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2023 Know the Novel: Part 3 – Words Written

Hello and welcome to what is both the last installment of this year’s Know the Novel link-up as well as my last blog post for this year as I take a December hiatus to enjoy the holidays and recharge for the new year. (Go back to the beginning of this year’s Know the Novel series here.)

Today we get to look back on Lightning and the writing process thereof, as well as plans moving forward and future dreams for the story!

1. Firstly, how did writing this novel go all around?

The process for Lightning was rather slow (I started outlining on June 1st, 2022 and finished drafting on November 7th, 2023), but not painfully so. Since I had other things taking up my attention for a big chunk of that time and this was my first focused drafting project in years, it seemed appropriate to go a little more slowly and let myself get reacquainted with the process.

There were some trouble spots along the way–Alaric and Ash co-existing almost always came out more stilted than I wanted, and Ash became the problem child for a little while–but overall I think it was a decently smooth writing process. Nothing like the process of Calligraphy Guild, but I don’t think any of my future projects will be like Calligraphy Guild in that respect, lol. There’s definitely a lot of work to be done to bring Lightning to where it needs to be in terms of storytelling and writing quality, but the writing process overall was pretty much what would be expected given the circumstances.

As for outlining Thunder, I’ve gotten through the first several chapters’ worth of outline, I’ve changed an important detail from where I started, and overall I like the direction of things. I just need to hone in on some areas and iron out my ending so I know for sure what I’m aiming for. (Plotting toward a specific ending is usually not a consideration in my personal outlining process, but this book has a particular ending so I need to know how to get there).

2. Did it turn out like you expected or completely different? And how do you feel about the outcome?

I think I expected it to be more action-led, and it’s actually a more philosophically-leaning story at this point. There is action, but mostly the action kicks in at the end of the book, going into Thunder. I like the philosophical elements, so I’m not disappointed, but I may adjust the balance some when I go back to edit.

3. What aspect of the story did you love writing about the most? (Characters, plot, setting, prose, etc.)

The prose and dialogue were highlights, at least in certain parts, but it should be noted that those elements tend to reflect character and thus character was a significant factor. I don’t think that all of my prose and dialogue were great in this book–there are some spots that make me cringe already, and a couple that I cringed at even while I was writing them, lol–but some of my favorite moments when I read it back are favorites because of particular portions of prose or dialogue.

4. What was your least favorite part?

I know I said characters were part of my favorite elements, but they were also really difficult at times, lol. I don’t think I’m as “close” to these characters as I am with those from some of my other works, and while I don’t think that has affected how they come out on paper as much as I might have feared, I think it has made the writing process a bit more difficult sometimes.

Also, the worldbuilding shown is not up to snuff yet. Overall, this doesn’t “feel” as much like a sci-fi novel as I want it to yet. (It won’t be the most sci-fi-heavy science fiction novel, anyway–part of the point is that the world is still very familiar to our own–but there is some tech that I’d like to incorporate better in future drafts.)

5. What do you feel like needs the most work?

The worldbuilding. I’ve developed lots of bits and pieces over the years, and an overall “vibe,” but it’s not as cohesive and detailed as I would like it to be within actual novels.

Also, Ash and Alaric’s relationship and each of their character arcs (which I think are connected issues). They’re so awkward when they show up in scenes together and they’re not supposed to be. I need them to get along, or at least challenge each other naturally, lol.

6. How do you feel about your characters now that the novel is done? Who’s your favorite? Least favorite? Anyone surprise you? Give us all the details!

Favorite is Nyla. I like different things about different characters, but Nyla is the only one that hasn’t significantly annoyed me at one point or another–whether in the way she was coming through (or failing to come through) on paper or just in her character as it’s meant to be.

I’m not sure about least favorite. Everyone else has been my least favorite at some point or another (except maybe Ash), but they don’t usually stay there. I guess the most accurate answer is that since I’m not actively writing there is no active least favorite right now. XD

Most surprising was Ash. For the most part he progressed the way that I expected, and came out on paper more-or-less as intended, but I didn’t expect him to be the difficult one to write toward the middle of the book. He’d been easy up to that point, and then suddenly we hit the middle of the book (and the murky middle of his arc, I suspect) and his interactions with everyone started to become difficult, so that was a surprise. But I’ll iron out his arc and those interactions in future drafts.

7. What’s your next plan of action with this novel?Outline Thunder (finishing hopefully no later than the end of January)Draft Thunder (finishing by March or April at the latest)Set both novels aside to focus on worldbuilding for Esleon (as long as needed)Come back and edit both books as a single story as well as individual books8. If you could have your greatest dream realized for this novel, what would it be?

Obviously the first thing is to publish it, and I think this one would be cool to publish traditionally if I can find a publishing house that will take it. (I suspect it falls into that awkward ditch where it’s too Christian for secular publishers and not Christian enough for Christian publishers.) But I may or may not wait on that route; it will likely depend on how I feel about the project following edits and how my next writing projects go. If I release my worldbuilding book, for instance, I might take more time on getting Lightning out.

In more fun dreams, beyond practical publication thoughts, I’d love to have the duology adapted into graphic novel form as well, and possibly adapted for film.

9. Share a snippet of one of your most favorite scenes!

I shared most of my non-spoilery favorites in the last installment…

Ah! There is this one… I wrote this one ahead of time because I was excited about it, so I think it qualifies for favorite scene. XD (It is admittedly cliché, but clichés exist for a reason and it’s because we like them, so here you go. The shooting-training-with-romantic-tension trope scene for this book.)

My hands were firmly wrapped in my sleeves when I arrived in the training room. Ash stood opposite the firing wall, his stance wide as he slammed round after round into the target. I winced at the sound, but made my way to the edge of the sparring grounds, keeping a bit of distance from the shooting line and the jarring sounds of gunpowder and lead.

Ash lowered his gun and turned as he released his clip, glancing up and smiling when he saw me. I ignored the flip in my stomach that resulted. “Miss Bird. I’m glad you made it.”

He tossed the empty clip onto a table and set his pistol more carefully beside it, the muscles in his shoulder stretching.

My gaze whipped to the target he’d just destroyed, banishing the thought of his muscles. The dark spots indicating his shots were concentrated well within the center ring. My fingers twitched. “You’re a good shot.”

“Thanks. Do you shoot?”

I shook my head, fists clenching around my sleeves.

“You should learn. It’s a good skill to have.”

My chuckle was more a huff of air, not even audible.

“I could teach you.”

My gaze snapped to Ash and immediately darted away from his eyes to a blank spot on his cheek. His attention still made my stomach squirm. Though the patch of skin I stared at instead wasn’t blank; not totally. Were those freckles?

Then he was moving toward me, and I took an instinctive step back as he drew a second gun. He stilled.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

I found the courage to meet his eyes—despite my stomach’s flip-flopping—and my lips twitched. “I know.”

He flipped the gun around so the handle faced me. My heart pounded as I stared at the metal. I imagined the feel of it, cold and ridged against my palm. I would fire. There would be a—

BANG!

I winced against the sound in my mind.

Ash nudged the gun toward me again, reminding me I was here, in the training room with him. I glanced around at the blank white walls. This place was sterile. Safe. Or as safe as I’d ever known, anyway.

With a trembling hand, I took the gun. My imagination had been correct, if incomplete. I hadn’t accounted for the weight of the pistol. Hadn’t imagined my knuckles turning white as I gripped it, trying to keep it from slipping out of my sweaty hand.

“Two hands.”

I wrapped my other hand around the grip and took a deep breath, the gun a bit more steady now.

“Now look toward the target and aim.”

The target was printed on the wall in red, and I blinked as my mind immediately compared the color to blood. The circle suddenly seemed so far away. How was I supposed to hit that?

I raised the gun, my hands trembling once again.

Ash stepped closer and I eyed him, trying to gauge his opinion. He set his hand against mine and the touch sent lightning rushing through me, stealing away my breath as he adjusted my aim and held me steady.

He glanced at me and his breath warmed my temple as he spoke. “Don’t forget to breathe.”

Maybe if I refocused on the target I could forget how close he stood. How his fingers brushed against my knuckles. I drew in a deep breath.

“And relax. If you’re too tense, you won’t be able to handle the recoil.” He brushed the knuckles of his free hand down my shoulder-blade and the tension immediately fell from my shoulders, replaced by a desire to melt into him.

I swallowed hard and stared at the target in front of me. Not the time. Nor would it ever be. Rubbing my thumb against the gun’s grip brought me back to reality, rough and cold. My back straightened and I took a deep breath.

Ash stepped back, leaving my hand tingling where he’d touched it. “There you go. Fire when ready.”

After another breath, I curled my finger around the trigger. Ignoring the color of the target, I muttered, “Just a wall. Just a wall. Just a—“

BANG!

I staggered back, wincing. Far louder than the gunshots in my memory, the shot left my ears ringing.

“Not bad.”

I glanced toward Ash, then at the target. I hadn’t shot the center, but my aim was at least mediocre. I might have shot an arm, had I been defending myself, which I honestly preferred to a lethal alternative.

“Are you ready for another shot?”

I looked at Ash, swallowing hard and ignoring the butterflies in my stomach as I met his dark eyes. Hopefully he’d think my anxiety was due to the gun, which at least wasn’t a total lie. “I don’t know.”

Ash smiled, his eyebrow lifting with the corner of his mouth as it often did. My gaze dropped to his freckles. “We can do more tomorrow.”

I tried not to tense as he approached. He took the gun back, his fingers grazing the inside of my wrist. The way he gripped the weapon, I almost wondered if the touch was intentional. But he holstered the gun in one swift motion and his expression was sober when I looked up.

“There’s valid reason to be afraid. But if I can teach you to shoot…” He looked toward the target, then back at me. A sad smile graced his lips. “Maybe you won’t have to be.”

I felt a twinge in my chest as I gripped my arm, remembering the loss he’d trusted me enough to tell me about, the loss that left him with these moments of bare sorrow. My gaze drifted across his face, across its lines and curves, all its perfections and the places his pain bled through. It was so easy to forget that his mask was cracked, too.

