R.M. Archer's Blog, page 5

Book Review: World-Building for Writers by H.C. Harrington

I recently discovered the existence of a couple of worldbuilding books I hadn’t previously come across in my searching, to my mingled dismay (that I had managed to miss them) and delight (that there are actually more authors writing about this topic). One was a series, and its collected volumes are huge, so it’s on the list to get later, but one was a reasonable impulse-buy price so I grabbed it, so here I am today with a review of World-Building for Writers!

What is World-Building for Writers about?

You Can Build A World

For many authors, there’s nothing that slows down their writing process more than world-building. Whether it’s deciding on what types of fantastic beasts to include in their stories or how to name characters and locations convincingly H.C. Harrington, Amazon Best-Selling Author of the Daughter of Havenglade Series, explains step-by-step how to create deep and engrossing worlds while saving time.

World-Building For Writers breaks down hundreds of examples of effective world-building from novels, films, and television to demystify the process, make it enjoyable, and help readers unleash the inner voice they never knew they had for creating worlds.

Prepare to enter the realm of your own imagination.

“In your hand is a map of creative imagination, good habits, and practical examples to ensure that you build a world that’s fun and functional, that births heroes, cultivates epic tales, and inspires awe in readers.”-Dustin Porta, author of The Dragon’s Hide

Review

Let me get the negatives out of the way first, most of which are fairly minor or specific to me and those of you who share similar priorities (as evidenced by the fact that I only docked half a star).

First, this book is split into two sections… except not really. The author talks about how he’s covering things in brief in the first half and will go deeper in the second half, to serve both writers who want to do bare bones worldbuilding and those who want to build deeper worlds. That’s all well and good, except there is no dividing line, so it’s a little confusing when he starts revisiting the same topics he already covered, and I would have liked for the chapters in the second half to have not only covered different and deeper details than their first half counterparts, but also to have been longer and more in-depth overall, which they were not.

This brings me to my second gripe, which is just that I don’t understand how or why all authors who write about worldbuilding seem to keep all of their chapters to 3-10 pages. The topic is worldbuilding, which is vast and varied and deep, and such brief chapters can only scratch the tiniest bit of the surface. When chapters are that short, it’s no wonder that the authors only explore very limited options and perspectives on a given sub-topic! If you’re looking for a book that will start to hint at some of the variety of options for founding and developing an element of your world, my advice is to look for a worldbuilding book with longer chapters.

For Christian readers, I would warn that the author is not Christian, so some of his examples reflect a secular worldview and his assessments of some Christian-authored stories–such as Lord of the Rings–often lack depth. There is also one use of “s***” used in a literal context in one of the excerpts he includes. His segment on potential foundations for magic systems is also very narrow in its scope and mostly covers options that many Christian authors may be uncomfortable with.

With all of that said, this is possibly the best worldbuilding book I’ve read so far in terms of covering foundational elements accurately, drawing in relevant examples, and discussing worldbuilding from a clear love for and understanding of the craft. It is also excellent at highlighting the connection between worldbuilding and other aspects of storytelling such as character and theme and touching on how one might tie these aspects together well; the author clearly understands the integral connection that should exist between a world and its story, and it was great to see that emphasized and encouraged in this book.

There are elements left out that I might include (notably, cultural worldview), and I do wish that the whole thing were less snappy because of the topic, but this is a solid worldbuilding resource to have on the shelf as a speculative fiction author.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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How to Choose Your Next Project

If you’re trying to decide what project to work on next, whether for a writing challenge this fall or simply because you’ve finished one project and you’re ready for something new, this post is all about how to simplify that process–both now and in the future. I’ve written on this topic before, but I wanted to put together an updated and expanded guide that better serves you. Note that these tips can also help if you’re choosing what project to work toward publishing or querying, though I recommend also checking out this video from Bethany Meyer if that’s the season you’re in.

Without further ado, let’s get into some tips for developing an effective story prioritization system!

Understand Your Rhythms

As you begin to develop a system for project prioritization, it’s key to know how you work best. This will help you decide what kind of project to work on next, at what stage, and how many projects you can take on at a time. It’s also important to be aware of how these rhythms might differ as life seasons change; you may be able to juggle half a dozen drafts at once for years, only to hit a point where you find you work much better by honing in on just one for a time, and vice versa. Remember that these changes aren’t a sign that you’ve grown weaker as a writer, but sometimes that you’ve grown in your craft or simply reached a different season that’s not better or worse.

Knowing how many projects you can focus on at a time is really important, as this will help you to know whether you need to choose just one project off the list or three or five at a time. I can personally handle 1-2 book projects at a time, with short stories here and there, and it helps if, when I do work on multiple books at once, they’re different genres and/or at different stages of the writing process (e.g. I’m drafting one and editing the second, or editing one and outlining the next). But that’s just my current rhythm; I used to be able to draft three fantasy novels all at once, and your rhythm might be something different altogether!

It’s also important to identify broader patterns to your work, beyond a single season of focus on so-many projects. Do you need a break period between finishing one project and starting the next? Do you need a just-for-fun project to stay on the back burner so you can work on it when you start to burn out on your focus project? Do you have to alternate genres from focus project to focus project? Do you start to burn out if you spend too long working on books of the same series back-to-back? (I found out the hard way that I need breaks between books of a series when I burned out on Thunder.)

Make sure that as you look at your working rhythms, you account for the rest necessary within those rhythms as well. Rest is a key part of having a sustainable work rhythm, whether that means taking complete breaks from writing or having projects that are themselves a break from other work (or both). When I burned out on Thunder, my worldbuilding book proved to be the break I needed from that series. For a time, I also had a gothic fantasy project I would write by the seat of my pants every so often when I felt like writing but didn’t feel like working on any of my core projects at the time (which actually proved to be a really interesting experiment in using subtext in dialogue). It is 100% okay to have projects that are just for you, just for fun, “rest” projects, and just to take breaks! That doesn’t make you–or your project–a failure*. I promise.

*Want to get emails like this one delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up to the newsletter below and get access to the story ranking worksheet I use, too!

Know What You’re Passionate About

The second key part of developing a prioritization system that works for you is to know what you’re passionate about when it comes to the projects you work on. This, too, can change as life seasons change and interests come and go, but knowing what you’re passionate about–both the values that stay the same and the interests that change–can make it a lot easier to choose what projects to focus on.

If a specific project is grabbing your attention and capturing your imagination, that might be a good idea to prioritize! But it also might be helpful to know why this project is so exciting to you. Are the themes important to you? Do you love the world? Does it feature tropes you really enjoy? Is it for an age range you’re passionate about writing for? Is it a step out of your comfort zone? Knowing these things will not only help you to detect patterns in your projects–as certain themes, tropes, etc. will likely crop up again and again–but might also help you to develop projects that you’re not as drawn to and to imbue them with features that will make them more interesting and important to you.

Especially if your project prioritization is tied to publishing plans, knowing what your mission is with writing and how your various ideas fit or mismatch with that mission can help you decide what is the next important step toward those goals and what might distract from them–or simply need to be a more intentional diversion.

Not sure how to find your interests or incorporate your unique passions into your writing? Subscribe to download the Worldview Focus Questions worksheet!

Monitor Story Development

Having a way to keep track of how well-developed a story idea is may make it easier for you to choose your next project. If Project A is already fully outlined and just waiting to have a full draft written, while Project B is only the kernel of an idea, Project A might be the simpler choice to prioritize next. Of course, the level of preparation that you’re looking for in a project may differ depending on what stage the project is at and whether you’re more of a discovery writer or a plotter.

While starting with a more developed idea may be a practical help that makes the drafting (or editing) process easier, it’s also an indication that you value this project enough to have developed it to a meaningful degree already–whether consciously or not. If a project has been whirring away in the back of your mind for a while, or you’ve set aside dedicated time to develop its plot, characters, world, etc., then chances are it’s a project you find interesting and/or important and it’s worth considering placing it toward the top of the priority list.

Connecting Ideas

Lastly, I want to talk about some different options when it comes to connecting ideas–whether to make use of ideas that can’t sustain a whole book, use those connections as another prioritization metric, or just simplify your project list.

First, if you have a story idea that doesn’t seem to be sustainable for a whole book, you have a couple of options. One is to see if there’s a way you can incorporate the idea into a different, larger project on the list. If you have another project of a similar tone, theme, setting, etc., this may be a useful option. Another option is simply to turn the idea into a short story or novella; maybe it doesn’t need to be as long, but it’s still worth writing as a story of its own. Lastly, perhaps the project needs to be left at the bottom of the priority list for a while to see if more pieces present themselves and it can be fleshed out into something bigger. Sometimes small ideas just need time to percolate.

If you’re overwhelmed by how many disparate projects you have and you want some way to tie some of them together, consider whether they might be suitable to take place in the same world or universe. This is a relatively easy way to build connections between your projects and help readers stay engaged with your work as you publish. Some projects might even be able to follow the same characters! If you’re not sure how to decide whether you need numerous worlds, or how to tie existing stories into the same world, check out this post written around the premise of Brandon Sanderson’s “Third Law of Magic.”

Connections–whether pre-established or discovered/developed later–can also be a helpful means of prioritizing projects. If you’ve published a book set in World A, your readers are likely to want more of that world (and/or series, if applicable). Does that mean you can’t work on anything set in World B instead? Of course not! Especially if you make a plan to cycle through different worlds/series, you can still work with the personal rhythms discussed before. But if you’re trying to decide between World A and World B and you would be able to work on either within your work rhythm, knowing what your readers are and aren’t expecting (or even just how much time you can take away from a series before losing continuity), knowing what comes next can be a helpful aspect of prioritizing the next right project.

