Ten Other Ways to Write When Sitting at the Keyboard Doesn't Work

 

Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels

 Whether it's writer's block, outside circumstances demanding your time, lack of sleep/energy, depression or anxiety crushing your creativity, or you just don't feel like writing, you can still write. Like with anything, doing something is better than doing nothing. And it piles up to gains in the long run.

1. You can brainstorm anywhere. Whether cleaning house, running errands, taking a break at work or school, even while staring up at a darkened ceiling at night when you can't get to sleep - you can be putting together the pieces of a story puzzle in your head. Perhaps just diving in deeper to a theme you want to explore, or a character's motivations or backstory. Maybe its envisioning a setting, or a play-by-play of an action sequence. Brainstorming's a vital step to writing, and you have to take time to do it anyway, so why not utilize those moments and hours when you can't sit in front of a keyboard to get this vital process done?

2. Another task is evaluation. Stepping back from a manuscript - especially if it's already written and you're in the revising phases - to see how tight or accurate or well-paced the story is. How is it doing as far as size? Too bloated? Too slim? Too pedantic? Too rushed? Are you hitting the right beats where they're supposed to be? Do you get an overall satisfied vibe from the draft? Make a list of what is going well and what needs work.

3. Along with #2's suggestion, would be outline tweaking, and synopsis, query, and blurb writing. Again, stepping back from the story, can you summarize it in a nutshell? Is it following your initial vision? Usually not, so how has it evolved? Is this good or bad? Stepping back can help you avoid wasted hours of writing by making a course correction.

4. Visuals. Whether you're an artist or not, doodling can help your creative juices. Draw a map (or mark a map if the setting's a real place), draw a character, or a setting. Design a vehicle. Make a schematic for a machine, or whip up a treasure map. Make a stick-figure storyboard and play with key dialogue and action. Decorate your writing space with objects that will help keep you in the zone for what/where your story is about.

5. One of my favorites is to create a first and last lines list for chapters. Do they hook the reader? Do they leave the reader with enough of a cliffhanger so they'll keep reading? It also helps you analyze where your chapter or section breaks are, and how you might play around with those breaks for a better impact.

6. Many books don't use chapter titles, so for fun write up a list of what each chapter would be called if they did. Then use it when you do face that keyboard to keep on track - and make sure you fit the spirit of the title.

7. Get hands on. If a character is supposed to be a baker, hone your own baking skills. If a firefighter, talk to actual firefighters and visit your local firehouse. Through experience we are able to write better, giving a validity to what we write. If possible, visit a place you put in your story and take notes and/or pictures of everything you experience. Act out a scene, especially an action sequence (I'm not advocating jumping off high buildings or trying to fly, mind you! Don't do anything stupid.), to make sure what you've written or are going to write is believable. 

8. Read a scene, chapter, or your entire story out loud. You'd be surprised at how many things stick out from this. It might be poor dialogue or sentence phrasing, to noticeable gaps, or lengthy descriptive passages you don't need. Even made-up names spoken out loud can be either hilarious, suggestive of something you don't intend, or too close to a well-known person's name to work well with what you want to do. 

9. Good old research is another side-writing staple. Similar to #7, this type of research is more sedentary: reading books or online articles,or sitting down to interview someone. If you're writing about interstellar travel, find out what others have done or discovered about it. Want to knock off a victim in a murder mystery? -  maybe you need to learn more about poisons. Even small details like what people wore in the 1940's, to when toothpaste was invented might make a difference in how authentic your story sounds.

10. Compose or work on your "Writing Bible." Get your notes organized and compiled. Do you have your ducks in a row regarding where your characters are from scene to scene and what they are doing? Do you know their backstories, and what parts of these will need to be revealed and when? Do you have lists of information, like foreign phrases (real or made up) you need to keep handy? Or a list of character names, descriptions, and occupations? 

You don't have to do all of these, but chances are you will need to do at least one in your writing journey. Don't beat yourself up if a lack of time, energy, or drive is keeping that novel from completion. Work around it by doing side-writing. You'll still be moving forward, keeping your story alive. Just watch that side-writing isn't all that you ever do. Many a tale has failed to be born because it never developed past the side-writing stage.

Question for you: Do you have another suggestion for side-writing? Or a further suggestion on one of the ten I've listed? Please share it in the comments.

