R.M. Archer's Blog, page 26

5 Reasons We Don’t Have Flying Cars (and the Worldbuilding Takeaways)

A couple of weeks ago, I had the strange idea to write a post about why we don’t have flying cars. “Well that’s random,” I thought. “Where in the world am I going to post that?” And then the idea rattled around in my head for a couple of days and I realized I could associate worldbuilding principles to my reasons for our current lack of flying cars. So… here we are. XD

Reason #1: We Already Have Cars (Purpose)

When considering an element of your world, it’s important to think about what purpose it serves and whether it’s the best option to serve that purpose. We already have cars, which allow us to travel quickly from place to place along well-maintained highways and travel to destinations that would otherwise take days, weeks, or even months to reach. We also have airplanes, which allow us to travel longer distances in shorter amounts of time and to cross oceans. (Also boats, to the latter point.)

What purpose would flying cars serve? I can think of a couple answers to this question:

They’d eliminate obstacles such as buildings, which one can’t simply drive through to take a straighter route somewhere.
They’d give personal access to travel routes that cross oceans.

But are those answers enough to justify an entire new product? That could be debated.

Similar principles apply to your own worldbuilding.

Questions to consider:

What is the purpose of this worldbuilding element?
Are there other elements already serving this purpose?
Are those elements simpler?
Does this new element add significant value over alternatives?

And don’t just consider these from an author’s standpoint, but also try to think about how the inhabitants of your world would approach and react to the worldbuilding element in question.

Reason #2: Flying Cars Would Take Forever to Produce (Process)

Before we could have mass-produced flying cars, we’d have to first determine how best to make a car fly, what materials would be necessary, what safety measures to put in place, and so on. After that, we’d have to create multiple prototypes, acquire sufficient funds to consistently acquire the necessary materials for this new product, figure out how to market it effectively, etc. This process would take years.

Likewise, the process and/or history of your worldbuilding element is an important thing to think about.

Questions to consider:

How old is this element?
How was it created/how did it originate?
How long did it take to create, if applicable?
What went into its creation (materials, personnel, ideas…)?

Reason #3: Flying Cars Would Take Forever to Test (Function)

Not only would we have to create a flying car, but we’d have to create a functional and safe flying car. To reach this point would take numerous prototypes and a long series of tests, which could take months or even years before a working model was reached. And even after that, is the working model the optimal model?

Questions to consider:

How does your worldbuilding element function, optimally?
Does your worldbuilding element need to be tested?
If so, how are tests run and who is involved in their execution?
Does your element have to function optimally or only functionally?

Reason #4: It Would Be Difficult to Keep Heavy Air Travel Safe (Regulation)

Cars are easy to regulate because we have roads. Airplanes are easy to regulate because there are fewer of them. With mainstream flying cars, we’d have no roads and a billion flying cars in the sky at a time. How would we keep drivers (pilots?) safe? What sort of regulations could we put in place to enforce order?

Regulation is important in worldbuilding, even if it’s only for safety reasons.

Questions to consider:

What are the potential hazards of your worldbuilding element?
How could such hazards be minimized?
What difficulties would your element pose when it comes to regulation?
Who is responsible for regulating this element?

Reason #5: Flying Cars Would Have a Steep Learning Curve (Practicality)

Cars are complicated. Flying cars would be even more complicated, as altitude would become an added consideration and yet another thing to keep track of. Not to mention the other potential additions you’d have to make in order to keep a flying car (relatively) safe and running smoothly.

An important thing to consider with your worldbuilding elements is whether or not they’re practical (which ties in, to a degree, with point #1 and the initial purpose of your element). Sometimes, simpler is better.

Questions to consider:

Is this element the simplest solution to the problem it addresses?
If not, is the complexity necessary?
Are ordinary people in your world going to be able to use this element (or at least the people who will ordinarily be using it)?
Is there any training required in relation to this element? And if so, how much and what does it look like?

Hopefully you both enjoyed and learned something from this rather quirky post. I’d love to hear your thoughts, whether it’s on the principles put forward or on whether or not you think flying cars are a good idea. Feel free to strike up a conversation in the comments!

Book Review: Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to start off by saying that I’m a Christian and thus don’t agree with the lifestyle choices of the LGBTQ+ community. I won this book in a giveaway, and if I had read the reviews to see that Once & Future had heavy LGBTQ+ themes, I probably wouldn’t have entered the giveaway at the time. However, I respect the individuals who identify with the LGBTQ+ community and decided to read this book out of a desire to better understand those individuals. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the best book for that as the writing didn’t do the community justice (in my opinion, as an outsider).

My biggest disappointment with this book was the characters. All of them, with the exception of Merlin, felt very one-dimensional at the outset. Their orientations and gender identities were pushed, which would have been uncomfortable for me but understandable except that it was at the expense of further character development. Each character seems to have very few traits beyond their orientation or preferred gender, and what traits do pop up are often told rather than shown. This is true throughout the book, as characters supposedly develop and/or backslide. Since character isn’t established from the beginning (or, really, at all), we don’t get to really see and appreciate any character’s development over the course of the book and everything is once again told instead of shown. I know (from experience) that individuals in the LGBTQ+ community are individuals with unique quirks and interests and traits, and I wanted to see that reflected in this book. Instead, I found cardboard cutouts slapped with LGBTQ+ labels.