If you’re into the publishing stage, the order of a series or the order of projects along a particular world’s timeline may be an important factor to consider, as well. While some projects may be more independent of one another even within a particular setting, others may depend on prior context–or may suffer from being published as “prequels” where readers already know what comes later along the timeline. This is something I’ve had to consider with Lightning and Thunder, as these are some of the latest projects in their world’s history and I’ve had to ask myself what mystery will be lost in prior projects and what context will be lacking if I publish them before certain other projects set in the same world. Sometimes other factors may trump series order or similar considerations, but if you’re still struggling to decide between a handful of projects, this might be a helpful thing to think about to break the tie.

Do you have trouble choosing between project ideas? Which of these points has been most helpful to you? What are you most excited about with regard to your current or next project? Comment below!

Want to grab the spreadsheet template I use for capturing and prioritizing story ideas? Need a system for tracking the development of your story ideas? The story ranking worksheet is designed to be that tool. Sign up below for access!

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Book Review: Sailing Magic by Order of the Pen Press

I haven’t reviewed an anthology in a while, but while at Realm Makers I finally picked up a copy of Sailing Magic from Order of the Pen Press! This is an anthology that I’ve been really interested in since before it came out–in fact, I’d intended to submit a story to it myself but didn’t get around to writing one in time–and it was just as fun as I’d hoped!

About Sailing Magic

Ships are a timeless symbol of adventure, promising individuals the opportunity to explore worlds unknown. Sailing Magic features ten exciting stories that will take you on fantastical journeys to lands you’ve never seen before!

Review(s)

Heir of the Silver Throne
This was an interesting story with great characters. I really liked the focus on a married couple, and the MC’s best friend as well. I felt the writing was a little lack-luster and the story would have benefited from a bit more foreshadowing, but overall a fun read.

The Phantom
The writing and plot of this one were great. I loved the way the story unfolded and the lore built around it, and the ending was satisfying. If you like pirates, you’ll like this story.

The Man Who Caught a Falling Star
I loved this one! I’m not always a big fan of reading space-based sci-fi, but this one blended that genre with fantasy beautifully. I loved the characters, the story, the worldbuilding… I would definitely read more in this same world.

The Gilded Horizon
This was a sweet little story, very well-written, but it ended too soon and left me with more questions than answers. The feel-good ending didn’t feel like it had been earned by the set-up of the worldbuilding, so I would have liked to see a little more explanation for how things happened the way that they did.

The Princess from the Sea
Aside from the insta-love, I really enjoyed this one! The worldbuilding was rich, the characters were likeable, the plot as a whole flowed naturally, the writing was great. I mostly wish it hadn’t ended with a kiss, I think, because that pushed the insta-love over the edge for me and I would have liked to see more thought–from the characters–put behind the romance. But the speed of the relationship was my only gripe with the story, and I’d love to see other stories set in this same world.

Questing Hall
This story made me laugh out loud multiple times, which is something few authors can accomplish. It’s also just a great story, with a vivid cast of characters and a really interesting atmosphere to the setting. It blends a lot of different elements into something really unique and intriguing, with bits of fantasy, sci-fi, and history all blended together. It was very fun, and this is another story that made me want to see more of its world.

Outcasts of the Addan
This story definitely felt like it was meant to be set-up for a larger book. Again, I really liked the world we get to see in this story, with its different races and their tensions with one another. I was also glad that the ending was what it was; I was afraid certain things wouldn’t happen, but they did, so I was happy to see it. I’m not sure I found this story as compelling as some of the others, but I would be interested in the larger project this is meant to lead up to.

Bard for Hire: Will Travel
This was another installment where I felt that the story/plot was its weakest element, but I enjoyed the writing, character, and setting and if there were more following this main character–or even with him as a side character–I would read it. This story had a really enjoyable writing style, and the worldbuilding detail that the story hinges on is one I would be interested to see fleshed out further in the context of a larger work.

Blue Sails
This was a great short story. It had a sense of context, but it was a well-contained story in its own right that didn’t feel like it needed more in order to make sense or resolve questions. It was well-written, the characters were compelling, the worldbuilding was well-done, and the theme was beautifully executed. This was probably one of the strongest installments in the collection.

Luck of the Emerald Venture
I don’t know quite what to think of this story. The setting and premise are interesting, and I like the emphasis on marriage in the story. I’m not sure that the characters felt consistent enough, to me, to effectively convey the intended theme and make the ending feel satisfactory. The character intended to be a cautionary tale was a little too reasonable, and the main character a little too easily convinced of an opposite opinion, and I felt the author had to rely on telling us who we should and shouldn’t trust to make the ending work instead of drawing up characters who really communicated their intended character themselves. That said, the bones were certainly there and I think that with a little more character depth and polishing this could have been a much stronger and more powerful story.

Overall
This was a very enjoyable collection! There was a lot of diversity of style, some diversity of genre, and it got me to like some genres that I don’t tend to enjoy reading, plus I was introduced to authors I’d like to see more from! I definitely recommend this if you enjoy sailing stories in the fantasy and/or sci-fi genre and you’re looking for new authors to follow in those genres.

Rating: 5 stars

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Do you like short stories? Have you read any books from Order of the Pen Press before? Comment below with your thoughts!

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Book Review: The Librarian’s Ruse by Thirzah

Today’s review is in honor of yesterday’s book release–A Traitor’s Vow, which is the sequel to The Librarian’s Ruse. For the sake of context, I began with this book and am sharing this review for others like me who might be unfamiliar with this series as a whole.

(Required disclaimer that though I received a free copy to review, the following opinions are my own.)

What is The Librarian’s Ruse about?

ONE MISTAKE. TWO EMPIRES. COUNTLESS SECRETS.

Amelia’s peaceful life as a librarian is cut short when she and her older brother Leon are sent on an errand to Eldnaire, the capital city of the vicious Vilnarian Empire. After witnessing a crime carried out in the woods, Amelia and Leon enter the capital only to be faced with an impossible tell the truth and risk imprisonment, or lie and face far worse if they’re caught.

One deception leads to a dozen more, and before she can put an end to the lies, she and Leon are swept up into Vilnaria’s high society. Amelia finds an unlikely ally in Vilnaria’s handsome new ruler, Emperor Kyvir. But as the secrets and scandals continue to pile up and danger closes in on all sides, Amelia must decide once and for all what matters the truth…or her life?

Let’s start with the characters, as they were the driving force of this book. Unfortunately… I didn’t really like them. I didn’t believe the dramatic difference of morals between Leon and Amelia as siblings–particularly given their homeschooled upbringing; Leon is intentionally insufferable (so points for effect, I suppose); and Amelia is too passive to be a likeable main character. Kyvir was likeable enough, but not fleshed out sufficiently to be as engaging as he could have been. The side characters were charicatures, either vague and uninteresting (as in Fern’s case) or mismatched in their motivations and the way their actions came across (as in Gladik’s case). All of the characters had potential, but were either pushed too far or not far enough to be effective in their portrayal.

The dialogue was so-so, owing to weak characterization and too many modern speech mannerisms to be believable. Thirzah is a good writer, as I’ll discuss shortly, so it’s clear that the dialogue would have been a strong point had the characters been stronger and had her editor addressed the dialogue’s overly modern sound.

The plot was well-paced, but its conclusion fell flat for me. There were too few meaningful consequences–especially for Leon–and the end of Gladik’s plot arc was unfair. Besides which, a new character is introduced at the climax to fix everything in deus ex machina fashion. Overall, the plot is well-done for most of the book–if a bit contrived due mostly to the character weaknesses discussed above–but the ending was largely dissatisfying and thematically weak.

I found the worldbuilding vivid in the details but wobbly on its foundations. There are three nations(?) involved in the story, and their relationships are vaguely sketched out but left me with a lot of questions. Namely, how do librarians and libraries work in this world? It’s the characters’ vocation, yet I’m confused as to what they were actually traveling to accomplish and how it was supposed to work. I also had trouble keeping Vilnaria and Ivanyar straight due to the similarities in their names. I would have liked to see more clarity in the foundational elements of the international politics that are at the heart of this book. That said, I was intrigued by some of the details, such as mercenary pins and how one of the nations might have learned to optimize the profit of war after becoming so accustomed to it; these are the sorts of details that hint at something more and grab me as a reader, regardless of whether there’s anything behind them or not. I would have liked for the foundations to have been solid enough that the world had been less distracting and these details could have been a bigger highlight by themselves.

The actual writing of this book is good. Thirzah does a good job at using unique, vivid metaphors in her description and balancing description well with action and dialogue. This contributes, I think, to the quality of pacing, and those two things–the writing and the pacing, with those fun worldbuilding details thrown in as a bonus–were what bumped this up to a three star read for me. This book was easy to read, novel-length but not long, well-written, paced for a light read, and every bit of it had potential even if it wasn’t realized here. I really look forward to seeing that potential grow and be built upon in Thirzah’s future work as she grows in experience and the storytelling craft.

Rating: 3 stars

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Book Review: Inseparable by E.B. Roshan

Starting today, I’ll be posting book reviews for three straight weeks, because apparently September is a popular release month this year! First up, Inseparable by E.B. Roshan released yesterday and I had the opportunity to read an ARC.