When Ash cleared his throat and started turning toward me, my attention darted back to the target wall, then quickly to the floor. “Anyway. I need to get back to the Sentinel ward. But I’m glad you came.”

“Me too.” To my own mild surprise, I meant it.

Ash turned to go, but stopped short. “Would you like to shoot again tomorrow?”

I picked at my sleeve, my reason warring with itself. “Okay.”

A faint smile warmed Ash’s lips. “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, Sparrow.”

With that, he turned on his polished heel and left me blinking.

Sparrow?

He’d nicknamed me?

When had that happened?

10. Did you glean any new writing and/or life lessons from writing this novel?

ProWritingAid‘s Sci-Fi Writers Week took place while I was working on Lightning and I attended a couple of particularly helpful webinars. The one that most stuck with me was one about how setting can both affect and reflect character change–even down to the clothes that your characters wear. Eileen Cook was the author that put on that particular webinar. I think that was one of the biggest things I learned about as I wrote Lightning.

If you worked on a writing project in November, how is it going? Did you accomplish what you wanted to? What has been your favorite part of the process?

If you’re interested in hearing more about Lightning and Thunder as the series progresses, sign up to my newsletter below!

The post 2023 Know the Novel: Part 3 – Words Written appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Why Hallmark Movies Work

We’ve officially entered the time of year in which women everywhere gather around their TVs with fuzzy blankets and hot cocoa to watch predictable romance movies that happen to center around the Christmas season. And let’s admit it, there’s a certain charm and coziness in that, and there is something that compels us to watch (and even enjoy) these movies even though they’re trite and predictable and clichéd. Today, I want to talk about what I think those “somethings” are.

(Note: this post is titled “Hallmark movies,” but I’m covering that whole genre that we tend to associate with Hallmark Christmas movies.)

Comfortable Predictability

The workaholic businesswoman is forced to return to her cozy small town birthplace for the Christmas season and is determined to hate it, but she runs into an attractive, flannel-wearing farm boy who teaches her the true meaning of Christmas as they slowly (or, really, not-so-slowly) fall in love, and she decides maybe the slow pace of the small town life is better than the helter-skelter business world after all.

I’ve just summarized the entire plot of dozens of Hallmark movies. And yet, we keep watching them, and I think part of the reason for that is because they’re predictable. It’s comfortable to know what’s going to happen, to know that the guy gets the girl in the end, to know that the main character learns her lesson and finds belonging and love in the small town. The story is comfortable, it’s familiar, and we can just sit back and enjoy watching the story unfold… again.

I think this is especially appealing around the holidays, when things are starting to slow down for the year and we are, ourselves, appreciating the slower pace and time with family and loved ones. We aren’t looking for excitement; we’re looking for home, family, and cozy charm.

Reminders of What Matters

The values portrayed in Hallmark-esque movies tend to be pretty wholesome. There are some exceptions, but the prevailing themes that home and family matter, that faith is worthwhile, that love is important, that it’s healthy to slow down and leave behind the hectic pace of work–if only for a little while… These themes are fundamentally true, and I think we have an innate sense for that when we watch these sorts of movies. And if those themes aren’t delivered–if the sisters don’t reconcile, if the girl goes home and leaves behind the man who’s taken care of her, if the family business fails… we’re disappointed. We connect with these themes, with the truth underpinning them (even if the trappings in a Hallmark movie are pretty shallow), and we appreciate seeing them play out and pay off.

This is true in all sorts of stories–we connect with themes that reflect truth–but I think it’s especially obvious in Hallmark movies where the veneer is so see-through that the themes are the only thing of really substantive worth. And they still compel us, even without much help from the rest of the storytelling.

Is This Applicable?

Okay, so we know what makes these cheesy Hallmark movies tick and what keeps us coming back–the value we get out of them. But how does this apply to writing? If we’re writing anything other than romance, why do either of these things matter?

While we don’t want our books to be as predictable as a Hallmark movie (at least, not in the vast majority of cases), there is still something to be said for the comfort of predictability–and the satisfaction of predicting what will happen next. While we may not have (or want) a strict formula for our stories, there are tropes, genre expectations, etc. that can give our readers a bit of familiarity with our story right off the bat. And there are fun ways we can play with these, as well; check out this podcast on using tropes in speculative fiction as an example.

As for themes, the underlying values of our stories don’t have to be right under the surface in order to be effective. Threading subtle themes of truth through our work is just as compelling. The thing to note is that not all themes are created equal; not only are some less heavily influenced by fundamental truths of how God made the universe than others, but different themes will connect better with different audiences. If your audience shares the values you have threaded through your book, they’ll be more compelled than readers who disagree with your premises or just don’t think the same way. (You may notice, not a whole lot of men watch Hallmark movies, and that’s because they’re tailored to the more home- and emotionally-centered themes that women connect with more closely by nature.) So knowing your audience–while secondary to ensuring that your themes are truthful–is another aspect of writing themes that will compel your readers.

Do you watch Hallmark(-esque) movies? What draws you to them? Do you think you’ll apply either of these concepts to your own work? Comment your thoughts below!

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How Should Christians Write About… Allegorical Religions?

One of the earliest installments in this series covered how to write about false religions, those that aren’t even real within your world. But today I want to cover the separate issue of how to write about religions that are designed to reflect the truth of who our God is within the context of a fictional world.

As always, this is intended to be food-for-thought, not the one proper way for Christians to write about this topic. Abide by Scripture and the Lord’s leading in this topic as in all the others discussed.

The Purpose of Allegorical Religions

There may be a couple purposes to including an allegorical religion in your work–whether it’s full allegory or whether it bears some intentional resemblance to the truth while remaining distinct to your fictional world. (The choice of how much allegory you want will likely be informed by which of these camps you fall into.)

Reason #1: We want to reflect truth and true religion in our world, in a way that suits that fictional world and can “sneak past the watchful dragons.”

Reason #2: We want our fictional world to be distinctly Christian, with 1-to-1 correspondence between the characters’ god and our own.

These two different reasons will result in two different kinds of allegorical religions–either a religion that faithfully reflects God but weaves His truth in seamlessly with the rest of the world, or, often, a religion that reads like you copied and pasted Christianity into a fictional world. I’ve read both types of allegories–as well as those that hit a sweet spot in between, being clearly allegorical without feeling like you just hit copy and paste (Narnia, for example).

A more blunt allegory is not inherently a problem; it can be done well, especially in fantasy worlds that are connected somehow to our own world (e.g. Narnia, The Door Within). Personally, I prefer a bit more subtlety in most cases. I don’t think that an allegorical god figure has to match our own God in every last feature and detail–though obviously in order to represent Him accurately we must leave the foundational elements the same.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Knowing Who God Is

In order to truthfully reflect God in the fictional religions we build, we must have a clear understanding of who He is. We must know Him before we can imitate His character in a way that effectively points to Him and brings Him the glory.

We know that God is the Creator and He is the Author of our faith. We know that He is just, holy, merciful, omnipotent, faithful to His people. We know the relationship He has with us as our Savior, Redeemer, and King, as the authority over us. We know that He is truth and in Him is no shadow of turning.

There are many, many other attributes we could ascribe to Him through the revelation of Scripture, and we should be studying our Bibles to gain a greater understanding of God’s character and His relationship toward His people if we intend to reflect Him through the allegorical religions we create. Without a strong knowledge of Him, our allegories can become skewed and ineffectual toward revealing Him.

Holding Onto the Fundamentals

We don’t have to reflect every single aspect of who God is in our fictional counterparts; they’re meant to be like God, not to be God. But there are certain fundamental characteristics that we should take into account in order to reflect His character rightly.

While different authors may see different attributes as critical, these are a few I think fall into that category: He’s our creator, He’s holy and righteous, both just and merciful, He is omnipotent and sovereign, He is faithful even when His people are not, He is our Savior from sin, He is the King of kings and the authority over us and the world (and He’s masculine; He is a He, and that is tied in with His authority and the authority structure He’s given us as a reflection of Himself. See Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 11).

These are the characteristics that I always incorporate into the fully true religions of my fictional worlds. Other religions I write may get parts of this right but not others, and those fall into the false religions category in the way they’re written and constructed. Whatever religion I’ve designed to be true in these worlds must reflect all of these traits of God.

Your list may look different, but try to think through what elements of God’s character would make Him into a totally different kind of god if they were removed–or would drastically alter the moral structure of the world–and avoid tampering with those, or at least be aware of the consequent differences in the world’s moral law and make sure they’re not going to misrepresent God if they’re alongside qualities that are clearly His.

Creativity in the Details

Your allegorical god figure doesn’t have to be called by exactly the same names, speak through exactly the same text, or have precisely the same story as our God in the real world when it comes to the details. Is it important that the God figure have some plan of redemption for His people? Absolutely. Should there be a defeat of death involved? Yes (per Romans 5:12,18-21). Does that have to look like dying on a cross and coming up from the grave in worlds where those details don’t make sense or there are other ways to show the same conquering? No.

Your allegorical god figure can be called by a name that makes sense in the culture(s) in which he’s known–linguistically and/or as far as meaning is concerned. The allegorical god figure in Deseran, for example, is known by several different names depending on which culture is referencing him:

In Sachara, he’s known as Aomlan; holy, whole, complete, perfect… etc.He has the most names in Veldan. First, Veldan-Arba, or Father of Veldan (Veldan being an ancestor, similar to Israel’s namesake). Then also Saving-Father, Perfect-Father, Valiant-Father, Just-Father, Healing-Father and, of course, simply Arba. (All of those titles translated into the Veldani language.)To the Virilen, he’s known as All-God, or Complete-God.In Mordon, he’s Utmost-Conqueror.In Eilis, he’s Truth.In Teraco, he’s simply God.In Osanar, he’s Life-Giver.In Piradi, he’s Peace-Father, with “peace” in the Piradi tongue and “father” being the native Veldani “Arba.”In Rasell, he’s Creator.

Our own God is referenced by several different names in Scripture (I AM, Yahweh–with various names afterward such as Yahweh Nissi, Yahweh Jireh/Yireh, etc.); I don’t think different names reflecting different attributes of God’s character or different tongues are problematic–unless a culture begins calling the true god figure by the same name as one of their false gods.