I was also disappointed that I didn’t find most of the characters even particularly likable (in part, a side effect of their lack of development). Most felt self-absorbed and rather dysfunctional, and almost none of them had distinct voices. SPOILER WARNING: I was totally okay when Ari supposedly died and I was excited at the possibility of Merlin becoming the sole MC, to the degree that I was disappointed (though not surprised) when Ari was revealed to be alive. SPOILERS COMPLETE. The exceptions to this rule were Merlin, Val, Morgana, and Gwen (to varying degrees). Merlin is almost always my favorite character in Arthurian stories, and the Merlin in Once & Future seemed by far to be the most fleshed-out character. He had internal struggles, quirks beyond his sexuality (I loved his habit of talking in song references), and was just overall a more likeable character than any of the others. Unfortunately, I do think his character suffered some from the imbalance of show and tell and I would have liked to see his internal struggle fleshed out and explored through its impact on his actions more, earlier; it didn’t feel like it was fully realized until the third quarter of the book or so.

Val, Morgana, and Gwen were somewhere between Merlin and everyone else on the likability scale. Both felt like they were supposed to be well-done characters that I would have liked, but didn’t quite live up to their potential. Val seems to be a compassionate character, with skills and insights from his past and his current occupation that I would have loved to see come into play more to make him a better-rounded and more unique character. Gwen was one of those queens who will do anything for her people and is willing to sacrifice her own desires for them, which is a character type that I love, but I felt like the lack of stakes (which I’ll tackle later) didn’t allow that to really shine and we never got to see her willingly surrender anything significant for the good of her people. Morgana, like Merlin, stands out because of her longevity and the struggles and quirks wrapped up in that; but, like the others, I don’t feel like she really had a chance to shine and don’t feel like her character had as much of an impact on her actions as I might have liked.

And then there’s The Administrator, who has so little character that he barely even qualifies for the “character” section and I almost dumped him into “plot.” There’s no set-up for The Administrator. There’s no fear factor whatsoever. We know nothing about him as a character, only what he represents (and that’s not even much), and he feels like one of those “Evil just to be evil” villains even though his motivation is laid out (in “telling” fashion) and he’s supposed to be clever. Had he been written well and that cunning truly explored, I think he could have made an extremely effective villain. As it is, he did nothing to improve the plot or stakes.

Mercer, the corporation that The Administrator operates as the face of, isn’t even that scary. It’s only terror is in its nuggets of real life possibility, but even those are stretched thin with unlikely situations such as a planet with a quota of unnecessary things to buy per day in order to remain a citizen. I also take issue with the fact that Ari describes said planet as “unchecked capitalism,” when capitalism requires a free market and is notably not run entirely by the government as is the case in the world of Once & Future. What’s put forward is communism, not capitalism.

The world is also unrealistic (or perhaps idealistic, for the LGBTQ+ community) in its numbers of homosexual, trans, pansexual, etc., etc. characters. Even if every LGBTQ+ issue was completely resolved and everything was allowed, it would not be close to difficult to find a straight person. The LGBTQ+ community makes up only 4.5% of the American population; I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but LGBTQ+ is not close to the default, and there would still be way more straight people than LGBTQ+ even in a “perfect” world.

Even setting aside orientation, I thought all of the relationships focused too much on lust and not enough on… anything of substance, much less true love. Even when there was something more there (as in the case of Merlin and Val), it was undermined and overshadowed by the characters’ incessant thoughts of touching, kissing, sleeping together, etc. And in some cases (such as Gwen and Ari), we’re told there’s more there but it never really shines through (and it’s still overshadowed by incessant lusty thoughts). In addition, the “romantic” scenes were more descriptive than I would have liked and more descriptive than I’m personally comfortable with in YA. (But that’s a whole issue to itself that doesn’t need to be tackled in this review.)

I also found the normalization of promiscuity distasteful, but that much is unfortunately realistic.

As far as plot is concerned, I still wasn’t impressed. Sure, there’s a series of connected events that lead to an ultimate climax and triumph of good over evil and yada yada yada, but it all felt rather disjointed to me. And, again, Mercer wasn’t threatening. Like the characters, the world didn’t feel fleshed out enough for the stakes to be meaningful. Okay, so there’s an evil corporation threatening an entire planet with dehydration. So show me people dying of dehydration. Show them trying to get around their government to get water. Show that threat being a threat, not just to random bystanders we’ve never met but also to the main characters themselves.

One thing I will say is that the writing, while not phenomenal as prose is concerned, kept the book moving along. The pacing was extremely fast (to the detriment of any story element’s development, in my opinion), and while I wish we’d had more time to focus on the world’s or the characters’ development, it did at least grant the blessing of making this a quick read.

Ultimately, Merlin, his relationship with Morgana, the links to Arthurian legend, and what little nuggets of character and worldbuilding were there nudged this up to two stars for me, but only barely. Now I guess I’m in search of a better-written LGBTQ+ novel or an episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist so my hope of thoughtfulness in LGBTQ+-featuring media doesn’t die unfairly. ;P

How To Write About Converging Cultures

via GIPHY

It’s been wayyyy too long since I last posted, and even longer since I posted something other than a blog tag. I could blame the fact that the Coronavirus goings-on have turned my brain completely upside-down, but that’s really only part of it, so… Regardless of the reason, I apologize for totally disappearing. :P

Anyway, I got a writing question from one of my newsletter subscribers last month and it was on a topic that I find really fun: converging cultures. I had several tips on the topic, so I thought I’d adapt the advice I gave to the subscriber into a blog post and share it with y’all. :)

Let’s say you have two characters from different cultures who come together in some way or another. Or multiple characters from different cultures who all came to live amidst a culture that’s new to all of them. Or any other sort of situation that pushes multiple cultures together. This can be a super fun thing to explore, and it can provide some awesome insight into your characters and world. But how do you do that?