(Required disclaimer that though I received a free copy to review, the following opinions are my own.)

What is Inseparable about?

War brought Radoslav and Dunya together. If she hadn’t become a refugee, and he hadn’t taken a job as an interpreter at the camp she was sent to, they never would have met. Now, they’re taking the first tentative steps toward a peaceful future for themselves and their adopted son. Settled in a fishing village far from the conflict zone, they have good reason to hope the worst of their troubles are behind them. They could not be more wrong…

Review

Inseparable is book six in Roshan’s Shards of Sevia series, and I have not read the first five, so I can’t speak to how this book fits into the larger story being told in any depth. I was still able to follow the story, but it was clear that I had been dropped into a story that started a long time ago, in a world that had been previously established, and I’m sure that many of the relationships, characters, and other details would have had greater depth had I read the rest of the series beforehand.

Because I didn’t realize at first that this was a continuation of the Shards of Sevia series, I initially expected a story that focused on characters coming out of a war and settling into life after the war. While that’s not an entirely inaccurate description of Inseparable, the context of the series makes this a story that is much more connected to the war itself than I went in expecting. This story is very much colored by the conflicts of this world and the series’ earlier books; it’s a raw, conflict-heavy story with broken characters who struggle with faith. Overall, I think it does what it does fairly well. The characters feel genuine, the world and conflicts therein play a crucial role in the story, and the world is realistically harsh for the circumstances. The writing is well-balanced for the genre, to-the-point much of the time but with vividly specific descriptions sprinkled where they’re needed. The highlight of this book, for me, were the familial relationships and themes, which have been Roshan’s consistent strengths over everything I’ve read from her.

This book wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, or a genre I normally read, so it was only a three-star read for me personally, but it was well-done and I would recommend it to those who more heavily read post-apocalyptic fiction or similar genres.

Rating: 3 stars

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Building Fictional Organizations

Corporations, guilds, book clubs, cartels, unions, non-profits, religious sects… The world is full of organized groups, and your created world is probably already no exception (and if it is, I have questions). This post is all about how to take existing groups–and/or create new ones–and ensure that they are as purposeful, dynamic, and impactful on your characters and world as they should be. To help make things more concrete, I’ll be using the calligraphy guilds of Calligraphy Guild and Grantech from Lightning and Short Story Collection vol. 1 as examples throughout. Let’s get into it!

Core Purpose

In order for your fictional organization to hold together, justify its existence, and be distinguished from other groups, it needs to have a clear purpose. A Virilen calligraphy guild’s purpose, for example, is to safeguard dragon ink and faithfully record history in said dragon ink so that it cannot be altered, and (as a bonus) to provide a community around the craft of writing. This is something clear and specific that all the other elements of the group can be shaped to support and facilitate.

Some groups might even have two or three purposes: a public purpose, a private purpose, and/or your purpose for them as the author. Grantech’s public purpose is to push forward scientific advancement for the betterment of society; its private purpose is to harness magic into its technology for its own gain and the creation of a supersoldier army; and my purpose for it is to show the dangers of scientific advancement without moral limits. The Hairen calligraphy guild doesn’t really have a private purpose; its above purposes are public, and my purpose with it was to showcase community–and especially the writing community–in a tangible context. Though you might say that calligraphy guilds have a primary purpose (safeguarding dragon ink and history) and a secondary purpose (providing community and education around the craft of writing). Rather like having 2-3 values per culture instead of just one, these layers of purpose make for a more dynamic group overall–especially if these purposes can be put into conflict with one another.

Your purpose for a group will help shape its own internal purposes; it’s hard to show the dangers of science without morality through an organization that values science founded upon moral principles and has no ulterior motive! Likewise, it’s hard to convey a sense of community through an organization that rarely meets and encourages its members to pursue their own projects without much input from other members. Your organization might not exist to convey a particular theme, but instead to challenge a trait or belief in your character(s), showcase your world and its values, or provide additional tools toward furthering your plot, and different purposes carry different levels and kinds of limitations.

Your group’s internal purpose(s) should arise from the needs of your society–or the needs perceived by the group’s founders–and the motivations of the characters who founded it and/or who now keep it going. Groups might be formed to solve social issues, to further political causes, to assemble practitioners of a shared craft, to bring people of a certain demographic into community with one another, etc. Generally speaking, organizations are there to fill a vacuum–or perceived vacuum–and further a certain set of values, whether those values are very specific (“the current king is a tyrant and should be forcibly removed”) or more general (“we’re all teenagers facing the same teenage problems, so let’s get through it together”).

Calligraphy guilds were formed when the dragons entrusted humans with their ink; the small group of people entrusted with the ink had been charged with safeguarding the ink and using it to preserve time, but they knew that was too big a job for only a handful of people, so they began guilds across the island in order to train other writers in the skill of writing and the proper use of dragon ink. Grantech was formed after a total collapse of civilization and the wiping out of functional technology; it was begun to repair and rebuild the country’s technological infrastructure when no one else was around to do so.

Consider, also, whether your organization generates revenue. Whether it is a free organization, generates revenue from a membership fee, or operates as a business will affect the way that it operates as a whole. Money–as well as the lack thereof–can easily be another motivating factor for your organization. Unpaid organizations will be more concerned with acquiring the resources they need by other means, groups with a membership fee may see a smaller or more elite membership roster that feels the financial investment should mean more of a say over the organization’s operations, and businesses have to worry about money just as much as their underlying values.

Overarching Structure

Once you’ve defined your organization’s purpose(s), you can begin to think about how it might be structured. Think about who founded the organization, who might have succeeded them (and whether those successors were chosen by the founder or stepped into the role on their own), and what sort of leadership might be necessary to the group’s focus and scope. Some groups might have a leader merely because someone has to make the decisions, but a leadership role means very little. Some organizations might have a leader in place to ensure quality of work and approve new applicants. Some might have an entire hierarchy, with leaders and sub-leaders each serving different roles in the organization. Some groups might be purely democratic, some might be part of a network, some might be split into departments, etc.

Groups built around common interests rarely need a strong leader, though those intended for high volumes of discussion might have designated moderators to ask questions and ensure conversation doesn’t veer off topic or become hostile. Task-oriented groups may need more forceful and/or quality-aware leadership in order to accomplish the task(s) at hand and do so at an acceptable caliber. Organizations built around a cause need leaders who can inspire members and instill confidence in the purpose being pursued, as well as rally people to join them and take action in favor of the cause, and they need support members who can take that inspired action and turn it into something organized and practical.

Calligraphy guilds have guildmasters whose skill has been approved by the imperial calligrapher and the dragons themselves, whose purpose is to teach the writing craft to those within their guild and approve work that is completed or correct errors. All calligraphy guilds serve the same function, so in a sense they are part of a network, but their primary source of connection is in their subjection to the dragons, the imperial calligrapher, and the emperor himself. Calligraphers may transfer from one guild to another if they move to a new area, and other guild members or guildmasters may be called upon to assist with certain projects, but their affiliation is overall very loose.

Grantech has two primary departments–the department of science and the department of security–and each has a myriad of interconnected departments under them. The two also interact with one another, sometimes above board and sometimes under the table. Everything is interrelated and interdependent, and overseen by the same CEO at the very top.

Think about what roles your group may need to fulfill its purpose, as well as how its underlying values would affect its leadership structure, and try to map out its general hierarchy.

Membership Requirements

The first thing to consider in terms of membership requirements is the question of what is required for someone to be eligible for membership in the first place. Initiation warrants its own point, but think about the fundamental characteristics of those who make up this group’s membership. Is a certain skill, or set of skills, necessary? Are members chosen to fulfill certain roles (e.g. in a business that’s hiring)? Is the group limited to a certain gender, vocation, social class, age, geographical region, etc.? This, too, will affect the overall tone and direction of a group, as members of a particular demographic will bring certain cultural behaviors from that demographic into the group; the group’s culture will be greatly influenced by the cultural experience of its members–whether intentionally or not, and whether members appreciate the cultural context they’re coming from or are seeking to subvert it.

Beyond initial membership requirements, however, think about what might be required of members once they have joined the group. Does the organization require a tax or a pledge of its members? Are members instructed to keep a token of their membership around their house, on their person, or in their place of business to advertise their loyalty? A certain level of attendance or participation may also be expected. An organization may have a set of rules for the conduct of members, whether inside or outside of the group’s immediate context (or both). Certain behaviors might be expected of members in order to preserve the reputation of an organization–or keep its existence a secret.

It may help to think of these requirements in terms of categories: contribution of support/resources, shows of loyalty, and proper behavior. From there you can determine whether this organization would call for one, two, or all three of these categories, and what each might entail within the context of this particular organization’s purpose and character.

Initiation

With requirements met, think about how members might be initiated into this organization, starting with how they come to start the process in the first place. Start by asking how people might find this organization in the first place, to become members. Do existing members of the group keep an eye out for eligible non-members and invite them in? Do non-members find the organization on their own and apply for membership? (The secrecy or publicity of an organization will obviously play a big role here; high-paying, highly visible corporations will draw in a much higher volume of applications than secret assassin guilds or even little start-ups that aren’t hiding but are known only in their own small towns.)

Beyond visibility, consider what is required to join. Do characters have to pass tests, fulfill missions, and/or prove their skills? Do they have to be approved by an existing member of the organization? Must they have completed a certain level/type of education? Do they have to pay an entry fee? In the context of a business (or even other types of organizations, for that matter), this may look like an application, interview, and filling out of paperwork. In other contexts, maybe the aspiring member has to shadow a member on a supply run, pass a physical or mental test, go through specialized training, or build a reputation with existing members of the group.