Secrets to Keeping Things Straight in Big, Complex, Epic Novels

I've been asked a time or three how I'm able to keep facts and events straight when I write a big, complex novel. First off, kudos to the querier because they recognize there is more work involved in such a novel. Secondly, everyone who tackles these types of novels will have their own system. Here are some hints from mine.

1. Write things down.
I have multiple files that are generally categorized as Notes and Structure. When I get an idea or a snippet of conversation in my head, I write it down. Don't leave these precious tidbits floating around in your head until you get to writing that part of the story. You'll most likely forget them by that time.

I don't always write the story chronologically or linearly. I certainly don't edit that way either. That means I have to have written notes as a backup. Granted, I have a pretty good memory for just about everything I write, but why leave it to chance?

I have backstory notes files as well. I find that the more of these I have, the richer the story becomes. Some complex novels stay within one person's POV, but not usually. Most deal in multiple POVs, and that means you need distinguishable backstories, vernacular, personalities, and quirks for each POV character. And then you have all the side characters.

I have note files and picture files sometimes to help me with my world building. It's been so handy to reach a part of the story and just pull up the description of the setting to pull from rather than try to remember or create it on the spot. Especially when you don't want to present the setting the same way each time it's shown. Setting, as I've said before, acts like a character or mood setter for the scene.

Writing things down also helps you remember them better. The act of writing, literally writing not typing, has a peculiar effect on memory in the brain. I tend to jot things down by hand and then transcribe into digital files afterwards.

My notes files tend to be twice as large as the novel by the time I'm through.

2. Chunking and Recall
Chunking is a great term I learned last January when I took a course on the human brain and how to utilize it better in order to learn. In regards to writing, chunking would be taking an element of the story and associating it with other things in order to have better recall.

For example: When I bring up the word "red," based on the series I'm currently writing and publishing, I automatically think of one of my main characters, Thssk. I also think of blood, lava, anger, fire, dominating personalities, and power struggles. These next tier words lead me to specific scenes, character development, and backstory events - most of which revolve around Thssk, but also lead and connect to other characters and their story lines.

By chunking, or associating elements of the story to other elements, it just takes one word or phrase to recall much more information at once.

3. Make lists.
This one might go up under the Writing Things Down category, but I like to treat it differently. Lists are more compact, easier to read information, the overviews of the story.

In a complex novel I will use lists for:
i. Characters
I list characters by whether they are main characters, significant level B characters, C, and so on. Writing down everyone who has a name and assigning them their role in the story lets you see if your cast is too big and if you can't combine characters to have fewer people doing more in the novel. The danger with big, complex, multiple POV novels is making it difficult for the reader to remember who is who.
ii. Places and Settings
Listing your settings down gives you a great overview of what the story is doing. Do you use the same settings over and over again? Is there variety in your settings? Do you have too many settings? How can you reuse the same setting and portray it differently to help the mood of the story?
iii. Chronological order of events
Not all stories are told linearly, in fact, many really good ones aren't. Yet, it's important to know the chronological order of events as the author to avoid discrepancies in your writing. You don't want to use the scene where character A discovers the bad guy is really character Y before the scene where character Y declares they are in love with character A.
iv. Chapter and scene orders, including a list of POV characters for each
In a multiple POV novel, this list is vital, particularly for keeping track of how well mixed those POVs are. It lets me know if I've gone on too long with one story line at the expense of another.
v. Language and dialect
This has been valuable when I'm making up the words and phrases. I'm able to keep them straight, including their spellings and meanings.
vi. Historical events
A chronological list of historical or backstory events goes hand in hand with your story chronology. Backstory fuels character motivation and plot lines. Know what happened before the story and keep it straight with a simple timeline.
vii. Nodes of conjunction
This isn't one everyone uses but I have to. Nodes of conjunction are where story lines or characters connect. Say information about character D is discussed between characters X and W that will lead the reader to understand character D's actions in the next chapter. Or, characters F and G are going to finally collide with each other, when and where does this happen and how does it change the story? By using Nodes of conjunction in both a list and in my notes, I've found my stories get fuller faster and have more vitality in character development. 
viii. What still needs to be written
I'm a to-do list sort of person sometimes, and with big, complex novels, it helps me feel like I'm making a dent in the writing if I have a checklist of what needs to be done. Completely changeable as the story develops, this checklist works hand in hand with my outline and if I get stuck, I make a note about it and move on to the next item.
ix. Inconsistencies and places that need further research and development
All writers end up with inconsistencies in their stories, especially in the early stages. When I find one, I'm usually engrossed in working on something else. It helps to make a list of what the inconsistency is and where it is so that I can go back and revisit the issue.
x. How one scene or chapter segues into the next
Another list others may not use, but I like to. When moving from one POV character to another or one story line to another, I may have a cliffhanger, but something in the scene or chapter preceding the next needs to have a segue. It can be an object, mentioning the conflict or the next POV character, or even a theme. This list has been crucial in helping set chapter order.

