Beth Barany's Blog, page 10

CREDITS EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2025 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (part 2) appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on February 24, 2025 07:42

February 21, 2025

Five Tropes to Avoid by Laurel Osterkamp

Let’s welcome back Laurel Osterkamp as she shares with us “Five Tropes to Avoid.” Enjoy!

***

Recently, an author friend of mine was miffed when a line from his novel got edited out: I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“Sure,” I told him. “I belong to lots of fiction-related Facebook groups, and readers hate that line. They think it’s overused and cliche.”

Another thing that’s overused? Tropes. Authors employ them to add interest, depth, and familiarity to a story.

Except, some readers see tropes as cheating — a way to quickly provide exposition without adding any substance.

Or, they might feel manipulated by tropes – like they should have a strong and specific emotional reaction.

What can you do?

I’m not suggesting that we should stop using tropes altogether. Just be aware of the ones that have become overused or even cancelled.

Here are five you might want to avoid:

1. The Chosen One

In many fantasy and science fiction stories, the main character is believed to have special powers or abilities, making them the only one who can save the world from destruction.

Think Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and The Matrix. While this trope can be effective in creating a sense of destiny and purpose for the main character, it’s been overused to the point of predictability.

Think about it: The main character is an underdog who discovers their extraordinary abilities and goes on a journey to defeat a powerful enemy.

While they’re a reluctant hero, there’s never any doubt that they’ll step up and ultimately prevail.

2. The Love Triangle

The love triangle is a staple in many romances and YA. It involves romantic relationships between the main character and two potential love interests, creating tension and conflict.

Think Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and The Selection series.

The main character is torn between two love interests who have different personalities, resulting in struggle and a difficult decision.

The problem is that readers can often predict the outcome of the love triangle from the beginning.

3. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a female character who is eccentric and free-spirited. She serves as a catalyst for the male protagonist’s personal growth.

Think Garden State, 500 Days of Summer, Silver Linings Playbook, and many of John Green’s novels.

While this trope may seem charming and quirky at first, it’s also become overused, unrealistic, and problematic.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope reduces female characters to mere plot devices rather than fully fleshed out individuals with their own goals and motivations.

Also, these “girls” (never women) usually struggle with their mental and/or physical health, but that’s not anything that’s dealt with in the story in a meaningful way.

4. The Damsel in Distress

A damsel in distress is a female character who must be rescued by a male hero.

Think any classic fairy tale, many of Colleen Hoover novels, and the Outlander series.

This trope isn’t used very often anymore.

Even Disney tries hard to give their female characters agency.

That’s so they won’t send a harmful message to young readers, particularly young girls, that they are incapable of being strong and independent.

Furthermore, this trope also reinforces gender stereotypes, with the male hero as the brave savior, while the female is reduced to a passive and helpless victim.

It also limits the potential for capable female characters, as they are often reduced to one-dimensional roles in the story.

5. The Bad Boy

The bad boy is brooding, rebellious, and irresistible to women.

Think Fifty Shades of Grey, Gossip Girl and Wuthering Heights.

But the bad boy trope romanticizes toxic and unhealthy relationships. He’s dangerous and mysterious; she wants to save or fix him.

This not only perpetuates the idea that women can change men, but it also normalizes abusive behavior.

Thinking that love can fix someone’s flaws, or that a person’s bad behavior is excusable if they are attractive and charming, is not okay.

Just remember, that while tropes are useful tools for writers, when overused, they detract from the story’s impact.

Readers want us to keep our stories fresh, original, and meaningful.

Breaking away from these tropes is a first step toward doing just that.

***

About the Author

Laurel Osterkamp is from Minneapolis, where she teaches and writes like it’s going out of style. Her short fiction has been featured in Abandon Journal, Idle Ink, Tangled Locks Literary Journal, Bright Flash Literary Journal, and The Metawoker, among other places. Her new novel, The Side Project, was released on November 13th by The Wild Rose Press.

Social Media:

Website – https://laurellit.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/authorlaurelosterkamp
BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/laurel-osterkamp
Instagram: Laurel Osterkamp (@laurel_osterkamp) • Instagram photos and videos

The post Five Tropes to Avoid by Laurel Osterkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on February 21, 2025 03:00

February 18, 2025

Staying Freelance, Part 3 By Andrea Reider

Let’s welcome back Andrea Reider as she shares with us “Staying Freelance, Part 3.” Enjoy!

***

My father used to tell me that I was working too fast, warning me that people might take advantage of me one day for working too hard.

The pace was always hectic and pressured at the typesetting shop in Ann Arbor.

There was always more work to do then there were hours in the day.

The pace at the manufacturing company’s office was nothing like what I had experienced working for small businesses, and seemed to be like slow motion in comparison.

At first, I didn’t have nearly enough work to do to fill the day, so I spent my time trying to focus on learning more about how to use the Macintosh computer and software.

I spent many hours experimenting with the various programs installed on the computer, just seeing what I could come up with as I sat in my office waiting for the next piece of work to come in.

Ultimately, more and more people in the office became aware of the desktop publishing services that I could provide, and I found myself working hard enough to have a good sense of accomplishment at the end of most days.

I worked on a variety of corporate communication: slideshows for presentations, all types of reports, reviews, and manuals–and whatever else they could think of to throw my way.

I enjoyed working closely with the directors and managers at the company and they often expressed how appreciative they were of the work I did for them.

I had started out working full-time for the company, but after about a year of that, we came to the agreement that I would work in the office for only three days per week. This meant that I would be earning less money from this source, but it freed up a lot of time for me to pursue other types of freelance work.

My Role as a Consultant

My position as a consultant was by no means guaranteed at any point–I was an expense and had to be constantly proving my worth to the company.

It always made me nervous when I would come to the sections in the reports I was working on that called for reducing or eliminating all consultants.

And I was eliminated a couple of times, but they always called me back. But the final blow came when a new vice president of the company came on board and decided to move the headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio.

While some of the people I worked with were relocating, most of my contacts at the company were looking for other jobs. I offered to typeset resumes at no charge for anyone who needed the service, and many people took me up on the offer.

A Highlight

One of the highlights of my time at the company came when a senior vice president came up to me in the hallway and told me that “I did the work of two men.”

He was an older gentleman and meant no disrespect in comparing me to men. I took this as high praise and was very happy to be recognized for my efforts.

My work with the company came to an end when they completed the move to Ohio.

I immediately began sending out letters and resumes to any company whose contact information I could find. Desktop publishing was a growing field and I had a fairly easy time finding freelance jobs with a variety of graphic design firms, banks, and other companies in San Francisco.

I had developed some useful skills that made me employable, but I was just at the very beginning of what would prove to be a long and challenging road to true financial stability.

Concentrating on My Freelance Business

I had offers to work as a freelancer on the premises of some companies, but I decided that I wanted to concentrate on building a freelance business that enabled me to work from home.

The many people who worked on the premises of their clients were essentially employees of the companies — but working without receiving any employment benefits.

Freelancers generally made more per hour in wages than regular employees, but in the end, I think the employees made out better than most freelancers, particularly those who worked on-site but without the benefits of being a full-time employee.

In some ways, I envied the stability that on-site freelancers had in being able to bill a single client for regular work, but they weren’t building businesses that would last beyond losing a single client.

For me, long-term success has always meant having multiple clients so that my business could survive losing any single one of them.

If I had a business strategy, it was to pursue the type of work that I enjoyed, while trying to keep increasing my income.

This turned out to be a pretty good idea as I found myself doing work that I enjoyed and was learning new skills and becoming more of a graphic designer than a production person.

Good luck to you!

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrea Reider has been working as a book designer and layout artist/typesetter for publishers and self-publishing authors since graduating from the University of Michigan in English in 1985 with a B.A. in English. It was the year of the Macintosh computer and “desktop publishing,” and her first job was managing a typesetting shop in Ann Arbor.

When Andrea moved to San Francisco two years later her Macintosh skills were very much in demand. Andrea began working as a freelancer for several book publishers and has been at it ever since. Her clients have included John Wiley & Sons, Addison Wesley Longman, McGraw Hill, Rowman & Littlefield, and hundreds of self-publishing authors.

Website: http://www.reiderbooks.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreareiderdesign

The post Staying Freelance, Part 3 By Andrea Reider appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on February 18, 2025 03:00

February 17, 2025

Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (Part 1)

Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (Part 1) – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 140

“As you may have noticed, these are all women science explainers and scientists, because I really want to highlight women doing science.”

In the latest How To Write the Future podcast episode, host and science fiction author Beth Barany shares her “Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (Part 1)” and the types of science they share including physical experiments and educational demonstrations.

RESOURCES

sabine hossenfelder: https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder

physics girl: https://www.youtube.com/@physicsgirl – Dianna Cowern

geo girl: https://www.youtube.com/@GEOGIRL – Rachel Phillips

Dr. Becky (Dr Becky Smethurst): https://www.youtube.com/@DrBecky

Space Weather Woman, Dr. Tamitha Skov – https://www.youtube.com/@TamithaSkov

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (Part 1) [00:00] Introduction to the Podcast

Hey everyone. Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future Podcast. I am a science fiction and fantasy writer, as well as an editor and book coach for science fiction and fantasy writers. I run this podcast because I really believe that we can shape. Our futures with creativity.