1. How does your character view their own culture?

What does your character like about their culture? What do they dislike? Which of the culture’s values do they agree with or disagree with? Is keeping tradition important to them, or do they like assimilating pieces of other cultures into their life, or some mix of the two? This will essentially create the foundation for your character and their interactions with the culture(s) that’s new to them.

2. How does your character view each new-to-them culture?

Similarly to your character’s thoughts on their original culture, what do they like or dislike about each new culture? Which of the cultures’ values do they agree or disagree with? What might totally clash with their original values and cause conflict? Do they envy some of the aspects of another culture? Do they look down on certain traditions or customs that are different from their own? And are any of these things that are legitimate “can’t just agree to disagree” issues, or do they just come down to strong personal preference?

How do these views affect your character’s interactions with people who are natives of the new culture? How do they handle disagreements on values? Are they things that strain the characters’ everyday interactions, or are they only points of tension when they come up specifically? Or is there some mix? (For instance, if they impact how open one character is with another, but they don’t cause any surface-level tension.)

3. How do they balance cultures?

Does your character cling to the traditions of their original culture? Do they seek to stay separate from the new culture(s) they’ve entered? If so, are there any pieces of the new culture that cause them to struggle with this decision? Maybe values of the new culture that make more sense to them than the values of their own, but that they don’t want to admit for fear of compromising who they are?

Or do they embrace the new culture, either in part or in whole? Does the new culture have any values that replace the values of your character’s original culture? (For instance, if a character has always felt stifled by the traditions of their own culture and they find the looseness of the new culture freeing.) Are there opposing values in the two cultures where the character appreciates both and has to choose between them or struggle to balance them? (Maybe they like the traditions of their own culture and the spontaneity of their new culture and they have to decide if they want to let go of some traditions and keep others, or cling to their traditions because it’s what they grew up with, or find some other solution.) Basically, how much do they accept the shared culture and how much do they try to stay separate from it?

4. How much freedom does your character have to balance cultures?

There are other, practical details to consider, as well. Can your character adhere to traditions from their original culture if they’ve moved locations to wherever this new culture is? Or is the difference in location such that they have to adapt or even let go of some traditions and customs? Maybe a certain food eaten on special holidays isn’t available where they are, or maybe they have a tradition of visiting a certain place on a certain day and they can no longer make the trip, or maybe a material used in a certain ceremonial dress is more rare wherever they are now. How do they feel about those possible restrictions? Do they adapt the tradition with what they have? Do they go to the extra work of getting the food or going to the place or getting the material because it’s so important to them? Do they resign themselves to letting go of the tradition/custom?

5. Consider ettiquette

Another thing you could work in to make inter-personal dynamics even more interesting could be to explore some of the everyday etiquette of each culture and see if any of them clash. For instance, in the real world there are places it’s rude to completely clear your plate and there are other places it’s rude not to. Or traditional greetings in one culture could be offensive gestures in another.

Bonus: Have characters strive for different balances

Not everyone views a culture (even their own) the same way. Even within families, views can be very different. What if your main character is willing to accept a lot of the new culture but her mother is bent on remaining separate and keeping as much of their original culture as possible*? Or what if your character’s best friend embraces a facet of the new culture that the main character finds repulsive?

*This example is pulled from my story Caithan in Short Story Collection vol. 1

Hopefully this post gives you some ideas for places cultures might clash in your stories. What are some of your favorite things to see in stories where cultures clash or blend? I’d love to hear your thoughts down in the comments. :)

 

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Behind the Blogger Tag

I’ve been tagged once again. This time, thanks are in order to Chalice of Lionhearted Art. Thank you, Chalice!

Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you
Answer the questions
Ping back to the creator: Ellyn of Allonsythornraxx
Nominate 5+ bloggers to do the tag

Questions:
1. Why did you start blogging, and why have you kept blogging?

I answered the first half of this in my last tag post, so I’ll just quote that:

I don’t remember why I initially started my blog (probably just because my mom had a blog and I thought it would be cool to have one of my own), but when I revamped it in August of 2017 it was to start building a platform for my books and to help other young authors.

I keep blogging for pretty much the same reason I started in 2017: to share my books, to help other young authors, and to connect with all of you wonderful readers and bloggers. :)

2. What is your favorite type of blog post to write?

Probably worldbuilding-related posts. Worldbuilding is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, so I really enjoy writing about it.

3. What are your top three favorite blog posts?

Why the Literary World Needs Better Romances (and How to Write Them)

Worldbuilding Based on Ancient History

Self-Publishing 101: Traditional vs. Indie Publishing

4. What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?

Listen to music, dance, read, stargaze (when weather permits), find a trail and go for a walk, bake… And this is probably weird, but washing dishes is pretty relaxing to me.