4. "Put it together and what have you got?"
I've made mention before on this blog about creating a Story Bible. In essence, once you've created all of the things I've listed, you have made a Story Bible. The essential ingredient to successful orchestration of a complex novel.

When really considering how I keep things straight, my most personal answer is I like a challenge. I enjoy diving into multiple character and plot lines and playing with them. I love making connections between them and exploring the results. To me, it reflects life. Our actions or failure to act have an impact on others. It's never been about creating a glut of characters, events, or settings just because I could. People are complex. We're never completely good or evil. To me a story isn't about creating one hero that does everything, but celebrating the many heroic acts happening at different levels. The same thing for the mischief and malice created by the characters bent on being antagonists.

5. Index cards
Sometimes I need a visual representation of the story, especially when dealing with multiple POVs or plot lines. That's when I get out my index cards and put down information scene by scene. By keeping to scenes it makes it possible to rearrange quickly or play with the order. Usually my card looks something like this:

(Name of Scene) (Scene #)
Setting/Date
List of key points
POV character
Ritual/Theme
Key objects

I name my scenes. In a large novel it makes it easier to refer to if I've given a short clue as to what the scene is about. The scene # relates to where I have it listed in my overall outline or Table of Contents. The list of key points is pretty self-explanatory, as is point-of-view character. Rituals or themes help me classify the scene. For example: Outward Conflict, or Barter Ritual, or Point of Humiliation. Key objects refer to literal objects in the scene that have meaning or purpose to the story. They might be a weapon, or a green dress, or a tree. They are often symbolic and reoccur in the story.

Once I've compiled all my index cards I put them up on a blank wall in my office. Usually right in front of my treadmill so that when I'm taking a break and releasing endorphins I can also be brainstorming and reviewing the basic story material.

In Conclusion: 
My love for exploring every aspect of a story makes it easy to keep things straight in my head. I like to live and relive the moments. It's not a matter of knocking off a scene or chapter in order to reach a quick writing goal and then move on to the next novel. I prefer to savor and revisit. And that is why I know my stories so well and can write big, complex, epic novels.

Have a further question about anything you've read here or regarding more info on how I keep things straight? Please, ask me. Or tell me how you keep your material straight when you write. Do you do some of the same things I do?

Filling the Void

A couple of nights ago my husband and I were trying to decide on a movie to watch and ended up putting on an old tape recording of a movie that came out in the 80's that he really wanted me to see. It was based on a comic book series and the main character had supernatural powers. The sets were well made, the costumes glamorous, and there were a handful of A-list actors playing out the parts. The special effects were pretty good for a movie made back then. Even the brief premise my husband had told me had potential.

But the movie felt flat to me. The screenplay jumped around too fast for proper story development. The characters were stereotypical and I couldn't get into any of them. I was never even sure who to root for, since the main character was a bad guy to begin with and who channeled his bad side to fight other bad guys. (His motivation to do this had been completely omitted from the screenplay.) I had to give my husband a ho-hum response afterwards and as I explained why, he admitted I was right.

It got me thinking about how often we encounter a creative work or endeavor and while we can pick out one or two good things about it (sometimes really good things) the rest leaves much to be desired. I've gone browsing for movies to rent and end up frowning most of the way through the store, because while a certain genre or premise or even actor piques my interest, when I look at the rest of the product I'm disappointed. We live in a day of remakes, rehashing, too many special effects, and worn out plot lines. Even TV shows string you along through all kinds of sludge, holding back that one vital piece of backstory just to keep you hooked to the whole series.

Many of us take to our own creative endeavors to try to fill in those voids. Say we like the idea of certain setting or type of character and we want to make the kind of story we can champion all the way. We write it. Why do you think fan fiction came about or the deluge of similar novels after one story has reached bestsellerdom? Individually, we want to add to that story, fix it, or make it go the way we hoped it would to begin with. Sometimes we want to revel in that kind of a world for a bit longer. We reflect borrowed light. And creative people have been doing this forever.

