Auden Johnson's Blog, page 4

What I’ve Learned From 10 Years of Blogging

I started blogging in 2011 because all the experts said that’s what authors should do. The journey has not been what I’ve expected, it never is, but I’ve come to enjoy it. Here are a few things I’ve learned.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

This is easier said than done. Even now, I struggle with this. You listen to/read about other bloggers who said it took them 3 years before they started getting speaking engagements. Others said it was 5 years before they saw a consistent increase in book sales. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I’ve seen none of that. I’ve been following experts’ advice but I don’t see the results they do. But, that’s how life, especially the internet, is sometimes. What works for one person may not work for another.

I’ve read stories of authors who offered a story for free on their blog to grow their email list. They said as soon as they offered that freebie, they saw subscriptions shoot up. I’ve been trying that for years with different books and didn’t see the kind of increase they predicted.

Find What Works for You

On a similar note, it’s okay if what the influencers say doesn’t work for you. Find what does. Professional bloggers talk about Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as good drivers of traffic. I like using those sites but they don’t bring a lot of people to my blog. Pinterest does. More than half of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest.

Similarly, people talk about how Facebook ads are a good way of driving traffic to your blog or book. No matter what I did, I could never get Facebook ads to work for me. So, I stopped using them. I am too broke to keep putting money into something that doesn’t work.

I started my journey on Blogger. For years, I read posts about how you need to be on WordPress if you want to be a “real” blogger. But, at the time Blogger worked for me. I switched to WordPress because I needed more room to showcase my books and photos. But, I’ve only been on WordPress for less than a year.

Listen to the experts but still find what works for you.

Design Matters

People will judge a book by the cover. If I jump on a blog with bad design, I generally don’t trust what the author’s written. It’s sad, I know but when I see bad web design, I generally don’t stick around unless the site comes highly recommended. A simple white background and an uncluttered design may be boring but it goes a long way in establishing your credibility.

You’ll Need To Edit HTML

If you’re blogging, even as using something simple as Blogger, you’ll need to be comfortable with using and editing HTML. You don’t need a developer level of skill but you can’t run a blog without dealing with HTML unless you hire some to do it for you.

Create a Content Calendar

I’m not a planner so it took me years to do this. Even now, I’m still bad at updating my blog calendar every month. A few weeks ago, I had a post idea. I didn’t plan it. I decided to do it. I hadn’t expected the post to take me so long to finish. If I had put it in my calendar and planned for it, I wouldn’t have had to push the topic to another day. I talked a bit about it in the post Nice Photos of Nature: A Boathouse Through the Seasons.

The calendar doesn’t have to elaborate. For a long time, I was using a basic template from Excel. Now I use this.

But, I don’t remember where I got it. It’s a template I downloaded from a website. Hubspot has a fairly basic calendar you can download for free though you have to give your name, email, and phone number to get it.

Images Matter

I heard somewhere that the images you use on your blog don’t matter. I’d have to disagree. As I mentioned before, Pinterest is the second-best driver of traffic to my blog, search being the first. When you’re sharing your post on social media, a good header image gets people to stop scrolling and read your tweet or Facebook post. You can find free royalty-free images on sites like Unsplash and Pixabay but, I prefer using Shutterstock. They have more variety of images. I subscribed to the 10 images a month for $29.00 plan.

Blog Because You Enjoy it

If you’re an author about to publish your first book, do you need to start a blog? No. You can if you want to but after 10 years, blogging hasn’t helped my book sales all that much. You might be better off starting a vblog or podcast.

I’m not saying it’s impossible for your blog to lead to book sales. I’ve just never had it happen to me. If you do start blogging with the intention of selling more books, don’t expect it to happen right away. Unless, you already have an established fanbase. Blogging is a lot of work with often, little reward, sometimes the passion is all you have.

I do have about 200 people subscribed to my newsletter, though. It’s not a lot but I’m happy about that amount. My blog is helping my newsletter grow. I don’t think this journey was a waste because it didn’t do what I expected. I enjoy it.

