R.M. Archer's Blog, page 9

Intrigue & Mystery with Selective Prose

This post is based on a question I got quite a while back and answered for a newsletter subscriber. Bethani asked, “How do you write stories that are intriguing without using too many words?”

I’d been intending to expand this into a blog post for at least several months, and finally got to it in my big batching project before my wedding so I can finally share these tips with all of you!

Thank you, Bethani, for your initial question!

Questions and Answers

The heart of fostering intrigue and mystery in your book is to make the reader ask questions and then gradually answer those questions. If you answer questions right away, it sucks the interest out of the story. If you leave questions unanswered for too long, you frustrate the reader. Keeping the reader intrigued is a balancing act.

One illustration I’ve heard described is to have overlapping loops. A question starts a loop, and an answer closes it. The idea is that you want to open a new loop before you close the previous loop so that you always have an open loop to drive the reader forward in the story–until the end, at which point you want to close (at least most of) the remaining loops to resolve the story.

A lot of your questions will relate to one another, moving the reader through each portion of your story arc. Maybe their first large-scale question is whether the MC will successfully get undercover with their suspect. After they do that, maybe the question is whether they’ll find the evidence they need to snare the suspect. Maybe that loop is answered with the MC finding that they had the wrong suspect, and your new question is whether they’ll discover the real suspect.

Other questions will relate to your subplots and tie in differently. Maybe a smaller question has to do with the identity of a character your MC keeps alluding to from their past, and as the hints come together it’s revealed that they were an old friend who betrayed the MC, just in time for the MC to find that the old friend is actually helping the false suspect investigate the same crime and now your MC has to work with them.

Regardless of how your loops link together, the point is the same: Make your reader ask questions, then gradually resolve their curiosity with answers.

Words = Clarity

This header is a little misleading since using too many words can actually muddle your meaning and reduce clarity. But for a moment I’ll be focusing on overwriting, and context in which you want to make things less clear for your reader.

To return to the original question of maintaining intrigue without too many words: it can be easier to keep your work intriguing if you use fewer words. We authors can tend to over-explain in an attempt to make things as clear as possible to the reader and make sure that our intentions come across accurately, but this ruins the element of mystery and intrigue. Certain things ought to be clear–what is happening in a given moment, what our settings and characters look like, why the main character is doing what they’re doing–but other things can be left unexplained for a time.

Your antagonist’s plan, a side character’s ulterior motive, the main character’s backstory, the meaning of a symbol or item the character notices, the function of a recurring locale, etc. can all be left unexplained as mini-mysteries to add intrigue to the story. Readers like to be a little in the dark; they want to be on the edge of their seats wondering what’s going to come next–or what happened before the story began.

If your readers aren’t curious, if they’re bored or can see the whole story laid out ahead, keep an eye out for when you’re over-explaining or info-dumping and identify where you can cut back on that. Don’t tell in places you can show instead.

Hint with Details

If there’s something about a character/setting/etc. that you want to be intriguing, use hints to get your reader interested. Bring it to their attention, draw out a particular detail, and then move on until you’re ready to resolve it in the story–or ready to drop another hint along the way.

Maybe your MC keeps making vague allusions to a character from their past. Each allusion may add something to the picture your reader is forming of that character in their mind, but it’s not until that character appears in the story to shock the MC that the reader’s curiosity will be fully resolved. Don’t give away so much in those allusions that your reader is bored and feels they already know everything about the character by the time they appear on-page. They may have some familiarity with the character by the time they appear and be excited to meet them, but they shouldn’t know everything your MC knows.

Dropping hints, drawing out the details you want your reader to focus on at any given time without giving away all of your secrets at once, is a delicate balancing act, and you’ll likely have to adjust that balance as you rewrite and edit, both as you realize things that don’t work and as you get feedback from beta-readers and so on.

Be Selective

As with avoiding info-dumping in general, you want to bring things up as they become relevant–not all at once. Maybe your MC doesn’t include their ability to ride a motorcycle when someone asks them about their skills because it reminds them of that old friend, or because they want to keep it secret for some reason. Maybe instead it comes up later when they notice a motorcycle driving by and are automatically reminded of the friend, or when they have to use a motorcycle as a getaway vehicle. Withholding information can not only surprise the reader and make them wonder about things, but do the same for other characters in the story–which can, in turn, help your reader relate to those other characters.

This also applies to description. Maybe you want to highlight a particular door in a room, or a notch in a wall, or a pattern on a desk, or a character’s tattoo, to hint at something larger later on. As long as it’s something your character would notice, even if they simply glance over it and don’t focus on it until later, you can raise questions in your reader’s mind by the simple mention of it. Especially if it’s one of only few details you mention to outline a setting or character.

Your choice of words can hint at certain things, as well. Describing a character with “a hunter’s focus,” even if all they’re looking for is the buffet table and the MC likes them fine, can imply a lot about their character–especially if someone else describes their gait as “predatory” or an extra looks “cornered” when approached by the character for conversation. Whether the MC is glad to be on the “hunter’s” good side or they end up their intended prey in the end, the character of the “hunter” will have been foreshadowed by your word choice, as your reader will be wondering by that point why the character is painted that way (presuming, of course, that they’re not a literal hunter or a known antagonist).

As the author, you have a similar role to the cameraman for a movie. You have the power to draw the reader’s attention toward exactly what you want them to notice and away from anything you don’t want them to see yet. In fact, thinking of scenes in terms of movie shots can sometimes be a helpful exercise for this purpose. Use your words, your description, and your character’s attention and behavior to direct your reader where you want them to look and lead them to ask the questions you want them asking.

There are my best tips for maintaining intrigue and mystery in your stories. Which of these points was the most helpful? Anything I could have covered more? Comment below!

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Book Review: Sworn to the Sea by Dawn Dagger

Sworn to the Sea is a complete rewrite of a book I reviewed previously, Slave of the Sea, so Dawn reached out to me during re-release to see if I would share my review as someone who has the experience of having read both versions. It took me longer than I’d hoped to have the time to say yes, but I slotted in Sworn to the Sea as soon as I could in order to support Dawn and read this new version of a book that I’d enjoyed.

Disclaimer: I was not required to leave a positive review and all opinions are my own.What is Sworn to the Sea about?

He faced Levanine with the intensity of flames. “You must swear that you will not try to escape. You will not die by your own hand.”

“I swear it.”

–

Levanine’s life as a servant for the Ehrenfeld Family is not an unfortunate one. She has food, a place to sleep, and her best friend, Putra. But as they prepare for the suitors of Miss Leoni Ehrenfehld to arrive, the worst happens: pirates ransack the home.

And they demand Leoni Ehrenfehld, the family’s only heir, as payment.

Bound by duty, Levanine offers herself as a surrogate for the girl, and the frightening captain accepts her offer. But there is one condition. She must swear that she will never leave.

The world is bigger and more frightening than she could ever imagine. The men are dangerous, the seas even more so. Levanine has one of two choices: to become stronger or to die.

And she has sworn to the captain that she will not die.

Review

It’s been long enough since I read Slave of the Sea that I can’t remember much of it, but based on my review… Sworn to the Sea is extremely different. Which was by design; Dawn makes clear in her acknowledgements section that she wanted this to be a lighter story than it initially was, something hopeful rather than cynical and dark. So far as it goes, she accomplished that goal. Sworn to the Sea is a light adventure story rather than the hard-hitting look at morality that Slave of the Sea was.

Unfortunately, I think Sworn to the Sea is a lot weaker as a story–and in its writing.

There is no real story arc in this book. I get the impression it was intended to be a character-driven story, in which we see Levanine’s growth from timid and unsure servant girl to capable and confident pirate… but we don’t really get to see that. The events of the story feel disconnected from one another and disconnected from Levanine and her arc, which gives the whole thing a disjointed feel and keeps the reader distanced from the story and the characters. (Of course, a large part of this was the writing. There is very, very little “showing” in this book; everything is told, from the actions to the feelings to the settings to everything in between, which prevents any deep connection between the reader and any element of the book.) The potential was there, but the execution was not.

In fact, a lot of the elements of this book were just fine. When I say this is a “light adventure story,” that doesn’t mean nothing bad happens; there are cannibals, a sea monster, a marooning, and plenty of near-death experiences. The characters, too, are clearly outlined in unique ways and clearly hold to differing belief systems and whatnot that would have been fascinating to see further fleshed out. The setting and the differences between nations were interesting. Each of these pieces could have been a great contribution to the whole, but none of them got to shine through and none of them were tied together in such a way as to support a compelling, cohesive storyline. It felt like having all of the raw ingredients for a cake set out on the counter instead of having a ready cake to enjoy.

All of that said, I wouldn’t say this book was unenjoyable. It wasn’t a slog and it wasn’t terribly confusing. It just kind of… happened. Some of the characters and events were still interesting despite the uninteresting way in which they were presented, and it is a fun adventure at its core. But there was so much untapped potential, and it was disappointing to see it go to waste in the way it was put together and presented. The elements of Levanine’s faith, especially, would have been so interesting to see explored in the way she thought about things–in practice, not just how we’re told she thought–and in deeper conflict both within herself and with her surroundings and the other members of the crew. I would have loved to see more about her views on femininity and a real struggle when she’s asked to set those convictions aside.