Have you ever been in the mood for a particular type of story, or story atmosphere? Have you ever shaken your head during a book or movie and thought about alternative outcomes? Do you lay awake at night thinking, "Wow, that was amazing. How can I do something that?" or "That story could have been better, they were so close, but they ruined it by adding in ..."? It's like an itch that won't go away. And having that itch can lead to productive writing.

However, I've always felt that once you've identified what you love or what needs changing, that you then find your own story path to play with, not someone else's. Spin-offs and alternate versions of something are okay, but people know that these versions are merely playing in the shadow of something else. Do you really want to relegate your time and effort to a shadow?

There's a market out there for shadow novels, I won't deny it. And some people are happy to be there.

But how much better it is to come up with something shiny and bright of your own. It's more work, and more to be proud of. To create something that fills in the voids of your desires and then send it out to hopefully fill in the voids of readers is a wonderful accomplishment.

Write to fill in the voids. Revise and polish until your story needs are satisfied. Find joy in your work. I challenge you to come up with something not in the shadow of someone else. Be a light. Create your own borders, be bold in your imagination, think carefully about how you tell the story, and have fun.

People who do are the trend-setters.

Behind the Scenes #3: My Writing Soundtrack for Trefury, Tracks 9 - 10

There's still time to sign-up to get a free, hardcover copy of my debut novel, Trefury: Mendi's Curse. Just click on the picture of the cover to your right and it will take you to all the details.

Continuing to highlight some of the music that helped me stay in the zone while writing the novel, both of these songs were done by Delerium, a group I highly recommend for mood music.

These songs had that international, especially eastern vibe that I wanted. This is a reflection on the country and planet my character Cortnee comes from. I had a fun time meshing different eastern cultures, while retaining some western foibles and customs in this half of my world-building.

Trefury is a novel taking place on two very diverse planets. That meant I had more than the average amount of world-building to do. Fortunately, I've been working not only on this story but many others from two different (yet connected) collections of worlds for over thirty years. It's not something I just threw together overnight. There is a giant scheme behind every planet I've made and they are all connected through a special passageway that I call, in simple English terms, The Beltway. (It has another name in one of my made-up languages.)

I've found it's good not to overuse my languages and dialects because it can alienate readers. A smattering will do, and eventually, the more they read my books, they will be able to handle more and understand more. But the point of world-building and making up languages is more for originality and authenticity rather than reinventing the wheel, and the focus of my novels is telling the story rather than showing off what worlds I've created.

So first up is "Terra Firma," a song many of you have probably heard before:

The second song is "Remembrance," which probably isn't as widely known. I love the deep horns at the beginning. They were an inspiration to me for the "prayer horns" that go off every night on Cortnee's world. The song then evolves into eastern/western mix and then goes techno. It couldn't be more perfect.

I'm very excited to share a very small piece of my world-building with you. Those who have already read earlier versions of the novel, or who have followed the blog for awhile know that world-building is very dear to my heart. And while world-building is a magnificent skill to possess, bear in mind that it is no substitute for storytelling. I've read many manuscripts where the writer put all their thought and effort into creating their world and the story (what little there was) dealt with showing the world and everything in it to the reader. A tragedy. Worlds that well drawn should have great stories revolving in them and characters not only unique but that are relatable and compelling populating those worlds.

What do you think?

You may also like to read:
World-building: Think Big, Be Creative, Have Fun!
How Much World-Building Do You Need?
Falling in Love with Your World
What Justifies an Epic Series?
What Makes Epic Fantasy Tick

Cover reveal for Trefury: Mendi's Curse, including book summary.
Behind the Scenes #1: Forbidden Without Knowing Why
Behind the Scenes #2: Let's Talk Hair
Behind the Scenes #3: My Writing Soundtrack for Trefury, Track 1 
Behind the Scenes #3: My Writing Soundtrack for Trefury, Tracks 2 - 3
Behind the Scenes #3: My Writing Soundtrack for Trefury, Track 4
Behind the Scenes #3: My Writing Soundtrack for Trefury, Tracks 5 - 8 
BOOK GIVEAWAY ON THE THIS BLOG from Sept. 2 - 30, 2014 

Guest Post by Ian Isaro: What Makes Epic Fantasy Tick

Welcome to today's guest blogger, Ian Isaro! I asked Ian to write a post about what makes epic fantasy work because he's read more of it than anyone else I know. Pretty good qualifications. Ian is the author of the Sorcery and Scholarships series. You can find him writing about fantasy on his blog.
Thanks again, Ian, for letting me put you on the spot. And here he is:


"Grand Prelate! The Sylvans are fording the Turvlebip River! The Thoris Mage has the Staff of Ghrblgk and is bringing down the Great Wall!"