Once your character has passed this level, think about whether there is any ceremony involved when they become a full-fledged member. Is there a party in their honor? Are they given a mark of membership (whether a literal mark like a tattoo or a symbol like a pin, badge, specialized piece of equipment, certificate, display item, etc.)? Are there any more negative traditions, like hazing rituals or unexpected final tests?

Virilen calligraphers must pass a writing test in order to become guild members, proving their skill at historical research, accuracy, and general writing prowess. Upon passing this test, they are entrusted with their own glass well of dragon ink–albeit one that remains under lock and key inside the guild building when not in use there.

Lastly, think about what it might take to leave the group. Are members required to give notice before they leave, whether to allow the organization to find someone else to take their role or to give the organization time to win them back? Are they even allowed to leave in the first place, or is the group so secret that no one can leave without jeopardizing the organization as a whole? Are there measures taken to ensure that secrets don’t get out–maybe a secrecy spell, a contract with dire consequences if broken, or blackmail? What benefits and marks of membership are revoked? Are there any permanent marks that must remain even after a member leaves the organization (e.g. tattoos)?

As a side note: These considerations can also apply to entire nations, as you think about how characters gain citizenship or leave a nation behind.

Meetings & Functions

Now it’s time to think about this group’s function, and I’m going to throw in here benefits of membership as well. When I talk about a group’s function, I’m thinking in terms of the practical application of the group’s purpose. If the group’s purposes are to preserve time and dragon ink, its functions are to write accurate historical accounts in dragon ink, select trustworthy members, and keep the ink under lock and/or guard when not in use. If its purpose is to remove a certain political leader from office, its functions might be to publish materials, host rallies and interviews, etc. to convince the general public–and/or whoever is in charge of deciding the country’s leadership–that that leader should be removed. Figuring out your fictional organization’s functions will help determine how it operates, what sorts of officers it needs, and whether/how often its members meet.

If your group is one that requires meetings (and most are, even if those meetings are infrequent), think about what those meetings involve. What is the purpose of meeting? To build relationships, angle for better positions within the organization, make decisions regarding the organization’s direction, celebrate accomplishments, revisit goals?

Who is involved in meetings? Are all members invited, or are meetings leadership-only? Are there ever exceptions to this rule? If so, what do those exceptions mean? If a character is invited to a leaders-only meeting despite being an ordinary member, does this mean that they’re being groomed to take on a new leadership role or succeed someone else?

What are standard meeting activities? Is there food and drink? Is there a good deal of discussion, or of small talk? Is there a set agenda, or are meetings fluid? Is there entertainment and, if so, what kind?

Lastly, what is the function of the group in an individual member’s life? What draws people in? Is it the promise of status, financial gain, a shared purpose, gained community, an opportunity to use one’s skills, some combination of things? Does an organization provide emotional/physical support–whether for its members or its members’ children or families? (For example, does being a member of this organization mean that your children have a guaranteed job once they’re old enough?) Organizations must have a means of drawing in new members–and drawing in the right members, for that matter–whether it is something tangible or not.

Promotion & Leadership

As almost a continuation of membership benefits, think about how members might advance within this organization. Are there even opportunities for advancement, the way this organization is constructed? If there are, how does one go about climbing the ladder? Do they need strong relationships, a particular reputation, specialized skills, or monetary influence? How long does it take to go from an entry-level role to something higher? How long does it take to get to the very top?

Once there, what are a leader’s responsibilities? Do they have to show up to every meeting and/or vote on decisions? Do they have a financial obligation to the organization? Are they directly responsible for keeping members in line and/or managing members coming and going? On the flip side, what are the privileges of leadership? A higher payout, a stronger reputation, greater influence elsewhere, greater influence over the direction of the group, better equipment or loot, better work or living space?

As mentioned earlier, calligraphers aspiring to be guildmasters must have their skills evaluated and approved by the imperial calligrapher and the guardian dragons in order to take the role. As the requirement is similarly rigorous to join the Emperor’s Academy, many calligraphers go that route for the prestige of a place at the Academy instead of remaining in guilds–even in a leadership position. (Being an Academy scholar also makes for less responsibility than mastering a guild, if not less pressure.) The responsibilities of a guildmaster are to teach the writing craft to those within their guild, correct errors, and approve completed work. They are also the lead investigators if a member of their guild misuses dragon ink, especially in Lower Virilen towns vs. the Upper Virilen towns that may have more guilds per city and are closer to the Academy and the seat of the imperial calligrapher. Guildmasters do get a special salary from the imperial calligrapher for maintaining the order of the craft, in addition to their even cut of the guild’s income (for copies of historical accounts and for fiction works written on the side, as well as dragon ink sold to other calligraphy guilds in some cases), and the satisfaction of watching younger calligraphers develop in their craft, plus the increased respect of their broader local community and (to differing degrees depending on their work and sometimes where they’re from) the calligraphy network. The role is set up to reward those who take on the important position, but to attract those who do it for the right reasons rather than those who prefer prestige–a necessary safeguard when dealing with such a powerful craft and resource.

Factions & Sub-Groups

To wrap up, I want to discuss the topic of factions and sub-groups. Organizations are rarely homogeneous, no matter how much they might like to be. There are going to be differing viewpoints even under the umbrella of a specific organizational purpose, and some of these viewpoints might be so prominent as to create factions and sub-groups within the organization. These groups may form over different views on the group’s methods, or even a desire to take the organization’s existing methods and apply them to a different purpose. Factions may be more or less in-sync with the existing structure and guidelines of the broader organization; they may play by the rules but secretly serve their own ends, or they might form their own code of conduct that is entirely different–whether one that is still subject to the broader guidelines and simply more specific or one that is drastically divergent from the group’s original code. Some sub-groups may be formed on purpose to serve more specific functions; some might have developed on their own; some might have developed and then been relegated to their own space/function by leaders seeking to contain disagreements in a way that serves the broader group.

Depending on how these factions and sub-groups got started and why, they may have more or less conflict with the broader group–or even additional factions and sub-groups within it. You might have a group trying to replace the current political leader, for example, with three different sub-groups each supporting different replacement candidates. If the organization’s members agree that two or even all of the candidates would be acceptable (or at least better than the current option), there might be only moderate or even minimal conflict between them. If, on the other hand, the proponents of Candidate A think that Candidate B would be just as bad or worse than the Current Politician… you’re going to have fights on your hands, and potentially even a full organizational split.

Some sub-groups have entirely benign distinctions from their larger group, though natural behavior is such that there may still be conflicts between them–simply over pettier things. For example, there are Virilen calligraphy guilds that don’t work with dragon ink at all and have formed around the writing of non-historical books in ordinary ink. They wanted a similar sense of community and respect for their craft, and some even began as dragon-ink calligraphy guilds, but they wanted to focus their writing skill toward a different purpose. Sometimes referred to as “book guilds” instead, for clarity’s sake, these guilds are technically still in an overlapping network with those guilds that protect history. Many calligraphers dabble in both historical work and non-historical work, anyway, so there’s not often a great deal of conflict between the two groups, but dragon-ink calligraphers can sometimes view “book guildsmen” as less important, imposters, or perfectly valid but entirely different from “calligraphers” and deserving of their own name and network.

I know I’ve given you a lot to think about in this post (and perhaps more Calligraphy Guild lore than you’d bargained for)! I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway from the post, what you’re excited to incorporate in your own fictional organizations, and anything else you’d like to comment!

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Using Timelines in the Writing Process

This is a topic I’ve written about briefly in the past, but I want to cover it in more depth now with more experience behind me and the added context of my recent posts on building fictional calendars, birthday traditions, etc. I want to talk about how to give your story a sense of time and how to keep that timing consistent and believable within your story through the use of timelines. Let’s dive into some areas in which timelines can help your story!

Maintaining Character Ages and Birthdays

One of my biggest pet peeves with the writers of the Flash TV show for the first few seasons was the inconsistency of Barry Allen’s age. I don’t remember the exact numbers now, but they would make a big deal about how old he was when his mother died (11 or so, I think) and how that had been x many years ago, yet the age they communicated he was in the present day didn’t properly add up; he was a few years too young, according to the numbers that had been given (and reinforced) to the audience.

Don’t be like the Flash writers. Keep a timeline. (Especially if you’re going to make a big deal about the numbers, it’s important to make sure that those numbers are right!)

Now, in some stories this really doesn’t matter. In a world that doesn’t really celebrate birthdays or keep track of ages, for example, or a story that doesn’t cross any character birthdays, or a story in which backstory isn’t terribly crucial (at least in terms of details). But in a lot of cases, you will at least want to know where your characters birthdays (and other critical life events) fall along the timeline and how that relates to your story.

In Calligraphy Guild, it was useful to keep a timeline just to know how long the story spanned, as well as to keep track of how many days of leeway the guild had with different opposing forces before they had to produce the time-changer. In Lightning, a timeline is important for keeping track of when my characters’ birthdays fall because for some of them it’s the last they have before Grantech gets rid of them and for others it’s a relationship-building opportunity with other characters.

It is also worth noting that timelines don’t need to be–and often are not–perfect on the first go. Lightning does not currently align properly with the timeline; that will need to be fixed in the second draft. If adding the years since an event with your character’s age during that event makes them older than you want them to be, you can shift the numbers around and reduce their age or the time since the event took place. A timeline will not automatically iron out all of your timing issues (though it may be a significant aid in avoiding said issues), but it is the tool you need to fix them before your story goes out to readers.