[00:21] The Importance of Inspiration

Today, I’m gonna talk to you about some of the places I go to for inspiration.

I think inspiration is a very important part of being a creative person. So every day I like to listen and watch YouTube videos. It is my go-to place for learning.

So today I’m gonna share with you a few of my favorite science explainers.

[00:43] What is a Science Explainer?

What is a science explainer?

A science explainer is someone who is often either a journalist or a scientist, and they spend their time talking about science to the lay person in a way that’s interesting and fun.

Now, of course, science explainers might be speaking at a high school level or a college level, or sometimes science for kids. You can find any kind of science explainer on YouTube.

So today I’m gonna highlight a few, and this is in no particular order.

[01:15] Highlighting Sabine Hossenfelder

So the first one I wanna talk about is Sabine Hossenfelder.

She has a PhD in physics and is the author of the books Lost in Math, How Beauty Leads Physics Astray and also Existential Physics. A Scientist Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions. She does a wonderful job bringing humor into her explainer videos. She talks about science, she talks about technology. She’s wonderful at the straight talk. She even says on her YouTube channel, “no hype, no spin, no tiptoeing around inconvenient truths,” and she’s German. She has a wonderful approach and humor and also perspective on the cross section between science and politics and policy. I really enjoy listening to her show.

[02:05] Exploring Physics Girl

Next up, I’m gonna talk about.a channel called Physics Girl. It’s a YouTube channel created by Diana Cowern, and she talks about the physical sciences with experiments, demonstrations, and new discoveries. Now, she’s been on hiatus for the last few years because she’s been dealing with long COVID, but she has a very active fan base and she is recovering from Covid, which is so wonderful, slowly but surely.

Her videos are always hands-on, adventurous and fun, and also down to earth.

[02:39] Discovering Geo Girl

Alright, the next channel I’m gonna talk to you about is Geo Girl. This channel is by Rachel Phillips. She has a PhD in Geoscience and so she posts educational videos for people interested in geoscience and the related fields– the history of the earth, geology, geochemistry, paleoclimatology, bio geochemistry, paleontology, and much, much more. Her videos are really fun and I highly recommend them, if you wanna know anything about geoscience.

[03:13] Meet Dr. Becky

Next I want to talk about Dr. Becky. She is a British astrophysicist. Her full name is Dr. Becky Smethurst. She’s an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford.

I really enjoy her weekly videos. She’s always so enthusiastic and she focuses not just on what we know, but how we know. And she talks often about the James Webb space telescope, and her day job is researching how super massive black holes affect the galaxies that they live in.

And her latest book is A Brief History of Black Holes. I really enjoy her videos quite a lot.

And the last YouTuber science explainer.

[03:57] Space Weather with Tamitha Skov

I wanna talk about today is so interesting because she is a space weather physicist. Her channel is called Tamitha Skov. She’s also known as Space Weather Woman, and

She’s appeared on TV shows like for the History Channel, the Weather Channel. She’s been featured in Popular Science Magazine and featured on some other really wonderful YouTube science channels. Her mission is to open all of our perceptions around a new kind of weather- space weather.

It’s fascinating how the sun affects the earth atmosphere, and of course, satellites, emergency radio communication, disaster relief services, and so much more. So she is really bringing space weather forecasts into our lives with her weekly space weather forecasts on YouTube.

[04:49] Future Episodes

So that’s it for today in highlighting some of my favorite YouTube channels. I mentioned six here today. This is part one. I’m gonna do at least one other episode soon on some more channels.

[05:02] Women Scientists and Science Explainers

And as you may have noticed, these are all women science explainers and scientists, because I really wanna highlight, women doing science. I was. science oriented from a young age, and now I write science fiction as well as fantasy.

And I love, love, love learning about science, and I hope you will check out these wonderful science explainers and scientists, and maybe you’ll find some wonderful inspiration for your stories.

So that’s it for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Favorite Science Explainers on YouTube (Part 1) appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on February 17, 2025 04:49

February 13, 2025

AI Tools for Writers: The Good and the Bad

I have mixed feelings about the use of AI (Chat GPT etc,), particularly as someone living in a capitalist society.

While I didn’t create this economic system, I must navigate within it, just like everyone else.

When it comes to AI, I acknowledge the valid concerns about its exploitation of artists’ work.

I do also recognize that all art has historically built upon previous creations.

While I’m uncomfortable with many of the ways how AI has been developed and deployed, I recognize it as another tool in our digital workspace – similar to spell-checkers, grammar tools, and search engines.

All of those tools save us time, help us polish our work, and bring us resources.

We still have agency over how we use such tools.

Rather than simply accepting or rejecting AI wholesale, I believe in understanding both its benefits and drawbacks.

We live in a complex world where these tools exist, and while I may not fully endorse the system that created them, I believe in empowering ourselves through education about AI’s responsible uses and potential misuses.

Like any other writing tool, once you know what it is and what it’s good for, then you can decide if you want to bring it into your writing toolkit it or not.

This AI Writing Summit 2.0 happening Feb. 17-21, 2025 is one of those opportunities. You’re invited to check it out.

If you do want to investigate for yourself, then start with the blueprint.

You can click on the image of use this link: https://bethbarany.com/AIblueprint2

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

More about Beth Barany:
Novels for Adventurous Readers of Magical Tales of Romance, Mystery, and Adventure |
Products and Services for Adventurous Novelists |
Writer’s Fun Zone blog: By Creative Writers for Creative Writers

***

***

Are you ready to edit your novel? Not sure? Then check out our Ready to Edit Checklist here.

The post AI Tools for Writers: The Good and the Bad appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Create With Purpose Part 4: Authenticity & Acceptance

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Published on February 13, 2025 13:50

February 11, 2025

Create With Purpose Part 5: Transformation & Empowerment by Kirsten McNeill

Let’s welcome back Kirsten McNeill as she shares with us “Create With Purpose Part 5: Transformation & Empowerment.” Enjoy!

***

Greetings, Writer’s Fun Zone! Last month, I shared Part 4 of this Create With Purpose Series, and now we’re on to Part 5 — Transformation and Empowerment.

In this post, I will share two small activities you can do each day (or as often as you’d like) to create positive change within your writing life and in yourself.

The Journey of Change

Evolving into a newer, more authentic version of yourself, and feeling confident and strong in this updated version of you is a powerful experience.

It’s not one that happens overnight, though. And it also doesn’t mean you have to give yourself a complete makeover of the mind, body, and soul.

Transformation and empowerment is a journey of change. This change occurs one small step at a time.

Sure, depending on where you are in your life the change could be monumental!

But more often than not this change is growth, a growth that is barely visible at first.

When you change, you grow into the person and writer you were meant to be.

This shift could be drastic, as in switching the genre you’re going to write or quitting a full-time job to pursue another career.

Or it could be minor, like cutting down your coffee intake or going to the gym one time per week.

It’s complicated and wonderful to explore your life journey, and you never know what you will transform into.

You have an idea, though.

You have a goal of the person you want to be, who is kind and motivated to succeed. The writer you want to be, who has changed genres so many times, but you don’t care because you’re having fun.

How Do You Transform?

Transformation is messy and thrilling.

When you transform, you don’t just snap your fingers and everything is different.

It starts with one decision, one thought, and that thought becomes a habit that you build into your routine.

Change is difficult, but only at first. It takes time to become comfortable with the new you. To gain that familiarity.

Change is also difficult when people don’t want you to change.

“You’re not the person you used to be.”

“Well, I sure hope not! I’m better now.”

The more you learn about who you are and the impact you want to make for your readers, the happier you will be with the direction your life is going.

So, how do you begin this transformation? Start with one thing you want to change.

Similar to a New Year’s resolution or a goal on your vision board.

Once you choose your one thing, choose one action you can do every day to work towards building that into your routine.

To work towards getting familiar with this new piece of the puzzle that makes up who you are.

Maybe you want to write for five minutes every day. It may take some time to build up to that habit and get used to it, so you start with one minute per day.

“One minute? How can I get anything done in one minute?”

Well, you see, the point isn’t about how much you can get done, but how gradually you can build the habit of writing each day.

Carving out the same time slot will make it easier to work that around the rest of your schedule.

Even if you just spend one minute sitting in silence and brainstorming a character name, that will help you move forward.

Embrace the mindset of quality over quantity, and your transformation will become that much easier.

How Do I Find Empowerment?

To be empowered means to feel confident and happy. It means that you are living your best life and you are surrounded by people who help your personal growth.

It means that you don’t apologize for being yourself and sharing your stories with the world. When you are empowered, you are a shining light of inspiration.

What happens if you have a bad day?

Does that mean you’re not an inspiration anymore?

No, that just means you’re a human having a bad day.

Transformation and empowerment is a journey of ebbs and flows.

That’s okay. That’s normal.

If you’re having a bad day, and you’re still trying to do it all and be this happy, upbeat person, that is not being true to yourself.

You’re also not being honest with your audience, who LOVE seeing the real you.