5. What are three of your favorite things?

Music, dark chocolate, and books. (The full list is a lot longer, but these were the first three off the top of my head.)

6. What are your proudest blogging moments?

After my redesign in 2017, readers said the blog looked very professional, which made my graphic-designer side very happy. XD Or just yesterday when I got a comment on my Slave of the Sea review appreciating how honest the review was. Honest reviews are super important to me (especially on indie books, which I think tend to see some positive bias), so I’m glad I’m providing them effectively through my blog and Goodreads. ^-^ (My Slave of the Sea review was actually quite positive, in case you were wondering. XD)

7. What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

Reading, singing, dancing, writing… theological conversations often fall into this category, too; easygoing discussions mainly exploring different theological ideas and discussing their biblical basis are really fun. More in-depth arguments tend to be less a leisure activity. ;P

8. Describe your personality in three words?

I have one?

Totally kidding. XD But I do find it really hard to pin down my personality, and I tend to take on other people’s expectations of me.

I guess I’ll go with…

Optimistic
Procrastinator
Observant (of people much more than my surroundings, lol)

9. What are your top three pet peeves?

1. People mis-correcting grammar. I haven’t seen this happen a whole lot, but it’s super annoying when your grammar is correct and someone tries to change it to something incorrect. Like changing the proper form of “they’re” to “their.”

2. Nail filing. I can’t stand the sound of it, and my sister has this tendency to file her nails right behind my head even though she knows that. She generally moves if I ask her to, but it bugs me. XD

3. When someone sings the same few bars of a song over… and over… and over… and over… and over again. and never. moves on.

10. What’s something your followers don’t know about you?

Probably a lot of things. I tend to inadvertently not mention things about myself and then people are surprised when they come up. XD But… I will semi-frequently slip into a British accent when talking to myself. And then sometimes I get stuck and can’t switch back to American until I’m talking face-to-face with someone and it magically disappears. XD

Nominees:

Allie at Of Rainy Days and Stardust Veins

Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea

Edna at Bleeding Ink

Evelyn at The Rain-Drenched Writer

Ruby at The Sea Calls Us Home

The Liebster Award #6 and Sunshine Blogger Award #3

I’ve once again been tagged for the Liebster Award and the Sunshine Blogger Award. Noah, who nominated me for these, actually did three tags over on his blog (two Liebster Awards and a Sunshine Award), so go check those out. He’s pretty cool, and he has great taste in Captain America gifs. Thank you, Noah, for the nomination. :)

Rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you.
Display your award.
Answer the questions you were asked.
Nominate 5 bloggers.
Ask 6 new questions.
Let your nominees know they were nominated.

Questions:
1. Who are you, and why did you start your blog?

I’m Ariel. I’m a Christian author, homeschool senior, and singer, among other things.

I don’t remember why I initially started my blog (probably just because my mom had a blog and I thought it would be cool to have one of my own), but when I revamped it in August of 2017 it was to start building a platform for my books and to help other young authors.

2. What do you do for fun?

I sing all the time. I also dance every now and then (if I had more opportunities to ballroom dance, I’d take them in a heartbeat), read, watch TV shows and movies (read: analyze TV shows and movies; it drives most of my family crazy), and I enjoy studying ancient history and mythology.

3. What if you had a sidekick? Who/what would it be? What would s/he do? Or are you the sidekick?

My author assistant, Zeke, would make for a fun sidekick. (Thank you, Mariposa, for the drawing. ^-^)

But if I were to have a separate sidekick, a black tabby cat named Kalmar would be awesome. He’d keep me company while I’m writing/blogging/editing and cheer me up when I’m stressed. And he’d have the power to travel among fictional worlds and take me along so I could see and explore all the awesome places I’ve only experienced through words.

4. Favorite animal, real or fantastical?

Phoenixes. Primarily because of my brief obsession with Phoenician purple and my theory that the words “Phoenicia” and “Phoenix” are etymologically related is because the phoenix (whether the mythological bird or some real-life bird it was inspired by) was a reddish-purple color like Phoenicia’s purple dye… which is probably nothing more than a theory, but it’s a fun theory. Plus, phoenixes are just cool in their own right.

5. What is your most visited nostalgic moment?

Fun fact: I have an entire document of memories that make me smile. I’ve nicknamed it my “Happy doc” and I can’t even open the file without grinning.

I’ve probably visited any moment on that doc roughly the same number of times, but the one that immediately came to mind was an interaction from camp. Camp has a craft table set up in the afternoons, and one of the crafts a couple years ago was painted rocks. One of my friends found a shield-shaped rock and decided to paint the Hylian shield from the Legend of Zelda games, and he had a reference hanging to paint from, and at one point I asked if he was going to include the designs over the tri-force (since the rock made the scale pretty small), and after saying yes and continuing to paint for a second I remember his eyes just lighting up and he looked over at me with a grin and said “Wait, you said tri-force. You know what this is?” and we ended up talking about LoZ for a minute. Seeing people get excited about things they love is one of my favorite things, so that moment stuck out. ^-^

6. What do you want your legacy to be?

*takes a deep breath* Well… I want to be remembered as always having time and space for people who needed it. I want to be there for people, and I want to welcome people into my home when I have one of my own. I guess I just want to touch lives in really real and tangible ways? I specifically want to minister to young people, and if I could get teenagers fired up about the gospel and strengthening the Church and influencing the culture in a better direction and be remembered for that, that would be awesome. And if/when I have kids, I want to instill in them similar values and pass on a passion for hospitality and ministry.

