Creating a Kingdom That Exists Only in Imagination

One of the things I enjoy most about Valentine Kingdom is that it does not have to follow a place that already exists. I am not trying to recreate a real country, city or period. The entire world can grow from imagination, which gives me a lot of freedom but also means I have to decide how everything fits together.

Usually I do not sit down and try to design an entire kingdom at once. It starts much smaller. I might imagine a road, a forest, a room, a garden or a gate and then begin thinking about what could exist around it. Where does the road lead? What is behind the forest? How far away is another place? Little questions slowly make the world larger.

Making an Imagined Place Feel Real

Even though Valentine Kingdom is completely invented, I still want it to feel like somewhere that could continue beyond whatever the reader is seeing at that moment.

If Alexander travels somewhere, I want to understand where he came from and what surrounds him. If two places feel completely different, I want there to be a reason for that difference. The reader does not need an explanation for every road or building, but having those things clear in my own mind makes writing much easier.

I also like giving places their own feeling. Sometimes a location becomes important because of what happens there, but sometimes I simply like the atmosphere of it. A quiet room, a forest, a road at night or a garden can stay in my mind even when nothing enormous happens there.

That is probably why I spend so much time thinking about the world outside the main story. I do not want locations to exist only because I suddenly need somewhere for a scene to happen. I want them to feel like they were already there.

The World Can Keep Growing

The biggest advantage of creating an entirely imagined kingdom is that there are very few limits on how large it can become.

I can introduce another place later without having to copy something from the real world. I can return to an old location and reveal something that was never important before. Some places may only appear briefly while others can remain important across several books.

I also do not feel like I need to explain everything immediately. Personally, I prefer discovering the world gradually while I write it. Sometimes a small idea becomes much more important than I expected, and sometimes something I planned ends up changing completely.

That freedom is part of what makes Valentine Kingdom interesting for me to create.

A book eventually has to end, but the world around it does not.

As long as I still have ideas for places, people and stories, Valentine Kingdom can continue growing.