I think Sworn to the Sea has the makings of a really effective lighter counterpart to the previous Slave of the Sea. It seems to keep the heart of the characters (as far as I can recall and see in my previous review) and the heart of the pirate story while shifting the focus into something more hopeful for Levanine and into a world that is freed from some of the darkness present in Slave of the Sea. Unfortunately, I think it needed more time to develop as a story and more time and support for the actual writing itself.

Rating: 2 stars

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Book Review: Unearth the Tides by Alissa J. Zavalianos

I’ve seen this series of “Classics Retold” going around my author/reader circles for a while now, and it looked pretty cool (I enjoy classics) but I didn’t really stop long enough to add any of the involved books to my TBR. But then I connected with Alissa on Instagram, discovered she writes “cozy” fantasy, and said, “Hey, would you like to do a review swap?” So here we are with my review of Unearth the Tides (and I will probably check out more of the Classics Retold series in the future).

While I received a copy of this book to review, I was not required to leave a positive review and all opinions are my own.What is Unearth the Tides about?

𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬
𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮

Huxley Krew Gannon III always knew he would be a royal guard; defending the Crown is in his blood. And coming from a long line of Gannons, that means the job is to be taken seriously at all costs.

When tragedy strikes, Huxley is framed for treason, and his only option is to flee to Braka’s most feared place: The Wasteful Tides.

It’s rumored a monstrous beast haunts those waters, but what Huxley encounters is even worse: an elusive captain, magical herbs, a beautiful lady, and unearthed truths that could change the course of history.

Unearth the Tides is a fantasy retelling of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Filled with mystery, found family, and themes of truth and forgiveness, Unearth the Tides is perfect for those who love the coziness of the classics and the thrill of adventure.

Review

So, funny story, I’ve participated for about a year in a Jules Verne-focused online book club and our most recent read was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And, while all of the above about the Classics Retold series is true, I didn’t actually realize that Unearth the Tides was part of that series or that it was a retelling of 20,000 Leagues until I opened it, lol. So the timing of starting it just after finishing its source material was pretty fun and providential.

One of the first things that struck me about Unearth the Tides–beyond discovering it was a retelling of 20,000 Leagues–was how fast-paced it is. It dumps you straight into the story and there’s not really a lot of breathing room for the first several chapters–even where it sometimes seems like there should be. My biggest disappointment with this was that it felt like the pacing did a disservice to the characters and world. It’s evident that both the characters and the world were well-developed, but that depth gets lost on the page as there’s not a lot of processing time with Huxley to really understand how he’s thinking about things or come to see the world through his eyes. He responds to things in real-time and then seems to sometimes forget about them until they become relevant again–even things like the inciting incident that led to his entire predicament. This also has a detrimental effect on the climax, as there’s not a lot of lead-up or foreshadowing before we’re thrown into a discovery with Huxley and the ensuing plan for resolution. In short, the pacing made it hard for me to get invested in the story in a lot of places.

However. The characters were still engaging, in certain points toward the middle of the book especially. Huxley was a little difficult for me to connect with for the reasons stated, but Willa, Monty, and Aldo were compelling side characters. I would have liked to see a little more from Monty because he struck me as rather one-dimensional, there just to serve a purpose in Huxley’s story instead of really having his own, but that desire came from the fact that he had enough depth to seem like he had more to offer the story. Willa was a great feminine character, and I enjoyed the way that her relationship with Huxley was written. I found Aldo to be the most compelling character for a while because of his similarities with Captain Nemo; he was a really well-done counterpart, and I enjoyed the intrigue carried over from 20,000 Leagues.

I don’t have much to say on the world. It was largely unexplored, as the majority of the story takes place on a submarine, but it was pretty typical fantasy fare. The propulsion of the submarine was well-done; I enjoyed that detail. The way that the ship was generally constructed–as well as the restoration of Monty’s boat–stretched my disbelief a bit. But those were minor details easily moved on from.

As this book is a retelling of a classic novel, it seems appropriate to discuss its merits as a retelling. For those who enjoy very distinct retellings, this is a fun read. It keeps vestiges of the original, while spinning them into what is very much an original story. On the other hand, if you enjoyed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for its slow pacing, its ambiguity and intrigue, or a main character who is fascinated by the research opportunities afforded on a submarine, you should be aware that Unearth the Tides steps away from all of those elements. Huxley is more of a Ned Land than an Aronnax, the submarine’s crew plays much more of a role, and the ending–built on the captain’s backstory–is clearly defined. None of these are faults in the story, whether as a retelling or not, but they are worthwhile details to be aware of if you go into this book as a fan of Verne’s story.

Overall, Unearth the Tides is a fun adventure story that draws bits of inspiration from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into a fantasy world. It takes a fascination with the Nautilus and Captain Nemo and answers the questions that arise from that curiosity in the context of a new story in a new world.

Rating: 4 stars

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Cross-Section of a Story Playlist

Today we have a just-for-fun sort of post. A lot of music-loving authors, like myself, create playlists to accompany their books–whether for the sake of the reader experience, for their own writing process, or both–and I thought that it would be fun to look at what sorts of songs might get onto these playlists, as well as give you a look into Lightning‘s playlist as we go!

A Prologue on Structure

Before we get into the type of songs that tend to appear on story playlists, I want to talk for a moment about the broad options when it comes to the structure and style of a story playlist.

Story playlists can be as long or as short as serves the purpose they’re intended for. I have story playlists ranging from 20 minutes (so far) to 15 hours. In my case, story playlists tend to grow as I use them during my writing process and stay shorter if I’ve created the playlist after the book is done (as in the case of my 40-minute Lost Girl playlist).

The musical style of a playlist can also differ dramatically based on the author, the story, and the purpose of the playlist. Most of my story playlists include a lot of alternative rock, some pop, and indie music. But 1) a variety of genres fill in around these core genres on different playlists–metal, jazz, cinematic, throwbacks, etc.–and 2) some playlists have a totally different bent altogether, with the focus on instrumental music on playlists where that’s a better fit or I’ve found instrumental makes it easier to focus.

You can also play around with the order of songs on your playlists, if you’d like. I listen to 90% of my playlists on shuffle, so I don’t bother to put them in any order other than chronological by when I added them, but if you want to order them to accompany the arc of your story, to sort them by character, etc., go for it!

With that said, let’s get into the different types of songs you might find on a story playlist!

Songs Representing the Protagonist(s)

These are songs that embody who your protagonist is, whether highlighting the traits they hold throughout the story or representing who they are at the beginning of their arc. On a predominantly instrumental playlist, this will be a song that simply sounds like it matches with your character. On lyric-based playlists, you can get a little more specific. And these can be songs that represent how you see the character or how they see themselves!

These are a few of the protagonist songs I have on my Lightning playlist, for example:

Erika – “Ember” by Katherine McNamara

Nyla – “Easy to Break” by Fireflight

Alaric – “Silence” by Marshmello

Ash – “Coat of Arms” by Jonathan Thulin

Songs Representing the Antagonist(s)

These songs are certainly not a staple (none of these categories really are; you shape your playlist however works best for you), but it’s sometimes interesting to throw in a song or two that represents your antagonist. Sometimes these songs can be helpful to get into their heads if you have scenes from their POV, they can be a fun hint for readers, or they can simply round out your playlist with something different–especially on a primarily instrumental playlist.

Prior to writing this post, I didn’t have any antagonist songs on my Lightning playlist (“Enemy” by Tommee Profitt was the closest thing), but I went looking on some of my related playlists and found that Imagine Dragons’ “Whatever It Takes” is a good fit for all of my main antagonists in various ways.

Songs Representing Character Relationships

Romantic relationships, sibling relationships, friendships, the relationship between your protagonists and antagonists… Songs that match up with any of the relationships in your book can easily fill out your story playlist. Some examples from Lightning:

Friendship – “Monsters” by Katie Sky

Protagonist/antagonist relationship – “Not So Nice” by Terah Lynn (and “Enemy” by Tommee Profitt, as previously mentioned)

Family relationship – “Ruins” by LEDGER

Songs Representing Character Arcs

With this category, I’m thinking of songs that represent a key point of change in your character, perhaps a realization of something they believed being undone. Again, “Enemy” is a good fit for this category–which is another point, that story playlists aren’t generally neatly divisible by category; you’ll have songs that represent multiple characters or multiple elements of the story, and that’s totally expected.

“Resuscitate” by Fireflight is another character arc song on Lightning‘s playlist, to a degree.

Songs Representing Backstory

Your story playlist doesn’t have to be limited to only the present story; you can throw in hints at backstory, as well, whether for your own reference and inspiration or for the sake of reader interest.

