R.M. Archer's Blog, page 5

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!

The post Graduating YA – A collaborative series appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

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.

Realm Makers Recap – 2024

After years of putting it on my list of annual goals… I finally made it to Realm Makers.

I’ll admit, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It was very scheduled, which I should have expected, and this made it a lot more class-heavy and a lot less people-focused. But some of that is in what you do with it; when I go back, I’ll try to hold the schedule more loosely and prioritize conversation more highly.

I did get to meet so many people that I’ve known online for ages but had never seen face-to-face! There’s photographic evidence of most of those meetings.

I also got to meet Shannon Dittemore, Lindsay Franklin, and Nadine Brandes! (Sadly, I was quite tired that night and you can’t tell how excited I was to meet Nadine.)

Shannon was lovely to meet and learn from; I attended her class on developing characters and also got to sit with her for lunch on Thursday, so I got to learn a lot from her and you will be seeing posts inspired by things she said!

There were also people I missed and didn’t say hi to, Candace Kade and Jenna Terese chief among them, whom I’ll have to seek out next time.

The sessions were, overall, helpful and encouraging! There were some things I questioned or would have done differently, but I really appreciated the emphasis on going out as God’s co-creators, creating with Him and taking dominion under Him as He commanded. (I did notice the term “dominion” was never used, the “dominion mandate” was never referenced, but I wonder if that’s more common in certain circles and less commonly used overall than I realized?)

I came away with a somewhat mixed view of the Christian writing community. On the whole, it was great to see such a focus on bringing Christian creatives together, on combating the splintering of artistic Christian communities that I’ve seen happening, and on creating with God and for His glory. There were also some weak spots, some compromises, some places where I wondered (not for the first time) if there are any Christian publishers I would actually be fully comfortable partnering with. But I also heard from authors and agents who were really solid, authors I’m happy to call friends, authors I would collaborate with any day of the week and I’m really excited to see succeed. The Christian writing community just is a mix, I think, just as the Church is, and I hope that we see weak areas strengthened and strengths used to their full God-given potential for His glory.

I owe great thanks to Sarah Grimm for her mentorship. Brief though our session was, it helped a lot to remind me I don’t have to listen to every “should” and to get me thinking about other false ways I was thinking about my projects. (I’ll be talking about that more in an email on Friday, so sign up to the newsletter if you’re interested in hearing some of the thoughts I’m reworking and what it means for my primary writing projects!)

I also owe thanks to Janeen Ippolito for taking time to talk to me about worldbuilding, look over the one-page summary of my worldbuilding book, and give advice on how to strengthen the idea. (Also to Allen Arnold just for saying he liked my title. That was reassuring as it was an experimental title chosen because I knew my behind-the-scenes title was too vague!)

Also, multiple people surprised me with how much I had impacted them. One friend came up to a table where I was sitting with a bunch of authors I’d been super excited to meet because they’re awesome and I was somehow the one she seemed most excited to meet?? I was certainly not expecting that much excitement over little ol’ me, but she’s a delightful friend and it was so lovely to finally meet her and hang out with her throughout the conference.

Sarah Rodecker and I got a picture together with her book Escape from Mathebos because I was her editor and helped make it happen, which is still crazy to think about. I can’t believe I’ve helped facilitate multiple publications now and books I’ve edited are on bookshelves and available for people to read and enjoy. (Obviously not all the credit is mine! The authors I’ve worked with have had amazing stories and I’ve been so privileged just to get to help them refine those stories so that they’re all the more powerful for readers!)

A third friend shared with me how much my Preptober Prompts event helped her find her writing style and write some of her favorite work, which made me squeal because what?? That event was that instrumental to people??

A fourth friend immediately introduced me to someone at her table and talked up my worldbuilding stuff just because I was standing there.

Each instance was so amazing and humbling, and I’m so grateful to God for letting me see the impact He’s worked through me. Some of it still doesn’t feel like it’s sunk in as real.

I bought books! I mean, how could you not, at Realm Makers. Winter White and Wicked came in before Realm Makers–I was about halfway through during the conference–and I came home to my copy of The Nightmare Virus, but everything else on the stack was purchased at Realm Makers. I limited myself almost entirely to books I’d already been planning to buy at some point anyway, with a couple exceptions.

I feel like I would be remiss not to mention my costume for the Awards Banquet. It was not one that anyone I ran into recognized, sadly but not unexpectedly. Any guesses?

Answer: Claudia Donovan from Warehouse 13. (If you haven’t watched the show yet, go do that. It’s amazing.)

