What do Giant Killer Ducks worship?

This may seem like a ludicrous title, because, well it is. There is however a serious point behind me using it. ‘A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.’ This quote whilst brilliant of Sidney Sheldon holds a great deal of truth for me, as such for an exercise in class I wrote about what this quote could mean. I did it through the medium of Giant Killer Ducks. What is world building? Well for me it involves sitting down with an idea, which is if you like the core of my planet. But a planet is much more than its core, just as a created world is much more than just the central idea of the story. You must build places around it, the key settings your character or characters will find themselves in, this if you like can be magma. The stuff surrounding the core idea, lying beneath the surface of the story in the planning stages. Then the tectonic plates, the jigsaw puzzle of arranging these scenes in order so that the story flows coherently, all of this must come from your original blank page. If you imagine this and attention to every conceivable detail such as the construct of grass then you begin to get an idea of what God, if you believe God created the world had to go through.

Then you must decide will you be creating a world for humanity or is this a world for some other creature. I recognise this isn’t applicable for all genres but for my preferred of fantasy it works nicely. At what point therefore did evolution begin on this planet, did it create humans or did it as in this scenario create the world of the Giant Killer Ducks? If so then you have to consider many things about the Giant Killer Ducks or GKD for short. For instance what size are these Giant killer ducks? Are there different types? Are the females bigger or smaller? If you wish to go for the romantic angle you must consider how do the GKD go about attracting a mate and what methods do they use to do so? Is it a weird dance that involves a great plume of multi coloured feathers, is it more subtle like nest building assistance? Do these GKD even live in nests? There is a great deal to be considered in this respect alone. Then you must decide what they want to do for sustenance because unless they eat nothing at some point in order to be alive a creature needs food. So what do they eat? Are they vegetarian or do they as in my original ramblings on this topic eat the sleepy sloths that have developed gills and live at the bottom of the ocean eating convenient seaweed patches? Do the male GKD eat smaller male GKD in a bid for dominance and power? So the idea for the basics is in place at least on one level, something of the world your story takes place in is coming together. But then you must consider more about society than simply mating rituals and food choice.

Do the GKD have a government or social political structure? Do they live in communes and sharing all of their valuable resources or do they have a system of paying for things in their currency of say, seaweed? Or does seaweed not exist in this world? In that case what do the sloths eat? Is this system of GKD governed by Godzilla sized ducks or is it instead managed by a conference of smaller yet smarter ducks that become the illuminati, the strength of the hive mind directing the bigger yet more stupid GKD to work for the greater good. Perhaps the hive mind is controlled by the great pink whale of clouds, whose true name of Muppet must never be spoken lest the ducks are in great need. If it is however invoked the great whale will fall from the heavens and crush the creatures to death, be they the GKD or their great foes the Midget Lighting covered Wombats. How do these civilisations react to one another? They are great foes but do they just set up great borders, are they fiercely warlike and do the ducks patrol the seas which cover 90% of the earth and are no deeper than your average pond. So there you have it, what do Giant Killer Ducks worship? A fun and very light hearted piece on world building I expanded from a workshop piece.

As always I hope that you are having fantastic days.
Hugh.