There are several such songs on my playlist for Lightning, including “Follow Your Fire” By Kodaline.

Songs Representing the Setting

These songs can actively describe the city, or they can be representative in painting an audible picture (e.g. through instrumental music) or giving an idea of what the setting is built around or what it would sound like. I have a couple setting songs on Lightning‘s playlist that approach this from different angles:

Description – “Lights in the City” by The National Parks

Sound – “GetReady” by Hiss

Songs Representing Key Scenes

Some of the songs on your playlist might be associated with particular scenes of the story–whether the lyrics reflect events or the soundtrack backs the scene well. Soundtrack/cinematic music can be especially good for this if your playlist is primarily for your readers or if you write best to non-lyrical music; if you want a bit of word-based inspiration or write better to lyrics, a lyrical song might be more useful.

“Run Boy Run” by Woodkid got added to my Lightning playlist in part because the underlying music of it fits to soundtrack some of the scenes I’ve envisioned.

Songs Representing Key Themes

This category tends to be better served by songs with lyrics, so you may find it doesn’t show up much on an instrumental playlist, but you can work in songs that represent the core themes of your book.

I have several songs on Lightning‘s playlist that are sort of adjacent to my themes but don’t quite hit the mark–either in the precise theme or in their approach to the theme–but Juniper Vale’s “Unchangeable Love” is a pretty good representation for this category.

Songs That the Characters Would Listen To

Whether it gets mentioned in the book or not, sometimes it’s fun to look at the kinds of things that your characters would listen to. (In fact, I have one playlist that is specifically titled “Livi Would Listen” because it’s composed of songs that a character from one of my retired short story collections–Livi Brooklyn–would listen to.) This can also spice up your playlist, if your character listens to something distinct from the rest of the playlist’s style. On the other hand, it can spice things up too much in some cases–for example, if you’ve gotten into a writing groove with one style of music and suddenly there’s something drastically different playing.

“Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways is a song Erika would listen to–and, in fact, she alludes to it in the book.

Songs Matching the Overall Story Tone

Besides the songs that relate to particular elements of your story, your playlist will often match the overall tone of your story. For example, my Calligraphy Guild playlist suits that story with lots of softer, more oriental-sounding music, while Lightning‘s playlist is drastically different, with more hard-hitting and high-energy music. And, of course, these impressions can be achieved with either instrumental or lyric-based music.

There you have it. Those are some of the types of songs I have on my story playlists; hopefully they’re inspiring to you. Now I want to hear from you! Do you create musical playlists for your stories? What types of music do you gravitate toward when building them? What are some songs that have particularly inspired your creativity? Let’s talk in the comments!

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Building Your Community as an Author

To finish up this series on investments to make as an author, I want to talk about building relationships through your author career. Relationships are another integral part of succeeding as an author, in all areas, so let’s talk about what kinds of relationships you need and how to build them up effectively.

Building Relationships With Readers

There are multiple ways to connect with readers, but the most obvious way is through books. Joining reader groups can be a great way to find the right readers for your book. Join groups that discuss the genres, categories, and styles of books that you write. (I’ve recently found the “Lorehaven Guild” on Discord a great place to chat about books and storytelling.) Participate in conversation, discuss books that are similar to yours, etc. Connect with like-minded readers on social media and engage with their posts. Make your own posts about books you’re enjoying.

You can do the same thing with things like TV shows and movies, as well, and find readers whose media preferences overlap with the content of your book(s).

Of course, you can connect with readers through your books. Your books introduce you as an author, whether readers find your book before your platform or they find you talking about your book on your platform, and you can take advantage of that to make sure that readers know what to expect and know why they should care about you and your work. This is where you want to connect with them and make yourself recognizable to the readers who want what you have to offer.

I spent 6 months hyping up Calligraphy Guild by highlighting exactly what kind of book it is and how my personal values went into making it what it is. I was therefore able to connect with readers who share those values and are looking for the kind of book that I wrote with Calligraphy Guild. I talked about my love for music, the value of being counter-cultural, the value of community, the fact that Calligraphy Guild is slow-paced and character-driven, the fact that it bypasses a lot of common YA tropes to highlight strong relationships, etc., etc.

You can also discuss non-media topics related to your book. To use Calligraphy Guild as an example again, I might start conversations about tea, dragons, writing, community, the arts in general, etc. Discuss things you find interesting, and interests that have made their way into your books.

Once you’ve connected with people, you can determine whether they’re the right audience for your book and, if so, find more natural opportunities for recommending your book than if you were just trying to market it “into the void,” so to speak, via social media and the like. You’ll know you’re talking to the right people, and they’ll know, like, and trust you when you recommend they try your book (as well as future books you publish).

Part of the trick is then to maintain those relationships and not let them just fade away after you’ve promoted your book, only to reappear when you have a new book to offer. This should go without saying, but build relationships for the sake of the people, not just for the sake of your book. This doesn’t mean you have to message all of the people you’ve met on a weekly basis or something, but you do want to keep commenting on their stuff, checking in now and then, etc. And these are the sorts of people you’ll want to invite onto your mailing list, as well, so that you can keep connecting with them through your newsletter emails.

Building Relationships With Fellow Authors

It can be easy at times to envy fellow authors and see them as competition, but resist that urge. You need authors just as much as you need readers. Building relationships with authors will help you to find critique partners, endorsers (authors who write positive review blurbs to print on your book), reviewers, and people who can share your books with their own audience of readers.

Join groups of like-minded authors where you can exchange feedback and discuss the craft. Engage with authors on social media and through their newsletters. Go to conferences if you’re able. Reach out to authors directly to thank them for their books or share what you appreciate about them. Reach out once you have your own book and invite people to participate in promo for your book (having done your research so you can explain why they’re the right fit for your book), whether requesting an endorsement, review, or just that the author share your book link and graphics.

And hey, guess what. Authors like a lot of the same things readers do, and they’re human just like you. Even bigger-name authors are really not as scary to reach out to as you think they are. (In my experience, it’s scarier if you get ahold of an author’s agent than if you talk to the author themselves. But maybe I’ve just gotten the scary agents, lol.) So if fear is holding you back, kick it to the curb and reach out anyway; the worst an author can say is “no.”

Building Relationships With Other Artists

I really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with other artists and the like when I put together my Calligraphy Guild book box. That was a really expensive project and I don’t think I would normally recommend it to authors early in their careers because there’s no guarantee whatsoever that it’ll return on the financial investment (full disclosure: mine hasn’t), but for me it was a great experience to shape my own team of artists and put together a box of goodies for readers, and I’m glad that I had the money to do that for Calligraphy Guild. If you do have the funds, character art and the like are great for getting to know new artists and potentially connect with them as readers as well as artists.

You can connect with artists for cover art, character art, bookmark designs, promo graphics, custom products like candles and teas, etc., etc. Think outside the box and consider mediums that coordinate with your book.

Building Relationships With Other Professionals

Other artists aren’t the only professionals to build relationships with. As discussed in the first post in this series, building a rapport with a quality editor is one great long-term investment to make. And as you look for that perfect fit editor, you’ll probably work with several editors who aren’t such a good fit for you, and you’ll build relationships with them, too; even if they’re not right for your book, they might be perfect for a friend’s book, they might still be willing to help with the promo of your book once it’s ready, or they might just turn out to be a good friend.

Virtual assistants are another group of professionals you might work with. If that term is foreign to you, a virtual assistant is someone who helps with your “virtual” presence–your social media, sometimes your newsletter, etc. A VA helps you with your online content so that your time can be freed up for things like… writing. VAs aren’t for everyone, but VAs are also adaptable, so sometimes even if you don’t want to hand over all of your social media content to an assistant you can still get their help with the tedious work of scheduling posts (for example). Regardless, VAs are great to build relationships with, whether you intend to work with one down the road or you want to know who to recommend to other author friends who ask. (Speaking of VA recommendations, I have an email going out tomorrow highlighting a couple of my VA friends, so sign up if you’re interested in learning more!)

Book/business coaches are also great to work with! Some specialize in particular genres (like Nicole Whisler who does fantasy novel coaching) or aspects of the writing process (like Andrew Wall who does worldbuilding coaching), while others work more generally or focus on business more than the craft of writing itself. Again, it’s great to build relationships with people who have this kind of expertise, whether you purchase their coaching services or not; they’re great contacts to have for other authors, for book promo, for questions outside of a coaching context (if they have an online group or newsletter), etc. And, going back to the obvious point of building relationships for the people, not the opportunities, they’re just great people! I’ve personally spoken to three writing coaches (these two and one I’ve worked with on a more regular basis, Abigail Hays), and they have all been fantastic to work with, incredibly personable, passionate about what they do, encouraging, thoughtful, etc. and I’m very grateful for the relationships I’ve been able to start and build up!

How have you built up your community as an author? Comment below! And let me know if a newsletter covering some places to find fellow authors and readers would be of interest. (Don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list if you haven’t already!)