As for the details of His story, the question is whether the details or the themes are more important to carry over when crafting an allegory.

If the themes are more important than the details, then draw out those themes and think about how they fit into your fictional world. For example, say you have a world in which there is a genuinely real “god” figure over death (see the portion in the false religions post about “gods” that are in subjection to God); it may be effective allegory to Christ’s death and resurrection to show your redemptive figure being imprisoned by that “god” for a time (and showing the consequences of that imprisonment) before breaking free and defeating that “god” in a way that saves mortals from his thrall. Or maybe your redemptive figure is simply killed by mortals despite his innocence (scorned by those he came to save), but he’s killed in a manner befitting the judicial system of the culture you’ve built. He must humble himself and give himself up for his people, and he must come out the victor, but the details are where you can weave that story into the world you’ve built. (For example, look at Aslan submitting himself to be killed by the White Witch on the Stone Table, then rising again. It’s a clear allegory, but the details suit the world of Narnia.)

If the details are critical–the cross, for instance–then you’ll need to figure out how to incorporate those details into your world in a way that feels natural. Develop the reasons for the culture within your world to use crosses as a means of execution. (Are they intentionally brutal? Do they have a lot of trees, so wooden crosses make sense for their resources? Does the cross already have some cultural or religious significance which is upended by the crucifixion of the redeemer and given new meaning–like the Egyptian ankh may look very different to a Christian than it did to an ancient Egyptian?) There’s nothing wrong with maintaining the details as long as you construct your world in a way that supports those details instead of giving those details the impression of being shoehorned in for the sake of allegory alone.

Weaving Our Worlds With Truth

If we’ve created worlds that operate on similar foundational principles to our own, according to similar laws of morality (in particular), then it should be (relatively) easy to fit a truthful religion in without it feeling like a copy-and-paste job. Truth goes with truth. If there’s any sense of true justice in the world, a just god is the logical source and standard. Likewise with mercy, righteousness, sacrifice, etc. All of these things must stem from some standard, and a god who fills all of these roles is a logical standard–just as in the real world.

Build off of truth, hold to the fundamental pieces of God’s character, shape the details around the edges to connect with your world, and you’ll be left with a truthful allegory that doesn’t stand out from your world to slap readers in the face but simply reflects truth as it ought.

How do you construct your allegories? What traits are non-negotiable for you in an allegorical god figure? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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2023 Know the Novel: Part 2 – Within the WIP

The time has come for part 2 of the Know the Novel link-up for this year! Now that we’re a good chunk of the way through November, let’s talk about how Lightning and Thunder are going and what I expect moving forward.

If you missed part 1, check it out here!

*Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission off of purchases made through them at no extra cost to you.1. How’s the writing going overall?

Decently well! I got to the end of Lightning‘s first draft on November 2nd, then went back over the following few workdays to fill in some bracketed scenes I’d left undone. There was a bit of a delay after that while my copy of Structuring Your Novel* was on loan (which was good for my blog progress and getting more of my non-fiction book written!), but I got that back this past Wednesday and on Thursday I started my Thunder outline! I’m hoping to at least have that outline finished–if not start drafting Thunder–by the end of the month, but we’ll see how that goes once holiday plans factor in.

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

Is it bad to say “finishing”? XD It was super exciting to hit the finish line on a novel after so long in editing, publishing, and resting stages. (All of those stages were wonderful in their own right, and needed, but it’s also nice to return to drafting in earnest.) And I’ve really enjoyed seeing my alpha readers‘ feedback and all the things they pick up on that I wove in by accident, lol.

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

Hm. Good question. I still like Nyla; she’s still probably the most consistently easy to write, so that’s nice, lol. Rhys gained some interest in the last few chapters of Lightning, and I’m hoping I can hold onto that in Thunder. Alaric and Ash are both tough, in different ways, and Alaric tends to be a little… melodramatic, which I’ll need to work on when I go back and edit. XD Erika is still Erika; not an especially good person, but her snark is fun and frequently makes me snort when I read it back.

There will be a couple more characters popping up regularly in Thunder, but they’re surprises so I can’t really talk about them. That said, they both have a lot of potential to be really fun and I hope I’m able to actually write them well.

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

I wasn’t entirely sure where a couple of the characters would end up at the end of Lightning, and the answer that arose for that question was a surprise to me. But, again, spoilers. ;P

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

Rhys was a challenge for a little while. She was boring, and I was having trouble making her character and her part of the story interesting, but I think I finally resolved that somewhat.

Now I have the challenge before me of outlining Thunder and giving it a functional, compelling arc and ending. I know basically where I want the story to end, but I’m a little nervous about working out the details. We’ll see how it goes, I suppose!

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

Again, I think finishing the first draft of Lightning takes the cake, lol. And I’m pretty happy with the motivations I’ve given each of the characters for Thunder, and how smoothly they worked themselves out.

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

In most ways, Rhys would be the obvious choice, except I dislike math and I would not want to be an accountant, lol. So if I were Rhys, I just wouldn’t be in the story at all; I’d go back to my family and their horse ranch and keep the horses and the barn clean.

If that’s too much of a cop-out, then I think I’d be Nyla. I’m not sure if I’d do anything differently. I might take a page out of Erika’s book and pay closer attention to the layout of everything, after a certain point, and I probably wouldn’t pursue one of the relationships she does for the sake of their escape plan. Beyond that, I’m not sure how we would or wouldn’t differ.

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

Here’s a little more than a paragraph from the beginning…

When Ash came to get me, I was already expecting him. He knocked more to alert me of his entry than anything before opening the door in his crisp Grantech uniform and telling me what I already knew.
“Good morning, Erika. I’m here to let you know that your powers have failed to manifest and you’re to be cut from the program.”
Killed. I was going to be killed.

A snippet from Nyla’s POV:

The automatic doors swung open before us and we stepped to one of three black cars hovering at the sidewalk. The locks clicked when Ash grabbed the driver’s door handle. Erika took shotgun and I slid into the back, belting myself into a bench that felt just like my backpack—sleek to the point of discomfort.
“Since you’ve yet to give me a destination.” Ash clicked a few buttons on the navigation panel. “I’ll choose.”
A moment later, the car was zooming over the road toward Upper Newbridge’s shopping district. Alone in the back seat, I stared out the window at blurs of metal and glass and the flash of ad screens. I rarely considered Newbridge a beautiful city, but I supposed it was a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” scenario. It had its own glitzy, bright sort of beauty. Personally, I only truly saw it at night. Otherwise, it had always seemed plastic—a perfect façade for a city broken inside. Or maybe I only thought that because I tried to build a pretty façade over my own cracks and tears.

Snark from Erika:

“Why do you hate them so much? They’re the reason you’re not dead somewhere from your health issues or some armed mugger on the street.”
I snorted. “Sure. The nation is better off with Grantech at the controls and they’ve only ever been miracle-workers and perfect angels.” Ten steps to the next camera, twenty more after that, then another ten to my door.
“Of course they’re not perfect, but they’ve certainly done a lot of good. Getting criminals off the streets—including GenDevs, creating the technology we all use on a daily basis, vaccines… Rumor is they’re even working on a cure for cancer.”
Oh great. Just another notch in their campaign to brainwash the entire population. I could already see the headlines: “Grantech cures cancer! Get your shot for the low, low price of your firstborn child!”
“You couldn’t pay me enough to take a cancer cure from Grantech. And that’s saying a lot.”

And one more paragraph from Nyla:

My gaze wandered to the bulletin board across from my bed, drifting over the notes and drawings I’d been given by younger GenDevs over the years. There was one from Gilly, who saw a false future in Grantech’s experiments. Another from Caleb, who fought back tears anytime someone mentioned their sister or his. These kids needed hope. They needed to know that Grantech is not the end, that Grantech is not inevitable, that there is something more beyond what Grantech tries to turn us all into: broken soldiers built from the wreckage of children.

There are actually not a lot of spots in Lightning that really stand out to me for sharing snippets. I mostly hold onto individual sentences with this book rather than whole moments or scenes. (Each of these was grabbed based on a sentence I remembered or half-remembered.) I’m not certain if that’s just a difference from book to book or if it’s evidence that Lightning is in desperate need of edits (which is true regardless, lol).

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

A couple of fun facts:

Lightning is the first novel-length first draft I’ve completed since 2019.Thunder will be the first traditional sequel I’ve written (as far as I can find) since 2016. (I’m not counting any of the Dark War Trilogy books since they occur simultaneously rather than following one another chronologically.)

(These facts make the writing process simultaneously exciting and daunting, lol.)

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

I usually write on my living room couch. We set up a whole office/library room in our house, but I gravitate toward the living room because it has so much more natural light. Afternoons and evenings are my usual writing time (mostly afternoons), and there’s usually a story playlist going and either vanilla chai tea or Coca-Cola on the coffee table, lol. Most of my writing occurs during (or is at least instigated by) writing sprints, so I usually manage to stay fairly focused; accountability and virtual company help keep me on task, and if I keep going then it’s with the momentum and focus born from that. It’s more the getting started that’s a challenge if I don’t have a sprinting session to kick me into gear, lol.

There you go! A bit of an update on Lightning, Thunder, and a bit on the state of my writing as a whole with its changing seasons.

If you’ve been working on a writing project this month, how is the process going for you? What has been your biggest win so far? Share in the comments!

The post 2023 Know the Novel: Part 2 – Within the WIP appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

The Value of Fictional “Escape”

To continue with the “classics” theme I started last week, I want to talk about the idea of fictional “escape,” and the question of whether or not fiction should be “escapist”/whether or not we ought to read “to escape.” Tolkien covered this well in “On Fairy Stories,” which I’ll quote and which I highly recommend reading in full, but I want to look at a few key points to consider in this discussion for those of you who just want to focus on fictional “escape” and don’t want to read a whole 40-page essay on fairy stories (as excellent as that essay may be).

