea, but the bottom wouldn’t be too far down (you wouldn’t have a civilization in the Marianas trench, for instance, unless the species was adapted to withstand extreme pressure. If they were, though, they might not do so well above water or in shallower depths because their bodies wouldn’t be used to it). When I picture an underwater city, I picture a lot of spires and buildings made of stone. If these people can swim, you also would not need stairs, just holes between floors for people to swim inside. Gravity wouldn’t be so much of an issue, so people could scale the inside (or outside!) of high buildings very easily.

I hope this helps give you a picture of what might work here!

Sorry this took so long! Life got busy again. Thank you, though!! I’m glad you enjoy the blog. (I’ll be getting to the rest of my inbox shortly.)

I’d definitely recommend drawing it, whether by hand or in a computer program. It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything! If you’re not a fan of art, even a simple diagram on a grid can do. You can mark X’s where certain things are, draw lines for the streets, etc. Grid paper makes this a lot easier, since there are two sets of lines going both ways. If your city is less organized and has curvy roads, I’d recommend plain paper instead.

If you’re not inclined to draw things in detail, I’d also recommend writing down little descriptions of the buildings/landmarks/etc along with your map. It’s a lot easier to look at something you wrote before than remember something from your mind alone. It’s also good to write things like that down to keep them consistent. You might write a certain building as being made of brick in one part of the story, but then you might forget and say that same building is made of cobblestones in a later part of the story.

Basically, I’d suggest having a little document (or in a notebook or something) of important things to remember about your city, and short descriptions of the major buildings/landmarks. This should be accompanied by at least a basic sort of map, even if it’s simple.

You said you have a mental outline, and that makes me think you haven't written it down. If you're having trouble starting or writing the story in general, I'd say definitely get the outline down on paper first, so you can have something concrete.

If you're having trouble writing anything down, period, then there are a few things you could do. Sometimes, when I'm feeling like I can't get anything down on paper, I take a break and go for a walk if I can. Distracting your mind by doing something completely unrelated to the story can help break the hold writer's block gets on you, as long as you don't let it last too long.

Another thing that helps me is to remind myself why I'm writing this story in the first place. Generally when you write fiction, you write about things you like and are passionate about (I would hope), so it helps to remind yourself about why you started this project. Maybe try to figure out three core things about your story that get you excited, and remembering those will hopefully inspire you.

If you haven't written anything because you're afraid of what people might think, well - screw those people. You have a story you're passionate about, and you're the only one who can write it. Even if it never gets published or you never show it to anyone, it's your story to tell, and if it's a story you love, you deserve to enjoy yourself.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the blog!

I looked around and I found this, which is various people's anecdotes of their experiences in the foster system. There's a lot of things that come up when you google "foster children experiences." Hope that helps!