u/No-Job-844

I have ultimately (and unfortunately) decided that my novel will take place in a 16th-century French colony (made up) on a made-up island in the Hudson Bay.

Of course I have created a native group that lives there and has its own history, but I'm not quite sure if this has been done before. Making up a made-up town in the middle of Europe is easy, but creating an entire island and people group with the constraints of the time period is proving to be quite challenging. However, I do have a good idea with the story, and I'm not comfortable with creating multiple different languages and cultures (solely because I'm an amateur, I'm running on a time crunch, and I don't want to create anything as a half-baked product).

Besides, I enjoy the challenge, and I'm loving the 'freedom' that I have with designing characters and backstories without having to worry about different fantasy elements and colonies, people groups, wars, etc. The main problem is the fact that it is meant to be historical fantasy. The genre doesn't usually get picked up all the time, and if it does, it's probably in a fantasy setting with made-up countries & states that look and feel like medieval Europe. The whole reason I am committing to this story is because I rarely see books with a fantasy colonial setting (and if you do, perchance could you recommend some books to me), but that's partially because I live under a rock.

Hello! It's me again :]

Another problem has arisen. You see, I have been world-building for the past few months, taking notes from J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and partially from George Lucas when creating a language for my book.

I've focused most of my time trying to flesh out the language, and for context, this language is a Native language for the local people group on the main island. Not everyone speaks it, and the native people group of the main island is nearly wiped out and/or displaced. (with the exception of a few characters that include the MC)

Notice how I didn't name any of these places? Good. Because for some reason my idiot brain neglected naming places! Now I have a clear map of what the settlement is based on (French), and the MC's colonial name is French, but it feels like cheating. And despite creating a language and naming system for the native population, I quite don't feel like it'd be a good idea to create another language since the focus of my book isn't epic fantasy.

I do want to expand upon the colonies and the world itself, but it feels cheap and underdeveloped when I don't even have different languages made. And I don't mean to complain when I say this; it's exceedingly hard to stand out. Not because of plots or anything; a story can be good even if you've seen the plot before, and I do think it's partially because of the worldbuilding aspect. There's a lot of room to work with once you start, but when you start planning and when you start to really think about what type of story you want to tell, it gets a bit muddled. (at least for me because I'm certainly no professional, but I am a perfectionist and it makes it a bit harder for me to write.)