Will I go to Realm Makers next year? I don’t know yet. It’s a couple hours closer, which is a point in its favor, and I do want to return to Realm Makers and I’d love to meet up with these author friends again sooner rather than later; but it extends over both Saturday and Sunday next year and I’m not sure if I’ll be ready to go again for a consecutive year, as it can be pretty overwhelming and attending once did leave me with mixed feelings about it as a whole. So we’ll see what the Lord orchestrates!

In the meantime, I’m settling back down to my writing and doing my best to keep in touch with the authors I met and preserve everything I learned so I don’t lose it–and so that some of it can benefit you, as well. If you’re interested in hearing more of those things I learned as I share them, I recommend subscribing to the newsletter! There are some things I’ll be sending there exclusively, and everything I post on the blog is shared there as well, so it’s the best place to go in order to not miss anything.

Comment below if you also attended and share some of your experience! If you haven’t attended before, would you in the future? Are there any other writing conferences you’ve attended and enjoyed? I’d love to hear from you!

 

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Book Review: World-Building from the Inside Out by Janeen Ippolito

There are a few reasons I don’t usually review craft books: 1) I don’t read that many, 2) I don’t feel equipped to review most of them, and 3) I’m more likely to lump them into a resource round-up and have a brief summary that contains most of my opinions on them and thus not feel like a full review is necessary. But this one is a worldbuilding book, so I feel equipped to comment on it, and I have enough thoughts to fill out a review (plus, I’m not doing another round-up any time soon).

This book has been on my TBR/wishlist for years, and what finally prompted me to pick it up was research into comparative titles for my own worldbuilding book. It’s really hard to find worldbuilding books that are really focused on the worldbuilding craft rather than being some sort of workbook, but this one is, so that was point 1 in its favor. Point 2 was reading the introduction and finding the premise focused around “cultural worldview” (which was actually in bold)! So I grabbed a copy for research. I will acknowledge upfront that the nature of my reasons for reading the book make it hard not to think about it in terms of comparisons between this book and mine, but I’ll do my best to be fair in my assessment.

What is World-Building from the Inside Out about?

Go to the heart of your world and build it well!

Memorable world-building enhances story, attracts readership, and sells books! Find the core of your science fiction or fantasy people and instill your narrative with universal themes and concepts derived from real-world cultures.

-Explore different religions and governments with concise entries that include ideas for plot and character development
-Develop key aspects of your society without getting caught up in unnecessary details
-Learn how the deeper effects of appearance and location can enhance your narrative

World-Building From the Inside Out challenges you to go deep and build fantastical worlds that truly bring your story to life!

The first thing that stood out to me about this bookwhen it arrived is how small it is; there are only about 60 pages of content to this book. The descriptions of it as a “primer” or “quick reference guide” are the most accurate. Janeen really does focus on the bare basics of each topic she covers in an effort to keep authors out of the weeds of “worldbuilder’s disease” as much as possible. If that’s what you’re looking for, this is the best I can recommend in terms of craft books.

Unfortunately, in some places it felt like this emphasis on simplicity cut out all nuance and turned things unrealistically black-and-white, which I believe can easily hurt the worldbuilding process and its support of themes and storytelling. There were also a number of places I felt the author’s bias on a topic came through very clearly, skewing the perception of certain worldbuilding options that could be used in more interesting ways. The appendix (chapter) on education felt especially narrow, and the government chapter had some inaccuracies in the way it defined certain systems along with a very American bias. Some bias is unavoidable, I know, but it made the options come across as very stereotyped. Again, if something very basic is what you’re looking for, this book might still be a helpful tool to start off with.

Another thing I noticed, as a side-effect of how brief Janeen kept the book, was that some of the organization was a little odd. When you only have a few chapters focusing on core topics, I guess you have to fit some smaller things in somewhere even if it’s not a perfect fit with the overarching topic. For example, the chapter on naming had a handful of points thrown in about language on a more general level, and “capitalism” started off the list of government structures despite being an economic system.

The strongest portions of this book, in my opinion, were the introduction, the chapters on art/media, the technology chapter, and the naming chapter. These felt the closest to the heart of the book’s premise and the most neutral in terms of how questions and options were presented (vs. the evident bias in some other chapters).

The book’s biggest weaknesses were, I think, largely side-effects of the focus on something simple and stripped-down for authors who need just the bare basics for a first draft. Some places felt like they’d been stripped down too far and key elements had been lost, the organization felt fudged in places, and a few points needed more research behind them. But if you’re an author who doesn’t want to get sucked down the worldbuilding rabbit hole and you’re looking for an introduction to the idea of building a culture around the idea of a cultural worldview, this is a decent primer.