"By the curly beard of Bupkis the Terrible!" Al'thir'evaeael cursed.

At least some of you think of this kind of thing when you think about epic fantasy. That example is somewhat over the top, but only somewhat. These are the doorstopper novels that have thousands of characters with a few dozen invented languages and can span decades.

I was asked to write about what makes epic fantasy tick, so I'm not going to worry too much about an exact definition of epic fantasy. A proper definition wouldn't necessarily match the above stereotypes and there's variety even within the subgenre. Instead, I'm going to focus on the five factors that I think make epic fantasy work: scope, immersion, depth, stakes, and earned endings.

Scope

I realized how much scope matters to me while reading Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Ten books totaling over three million words - what matters isn't the length, but what that many words allows the series to do.

In the last book, there's a conversation where two characters discuss the state of reality, and there are even more names dropped than in my example. Except by that point, you know every single name - not only that, you've read entire novels about each one. The dozen different conflicts mentioned aren't just some throwaway world building, each is a place you know with characters you've walked with throughout the series. It brought home that this is truly a conflict for reality.

Scope also gives us variety and diversity. Some series pretend to be about a "world" but it's really just medieval Europe spread across a larger area. Scope isn't a million league kingdoms or billion soldier armies, it's all the details that give a better sense of size than simple numbers can. Good epic fantasy gives multiple continents, races, cultures, or conflicts. It doesn't shy away from personal problems and smaller issues, but it includes them as part of a living, breathing world.

Immersion

This brings us to immersion, which is one of the central appeals of epic fantasy. Others have already written about how it brings readers back, so I'll try to focus on other aspects. Immersion is when the setting isn't just a vehicle for the author's ideas, but a fully-realized entity that has more to offer than what's on the surface. This perhaps more than anything is what draws readers into worlds and keeps them there.

It's Tolkien's complete languages. Wheel of Time's two thousand characters. The edges of Robin Hobb's maps. It's the promise that "Grand Prelate" isn't just a random title for yet another interchangeable authority figure, but reflects a culture and system that will continue strengthen to the story.

Immersion also allows for very satisfying payoffs. Because epic fantasy typically has more worldbuilding, you can afford to place all kinds of Chekov's guns on many different mantles. By the end of even the first book of an epic, readers are familiar with a wide variety of characters, places, forces, and all manner of elements that can be thrown together without the need for any more setup. Sanderson always does this, putting pieces in place for 75% of a book and then setting off a cascade of events that sweeps through the ending.

Epics stand far away from the problem of too-tidy stories, where absolutely everything seems to exist only to serve a role in the plot and tie things up with a neat little bow. Most of them err in the opposite direction, but it's the breadth of the world that gets readers to commit, since it reflects the messiness of reality and hence has the feel of a "real" story instead of a parable or fable.

Depth

Not to imply that other kinds of fiction don't have depth, but the size of epic fantasy allows it to do different things. The beauty of a short story is that it focuses entirely on one thing. By contrast, the strength of epic fantasy is that it can be about many things, and weave different themes together over a long period of time.

Length allows for subtlety, themes sneaking up on you, getting beneath your defenses against obvious Messages and Morals. Instead of characters dramatically turning from good to evil, they can slide slowly, reflecting all the shades of grey in the real world and forcing you to think seriously about the issues at hand.

The length of epic fantasy lets characters breathe, experiencing a wide variety of emotions and life circumstances. No one has to be the Coward or the Hero, but can display both heroism and cowardice at different times, closer to the diversity seen in human beings.

Stakes

Perhaps the most important difference between epic fantasy and other subgenres is that in epics something critical must be at stake. All too often this is the fate of the world, but it goes deeper than that. Epic fantasy is about the world changing.

Lord of the Rings is a good example. It's about the passing of an age, old powers fading, technology gaining strength. It isn't a story where the villain is defeated and the status quo is restored, but one where nothing will ever be the same. Deeper, it's a story about the rejection of dominance as the only path to peace - several characters could have taken the Ring and won, but at the cost of their souls.

The Earthsea series reflects another important side of epic fantasy. All of it could fit into one novel of many other series, but the stakes are no less important. It's about the shifting of paradigms, first personal realities and eventually spiritual realities that profoundly affect everything.