The Judgment on “Escape”

The primary judgment leveled at the idea of “escaping” into fiction is that escapism disregards the real world; it’s a means of ignoring the goings-on of the real world and an excuse not to engage with “real world” considerations. Certainly, this sort of “escape” is problematic and the judgment of it is valid. If you’re reading, playing video games, watching movies, etc. at the expense of the responsibilities and relationships around you, that’s an unfruitful use of time and something that should be addressed.

However, this sort of “escape” (or “desertion,” as Tolkien puts it) is an abuse of something that can, alternatively, be used properly and with wisdom. There is nothing wrong with taking a “vacation” from the “real world,” so long as all that you’ve been entrusted with in that real world comes first. Rewarding yourself for accomplishing all of the tasks on your to-do list by playing a video game or reading a novel is not inherently problematic, nor is a properly-prioritized desire to explore fantastical worlds beyond our own. In fact, I think that desire is good, and that’s what I want to cover in my next point.

Escape into Greater Truth

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthy pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

— Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Fiction offers us a taste of satisfaction for the desire toward something amazing and fantastical, something beyond what we can physically see and experience in this world. While it cannot fully satisfy that desire–the only ultimate fulfillment we find for that desire is in the “true country,” as Lewis goes on to put it, for which we were made–it does give us a taste of what may be and it is a constant reminder of that desire. C.S. Lewis continues on to say,

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and help others to do the same.

Fiction, properly used and understood, stokes this desire and encourages us to press on toward the true beauty and wonder of God’s creation–both visible and invisible. Exploring the wonderful worlds of fiction should not be a desertion of reality, but a press toward a greater understanding of reality. We should bring that wonder back with us when we return to the “real world.”

But I promised to quote “On Fairy Stories,” so let’s look at how Tolkien put it.

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter.

—“On Fairy Stories” by J.R.R. Tolkien

Truly good fiction should reflect the reality of God’s design in ways that we miss in the “real world,” or present those realities in ways that make us think on them anew. Reading fiction should not be an escape from what is real, but an escape into something even more real than the “reality” that we see in the everyday. Fiction reminds us that the mundane and everyday tasks we accomplish have a purpose larger than ourselves, that heroism is still valuable, that the world is more than material, and that God is in the business of accomplishing more than we can possibly think or imagine. Fiction pushes us to imagine, to think on the fantastical, and to bring those values back into the “real world” that we inhabit and the way we interact therein.

Knowing Where We’re Escaping To

This definition of true escape brings with it an inherent responsibility to know where it is that we’re running to. Not all fiction is created equal. If we are “escaping” into books void of real truth and beauty, then our escape is a desertion of reality instead of an escape into the greater truth of reality as God created it. Are we directing our “escape” toward lands of truth and beauty as God designed it, or lands built on the corruption of that truth and beauty–worlds devoid of hope and light, or that point our eyes toward false safety?

This is not to say that we cannot glean truth from even poorer-quality media–truth is impossible to fully escape in the telling of stories–but we should be striving to fill our minds with “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely.” We should put thought into our escape plan to ensure that we arrive where we want to be. Much more of our time should be spent on fiction that returns on the investment than on fiction that provides little lasting value.

“Escape” through fiction is not an inherent problem, but a means by which we grasp hold of the invisible truth and beauty in our world (and the visible, sometimes, too). Fiction does what “real life” isn’t always able to do and “sneaks past the watchful dragons” that keep us from embracing truth in a purely intellectual way, instead giving us a means by which we can connect with it on an emotional level through story. (Quote paraphrased from Lewis’s essay, “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said.”) So let’s escape to places of wisdom, virtue, and hope.

What are your favorite places of fictional “escape”?

The post The Value of Fictional “Escape” appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

3 Literary Qualities (Largely) Lost to Time

Classic literature did it better.

Okay, not always, but there is a lot to be said for classic literature that can’t (often) be said for modern literature, and I think that modern authors–even modern Christian authors–have lost sight of a lot of the values that can be found in classic literature and the lives of classic authors. Today I want to look at some of the qualities of classic writing that I see more rarely in modern writing, and encourage us to consider whether we’re striving for these qualities in our own work.

*Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission off of purchases made through them at no extra cost to you.Classic authors knew what they believed

Classic authors had strong convictions, they studied and tested the things that they believed, and they drew clear lines between their beliefs and the beliefs of the culture (where those differed). They knew what they believed, they paid attention to the culture around them and knew what the culture believed (in practice if not in word), and they didn’t get the two muddled. Tolkien was conscious of the fact that his writing reflected conservationism, which wasn’t an especially popular thought at the time. On the secular side, Oscar Wilde was conscious of the fact that Dorian Gray’s lifestyle (and his own) went against the grain of polite society.

It is important to note that these authors did not shun those who disagreed with them, nor did they isolate themselves from society. In fact, they were very involved in the society around them and I believe that the challenging of their beliefs was likely one of the factors toward the strength of their convictions. They knew what they believed because they’d be pushed over by anything if they didn’t. Nowadays we can shelter ourselves in online echo-chambers and avoid much of the debate that classic authors engaged in, and I think that has actually left us vulnerable. We take our beliefs for granted and there’s much less need to stretch our thinking into areas we might not automatically consider–or think on much of anything beyond a surface-level judgment based on our existing (often shallow) presuppositions.

Of course, not everyone today is guilty of this–certainly not to the extreme I’ve presented. There are those who seek out knowledge and philosophize for the joy of it. There are those who enjoy (or at least value) the challenging of their own beliefs and therefore seek out reasonable debate. There are those (hopefully many!) who don’t just read their Bibles but study it deeply and are ready to give a defense to any who ask the reason for their hope–or conviction.

But too often we can be lazy in shaping our worldview, letting the culture seep in the cracks and/or holding to what’s been passed down without question. (Not that tradition or the teaching of wise elders is inherently wrong–if I thought that, I wouldn’t hold to 99% of my convictions and I wouldn’t be writing this post!–but we ought to “test all things; hold fast to what is good.” When we do so, I think we’ll end up holding to a lot of what those wise elders have passed down to us.)

Are we conscious of our worldview? Do we know where our convictions end and the culture’s values begin? Are our beliefs built on truth? Does that truth influence all areas of our thinking and challenge us to build not only a sturdy worldview but a comprehensive one?

Our books don’t have to preach (and often shouldn’t), but they shouldn’t sound just like any secular book on the shelf, either.

Classic authors explored themes with intention and nuance

To step into the realm of storytelling itself, worldview is going to naturally appear in your story’s themes. (It’ll show up everywhere, actually, but it will be most obvious in your themes.)

One of the skills fostered by classic authors was that of exploring a theme with great intention without losing reasonable nuance. Classic authors were able to decide on clear themes for their work, explore those themes in great depth, and reveal great nuance within their portrayals of those themes. They were thoughtful without being wishy-washy, and they took a stance without being preachy. The principle Brandon Sanderson articulated when he said, “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon,” is a principle that classic authors understood and put into practice with much greater consistency than modern authors–falling prey neither to telling their readers how to think nor to a failure to give intentional questions to think upon.

Of course, there are exceptions on both sides. Some classics seem pointless, some could be viewed as preachy; meanwhile, some modern books accomplish nuanced themes and balance this principle very well! But it is a skill that not all authors prioritize, and we ought to value it more highly as a whole. Blunt is not always better, nor is being wishy-washy desirable. It is undeniably a difficult skill to be firm but nuanced and thoughtful, but it is a skill we should be striving to strengthen!

Classic authors made rich use of language

By and large, modern writing is much simpler than classic writing. This is not all bad–simple writing has its place and serves a function–but it’s become easy to lose sight of how rich and powerful our language is. We have whole dictionaries open to us, and we barely scratch the surface of the words we use to convey ideas. I’m not saying we should go raid our dictionaries for the most obscure words possible–it defeats the purpose of communication if we’re talking so far over everyone’s heads that we can’t be understood–but we would do well to stretch our vocabularies and challenge our readers just a little bit (or, for that matter, assume they have broader vocabularies, themselves).

So much can be conveyed in the perfect word choice: precision, emotion, foreshadowing, voice, etc. As Mark Twain said,

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

I recently experienced this in reading Brandon Sanderson’s Hero of Ages, in which a single word operated as a highly effective foreshadowing tool!

Words are the primary tool of our trade. Let’s stretch our skill with them! Collect vivid words; follow word nerds on Twitter (@elzakinde and @arealmofwonder are two peddlers of great words); peruse your dictionary every so often; play Balderdash*; practice poetry.

We’ve been given a task, to tell quality stories that reflect the creativity of The Storyteller and the truth of His Story. Let us steward that task well, and build on the shoulders of the storytellers who went before us to even greater effect and greater reflection of God’s glory.

Which of these qualities are you most excited to strengthen in your own work? Which is the most daunting? Where have you seen these qualities reflected in more recent work? Comment your thoughts below!

The post 3 Literary Qualities (Largely) Lost to Time appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

How to Appreciate the Writer in Your Life

Tomorrow is National Author’s Day, so it seemed fitting to focus today’s post on how to appreciate the writers around us. If you’re a writer yourself, you might already be thinking about these things, but if you’re not–if you’re a family member or friend of a writer–then here are some tips for showing your appreciation for the authors who are important to you.

(For any family members reading this post: No, this is not a hint. XD)

Ask them about their projects

We authors often like to talk about what we’re working on. It might not seem like it when you ask us “What’s your book about?” and we stare like a deer in headlights, but I promise that once you get us going on what we really love about whatever project we’re working on… it might be hard to shut us up again, lol.

There is some wisdom to be exercised in this arena. First of all, you might have a reticent author who doesn’t know what you want to know about their work and is trying to avoid talking your ear off about something you’re not interested in. With these authors, you’ll have to get more specific with your questions; a simple “What’s your story about?” isn’t likely to get more than a couple sentences. Be specific about what you want to hear about. “What is your world like?” “Who are your characters?” “What excites you about this story?” And ask follow-up questions.

Alternatively, you may be dealing with an author who prefers to keep their plans close to their vest, in which case you don’t want to push too much or you might just end up with an irritated writer on your hands. Know your author, and, when in doubt, just ask whether or not they want to talk about their project.