Who LOVE knowing that you are relatable and not every day is full of high energy and success.

Remember the Four Horsemen of the Writer’s Apocalypse from my post back in May 2024?

When you’re having a bad day, those horses are neighing loudly to be heard.

All you have to do is listen, and decide how to interpret the information they’re giving you.

These horses are in your mind, trying to protect you from negative energy.

Empower yourself in these moments and take the reins.

Listen to the thoughts and analyze what they are telling you.

Decide if you’re going to keep dwelling on the thoughts, or work through them and keep moving forward.

You can download a workbook to go through this thought exercise when you subscribe to my Worthy Writers newsletter!

Transformation + Empowerment = Sunflower Sunshine

Only you can decide what the next step on your journey is. If you’re not ready to make a decision, that’s okay.

You can take as much time as you need.

Personal growth and the success you find through your writing experiences are not races.

They are journeys. And that journey can look however you want it to look.

Embrace the ups and downs, and keep your momentum.

Shine your sunflower sunshine and transform into the most confident writer and individual that you can be.

***

ABOUT KIRSTEN MCNEILL

Kirsten McNeill is a Confidence & Writing Lifestyle Coach, Book Editor, and Self-Published Writer. Her mission with Worthy Writers Editing is to bring sunflower sunshine to the creative world connecting writers to the confidence and passion they desire to help them publish and share their stories.

Download the FREE workbook Feed Your Horses Confidence Thought Exercise when you subscribe to the Worthy Writers Confidence Newsletter.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/confident.kirsten

Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/theworthywritersnook

Blog Posts:

How to Train the Four Horsemen of the Writer’s Apocalypse

Podcast Recommendation:

Rise and Roar as a Writer With Heather LaFond

The post Create With Purpose Part 5: Transformation & Empowerment by Kirsten McNeill appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

https://www.amazon.com/Story-Structure-Complete-Leon-Conrad/dp/1906069255/

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Published on February 11, 2025 03:00

February 10, 2025

Simple and Powerful Storytelling Structure with Leon Conrad

Simple and Powerful Storytelling Structure with Leon Conrad – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 139

“ Because It’s grounded on a very simple principle. Story, well told, well crafted, well structured, will have a pattern of ebb and flow. The ebb is where the tension builds up, and the flow is where it releases.” – Leon Conrad

In this episode of How to Write The Future podcast, host, Beth Barany talks to award winning author and tutor Leon Conrad where they discuss story structure, storytelling techniques, and how to map story structure for individual characters.

RESOURCES

Story and Structure: A Complete Guide by Leon Conrad

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT LEON CONRAD

Leon Conrad grew up among the souks and bazaars of Egypt. Early encounters with storytelling from a living ‘Arabian Nights’-type oral tradition started him on a life-long quest to explore the unique power the human voice has to inspire. A talented pianist and linguist, he studied music in London, UK, working with opera singers and musical theatre performers. He studied storytelling with Shonaleigh Cumbers, a Jewish storyteller from a living oral tradition. As an author, his ground-breaking book ‘Story and Structure: A complete guide’ has won several literary awards including the IPNE Nonfiction Book of the Year and was shortlisted for The People’s Book Prize. Leon set up The Unknown Storyteller Project in 2018 to help writers use story structure techniques to craft tighter stories and to spot and fix plot holes more effectively. As a tutor, he works with gifted and talented students age 7+, helping many to publish their work independently and traditionally. He runs courses for writers of all ages.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeonConrad

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unknownstorytellerproject/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-conrad/

Transcript for Simple and Powerful Story Telling Structure with Leon Conrad

Hey everyone. Welcome. Beth Barany, here I am, the host of How to Write the Future podcast, a writer, a teacher, creativity coach, and obviously podcaster. And I’m here to support writers, to help you write stories that really help us change the paradigm so we can live better lives, more full lives.

I believe that stories are so, so powerful. And when we vision and put that vision into our work, we help make it so, not just for ourselves, which is actually incredibly important, but also for our readers, which I think is just amazing and phenomenal. So the work we do here as storytellers is. It’s vital.

It’s vital for culture. And occasionally I bring guests onto the show.

[00:47] Guest Introduction: Leon Conrad

I am very excited to welcome in our guest today, Leon Conrad. Leon, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Beth.

It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m really excited to read your bio so everyone can get to know you a little better.

[01:02] Leon Conrad’s Background and Achievements

So everyone, Leon Conrad grew up among the souks and bazaars of Egypt. Early encounters with storytelling from a living Arabian Nights type oral tradition started him on a lifelong quest to explore the unique power the human voice has to inspire. A talented pianist and linguist, he studied music in London, UK, working with opera singers and musical theatre performers.

He studied storytelling with Shonaleigh Cumbers, I hope I have that right, a Jewish storyteller from a living oral tradition. As an author, his groundbreaking book, Story and Structure, A Complete Guide, has won several literary awards, including the IPNE Nonfiction Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the People’s Book Prize.

Leon set up The Unknown Storyteller Project in 2018 to help writers use story structure techniques to craft tighter stories and to spot and fix plot holes more effectively. As a tutor, he works with gifted and talented students, ages 7 and up, helping many to publish their work independently and traditionally. He runs courses for writers of all ages.

And by the end of this episode, I will tell you, or Leon will tell you, how you can learn more about his work. Leon, welcome again. So excited to have you here.

Thank you, Beth. It’s lovely to talk to you, lovely to chat to you and other writers vicariously about a genre I love myself.

I love reading science fiction and fantasy and often enjoy working with writers in those genres as well as other genres.

Oh, perfect. Yeah. I am a science fiction and fantasy novelist and I cater specifically to science fiction and fantasy novelists since it’s the genre I know the best. And of course all are welcome here.

I have romance in my work. My husband who co teaches with me, he brings in thriller suspense. I’m actually writing a science fiction mystery series. I also have a lot of knowledge also about mystery. And I love it when people bring different kinds of stories together, like I have like science fiction, mystery, science fiction, mystery slash adventure, that kind of thing. So I have studied story structure a ton.

[03:13] Discussion on Story Structure

And I was really excited when you reached out. to be on the show because you have such a vast knowledge about story structure and I would love to hear more about that and more about how specifically can we take your understanding of story structure and how it can inform, those of us who are working on our science fiction and fantasy stories.

Of course, the most important thing I can say starting off is that the approach I use to story structure is grounded in an oral tradition, and the methodology works for people who like to structure and plan ahead of time, map out what they’re going to do, or people who are more intuitive and take the typical “pantser” approach.

Because iIt’s grounded on a very simple principle. Story, well told, well crafted, well structured, will have a pattern of ebb and flow. The ebb is where the tension builds up, and the flow is where it releases. Every story will have those elements in it. The number of times a story ebbs and flows, and why a story ebbs and flows, is what gives rise to different story structures.

Yes, that makes sense. And to me, it’s very akin to breathing, walking, the heartbeat. So I ground myself as a writer very much in the kinesthetic and in the body elements. And I love how simply you put that; it’s an ebb and it’s enough and it’s a flow.

[04:50] Fantasy Storytelling Techniques

And so the differences you’re saying, so let’s take fantasy since a lot of people have strong ideas about fantasy. And maybe a lot of our listeners grew up on fairytales and folktales like I did.

You also are very much rooted in an oral storytelling tradition. And all the fairytales and folktales that our parents may have read to us, or invented. My father would invent stories and just tell us stories. My father, he actually would read from the Arabian Nights to us. All of that is all… based in the oral storytelling tradition.

So can you get some more specifics in there and apply it to those of us who are working on fantasy? Give us some more details on this.

Well, for me, story happens across many genres. You’ve mentioned some of the most popular, but in my book Story and Structure, I show that the story of the three little pigs, the well known version of it. And the structure of a typical academic essay, or a mathematical proof, share exactly the same story structure.

And I call it the quest structure. In my book, I use six very simple, visually intuitive symbols to map a story structure. I talked about two of those main aspects, the ebb and the flow, the pull, the push. And I use a backward and a forward barb to symbolize them respectively.

Take the story of the three little pigs. We take the pigs of the character and I map story structures to individual characters, that’s very important. Whatever genre you’re writing in, you will probably focus on a character, main character, secondary characters, follow their individual storylines like this.

A story opens, you encounter a character at a particular point in their storyline, who, where, when, in what condition. We meet the three little pigs when they are just about to be thrown out of their house. Versions vary, different reasons, but they find themselves with a problem. They need to be able to set themselves up with their own houses and live as independent little piggies. Ideally, staying away from the big bad wolf.

As a result, they go on a journey. And by the time we get to the journey, we have been on an ebb, a backward tension thing with a problem, and we’re flowing forwards now. On that journey, they meet friends and helpers. That meeting makes them stop. That stop pulls the story up and stops the flow. So it’s mapped with a backward barb.

When they get their materials, when they build the houses, the story flows forward. Because it takes them towards their goal. But then the wolf comes in. That meeting is another backward step.

Fast forward to the end of the story, they defeat the wolf and end up, it’s very important to have a clear ending, living together in the brick house. And living there happily ever after.

And that conventional oral storytelling ending leads you out of the story and into the everyday world. The everyday dimension of being.