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More Author Career Investments You Should Be Making

Last week I talked about what I think are some of the most valuable investments you can make in your author career. I started off with the basics in that post, but there are a lot of worthwhile investments you can make to improve your career. A lot of the investments listed in this post are much more optional–the question of which tools you choose to use isn’t going to make or break your career–but they can be beneficial tools if you have the resources to invest in them.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means purchases made through marked links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to youEducation: For Marketing, Connection, & Communication Skills

This is the one item on this list that I do think is almost as foundational as those listed in last week’s post. In order to get your books to the right readers, you need to be able to effectively communicate what your book offers and what readers it’s intended for. (I’m sorry but your book is not going to appeal to “everyone.” That’s just not how it works.) Learning to not only communicate your story (i.e. write the book) but also communicate about your story and know who you’re communicating to are critical skills for your writing career. If you don’t learn to understand your ideal audience, you’ll cast your net too wide (or too narrow, but the former is more likely) and end up losing readers through the gaps. And if you don’t learn how to highlight and communicate the key selling points of your book, then even the right readers won’t realize your book is for them.

Marketing is one of the more difficult elements of building a writing career, at least for a lot of authors, but the nice thing is that there are a lot of ways you can approach it. It just takes a time investment to experiment and learn what actually works, and then to repeat the process.

Another nice thing about marketing is that, at its core, it’s built around relationships. You want to connect with readers and engage with them on common ground, communicating how your book can benefit them in the process–why they’ll enjoy it, how it will make them feel, etc.

So learn to build those relationships, study how marketing works, and learn to communicate your story well. The biggest investment you’ll make in this area is time, because it takes a lot of trial and error and simple practice. But there are also courses you can take, coaches you can work with, virtual assistants you can hire, etc. if you have the money to invest in additional resources.

Of course, there are a lot of educational resources you can find for free. For example, there are some marketing bloggers whose newsletters I follow (Leanne of Passive Income Superstars is my favorite; her emails are always valuable and practical!), and Coursera* offers college-level marketing courses that you can audit for free (or purchase the complete certificate and get full access to submit assignments and the like).

Whatever route you choose to take, find a way to consistently improve your communication and sales skills.

Resources: For the Writing Process

Here we get into “bells and whistles.” Obviously, you can build an effective writing process with nothing more than a notebook and pen, or a basic Word document, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If you would like to try some additional tools and potentially improve your organization, however, there’s some cool stuff out there.

As you’ll know if you’ve been here a while, I love World Anvil* for worldbuilding organization (and presentation). It’s sleek, it’s thorough, it’s inspiring, the interlinking capabilities are excellent. Beyond a worlbuilding braindump document, it’s my favorite worldbuilding tool. I’ve talked about some of my favorite features and more of why it’s my favorite before, so I’ll link you there if you’d like to learn more!

For more of the planning and actual writing process, I use Scrivener*. Scrivener enables you to keep all of your files related to a single project in one place, as well as to break up your story by chapter, scene, etc. while still being able to view it all together if you want or need to. You can show as much or as little of the interface as you need, and there’s also a distraction-free mode that I love designing to match the setting or mood of my book. And when you’re done writing, Scrivener can compile and export all of your story documents into a single document for editing! I use Scrivener for 90% of my projects, using it to hold everything from my initial plot bunny notes before I even focus on a project all the way to edited drafts, in some cases.

Campfire is a similar program, with more templates and–I think–more complexity. I intend to explore Campfire more thoroughly and write up review posts–both attempting to judge it on its own merits as well as comparing it to things like Scrivener and World Anvil (since it boasts its worldbuilding organization, as well)–but for now all I can say is that it has similarities with Scrivener, it offers a lot more built-in options for things like character sheets and world information–so if you don’t already have means of organizing that information, I can see the appeal–but it can be a little overwhelming and there’s no good way to import information that you already have elsewhere without just manually inputting everything. I personally wouldn’t choose it because I’m well established with Scrivener and World Anvil and the other assorted tools I use, but I can see it being beneficial if you’ve never used a “fancy” writing tool and you don’t find the interface overwhelming.

If you want to make sure your timeline is consistent while you write, if the storylines in your book are complex and interweaving, or if you just want to be able to see everything that happens in your book clearly laid out, Aeon Timeline is a great tool. It’s a little more complicated now than I remember it being when I tried it a few years ago, but I found it incredibly helpful for The Dark War Trilogy while I had it and I’m seriously considering biting the bullet and buying the full software so that I have it for current and future projects (and definitely The Dark War Trilogy whenever I pick that back up). And it integrates with Scrivener, which is pretty cool.

Resources: For Publicity/Marketing/Outreach

There are a lot of resources in this category, because there are so many options and opportunities for outreach and publicity!

As far as physical resources go, things like business cards and bookmarks fall into this category. Bookmarks can be great alternatives to business cards for authors, in fact, since they’re a practical item that’s relevant to those we want to gain the attention of–readers and fellow authors. Make sure your bookmarks have your name (or pen name) on them, as well as the book they relate to (if you have a design based on one of your books) and potentially your author website link as well. These are a few of the bookmark designs I’ve created to go with my books. (Do as I say, not as I do; I opted to forego information on some of these and just plain forgot on others.)

Watercolor credit goes to my little sister, artwork on the second horizontal design was done by RavenFire at 99designs, and the last design is part of my cover art by Alli May!

I’ve printed all of my bookmarks to this point with GotPrint, and I’ve been happy with the quality every time. And, as you can see, I’ve printed a lot of bookmarks! The only design here that I haven’t actually printed is the Lost Girl design.

Bookmarks are great for promo–whether for distribution in place of a business card or as advertisement in places like bookstores and libraries–but also as a fun extra to send your existing readers when they purchase your book or support you in other ways.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a traditional business card, either–especially if you do writing-related things beyond publishing fiction. For example, I intend to purchase business cards before I attend a writing conference next year so that I can not only talk about my fiction but also my editing services and any other ventures I’ve started by then (hopefully more in the sphere of worldbuilding).

If you want to display references to your books in other ways, “merch” like tote bags, t-shirts, and mugs can also be fun! While not merch for my own work, one of the tote bags I use for crochet projects has the Phoenix Fiction Writers logo embroidered on it (courtesy of my sister) and it’s always fun to carry that around.

Beyond physical promotional resources, there are some online tools and resources you can invest in. If you want to do a lot of social media promo, it might be worth investing in a social media scheduling tool that can help you streamline your automation process. Buffer has been my favorite tool for this. The difficulty with social media marketing is that it can easily become a time-suck without a lot of return on investment, so create a plan for yourself that enables you to steer clear of the pitfalls and use social media as a means of engaging with your audience, engaging with other authors, and getting people onto your mailing list.

Speaking of your mailing list, this is an important resource to invest your time in. Everyone says that, and for a long time I was like, “yeah, right.” For one thing, I hated writing emails for my list; it didn’t come easily to me, it was always a struggle, and it didn’t feel like it fostered engagement. But trust me, once you figure out what you enjoy talking about that your audience can benefit from, it can actually be a lot of fun! And in my case, it made a huge difference just to change email providers! Switching to MailerLite* was the best decision I ever made, and I highly recommend it as a place to get started.

You don’t necessarily have to invest in these tools monetarily–though you’ll give yourself more options if you do–but you’ll have to invest some time in getting set up and learning to use these tools to their full potential on whatever plan you’ve chosen.

There are also places you can simply invest time in connecting with people. Forums have been a great place for me to engage with other authors, helping to answer questions, asking questions of my own, and simply making friends with like-minded authors. I’ve mentioned some of my favorite writing communities before, but Story Embers and Kingdom Pen are my top two recommendations. These days, Kingdom Pen seems to be the more active of the two, but the demographics skew older and more experienced at Story Embers while they skew younger at Kingdom Pen, so which you join will depend on what you’re looking for. (Or you can just do like I did and join both.)

It’s also a worthwhile investment to spend intentional time listening to podcasts and reading blogs and the like. This is another great way to get to know and engage with authors and others who may be interested in promoting your work. Plus, it’s just a fun excuse to read and listen to cool stuff. If you’re interested in making guest appearances on blogs or podcasts, engaging with what they publish on a regular basis is a good starting point. But this is why I say to spend intentional time, because you do need to know that these publications are a good fit for you (if networking is your goal; obviously reading blogs and listening to podcasts for fun is also good!) and you need to engage if you want to really build relationships with the authors behind the screen.

Resources: For Sales

This category is all about resources to invest in for actually filling sales. A lot of these have the broadest application if you want to sell your books, etc. directly vs. through a distributor (e.g. Amazon), so let’s start by talking about the investment in direct sales themselves.

Direct sales have a couple of benefits. One is that you make more of the profit; you have to still pay to print your books and have them shipped to you, but there are no royalties taken out by a distributor, so you can charge the same amount for your books on your site and on Amazon but actually earn more of the price of the book through direct sales. (Of course, there is the math to consider by the time you’ve paid for the shop hosting and other sales materials, so there are priorities to take into account.) Another benefit is that it’s more personal! When you ship books directly to readers, you can throw in bookmarks, sign the book, include a personal note, package it your own way, etc. You can personally appreciate each reader who buys from you, which is my favorite part of selling directly.