Speaking of, I’m creating a freebie to celebrate 10 years of blogging. I’ll be sending it to newsletter subscribers on February 16. If you subscribe today, you could get three stories for free, one today and two tomorrow.

Bonus Tips

Infographics are difficult to make and they take a lot of time and resources but they’re also the reason Pinterest has been so good for my blog. I created a guide on how authors can learn to design infographics. It seems when my posts do well on Pinterest, it increases my ranking in search.

Black and White Landscape Photography Tips

I have a complicated relationship with black and white landscape photography. Nature has so many pretty colors. I get distracted by the colors and the scene that I sometimes forget about telling a story through my photos.

Black and white landscape photos shouldn’t be an afterthought. Most times, I take a shot and decided if I’m stripping the color while editing in Lightroom. Rarely do I look at a scene and think, this would be beautiful in black and white. I’m trying to get better at it.

Shoot RAW

If you have a DSLR camera and Lightroom, shoot in RAW instead of JPEG. You’ll have an easier time editing when you do. Cameras have a black and white mode. I never use it. Some photos look good in both color and black and white. I’d rather have more control over how my photo turns out. I shoot in color and change it to black and white in Lightroom.

Snow is great for black and white landscape photography

Keeping with the winter photography theme from the last post, snow simplifies the landscape. It’s a perfect environment to capture beautiful black and white photos.

Sometimes, your shot comes out naturally black and white. With the bare winter trees and snow-covered ground, most photos won’t have any color. Winter is also a good opportunity to take advantage of the interesting shapes and textures of the trees.

Look for lines

Probably one of the first scenes I captured with the intention of turning it black and white. I took this shot because of those lines leading to the top. The mountain also has a nice contrast between light and dark areas.

Find contracts

Speaking of contrasts, for black and white landscape photography, you don’t have those nice pops of colors to draw the eye through the photo. Make sure you find contrasts to stop your photo from looking too flat.

This photo doesn’t just rely on the nice textures of Waimea Canyon in Hawaii. Sunlight colors each section differently giving the scene some nice contrasts.

Textures are your friends

This photo’s doing a couple of things. The mountains in the back are so far away that they have a softer texture than the ones in the front. That provides a good contrast. Then, you have the road line leading you through the scene. You have another mountain line separating the different textures. The sky’s boring but it also makes the mountain stand out, which is why I didn’t crop it out. Use white space to your advantage.

Clouds are perfect for giving your black and white photos a good focus texture.

In the below photo, you have nice texture and contrast in the land itself. The clouds add an extra atmosphere to it. And they cast interesting shadows.

Use black and white landscape photography to fight the harsh midday sun

It’s difficult to get a perfectly exposed photo in the middle of the day under a cloudless sky. The whites are too white and the shadows are too dark. But sometimes, you may have to photograph in those conditions.

When in Hawaii, I went on an island tour. We stopped at Spouting Horn during one of the worst photo times of the day. However, I knew I wouldn’t be able to return at sunrise or sunset. I was not walking away without a photo. But, it was so difficult getting a good shot of the scene. I couldn’t even fix the exposure issues in Lightroom. So, I turned it black and white. Made the photo a lot better.

I had the same issue with this photo.

It’s a beautiful scene but that sun wreaked havoc on my exposure. So, I turned it black and white. That river acts as a leading line through the scene. That sunlight colors the landscape differently giving you nice contrast between the foreground and the background. Stripping the color also brought out the small mountain way in the distance that I hadn’t noticed before.

Take advantage of light and shadows

Let’s return to Waimea Canyon. That plant only stands out because part of the background is in shadows. If the mountains in the back were lit the same as the foreground, the plant would blend in with everything. Those shadows also act as a spotlight since everything else is brighter.

Black and white changes your photo’s story. It simplifies the scene. That can be both a good and bad thing. Some of my photos didn’t work as black and white because they weren’t sharp. Taking away the color put far too much emphasis on the soft subject.