I love that. So it’s very clear how movement toward the goal is the flow and then the ebb. And we’ll see it as the water pooling away from the shore.

Energy is retreating. And we have the problem, the obstacle, the villain, antagonist, or even you were saying even when friends have come together to create, there’s a calm point, so it’s not always a negative thing, it’d just be that calm moment as well.

Exactly, yes. This is one structure of 18 I outline in the book, each one has a different character, each one exists because it arrives spontaneously in our consciousness, this is what I found by applying this methodology to the analysis of story structure, because it arises in response to a particular kind of problem we experience in everyday life.

I see. So the different types, you say there’s 18, are organized by the type of problem.

Yes.

Lovely. That’s great.

Knowing this will make it much easier for you to see where a story is going in a character’s storyline. When you feel that natural pattern, which goes with the grain of the brain, you can plan out if you want to. Or you could just flow in the writing, because you know where you’re going. You’re going to travel around, along very well oiled tracks.

Absolutely. That’s really wonderful. And some of the problems in, let’s say, in fantasy tend to be some kind of good versus evil. Or some kind of… this is one kingdom versus another, or one way of life versus another, and usually one typically wants to dominate or destroy the other.

So you have a story structure for that, I would imagine.

Yes, it’s interesting that the story structures that appear in fantasy very often are story structures that are linked with supernatural powers. The quest structure, as I outlined, the story of the Three Little Pigs, is typically found in folktales or problems that we can solve ourselves.

A mathematical proof or an essay, you have a problem, you want to go on a journey, you explore your methodology, you get your points pro, you get your points con, and you get to a conclusion.

In the fantasy world… You have supernatural beings who can just take a thunder, the bolt, and send down a lightning bolt, devastate a whole world as Zeus would in Greek mythology, when a supernatural being acts, typically they don’t act in a premeditated way.

They act in a spontaneous, reactive way to restore balance in the natural order when they perceived an imbalance, just like a goddess will intervene when a character’s fleeing from someone pursuing them in Greek myth. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, for instance, boom, and there’s a transformation, a metamorphosis. Balance is restored, but things never really get back to the state they were in. And that, then opens up a whole new situation.

You can play with that. Structures that these particular interactions follow are different. The transformation structure, which I’ve just outlined, is the one that supernatural beings follow in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and it goes, bim bam. Backwards, forwards, done.

Again, knowing that and building up to those kinds of actions, even if you’ve got a very ordinary character, sometimes in the heat of battle, their ability to act in a very spontaneous, emotionally charged, unusual way, as if possessed by a divine power, will animate that character and make it much more interesting for the reader to follow their storyline and–

Yeah. I definitely worked on that in my young adult adventure fantasy series, Henrietta the Dragon Slayer. It was all about her coming into her power and that power was personified or not personified, exemplified by the dragon stone that she acquires and her learning to become okay with this larger than life energy magic. And learning how to harness it. And I’m still, I’m working on now a short movie that I hope to turn into a TV show and same thing. She’s learning to harness the power of magic versus just relying on her skills. So I see that has that transformative, larger than life experience.

The thing about fantasy is that it builds metaphorically, allegorically, analogically on powers we have innate within us. The power to enchant with words. The power to speak and stand our ground, stand up for what we believe in. It takes courage, it takes strength, it takes conviction. And… it also is linked to a whole system of learning, I have a lot of respect for. That comes out of the oral storytelling tradition of the prom, nas murder and the classical liberal arts, what is the arts, grammar, logical and rhetoric and the number things that come after that. And the quadrivium are integrating and integrative tools for learning.

You’ll have to explain a little bit of that. Most of us Americans don’t have a classical education, like I’ve met many British people who do.

And, yeah, so explain what is, what was it, the quadrivium?

Let’s start with the trivium.

The three word based arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric.

Logic is the art of working with that which we know.

Grammar is working with the art of putting it into words.

Rhetoric is the art of communicating it for different purposes.

They all work together. Logic helps us clarify our thinking. Grammar helps us convey our thoughts clearly in words. And rhetoric makes those words elegant, suitable for purpose.

And you get to decide what that purpose is. And if you are clear on your thoughts… If your words are well suited to your purpose, and if you present those words in a very well structured and crafted way, I don’t mean just the writing, the editing, the layout, the design, the illustration, the cover image, or you standing up and telling people about your book, reading from your book, if you like. Telling the story, then you have a really powerful act of communication that can, as you say, have a positive impact on the world.

That’s wonderful and all that has intention.

And I know I’m partway between someone who likes to plan and someone who doesn’t like to plan. But I do like to know the direction I’m heading in, after I’ve taken a lot from the world. I let it all, pour into the big pot and stir it up and add in all kinds of things, and then taking my understanding of story and structure and where I’m headed, create a safe container, and then sit down, and something emerges that I could have never planned.

Which I just adore. But I recognize I’ve done all those things and put a lot of attention on them. And then, of course, I spent a lot of editing time and figuring out how to package the book and how to… Present the book. So I, I love hearing what you’re saying because it represents also the tremendous amount of care and attention that artists put into their work to be able to convey something powerfully. Yeah, so thank you for that.

[16:05] The Art and Craft of Writing

You’re welcome. And I’m very glad to hear you say that because writing is both an art and a craft. One of my books is about the art and craft of writing. It’s a collection of writing games designed to encourage writers to have fun, learning the rules of grammar, of logic, of rhetoric.

And breaking the rules for the right reasons. When that happens, we unlock creativity, we unlock magic, we unlock enchantment that is there inherent in thought itself, in words themselves, in language, and in how we communicate. it ends where mystery, magic, and inspiration take us. A place of silent awe. And respect for the wonder that is story.

I love it. So there’s a fourth component.

Yes.

There are four number based arts that complete the seven liberal arts. The four number based arts are the study of arithmetic number, the study of geometry, number in three dimensions, the study of music theory and harmony, and the study of astronomy, three dimensional bodies in movement. And that animates the cosmos.

If you do it traditionally, actually, draw shapes. As you draw shapes, you find the inherent energies and patterns within them. The functions of the diagonals splitting a square in two and then expanding it. It’s actually very similar to how story works. Geometry gives us an insight into a world of tangible forms, which echo an intangible background, which is what we work with as writers.

Our words communicate ideas, those ideas we cannot communicate without the words, but they embody very powerful feelings, thoughts, experiences, which we would be lost without being able to communicate properly.

I love what you’re saying, embody, because emotion is, I feel conveying emotion and having our audience feel is our job as writers, as storytellers, as novelists.

And I love that connection with geometry, which was my favorite math as a teenager. I love drawing shapes and I was going to show some of my art. I have a ton of art all over. I’ve been doing all these circles and spirals and cross hatches and creating three dimensional layers with my art and feeling, not that I want to create three dimensional art, but I want to create the experience of three dimensions, which I realize in our stories is what we’re doing when we try to create complex characters that feel real, storylines that feel it’s feasible for them to move through and have these encounters and challenges.

[19:04] Science Fiction Storytelling Techniques

So let’s move to science fiction because as you started talking about astronomy, I just got a little bit of a jolt. I spend part of my free time watching tons of videos about what the James Webb Space Telescope has seen today, what the Euclid telescope has seen, the latest launches, and I’m also studying orbits, how do orbits work and understanding movement through space and how this blows my mind.

The earth, we all know the earth is going around the sun. We all know that all these planets are ringing our sun. We all know that we’re part of a solar system, but actually this, our entire solar system is also making a spiral through space and us along with it. It’s a bit dizzying when you start to really feel into that.

I didn’t know this. Just in the last few years, as I’ve been working on science fiction, did I see visualizations of this and just blew my mind that everything is moving. Nothing is static and everything is relative to something else. There is no absolute point in space, which also blows my mind because everything is relative to everything else.

And what does that mean for us as humanity, as we attempt to be a spacefaring species. These are things I think about as I work on my science fiction.

And so what do you bring with your story structure and your skill set, your tools, to us to help us write science fiction better?

Science fiction, to me, is no different to any other genre. You need strong characters, you need a strong philosophical question. That is not my original thought, it’s Ben Bovo’s, who I have a lot of respect for. He simplifies the approach to science fiction, fantasy writing, and I love that because I work a lot with young writers, as you mentioned at the beginning of the program, they need things to be simplified.

It doesn’t matter whether you know how the cosmos works, just show it does and show its wonder and the awe for it. I’ve been reading something about Newton’s discoveries recently. He… Did a lot of meditation, of reading classics, and he worked out his laws of gravity based on what he knew that classical investigators did with strings and weights.

Did you know that when you have a string that’s, maybe kept at attention by a particular weight and you add a weight to it that’s four times as heavy, the pitch goes up an octave, it doubles in frequency. And this is a simple experiment, anyone can do by realizing that and appreciating the fact that as above so below in the metric axiom.

He worked out that planets could very well behave the same way, and then he tested it out empirically, compared speeds, compared masses, compared sizes, and yes, that’s how he worked out gravity. But what he also understood or intuited or approached as an idea, very positively, was that the whole cosmos was a song.

A song that can enchant, that can sing you and you can be part of that song if you let yourself do it. If you do, that’s when the most powerful writing comes out, I think.