Coordinating Crossing Storylines

Epic fantasy authors, this is for you. Coordinating multiple storylines is hard. Trust me, I know; I have a whole heap of Dark War Trilogy notes to prove it. But timelines help tremendously. Knowing when your key events fall on the timeline makes it so much easier to adjust your characters’ lives and storylines around those events. If you’re writing storylines that cross at critical points, you need a master timeline.

However, this is not only helpful for stories with multiple storylines and points of view on the page; this is also helpful for keeping track of what your antagonist and other characters are doing off-page that will affect your protagonist and other POV characters on-page. I’ll admit I’m talking to myself here, too, but you should know what your antagonist is up to even when s/he’s not shown to readers. This helps to ensure that your antagonist really is active and they’re not off twiddling their fingers any time the protagonist is on center stage, because antagonists (like other characters) should not be passive accessories to your protagonist. This can be a tricky thing to remember and practice, but having a timeline with designated space for what your antagonist is doing will help.

Maintaining Credence

Your story and its timeline need to be believable to the reader. Most readers will not notice all of the precise details that you ought to be keeping track of as the author (unless you point them out), but they will notice if something is clearly taking too long or not long enough. This includes the length of events, travel, healing times, etc.

Your character will not recover from a sprained ankle in a day without miraculous intervention, and if they do your reader will be suspicious that either you forgot or there’s something you’re not revealing yet. (Note: If there really is something you’re not revealing yet, it’s perfectly acceptable to use your reader’s disbelief to your advantage.)

On the other hand, putting two weeks’ travel between settlements in a kingdom that’s meant to be densely populated is also not going to fly, as much as it might serve your fantasy quest aesthetic. (As a side note, if your worldbuilding doesn’t match the aesthetic you’re going for then one or the other needs to change.)

There are obviously additional elements that will go into making time frames like these believable–maps, research and/or knowledge of your setting’s medical practices, magic system development, the fundamentals of the culture of your setting, etc.–but those elements will all come together to make a reasonable timeline, which will serve as a concise and effective reference point. If you’d like, include some of those outside details with your timeline for later reference in case of future character injuries, journeys, etc.!

Aligning with the Calendar

Whether you’re using a fictional calendar, a historical calendar, or the calendar we all use today, your timeline should take it into account. You should know, for example, when weekends or other rest days fall and when major holidays would occur. This is important for a few reasons.

1) If your setting is one in which work and/or education take place outside of the home, you should know when your character would be at home vs. out working/studying. I learned this the hard way when I checked the calendar for Lightning and realized that I’d had Rhys work a Saturday in a job that should have had 9-5 weekday hours. If you check and keep track first, you don’t have to backtrack and edit things later.

2) You should know what the world around your character is doing. If there’s a holiday coming up, there might already be decorations out and about where the character would see them, and people might be talking about the events to take place during the actual holiday. Since Lightning takes place October-December, it covers Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (and possibly New Years; that’s in the part of the timeline that needs to be adjusted); these are commonly celebrated holidays, so they get addressed by the characters–even when the characters aren’t celebrating them themselves.

3) You should know whether your character operates with or against the culture they’re in. Going back to the holidays that are only celebrated by some of the cast, characters who don’t celebrate the same things as those around them will make some statement about themselves, the holiday itself, and/or the world they live in. How your characters celebrate can also make an impact, distinguishing them from the world around them and/or the other characters in the story. Even more common things like work can say something about your character; a character who leaves work as soon as the clock strikes five is a very different character from the one who stays until 10 in an empty office trying to work out the source of an inconsistency in their records.

If you’re writing a story set in the future or the past and need a calendar for reference, I recommend this “perpetual calendar” which allows you to input just about any year and easily see which dates fall on which days of the week.

Alluding to Wider Context

Lastly, timelines are great for allowing you to see and allude to the greater context of the world during your story. I keep a master timeline covering the events and births associated with Aleruus and its stories (if you read the Fairy Elves post from a couple weeks ago, Aleruus is that world), which meant that when the prince of one kingdom needed to seek out a bride for an alliance I was able to readily see what princesses might be of the right age elsewhere in the world–and I was surprised by some of the options, as I hadn’t really looked previously at how close some of my MCs from different stories were in age! Turns out that had great cross-over potential with other stories set in the same universe.

Broader context needn’t be restricted to things critical to a story, however, like a marriage alliance. Simply being aware of what large-scale events might be taking place nearby (or have taken place in the past), whom your characters might be acquainted with and mention in passing, etc. can add color, Easter eggs, and a sense of depth to your story and world. This might be particularly impactful if you’re writing historical fiction or if you want to tie some of your stories together, even loosely!

Timeline-Making Methods

Now that I’ve (hopefully) impressed on you the importance and value of timelines for your writing process, let me show you some examples of how you might go about creating a working timeline for your story.

Your first option is the classic pen and paper. This can take a lot of forms, whether you want to draw lines and mark events along them, print a template to work with, create a master list of events in chronological order, etc. Generally speaking, I would say the former allows for more flexibility and is therefore probably a better choice for an early draft or a master world timeline that you expect to add to as you go. A chronological list of events might work better if you’re pretty confident in your timeline already and just want to see it laid out to check for inconsistencies or conflicts you might have missed.

Another option is a simple word document. While a word document lends itself best to a chronological list of events, the fact that it’s digital makes it much easier to add to or adjust later. This is the format I use for my master universe timeline, as it works well for large-scale timelines with less detail. (Though it’s certainly possible to make it more detailed, as well! One of the strengths of a word document is its flexibility to serve an author’s individual taste and needs.)

A spreadsheet is my preferred format of choice for a story-specific timeline, especially one with multiple storylines or perspectives. With a spreadsheet, I can have a column for each character/POV and easily see who’s doing what when, plus it’s easy to insert rows for new events/activities without displacing the events in other columns. Here’s an old example of my Dark War trilogy timeline spreadsheet.

Lastly, there is the option to pay for a timeline program like Aeon Timeline. This is a sleek tool great for both fictional and educational timelines, but it is a little pricey ($60). It also works best for historical, contemporary, or sci-fi projects, or projects set in fantasy worlds with calendars very similar to our own; while it does offer options to customize the calendar used for a timeline and you can adjust, for example, number of months and weekdays, certain details are fixed–such as the inclusion of leap years (which can be circumvented, however, by inputting the same number of days in a leap year as in a regular year). It’s just not really set up well for fictional calendars with a lot of distinguishing features. But that may or may not be a deal-breaker depending on the calendar you’re using! And Aeon Timeline does have the ability to connect with Scrivener* and import your scenes, chapters, etc. as events on the timeline. I haven’t found this feature to be especially helpful to me personally because of the differences between how I break up timeline events and how I break up my works-in-progress, but I know it’s a really useful feature to some authors and may make Aeon Timeline a more compelling choice.

*This is an affiliate link; purchases made through it earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you already use timelines for your work, what is the biggest benefit you’ve seen come of the tool? If you haven’t made a timeline yet for your WIP, what benefit is most appealing to you? Which timeline format do you prefer? What are some of the best uses you’ve seen of timelines in storytelling? Comment below!

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Graduating YA – A collaborative series

Hello! Today I’m back with another Realm Makers-inspired post, and this one is going to be a collaborative series! Stay tuned to the end to check out the other contributors’ posts.

The idea of this series is thanks to Shannon Dittemore (who is absolutely lovely, by the way). She was curious about how writing develops for authors who start writing young and default to YA when they’re getting started, whether they stick to YA or “graduate” to older audiences (“graduate” is my word, not hers). This made me think, which then made me want to explore the idea and see what other authors said! So here are some of my thoughts on how my writing has changed or stayed the same as I’ve gotten into my twenties, and the other contributing authors will be sharing their thoughts in their own posts!

The Journey

I started writing when I was around seven years old, so I started writing YA from the perspective of “teenagers are so grown-up! I want to be a teenager!” The teenagers were some of my favorite people to hang out with at church because they were so cool (and to their credit, they were great at including younger kids and never seeing us as a burden to hang out with). Plus, I was reading things like Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, Happy Hollisters, etc. where the main characters–or the oldest siblings among the main characters–were teenagers. (This probably contributed to my interest in teenagers because I am an oldest sibling.)

Then I became a teenager myself and, for a while, still thought teenagers were more grown-up than grown-ups gave them credit for. By that point I was reading heaps of “actual” YA that was 1) reinforcing this idea and 2) just really interesting to me at the time. So, naturally, I continued to write YA because I wanted to write about people my age and a little older, I wanted to emulate the books I was reading that I enjoyed so much, and I wanted to show teenagers as capable of saving the world.

In my upper teens I realized that teenagers aren’t really that grown-up after all and I was starting to get tired of the common tropes and patterns in YA. I got tired of the bad-example romances, the lack of competent adults, selfish characters who never faced consequences, etc. But I enjoyed the YA that broke those stereotypical molds–the books with healthy romances, competent mentors, real-life consequences, and characters who actually grew up–and I wanted to be like those books. I wanted to break the unhealthy patterns of YA and give teenagers something better to read. That much is still true. I still believe that teenagers need good, edifying literature that combats the unhealthy lessons of mainstream YA, and I still want to contribute to that.