New Questions:

If you could live in any fictional world, what world would you choose?
What’s a hobby or interest you’ve pursued for a really long time, and how long have you been doing it?
What’s something people find strange about you that you don’t understand the strangeness of?
What’s your favorite song right now? (Or one you’ve recently discovered and enjoyed)
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
If you could be instantly fluent in any language, what language would you choose?

(I’ll share nominees after the Sunshine Award.)

Rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them. Thanks again, Noah.
List the rules and display an award logo on your blog post. 
Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and notify them by commenting on any of their posts.
Ask the nominees 11 new questions.

Questions:
1. Who are you?

*points to first answer*

2. What’s your dream job?

Youth/music minister and line-/copy-editor. Less-than-spectacular experiences in church youth groups or with church worship, plus the fact that my dad used to be a youth pastor and music minister, have resulted in a strong passion for those areas of the church and I really want to minister to teens and through music. And similarly with editing, I see a lot of indie-published books with great potential that didn’t reach that potential because they weren’t edited as cleanly as they could have been, and I want to help authors polish their books–and learn to polish their books–so they can be as effective as possible and the communication of the story isn’t hindered by a bunch of misplaced commas or confusing line breaks or modern slang that jolts you out of a fictional world.

3. What’s your all-time favorite movie?

When I first watched The Greatest Showman, I thought for sure it had beaten The Princess Bride out of this spot, but… I think it’s still The Princess Bride.

4. All-time favorite book?

Either The Monster in the Hollows or The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson. It’s a really hard pick. I think I’m going to say TWatWK just because it made me cry so much harder than any other book, but both were fantastic.

5. What are three hobbies you have?

Reading, singing, and writing.

6. How many musical instruments do you play, if any?

None, unfortunately. But I’ve been wanting to take up the ocarina.

7. What’s a habit you don’t want to break, but you know you should?

Staying up late. I’m such a night owl, and I often stay up past midnight. Which would be fine, except then I sleep in wayyyy too late the next morning, and I know I need to get into a more normal (and consistent) sleep pattern.

8. What’s a habit you do want to break, but know you shouldn’t?

Depending on the season, prayer journaling can fall under this category. XP Sometimes I love praying and I have no problem keeping on top of it and prayer journaling every morning; other times it feels pointless and I don’t always push through those feelings and do it anyway even though I know the feelings are lying. And, unfortunately, I’m kind of there currently. :P

9. What’s your favorite word?

Oooooh. “Snickerdoodle” is awesome just because it’s fun to say (and because snickerdoodles happen to be delicious). But “sonder” is a really beautiful word with a beautiful meaning. (For those of you who don’t know, “sonder” refers to the realization that everyone around you is living a life equally as complex as yours.) So… probably one of those.

10. What is the quintessence of your life?

My faith is at the core of my life. I don’t always perfectly live like it is, but I see everything through the lens of my faith and my desire is to live in such a way that benefits the kingdom of God and honors Him. It’s something I’m constantly working on living more completely, and surrendering my life to Christ is something I’m always working at, but my relationship with Him is always impacting my life.

And, far less important in an eternal sense, music is a huge part of my life. I’m practically addicted to music; I constantly have music playing–if not from a playlist, then in my head–and I’m frequently singing. I’m in a choir I’ve been part of for nearly twelve years, and music is super important to me in many areas of life. Not only do I use music to get in touch with how I’m feeling, but I also love learning more about the other people in my life based on what music they listen to, and music is one of my favorite kinds of worship.

11. What is a belief you will carry to your death bed?

The gospel, as a whole. But since that’s kind of a given… the belief that God is completely sovereign. I find it’s not a popular belief among many Christians, but I firmly believe that God is fully sovereign in and in control of everything that happens in the world, good and bad, and He uses everything to His glory and for the good of those who love Him. Nothing is beyond His control or His reach, and everything is controlled by His power. (I have a whole post on my second blog about why I believe in predestination and the total sovereignty of God, if anyone’s interested.)

New Questions:

If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?
What’s your favorite mythological creature?
Have you ever been fascinated with something super specific and unusual? What was it?
What’s your dream job?
If you could live in any decade of the 1900s, which would you choose?
If you lived in that decade, would your ideal job be the same? If not, what would you do instead?
What’s your all-time favorite book series?
How do you feel about tabletop RPGs?
What’s one unpopular opinion that you hold?
What book is at the top of your TBR?
What’s your favorite quote?

Nominees:

Eden at The Happy Hedgehog
Edna at Bleeding Ink
Allie at Of Rainy Days and Stardust Veins
Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea
Ruby at The Sea Calls Us Home
Felicity at The Wonderous World Around Us
Elyra at Wandering to Find My Way Home
Evelyn at The Rain-Drenched Writer
Keturah at Keturah’s Korner
NC at Weird As Usual
Acacia at Acacia’s Story Corner

The Benefits of Vignette Worldbuilding

There are many methods for worldbuilding. I mean, many. Everyone is going to have a different way they go about worldbuilding, and I personally tend to use a broad variety of methods. One method I’ve found a lot of fun while working on Deseran (my huge “desert fantasy” world, which I finally get to share a piece of with Caithan) is what I call “vignette worldbuilding.” The way it works, I select a piece of the world that I’ve been developing recently, or I latch onto a cool new concept that doesn’t have an official place yet, and I write a piece of short prose around it. Caithan, for instance, was an exploration of the mix of cultures in Teraco, an empire that’s something of a cultural melting-pot. I’ve also written short pieces to further develop races, or to show how certain groups are treated in differing countries, or to showcase the unique traits of the wildlife of the world. There’s really no limit to what you can explore with vignette worldbuilding. But what are its unique benefits?

