R.M. Archer's Blog, page 6

When I wrote about how to develop your culture’s timekeeping ideology and methodology last month, I concluded with a brief section on “lifespans and personal timekeeping.” Y’all expressed interest in a post that focused on that topic specifically (and I was recently inspired by a letter in which Tolkien went into great depth about the birthday customs of hobbits, which I highly recommend checking out as an example of this done well), so here it is! Let’s talk about birthdays.

To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate

The first thing to consider, of course, is whether your culture even celebrates birthdays in the first place. As I said in my general timekeeping post,

In a society that thinks more communally or that doesn’t make a big deal of keeping time, birthdays might not even be a consideration; it may not much matter how old you are as long as you’re doing things with your life. The same may be true in a culture that sees time as something designed by a deity; to mark time around your own life may be seen as selfish and even idolatrous.

But there are options between the two extremes of “celebrating every birthday” and “not celebrating the progression of life at all.” Some cultures might celebrate only certain milestone birthdays, such as when a character comes of age or when they hit an age of eldership (especially in a culture that values the wisdom of elders and/or in which only characters of a certain older age can take particular roles in that culture). And, of course, life milestones such as marriage may be celebrated independent of birthdays.

If your culture does celebrate birthdays frequently–if they highly value individuality, life, or growth, for example–then refer back to their general markings of time. Do they celebrate once a year (and if so, how long is their year)? Do they celebrate on the anniversary in every moon cycle? If they were born on the day of an unusual cosmic event (such as an eclipse), is their birth celebrated more rarely because it’s only celebrated when that event comes around again? How precisely are birthdays marked, in general?

Party Planning

Once you’ve decided how frequently this culture celebrates its birthdays, you can start to ask what birthday celebrations look like. First of all, how long do celebrations run? Are they kept to the specific day of birth? If this culture doesn’t keep precise track of dates, are they longer to “cover their bases,” so to speak, and ensure that the day is celebrated somewhere in there? Do they figure it’s close enough to just pick a day nearby? Is the length of the celebration based on how long a baby took to arrive (either the length of the pregnancy or the length of labor)?

Then, what are the elements of a birthday celebration? Are special foods brought out–either foods specific to birthdays in general or selected by the person being celebrated? Where do birthday celebrations take place–at home, in a place of worship, in a community space–and is it decorated for the occasion? Are decorations standard no matter what age you are, or do they differ based on age or personal preference?

Who is invited to celebrate? Are birthdays a family affair? Are friends invited? Is the whole community expected to contribute? Does it depend on the person being celebrated–their preferences, role in the community, or age?

Gift-Giving

The first thing to consider with gift-giving, is, of course, whether this culture exchanges gifts for birthdays at all. Then, if there are gifts, are they given to the person being celebrated, by the person being celebrated, or both? (I loved that in hobbit culture gifts are given to the birthday hobbit by relatives of a particular proximity, as a family responsibility, and gifts given by the birthday hobbit are to recognize those who have served a meaningful place in their life–especially within the past year. It’s a very family-centric custom that still extends somewhat into the broader community.)

Consider the purpose of these gifts. Is it to equip the aging character for the coming year (or season, if they’re celebrated more frequently)? To provide a memory for the character to keep in tangible form? Is it simply an acknowledgment of the character’s importance to the gift-giver? (If so, does this affect price? Are there ways these gifts are exchanged discreetly to minimize offense?)

An Alternative to Birthdays

If your culture doesn’t celebrate birthdays for one reason or another but still wishes to recognize those within its community, consider whether they might celebrate remembrance days after a character’s death instead. This might be particularly common in a culture where death is seen as honorable for one reason or another (going on to the afterlife, completing one’s lifelong contribution to the culture, giving one’s life for the culture in battle, etc.), or a culture that sees remembrance as a greater honor to the deceased than celebration during their lifetime–keeping the character alive in memory after they are no longer alive to make new memories.

Days of remembrance would likely fall on the date of a character’s death–though they could still occur on the character’s birthday–and may be more uniform than birthday celebrations since the personal preference of the one being celebrated might be a lesser concern. But, of course, there will likely still be some personal touch as the living characters seek to bring to memory who the deceased was. While some things–such as gift-giving–will obviously differ between a birthday and remembrance day celebration, many of the same questions–of length, how the character is recognized, who is involved, etc.–will need to be considered.

There are some of the core considerations for developing your culture’s birthday celebrations. Comment below and let me know which element you’re most excited to develop, how birthdays are celebrated in your world, or if you have any questions you’d like expanded on further!

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The post Birthday Celebrations in Fantasy Worlds appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

In January, I finally got around to approaching Dune. In the months since, I have watched the first Timothée Chalemet movie twice, read the book, and watched the second movie, and all of my thoughts on all of it are kind of tangled up together, so here is one “review” post to cover all of it, for anyone curious.