I started writing Calligraphy Guild when I was seventeen, and it was specifically written to bypass a lot of common YA tropes. The main character’s parents are alive and involved, she’s in a lasting relationship moving toward marriage, many of the characters around her are competent adults, she’s not some special chosen one who somehow manages to save the world all by herself, and she has challenges she has to work through and grow from. It was meant to be YA that actually shows what it’s like to be a teenager coming into your own in a healthy way and stepping up to adulthood. What I found pretty quickly, though, is that the main demographic buying and enjoying it was not teenagers; it was 20-30-something young moms. So without intending to, I was already branching out from writing YA in a practical sense with Calligraphy Guild.

Some of my books are more intentionally for older audiences. Lightning and Thunder are NA (New Adult); my next sci-fi idea is Adult (for the age of the character and for themes); I have a couple of fantasy projects that I’m waffling between calling YA and calling NA. And I have a good many that are still going to be YA, that are still meant to serve the purpose I’ve come to have for my YA: to combat harmful trends in the category and edify and encourage teenagers. A lot of them are ideas that have held over from when all I was writing was YA, so we’ll see how the balance shifts as I continue to move forward and develop new ideas, but they’re still important to me and I still want to show that teenagers can be grown-up and impact the world.

In a nutshell, my initial answer to Shannon’s musing was that I’m tired of YA’s tropes–and the tone of that was that I’m tired of YA as a whole. Which can sometimes be true, especially in terms of reading YA. But as I thought it over more, I realized that while the way that I consume YA books has changed, and my purpose for writing YA has changed, I do still have a love for the category and I still think it’s a very important thing to write. I may be writing both YA and NA/Adult, my intention with YA may have changed, but I don’t expect to stop writing YA anytime soon. My YA releases just might end up mixed with older books here and there, as well.

Despite the audience that has come to pick it up, Calligraphy Guild is still my favorite YA release to date. I still call it that (though I’ve also acknowledged that I should put it in front of older readers, too) because that was always its intention, and still is. I still want for younger readers to pick it up and see a character who values growing up, getting married, getting advice from the adults around her, pursuing her work diligently, etc. I think those things are often lacking in YA, and they’re such important pieces of growing up (marriage obviously being more conditional than the others). I’m so glad that older readers have enjoyed the book, but it was always intended to encourage teenagers.

As for NA/Adult, I haven’t released any yet unless you count Calligraphy Guild for both categories, lol. And Lightning is honestly probably not my favorite–not because I dislike it (though I have gotten rather burnt out with it and there’s probably some of that burn-out talking), but because I think I have even stronger stories coming. The Dark War Trilogy is a fantasy series I may put out as NA when it’s finally written (or as YA; it’s one of the waffly ones), and the Adult sci-fi project I mentioned is a heavy one on my heart–though I don’t think I’m ready to write it yet.

I’m excited to see what the future holds, what stories God puts in front of me to write, and how He uses my work to bless both teenagers and adults.

Contributing Posts

JD Wolfwrath – August 19th

Maegan M. Simpson – August 21st

M.C. Kennedy – August 24th

Nicole Dust – August 25th

Want more from behind the scenes of the writing process, first-look updates on my projects, or more writing tips? Become a subscriber!

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Revisiting Old Drafts: The Fairy Elves

Today I want to do something different, just because I thought it would be fun. I was recently reading through an old (as in… decade-old) draft to pick out what was salvageable. It had some worldbuilding gems… and also some hilariously awful lines. So today I’m going to share the highlights with you so that you can laugh at my younger self with me and get a sneak peek at some things that might show up in later projects. Sound fun? Here we go.

Introductory notes

I did not divide this book into chapters, so it’s one 30,000-word chunk. Yes, this does make it hard to follow. No, apparently I didn’t care.

It’s also very obvious from the entire first portion of this book (maybe the first 50 pages? again, no chapter breaks) that I loved Link’s Crossbow Training on the Wii and just plopped the characters down into it. (Game mechanics galore! Who cares about whether or not it makes sense in a book?) But also that I had finally gotten Twilight Princess and now I knew what the insides of buildings looked like and who was supposed to inhabit them! The main characters get to meet every. single. one of them.

Here’s a concise exhibit of how much this was just Twilight Princess fanfiction:

“Well, the only way for a non-zora to get up to Hyrule again is to go to Fyer’s and have him shoot you up with a cannon that comes out of the roof of his house. That cannon shoots you up to the house of his brother Falbi, who makes money by flying people down to Lake Hylia by chickens, which is the only way to get down there if you’re not already in the Zora Domain, and if you’re there, you have to go down to upper Zora’s River and rent a canoe from Iza, and that costs the same as flying down from Falbi’s.”

An icon of the early Archer universe

Just one note that only really matters to me…

Link gestured for them to follow and led them to a contraption, the body was made of a very large barrel with a side cut out of it and it had wings that looked real.

“Are those wings real?” asked the youngest girl, Bella.

“Yes, they were made from goose feathers.”

The teens went wide-eyed again.

“Get comfortable.” Link said, gesturing to the barrel.

They sat on brown cushions in the front of the contraption and Link got in behind them.

“This is called a Zimbermuck; the elves make one every hundred years. As you could guess, they are very rare.”

Forget the ridiculous background and name, but the Zimbermuck was an iconic bit of worldbuilding in my early stories. It showed up everywhere, not just in this series but in other stories as well. It was my characters’ vehicle of choice, even if they were fairies and literally had wings. Somehow I had forgotten about it until I reread this project, but it is so iconic to my early writing that I feel like I have to iron out the weirdness and bring it back in some form.

Zimbermuck

“What is it?” Saria asked.

“Father wants us at the castle immediately.”

“Does it say why?”

“No.”

“Well then, let’s go!” The group loaded into the zimbermuck and flew as swiftly as possible to the castle.

I can’t believe how often I wrote “zimbermuck” with a completely straight face.

Merely coincidental

Twilight Alary is about to marry Fogg Canty:

“Fogg’s sisters, Twilight and Dawn, will be bridesmaids as well.”

“He has a sister named Twilight?”

“Yes. It’s merely coincidental.”

Priorities

“Link is in Baarmegan and Homare has captured Sarabrina.” Saria said.

“Then let’s go get her!” Chevon said.

“No! Her note says not to try to save her.”

“You’re okay with just letting her stay with that man?”

“No I’m not. But if she says to not go after her, she has a reason and we don’t go after her.”

“Fine, but we should at least tell Rusl and Uli.”

“I know. But we aren’t going anywhere on empty stomachs.”

They ate a hurried meal of porridge and ran out the door and down the path to Rusl’s house.

Sources say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

The best character so far

“Where might you be going at such a fast pace?” The woman asked.

“Nowhere.” Sarabrina responded.

“Nowhere? Well, then how will you know when you get there?”

No joke, we’re halfway through the story and this random unnamed lady has the most interesting character voice by far.

“There’s a village about half a mile away from here. That direction, through the trees.” The woman pointed. “Lots of friendly people. They’ll welcome a stranger like you. You aren’t from around here are you?”

Sarabrina shook her head.

“No, I didn’t think so; your garb is too simple for you to be a Jewel.”

“A Jewel?”

“That’s what we people of Jewel Kingdom call ourselves.”

“I see. You say that this village is that way?” Sarabrina pointed.

“Straight as a bolt from a crossbow. If you lose your way, there are some strange men living in the woods, they’ll point you in the right direction.”

Ah, yes, let’s go to the strange woodsmen for directions!

“Thank you.”

Wait what?? No eyelash-batting??

The second best character so far

Sarabrina ran toward the trees and went in the direction that the woman had pointed. She soon was at the wooden walls of a small town.

“Howdy, ma’am. How might I serve you?” Asked the gatekeeper.

“I need lodging and food.” Sarabrina said.

“Ahh, not from around here are ye? No, I didn’t think so. Garb’s too simple. I know where you can get some great attire, it’s to the south of town…”

“Thank you, but just food and lodging.”

“Ahh, right. This way.” The gatekeeper led her to a tavern.

“Here ye are. Have a good stay, ma lady. But be careful, there’s some dangerous folk in there. Stay away from the… rangers, they ain’t from around here neither. Watch yeself.” With that, the gatekeeper left and Sarabrina entered the tavern.

Another nameless character with more personality than the main characters! And he’s actually warning her away from the strangers…

Plot devices

“Hello, is this seat taken?” [Sarabrina] asked, as she pointed to an empty chair next to one of the rangers.

Noooo…

“[…]how do we know that we can trust her?”

“Because I do.” The man lowered his hood to reveal himself as Chevon.

“Chevon! What are you doing here! How did you get here so fast!”

If I was going to use the rangers as a plot device to connect Sarabrina with her unexpected rescuers, why did I have the gatekeeper warn her away from them?

Strong worldbuilding

“So, why couldn’t you transport yourself any closer?” Sarabrina asked Sphene as they ran.

“Because, I don’t have an anchor there.”

“An anchor?”

“Yes, to transport one must have an anchor wherever they wish to land. Of course, one can only create an anchor if they are in that place, which means that they try to anticipate where they will have need to go and travel to those places and create anchors.”

“Do you plan to create an anchor when we get there?”

“Yes. Homare obviously already has an anchor, but I cannot use it because Homare created it, I did not. One can only use their own anchor.”

Solid worldbuilding! I can use this!

“That seems silly.”

Come on, Sarabrina.

The vibe

This actually still does a great job of encompassing the dynamic between these two (though their names have changed):

“That ‘Homare fellow’ just so happens to be my father, and I will not see him insulted!”