It allows you to narrow your focus

When you’re constructing a world, it’s all too easy to get caught up in all the broad, sweeping facts of the world, or to jump around from place to place because everything’s interconnected. Vignettes allow you to focus on one aspect of the world and go deeper with your worldbuilding rather than just bigger. This doesn’t mean you completely cut out all of the other connecting pieces, but the outside influences on your primary object should simply color the piece and hint at more instead of taking over your attention.

It gives you “firsthand” experience of the world

When we build our worlds, we tend to come at them from a distance, as their creators. We get the broad view of the world, but we can sometimes miss the smaller details that make the world truly come alive. When you write a piece of prose to explore the world, you’re almost always writing from the perspective of a character who lives in the world. Someone who has a certain view of things and who takes things for granted or who notices things you wouldn’t. You get to come at the world from the perspective of someone on the ground and pick out the deeper intricacies of the world (whether they be physical or non-physical).

Another facet to this is that you can explore the world more genuinely. As a speculative writer, you’re creating the world out of thin air, so there is automatically some degree of exploration because you’re discovering something that’s never been seen before. But there’s also a sense of control, because you’re the one creating it. In prose, from the perspective of a character, you can more genuinely explore as someone inside the world would. You can place yourself in the position of an in-world explorer and see things from a more “direct” perspective.

It exercises your writing skills

Vignette worldbuilding not only deepens your worldbuilding, but also gives you a chance to practice your descriptive writing (and even your dialogue and characterization, depending on the snippet). In these vignettes, your purpose is to show the world as you would in a story, but your focus on setting should be extra pointed. It’s a great exercise for showing the world effectively through your description and through the reactions of your characters. Depending on what your focus is for a certain snippet, it can also get you thinking about how a character’s world impacts their worldview, their actions, and even the way they speak.

It can produce ideas for full-length works

Sometimes when writing out your world, you can stumble across characters or places whose stories are begging to be told. Sometimes you write from exactly the right character’s perspective and you realize there are ingredients for a whole novel in your vignette, or there will be after you explore a couple of different facets and put it all together. This doesn’t always happen (I’d even venture to say it doesn’t often happen, and this is coming from the writer who constantly has characters vying for her attention), and many of your vignettes will remain “incomplete” and simply serve their purpose as exploration. Others, however, may result in your next great book idea. (Because we all know we need more of those. ;) )

You’ll also learn what characters won’t work for longer works, or would need a lot more development. Some characters end up just being vehicles for showing off the world, which is perfectly fine for vignettes, but makes some of those vignettes impossible to build into longer works as-are.

An example of vignette worldbuilding

Mehera stepped out into the dim morning and took a deep breath of cool air. The snores of her clan-mates drifted from the tents around her and she smiled faintly. There was something beautiful about being awake while the rest of the world slept. Her bangles clanked as she made her way to the wagon the horses were tied to, sand shifting under her feet. As she reached out to her stallion, she caught sight of a dark smudge in the sky. Tenayl whinnied as Mehera watched curls of smoke mar the sunrise.

Mehera stroked Tenayl’s snout. “Let’s go see what’s happening.”

After unhitching Tenayl, Mehera swung onto his bare back and urged him in the direction of the smoke. It didn’t take as long as she’d expected to find the source of the fire, but this had not been what she’d imagined. A bird stood in a patch of bright orange sand, its purple-red plumage flaming. It squawked as the flames consumed it and it turned to a pile of ash.

A phoenix. They’re actually real. And I just saw one burn.

As the sand cooled back to dun, a beaked head emerged from the ash heap, followed by a red-violet bird just as magnificent as–if smaller than–its predecessor. Gold feathers edged its wings, glittering in the rising sun. The phoenix stared at Mehera a moment before flying off, scattering ash and sand alike in its wake.

A while back, wanted to write a piece that showcased both the phoenixes of Deseran and the color-changing sand, and this was the result. This is probably my favorite vignette piece, but even those I don’t like as well served their purpose in showing facets of the world and deepening my understanding of those facets.

To read more about a similar worldbuilding approach, check out this post by Deck Matthews on the Phoenix Fiction Writers blog.

Have you ever tried vignette worldbuilding? How did it go? What’s your favorite worldbuilding method? Leave a comment and let’s chat!

Pre-order Short Story Collection vol. 1, 2nd edition here and check out Caithan!

5 Writing Exercises to Get You Out of Your Comfort Zone

This week’s blog tour focus is Carnival Hearts, the second story in the new edition of Short Story Collection vol. 1. Since Carnival Hearts was really a writing exercise that went well, I figured it would be fun to share a handful of writing exercises you can try to get out of your writing comfort zone! I don’t know about you, but my best writing tends to happen when I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone; and even when the end result isn’t great, the process of doing an exercise is almost always a ton of fun.