Post-processing is key for black and white landscape photography. Study other photos and get an idea of what yours are supposed to look like. Practice. I have a Pinterest board for Black and White Landscape Photography inspiration.

More resources

6 Tips to Help You Make Better Black and White Landscape Photos

Tips and Techniques for Black & White Landscape Photography

12 Elements of Fantasy Worldbuilding (Infographic)

Fantasy worldbuilding can be as epic or a small as you need it to be. It’s both fun and challenging. Done right, it gives your readers a solid sense of place. Readers should feel like they can visit your world.

This topic has been on my mind a lot recently because of my WIP. Book 4 of The Merging Worlds series is becoming something grand. I knew world-building for the book was going to be tough but I underestimated just how tough. But, I can’t complain, I did it to myself. I plan on writing a post about creating big worlds.

I’m mostly a panster expect when it comes to worldbuilding. Even if I’m only creating one landmass, there’s far too much information to keep in my head. Whether you’re developing one landmass or several, here are a few fantasy worldbuilding things to keep in mind.

It’s easy to spend so much time worldbuilding that you forget to actually write your story. You don’t need to include all of these things in your fantasy world. I mention things like religion and trade in some of my stories but neither I nor my characters ever dive too deep into it.

On an unrelated note, I hope there comes a time when Medieval is not the default for fantasy, even when images. While trying to find stock images for the infographic, I only came across Medieval worldbuilding elements. If I wanted something else, I couldn’t search for “fantasy.”

I created templates that go deeper into a lot of these topics. Check out Temples for Building a Fantasy World.

More Resources

World-Building: The 10 Key Elements

An Introduction to World-Building

11 Elements of Fantasy Worldbuilding (Infographic)

Fantasy worldbuilding can be as epic or a small as you need it to be. It’s both fun and challenging. Done right, it gives your readers a solid sense of place. Readers should feel like they can visit your world.

This topic has been on my mind a lot recently because of my WIP. Book 4 of The Merging Worlds series is becoming something grand. I knew world-building for the book was going to be tough but I underestimated just how tough. But, I can’t complain, I did it to myself. I plan on writing a post about creating big worlds.

I’m mostly a panster expect when it comes to worldbuilding. Even if I’m only creating one landmass, there’s far too much information to keep in my head. Whether you’re developing one landmass or several, here are a few fantasy worldbuilding things to keep in mind.

It’s easy to spend so much time worldbuilding that you forget to actually write your story. You don’t need to include all of these things in your fantasy world. I mention things like religion and trade in some of my stories but neither I nor my characters ever dive too deep into it.

On an unrelated note, I hope there comes a time when Medieval is not the default for fantasy, even when images. While trying to find stock images for the infographic, I only came across Medieval worldbuilding elements. If I wanted something else, I couldn’t search for “fantasy.”

I created templates that go deeper into a lot of these topics. Check out Temples for Building a Fantasy World.

More Resources

World-Building: The 10 Key Elements

An Introduction to World-Building

Winter Landscape Photography Tips for Capturing Snow

18 mm, 1/800 sec., F/6.3, ISO 100

Outside of autumn, winter landscape photography is probably my favorite. Living in NY taught to me thoroughly dislike the snow, at first Now, I like it because it makes the landscape extra photogenic. I mentioned in the post Battling a Storm to Get Some Incredible Nature Photos that I’ve made a habit of going on during and after snowstorms to take photos. It’s both fun and challenging. Exhilarating and exhausting. With two storms this winter, I’ve gotten a lot of practice in. Here some tips for photographing snowscapes.

Why Go Out During a Storm

Technically, you can wait for the snow to stop before going out. It’ll make this easier. But you may not get shots like these:

35 mm., 1/320 sec., F/4.5, ISO 30024 mm, 1/2500 sec., F/4.0, ISO 1000

I like those people free photos with the fresh, barely touched snow. You have less chance of getting that if you wait until the snow stops. Especially now, with most people stuck indoors.

