Worldbuilding seems to be either every writer’s bane or boon. Its importance is often underestimated and incorporation of it into a story is sometimes completely abandoned. Yet worldbuilding needs just as much development as your plot and characters do––your story and the people in your story constantly engage with the setting.
Tag: writing
Being a Writer in a World of Instant Gratification
Most of the time, the best things take the most time. As a writer, this statement could not be more true.
Why Taking Breaks from Writing is Important
Taking breaks is important. As mortal Earthlings, moderation with everything is vital; we can’t handle too much of anything. This is why we sleep at night. This is why we take breaks at work. This is why we take school breaks during the summer and Christmas time. And this is also why we should take breaks…
Michael’s Movie Mentions: Exploring Tension-Building in “The Bourne Ultimatum”
“The Bourne Ultimatum” is a perfect film for analyzing and applying to writing, because it has many traits that are unique to this film series, one of the reasons it is widely known and well regarded as an action film.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Writing, Sci-Fi, and Speculation
Ever since I decided to become a writer and publish a book, my stories have been all about breaking the fourth wall. No matter who the characters are, what the genre is, or what the story is about, the plot is centered on a main character who is seemingly trapped in reality. Leo from Netherworld is given…
Realism and Antirealism in Writing
As a writer, I draw upon realism to create antirealistic worlds. As a reader, I have to accept truth on different terms when I immerse myself in a book and believe in the fantastical world the story is about. Versimilitude is the appearance of being real or true. It’s important when it comes to both…
3 Writing Exercises with Music
Sometimes you need to take a break from your main writing project. Spending all your writing time on just one project can get overwhelming and you might notice that your coffee fuel starts draining faster the longer and more often you spend working on one particular story. When it comes to my writing for Fiction’s…
6 Tips for Being a Productive Writer
Sometimes being a writer requires, well, writing. (Who knew?) But sometimes all artists have a hard time making sure to make art consistently. Obstacles of all sorts appear frequently and our creativity sometimes seems under Loki’s influence. So we must learn to push through the road blocks, even when we’re not feeling particularly creative or…
Preparing to Kill Your Darlings: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself
Well, it’s time to kill a character, you say. Wait! Stop! First, identify your reasons. If you’re killing simply because you’re frantic for some impact or looking for a way to get your readers to respond to your story emotionally (just ’cause you do, usually doesn’t mean they will), or if you’ve hit writer’s block…
Fixing Tropes in Fantasy Fiction
The Google dictionary defines the fantasy genre as “a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, especially in a setting other than the real world.” With fantasy, you have freedom. You can make whatever you want possible. You can create your own worlds, your own species, your own rules and laws. And yet, fantasy…
Psychology, People, and Personalities in Writing
Psychology has always been a fascinating subject of study and scrutiny for me. Only last week I identified the source of frustration I constantly felt about people: I just want to understand them. What goes in each of their little minds that causes them to do, say, act, feel? What thoughts and emotions and beliefs…
7 Tips on Creating a Complex Antagonist
When I first developed my story for Netherworld, I just created a villain simply so that my protagonist had some evil to fight against. But when I started questioning my villain’s motives, I realized that to have a full story, it is crucial to develop the villain because that’s the crux of the problems that create…
Ambience Sounds for Writing Fantasy + Playlists
If you’ve been following my blog for a good while, you may have noticed that I like to talk a lot about listening to film scores while writing and how the emotions composed specifically for movie scenes could also be used while writing similar scenes in your story. Up until a few days ago, however,…
Twenty One Pilots and Expessing Your Belief Through Art
The song “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots was put on my mental list of “questionable songs that might be good.” Only until recently, it was moved up to my mental list of “Personal Top 21 Songs.” Okay, maybe not 21, but somewhere around that number. Shortly afterward, Twenty One Pilots became one of my…
Aesthetic Boards for Writers: A Guest Post by Harley Rae
This is Susannah, jumping in really quick to introduce this guest post by Harley Rae. I have been ridiculously busy in the last several weeks, what with school, musical theater, etc. that I haven’t been able to post for a long time. Thankfully, the amazing human Harley was willing to lighten the burden of this…
TEA WITH TUMNUS 