Cut out a certain story element

My primary challenge with Carnival Hearts was using as little dialogue as possible and communicating through description, action, and internal monologue instead. I write a lot of dialogue in most of my stories, so I wanted to push myself, and Carnival Hearts was the result. If there’s a story element you find yourself using too much, try using as little of it as possible in a short story (or maybe even a scene of your WIP) and strengthening the other elements.

Use only a certain element

Is there a writing element you know you need practice with? Try writing a story using only that element to practice. It could be a fun challenge, for instance, to make two characters starkly recognizable through only their dialogue. Or to communicate the entire history of a place through only the way you describe its appearance.

Write a story based on a song

This was another challenge that went into making Carnival Hearts what it is. I don’t remember how I came across Kayla Diamond’s song “Carnival Hearts,” but I immediately fell in love with it, and it provided a framework for me to use with my dialogue-light exercise. (I highly recommend giving the song a listen; it’s a super cool song.) Since music is such a huge part of my life, this exercise is a personal favorite of mine, and I may or may not have an idea simmering on the back burner of building a full novel series that includes elements from every song on my “Writing Inspiration” playlist…

Start with a writing prompt

Bonus points if it’s a prompt outside of your normal genre. There are so many things you can do with a writing prompt, from using it straight to totally subverting it, from writing it in the genre you’d expect to twisting it to fit a different genre… Writing prompts can be super fun, and writing prompts have inspired so many of my stories (especially short stories).

Write a story based on an image

Pinterest is great for this. Look up “visual writing inspiration” and see what comes up. Then pick an image and have a heyday! Look at all the little details of the image, analyze the mood; if there are characters, decide what they’re thinking and feeling. You can use any portion of the image to go off of, or the whole thing, or just the emotion it evokes… There’s really no limit to the possibilities. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

Book Review: Slave of the Sea by Dawn Dagger

Levanine’s life as a slave is insignificant. She has always been property; bound to her owner, content to serve quietly where no one can cause her harm. However, when her master sells her to pay a debt, her false safety is shattered, and she finds herself offered as a sex slave on the continent of Dreanis.

Fearful and hopeless, Levanine expects the worst to happen. Nothing could prepare her to be suddenly swept onto a pirate ship by an infamous captain whose interests are a mystery to her. Forced to think on her feet, the silent girl must overcome a lifetime of servitude to survive on a ship where everything is trying to destroy her.

As sea monsters, mutinies, and ghosts wreak havoc on the ship and its crew, Levanine realizes that she doesn’t have the luxury of simply surviving until they arrive at Avondella, her continent of redemption. Levanine must decide whether she will die the person she has always been, a meek nobody… or will she make a name for herself at sea? 

Goodreads – Amazon

To be entirely honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d think of this book because the subject matter is not what I usually read, but I’m familiar with the author and knew she’d handle the issue tactfully, so when she reached out to ask if I’d write a review, I said yes. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Yes, this book is uncomfortable at times. A story set in a world where sex slaves are the norm should be uncomfortable. But, as I expected going in, Dawn put forth the issues explicitly enough to have emotional impact while still handling it tactfully and never going beyond what was absolutely necessary (and not much was necessary). I also appreciated that, while there were many awful men in Kethaltar (and they were, unfortunately, the majority), there were also enough good men to feel like the balance wasn’t excessively weighted toward creeps. (At least at any one point in the book; when taken as a whole, I would maybe have liked to have seen more decent guys).

Another thing that contributed to my considering the balance to be adequate was that the world was well-constructed to support the themes Slave of the Sea explores. It felt natural for there to have been fewer good men. As unfortunate as it is to have a world where such a balance feels natural, I’ve seen books in the past where it just felt contrived to have so many abusive men and so few respectful men, but Dawn’s worldbuilding supported her plot and themes well.

The characters in this book were, as a whole, enjoyable. There were times I would have liked for their feelings to be shown more than told (or where they were both told and shown, and the telling could have simply been removed), but for the most part they felt well thought-out.

Levanine’s character growth wasn’t as smooth as might have been ideal, but her flaws, tics, and insecurities all felt natural to her character.

Captain Guy wasn’t my favorite, due to his violent tendencies and bloodlust, but he still made for a compelling POV character. His goal, his beliefs, and his overall opinion of the world were all very clear and well-written in the majority of cases.

As usual, however, the side characters were my favorite. Rafiki was tops on my list. I loved his support for Levanine, his respect, and how clearly he cares for the people and the world around him all contributed to my appreciation of his character, and I’d love to see more of him in future books in the Chronicles of Salt and Blood series.

Silva was my second favorite, and I loved his relationship with Levanine. Their relationship deepened both of their characters. Plus, kids have a tendency to be high on my list of favorite characters; something about the specific perspective they bring to the world is a huge draw for me. With Silva, it was interesting to see a mixture of child-like beliefs with a worldview shaped by a pirate-filled, harsh world.

I also enjoyed reading about Braxton and Quinn, and I appreciated the respect and discipline they both had (considering how rare those qualities were on the ship).

Admittedly, many of the less-prominent side characters never clicked in my brain–Awla, Ska (all I remember is that he has a bird), Eldred, etc.–but enough description was given for my imagination to coast by when they popped up.