If you do want to do direct sales, you’ll need a means of setting up an online shop. If you already have a website, that’s a great start; you can either create a shop page where your readers can contact you about a book and get a PayPal invoice, if you want to go really simple (but a little clunky), or you can download a plugin that does all the processing and information compilation for you. I personally use WooCommerce, which I’ve found pretty easy to work with. You have to make sure the plugin and any extensions you use remain up-to-date, but I’ve never had any issues with it unless I failed to keep it updated.

The first physical resource I want to talk about is worth investing in even (perhaps especially) if you don’t do direct sales: bookplates. These are stickers with a nice border and blank space in the center where you can write your signature. These are great to send to readers who acquired the book in a context where it couldn’t be signed, but still want the author’s signature. Whether they bought through Amazon or another distributor, won your book in a giveaway, etc., bookplates are a way to provide a “signed” book to a reader for the low price of postage. This means it’s really easy to send signatures to international readers, too, even if the price to ship an entire book is insane.

Another resource that can be worth investing in regardless of your sales system is a set of address labels. Especially if you write under a pen name, these make it easy to nicely label packages, notes, thank-yous, etc. sent to readers. And if you don’t use a pen name, they can serve double-duty for personal letters as well!

On a related note (no pun intended), it can be fun to have nice stationary on hand for reader thank-you notes. I have pretty plant-themed cards that I’ve been sending out with book orders since my shop opened with Calligraphy Guild‘s book boxes, and I like to think they add to the experience when a reader gets a package from my shop. They’re also nice if you want to send out standalone notes, whether to thank readers for their support or connect with fellow authors. I got my notecards off of Amazon, but if you’d like to support a small business with a variety of options, I recommend Peach and Poppy Co. on Etsy! (Her classic books set looks especially appropriate for this purpose.)

If you’re going to ship books directly, you need something to ship them in. Priority mail boxes are good for bigger packages. For single-book orders (or even some two-book orders, since most of my available books are thin), I use bubble mailers–and the fun thing with those is that you can get them in colors! Mine are forest green, but there are tons of available colors depending on what you want for your reader experience. You can also wrap your books before packaging them, whether with tissue paper, wrapping paper, butcher paper, ribbon, etc. I have some jade moss-green ribbon I’ve been wanting to use with brown paper to wrap books if/when I get holiday orders, inside the bubble mailers. There are a lot of options in this category, and you can use it to personalize your orders quite a bit.

That’s a wrap on part 2! Which of these investments is the most interesting to you? Which is the most intimidating? Comment below!

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Author Career Investments You Should Be Making

I know some of you reading this aren’t looking to build a whole author career; writing is a hobby for you, or something you want to dabble in from time to time but not something you want to invest significant portions of your life into. That’s totally fine, and I do think that this post–this series, in fact, because I had too many points for a single post–will still be of value to you in helping you be as professional as possible with the projects you do release.

But if you’re one of many whose goal is to make a career out of writing (and/or writing-related endeavors), this series is for you. Creating a sustainable author career requires investment of many different kinds in many different areas, and this series will dive into what some of those areas are and how to invest well for the career that you want to build.

Today’s post is about some of the most foundational investments to make, which largely center around skill and polish. It’s important to note that your author career is built, foundationally, on two things: you and your books. This means you want to be as solid in your presentation of yourself and your books as you possibly can; you need to know your strengths and weaknesses, your interests, your values. And you need to be growing in your writing skill as an author. So let’s look at some ways you can invest in these areas.

Invest in Your Worldview

At first blush, this may seem like an off-topic item for this list. What does what you personally believe about the world matter for your author career? Well, it matters for a few reasons, actually. For one thing, your worldview shapes what you write about and how you write about things. Your values, beliefs, and interests color everything you do, and particularly creative work like writing. Your creativity draws from who you are, and that’s distinctive; you can’t write anything quite like someone else can, and your distinct worldview is a powerful trait to be aware of.

Your worldview is also going to help you find and connect with both the readers who want what you write and fellow authors with similar goals whom you can collaborate with and mutually spur on. I’ll talk more about investing in those relationships in a later post, but overlap in worldview is a huge piece of connecting with the right people in your author career and in life.

That’s why your worldview is important to have a grasp on, but how can you invest in that area practically?

In large part, your worldview will be shaped by simply living life and engaging with the world. The way that you respond to things and the way you filter information and experiences will tell you something about your overarching worldview; it’s just a matter of recognizing it.

But beyond that, dive into practicing what you say you believe. If you’re a Christian, take time to read your Bible and pray and fellowship with other believers. If you value community, invest in the people around you, reach out to make new friends, renew old friendships, introduce people to one another, support those around you in their endeavors, build community. If you value homemaking, lean into it; find ways to beautify your home, be hospitable, practice cooking and baking. If you value hard work, find places to volunteer, be diligent in your vocation, practice balanced rest so you can enjoy the fruit of your labor and be renewed for more work. These things may not sound like much, but living life and living it in a way that’s consistent with your values will provide you with experiences that will shape your creative work and the way you connect with others.

If you want something a little more directed, practice thinking through your worldview with specific topics and questions. Not only will this strengthen your understanding of these topics and enable you to defend what you believe, but the more you understand a variety of worldview topics, the greater variety of worldview topics you can confidently explore in your fiction.

Develop Your Writing Skills

In contrast to the previous point, this might seem like the most obvious item on the list. Of course, in order to build a stable author career, you need to be growing in the actual craft of writing so that the books you put out are quality stories told in an effective and beautiful way.

You don’t have to have “arrived” right away, and you’re not expected to; the best authors are always learning and growing even beyond the point where their work is considered excellent by readers. It is important for any author seeking to build a career and to become a great writer to have an attitude of humility, to be willing to learn and grow and explore beyond what they already understand. Pride stunts growth, which stunts quality. Even great writing can become boring if it becomes stagnant (which I’ve seen happen to authors before, particularly with long book series).

Once the attitude is right and you can acknowledge your flaws, you must identify your weaknesses in writing. Maybe you’re a perfectionist and it’s keeping you from finishing projects, or perhaps you’re too hasty and end up publishing before your books are really ready, or maybe your characterization is weak, or your worldbuilding is generic, your plot lines meander, or your pacing is choppy. (I’ve dealt with every one of those problems, and I’m still weak in some of those areas.) Only once we know what problems we have are we able to address them and become better writers.

This is part of why feedback is so important. Even when we acknowledge that we have weaknesses, it can be difficult for us to identify them ourselves. Trustworthy, constructively critical writing friends can point out the weaknesses we might have missed, enabling us to shore up those weaker spots.

But writing growth is also about identifying and leaning into your strengths. If your pacing is awkward but you have a great handle on prose, use your prose to fix your pacing. Or maybe your problem is plot, but you’re excellent with theme; make your themes the heart of your plot lines. Conflict is a struggle for you, but you have vividly detailed worlds? Look to your worldbuilding for natural conflict! Not only will your strengths help you work through your weaknesses, identifying them can also boost your confidence and give you something to focus on when you need a reason to push forward, and those strengths will still resonate with readers even if certain elements of your book aren’t as strong.

There are a lot of ways to invest in your writing skill, whether you’re investing time alone or time and money. First, of course, is simple practice. Write, and write a lot. Write a variety of things. Experiment. Finish drafts and set them aside. Remember that some books are just practice books and don’t need to be published (at least not in their first iteration), but they’re still valuable. Exercise different writing skills. Join a writing group and find someone (or multiple someones) you can exchange feedback with.

If you have a little more cash on hand, buy craft books to read (and apply). Enroll in writing courses (Story Embers has some great ones, and if your struggle is with worldbuilding then my Worldbuilding Toolbox might be for you). If you’re up for an even bigger investment, try a writing school like The Author Conservatory or The Company (formerly School of Kingdom Writers).

There are so many ways you can invest in your writing skill, whatever your circumstances, even if you’re only sneaking brief bits of practice into a busy schedule. Figure out the best investment for where you are right now, and put your energy there.

Professionalism: Quality Edits

The first half of this post was foundational; this second half will go into how to make your individual publications look polished and professional throughout your author career.

The first thing you need for a professional-grade release is quality editing. This means investing in your self-editing skills, learning to work with beta-readers, and finding a high-quality professional editor who understands the vision behind your work (if not two or three editors for different levels of editing).

Learning to self-edit should be part of honing your writing craft, so I won’t go into a ton of detail in this point. But learn story structure and scene structure, study theme, analyze and practice prose, etc. Learn how to build a strong story, and practice shaping your completed drafts to that framework. And don’t stop with just one pass! Editing requires persistence to work through draft after draft until your story is as strong as you’re able to make it.

