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Hello readers,
this guide, made with the help of Factbook Writers Association (FWA), is designed to be a small but useful guide for those interested in writing factbooks.

Currently, you have probably already seen many well written factbooks around NationStates, but you need to know a simple truth.
Any good factbook, in fact, contains threee simple sections:
-map;
-resources;
-Government.

1- Map
The first thing you need to do is work out where your nation is. What will it be? An island, a continental nation, an archipelago etc...
Now follows the enviroment: which enviroments can be found in your nation? Woods, deserts, plains, hills, mountains etc.... If you are not planning to invent the animals of your nation, you should also already know which creatures live there.
The enviroment will be strictly linked to your weather.
Now you will already have three characteristics of your nation: geography, enviroment and weather.
You can also think about developing your own national map. If your graphics skills aren't quite so good, you can ask for help from the FWA mapping service. 😄

2- Resources
Based on your weather and geography, you will have different resources on your nation. Of course you can't have them all ; later exchangin resources will also be a nice opportunity to make some roleplay with other countries. For example, you can't grow bananas in colder areas. 😄
A good idea is to choose six main resources, as a starting point.
This is also a good opportunity to decide in which point of time your nation will be Oil won't be a useful resource if you are going to make a nation based on Ancient Roman times, as well as coal won't be very useful if you choose a pre-industrial time period.
You could even have your nation set in the future, or in a fantasy world, and invent your own resources, such as powerful elements necessary to fuel your technologies.

3-Government
Third and last step to start a factbook is describing your national Government. Is it a democracy, a monarchy, an oligarchy etc?
Once decided, you could also start talking about your leader/leaders and their actions. To avoid making things too complicate at the beginning, I suggest that you only concentrate on the leader/leaders and his/her/their family.
In the future, you could also create a family tree, if you desire.
After leaders, it is a good idea to describe how laws are made in your country. If you have an absolute leader, things will be easier for you, but if you don't, you could have one or more assemblies, and describe each of their rights and duties. You may also want to mention any notable laws and policies your country has.

With this short guide, we hope to give you some ideas about how to start a factbook. There are two lasts things for you to remember:
- In writing and creating your nation, your only limit is your imagination. This is how we suggest to write your factbook, but it's not the only way, but if you follow these main points, you're off to a good start.
- Factbooks can always be modified in the future, so don't worry too much. Your leader can have children, you can change from a dictatorship to a democracy, or anything you want. One of the most beautiful things of writing factbook is that your story is continuously developing!

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for further guides and articles!

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