Dress for the Weather

You’re going to be outside in the cold for several hours. Take care of yourself. You don’t want to get sick or put in the hospital for a photo. I discussed clothes in the post Nature Photography: Winter Hiking Clothes. In the post Amazing Winter Photos from NY’s Snowstorm, I talked about how the clothes stood up in a storm.

Because of money issues, I’m using a pair of ankle-high Timberlands. They do the job for the most part. However, I’d like to switch to higher boots. Snow often gets into my shoes. I also need better gloves. I’ve tried two different pairs and both times my hands got so cold they started hurting. Putting them in my pockets helped but I need to take them out to capture scenes.

Start Your Winter Landscape Photography Day Early or Late

You probably know to avoid photographing under the harsh midday sun. That’s extra true when there’s snow on the ground. Bright sun bounces off the white snow and overexposes your shot. I usually turn down the exposure on my camera to compensate. Now, you won’t have to worry about this if it’s still snowing when you leave. Too cloudy for any kind of sunlight to shine on your landscape.

Bring an Umbrella

I keep telling myself to bring an umbrella and I keep forgetting. I may have to store a small one in my hiking bag. With heavy snow falling, it’s difficult to keep your lens clean enough to get a clear photo. I bought lens wipes but they stopped working after a while. I wouldn’t spend the entire time under an umbrella. I’d pull it out when it’s time to take a photo. Snowflakes ruined a lot of good compositions. I’m pretty sure you can find camera covers but, as a broke person, I can’t afford to buy a bunch of equipment

Find Contrasts

Snow makes winter landscape photography both harder and easier. Everything’s white so it’s often easier to find a good composition. On the flip side, everything’s white so it’s easier to capture a boring scene.

Search for contrasts like snow on trees or that rare pop of color.

27mm, 1/2500 sec., F/4.0, ISO 1000Look at the Ground

Something I noticed just recently though it’s probably obvious to everyone else. Strong wind makes some interesting lines in snow and ice.

75 mm, 1/800 sec., F/4.0, ISO 100

Also, footprints create good leading lines, especially when they tell a story on their own.

24 mm, 1/2500 sec., F/4.0

For this photo, those footprints are going across a lake. That area with trees is on an island we can’t reach on a normal day. In this park, we are never, ever, allowed to walk across the lake when it’s frozen. Out of frame is a bright red sign warning of thin ice. A sign I hadn’t notice until I was right on top of it. I’m, fortunately, familiar enough with this park to know where the lake begins without needing the signs. I was curious about the island. Not enough to walk across a frozen lake.

Hold Your Breath

Years ago, I read once that photographs have a tendency to hold their breath when they take a shot. It’s true. They said we should make a habit of exhaling as we press the shutter button. But, that advice backfires when it’s snowing. Your breath fogs your camera lens. In the snow, hold your breath when you’re ready to take the shot.

Shoot Raw

When it’s snowing out, it’s difficult to properly expose your shot. I get as close as I can then edit it in Lightroom. When you shoot RAW, it’s easier to get back some overexposed or underexposed areas of your shot. Particularly useful if you want to make a photo black and white.

35 mm, 1/50 sec., F/10, ISO 250Bring Extra Camera Batteries

I don’t have spare batteries yet but it would’ve helped me out a lot. I believe batteries drain faster in cold weather. Mine certainly did.

Take care of yourself. You don’t want to get hypothermia for a photo. Avoid cotton. Wear layers. Invest in thermals. Remember to have fun. Even before the pandemic, life was beating me down. The rona just made it worse. After two days of shooting in a winter storm, I was tired and in pain but I had so much fun. When life hits you hard, you have to go out and make your own joy.

Follow me on Instagram. Fine more photos on Behance.