Having people to exchange feedback with is also something I mentioned in the previous point, but beta-readers will be a more specific group. Critique partners may see snippets of your story, they may see short stories or exercises you write for practice, they might see the bulk or even the entirety of your early draft(s) in more of an alpha-reader capacity. But beta-readers will see a completed, self-edited copy of your book and look at it not only as writers but also as readers. They’re there to help you find the inconsistencies and the plot holes and the awkward sentences that will trip up readers. And then you get to take that feedback and edit again!

I have a whole post on the differences between alpha-readers and beta-readers and the functions of each, so check that out for more on that topic–as well as some good places to find such readers.

After that, it’s time to get a professional eye. If you’re publishing traditionally, these services will be covered by the publishing house. There should be no paying for edits out-of-pocket with a traditional publisher, and if you’re running into that, you’ve probably found a vanity press.

If you’re going indie, finding a good editor is going to be a bit more work and a lot more of a financial investment. When you go looking, there are generally three kinds of editors you’re going to find: developmental editors, line editors, and copy-editors or proofreaders. I’ve talked about each of these in depth before and why I think each is a worthwhile investment, so check out those links for more. But in short, a developmental editor is going to help you restructure the bones of your story so that it works at its best, a line editor is going to find all of the mid-size problems (inconsistencies, voice issues, lingering plot issues, etc.) and polish your prose to maximum effect, and a copy-editor/proofreader will find and fix all of the pesky typos and grammatical errors that have been missed in previous runs through.

If you don’t have the budget to hire out all three (which I would venture to say most of us don’t), my opinion is to prioritize line edits. I’m somewhat biased in saying that because line edits are where I focus as a professional editor myself, but I say it because a line editor is going to cover the most out of any of the options. A line editor focuses on the line-level–cleaning up your paragraphs and whatnot–but they’ll point out the larger problems that contribute to your paragraphs not working, and they’re liable to fix up your grammar and spelling in the process as well.

That said, prioritize according to your needs! If you really struggle with story structure, pacing, character development, etc. then you’ll want to prioritize hiring a developmental editor. If you really struggle with spelling and grammar, a copy-editor is a wise investment. There are reasons I recommend line edits highly, but you should always look for what your book needs.

Also, keep in mind that not all professional editors have the same level of skill, or the same interest in and understanding of your book. Look for an editor whose portfolio you respect (if possible) and an editor who is excited about your book and understands your intentions. You may find an excellent editor who just doesn’t understand your pacing choice or the voice of your prose or the theological angle you’re coming from. In some cases, you’ll need to consider whether they actually don’t understand or whether you’re holding too tightly to something that’s not really serving your story, but if you can take a less-biased look at your work and you’re sure it’s a matter of stylistic dissonance–and especially if you’ve gotten feedback from multiple people who do understand and appreciate a given choice or perspective–there’s nothing wrong with finding a different editor for the next book (or passing on an editor, if you’ve only done a sample with them). And sometimes the same editor will be a bad fit for one book but a great fit for the next! So consider quality, worldview, and taste when working with an editor, but build peaceable relationships in that space.

Once you do find the right editor for your work, however, you can often stick with them for your entire author career, making the investment to find them well worth the tradeoff.

Professionalism: Quality Cover Art

If you’re traditionally publishing, you don’t really need to worry about these next two points since your publishing house will handle cover design and formatting. This section could still be beneficial for informational purposes, but generally the house you’re working with will know what they’re doing and spearhead the design process.

Indie publishing, on the other hand, often gets a bad rap on quality for its cover design. In many cases, it’s really easy to look at an indie book and say, “Oh, that’s indie.” Why? Because covers on indie books are often less high-quality–at least as covers; some feature beautiful artwork that just doesn’t fit well as cover art–or don’t match with the book they’re trying to advertise. (And yes, your cover is advertising.)

Here are some things to consider as you’re designing a cover, hiring a designer, etc. if you’re seeking to build your author career with independent publishing.

A quality cover will have a cohesive look. The font or other layers shouldn’t look like they were just slapped on; they should flow together naturally. Stark lines can be useful in certain designs, but in many cases they’re going to contribute to this slap-shod look. The balance to this is that you don’t want your cover to become too blended together; it still needs to be legible, not only at full-size but also when readers are seeing a thumbnail in places like the Amazon search catalogue.

Your cover should reflect the story your readers are going to get, in both genre and content. An example I find particularly useful is the romance genre. There are, say, fantasy romance novels that are explicitly clean romance that I’ve overlooked because their covers too closely resembled the style of covers for “spicier” romance novels. Take a look at the covers of published books in your genre (indie and traditionally published), note some of the patterns, and maybe even look at the covers in genres you don’t want to match so that you can note patterns to avoid as well.

If you do get a cover designed, there are some options. You can buy a pre-made cover and have the designer plug in your book’s information (in my experience, the quality of pre-made covers can vary drastically, so know what you’re looking for). You can take a specific cover request to a designer and have them make it a reality (again, know what you’re looking for; check the designer’s portfolio, and also be aware that the image you have in your head might not translate as well to an actual cover design as you think). Or, you can go middle-of-the-road with someplace like 99designs and allow a variety of artists to put forward designs based on a more general vision you provide, which is what I did for Calligraphy Guild‘s cover. Any of these options can work really well (or really poorly), so go with whichever works for you, your book, and your budget.

Professionalism: Polished Formatting

Again, if you’re traditionally publishing then this section won’t be especially relevant to you. But if you’re indie-publishing, this is important!

Formatting seems like it wouldn’t be that important. Don’t you just put the words on the page and print them? Well, yes… and absolutely not. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than that to put together a professional-looking book. There are so many details that we take for granted or overlook in the books we read, and you have to think about all of them when you format your own book! Things like:

Page numbers, and making sure they skip front matter, back matter, and the first pages of each chapter but don’t start over the count with each new chapter.Chapter headers (not only the headers that go at the beginning of each chapter, but also the headers at the top of each page that show the book title, author name, or chapter title).Line spacing. Don’t forget to make your paragraphs single-spaced if you’ve had them double-spaced, but also don’t forget to remove extra space before and/or after paragraphs. (Been there, done that!)Justified text alignment (having an even line along the right side of the page makes more of a difference than you think).Proper paragraph indentation. Paragraphs that are too deep look weird and take up too much space.Margin size, and making sure it accounts for the inside edge where your pages connect to the book spine. Don’t make your margins over-wide or over-narrow; the former will look weird and the latter will make your book hard to read. (Again, been there, done that!)Overall page size (standard for a paperback is usually 5.25″ x 8.25″).Title pages. There are often two of these per book, one that more closely resembles the cover (using cover fonts, etc.) and one that is more basic (more standard font, etc.) It’s hard to describe, so I recommend picking up a published book to see what I mean.Table of contents, with page numbers.A dedication page.Acknowledgements and an “about the author page” (which can include website links, other works, and the like… or those can be separate pages as well).Oh, and don’t forget that you have to format before you can finalize your cover, since the formatted page count of your book will determine the width of your cover’s spine!

That’s just what I can think of now and/or have written down in the past; there may be other small details I’m missing. But the point is, it’s a lot more than you might think and it’s a sizeable undertaking. Formatting has always been the most frustrating part of publishing to me.

I recommend trying formatting for yourself at least a time or two to have the experience and to learn how to do it, since it is a useful skill for an indie author to have. But I personally hire out my formatting when I can because it stresses me out and there are others who have done it a lot more than I have. Thus far, that means I’ve hired out the formatting only on Calligraphy Guild (and I’m aware of formatting oddities/errors in some of my other published works; one’s author career tends to start on a tight budget!). But if you prefer to hire out that service, there are people to do it.

That is the advice I have for building a strong foundation for your author career and ensuring that your publications are polished and professional. Next week I’ll talk more about valuable investments for your writing education and resources to find. But for now, let me know which of these investments is next for you to make, or which one has paid off the most for you already!

If you’re looking to build a career as an indie author and you’d like a downloadable checklist for the self-publishing process, sign up below!

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Homes & Hospitality in Fantasy

The topic of hospitality is one I’ve wanted to touch on in a worldbuilding context for a while, and it seemed particularly appropriate to tackle now that I’m newly married with a home of my own that I’m able to invite guests into. So let’s look at homes, hospitality, and how these things can be portrayed and approached in fictional worlds.

The Physical Home

The first step to shaping hospitality in a fictional setting is to determine what that setting actually looks like. What is the physical context for hospitality in this culture? So we first have to look at what homes look like in your world, and there are a lot of details that can go into this depending on what your culture values and what sorts of resources they have at their disposal.

To get started, consider whether homes in your culture are separate by household or if they’re more communal–like duplexes or apartment buildings. Cultures emphasizing family might be more inclined to build large but separate houses where extended families can live together, with some space from other families in the community; while a culture with more of an emphasis on external community or one without a lot of extra physical space might lean more toward apartments or some other form of communal housing.