“Peace, son.” came Homare’s voice, echoing about the empty amphitheater.

The magician appeared behind Julius, who turned and bowed.

“Forgive me, Father.” He said.

“Rise, I need no homage from you. These fools, however, will pay homage to the both of us.”

Actually decent writing??

“We’ll see about that. Now that I mention it, this would be a fine place for a magic battle. But please, don’t burn the flowers with that blue fire of yours. It would be a shame to see the roses wilt under its withering heat.”

Sphene scowled. “Since when do you care about roses and flowers? You care nothing for life; you disregard it as if it were dust.”

“And it is, dust that will be blown away in due time… or perhaps, undue time.”

It’s not Shakespeare, but given the surrounding writing, this is really not half bad.

That de-escalated quickly

Homare threw a ball of fire at Sphene, which she caused to evaporate with a larger ball of ice. She created a ball of pepper in her hand and blew it at Homare, who inhaled it and began sneezing hysterically.

From fire! To… pepper.

Was it clumsy?

She threw a ball of fire at him and he collapsed, throwing a hastily created ball of snow at her, which she easily sidestepped, for it had been thrown clumsily.

I think maybe this was clumsy.

Palpatine, is that you?

Lightning spewed from her fingers and into him, electrocuting him and causing his hair to stand on end.

Let me check the back

“You don’t look much better yourself. Come on. I’ve got a healer in the back.”

With the other backup stock.

No, socially

“How close was the Hylian magician to the young woman?”

“Five hundred feet?”

“No, socially.”

“Oh.”

Given the context, it was entirely reasonable to expect this to be a literal distance question, making this genuinely funny.

Penniless

“Thank you. We’ll be going home now.”

“Chevon, Sphene is dead. We can’t go the same way that we came.” Sarabrina said.

“Oh, you’re right. And I’m penniless.”

The mention of pennies is excused by the fact that this is a portal fantasy, even if it does start exactly the same way as the first book in its series.

You can’t fight

“You go to the blacksmith and pick up three swords.”

“Four.” Sarabrina corrected.

“Five.” Another correction, this time from Barethaline.

“Barethaline, you can’t fight.” Hithila objected.

“Yes I can. All those times I’ve said I was going to Gertrude’s house, she and I went to Derek’s shop, where he taught us to fight.”

“You stubborn girls. All right then, five.”

Pfft. Girls can’t learn to fight. Not without lying to their mothers. Obviously.

This is really messed up

“Jake is taking us by airship.”

“Jake? He can’t be trusted.”

“That’s my opinion as well, but he’s our only option.”

“We don’t have a magician?”

“No, the magician that brought Chevon here was killed, and the magician who brought Sarabrina is even less trustworthy than Jake.”

“Who killed the first magician?”

“The second magician.”

“Who was that?”

“Homare.”

“Homare?! You mean the servant of King Julius?!”

“And father.” Sarabrina added.

“Homare is Julius’ father?”

“Yup.” Chevon said. “We got it straight from Julius’ mother, who just so happens to be the woman that Barethaline’s father married after he was led to believe that Hithila and Barethaline were dead.”

“This is really messed up.” Gertrude said.

“Yup, it sure is.”

At least I acknowledged how convoluted and messy I made things. (I didn’t even show you the part where multiple spouses were led to believe their spouses were dead and then they remarried. That’s a trip and it will come up later.) Also, I just found the rapid-fire back and forth here amusing.

The only one in the world

They set out then, their cloaks about their shoulders, and headed to the outskirts opposite where Sarabrina and Chevon had come in and entered a barn, where a copper-headed warrior stood tapping his foot impatiently.

At least he looked like a warrior. Scars on his hardened face and muscled forearms suggested more than a fair share of battles, and his rough leather shirt bore the emblem of an oak.

“Took you long enough.” said the man in a gruff voice.

“We took only half of the ten minutes. You’re complaining about nothing.” Benden said.

“Come on.”

The warrior led the way to a sleek, elegant ship. It was enclosed, with no deck, and was propelled by two fans on its tail end. It was gold, with black trimmings, and there were windows on the very front and the front of either side.

“This is the Firebird, and I’m Jake, the only airship pilot in the entire world. Please come aboard.”

Why would you distrust the only airship pilot in the entire world? I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.

Touch the stars

They looked out the windows to see black sky with stars so close it seemed you could touch them. And you probably could, really, but whether you’d like to or not is questionable.

Priorities, Pt. 2

“Where’s Sphene? Who are all these people?”

“I’ll explain when we get inside. Right now, we need to eat.”

Well, it’s very clear that these characters are not skipping meals despite their busy adventures.

Creative metaphor

“Elk! Crimson!” She yelled, running to them and embracing them as if she was a five year old who hadn’t seen her parents in a year.

I guess with these characters it makes sense to use this scenario as a metaphor.

Yeah, so?

“I heard that you saved her life.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Good job.”

“Thanks.”

He’s clearly very proud of this accomplishment.

Don’t want to know

The toadpolis were fish, big fish, that spit burning balls of some mixture that no one know the origin of. Frankly, I don’t think I want to know.

Thank you, narrator who is just the author herself. …Frankly, I’m still not sure I want to know.

Fun history lesson, but…

“It’s a long story. But Twilight was born shortly after that, that’s why her name is Twilight…that and the purple streaks in her hair.”

“They’re natural?”

“Sure are. Just as natural as Dawn Canty’s golden eyes.”

“How did they get those?”

“Magic. Hyrule is full of it.”

“Well, this history lesson was fun, but I was wondering what the next stage will be.” Ursus said.

This is not the first time someone has hurried on a bit of small talk (pointless and/or info-dumping conversation was my younger self’s specialty, apparently), but it is definitely the most funny.

Unquestionable high stakes

“I sent Aira to take Link because an old man told me to. His name is Bwalin, and Link affirmed his credibility. Link is with Bwalin now, and if he sets foot back in Hyrule before the Smiths get their licenses, he and everyone he loves will die.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I have so many questions.

I forgot

“I know. But what happens then? Who will save us?”

“Abba, of course. Who else?”

Sarabrina looked down. She should have remembered. She should have had faith in her God.

“I forgot.”

“I know.”

Apparently I forgot, too, because Abba has never been mentioned prior to this and we’re on page 139 of 165.

Insults

“Where are we this time, creep?” Saria asked.

…

“You…Idiot! You send…your father to…do…your dirty work…for you. You’re a lazy piece of junk!”

The comically weak insults of a 12-year-old.

Deus ex… deus?

Sarabrina stood wearily, still in pain from her collision with the wall, and went over to one of the walls. She pulled back her fist and, to her surprise, her meager strength pulled down the wall.

“How?! This is impossible! That’s the strongest glass available, and a girl, a mere girl, pulls it down with ease. And she’s weak as a pebble! How is this possible!” Homare shouted.

“It wasn’t me.” Sarabrina said.

“Who was it, then?” Julius asked, as surprised as Sarabrina at this turn of events.

“It was Abba. I told you, Homare, that he would provide a way out. He has. And he will provide me the strength to save the others, as well.”

She ran out of the room with strength that she wasn’t feeling and the guards, miraculously, made way for her, even as far as giving her the keys to the cells!

“How did you…?!” Chevon asked.

“Abba. He gave me the strength and caused the guards to cooperate.”

Oh… I finally mentioned the God-figure so I could use him as a plot device… Yay…

Crossbow licenses

“Oh, and Elk said that they’ll need to go back over some of the stages so that they’ll all have good scores instead of just neutral. If they only have neutral, then they’ll only have beginner or intermediate licenses. If they go back over the ones that are neutral or bad, they can get expert licenses.”

More Link’s Crossbow Training mechanics!

It’s not

“Today we go to Darknut Hall.” Sarabrina said, four days after her recovery.

“That sounds cool.” Nathan said.

“It’s not.”

Anyone who has played Link’s Crossbow Training knows… the struggle was real.

Live long…

“I now present to you the five Eagles, Chevon, Mariah, Nathan, Ursus, and Bella. May they live long and prosper.”

“May they live long and prosper!” came the outcry from the crowd.

I guess everyone’s Vulcan now.

How many dances?

“The first prize goes to Sarabrina Elfbourne, and she wins the next ten dances with any young man she chooses.” Zelda announced.

The cheers that came after were as loud as a waterfall, and there was a murmur among the young men about who she would choose to dance with.

“The second prize goes to Chevon Smith, and he wins the next five dances after that with whichever young lady he chooses.”

They’re going to have fifteen dances together, aren’t they?

“Princess Sarabrina! Who do you choose?” asked a young man from the back of the room.

“Chevon Smith.” she responded, without delay.

“I’m honored.” Chevon said.

They danced the next fifteen dances together, because he had chosen her for his five, as well.

I knew it.

More orphans

Two days afterwards, after all of the guests had left, the Elfbournes, Alarys, Aruns, and Smiths sent for Jake, but found that he had left Kakariko in his airship the night of the party. Fogg offered to take Gertrude, and they returned shortly after with sad news.

“My parents were killed in a fire while I was gone.” Gertrude said.

“I think the fire was set on purpose.” Fogg said.

Homare had struck again.

I don’t even know who Gertrude is. She just appeared when they were leaving Jewel Kingdom and now gets to suffer in order to showcase how evil Homare is.

Gertrude was taken to Kakariko, where Hithila, Ivar, Tammeth, and Benden had moved to, and they said they’d be happy to adopt her. Homare had only partially won.

Oh, well if he only partially won I guess that makes it all better.