Yeah, I agree. I feel especially I’m now entering the refining process of the next novel and I use music tremendous, tremendously, tremendous amount, both as an inspiration, but also in helping me make decisions about tone and language and, when to cut or when to expand.

And I think a lot and research to find music that matches the book that I can say this is the song of the book.

Because I’m writing murder mystery set in this futuristic setting, it’s often a syncopated jazz. And it’s often mixed with some African rhythms and maybe some scatting and somewhat familiar but also new.

I invite writers, to find the music that matches their work, both from the internal perspective.maybe each character has their own tune ’cause they do, their dialogue needs to sound unique. Each character speaks differently and one of the ways to figure out the rhythm of their speech likening it to music.

I spent a lot of time on that, especially once the whole story is laid down and the emotional resonance is there, then I’ll get really in the weeds, word by word, figuring that out.

which is why in my book of writing games, I devote a whole chapter to sound and rhythm.

Oh, wonderful. I think that’s so important to bring people’s attention to that.

[23:52] Closing Remarks and Contact Information

And as we close, is there any advice that you would like to offer writers as they look at their work to help remake themselves, remake how we could be in the world. Anything about that future facing look that I bring to this work that I’m inviting you to chime in on.

I think the most important thing for me is to be clear on your stance. By stance, why it is you stand up for whatever message it is you want to communicate.

It’s the why behind the what that’s really important. Very often when we want to put a message out into the world we focus on the positive. That’s generally a good thing to do, but sometimes it’s worth considering writing the, “Oh. So that’s what would happen. I don’t want to go there story.”

Absolutely. And while I’m not someone who reads dystopia or talks in any great length about dystopia, I know that it serves a very powerful purpose in society and helping us look at what we don’t want. So absolutely. And in every powerful story, even stories that are trying to maybe paint a more positive picture of what could be, we also have to confront the darkness in there to make the story feel real and to have weight. Because even the stories I’m working on, I still have murder, I’m writing murder mysteries, I still have struggles, I still have power plays, I still have things that, I don’t know if humanity will ever resolve certain things.

Stories don’t have to be dystopian to have that quality I’m talking about. Tragedy is very well written about, very well practiced genre. And Aristotle thought it was cathartic, it had a soul cleansing function.

Comedy is great, it makes us laugh. Comedy works when we get things to almost a tragic point. And then, through the deus ex machina, the magical ending, everything turns out okay. That’s when it really works.

Yeah, the catharsis of a good story. Great. Thank you so much, Leon. If people want to reach out to you, what’s the best way that they can do that?

Very simple. LeonConrad.com. Find out about the courses I do, sign up for the mailing list, contact me if you want some help shaping anything to do with story structure. I run weekly drop in classes half an hour for writers just playing fun games, getting the art and craft to sizzle and sparkle.

Thank you so much, Leon. And, until next time.

Thank you for having me, Beth. Look forward to it.

[26:28] Write Long and Prosper

All right. That’s it for this week, everyone.Check out the World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers. And that’s a free workbook, downloadable for you. Great, everyone. So signing off. Write long and prosper.

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***ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

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Published on February 10, 2025 07:47

February 7, 2025

Writing in the Woods – A Word about Writing Retreats by Catharine Bramkamp

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “Writing in the Woods – A Word about Writing Retreats.” Enjoy!

***

I wrote a book called the Cheap Retreat Book. At the time, I couldn’t just jet down to New Mexico for a nurturing weekend at the Mable Dodge House. Nor could I afford the hotel rates in San Miguel de Allende.

So I created a way to hold a writing retreat in my own home and wrote a book about it.

Here is the thing. Despite our best intentions, trying to retreat in our home is difficult.

The basic premise of a writing retreat is to escape from all the things to do, things to clean, bills to pay and file, shower grout to scrub.

All those lovely distractions that can serve as the perfect and justifiable excuse not to write.

As much as we love our spouses and family, they, by their very definition, are interruptions.

Even when we are away, a family crisis can ping up on our phones.

One client had to take a call in the middle of a retreat session because her husband couldn’t find the black flashlight resting in the deep recesses of his backpack. Definitely an emergency.

What to do?

Find a retreat that is far enough away from your daily life that there is nothing else left to do but work on your book (or your art), or as one of my clients commented, when she is on a retreat, she had no choice but to face a difficult section of her book because someone else taking care of the grout.

And yes, the idea that we need or even crave a retreat to write, does beg the question why our own home environment is not supporting our creative work, but that can be a topic of discussion during the retreat. Let me know what you all decide.

Consider your needs

I’m attracted to retreats because the brochures are beautiful, the locations exotic by dint of their expense and difficulty to reach.

The writers in the brochure photos always look very sincere and productive.

Retreats appeal because of their aspirational qualities: Maybe I will join the morning yoga class.

Maybe I will join the conversation about man versus superman.

Maybe I’ll chime in with singing bowls.

It all sounds so, well, inspirational.

As if expense will engender correspondingly valuable work.

As if just being on a retreat, knowing the hourly price is ticking down, we will work with more furious focus.

Before we buy our plane tickets, consider what you really need from a retreat. Can your writing goal be accomplished more cheaply? A day in the local library? A motel room within driving distance? Or is jetting into another time zone the only way to legitimately ignore family calls?

The Cheap DIY Writing Retreat

Here is my story of my more or less cheap DIY writing retreat.

It was January.

My husband had scheduled to repair and re-plaster our living room ceiling. I was deeply into the second draft of my book Sunk Cost.

The Muse was nagging at me, compelling me to work, yet here was a barrier – I can’t work with contractors in the house.

My husband knew this, or he was tired of me. So he packed me off to Maui to stay with was ever accommodating brother and his brother’s even more accommodating partner.

The flight was paid for by our Hawaiian Airline points.

I was a free guest at my brother-in-law’s house.

I could borrow his car to drive to my favorite beach. Maui was indeed far enough away to be in a different time zone.

It was not too pricey especially after I was told about $10.00 poke bowls at Foodland.

And most important, both my brother-in-law and his partner worked full time. I was alone all day.

There was no grout to clean. Nothing to pick up in the yard. I didn’t even know where the vacuum was stored.

In that week I worked through the second edits of the book and managed to get a little tan in the bargain.

Why this retreat worked:

No responsibility.

I was not in charge of anything, except to treat my host to dinner a couple of times, other than it was just me and the computer. The computer went everywhere with me, including the beach.

I established a schedule of sorts. I dropped off my brother-in-law to his work, then drove to the beach.

After a walk along the coast, I headed to the outdoor bar at the Andaz Hotel (shout out to the hotel staff who graciously ignored me, thank you!) to work for two hours.

After picking up my poke bowl at the local supermarket, I worked all afternoon in the empty house.

At six o’clock I texted my husband with some profound message like: everything is fine, nothing to see here.

When my writing group asked for a retreat, Maui wouldn’t really work for their budgets and my brother-in-law only had one guest room. So we looked closer to home.

There were five of us total, and because of our small size, we were able to rent space in a friend’s house just up the street from me.

I organized the food (easy breakfast and lunch, and no, I did not cook, good god).

We spent three days just working on our projects.

My clients all made progress on their works over the long weekend. Some used the time to research, some used the time to finish their books, some used the time to generate new ideas.

The retreat included group readings with feedback, a lecture on publishing and feedback, and a Saturday night belly dancing concert. They loved the time away from home, even if home was only fifteen minutes away.

Look for a retreat space that offers a new atmosphere, a new place to sleep, different views. If you don’t often experience snow, then get away to a mountain cabin in January. If you’re tired of the cold, get away to a beach hut in Mexico.

But the key to a retreat is to not treat it like a vacation. It’s not. It’s time away to think, to consider how to finish something old, or start something new. A retreat from the everyday. Priceless.

Read more in my new book on writing – Out Loud – A Writing Adventure for Women! Just launched!

***

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.

The post Writing in the Woods – A Word about Writing Retreats by Catharine Bramkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

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Published on February 07, 2025 03:00

February 3, 2025

Building Authentic Stories: Real-World Elements in Fantasy and Sci-Fi with Lewis Jorstad

Building Authentic Stories: Real-World Elements in Fantasy and Sci-Fi with Lewis Jorstad – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 138

“I really enjoy leaning on real world history to write my stories.” – Lewis Jorstad

In this episode of How To Write the Future, host Beth Barany chats with bestselling author and editor Lewis Jorstad about how to incorporate real-world elements into your speculative fiction stories. They discuss drawing from historical events and share practical advice about crafting compelling fiction that feels authentic while maintaining that crucial suspension of disbelief.

RESOURCES

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

About Lewis Jorstad

Lewis Jorstad is a bestselling author and editor who helps passionate fiction writers master their craft and find their readers at The Novel Smithy. When he isn’t busy coaching students or writing books of his own, you can find him babying his houseplants and baking far too many homemade bagels.