Another question to ask would be: what is the focal point of a home? Does the home center around a living room or parlor for entertaining guests? The kitchen where food is prepared, or the dining room where people feast together? Maybe there are religious rooms or shrines within people’s houses that form the centerpiece of a home. Or perhaps houses are built around courtyards, greenhouses, or gardens where residents can appreciate growing things and the natural world despite their artificial walls. There are a lot of different options for this depending on the values of your culture–and its individual members; not all homes must look alike–and these differences can have an impact on hospitality.

You might also consider whether everything is inside the main house or if there are necessary outbuildings attached to a property. Perhaps bathrooms or kitchens are kept separate, whether for sanitation or safety–or even distaste for a job like cooking, viewing it as less-than. Maybe those residential shrines are given a separate building that’s considered holy, while the house itself is too common to contain such a thing.

Some other questions to consider:

How many rooms are common to a home? Is everything in one room? Is there perhaps a common room/hospitality room and a bedroom? Or are multiple bedrooms prioritized for the sake of hospitality?What room(s) are guests expected to see and utilize? Are there living rooms/parlors? Are guests permitted in the kitchen? Is the dining room a place for hospitality, or are there multiple dining areas so that family meals can be kept separate? Are there special guest rooms, or are bedrooms used for whoever needs them at a given time?How are residences heated and/or cooled? Are certain rooms prioritized over others?How many floors does a residence generally have? And are these floors all residential or are there attached floors (or rooms) intended for business–e.g. apartments over top of a shop?Work & the Home

That last question brings us to an entire point I want to touch on, and that is to consider the relationship between work and the home. In some cases, perhaps work is wholly separate from the home, kept outside of it, in which case this will be less of a consideration (though, in that case, you may need to consider work hours and how characters working outside of the home are expected to interact with and take care of their guests according to those hours).

In other cultures and contexts, however, it may be more appropriate to have characters who work from home–or have a business attached to their home. In this case, the question arises of how distinct the two do or don’t remain. Are there established areas of a house where business is to be done? Do your characters have home offices or whole shops attached to their homes? Are they literally attached, or are they on the same property yet separate?

Then, of course, there will be those who work in the home for the home’s sake, whether stay-at-home wives, maids, cooks, butlers, gardeners, etc. Which of these roles are appropriate will depend not only on what your culture values–a culture with complementarian values may foster more women who tend to their own homes and see fewer maids and the like, while a culture valuing more industry or individualism may require more supplements to a home with wives expected to work as much as their husbands–but also on your class system, the culture’s view on servitude and slavery, and even the general size of residences. After all, it takes a lot more work to clean a mansion than an apartment!

I’ve talked about developing the vocational structure of a culture before, so check out that post if you’d like to dive into that topic more and pair it with what we’re discussing here about homes and hospitality.

Expectations for Hospitality

Once you’ve laid the physical groundwork of housing, you can turn to the foundational expectations for hospitality in your culture. In some cultures, maybe there is no such expectation; maybe some cultures are too individualistic to value hospitality, or at least to value personal hospitality, and thus it’s considered weird or at least excessively friendly to have someone over for dinner or board them for a night.

In other cultures, however, perhaps it’s a sign of status to board guests on a regular basis. For example (according to a Tumblr post I read, so I don’t claim to know for certain that it’s fact), the wealthy owners of large homes were historically expected to use their spare rooms for the sake of hospitality, to board both friends and people of influence who were traveling.

Beyond your culture’s overall attitude toward hospitality, consider how this might differ based on class. Are the rich expected to extend hospitality because they have the means (e.g. using their myriad spare rooms to put up travelers)? Or are guests foisted upon the poor because it’s seen as a lesser task to serve foreigners? How does this impact the economy and living conditions for whoever is responsible for housing travelers?

Ask, too, whether characters are expected to know the people they board or if it’s considered normal to house strangers. This, too, may differ based on context. But in general, are guests taken based on familiarity, status, need, or simply because it’s the right thing to do and/or the means are there? In the case of hospitality being frequently extended to strangers, what consideration is given to security, if any?

Expectations not only apply to what characters are expected to do, but also what they are expected not to do. Are there circumstances under which one could turn away someone seeking hospitality–or simply not extend an offer in the first place–or is that considered highly rude? Are there reasons considered inappropriate for turning someone away? Perhaps one can never refuse a family member wishing to visit or, as a means of curbing prejudice, it’s never permissible to turn someone away on the grounds of their belonging to a particular group. Perhaps it is permissible to turn someone away for bringing a pet–or perhaps that’s considered too petty a reason (no pun intended) to refuse hospitality.

These expectations can also differ depending on the duration of a stay. Perhaps it’s uncouth to turn away a friend with a dog if they’re only staying a night, but if their stay lasts more than a week it becomes permissible to ask them to leave. Perhaps a family member can’t be refused a visit of 12 hours or fewer, but if they overstay that welcome there’s no recourse. Perhaps it depends on the closeness of a relationship, the status of the guest, or the time at which they’re asked to leave. Perhaps you can turn someone away after a certain number of hours, but asking someone to leave after ten p.m. is considered rude as they then have to find lodging elsewhere in the night.

There are a lot of options when it comes to expectations and etiquette, so play around with it and see what works for your culture and your story. Have fun with it!

Communal Areas & Broader Hospitality

Personal residences aren’t the only place where hospitality can be extended. Let’s zoom out for a moment and consider how hospitality may work on a more town- or city-wide basis. First, your towns will presumably have areas that are open to the public: markets, courtyards, parks, gardens, etc. Are these areas welcoming to foreigners, or is this a culture that keeps to itself and is cold to visitors? The overall attitude of your culture toward outsiders will be reflected in these public areas.

Even if your culture doesn’t generally like visitors, however, it may have establishments specifically for the sake of hospitality–if only to keep foreigners separate from its own people. Taverns may be more hospitable to outsiders, inns might be established for the sake of giving visitors somewhere to sleep, campsites may be clearly established and marked, etc. Of course, a culture that isn’t fond of outsiders–or simply values profit more–may hike its prices for those visiting. In which case, consider the effect on personal hospitality; are more individuals called upon to board known visitors because they’re expected be more fair in their prices? Are there more welcoming individuals who open their homes voluntarily to grant visitors a cheaper option? Do these individuals have the means to open something like their own competing inn?

Hospitality may also be shown in workplace environments, though this will greatly depend on what sort of culture you’re building. In Calligraphy Guild, one of the characters doesn’t have a place of her own and is thus housed by the guild in a spare room of their guildhall. The community surrounding one’s work is highly valued in Virilia, leading to solutions for those who are lacking in housing or anything else. There may be similar arrangements within workplaces in your culture, or other characters in a similar culture to Virilia’s might instead join other coworkers as roommates in their own homes.

Long-Term Hospitality

As one last point, I want to talk about long-term hospitality–situations like that of rooming together, fostering or adopting, way-stations and halfway houses for those still finding ways to provide for themselves, etc.

First, think about what problems your culture does or doesn’t have that would lead to these needs. Is there a lot of parent death or abandonment, or a system that removes children from abuse in a culture where that’s common? Are there high crime rates handled with an eye for rehab and reintegration into society? Is there a shortage of residences, or are housing prices exorbitant?

For each issue, your culture’s attitude toward it and solutions for it will shape which of these long-term establishments are found in that society. For a society that doesn’t see these issues or doesn’t care, maybe street urchins are common and have to band together to fend for themselves, or criminals often relapse or even die in the streets, or there’s a high homeless population due to simple poverty. On the other hand, maybe your culture is aware of these issues and has constructed orphanages, boarding schools, halfway houses (which may be simple residences or may be more like ranches to work on, monasteries to learn in, workshops to craft from, etc.), boarding houses, boarder matching systems so it’s easier to find a roommate, etc.

As you can see, there are a lot of considerations and a lot of options when it comes to thinking about hospitality in a fictional culture, and I think it’s a pretty fun topic to look at. But I want to hear from you. What do you find most interesting or exciting about this topic? What intimidates you about it? Is hospitality something you’d thought about incorporating into your world, or was this a new consideration for you? Comment below!

Want to dive deeper into the culture of your world and establish a firm foundation in all the most important cultural areas? The FREE Worldbuilding Checklist mini-course will get you started on foundational cultural values, societal structure, government, education, and more!

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My Author Role Models

Today, I want to focus some attention on a few of the authors I admire most, and aspire to emulate in my own life and work.

I put together a post like this a few years ago, and when I came back across it in the archives I thought it would be interesting to compile an updated version. My writing focus has shifted, I’ve discovered new authors and had my perspective change on others, but even so there’s a fair amount of overlap between this list and the one I put together all the way back in 2017.

But without further ado, here are my thoughts about some of the authors I admire most and how I hope to emulate them in my own writing life.

This post contains affiliate links, marked with an asterisk. Purchases made through these links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you, and purchases made through BookShop support local U.S. bookstores!Nadine Brandes

Those of you who have been around for a bit will likely not be surprised to see Nadine Brandes at the top of this list. Ever since beginning the Out of Time series and joining her street team (I can’t remember which came first), Nadine has been one of my favorite authors–for both her writing and her values. My admiration for her has only grown as she’s released more books and as she’s shared about her journey as a mother.