More Resources

7 Tips for Taking Photographs in the Snow

13 Snow Photography Tips: A Beginner’s Guide

7 Book Formatting Tips for Indie Authors

I have a love/hate relationship with book formatting. I like that, with InDesign, I can get creative with the book’s layout. But, I’ve published 15 books and still haven’t streamlined the process. I mention in 9 Things I’ve Learned About Print Book Cover Design that I’m creating a hardback version of The Sciell. After formatting 15 books, I still run into issues.

I’ll upload the file into KDP or IngramSpark, preview it and find something wrong. I’ll fix it again, upload the new file, preview it again and find something else wrong. This repeats over and over until I’m no sick of looking at the book. I get tempted to let certain things slide because I don’t feel like fixing yet another thing.

Back when I published my first book in 2014, I believe Word and InDesign were the biggest book formatting software. Now, authors can choose from a number of apps. InDesign is probably the hardest to use but I stick with it because Adobe apps give me a bit more creative freedom.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you format your book.

Format your book with facing pages

Most authors format their books in Word or a specialized app. I use InDesign. If you can, format your book with your pages facing each other, like this:

You’ll get a better idea of how your book will look in print and you can pick up certain issues like uneven pages.

What are Bleeds?

I didn’t start dealing with page bleeds until I wanted my maps to fill the entire page.

Adding a bleed is kind of like making your book slightly larger to avoid having any white space around certain images. It took me a long time to get this right.

This red line in the image below is the bleed area. I made it brighter so you could see it. The line isn’t usually this wide.

If I want an image to cover the entire page, it needs to touch those lines. Publishers like Amazon and InstgramSpark have guides on the measurement for your bleed. InDesign has a specific place where you add bleed to your file.

Chapters always begin on the right side

If you look at other print books, you’ll notice all chapters begin on the right side. If the previous chapter ends on the right, you add a black page after it and keep going.

Don’t Use Tab

Both Word and InDesign have a way you can set paragraph indents. Use that instead of the Tab button. When uploading your book, most publishing tools ignore Tabs. If you don’t set indent using Paragraph Styles, your book could come out looking like a long 300+ page paragraph.

Watch out for Word Spacing

This is a constant problem for me. I never touch the spacing between words. It’s supposed to be the same throughout the book yet something like this happens.

I didn’t add those space. I still don’t know how to prevent this from happening. Be on the lookout for stuff like this when you’re previewing your book.

Beware of Orphans and Widows

When book formatting, you’ll sometimes end up with a lonely word or phrase at the top or bottom of your page. Like this:

Stuff like this makes the book visually unappealing. You want to avoid this. Formatting The Sciell to remove these stray words was something special.

I read it was all right to let a few stay but you should remove as many as you can.

Images Need to be Anchored

I’ve only ever used InDesign to format books so I don’t know how other apps handled images that don’t cover the entire page. But, for InDesign, images like the below chapter header need to be centered and anchored. If not, it may be in a different position when I upload the file.

You want your book to look as polished as possible. Most people, like me, can’t afford to hire a designer. Adobe apps are expensive as difficult to learn but I’ve found that they’re useful when you want to create something but you can’t spend hundreds even thousands of dollars doing it.

Got any questions about book formatting. Comment below.

Hiking Photography: YouTube Channels for Hikers

With the way things are, I’m unlikely to go on a hiking photography trip anytime soon. The last thing I want is to be on a train for 2+ hours with someone sitting next to me in the middle of a pandemic. On top of that, hiking has become way more popular. One of my favorite trails got super crowded. I started hiking because all the crowds in NY were starting to get on my nerves. Hiking on a packed trail kinda defeats the purpose.

Right now, I can only take short trips through my park. I sometimes get good photos but it doesn’t compare to hiking in the mountains. While I can’t hike, I can research to level up my skills. Here are some good YouTube Channels. Most of these focus on hiking. But, Thomas Heaton has a playlist of his hiking photography trips.