Since I got an ARC, there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors, but I trust those are remedied in the final version.

Overall, Slave of the Sea was a compelling read and I look forward to reading more in this series.

Dawn Dagger has had a passion for reading and writing ever since she could remember. When she was six she drew and wrote her very own book, and though it hardly makes sense now, she was so proud. She has written many books, short stories, and poems since then, and continues to do so. Dawn placed highly in her two middle school years of Power of the Pen and even has her short story ‘The Haunting’ published in an anthology, She admits she isn’t good at anything physical (except some ballroom dancing), or video games, but she does enjoy a nice game of Mario Kart, a trip fishing, or just a walk in the woods. She has a knack for taking pictures of whatever catches her eye; especially brightly colored flowers. Dawn is a sucker for a good fantasy book, lives off of coffee, and loves her wonderful family and friends, and her dedicated boyfriend, Nevin, who is just like a romance novel character.

Dawn has over 70 stories started (don’t believe her? Just the other night she rattled off the 37 stories she’s actually named and what they’re about to Nevin because he wanted to know) and that doesn’t include short stories or poems. She has lots of writing to do, and is excited for what’s ahead!

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A nautical bracelet
Nautical-themed wooden signs
Message in a bottle
‘Slave of the Sea’ keychains
A ‘Slave of the Sea’ poster
and a signed copy of ‘Slave of the Sea’!

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Character Interview: Fiona Wildman

Short Story Collection vol. 1 is re-releasing in a month, and Silence with it, so I’m bringing back my interview with the story’s MC, Fiona. It’s been slightly updated to reflect edits I’ve made to the story (as well as, hopefully, an improvement in my writing voice), but it’s primarily the same interview I posted two years ago for the first release.

Fiona is a runaway from a tech company that wants to use her DNA to make a race of superhumans, which is why she’ll come across as borderline rude in this interview; she doesn’t trust easily. Enjoy the interview!

Fiona: *steps into the interview studio, shoulders tense and walk stiff* Hello.

Interviewer: Hello. How are you today?

Fiona: Fine.

Interviewer: *gestures to a seat across from him* Shall we get started?

Fiona: *hesitates before sitting down* Please.

Interviewer: What is your name?

Fiona: Fiona Wildman.

Interviewer: How old are you?

Fiona: Nineteen. *regards the interviewer suspiciously*

Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?

Fiona: No.

Interviewer: Do you have a job?

Fiona: Used to. Grantech chased me out of it.

Interviewer: I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?

Fiona: *shifts in her seat, straightening and lifting her chin a little* Nothing important.

Interviewer: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Fiona: *shrugs* It depends.

Interviewer: What is your favorite food?

Fiona: *brow furrows like “Why does that matter?”* Black licorice.

Interviewer: Favorite color?

Fiona: Grey…

Interviewer: Do you prefer movies or books?

Fiona: Books.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite?

Fiona: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Interviewer: *nods* Good book. What’s your favorite animal?

Fiona: Dogs.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies?

Fiona: Reading and sketching, mostly.

Interviewer: Which of these is most important to you: kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Fiona: Intelligence.

Interviewer: And honesty or selflessness?

Fiona: Honesty.

Interviewer: What’s something you can’t leave home without?

Fiona: A well-stocked backpack.

Interviewer: Could you define “well-stocked”?

Fiona: *shrugs* If I can stay alive for a few days completely on my own, my backpack is well-stocked.

Interviewer: *nods* That was the last question. Thank you for your time. *smiles*

Fiona: *nods and leaves*

About Silence:

Due to her birth coinciding with a full solar eclipse, Fiona Wildman was born with powers she doesn’t understand. Powers a scientific mega-corporation will stop at nothing to exploit.

Pre-order Short Story Collection vol. 1! (Paperbacks are still the old edition until February 8th.)

Short Story Collection vol. 1 – 2nd Edition | Blog Tour Schedule!

There’s just one month until the new edition of Short Story Collection vol. 1 releases! I have a blog tour going over the next four weeks leading up to the release, so be sure to check out the following blogs for exciting content. ^-^ (I’ll be adding direct post links here as things go live, also.)

Pre-Tour Posts

Candice Yamnitz – Author interview

Kayla Green – Author interview

 

Week 1 (Jan. 12-18th) – Silence
January 12th

Allie Lee – Author interview

January 14th

Edna Pellen – Silence review

January 15th

R.M. Archer – Fiona Wildman character interview

 

Week 2 (Jan. 19-25th) – Carnival Hearts
January 19th

Allie Lee – Carnival Hearts review

January 21st

R.M. Archer – Writing Exercises to Get You Out of Your Comfort Zone (Fun fact: Carnival Hearts was basically a writing exercise that I found myself super happy with)

 

Week 3 (Jan. 26th-Feb. 1st) – Escape Room
January 26th

Allie Lee – Laena Elderwood character interview

February 1st

Edna Pellen – Story review

 

Week 4 (Feb. 2-8th) – Caithan
February 2nd

Chelsea R.H. – Author interview

February 4th

R.M. Archer – The Benefits of Vignette Worldbuilding

 

Pre-Order Short Story Collection vol. 1 now!

Pre-orders are already live for SSCv.1! Order the ebook now (for $1.99) and it’ll be delivered to your device on the 7th (the day before the new paperback releases!)