A lot of this column comes from my experiences in worldbuilding - playing and writing RPGs, a shared-universe project, and my past and current writing, quite a few years of it. I still recall my first universe - a bizare mix of mary-sueism, genetic engineering, weird religious stuff, and an interest in UFOs. I was about 11 when I created it.

However, I'm always learning new things. Art in a strange way isn't about success - it's ...

It's a nightmare.

Your world is forged and designed, documented and mapped. You have characters and histories and mysteries and ecologies. Everything's perfect, right? It's time to write, and . . .

. . . what are you going to write about? Wait a second, you've got a world, but where the heck's the story? It was there when you started this . . .

Or, you have your world, and you've written a story and . . . the well is dry. You know your world, but there aren't any tales to tell! What happened?

A strange paradox ...

A few columns ago, I wrote about "Timeline Based Writing, which works in the following way:

It's been nearly a year since I started "A Way With Worlds," and I figured that for the anniversary, I'd get philosophical.

For a year, I've written about creating worlds and populating them, on writing about them and exploring them. You, my readers, have written and planned and crafted and told tales in the last year.

So, why did I do it? Why do you do it? Why are we spinning worlds and universes? What's the point?

Well, I've asked myself why I write and why I write this column, and, ideally (note, ideally) why people write and create. What is it, at ...

INTRODUCTION:
Well, I've been talking about building worlds for nearly six months. So, I figure its time to take a look at how I used my own advice to create my own original setting and story: Xai, Tales of the Crossworld. For those of you who've mulled over my comments and those of you creating your own worlds, I hope my experience can help - I've built worlds before, but on Xai, I put all I'd learned together, and learned a lot more.

(Also, the Xai site, was insturmental in helping me write the webbing parts of this column.)

STARTING OUT:
Xai started out innocently with, not a world, but two characters in an online role-playing ...

OK, yes, I wanted an impressive title because the actual theme of this column may sound as exciting as clipping your toenails. However, please trust me, put away the nailclipper, and read on.

You've put a lot of work into your world. You need to protect the information and the work. I'm not talking copyright (hey, I put up the notes and I even file the forms myself). I'm talking, yes, backup and protection of your world data and stories.

Of course everyone knows how to back up, right? It's obvious, right? Just save some files.

In my experience, sadly, it isn't obvious. Not for me, not for my friends, not for my co-workers. Recently a friend of mine lost almost his complete body of works, and ...