Website: https://thenovelsmithy.com/

Transcript for Building Authentic Stories: Real-World Elements in Fantasy and Sci-Fi with Lewis Jorstad [00:00] Introduction and Podcast Overview

BETH BARANY: Hey everyone. Welcome to How To Write the Future Podcast. I’m your host, Beth Barany. I am a science fiction and fantasy author, and also a writing teacher and a coach. I am super excited to bring a guest on today, but before I do, let me just remind you what this podcast is all about. I’m here to help you create positive, hopeful futures through your writing, through your life.

And also when we do this for others, when we paint stories through our words, we help our readers, our viewers, our audience also create hopeful, hopefully, hopeful pictures for them as well.

Honestly, this is about remaking humanity through our stories. and for anyone who cares about the future, I hope this will be inspiring for you as well.

[00:45] Meet the Guest: Louis Jorstad

BETH BARANY: So I just wanna say welcome to my guest today, Louis Jorstad. Welcome Louis.

Lewis Jorstad: Hi. Thanks for having me.

BETH BARANY: Lewis and I had a long conversation before we turned on record ’cause he and I can just talk forever. Let’s share some of his wisdom with you. So here’s a little bit about Lewis.

Lewis Jorstad is a bestselling author and editor who helps passionate fiction writers master their craft and find their readers. At the Novel Smithy, when he isn’t busy coaching students or writing books of his own, you can find him babying his houseplant and baking far too many homemade bagels.

Now I just have to say homemade bagels. That’s awesome.

Lewis Jorstad: I like putting it in my bio ’cause people always are like, is that a thing? And I’m like, it is a thing and it is surprisingly therapeutic. And you also get to eat at the end of it. So what’s not to like?

BETH BARANY: Yeah, what’s not to like? And I, no, I totally get it. I love baking as well.

And I also love you sharing that you love plants. I have a patio garden and I take care of compost. I have compost bins. That’s one of my happy places. I’m really happy to have you here today at How to Write the Future, and about the craft of fiction and about the art of it as well.

[01:51] Incorporating Real World Elements in Fiction

BETH BARANY: And I thought we would start with this lovely question that you shared with me, which is, how can we borrow real world elements in our science fiction and fantasy stories and really any kind of story in that we’re writing in fiction to ground the stories and also create a more hopeful future in our work.

Lewis Jorstad: So I have a lot of thoughts on this. I’m gonna try to distill it to be a little more focused, but I think not only is it valuable to incorporate real history or real cultures or things that feel familiar to the reader into our fantasy and sci-fi, but I also think it’s something that a lot of us do sometimes without realizing it, especially for people writing very, far reaching or very fantastical or very speculative fiction.

I think it’s easy to forget that we are still being influenced by our real world. And so I really love this conversation because especially in the context of creating a better world, reminding ourselves to pause and think about how am I incorporating real world history, culture, events into this story, whether on purpose or on accident can help us catch a lot of things that we might be doing out of reflex.

But in terms of how to do it well, the first step in my opinion is to just know the history of what you’re incorporating.

So if you step back and you kinda look at your story and like patterns or things that are related to different real events or different real groups of people or cultures, pausing to ask how well do I actually know that place or those people? Do I understand their history? Am I leaning on stereotypes?

Not saying that you are doing it on purpose, but a lot of us do it on accident without even meaning to.

And then how can you, if you find that you don’t necessarily have enough depth to understand that all the nuance of those situations, how can you step back and try to hear a couple different voices from that?

I personally, in my personal writing life, am primarily a dark fantasy writer and I really enjoy leaning on real world history to write my stories. I lean a lot on Appalachian history because I’m based in that area. It feels very close to home, but I always have to remind myself that the history of those areas is complicated and it has a lot of fresh wounds that are still there. And so when I’m writing those stories, I have to be really cognizant of how am I reflecting the people? How am I making a statement? And that statement doesn’t have to be a kind statement, but it’s a statement you have to make sure you’re making on purpose, not so much on accident.

BETH BARANY: And, and speaking from a craft perspective, or even in the phases of your own writing, do you get outside perspective on your work– critique partners, beta readers, editors, to look at your work and help you see that? ’cause I notice, I really rely on other people to say, oh, it looks like you’re implying this, or is this the right assumption?

And it’s always helpful because I can’t always see those things. So I was wondering about what do you do?

Lewis Jorstad: Yeah, I have a handful of beta readers who I love to death and who keep me in check. They always catch me when I slip up and I appreciate them for it.

And yeah, I would say for me, beta readers are probably the biggest thing I lean on, but I definitely have stories that I’m looking ahead to, that I want to work on in the future that are farther removed from my own personal experience. And so for those, I am definitely looking seriously at working with sensitivity readers who are a part of those groups and who can speak to them and make sure that I’m speaking to them fairly.

And I think that’s a judgment call that we have to make as individuals like, my comfort level for, say, the story I’m working on about, Appalachia right now is pretty high because I grew up in the area. I know the area pretty well. I’m still trying to do my homework and do my research, but I feel relatively secure in that.

But for other stories that you may be wanting to tell or that you may be working on, where even if you’re just featuring characters who are very far removed from your own experiences, you have to sit with yourself and decide how can you seek out other voices and seek out help from other people to help you feel comfortable that you are portraying that group or that character, that place fairly and honestly and in more of a nuanced way.

BETH BARANY: Yeah. I really love that. Do your homework, do your research, talk to people who have different perspectives. And I guess also the question that I, unconsciously or consciously bring out to other people who look at my work as, where are my blind spots? What’s missing? I like how you’re opening that up because when we talk about the future, there isn’t one future.

Our stories are really speaking to all kinds of groups and, peoples and with different belief systems and different cultural backgrounds. So I really appreciate that you’re bringing that up.And, so there’s some other craft questions that you have for us here, which I think are really useful and come to the core of what is it to create a story that people just adore and that allow them to forget that they’re even reading.

[06:50] Suspension of Disbelief in Storytelling

BETH BARANY: And so you talk about the suspension of disbelief. Can you share us what that means? and now we’re probably talking to maybe beginners, but also I think for experienced writers, it’s helpful to think about that we are actually creating this suspension of disbelief and what is it and what are some tips on how to create that?

Lewis Jorstad: So it actually ties in really well to the conversation of like, how are we reflecting the real world? So to define our terms, to make sure everyone’s on the same page, suspension of disbelief is when readers let themselves believe a story that they know is not true, and this applies to all genres.

I know we’re talking to sci-fi, and fantasy writers, but even, contemporary romance is still suspending disbelief because the reader knows it’s not true. And we’re having to create a world and characters that kind of welcome them in and say, yes, it’s not true, but it’s still gonna be worth letting yourself get invested in and care about.

And a big part of suspension of disbelief and allowing readers to suspend that disbelief is reducing the resistance they feel at the start of a story.

So when a reader picks up a novel off the bookshelf and they’re flipping through am I gonna enjoy this? Is this worth my time? Should I read any of the other dozens of novels on my two B red list? Should I just binge Netflix for the next five hours? There’s a lot of questions subconsciously, primarily that are happening for readers that create a feeling of resistance. And part of the beginning of our novels is easing that resistance, lowering those barriers to welcome them into our stories and suspension of disbelief is a big part of that.

And why I say that it I think, connects really well to the conversation of how are we incorporating real places and people and events into our stories even, very speculative stories is that one of the primary ways you can help your readers suspend disbelief is by meeting their expectations, by giving them what feels familiar.

And that’s for a few reasons.

On the one hand familiarity is something a lot of readers are looking for, whether consciously or not. If you are a fantasy reader, you probably read fantasy because you love the genre, but subconsciously because it’s a familiar genre and you have the tropes that you like, and you have the voice that you like, and part of that appeals to you.

And so for a reader, when they’re coming in and they’re experiencing that resistance, and trying to suspend their disbelief and get invested in the story, one of the biggest ways that we lower that barrier is by meeting them where they’re already at and saying, here are some things that you’re already familiar with, whether those are tropes from your genre or different conventions that they might be expecting.

But on a possibly even more subconscious level, there’s also what feels familiar about their real world? What do they know about real history or real events or real cultures or people that you are mirroring in your story that they’re latching onto and saying, oh, I understand this. I already have feelings and opinions about this that are helping them develop that emotional investment.

And so that’s why I think, especially for sci-fi, and fantasy, we are creating worlds that are often very different from our real world. And so finding ways to suspend that disbelief is more important than ever, but it also opens the door for suspending that disbelief in ways that are destructive on accident.

Again, that idea of incorporating real people in places to help suspend disbelief, but doing it in a way that is shallow or that leans on stereotypes orthat doesn’t push forward on, okay, maybe this place where these people have a fraught history, but how am I showing a better future and a better option for where those could go, or a more hopeful option, I guess is the right term.

I feel like those, the topics are more connected than you might think on the surface. Even though on the surface, like they seem very separate,

BETH BARANY: Yeah. That’s really cool. I think about how, so I’m writing science fiction mysteries, murder mysteries, so the murder mystery tropes, a lot of ’em are very familiar to a lot of people.