That solves that problem

Ivar went out one day to hunt and returned with a wound on his shoulder from a poisonous snake.

“Ivar!” Hithila yelled when she saw him coming home, his tan skin green and his pupils wide.

“Come inside. I think I may have an antidote.”

She rummaged through her bag for it, but found none.

“Ivar!” she almost sobbed. “I lost you once, I can’t lose you again!”

“You…have Benden…He’ll…take care of you…let me go.”

Hithila sobbed as he died, but knew that he was right; Benden would take care of them.

Hithila and the others went to the castle and invited those living there to the funeral, explaining what had happened.

“There are no poisonous snakes in Hyrule.” Zelda said. “Someone must have planted it.”

“Who?” Barethaline asked.

“Homare. He’s the source of all our troubles these days. Last year it was his son, Julius. This year it’s him.”

Plus Ivar had to die so the weird love triangle (square?) between supposed-dead spouses could start to get cleared up. Sorry, Hithila.

Or whatever is equivalent

“Zelda!” Homare called from outside the gates of the castle.

“Go away Homare!” she yelled back from the tower.

“I’m not leaving. All of your people are prisoners, Zelda. Surrender or we shall lay siege.”

“We’ll never surrender, you know that.”

“Prepare to be boarded, Zelda. Or whatever the equivalent is in castle-talk.”

You know when the author rudely inserts themselves into their characters’ dialogue? My younger self was very guilty of this.

Come prepared next time

Homare’s army, evidently not ready for a siege, was still creating ladders and siege towers, and they were busy with their battering ram, the only thing they had prepared ahead of time.

He doesn’t know how to declare a siege or enact one, apparently.

Is that how that works?

The ram caught with the first arrow, and then after several more had been launched, the ram was completely aflame. The soldiers tried to hold it by the horns, but the heating iron was burning their bare hands. They dropped the ram, and the spaces between the paving stones lit as well until they came to the central square.

“Did you rig that?” Sarabrina asked.

“It’s an old mechanism. If your opponent has a wooden battering ram, you light it. Once they drop it, the flame spreads through the underground channels of oil. It’ll heat the stones they’re walking on, too.”

They watched the soldiers of Homare’s army and saw that they were now practically hopping from one foot to the next, for the stone had heated beneath their feet and they were getting hot, even through the leather soles of their boots, though those weren’t very thick.

“Nice mechanism, Zelda.” Chevon said.

“Thank you. I had Fogg install it years ago.”

This is cool to a young author’s brain, and maybe still a cool concept now, but what happens if something sparks into those channels by accident?? If the castle is lit with torches, this is a massive hazard.

Apparently

They walked up to the gates of the castle and doused the fire with buckets of salt that they had brought with them and soon the path was clear again. A bucket of water was used to douse the ram, which was apparently made of an extremely resilient wood. It was hardly eaten up!

“Apparently.” Discovery writing at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.

The ending of the decade

Zelda’s army fought valiantly, and Homare’s army had been depleted, so soon the enemy had been reduced to Homare and his two henchmen.

“Well, I see that you have fought well. But can you fight this?”

Homare summoned an eight foot tall giant and laughed evilly as the monster loomed behind him.

“This, my friends, is a troll from Voltaire, another young country here on Arken. Please, say hello.”

He cackled once more and disappeared in a puff of vapor.

The soldiers, no dummies, climbed the troll’s tree trunk-like legs and went all the way up to his shoulders, sawing through his neck. When they finally succeeded in beheading him, they jumped and ran to avoid being squished.

Thus the siege was completed.

Homare, cowed by the ease with which they had killed the troll, didn’t attack again, and Hyrule and Baarmegan lived in peace once more. However, in nineteen years, another problem would arise, and two sisters would save Hyrule. But that is a story for another time.

Voltaire is never mentioned again, but maybe it should be. A young country? That has so much potential within the scheme of bi-global politics.

This is also the most abrupt ending in the history of endings.

With the end of the book, we come to the end of this post. I hope you got a laugh out of these snippets like I did. Let me know in the comments what your favorite snippet was, if you ever played Link’s Crossbow Training and/or Twilight Princess, and whether you’d like to see me do this with other old drafts in the future!

 

The post Revisiting Old Drafts: The Fairy Elves appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

7-Year Blog Anniversary: Lightning Character Q&A

Friday marked Scribes & Archers’ 7-year anniversary! The site existed before that, but August 2nd, 2017, I really started taking it seriously and writing about the things that Scribes & Archers is still about.

To celebrate, I wanted to give a bit of a sneak peek at Lightning and its characters with a character Q&A–moderated by in-world journalist Katie Jones of Elderwood-Montgomery Technologies.

Want to know more about Elderwood-Montgomery Technologies–and its less benevolent competitor Grantech? Check out Escape Room and Silence in Short Story Collection vol. 1!

Character images borrowed from Pinterest

Interviewer: Katie Jones, publicist for Elderwood-Montgomery Technologies

Interviewees: Erika Roan, GenDev runaway; Nyla Bird, GenDev runaway; Rhys Thatcher, [redacted] Grantech accountant

KJ: Hello, ladies. Thank you for coming in to share your statements. Please start by introducing yourselves for the record, in your own words.

Rhys: *her voice is smooth, her tone even-tempered* My name is Rhys Thatcher. I’m twenty-one years old and I was recently employed by Grantech as an accountant.

Erika: *she’s brash, with a rough voice and no filter* You can call me Erika Storm. I’m the [censored] that busted the GenDevs of Newbridge out of Grantech’s hold when they wanted to kill me for failing their experiments.

Nyla: *a tired sigh, followed by a voice that’s soft and quiet but clearly not weak* I’m Nyla Bird. I’m eighteen. Grantech made me a healer, but I have chronic pain and fatigue as a result. I helped Erika free the GenDevs.

KJ: What is something you learned while working with Grantech?

Rhys: I learned how much I value my family. Work at Grantech kept me away from them much of the time, and I learned just how important they are to me. They’re why I went to Grantech in the first place.

Erika: *scoff* You don’t work with Grantech. You work either for them or against them. I chose to work against them, and I learned to keep fighting in whatever way I could until they broke.

Nyla: *brief, uncomfortable silence* I think I learned to forgive.

KJ: *allows a thoughtful pause* What do you think is Grantech’s greatest weakness?

Rhys: The individualism that they operate by. When everyone is working toward their own ends, the company whole is bound to fall apart.

Erika: All of their methods are self-defeating. Eventually, their true colors and the truth of how they treat people–how they treat kids–is going to come to light and people are going to stop trusting them.

Nyla: I think… it’s a combination of what they said. Grantech rips families apart, it causes long-term hurt, and they make themselves weak by losing the trust of united families and the individuals broken away from them.

KJ: Do you think people will start to leave their employment with Grantech when the truth is exposed?

Rhys: I don’t know. They have methods to keep people’s trust–even the trust of people who didn’t like them in the first place. They’re resourceful, they have GenDevs on their side, and they’re willing to prey on any weakness their employees may have. That’s going to be hard to push against, even for those who believe in the truth.

Erika: They have far more GenDevs turned against them than for them. Anyone who sticks with Grantech after everything comes out is either a coward or just as evil as the [censored] in charge and they deserve to go down with the ship.

Nyla: I think people have been misguided. The only way to combat Grantech’s lies is with truth, and I think people deserve the choice to know the truth and decide whether to stand or fall. The truth has been hidden for a long time, and it’s going to take a long time to unravel all the lies that have taken its place, but that’s worth the effort.

KJ: What do you look forward to most about leaving behind affiliation with Grantech?

Rhys: Working with my family again, somewhere Grantech won’t look over our shoulders.

Erika: I was never affiliated with Grantech. But if you mean once I’m free of them, I want to join the GenDev rebels that have been a pain in Grantech’s [censored] for the past X years. It’ll be nice to finally have some help in that department.

Nyla: I’m looking forward to peace and quiet, and a normal life. Managing my symptoms my own way, getting used to the real world, maybe starting a family… I just want to be normal.

KJ: Thank you ladies for your time. I’ll take your individual accounts of your full experience with Grantech shortly. In the meantime, please help yourself to coffee and snacks in the guest lobby, and feel free to ask the receptionist if there’s anything else you need.

Rhys: Thank you.

Erika: Thanks.

Nyla: *nods quietly*

I hope you enjoyed that brief peek at three of Lightning‘s main characters! If you’d like to learn more about the world in which the story takes place, check out Escape Room and Silence in Short Story Collection vol. 1! Want to be sure to hear when Lightning gets closer to release? Sign up below to join the reading list for bookish updates, recommended reads, and book reviews delivered straight to your inbox!

As another piece of the celebration, I wanted to highlight some fan-favorite blog posts from over the past seven years of Scribes & Archers!

Fan-Favorite Posts

5 Traits of Realistic Characters

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

Why You Should Choose to Love Your Project

How to Approach Worldbuilding as Problem-Solving

7 Time Management Tips for Authors

5 Steps to Requesting a Book Review

5 Traits to Give Your Antagonist

Alpha-Readers vs. Beta-Readers

Why Christian Fiction is Important

NaNoWriMo Alternatives

5 Ways to Support Indie Authors

5 Tips for Writing a Great Montage Sequence

How to Use Fantasy Worldbuilding to Explore Worldview

5 Things I’d Like to See in YA Literature

The post 7-Year Blog Anniversary: Lightning Character Q&A appeared first on Scribes & Archers.