Earned Endings

This awkwardly-named section is one that I don't see mentioned often, but I think is an underappreciated strength of epic fantasy. There are many things that might feel hollow or false in a shorter story that can be accomplished in a longer series.

Let's take a simple example of power: a naive farmboy becoming a mighty swordsman. In fairy tales, he gets a magic sword and that's the end of it. Some short fantasy has the equivalent of a training montage and then he's a master. Epic fantasy lets you see him grow and develop over time, so that when he does become a swordsman, it isn't arbitrarily granted power that doesn't matter.

This is a better match to reality than stories where doing something significant takes minimal time and effort. You cannot become a doctor after a week training with a wise old master dispensing cryptic sayings. A successful business doesn't follow a simple rising action, climax, denouement pattern. And as all the writers reading this know, you don't become abruptly published after a sad flashback to your childhood unlocks the author within your soul.

Stories that offer easy paths to the top may appeal to us, but only as fantasies because we know the real world doesn't work that way. Either the successes in those stories ring false, or we absorb a harmfully inaccurate view of work and success. Epic fantasy has the opportunity to model a more realistic path to anything meaningful.

Skills are the clearest example, but there are other things that can be earned as well. A short story can capture the feeling of the horror of war, but getting across the grinding devastation takes more time (Deadhouse Gates, anyone?). Politics don't have to be over-simplified and more complex solutions can be included. Relationships are more authentic when we see the characters grow over time. Not everything needs to be earned, but in the categories where that' s necessary, epics have additional weight.

Looking back, this post is a little scattered. Perhaps that's appropriate: epic fantasy isn't about just one thing, it's vignettes and character studies and detours that together form stories that can truly be called epic.

Many of you may be thinking of epic fantasy that doesn't meet these ideals, and that's true. There have been series that are just the Armies of Good defeating the Armies of Evil - merely taking a long time to do it. But those are imitations, capturing the form of an epic but not the substance. It's the series that take advantage of the strengths of epic fantasy that will be remembered.

Male Characters and Justifying an Epic Series

It's a double header day for me today.

I'm taking on the topic of writing male characters when you're female over at Eli Ashpence's blog. Several good links to other blogposts on the topic included.

And I take a bite out of what justifies an epic series, and what doesn't at Robert Courtland's blog.

Falling in Love with Your World

Today I'm guest blogging over at Writing From the Padded Room. Drop by and share your thoughts and questions regarding world building.

*The above link no longer works. Here is the article I wrote:

I intend to go down one world building road today, only one. This road is probably the brightest and most fantastic of them all, yet fraught with some of the darkest perils for a writer. Like anything else, you can wield it as a mighty tool, or be destroyed when it backfires on you. Ready to take that trip with me?

You have a story idea, or even a rough draft done. Maybe a draft two or three and you’ve realized that your story sounds too much like what has already been done. Maybe agents and editors are saying the same in their rejection letters. World building is one way to make your story stand out from anyone else’s. They say there are only so many plots one can write by. Gimmicks and twists can change those up only so much.  After awhile, agents are tired of seeing another love story about—vampires! Or wait—demigods! No? Um…mermaids? Secret fairy spies? Aliens? Once a gimmick has trended, it gets worn through for a number of years. But that’s a whole other subject.

A unique world can take your plot, its gimmicks and twists to new levels.

The first stop on our road, indeed, the very first step, is to hike up your sleeves, put on your biggest thinking cap, and let your imagination fly faster, farther, and wilder than it ever has before. Be uninhibited. Have paper and pen or an open document up on your computer.

Start with something basic, like where the protagonist comes from or is at the start of the story. What is this place like? How does it affect the protagonist’s view of their world, what they like, what they hate, what they are capable of, what obstacles are in their way? That one little blip of world building can open up more twists to your story. You may even change your mind about what the protagonist’s internal conflict is.

The same can happen the longer you jot down ideas, play with them, toss out the most obvious ones, and latch onto ones you had to think longer and harder about. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was to write down my ideas for something (say, what magical rule is going to trip up my heroine the most,) then write down five more after that, then another five more, and five more again. Then choose the last thing I thought of. We think of the most obvious clichés and tropes first. The same ones other writers are thinking of or using.

Ever get frustrated when you see a book or movie come out that used an idea you’d been carefully crafting for the past year? *Raises hand.*

Have fun with your world building, let it work for you. And now here comes the dangerous pitfall: don’t fall in love too deeply with your newly crafted world. It’ll be hard not to.