Keep in mind, this latter category rarely applies the same way with published work, and if you start a conversation about an author’s published work then they’re likely to be 1) very excited that you read it and 2) much more excited to talk about it because they know you know all about it from having read it, or else that you could read it if the conversation between you is interesting enough. (This may make them very nervous as well as very excited because they also know they could lose your interest entirely if you haven’t read the book yet.)

Listen to their rambling

Whether you live with an author and they need an ear while they work out their latest chapter hangup or you’ve asked a writer about some of their work and they’ve started talking a little obsessively… just listen. Sometimes that’s all we need. And if you want to throw in some comments on things you find interesting in what they’ve said, that rarely hurts either. (Suggestions for their problems may be accepted gratefully or may receive a glare. This depends on how much you know about writing, the project at hand, and your writer’s present needs.) Regardless, we do appreciate when you listen (especially when you don’t have to, and we know that), and we appreciate knowing that you’re listening (hence the boost of dopamine we get from your supportive comments, nods, or noises).

Buy them a hot beverage and/or a snack

Or, y’know, a cold beverage if that’s their preference. This is good and helpful for a few reasons:

We tend to like fancy beverages (and by “fancy” I mean the $4 chai tea that isn’t really that fancy, we just don’t always like to spend money).We don’t always remember to stay hydrated… or fed… It’s a problem. We’re working on it.In some cases, this gets us away from our keyboards and out into the fresh air of the real world with real humans instead of just the characters that live in our heads.Also, there’s just the question of who doesn’t like being bought food?

I will also mention that sometimes you don’t even have to be the one to make the actual purchase of said beverage or snack; if you invite an author to a coffee shop, sometimes we’ll just buy the drink and/or snack on our own but it’ll be as if it’s from you because they wouldn’t have been in the coffee shop to buy it without you. Does that make sense? (No, of course not, but we’re just going to move along.)

Make sure they celebrate their successes

This might just be a “me” thing, but I have to remind myself to celebrate finishing things, hitting milestones, etc. Publishing is usually a little more celebratory, but generally speaking I forget to celebrate my successes. I just move onto the next thing too quickly. The problem with this is that then I forget that I’ve accomplished some pretty cool things and they’re worth celebrating.

So if you know an author with this same tendency, force them to slow down and celebrate. Take them out somewhere, send them a card, have a mini dance party together, etc. Use your judgment or ask what the author would like to do but hasn’t taken the time for, or something they’ve wanted to get but haven’t, and encourage them to do that thing or get that thing (or get the thing for them). Celebrate your author’s successes with them.

Leave a review of their work

This one applies not only to the authors directly in your life, but also the authors you appreciate and don’t know personally. Leaving a book review is a great way to support an author you admire. Reviews boost the visibility of our books, they help other readers determine whether or not our book is a good fit for them, and they can sometimes boost our confidence and encourage us to keep going (depending on whether or not we read our reviews–and whether or not the review is positive). Even if a book wasn’t your favorite, sharing an honest review still helps us out!

For those of you who don’t know, your review will be most helpful to the author if it’s posted on Amazon and Goodreads.

Tell other people about their work

This may be related to leaving a review, but it doesn’t have to be. We authors love finding new readers who are excited about our books–but there’s often a fear that we’ll come off as salesy if we talk about our own books too much. As a fellow reader, you can do authors a favor by recommending their books to other readers you think would enjoy them! This can be through a review, by posting about a book on social media, by bringing it up in face-to-face conversation, by including the book on a recommendations list, etc.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful help to authors, and it’s a great way to show how much you appreciate an author and their work.

So there you go! Six ways you can show appreciation for the author(s) in your life. I encourage you to choose one of these options and show your appreciation for an author tomorrow!

Plus, show your appreciation in the comments by telling us about the authors you most love to support.

The post How to Appreciate the Writer in Your Life appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

How Should Christians Write About… Cursing?

Here’s another “how should Christians write about…?” post, and this time the topic is something I’m personally working and praying through for a project.

As always, this post is meant to be food-for-thought, to lay out the scriptural guidelines for a particular topic and what we do or don’t have the freedom to include in our stories (or how we do or don’t have the freedom to portray it) based on that scripture. I’ll put forth my interpretation, but all of these topics are ultimately between you and God and the intention is not to bind or to violate your conscience.

All of that out of the way, let’s talk about cursing in fiction. (I know some of you are already squirming in your seats, but please at least stay with me through the foundational Scripture section.)

What does Scripture say?

“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” – Eph. 5:3-4

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” – Matt. 15:11

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” – Ex. 20:7

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” – Php. 4:8

In these passages, we see a couple of principles laid out.

Christians ought not to participate in “foolish talking” or “coarse jesting”What we say matters; we ought not to speak things which are uncleanWe are absolutely and explicitly forbidden from using the Lord’s name in vainWe ought to fix our mind on things that are edifying

I also want to mention that something we don’t see in these passages is any specific prohibition on particular words (besides vain usage of the Lord’s name). The language that we use is an exercise in wisdom, and dependent on the general accepted use of words in a particular society. Language changes, and that is one factor that we must take into account in pondering how to best honor God and live in accordance with these biblical principles in the way we speak (and write).

“Foolish talking” and “coarse jesting” apply to more than just those words we consider crass, and words that we consider harsh may or may not always fall into these categories. Even Jesus Himself called the pharisees “white-washed tombs” and a “brood of vipers,” both of which would have been considered strong language, and yet He used them in a context in which they were appropriate–without sin.

Now, none of this means we should go around cussing up a storm all the time, or even that we should incorporate commonly-used cuss words into our main vocabulary, but I don’t believe that every “cuss word” is inherently sinful to use (more on that in a moment) if used in an appropriate context where no other word will do. Our words are to be used wisely, whether “cuss words” or everyday terms, and it is possible to sin with either. “Cuss words” have rarer wise uses, yes, but while they are more dangerous words, they are still just words.

4 views on cursing

With the Scriptural foundation established, I want to look at a handful of perspectives on cursing in fiction and address each one with this biblical framework in mind.

Characters should never ever curse

“Cursing is a sin, therefore characters should never do it in any capacity ever.” (Extremism for emphasis.)

Stories contain lots of things that are sin; should we throw out all of the sin, brokenness, shortcoming, etc. from our stories? That defeats the purpose. There’s no redemption, no growth, no Gospel without falling short. If Romans 3:23 is true, then why would we write perfect characters? Virtuous characters, certainly, but perfect people don’t exist and thus perfect characters ring false to readers.

This is not to say that every character should curse at some point because “we’re all imperfect.” Obviously, different people and different characters have different sins! But even if you see cursing as an across-the-board sin, it’s inconsistent to excuse, say, violence or lying while forbidding your characters ever curse in any capacity (even in allusion) when that would reasonably be one of their temptations. (Of course, maybe you’re someone who writes squeaky-clean Christian fiction, in which case maybe this whole point doesn’t apply because you don’t excuse any of those other things in fiction, either.)

Personally, I just think this is an error in how we think about the interaction of sin and fiction as a whole. We should not glorify sin in our fiction, but sin will crop up and be addressed in our fiction if we write stories that are reflective of the real, fallen world. Cursing is no exception to this, and we can address it whether we put explicit words on the page or not.

 Characters can curse as long as it’s only ever alluded to (or as long as they’re fake curses)

This is the category that I practice 99% of the time, even though I don’t believe that cursing on the page is sin in 100% of cases. 99% of my books are entirely real-world-cuss-word-free because it’s just not necessary to write them otherwise. I think this category is a perfectly good and reasonable one to be in. It’s safe, it’s charitable to those with tighter consciences, and it keeps your books more family-friendly.

The reasoning here–at least as I understand it and operate by it–is that yes, cursing is a sin that crops up just like any other sin, but it’s not something that we need to put on the page as a potential stumbling block. If there’s any way around using a real-world curse that a reader might be tempted to use in their real life in a sinful manner, take it. Allude with something like, “he cursed” or “she spewed out a string of words too harsh to repeat,” or give your characters some alternatives like “snotbuckets” or “Borden’s beard.”

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, and it protects both our own consciences as well as our readers’.

Characters can curse in proper contexts

This is where I fall the other 1% of the time. When at all possible, yes, I avoid putting curse words on the page. That’s true both from project to project and within each project. If cursing has no place in a project period, it’s kept out. If some cursing is appropriate for a particular project, then each individual place in which it could be used is evaluated to determine whether or not it’s truly unavoidable.

Of course, this brings up the question of, “what is a proper context?”

This question will likely be answered differently by different authors, even if at the core they have the same motivation and worldview on cursing as a whole. For me, it matters who my audience is, it matters who my character is, and it matters where my character curses in a sentence.

I will never include a curse word in a book that is intended for all ages or primarily for teenagers. The only books in which I have even considered using curse words on the page are categorized as NA because they are overall intended for an older audience. I have said before that I don’t think curse words belong in YA, and I stand by that. “Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble…”

Character matters because some characters will automatically police their own language, whether around certain characters, in certain contexts, in recording their own story, or just in general (if, say, it’s a weakness they’re trying to overcome). Some characters will police other people’s language, which is why there are no curse words in any of Nyla’s chapters of Lightning even though Erika uses them. Some characters just don’t care, like Erika, and their upbringing and character makes it unreasonable that they wouldn’t curse.

But even in these contexts, with characters who don’t self-moderate and in books for an older audience, I avoid writing a curse word on the page if I can allude to it instead by prefacing a line of dialogue with “she cursed,” if the cuss comes before a sentence, or following it up with the same thing if the character ends a sentence with a cuss word. And thus, even in scenarios where cursing does appear on the page, I can minimize it to the instances in which a character curses in the middle of a sentence, while “censoring” all of the other instances.

Who cares; it’s only language

Those in this camp would take my reasoning from earlier to an extreme, saying that there is no distinction among words and curse words are really exactly the same as any other words. What’s the big deal?

I would counter this just as strongly as the opposite extreme. Curse words do have implicit cultural weight. Those words that we have (culturally and individually) categorized as curse words will strike us as curse words and trip us up. Throwing them around carelessly is like setting a landmine for brothers and sisters in Christ who view those words as sinful and don’t want them swimming around in their brains. Besides which, carelessness with these words puts us in a position to sin with them much more easily–and simply reflects a lack of self-control when it comes to our language as a whole, which is something we’re explicitly warned against falling into, in James 3 as well as all of the verses listed before.