But what I’ve found is my readership is more oriented to the science fiction of fantasy readers. And if you throw in a mystery plot, they’re like, oh, that’s interesting. Versus the mystery readers tend to want, either a contemporary or historical setting, so they aren’t as adventurous, actually. And so I’ve decided I need to signal to my reader very clearly, obviously in the marketing, but also in the opening of the story, how we are on usually as uh a

Uh. Space station. ’cause that’s what I play with a lot, or some kind of spaceship if that’s the case. And how do I signal it in a way that is recognizable, and so therefore familiar, but also, oh, we’re not on a planet and we’re in some kind of sci-fi setting.

And because obviously it’s a created setting, I’m leaning into references that are from other people’s science fiction stories and I’m trying to telegraph something about the culture of the place, which is very challenging in the current work in progress. ’cause I’m trying to invent something versus the first four books in the series, which are, if you’re watching this on video or behind me in the Janey McCallister Space Station Investigator series. They’re all on a hotel casino space station that is very high end. So most people know what a hotel casino probably looks like to some degree in a high end hotel, some ideas. So I can just play with that.

But then I have to, what am I trying to say? I had to think about a lot of things. I had to think about how hotels are run and how casinos are run, and how many people does it take to staff those, and how many people and what kind of people take those jobs.

And it all feeds into the story, which is why my heroine is there and why she’s taking the job there. Anyway, I feel like I went off on a tangent a little bit, but just trying to give some illustration of how we have to mix what readers are expecting to see. And then how do we bring in the new elements and then how do we do it in a way that’s informed?

I went to Las Vegas and did research. I really did, and I even asked someone, what’s the definition of a high-end hotel? What’s the difference between a regular hotel like a Holiday Inn or something like that? Or something that I could afford versus something that is five times, the room rate that I’m paying. What’s the difference?

I got someone in the hotel to tell me and then I was talking to a lot of staff and watching how they worked and I. Just got nosy so I could hear what’s driving people, how do they approach their work? And because I’m writing my story from the backend, I’m not writing about guests coming in like a James Bond story.

I’m writing about people who use the secondary elevators and who support the guests. ’cause my heroine is one of those people. That’s just a tiny taste of the kind of research that I did. and, I love that you’re encouraging people to do that research.

And then when it comes to suspension of disbelief, I love that you’re sharing about understanding your genre, understanding your tropes, and giving people what they want, really helps them, that suspension of, disbelief. And then you have this great question, which ties into what we’ve just been talking about, which is: why do readers believe some stories more than others?

Is that a continuation of keeping, what makes a reader go, oh yeah, that could happen. What brings them to that level of acceptance?

[13:44] Cultural Familiarity, Reader Engagement, Assumptions about the World

Lewis Jorstad: I think again, it is that giving them what’s familiar, meeting their expectations, but more broadly mirroring things that feel familiar to them on a broader cultural level.

I actually was very fortunate to have a really fascinating conversation with a writer who was from China growing up, And we were talking about why, in their opinion, a lot of Chinese fantasy does not take off in the States, which is where I’m based in the United States. Because we were talking about how, a lot of the tropes are similar specifically for them, YA fantasy.

But a lot of the tropes are similar. It’s still YA, it’s got all the trappings of YA. All the genre expectations are there, but a lot of those stories just don’t catch here. And we were trying to sort through, I wonder why that is.

In that discussion where we landed is that, again, it’s not just meeting their genre expectations, but it’s meeting the reader’s assumptions about the world.

And the world looks very different in China than it does in the United States, and so us young adult readers are picking up that story and even though it’s a good story, like fantastically written, very interesting and certainly resonates with some readers, even if they’re not from that part of the world.

It for a lot of readers just doesn’t connect with them the same way because it’s bringing up cultural elements and expectations and groups of people and places that they don’t have a frame of reference for that they can’t relate to on that subconscious level. And I think that’s one, almost privilege maybe that American writers have, because American culture is so widespread, just the way things panned out.

American culture is actually somewhat familiar to someone in India or China or Japan or France or Germany, and books written by American authors can often resonate to a broader audience than say, a book written by someone in Argentina about Argentinian culture and all of the experiences that feel very normal there, but maybe don’t cross culture as well.

And so I think that’s something to think about for our own stories is whether we’re writing something where we’re purposefully trying to say, lean on our own culture, or even if we’re borrowing from other cultures, is: who are our readers and how are we connecting with them and helping them experience that in a way that, again, feels familiar in small ways? So that they’ll suspend their disbelief and they’ll get invested in the story.

But what’s also really fun about that is that on the back end, you don’t have to just give them what feels familiar and leave it at that. I think part of–to the point of this podcast of, how are we creating a more hopeful future? How are we showing a way that the world could maybe be better or more equitable, or whatever your specific focus is, the way you like to think about it?

Is that when you introduce those familiar cultural elements or familiar places, you also have the opportunity to test them or change them or challenge them in really interesting ways.

To draw on what I mentioned earlier, the novel I’m working on that is primarily based in Appalachia. I think the broader culture of that will feel familiar to a lot of my readers because most of my readers are American and that culture is not that drastically different than a lot of places.

They can, I think, relate to that, but also as someone who has grown up in that area and sees the wounds of that area, part of what I’m really excited to do in my story is as we get about halfway through the story and I start twisting things and adding new elements, part of what I intend to do is how can I challenge their expectations and their assumptions about this place, these people, this culture, to encourage my readers to think about the world in a different way, and to see, again, to that point of a more hopeful future, to see how we can move forward in a way that treats everyone with more respect and treats them more equally and starts to heal some of the wounds of these places.

And so I think that is something for my case, because I’m specifically leaning on a certain culture, is maybe more top of mind for me than it might be for other writers, which is absolutely fine.

But I think even for, in your situation writing about a sci-fi sort of casino hotel, there’s a lot of room there. I loved how you’re focusing on the staff more than the patrons. There’s a lot of room there to take what your readers are assuming about that place or those people and, subvert it or twist it or challenge it in ways that gets them to think about the world in slightly different ways.

[18:11] Test and Challenge

BETH BARANY: Yeah, and honestly, I don’t know if I did, but, I love this notion of test and challenge because what I’m actually trying to do in this coming work is, Is portray a location, a space station that has a different economy, a different government system, a different way of creating their environment, a different way of interacting together different assumptions about what does it mean to be in community.

And my whole vision for this series is that every space station is gonna be organized differently, and. Therefore I have an opportunity to talk about different cultural and social interactions and different assumptions about how people treat each other. my main character gets to be the outsider. So she gets to explain and wonder. And then because she has traveled a lot, she’s also super sensitive to the fact that people have different cultural customs around different things. And so she’ll think about, oh, I’m not really sure the right way to do this, but I just gotta forge ahead so I’m gonna, I’m gonna do it or say something. And she has to decode the way they talk with their little sayings that she doesn’t understand what they mean exactly. She doesn’t know the cultural context. And so I think writing science fiction/fantasy lets us play with different ways of being in the world I like what you were saying, the assumptions about the world. And If you’ve never traveled abroad, then science fiction and fantasy is a great way to travel and explore different cultural assumptions.

And just ’cause it’s in the zeitgeist– Dune. I read Dune when I was 19. I read all the books and instead of studying for finals in college, took some time to take a complete break and basically get like a political economy education while I was reading Dune. It really helped me understand that political economy was a thing. I hadn’t studied that specifically. That wasn’t my domain in school, but I got to see oh look, this society’s organized this way and the society’s organized that way in the sand and power and struggle and economics. It actually gave me a whole new understanding of how societies are put together that I had never had before. So that’s just one example of how–.,

Lewis Jorstad: So I really love that example though, because I think that’s another power of fantasy and sci-fi fiction more broadly. But I think especially fantasy and sci-fi is I think some readers come into stories with their guard up because they don’t want to be told how to think about the world. They don’t want to be told to think about things differently than they already do. And fantasy is this kind of it. It’s not about the real world.

And so it’s this like safety blanket of people let their guard down a little bit and are more open to seeing the world slightly differently in the context of fantasy.

And I think a power that we have as writers in those genres is to let our readers take their guard down, let them suspend their disbelief, let them get invested in the story, and then gently offer a different way of looking at the world.

We’re not beating our readers over the head with it. They have to come to those conclusions on their own. They have to complete that circle on their own. But we can be a part of introducing them to, to people and ways of thinking and ways of living that are different than anything they may have ever experienced before.

And that has a lot of power. That can do a lot in a reader’s life to change the way they approach the world for the better oftentimes.

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. I feel like there’s so much more to talk about here, but we’re gonna, we’re gonna end here because otherwise we’ll just talk for hours ’cause there’s so much to talk about.

And maybe another time we, I can have you back and we can do another dive into this because it’s so juicy and,I guess I have one more question, which is–

[21:34] Advice for Beginner Writers re: Cultural Assumptions of their Readers

BETH BARANY: Say you’re a beginning writer, you’re working on your first novel, maybe you’re in edits, which is where I support authors a lot, and you are wondering, and I get this question and I have this question: I don’t know what my readers are thinking.

I don’t know what their, cultural assumptions are. I don’t know necessarily what’s familiar to them, so I can use that in my choices and what I portray. What do you advise to someone like that?

Lewis Jorstad: My first answer would be to provide a little bit of comfort, and that is that for many of us, especially if you’re a beginner writer and you’re early on this journey, in my experience as an editor, most of the writers I’ve worked with who are at that stage are really writing for themselves. The novel they’re writing, their ideal reader is themselves, and there’s a broader conversation to be had about finding your ideal reader that’s related to publishing, that’s a different topic.