Here’s what happens when your world becomes your beloved. The plot takes a back seat. The characters take a back seat or become grafted to the scenery.

Because good world building is time intensive and you invest a lot of effort into it, the temptation is to use it all. We visualize this place so well that all we want is for readers to see it exactly the way we do. This often leads to:

1. Over describing. Every. Little. Detail. About. Everything. Every. Step. Of. The. Story.

Pitfall: The reader is now bored. The reader skims. The reader has failed to catch your enthusiasm.

Remedy: Keep to character. What details will your character notice at that moment, in their present mood and circumstances? If they’re wounded, they’re not likely to enjoy how plush the carpet is beneath their feet or wonder what the runes in the crown molding might mean. If they’re hungry, they’ll be noticing things that either make them feel hungrier or looking for a solution to satisfy that hunger. If they are angry, they are more likely to stomp on the flowers than smell them. Remember, this needs to come from your point of view character, not you as the writer and world builder.

2. Info dumping.

Pitfall: Too much too soon (I’m looking at you, lengthy prologue.) The reader starts to skim. Or worse, the reader closes the book due to slow pacing.

Remedy: Keep your plot in the forefront of your mind, especially at the beginning of a story. What is your inciting event, the happening that sets the story in motion? That needs to be as near the front as possible. Not all the backstory on how your space station was constructed and why. The real trick to backstory and especially world building backstory, is breaking it up. Filter it in throughout the book. Weave it. Say three chapters in, your hero gets into trouble with the high command and is brought before a disciplinary council. This would be a better spot for him to bitterly recall how he’d once sat on that council when it was first organized and how inner-politics ousted him from power. Keep it brief and to the point. It’ll also add punch to the scene by including internal development and motivation for the character.

3. Too much show and not enough tell.

Pitfall: You’re now saying “What? We’re supposed to show not tell.” Here’s the problem, dear writer, and one I’ve had to learn the hard way. The show, don’t tell rule is primarily for characterization. Let me emphasize that again: The show, don’t tell rule is primarily for characterization. It is bad business to use when world building. Here’s the primary problem: you know the ins and outs of your world, your readers do not. And if you never take the time to explain things, you lose your readers. You can show them over and over again your characters actions and reactions, but if the reader isn’t grounded in why your characters are behaving that way or why these types of strange things are going on, they can’t be invested in your world.

The second big pitfall with this one is word count. Speculative fiction gets extra space for word count because of world building. This is our lucky break. Don’t blow it. Showing everything and not leaving some things to simple summary bloats your word count to unacceptable lengths. Again, you can fall prey to over detailed description, backstory, flashback, and too much side plot when all you do is show.

Remedy: Stick to your basic story and characters. Know your key scenes. Know what needs to forward the plot. Keep the extra stuff out or down to short explanation.

Trust me on this one. It’s a bear to fix and can derail your book completely.

4. The writer is caught in another land.

Pitfall: You’ve enjoyed your world building so much that all you want to do is stay in that world. You don’t think you can put forth the same effort into another world for another story, or you simply don’t want to. So you create a never ending series of book ideas in this world, regardless of whether you have the right sort of characters to endure so much or enough well-thought out plot to ply readers with.

Remedy: The first step is accepting you have this problem and step away from this world for awhile. I don’t mean a week or two. Try a year. Force yourself to work on something else, situated in somewhere else. It’ll be hard at first but worth it. Use your experienced world building skills to spin a new world, make sure it’s very different from your first one. Better yet, try your hand at writing something that takes place in the actual world. It’ll give you more ideas for when you create your next world.

5. The writer becomes bitter at reader reaction.

Pitfall: This is probably the darkest and most dangerous of them all because this one deals with real emotions and real people. I’ve known writers, really good writers, who fell into the world building pit and when others have tried to pull them out have reacted badly. They develop a huge chip on their shoulders. They refuse to try to fix the errors because they are in perpetual denial. They believe that world building is the top priority of writing. Then they go about tearing down other writers’ worlds and stories because they can’t find many readers for their own. This is self-destructive behavior and a quick way to become ostracized from the writing community.