Curse words & their relation to everyday language

But now we have the question of how exactly curse words relate to and compare with the rest of our language, and to look at that question I want to look at a few “categories” of curse words. These are my own categories and you may completely disagree with my divisions, but here they are.

“Curse words” that have lost their edge

We had a lot more curse words ten years ago than we do today. Film, especially, has made such everyday use of what we used to call “cuss words” that much of society is numb to them as anything more than accent words like “crap” or “drat” or any other such moderate exclamations. Even some of us who grew up with PG-13 terms considered “bad words” look today and see that they’re barely even used or treated as any worse than milder exclamations.

Tolkien saw a similar linguistic shift even in his own day, and I found this quote insightful as I was reading through a collection of his letters:

“And linguistically there is not a great deal of difference between a damn you, said without reflection or even knowledge of the terror and majesty of the One Judge, and the things you mention. Both the sexual and the sacred words have ceased to have any content except the ghost of past emotion. I don’t mean that it is not a bad thing, and it is certainly very wearisome, saddening, and maddening, but it is at any rate not blasphemy in the full sense.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son Christopher

“Both the sexual and the sacred words have ceased to have any content except the ghost of past emotion.” This is a good summation of the conclusion I’ve been drawing of late, myself, that the only impact given to most curse words these days is the knowledge that they used to be used as curse words. This isn’t true in every case nor of every word, but the words we rate “PG-13” often carry no more than “the ghost of past emotion.”

“Curse words” used in their literal context — as basic words

Many of the words we consider “curse words” have literal meanings, as well. We might be referring to donkeys, female dogs, a literal place of judgment, etc. In these cases, there’s no question of cursing–though there may still be a question of wisdom in considering whether there is an alternative word that won’t trip up those used to hearing these words as expletives. Except for the question of laying a stumbling block, there’s nothing wrong with using a word in its proper, literal context.

Words that violate Scripture’s definition of clean speech

Now, there are still words that violate Scripture’s definition of clean speech in every or almost every case. The F-bomb is inherently the coarsest possible term for something God gave as a blessing, the B-word is used to reduce a human to the level of a dog, etc. Words genuinely used as undeserved insults and curses shouldn’t pass our lips.

The question with words that fall into the first category–those that have lost their meaning in many cases–is whether their use by our characters to intentionally insult other characters prevents us from writing them (in cases where it’s handled as sin).

Blasphemy

Then, of course, there’s the matter of taking God’s name in vain. This one is pretty cut-and-dry, the way I see it. It does not give the use of God’s name purpose to have a character use it without purpose–it is inherently “in vain” to portray characters taking the Lord’s name in vain. Changing the spelling so that your characters say “Gad” instead doesn’t make it better, either; it’s still clearly taking God’s title and using it for nothing.

This bugs me more than any other curse word used in fiction–especially in Christian-authored fiction–because it is the one term that we are explicitly barred from using in a vain, exclamatory context. The rest we’re left to work through with scriptural principles; this one is clearly laid out for us.

This is an area in which I disagree with Tolkien’s quote above, because I don’t believe that blasphemy loses its potency when it loses its emotion; it is still a direct violation of the commandment God gave us for using His name.

Motivation matters

While it is not the only measuring stick–obviously–your motivation for including (or even for not including) cursing in your book should affect your decision. Do you want your characters to curse because it’s “cool,” or to push against Christian fiction stereotypes and be edgy? Those are bad ideas. Do you flaunt your avoidance of cursing as a virtue signal and claim to be holier than anyone who writes characters who cuss? (Those who do so thoughtfully and prayerfully; I’m not talking the careless folks here.) That’s also not how we’re supposed to behave as Christians.

The inclusion of cursing in your book (or lack thereof) ought to be a decision made based on Scripture and the Spirit’s leading. Can we bring biblical exhortation to those we think may be in sin? Of course, and we should! Can we share explanations of why we believe that cursing is scripturally wrong (or acceptable)? Of course! And in each case we should appreciate that the one bringing a disagreement cares for our soul, and give grace and thanks accordingly. But it is not our job to bind a conscience which God has not bound, nor to jeer at a brother or sister living in accordance with a conscience that is bound.

“Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.” – Rom. 14:3-4

What is the moral judgment of cursing in your book?

Even if your characters’ language is only alluded to and you never explicitly curse on the page, you’re still shaping a moral judgment of cursing within your book–portraying it as negative, neutral, or positive. How your characters respond to cursing, whether explicit or not, will shape your readers’ view of cursing for your characters and within your world, and they can bring that view out into the real world.

Is a writer whose characters explicitly curse but who show distaste for that cursing from other characters any more dangerous in the end than an author whose characters curse like sailors “off the page” without any push-back? Maybe you’ll find that the answer to that question is, “Yes,” whether all the time or in certain contexts. But it’s a question worth considering.

The importance of audience and expectations, & obeying your conscience in writing and reading

Here we come back to something I think is critical in this conversation: being aware of your audience and setting clear expectations.

Like I said before, I would not advocate for including on-page curse words in YA or anything intended for younger audiences than that. Just because I don’t think these words have all of the same weight they used to doesn’t mean I think everyone needs to be exposed to them before the real world introduces them.

I also would not include on-page curse words in a book without warning potential readers explicitly and often. While I think there are proper places for cursing in fiction, I know and respect that not everyone agrees with that and I don’t want to broadside someone who avoids reading things with this sort of language. Likewise, I would not intentionally and directly advertise a book containing language to someone I knew was bothered by it, nor would I encourage a writer to include language in their work if the matter was doubtful to them.

“It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.” – Rom. 14:21-23

On the other hand, there are secular readers who won’t bat an eyelash at curse words in their fiction. These readers will not be made to stumble by your work and will not have their consciences bothered by it because they don’t operate by the same standard anyway–but they may see your approach to it and be made to think.

Your audience matters in deciding whether or not it is wise to include cursing in your work, when your conscience is clear.

If your conscience is unclear, or if you are convicted that cursing is sin, then don’t write it and don’t read it. I won’t try to change your conscience.

If, on the other hand, your conscience is free, there are ways to respect others’ consciences without (needlessly) binding your own

Cursing in fantasy

I’m going to take a quick aside here and talk about curse words in fantasy, particularly.

The thing about fantasy is that, even if you don’t think using real-world curses is wrong, a bunch of our real-world curse words just don’t fit in fantasy worlds. I was once reading a fantasy book that referenced “Hell” and was immediately jerked out of the story because, while I had no doubt this world had an equivalent to Hell… what were the chances it was just called Hell? Some curse words are interchangeable–d***, s***, etc.–but if you already have to exercise creativity for the rest of them, why not be creative and replace all of them with alternatives that fit your world, reflect the culture and religion within your world, and don’t violate the consciences of readers who are bothered by cussing?

There are many factors that go into the decision of whether or not swearing is acceptable to portray as a Christian author–Scripture, obviously, being the foundational consideration–and you may be able to tell that I’m still working through some of the details for myself. But hopefully this has provided some helpful food-for-thought and helped anyone else struggling through this same question.

Related reading: How Should Christian Authors Depict Swearing? on Story Embers

I now open the floor to you, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments.

The post How Should Christians Write About… Cursing? appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

2023 Know the Novel: Part 1 – Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my first writing update sort of post in a very long time, lol. Some of you may know, if you follow me on social media or are subscribed to my mailing list, that I’ve been working on a couple of book projects this year. One is a non-fiction project that I’m not saying much about yet; the other is a sci-fi novel called Lightning, which I’m working on finishing up during Christine Smith’s Fall FicFrenzy event. I’m also planning to dive into drafting a sequel, but I’ll be primarily focusing on Lightning in this post so as to avoid spoilers, lol.

If you’ve been curious to learn more about Lightning (or if this is your first introduction), hopefully this post gives you a bit of a taste!

Note: I have done this link-up for Lightning before, but a lot can happen to a project in a year, lol, so there’s some repeat content and some new info here!1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

I don’t remember, lol. Way back in… 2017, I think, I wrote a couple snippets of interaction between two characters–Rhys and Alaric–who shared an apartment without knowing it because Grantech kept their hours carefully opposite of one another, until they decided that they wanted the two to meet. Said snippets were really cringey, the concept was also cringey, and the only things that survived out of that concept were the characters and the fact that they work for Grantech.

Meanwhile, I guess around the same time I had an idea involving Erika, Nyla, and Ash, and I decided to combine the two into one story before I even started writing it. That may have been about the time I was doing the alphabet blogging challenge and I wrote up an introductory scene for Lightning (then just creatively titled “Grantech,” lol).

I don’t ultimately remember where either piece originated, inspiration-wise, but the concept of this story has been around for six years and the world has been around a lot longer than that.

As for what sparked me to pick it back up this time around… I don’t remember that, exactly, either, lol. I wanted a new novel to focus on, nothing else was really sticking, and I think re-reading that introductory scene was what caught my attention on Lightning. That was back in the spring of 2022, and I’ve been plugging away at it ever since!

Originally, Lightning was going to be a standalone, but as I was outlining it I realized that it needed to be a duology, so that’s where the general idea for the sequel came from.

2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!

What would you do to feel whole?

The scientific mega-corporation Grantech is developing a line of super-soldiers—known to the public as GenDevs—in an attempt to “perfect” the human race. But their work doesn’t always go as planned.

Nyla is left wrestling with chronic pain and fickle abilities after her alterations failed to integrate properly, her body and family both broken by the company’s meddling.

The powers Erika expected never seemed to manifest, sentencing her to “elimination” from the program unless she breaks out of their custody first.

Alaric uses his powers at Grantech’s behest to bring more kids into the GenDev program, exchanging years of debt for years of guilt.

When their fragile stability is challenged, these GenDevs must face the decision between freedom and the familiar. If they make it outside of Grantech’s walls, will it be enough to shake their grip or is the corporation’s manipulation inevitable?

