Creating my own world... Options

[redsrock]

I was trying to decide on what NON-TES story I wanted to write next, and it donned on me that I have never actually tried to create my own personal world. So that is what I am going to do, but I need your help. Right now I am clueless as to where I want to go with story. I have the map already drawn out in "Paint", but I don't have a name for the 'world', nor do I have any idea on what the plot should be, or what creatures/species I should have.

Can anyone out there help a writer out? Have any of you all tried to create your own world? If so, what are the DOs and DONTs? What caused you to succeed/fail? I don't mean to sound offensive with the 'fail' part, but obviously there's a reason if you failed, and I want to know what it was so that I don't make the same mistake.

This project is pretty high on my list of things to accomplish right now, so I want to get things right. And even if you haven't tried to create your own world, I would still love to hear your opinions.

[0rimus]

Depth and realism, in terms of everything. Don't be afraid to go back to physics/chemistry to find out if something is plausable or not, but also be prepared to throw those guidlines right out the window (magic). My own problem is actually depth, my own world has so much new stuff right from the get-go that I kinda lost my first readers. Also, there isn't much to tie my world to our own, hence losing my readers. My story is more of a culture shock than a Russian going to South America. Wish I could be more helpful. Oh, also avoid uber characters. My main protagonist started out far too powerful, I'll have to go back and revise him. I also overused one city too many times, so it lacks interseting settings. Furthermore, I have a problem with making my female characters too similar in persona. Also, I wrote this beast by hand (600+ pages) and I tend to skip problems and jot down notes/suggestions for myself since it's such a huge undertaking, which has worked wonderfully. I skip detail and just write down events and specific ideas I want to use. It's like a rough draft for a rough drafts rough draft.