Thomas HeatonAdventure ArchivesAbbie Barnes / Spend More Time In The WILDElsa Rhae & Barron

This technically isn’t a hiking or photography channel but these two live in a camper off-the-grid. A lot of the things they talk about could help you on your hiking trip.

AmandaOutsideHomemade Wanderlust Kraig Adams

Do you want to take better nature photos on your hiking trip? I wrote a post about that. How to Take Beautiful Hiking Photos on Your Next Trip. Next up, I’ll be looking up books. It’ll also be interesting to see if I can learn how to identify certain plants in the wild.

Do you have any channels to add? Comment below. Follow me on Instagram for more nature photos.

Creating Diverse Fantasy Worlds: BIPOC Characters

Over the years, I’ve talked a lot about my love for diverse fantasy worlds. I particularly enjoy seeing black and brown people in non-stereotypical roles. In general, I love fantasy worlds where the main cast isn’t all white, het, cis, male.

But, I’ve avoided writing a post about this topic because others have already talked about it a lot. I didn’t see how it was worthy of a full blog post. Just write real people. Don’t create your ideal person or how you believe a person with a certain skin color would be. Just write people. As a het, cis, African American female, I can’t talk about writing good LGBTQIA+ characters. Others with more knowledge discussed this subject.

Writing LGBT characters as a straight, cis person?

The In’s & Out’s of Writing Queer Characters

33 LGBTQ(IA+) Terms You Should Know in 2020

This post talks about some of the problematic things I’ve seen when brown-skinned people are put in fantasy stories.

Before we Begin

This post is for people making entirely fictional worlds instead of a fictional version of a real place like you see in sci-fi and urban fantasy. You can make race anything you want. In this case, your characters are just people who happen to have different skin color, hair text and facial features than you.

What Are Diverse Fantasy Worlds?

In media, white, het, cis is the default. In fantasy, white, het, cis, male is the default. At its basics, a diverse fantasy world is one in which all the characters aren’t the default. Can you add one fully developed “other” and call it diverse? I’d say no. Even if they’re fully developed, they’re still a token.

On the flip side, I attended all-black schools growing up. Where they diverse? Technically, yes because students weren’t the default. However, in fantasy, I prefer seeing and creating less homogenous worlds.

I use Manhattan as an example. If you live in one of the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island), it’s almost impossible not to interact with someone who’s not like you. You’d have to go out of your way to avoid them. That is diversity.

However, writing that kind of world is difficult, especially if you’re not a minority. Do your research. Start small. It’s okay to have a fully fleshed out token in your first attempt. Work your way up to adding more characters.

The Realistic Argument

“My world’s based on medieval Europe. It wouldn’t’ be realistic to add black or brown people to my story.” There are a host of issues with this statement. I talked about that in the below posts.

Where There Black Medieval Knights?

Myths about Medieval Europe

You can imagine someone shifting into a dragon but giving a king brown skin is way too unrealistic?

Black Skin Equals Evil

Fantasy has a tendency of making all black-skinned people deformed monsters or pretty savages in the case of drow elves. Don’t make the only black or brown-skinned people in your story the bad guys. It’s okay to equate dark with evil. It’s not okay to make all the good guys have white skin and all the bad guys have black skin.

The Magical Minority

I’ve mentioned this trope before in another post. I was watching a horror movie on Netflix. It was pretty good. But, I got a bit irritated towards the end. A white family was being haunted by nasty spirits. So, they brought in two minorities to save them. These two were the only minorities in the whole movie and their only purpose was to save the white people.

Similarly, (spoilers for Greenland), for the most part, I enjoyed the latest disaster mover Greenland. But, one part bugged me. Gerard Butler was separated from his family. In his journey to reunite with them, he got a ride in a truck full of people. During that, he started talking with this nice black guy, learned a bit about his background and got some plot specific information. Then, stuff happens and the only black guy in the movie dies. His only job was to help the white family survive.

I’d rather the story not be diverse then pull this nonsense.