Then, logically, the sequel covers the fall-out of everything that happens in Lightning. ;)

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

If you want a more succinct answer to this question, refer to the previous edition of this link-up, lol.

So, I have a confession to make. I didn’t do a great job of worldbuilding for Lightning before I dove into it.

This world has existed in my head for at least seven years, and I have a pretty decent understanding of its basic tone and structure, the most crucial figures, how the magic system works, the kinds of technology I want to explore…

But I didn’t really dig out the details before I started writing Lightning. So this first draft has a lot of oversights, a lot of inconsistencies, and I recently changed things about the single building that most of the story takes place in (it’s not going to be a single building after I’ve done rewrites, but three neighboring buildings).

I love worldbuilding for fantasy and I often have very well-composed worlds before I even start thinking about writing the stories set within those worlds; this sci-fi world is one that I’ve more taken for granted and haven’t poked at between projects, so it’s ended up less fleshed out than I realized, and thus my first step after finishing these drafts is going to be to take some time just worldbuilding and making sure I have a solid framework before I rewrite the duology.

But I digress, lol. The story takes place in the nation of Concordia (the same setting as the two sci-fi short stories in Short Story Collection vol. 1), in the city of Newbridge (once upon a time known as New York city), and largely within Grantech’s primary Newbridge campus.

Honestly, I really like the vibes. XD It’s intended to be a very flashy city, a pretty stereotypical futuristic city, and yet there’s still very much a grounded element to it where it’s still just a big city where people live and all of the tech that’s so crazy and flashy to us is just a part of their everyday lives. So it’s a fun blend–and hopefully it will be more so after I’ve fleshed out more of the details and rewritten the book to reflect more of that sci-fi foundation.

I also really like the sciantasy mix, where these scientists have learned to harness the “magic” that has been released back into the world but it doesn’t always go according to their plan. You can’t just take the power you want; there are rules to be followed. And I just really like that genre blending, the thematic implications there, and how I get to show the outcomes of those efforts in the ways they affect relatively normal people. They’re not superheroes in any classic sense, they didn’t ask to be given these abilities, their abilities are flawed, and they have to deal with that because of Grantech’s meddling. It’s just a neat dynamic to play with, I think.

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).

There are five of them, so this answer might also get a little long. (At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that this whole post is going to run long. XD)

Erika is the first POV character the reader meets. She’s sarcastic, doesn’t take (or dish) any nonsense, and likes to think she’s invincible. She’s often abrasive and thoughtless, but she pushes everyone else to face the truth they don’t want to see and to do what needs to be done… and she does have a heart under there somewhere. Some of her behavior is outright morally questionable, and this causes a fair bit of conflict with Nyla.

Nyla is the next POV character, and I think she has the most POV chapters (though I haven’t counted, and there is a fair bit of back-and-forth since there are… possibly too many POV characters). She’s kind and selfless but tends to assume that anyone who tries to get close to her must want something. Ever since Grantech’s experiments on her, she’s dealt with chronic pain and malfunctioning powers that she generally tries to ignore.

Alaric is a GenDev within Grantech’s Sentinel program, entrusted with tasks like containing rogue GenDevs and bringing in new subjects for enhancement. Alaric’s tasks normally fall into the latter category, and he hates it, but he’s been trapped in the job so long that he feels there’s no escaping it–or the stains on his soul–despite his efforts to hold onto some last shred of integrity.

Rhys is Alaric’s next-door neighbor–and comes to be his anchor. She’s an accountant who works for Grantech more for the resources they can provide her family than because she believes in their cause. She’s a skilled analyst, good with computers, and optimistic to a fault. She sees the best in everyone and does what she can to bring out that quality when it’s been buried.

Ash is the only main character who doesn’t have any scenes or chapters from his POV, though he shows up frequently in chapters with Erika, Nyla, and later Alaric. Ash is the guard that Grantech has assigned to Erika to ensure she doesn’t endanger herself–or Grantech. He’s a firm believer in the idea that Grantech is a bastion of order and the GenDevs wreak havoc and destruction everywhere they go–unless they remain under Grantech’s benevolent authority. But he’s also a man of reason and enjoys a fair number of respectful debates with Nyla over Grantech’s character and methods. (He’s also a bit of a problem child as far as working out his arc goes, but that’ll get ironed out.)

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

Grantech has two primary faces: Erdiana Class and Tamerin Lance.

Erdiana is head of the scientific division. She’s elegant, precise, and has a superiority complex. Yet despite said complex, she believes that mankind isn’t good enough and ought to be pushed into the next state of evolution. She’s seeking to create the perfect race, with the power to access their full mental and genetic potential. She also knows how to break people (she’d say “like a glow stick,” but… well, let’s just say her perspective is a bit skewed).

Tamerin is head of the security division, and he simply likes the flavor of power. He likes toying with people to see how they react and shaping the world to his own whims–at least insofar as Erdiana and their superior allow. He’s actually quite personable with most people, but there’s always some ulterior motive under the surface and he’s not above threatening people if they threaten his plans.

6. What excites you the most about this novel?

Finishing! That might make it sound like I’m not enjoying the writing process or I can’t wait to be done, which isn’t the case. But I haven’t finished a first draft for a novel in four years now, and it’s so exciting to be so close to adding a new full draft to my roster! (And hopefully the sequel won’t be too far behind, either.)

7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

A duology! Initially I imagined it would be a standalone, but there was too much story. I tend to prefer trilogies (if you look at my project list, there are a lot of trilogies), duologies tend to seem not quite long enough to me, but I think the length of this story suits a duology well and it does allow me to split it up neatly at the midpoint (which is great from a writing perspective and hopefully not too messy from a reader perspective!). Basically, I’m really hoping I can keep this series from tripping into the pitfalls I tend to see with duologies as a reader, lol, but I’m excited to try the new-to-me series length.

8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

Plotting. Well, mostly. Each book (and the duology as a whole) has been/will be plotted according to the 3-act structure with much assistance from K.M. Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel (which worked wonders for my Lightning outline and I’m hoping will work just as well for the second book and the latter half of the overarching plot). So all of the main plot points have been/will be planned.

On the other hand, I tend to need basic chapter outlines, as well, and I tend to get bored with those partway through and get an itch to write. So my outlining process tends to look like this:

Outline the main plot pointsOutline half to 2/3rds of the book on a chapter-by-chapter basisDecided I can outline the rest later; dive into writingHit the end of my outlined chapters, realize “later” has arrived, outline half to all of the remaining chaptersContinue writingRepeat the previous three steps as many times as necessary until the book is complete

So as far as that’s concerned… I suppose I’m a little bit of a plantser in that I rarely start with a complete outline, lol. But it worked for Calligraphy Guild and it’s worked for Lightning so far, so there’s no pressing need to change the process.

9. Name a few unique elements in this story.Chronically ill “superheroes”“Superheroes” with mental health issuesA mix of 3rd-person and 1st-person perspectivesLow-action sci-fi (at least in the first book; things start to pick up going into the sequel)10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

I have a playlist and overarching Pinterest board on the book page for Lightning, so you can check those out over there. I also wrote a post recently that explored the anatomy of a story playlist and I used Lightning‘s playlist as an example.

As far as new content goes… Since I’m starting on the sequel soon I guess it’s safe to announce that the title is *drumroll please* Thunder! (Probably not all that surprising, since it’s the sequel to Lightning, but it works so well!)

And with that announced, I can also share the playlist for Thunder:

There you have a little more insight into Lightning and Thunder! Let me know what you think, what aspects of the story intrigue you most. And if you’re working on a project this fall, whether as part of an event or not, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

If you’d like to get further updates on Lightning and Thunder as they come available, sign up to my newsletter:

The post 2023 Know the Novel: Part 1 – Introduction appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Defining the Purpose of a World

Defining the purpose of your fictional world is a foundational and yet often overlooked step of worldbuilding. Leaving your world’s purpose indefinite and vague opens the door wide to overwhelm, lack of direction, and frustration with the worldbuilding process. But defining a world’s purpose can feel limiting–and how do you effectively frame the purpose of a world, anyway? Hence often overlooking or ignoring this helpful step.

Today I want to look at how defining the purpose of your world will aid you in the worldbuilding process and how to frame your world’s purpose effectively.

*Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links, meaning that purchases made through them earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The Prime Question: Why Define a World’s Purpose?

“Why do it? Won’t outlining my world’s purpose just limit my creativity and the scope of my world?”

Yes and no.

Defining your purpose with a world limits the scope of what you focus on developing, yes. But this is actually to your benefit. When you can clearly distinguish between which elements will further your worldbuilding purpose and which are only distractions from that goal, you can set aside all of the extraneous pieces and focus on what you really need. No more finding yourself stuck neck-deep in a rabbit hole that has no relation to your story or game!

However, your purpose with a world might change, and these limits you give yourself don’t have to be forever. If you’re working on a short story today, maybe you only need to know a bit of slang and the cultural trappings of your character’s immediate surroundings. Later, when you decide to write a novel from the same setting, you can focus on the societal structures and deeper cultural currents that are relevant to the story. Maybe then you decide this world would be great for a tabletop roleplaying campaign, and you realize that you never created a map because you didn’t need one, but now you have to know the terrain of your world. Limiting your scope for one project doesn’t prohibit you from building more later! And each shift in purpose will add something new to the world you’re building, enabling you to do more and more with it as you go.

These purpose-guided limits don’t have to be without exception, either. Maybe you’re focusing on your map and a general cultural overview for the sake of a D&D campaign, but you have a really neat idea for the fashion in this society and that’s a really fun rabbit trail for you. You’re absolutely allowed to follow that bunny trail! Worldbuilding is meant to be fun, and limits are meant to help with that, not hinder it. If the limitations are no longer serving you, take a break from them!

Medium Matters

Now you know why it helps to define the purpose of your world. The first consideration as far as how to do it is the medium you want to work with. A novel will require different information from a tabletop game, which will require different information from a film, which will require… well, you get the point.

The first step of defining your world’s purpose is to determine which of these mediums is your first priority. So if you’re building for a short story, you can focus on a very particular area of your world. If you’re building a tabletop campaign, you might need a broader scope but you can probably focus on large-scale elements of the setting vs. the details. If you’re building for a novel, what elements you need to develop within your world will heavily depend on the story you’re telling; medium doesn’t lower that one down much.