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Book Review: Magnify by Stefanie Lozinski

Note: I will be taking a hiatus next week as I will be traveling. Feel free to comment, email, etc. in that time, but do be aware that I won’t be able to respond between the 13th and the 23rd or so. I look forward to reconnecting again then! Now to resume the regularly scheduled programming…

It’s book review time again. Today we’re looking at Magnify, the first book in Stefanie Lozinski’s Storm & Spire series.

What is it about?

The dragons have fled the skies.

A noble House is clinging to life.

The God of gods is rising.

As the Envoy of the Four Kingdoms, Wes has had his purpose decided since birth: sacrifice the treasures of the people to the dragon gods, and they will keep Kaveryth safe.

For five years, he’s been forced to watch his Kingdom fall into ruin while carrying an unbearable grief of his own. The Elders insist that they must continue to be faithful to the Dracodei, but Wes is beginning to doubt that their protectors are holding up their end of the bargain.

Despite his misgivings, he continues to fulfill his duty—until he meets a misunderstood dragon who offers him a choice for the first time in his life.

Will he have the courage to make the sacrifice that truly matters?

Storm & Spire is a young adult Christian fantasy series, perfect for readers who enjoy fast-paced storytelling, fantastical lands, and devious dragons.

Review

Let’s get my biggest difficulty with this book out of the way first: the pacing. All of my struggles with this book came down to how quickly things moved along, from character development to choices made and events unfolding to learning about the world, everything felt like watching the world pass through a car window while you’re driving down the interstate. Nowhere did it feel like we got to settle in one place and really learn about what was happening, get a solid feel for the world, or process things with the character. Even when the characters were forced to sit and think, their thoughts didn’t seem to have a believable flow but a rush toward the conclusion the author wanted them to reach. This book wasn’t given breathing room, and I think every aspect suffered as a result.

That said, I think this could have been a great book had it been given that breathing room. The characters are foundationally solid and their arcs could have been really impactful given more time to develop, it seems like the politics and other worldbuilding elements were well thought through and just needed more time to be clearly explained through the story, and the themes of doubt and faith could have been really strong with the character arcs drawn out to better complement them. All of the pieces were definitely there, and I wouldn’t go so far as to say I didn’t enjoy this book, but I wish that everything had been given time to be fully explored and smoothed out into something that flowed better and was easier to follow.

One thing I did particularly appreciate was the subject of arranged marriage in this book; it has clear reasons behind it within the world (one thing that was well-explained in terms of worldbuilding), the match is clearly a good one–and the characters admit as much, and the main character’s reasons for struggling with the arrangement are more reasonable than “I don’t love you” or even “I’m in love with someone else.” Both parties take their responsibilities to their people seriously and are willing to prioritize the well-being of others over their own convenience, and I love to see that–especially in the commonly self-centered YA category.

Overall, this was not a bad book, it just needed more space to grow more naturally.

3 stars

Have you read this book? What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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5 Tips for Developing Character Quirks

This post was adapted from an Instagram post I made all the way back in 2022. I find myself pointing people to it over and over, so I thought it was high time to adapt it into a blog post for easier reference–and expand it for the new format!

One of my most popular blog posts is about five details that help bring characters to life. The first item on that list is character quirks, which I wasn’t very good at when I first wrote that post. While I’m still not a character quirk expert, I have learned a lot over my past couple of WIPs. Hopefully some of these tips and tricks I’ve learned will help you too!

First, let me define what I mean by “character quirks.” These are the little habits your character has in how they interact with the world around them and with other characters. Things they might not even be aware of, but that bring them to life and make them feel like real people by not only adding general flavor to their interactions but also communicating their deeper character traits through these smaller details. These are the little details you might pick up on to discover that a character is anxious or confident or was a musician or… whatever. As with character voice, these are the details that spring from deeper truths about your character, but these are the physical details vs. those that come through in the way they speak and describe things.

1. Start with the basics

Some of the easiest quirks to develop will be those that spring most directly from who a character is: their goals, motivation, confidence level, outlook on the world, etc. These are the easiest to draw from stereotypes or inherent habits based on one’s personality. For example, confident characters are more likely to casually take up space while more insecure characters might close in on themselves; characters who are very driven to focus on their goal and nothing else might always beeline through a crowd, while more easily distracted characters may find themselves talking to half the people along their route before they reach their destination; etc.