Remedy: If you find yourself feeling bitter or thinking that everyone doesn’t get your world, pull away from that world right now. Take a long break from it. Read outside your genre. You don’t have to throw away all your years of hard work. You just need to get your focus back. You’re part of an ancient tradition, first done orally, then in the written word. Storytelling. If you’ve lost your storytelling focus, then you aren’t really writing something story readers want to read. Story comes first, no matter what the genre. And if you buried story in favor of building a world, you’ve lost your focus.

So there you have it. The euphoria and despair of world building. It’s a skill that needs fine tuning, patience, and the right vision. You won’t become an expert over night. Like all aspects of writing, it is a necessary tool in the writer’s arsenal. Here some other online resources to help with world building and to share some perspective:

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Fantasy World Building Questions by Patricia C. Wrede

E.F. Jace’s Kingdom Kreater blog series.

Victoria Strauss: An Impatient Writer’s Approach to World Building

Mythic Scribes: Writing Believable Fantasy – A Guide to Keeping it Real

 

How Much World-Building Do You Need?

Someone asked and you can find my answers over on the Aliens, Dragons, and Wraiths - Oh My! blog. More knowledge gleaned from personal mistakes, reading other books, and beta reading. Jump on over and add to the conversation.

World-building: Think Big, Be Creative, Have Fun!

When I first crack open a new book, one of the first things I want to know is: what kind of world am I entering? Will I like it? Will it be mysterious? Explore-worthy? Exciting? Exotic? Familiar? It's easy to tell within the first chapter how important the world-building is to the author of the story too. Not that books with fantastic worlds are the only ones worth reading, but they sure do make an impact. Think of some of your favorite movies for a moment. Characters aside, what worlds come first to mind? Why?

A good writer will not only construct an engaging world for their story, but that world won't be mere scenery. The writer knows how to use the setting in active ways and also makes the details of that world relevant to the story and the characters. The details they take time to focus on will reveal to the reader the thought processes of the characters, vital clues and foreshadowing, antagonistic forces, means of rescue, and the natural or man-made rules of that world.

A poorly thought-out world can turn readers away and may even create plot holes, writer's block, or other headaches for the writer. Sometimes what a writer is missing, that last crucial piece they can't quite figure out yet to make the story perfect, is complete world-building. The great thing about constructing a complete world is that it gives a writer more freedom to be original, or to create twists others haven't thought of yet. Say your plotline is pretty basic and even your characters and their situations have been done before. Your world-building might make the difference from being "oh, another (insert big name story or genre)" and get your story to stand out from the pack instead.

There are all kinds of worlds to create and the best part is you can make up your own rules. Enormous freedom comes into play when designing your world. Be cautious though when you sit down to write your story within that world. The writer needs buckets and buckets of information on their world. The reader needs much less. Give the reader only what moves the story forward, what enhances, engages, or acts upon the characters and story. Avoid huge block paragraphs of description, even if all the details you came up with are soooo cool. The reader doesn't need all of that. YOU do, however. Create a file and devote it to your world-building and research. Pour whatever you develop and need into it. Then learn to let go. You become the veteran traveler in your world and your job is to guide the characters and the reader through it. There isn't time or reason to show them every blade of grass or to explain all the principles as to why waterfalls flow sideways. Good tour guides know better than to overwhelm or bore the people on their tour. They know what to show and when in order to give the best tour possible, giving travelers something to go home and talk about long afterwards.

Be bold, not timid. Drive from your mind the conventions and comparisions to other peoples' work. Create a world you'd want to spend time in, something that fascinates, scares, enthralls, or seduces you. Think of ways your world can add complications to the plot or internal journeys of your characters. What details from this world will show your characters' personalities or quirks along the way? What is in danger in your world? What is right with it? What is wrong? And I mean wrong in a good way. The kind of wrong that the characters need to address and fix in order to reach their goals.

World-building goes so much farther than designing a good bit of back scenery for the characters to act in. We're not putting on a play with cardboard, paint, and plywood. Just as characters shouldn't be flat, neither should the world they live in. It needs to feel tangible, real, and believable. It also needs to feel important.

To give you a couple of jolts of inspiration, should you need it, first off I recommend E.F. Jace's world-building series for fantasy writers. And secondly, I have to share this link to the World's Coolest Staircases. I have an odd obsession with staircases, and some of these examples blew past even what I expected. A good slideshow to get you thinking "out of the box" or in this case genre or the most current popular worlds in literature.

Where do you turn to look for new inspiration when world-building? How much time and effort do you like to put into it? What is your favorite part of world-building? What world, designed by other writers or film-makers, have set your mouth agape or drew you completely in?