But you can see that even if your medium doesn’t tell you exactly what to develop on its own, it does at least tell you what questions to ask next.

Study Your Story

In any medium, you’ll want to look next to the story you’re trying to tell. You want your worldbuilding to support and fill out that story. An adventure story, for instance, will require very different elements from a slice-of-life type of story.

Look at the overall structure of your story. Look at what settings are involved, how much travel the characters have to do, and the overall focus of your story. If there’s a lot of traveling (like in an adventure story), the geography, weather, and flora and fauna in your world might be high priorities, along with a map and knowledge of available travel modes; in a story that sticks closer to your character’s home, it might be more important to focus on the education systems, vocational systems, and everyday elements of life like clothing and architecture instead. If you’re writing a story that focuses heavily on the political arena or follows characters within your culture’s government (e.g. if you’re writing a story about princes and princesses and castles), you’ll probably want to know something about the political system and what officials hang around (e.g. who would make up your royal court), and at least have a vague idea of what diplomatic relations look like between your culture and others (as well as between the government and the people).

These are just a handful of examples, and these are not exhaustive lists of what to know for each example, but hopefully you can see that the type of story you’re telling will guide your focus as you build a world for it.

Think About Theme

This point does tie in with the previous to some extent, but it’s a separate consideration since you can cover one theme in a myriad of different story contexts–as well as a myriad of different themes within a single story type.

I think that worldbuilding is a powerful tool for exploring themes, but this has to be an intentional piece of the worldbuilding process. If there are themes that you know you want to explore within this world, think about what elements of the setting would be most useful for doing this. If you want to explore the sanctity of life, you might develop flora or magic that endangers life in order for your characters to wrestle with and/or combat it; if you want to explore the cost of war, you might build a history of war into your suffering nation’s backstory; if you want to explore the abuse of power, you might build a magic system with heavy consequences, a corrupt religious system, or an overreaching government.

There are broad possibilities when building a world with theme in mind, and I’ve barely scratched the surface, but considering your themes is another way to define the purpose of your world and use that to direct your worldbuilding efforts. Personally, I think it’s helpful to approach this in conjunction with the elements of your world that you’re most interested in developing–which we’ll discuss more in a moment. If you could build either a magic system or a political system to further your theme, but you find one option more exciting to develop, go with that!

Consider Your Characters

Knowing your characters can be an additional way to find direction in your worldbuilding. Who your characters are will impact how they interact with the world–and which areas of the world they interact with most–which can tell you where to focus your attention. If your character is really interested in politics, you’ll need to develop at least enough of your political system for your character to sound like they actually know what they’re talking about (or to clearly not know what they’re talking about); if your character is a craftsman, you’ll need to know what type of craft they participate in, how that craft is practiced (individually? within a guild? in a factory?), and what sorts of goods they create (for example, do carpenters work in architecture at all, or are buildings made entirely without wood, leaving carpenters responsible only for furniture or something else entirely?).

The characters around your main cast may require you to hint at other areas of your world, as well. A minor merchant character, while minor, will give some insight into the economy and trading operations of your world. These things don’t have to be fleshed out nearly so deeply if they’re not relevant, but it may prove helpful to develop a few details in a broad range of worldbuilding topics in order to give these moments a flavor more unique to your world, that ties in with what you’ve developed in more depth!

Want to learn more about developing details intentionally and giving the illusion of depth in areas that don’t need as much real depth? I have a whole lesson on this in The Worldbuilding Toolbox!

Enroll here!

Invest in Your Interests

I’ve alluded to this point in previous sections, but I want to take a moment to specifically focus on it: Let your interests drive your worldbuilding!

We can’t always ignore the elements of worldbuilding that we don’t like or that don’t come as naturally to us (and we wouldn’t develop our skills if we could avoid those things!), but there are ways to focus your time and energy on the areas that you enjoy and spend less on the areas you don’t.

When you’re looking at how to build your world to support your story and you’re given two equally reasonable options–say, your character can start out as a tailor or a carpenter and neither has great bearing on the story to follow; or the “power corrupts” theme can be explored through either a magic system or a religious system–go with the one that you’re more interested in exploring! Maybe you like the idea of sewing fine, but not well enough to write about it enthusiastically, but you love the idea of exploring a guild system and carpentry fits neatly into that; the carpenter option is the one that you’re going to have the most fun developing and building out from, so follow that track!

In areas that you can’t avoid–or that you want to touch on for authenticity’s sake without spending days developing in-depth systems–find a method of developing that element of the world that gives you the most payoff for the least effort. As an example, I’m not big into language-building and I’m not interested in building complete languages for my worlds, but I do like being able to throw in bits of a fictional language to add color to the setting and a twinge of authenticity to the characters’ dialogue. As such, I’ve figured out what elements of a language can add the most color without requiring a lot of effort to develop (hence my post “The Lazy Worldbuilder’s Guide to Conlang“).

In cases where you really do need to develop something in more depth, but it’s not something you enjoy, try to think of it from a new angle or focus on a portion of it that you can enjoy. Maybe you’re not a fan of politics as a concept, but it helps to think of it in terms of the interpersonal relationships between the individuals in charge vs. focusing on the resulting diplomatic outcomes. Or maybe it’s the opposite! Maybe you don’t like the political posturing of national leaders, so you focus on the more general relationships between their countries and work backwards to figure out how the leaders might feel about each other. Or maybe you intentionally create a character to fill that leadership role who hates the political posturing as much as you do and you work out the politics through their eyes. Whatever the case, find your unique lens on the issue and work out from there! This not only makes the process easier and more fun for you, but it also helps to set your world apart as uniquely yours as you share it with readers and build stories within it, which is one key to great worldbuilding (another point that I cover in The Worldbuilding Toolbox)!

What About Worlds for Their Own Sake?

“But Ariel,” you say, “I’m not building a world for a particular project (at least not yet); I just build worlds because I like building worlds. How does this apply to me?”

Well, maybe it doesn’t. If you’re worldbuilding just to worldbuild, you may not need any of these limitations. “This world exists to be a fun world to build” is a perfectly reasonable worldbuilding purpose!

But if you’re getting sucked a little too far down the rabbit hole and your approach is starting to feel aimless, or if you know you want to have a workable world for sometime down the line even though your current focus is on exploration, there are some things you can think about to find the direction you’re looking for.

Option #1 is to go back to the previous point. Develop what you’re interested in! If you’re into architecture, spend some time developing all the different kinds of architecture in your world. If you find religious systems fascinating, focus on those. If you like building fascinating settings and locales, develop your geography for a while. Whatever your interest is, focus there.

Option #2: Develop one culture at a time. Pick one of the cultures (or people groups, nations, towns, continents… any smaller-than-the-globe portion of your world) and build it out in as much depth as you want to. Maybe challenge yourself to see how thorough you can be with that one society before moving on, or just develop it until you get bored and want to work on a different culture for a while. Either way, focus your attention on one area and make that your purpose for the time being.

Option #3: Use prompts. This is an approach I’ve used with Deseran on multiple occasions. Pick a worldbuilding prompt (I have a whole list) and answer it for as many cultures as you have in your world (whether that’s a super long list or consists of only 2-3 societies). For example, I might take the question of “When and how does this culture celebrate the new year? Or do they?” and develop 10 new traditions for my world, each for a different culture, and learn vital information about each culture I’ve answered for–or find ways to reinforce things I already knew about them through those new traditions.

Want more prompts? There’s an additional prompt list included in The Worldbuilding Toolbox!

Enroll here!

Option #4: Think ahead. If you know you want to create something within this world in the future, keep that future goal in mind as you decide what to develop. Make your first priority exploration, but keep your second priority (whether it’s a video game, novel, RPG, etc.) as an additional guideline. Say you can’t decide whether to work on Culture A or Culture B; if you’re operating solely off of exploration, you may never choose, but if you know that you want to write a story set in Culture B someday then that can make the decision easier.

Record Your Purpose for Reference

I’m a big advocate for writing things down, because my memory is super unpredictable and I know I’ll forget important things if I’m not careful–and I know I’m not the only one.

Wherever you keep your worldbuilding notes (whether in a binder, in Scrivener*, in a Word document, someplace like World Anvil*, etc.), write down your purpose so that you can refer back to it when you need to bring your worldbuilding back in line or figure out what to develop next. You can include as much or as little in this as you want; whatever is going to help you keep on track with your purpose! If “I’m building this world as the setting for [novel title]” is sufficient, great! If you want to jot down some information about the different categories I’ve mentioned here–noting your character’s background or interests, your story type, your themes, etc.–go for it! If you want to include notes of inspiration, such as jotting down some worlds or series that you want yours to resemble, that can also be a help.

Personally, I love World Anvil’s built-in “world meta” page for this purpose. Here, you can see how I’ve used it for Deseran. This is yet another area in which World Anvil’s templates do a great job of prompting consideration of some really useful elements for developing your world, and I mentioned it as one of my favorite features when I did a World Anvil review a while back. But, of course, it can be easily replicated in another format to go with the tools you already use. (I promise I’m not just promoting World Anvil because I’m an affiliate; I became an affiliate because I promoted them so much on my own anyway, lol. But that is the end of my World Anvil sales pitch for this post.)

Writing down your world’s purpose will not only help you as you develop this world, but also as you consider whether to add new worlds to your roster vs. add new pieces to your existing world(s).

Now I want to hear from you! Comment below with which of these points was most helpful to you, and share the purpose of your current world(s), if you’d like!

Now that you’ve defined your world’s purpose, learn to build your world effectively and build a system that supports your purpose with The Worldbuilding Toolbox!

The Worldbuilding Toolbox is a 4-module course designed to walk you through the basics of building a world that is built on your interests, supports the kind of story that you want to tell, and serves as more than just a backdrop to your story–plus how to develop a system to get you there that is based on what works for you, not just what other authors say you should do.

The price of the course is going up from $15 to $27 on October 25th, so enroll now to get lifetime access at the lower price!

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