These core elements of your character can give you a starting point, but they may be only that. Knowing that your confident character is likely to take up more space than the shy one doesn’t tell you how the confident character takes up space or how the shy one hides in plain sight. The confident character might stand with her hands on her hips, have better posture, always put a leg up on a piece of furniture while she’s talking, sit in places she’s not supposed to, invade personal space, move around a lot, engage with every element of the setting around her, etc.; the shy one might slouch, curl up in a ball or keep her legs crossed when sitting, hide her hands in her sleeves, hide behind her hair, keep to the corners of the room, be very still through scenes, sit under blankets more, keep furniture between her and others in a room, etc. (And which quirks your character takes on will likely be influenced by other elements of their character, as well, including their appearance and choice of clothing, sense of propriety, general history and previous relationships, etc.)

By looking at specific examples of how people behave when they see themselves or others a particular way, and taking the rest of your character into account around that, you can start to piece together quirks for your character.

2. Look at their background

Background can influence quirks based on other things, but it can also be a starting place in itself. For example, a character with a lot of experience in law enforcement will have very different quirks from a character who grew up in a cushy middle-class neighborhood. Someone with law enforcement training might always be watching for suspicious activity, while someone used to safety might only seek out the nearest clothing store.

A character’s background can influence their bearing and posture, willingness to try certain new things, what they do or don’t notice about people and/or their surroundings, etc. For example, the daughter of a seamstress or tailor might be very aware of the fashion choices of those around her and be able to glean a lot about someone based on how they dress; a thief may be very aware of security cameras or watchmen anywhere they go; a nobleman or politician may always be watching out for ways they can influence people in conversations and stay on their good side; etc.

Your character’s background can affect many aspects of their present character, and quirks are no exception. Have fun tapping into the goldmine of backstory when considering your character’s quirks!

3. Borrow from friends

Real people are full of quirks, and while you obviously don’t want to turn your characters into copies of people you know or be rude in your portrayal of their quirks, you can borrow traits from friends here and there–especially the positive traits.

A number of the character quirks present in Calligraphy Guild were borrowed from people I know. For example, bringing everything back around to God, giving off protective vibes without really trying, getting over an argument before you know it’s been resolved, etc. I mixed and matched, finding that certain characters were suited to quirks from multiple people, and multiple quirks from the same person were better suited to multiple different characters.

If borrowing quirks from friends seems awkward, you can also draw from yourself! This is a little trickier because it’s harder to be aware of your own quirks sometimes, but working to notice these things–or asking others to point out your quirks–can be another way to gather ideas for character quirks and make use of them as they suit your characters.

4. Practice observing

Friends aren’t the only people you can observe for quirks–movies and TV shows are great to observe, too. By noticing how actors play their characters and what quirks they give them, you can get a great idea of how to endow your own characters with fitting mannerisms. For a somewhat extreme but thus easy-to-observe example, the main character of the show Perception is a paranoid schizophrenic professor; he carries a messenger bag with him everywhere, but instead of carrying it by its strap across his body he always clutches it to his chest. A viewer could easily assume that 1) he’s concerned about the bag or something out of it being snatched, so he wants it close, and 2) it may be comforting to clasp an object close and keep one’s arms close to the body (common insecure body language). It’s a quirk that reveals something about the character.

You can also practice simple people-watching in a café, library, etc. You don’t necessarily have to use the exact quirks you pick up, but observing a range of possibilities can help inspire further ideas when you create and write new characters. Perhaps you notice someone fiddling with the cord of their earbuds in the library and this inspires you to give your character a nervous habit of rolling the chain of the necklace she always wears between her fingers.

5. Use Pinterest

Pinterest is such a useful tool for worldbuilding, character development, tone-setting, inspiration, etc., etc. I’ve picked out a lot of quirks for the characters of Lightning by looking at the Pinterest boards I built for them. Erika absolutely “makes eye contact with security cameras to assert dominance” (a quote pin from her board). I had several pins saved for Alaric that showed some sort of pressure against his palms (pressing a thumb against his palm, pressing his hands against a railing, etc.), so that became one of his anxious quirks. Because Pinterest is a visual medium, it’s especially good for figuring out quirks of body language, but text-based pins can also communicate quirks (like the security camera quote). If you’re struggling to develop your character’s quirks and you’ve created a Pinterest board for them, try studying the pins you’ve saved and looking for patterns!

There are my top five tips for developing character quirks. What have you found useful for developing character quirks? Which of these methods is your favorite?

Still feel like your character is lacking depth or uniqueness? Check out the Character Voice Questions worksheet to get at the heart of who your character is and how to communicate that heart!

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