But in the realm of.suspension of disbelief in world building. How are you meeting your reader’s expectations? To some extent, I think that’s room for us to reflect on our own expectations, because a lot of us are, do start out writing for ourselves, writing the story we want to read, and then you have to ask the question of, why is that the story you wanna read?

Why are you making the choices you’re making?

A question I challenge all of my students with is:what do you believe about the world and how is that leaking into your story?

Because many of the writers that I work with have never really thought about that before. I’m not challenging them on it to say you have to change it, but to do it consciously to know why are you making these decisions?

And that could be as far reaching as writing Dune with a lot of big statements about political economy. But it’d also be as simple as writing a romance subplot. What is your worldview?

What’s your assumptions about love and relationships and how is that leaking into the way you’re telling this story?

That can provide so much guidance for us as writers, and I think for someone who’s earlier in that journey, that’s really where I would start, is before you start worrying about what other people think and what other people will take into your story, you first need to understand what you are bringing to your story.

BETH BARANY: I love that. That’s such a great inquiry for all writers to take. And, I, I definitely notice when I edit people’s work, you can tell how far they’ve taken their thinking and if they need that encouragement to be asked that question and to to dig into that question for themselves. So I love that.

And I think you’re absolutely right. That first book is, every book maybe is for the writer first and foremost.

So use yourself as the template, get really clear about your own assumptions, and I love that part. I hadn’t considered that part of how is it leaking into your story? And sometimes you get your beta readers to help you with that and point that out to you.

And so you start to learn, basically a kind of textual analysis of your own work, and you’re like, oh, I had this character say that. Oh, yeah, I totally believe that. And you start to recognize your beliefs and how they’ve come out in all these different ways in your story. So I just love that so much.

[24:30] Conclusion and Contact Information

BETH BARANY: So Louis, if people want to follow up with you, find out about what you’re doing and all the wonderful programs that you offer fiction writers, how can they find you?

Lewis Jorstad: So you can always find me at: thenovelsmithy.com. That’s my hub on the internet, but for anyone who’s listening who wants to maybe go a little bit deeper, I know we were talking about primarily world building and suspension of disbelief, but I think we were talking a little bit how that sort of bleeds into our characters as well.

I actually have a free workbook character interview guide that’s called “50 Questions to Ask Your Protagonist.” One of those questions is what is their worldview and how is that shaping the story? Oftentimes our protagonist’s worldview is also our own. So that’s worth, I think, interrogating, for a lot of us.

And if you’re interested in that, you can find that at: thenovelsmithy.com slash 50, the number dash questions. And yeah, that’ll put you on my email list. I email people in my orbit once or twice a week with writing advice, tips, cool things going on. it’s a pretty fun space to be if I do say so myself.

So I would love to see anybody there who might be interested.

BETH BARANY: Awesome. We’ll definitely make sure that link is in our show notes and people can check you out and also find it through your site, the novel smithy.com. Is that right? Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, Louis. So much fun to chat with you.

I’ll have you back, we’ll do some more deep dive into how to write the future and dive into craft. I think it’s so much fun to talk about with you. So thank you so much for being a guest today.

Lewis Jorstad: Absolutely. Super happy to be here.

[25:58] Check out the World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers

BETH BARANY: I want to invite you to check out my world-building workbook for fiction writers. I am a fiction writing teacher. If you need help with your world-building and you want to process to bring yourself through so you can make decisions about your story’s world, then I invite you to sign up for my World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers.

All right. That’s it for this time, everyone. Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

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***ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

C 2024 BETH BARANY

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Published on February 03, 2025 04:54

January 28, 2025

3 Romantic Subplots Pitfalls and How to Fix Them by Gala Russ

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, Gala Russ who is stopping by to chat with us about “3 Romantic Subplots Pitfalls and How to Fix Them.” Enjoy!

***

I don’t know about you, but when I first started weaving romance into my stories, I thought it would be a breeze.

I mean, how hard could it be to sprinkle in a bit of passion, right?

Turns out, it’s way easier to fall into a few common traps that leave readers rolling their eyes–or worse, skimming past your carefully crafted they-are-in-love scenes.

Over time, I learned that a romantic subplot can either elevate a story or feel like an awkward side quest no one asked for.

To help you avoid my mistakes, here are three tests that can help determine if your romantic subplot is working:

The Cut Test: Can the subplot be removed without affecting the main story?The Kiss Test: Would readers know the characters are romantically involved even without a kiss?The Friends Test: Would the characters still work as friends if the romance were removed?The Cut Test: Overshadowing the Main Plot or Ignoring Character Growth

When I first wrote a women’s fiction novel with a romantic subplot, I was so excited about the romance that I sort of forgot that the main focus was my female protagonist’s life experiences.

She ended up spending more time flirting with one of the male characters than working through her traumatic past and present.

The feedback from my editor? “Is this women’s fiction or a romance?”

This test first asks you to think about whether your story is primarily a romance with some other elements (like thriller or sci-fi) or a genre (or literary) story with a romantic subplot.

Readers pick up a horror (mystery, fantasy, etc.) novel expecting the main plot to be the priority.

If your romantic subplot overshadows it–like my women’s-fic-gone-romance–it can frustrate your audience.

On the flip side, if the romance is so disconnected from the rest of the story that you could cut it entirely without anyone noticing, that’s a problem too.

A romantic subplot should add something meaningful, like pushing characters to grow or adding stakes.

What worked for me:

Keep the focus clear. I learned to make sure the main goal of my non-romance books wasn’t about the characters’ love life.

Romance became a thread in the tapestry, complementing the main genre rather than stealing the spotlight.

Tie romance to character growth. A good romantic subplot challenges your characters.

For example, in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Hazel and Gus’s relationship isn’t just cute–it’s crucial to their journeys as they grapple with mortality and loss.

The Kiss Test: Not Building the Tension

One of my favorite things about writing romance is the build-up. You know, the longing glances, the almost-touches, the banter that’s so charged you can feel it crackling on the page.

That’s what keeps readers hooked–not just the kiss itself, but the journey leading up to it.

I’ve learned this the hard way. In one draft, my main protagonists went from strangers to soulmates in four chapters.

There was little longing and no journey.

My mentor told me she didn’t feel pulled to read the rest of the story as the small amount of tension I created was resolved and she didn’t care what happened next to the couple.

Romantic tension is about making readers root for the characters to get together, to overcome the obstacles that prevent them from the happily ever after.

Take Mr. and Mrs. Smith, for example. Their relationship works because of the layered conflict: trust issues, external obstacles, and that lingering spark in the middle of all the chaos.

How to build tension:

Drop breadcrumbs of attraction. Small, meaningful moments–a lingering glance, a shared joke, or an unexpected act of kindness–can go a long way.Introduce obstacles. Whether it’s fear of commitment, conflicting goals, or societal pressure, obstacles and unresolved narrative tension keep readers invested.The Friends Test: Would They Be Friends Without Romance?

In my early days of writing, I equated romance to physical chemistry. But here’s the thing: if your romantic leads wouldn’t even make sense as friends, the romance is going to feel forced.

Even enemies-to-lovers stories, one of my favorite tropes, work because there’s a foundation–whether it’s shared goals, mutual respect, or vulnerability–that makes the romance believable.

In my short story about two people snowed in on New Year’s Eve the characters had nothing in common by the end, when they kissed and decided to date.

My critique partner gently asked, “But why do they like each other?”

In Killing Eve, for instance, Eve and Villanelle have a deadly rivalry, but their connection works because of their mutual respect and admiration they show each other.

So how do you make sure your romantic leads would work as friends?

Build common ground. Give them shared goals, values, or interests. What brings them together outside of their attraction?Write organic connections. Show their relationship growing through teamwork, mutual respect, or those quiet moments where they let their guard down.Balancing Romance and Plot

When a romantic subplot is done well, it adds emotional stakes and depth to your story. It’s that extra layer that makes readers care even more about your characters.

Here’s what I look for when evaluating a romantic subplot:

Does it contribute to the characters’ growth?Does it enhance the primary narrative without overshadowing it?Does the relationship feel earned?

If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you’re on the right track.

Ready to Take Your Romantic Subplots to the Next Level?

If you want to improve your skills of crafting romantic subplots, I’d love for you to join me later this year for my workshop, Writing a Romantic Subplot.

We’ll talk about techniques, exercises, and examples to help you weave romance seamlessly into your story, no matter the genre.

Until then, may your romantic subplots always pass the test!

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gala Russ is a book coach and an author of seven novels (under the pen name Willa Drew).

Through her workshops and one-on-one sessions, she works with writers who want to finish their novels or create a self-publishing business.

To learn more, subscribe to Gala’s newsletter here to get 10 Journaling Prompts to Sharpen Your Romantic Subplot or connect with her at galarussauthor.com or on social media.

Books:

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
The Trope Thesaurus by Jennifer Hilt
Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

The post 3 Romantic Subplots Pitfalls and How to Fix Them by Gala Russ appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.