The first thing I appreciated most about Brandes was how down-to-earth she is on her platform and how much she values connection with her readers. She’s lovely to interact with, super encouraging, and incredibly real about her writing and how her life impacts her writing rhythms. I believe she’s mentioned on my previous list primarily for this reason, as this was especially standing out to me about authors at the time–and I still hope to accomplish the same focus on connection and be as genuine to my readers.

Nowadays, I’m even more impressed by the way she builds her “work-life balance” and adjusts her writing to accommodate real life–and still manages to write excellent books and release them on a fairly regular basis. She prioritizes her family, her role as a homemaking wife and mother, and maintains her productivity as a an author as life seasons allow. As someone with the same values, a young woman who’s just become a wife and is seeking to both maintain a loving and joyful home as well as finish books, I hope to adjust and experiment and work with the flow of life that God gives me as effectively as Nadine Brandes seems to.

This willingness to experiment and adjust appears to be reflected in what Brandes writes, as well. Though her published works all fall under the “speculative fiction” umbrella, she has written dystopian sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fantasy. She writes in the genres she enjoys, and it works. Her readers snap them up (myself included), and I would guess that each new genre expands her reach with new readers who enjoy that genre over her previous genres. This is really encouraging to authors like me who tend to veer a little all over the place and like to try slightly new and different things. You don’t have to separate all your different genres by pen name, set aside your “off-brand” projects to never see the light of day, or otherwise limit what you publish; you just have to establish your audience on something deeper than genre, which Brandes does very well.

To proceed on the point of establishing an audience, and to cycle back to engaging with that audience as well, Brandes’ social media feed and newsletter are among my favorite to follow. The visual style she uses is beautiful, the content is always meaningful and encouraging, and she points constantly back to God, Scripture, and biblical principles. “Enriching” is, I think, an apt word to describe Brandes’ online content. (And her books!)

To check out Brandes’ work, I recommend her Instagram, newsletter, and–of course–her books! My personal favorites of her published works are the Out of Time series and Wishtress*.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Obviously, at least one classic author had to make it onto the list, and probably J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis. (I believe they may have both been on my previous list, actually.) While I love both their work, Tolkien is the greater role model for my work and interests personally.

One thing I love to see about Tolkien is how varied his knowledge was. He knew a lot about a lot of things, he could engage on such a broad variety of topics, and he used that knowledge in his everyday interactions and the things he wrote. He was a Christian interested in his faith, a gardener, a philologist, a history buff, a poet, a father, and had so many skills and interests beyond the writing that he’s clearly known for. Having such a broad knowledge base is such a boon, not only in deepening one’s writing but also in deepening and coloring one’s life, and I would love to expand my knowledge as Tolkien did his.

But Tolkien didn’t only know things; he was invested in those things, and he put that knowledge to use. He had strong opinions about the topics he learned about and their application to the real world, as well as current events and the like, and he was invested in shaping the culture in a God-honoring and human-blessing way. These values and this interest in the trajectory of the culture he lived in influenced both his life and work, and his stories still carry pertinent themes to readers today, reminding us of cultural values we have lost or de-prioritized.

Some of the themes that Tolkien returned to again and again resonate with me as both a reader and an author. The themes of community, of appreciating the little things and natural blessings, of the importance of art and its relation to the real world, these are all themes that I am also passionate about conveying to readers and discussing with other authors. And Tolkien’s themes are couched so skillfully in the artistry and quality of his writing and storytelling, honed over years and years of practice and study of great past literature. His themes never steal the attention from his storytelling, nor is the reverse true, because he so highly valued both pieces. Though great themes may contribute, books do not stand the test of time for their themes alone, but for the excellence of their storytelling. Both are critical to invest in and practice and develop skill in.

As alluded to before, one of the things that made Tolkien such a great writer was that he was immersed in high-quality literature, both past and present. He loved great older literature, taught English, and was also involved in the like-minded writing community of his own day with fellow authors like C.S. Lewis. Tolkien read and understood great literature, and he learned from it to write his own. This is one of the reasons I think that reading classics is such a great benefit to authors today, especially as there are so many skills and emphases that we have lost in modern fiction but can learn to incorporate again as we read and study older works.

The last thing I want to touch on before I move on is that Tolkien spurred on like-minded authors–and was spurred on in return. The Inklings were an active group, and particularly he and Lewis were such supporters of one another, not only able to encourage one another and push one another to write but also able to critique one another and remain great friends. This sort of supportive community is something I have always valued and hoped to foster in things like my Discord server, and I believe that the writing community and particularly Christian authors supporting one another–even when we disagree on things–is such an important part of producing high-quality fiction.

Some of my favorite works by Tolkien are The Lord of the Rings* (of course!), On Fairy-stories*, and Leaf by Niggle*. And if you’d like to get to know him better as a person and an author, his letters* are a delight to read!

Andrew Peterson

Andrew Peterson is another author I would love to have the opportunity to meet one day, because I think he would just be great to talk with. There are a number of reasons for this, beginning with the awe he exhibits in his fiction, his nonfiction, his social media, his music… really every area of his platform. It is evident in all that he does that he has a great admiration for God’s creation (and creativity) and he faithfully practices wonder and worship. Since we’re talking authorship, I’ll mention that this is a great element of his writing and his worldbuilding; he does an excellent job of capturing that awe in his writing–particularly a child-like wonder in Anniera of The Wingfeather Saga, but also a mix of this same child-like wonder with an even deeper amazement in his nonfiction and his music. And all of it is turned to praise and rightly directed toward the Creator of all that we have to marvel at.

Another thing I admire about Andrew Peterson is how down-to-earth he is, and not only that but also how much he delights in his readers. Whether he’s showing off fan art, doing sneaky book signings in bookstores while on tour, or celebrating the success of the Wingfeather Saga show thanks to reader/viewer support, Peterson highlights the importance of his readers to his work and he delights to bless them in return. That reciprocal relationship between author and reader is so important, and so special when nurtured well!

Not only does Peterson highlight his readers, though, he also encourages and promotes other Christian artists. His Rabbit Room community brings together like-minded artists to share and sell and discuss their work–with patrons as well as one another. The Hutchmoot event he puts on brings together a very similar community in-person. He celebrates those involved in making collaborative projects a reality, collaborates often with other musical artists, incorporates visual arts in his books, etc. He has such a focus on community-building, which shows in multiple areas, and I admire his success in prioritizing that and actually building up that community.

As one last point, Peterson is invested in multiple forms of media and their impact for the Kingdom of God. He is personally both an author and musician, as well as a visual artist, and he celebrates Christians in all areas of the arts. The Wingfeather Saga is being adapted into an animated TV series, his brother is a playwright, his children are artists and musicians, he supports artists of all kinds through The Rabbit Room. Peterson understands the power of media in shaping the culture and edifying the Church Body, and he acts on those values.

I hope I’m one day as successful at prioritizing my own values of community and culture-building, so I might contribute to similar projects and, Lord willing, have a similar impact in the sphere of Christian arts!

I highly recommend all of Peterson’s published works: The Wingfeather Saga*, Adorning the Dark*, and God of the Garden*. If you’d like to follow him, his Facebook page is a great place to start!

Miranda Marie

Miranda Marie is the only author on this list whom I know personally, and she is such a lovely person as well as a skilled author. To speak merely from a personal standpoint for a moment, Mandy is such a faithful friend with so much wisdom to share–both in the domain of writing and on more “real life” topics. She’s one of the most faith-full people I know, one of the most selfless, one of the most encouraging, one of the most supportive–without compromising truth or wisdom. I am so beyond blessed to call her a friend. She’s certainly a role model for me in life as well as writing.

All of the qualities I mentioned above color her writing, as well. Her writing is both beautiful and truthful, the perfect balance of unwavering truth inside a story that sucks you right in and makes you feel like you’re a part of it. Between her beautiful prose (especially showcased in the Whispers of White duology) and the fact that all of her characters feel like real people you could sit down and have a conversation with, she’s so skilled at writing engrossing books.

Part of the reason she does this so well is because she takes her time, pouring as much energy and dedication into each book as it needs to be exactly what it’s supposed to be–even if this means going a few years between releases. While the wait itself may be frustrating for readers, the end result is an excellent book once it does release, making the wait well worth it.

Mandy’s two series, the Whispers of White duology* and The Fire Rain Chronicles*, are both excellent!

These are some of the authors I admire most, these days. Now I want to hear from you! Have you read any of these authors? What authors do you look up to and why? If you could meet any author currently living, who would it be? Comment below with your thoughts!

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July Hiatus – I’m getting married!

For anyone who missed the memo, I’m getting married on the 8th! As such, I’ll be taking a hiatus for the month of July to enjoy the last bit of wedding anticipation, the wedding itself, the honeymoon, and adjustment to being married.

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