Give Them Diverse Features

Minorities have certain characters outside of skin color. I read in one place that BIPOC are tired of being described in comparison to food, as in coffee-colored skin and almond eyes. I, personally, don’t mind when it’s done. But, it bothers some people. When describing hair, avoid using words like “woolly” or “kinky”.

Years ago, when I wanted a brown-skinned character stock image, I had to take white ones and change their skin color. This also meant they didn’t have features typical of brown people like a wide nose and thick hair.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter with people complaining about the trend of giving black and brown-skinned people blue eyes and white hair just because you think it looks nice. Having grown up watching anime, this is something I’ve gotten used to and don’t particularly mind. But, I do understand why this makes people angry. Some African Americans, myself included, were made to feel ugly because we didn’t have that “good hair” or “pretty eyes”. Some of us, again myself included, messed up our hair and scalp to turn ourselves into the world’s version of pretty.

When writing my Merging World Series, I often consulted Writing with Color to learn different ways of describing skin color and hair texture.

Writing with Color

Writing with Color: Featured Description Post

Diverse Fantasy/Horror/Sci-fi Character Artwork

The “Real-World” Race

An author creates an “other” race, whether it’s an alien or a group of people in a remote community. The main characters, who are usually white, need to visit them for some reason. The people of this “other” community were clearly based, often poorly, off a real-world race. If they’re black, they may be in poor urban areas.

My thesis project a couple of years ago was about solving the lack of diversity in publishing. The tagline was, “because everyone wants to go on an adventure.” I want to see more BIPOC characters on the quest. Not as the natives the main party encounters along the way. We’re sidelined minorities even in books. If you want to have your “ethic” natives, don’t make them the only BIPOC is the book. And, don’t make their only purpose helping white people.

Are you noticing a pattern?

Remind Readers

I never read Hunger Games or watched the movies but I remember the uproar around Rue. People were mad they cast a black girl. Some going so far as saying they no longer cared she died. Apparently, in the book, Rue was described as having brown skin but clearly, a lot of readers missed it.

If your character isn’t white, sprinkle in a few reminders throughout the story. Maybe about their hair texture or how their skin color makes them stand out. In one book I read, most of the main characters were brown skin. Your reminder was their reaction when they met someone with white skin. Their reaction was respectful but clearly, the characters didn’t live around people with that skin tone.

Do you have to write a diverse fantasy world? No. It’s your book. Write it however you want. If you’re thinking of including BIPOC characters, these are a few things to keep in mind. Ideally, what I hope for is a genre where you don’t have to hunt for diverse books. Where I can search dark fantasy and know I’ll find different kinds of books.

YA is getting there. I don’t mind YA but I prefer adult. With adult fantasy books, you still need to do a diversity search. If you do a general fantasy book search, the majority of the result will be titles written by white men.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing diverse books, then support a BIPOC fantasy author. Buy their book. Leave a review. Share it on social media. Recommend the book to a friend. Support indie author. The fantasy scene for self-published books are amazingly diverse but lists, like the ones below, tend to focus on traditionally published books

Goodreads: Diverse Adult Fantasy Books

Books by Theme: Adult fantasy from diverse authors

Diverse Fantasy/Sci-Fi/ Horror Books and Authors

Autumn and Winter Waterfall Photography

85mm, F/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400

I haven’t had a chance to get into the kind of waterfall photography of my dreams. Hudson Valley and upstate NY have the tall waterfalls I’ve been chasing but I can’t reach them without a car. That doesn’t mean I can’t practice on smaller, local ones.

75 mm, F/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 6400

When you have running water, it’s super tempting to capture those long exposure shots. But, getting them is a pain. A pain.

77mm, F/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 6400

That was before I did my research and bought ND Filters. Before I could afford a tripod, I steadied my camera against whatever was available– rocks, fences, trees, my knees. That limited my composition, though. Getting those sharp photos was a challange.

95 mm, F/32, 6 sec, ISO 100

Taking long exposure shots during the middle of the day isn’t wise. Your photos may come out white even with an ND Filter. I’ve tried to make it work, though. Ideally, you take nature photos at sunrise or sunset. But, that also means I’ll be on the trail in the dark. Sounds like a horror movie. I’m not comfortable enough to camp by myself so right now.

I did manage to get a mid-day long exposure waterfall shot. I talked about in the post Hiking Adventures: Capturing Beautiful Fall Landscape Photos. That day was a little overcast and the dense forest blocked most of the stray sunbeams.

75 mm, F/32, 1.6 sec, ISO 100

Winter brings its own issues. My camera gets snowed on while I’m waiting for it to finish taking the photo. An umbrella would help but I don’t carry one during my hikes. I may have to. Another thing to stuff in my bag.

85 mm, F/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800

But, I did manage to capture one when it wasn’t snowing.

105 mm, F/32, 2 sec, ISO 100

Follow me on Instagram for more nature and waterfall photography. Find more photos on Behance.

Fantasy World Building Template: Creating Fantasy Races

Creating fantasy races is probably one of my favorite parts of world-building. I talked a bit about this topic in the post Creating Unique Magical Fantasy Races. I love when authors deviate from the typical fantasy characters to create something new.

If you’re using known fantasy races like elves, you can probably find books or blog posts about their specific characteristics. I would suggest looking up the lore at the end of your process. Create your own characteristics then sprinkle in some things you find in your research.

Generally, fantasy tends to make the good races white-skinned and the savage ones black-skinned. I’d suggest you not do that. Those books tend to have an all-white cast so the only black and brown people are the bad guys. If you want to have black-skinned bad guys, make your main cast more diverse.

Similarly, I’d suggest not basing your fantasy race on an actual one outside of your own. Unless, you plan on doing the proper research and, potently, having someone from that race read your story before publication. I avoid making things like locations and races recognizable. I draw from real-world inspiration but I mix a bunch of things together to make something new.

With that in mind, here are a few questions to ask yourself as you populate your world.

Basics

What’s you race’s name?

What separates your race from everyone else? Location, belief, magic?

Do they have specific physical characteristics like hair and eye color? A tail?

Do they speak the country’s/town’s main language or do they have their own?

Environment and Culture

Where are they located? Do they live all over your world or in one specific place or type of environment like a mountain or forest?

If they’ve isolated themselves, is there a reason for it?

How is their community layout out?

What are the buildings made of? Read Creating a Fictional World for a guide about making a town.

What is everyday life like?

Do people have jobs? What kind?

Do they have their own governing system? If so, what is it?

What’s their history? Are they famous or infamous for something specific?

How do they dress? Do they wear clothes or walk around in their nature furs/scales, for instance?

If they wear clothes, do the fabrics, colors or the way they’re worn mean anything?

Do they eat only specific types of food? Why?

What does the family unit look like?

At what age are children considered adults? Does something special happen to them? Is there a ceremony?

Do they have an special holidays?

How do those apart of the race view their own people?

Religion

Is religion important to them? If so, what’s the religion called? Does it have a name?

What’s the history of their religion?

Does everyone apart of the race believe/follow this religion?

Describe their religion. What is their belief system? What are the rules, if any?

Do they have a specific location for worship?

How do they communicate with their deity?

How do outsiders view their religion?

The World

Does you book have more than one race? Who are they?

How does your race relate to others?

Do people in your world know about this race?

How does the world view them? Good or bad? If it’s bad, do they have a good reason for it?

Fantasy races don’t need to have a human-like appearance. They could be dragons who don’t shift or magical wolves. If you have multiple races, you may not need to answer these questions for all of them unless you want to. Fully flesh out your main race(s). For the side ones, answer a few key questions that you think will help you finish the story.

Do you have anything you want to add. Comment below.

More Resources

How to Create a New Race in a Fantasy Game

3 Steps for Creating Realistic Fantasy Races and Creatures