Movie #1

I was going to wait to watch this movie until I’d read the book, but Dune was thick, a little bit intimidating, and (mostly) just never seemed to float to the top of the TBR stack. So eventually I decided I didn’t want that to prevent me from enjoying the movie, and I watched it. As a movie, without the book to compare it to, I thought it was excellent. The pacing of the questions posed in terms of worldbuilding was absolutely perfect. Usually the characters have to draw me in for me to be invested in a movie, but with Dune it was the worldbuilding that sucked me in and wouldn’t let go despite my feeling ambivalent toward most of the characters. And the arcs were interesting, especially as they were shaped by the world, even with characters I didn’t “love.”

It was very well-told, very well-paced, cinematically lovely, and the score was a good fit even if most of it wasn’t my personal favorite. And it sparked my interest in finally reading the book because I’d gotten a taste of the world and characters and I really wanted to get Herbert’s depth and understand his vision for them.

The Book – Part 1

(Part 1 for me; the first half of the book. Not literally Part 1 of the book.)

The first half of Dune was hard for me to get through. The characters I had liked for their nobility in the movie were just as gray as everyone else in the book, and I had to be in their heads; I was no longer a casual observer to the drama, but in the heads of these characters who were all compromising or outright corrupt in their own ways. Plus, the movie had already introduced all of the interesting aspects of the world in this part of the story; there was nothing new on a positive note–except the excerpts from Princess Irulan’s writings, which were genuinely my favorite part of the first half of the book. But this also meant that, overall, the first movie was a fairly faithful adaptation.

I had heard that things got weird in the latter half of the book, and I was hoping that the movie improved on things there just as the first movie had improved on this first half, in my opinion.

Though I intended to finish the book before watching the second movie, I did not manage to accomplish this and only got through the first half, so watching the second movie was also like watching the movie before reading the book.

Movie #2

I did not enjoy Dune: Part 2 as much as the first movie, but it was actually not for any of the weirdness that I’d heard about from the second half of the book; in fact, much of that was omitted altogether. No, my biggest issue with the movie was that it spent way too much concentrated time on the Harkonnens. In the book, there are chapters from the POV of the Harkonnens, and they’re… disturbing. They’re meant to be disturbing. But those chapters were brief and had several chapters of focus on the “good guys” in between, making them much easier to manage. I had to walk out of the theater for a strategic bathroom break during the movie’s focus on the Harkonnens because it was so long and so concentrated and so wicked. Yes, they did an excellent job of capturing how despicable the Harkonnens are, but this is one thing that I think the book did much more artfully.

I also just didn’t find this latter portion of the movie’s story as compelling, personally, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why–at least not without comparing it to the book.

The Book – Part 2

After watching Dune: Part 2, I almost didn’t want to bother picking Dune back up. The interest was almost dead. But I’m glad I did, because I actually enjoyed the second half of the book much better than the first–and much better than the second half of the adaptation. I started out reading through the second half out of sheer stubbornness, but I was quickly drawn in by the cultural elements that the movie had left out, how the Fremen handled family, Alia’s character and how she was viewed (and her part in the conclusion), the cunning behind the Harkonnen’s actions that is largely lost in the movies, the influence of characters from the first half (who died in the movie but not the book) in the second half, etc. In the book, Fremen society shines brighter in the second half; Paul becomes a part of Fremen society, and we become immersed in it with him. And that society-building is a huge strength of Herbert’s; Fremen society is so internally consistent, its values are clear in every detail, it is just a prime example of creating a cohesive culture around a couple of core values and traits. And I loved getting to see that showcased in the book in a way that they largely skimmed over in the movie.

The climax, too, was so much more satisfying in the book; it felt like all of the pieces came together for a really great finale, whereas the omissions in the movie left the movie’s climax kind of unimpressive.

In Conclusion

At the end of the first half of the book, I wasn’t sure I would be glad that I’d read Dune. I would appreciate having read it, for its literary history merit, but not the actual reading of it. Having read the whole thing, I am actually glad that I read it. I did really enjoy the Fremen culture and how it was built. That said, I do not think that Dune is a must-read; it is pretty morally ambiguous, so if morality and/or characters are a draw, then it’s probably not for you, and I wasn’t especially impressed with the writing style. Worldbuilding is really its only core strength, in my opinion, so I would recommend it as a worldbuilding study more than as a great read.

Movie-wise, I do still love the first movie. I still think it paced everything beautifully and it’s a great introduction to Arakkis and the setup of the Dune story. The second movie was fine, if not to my personal taste (my husband enjoyed the worldbuilding in the second movie more than I did, since it was more focused on the religion and politics that he’d wanted to see more of in the first movie); if I were to rewatch it, I would want to do so with the ability to skip the whole Harkonnen middle section, which was actually not especially relevant to the remainder of the story due to some of the omissions in the movie vs. the books. But it wrapped up the story well enough.

If I were to create my own version of Dune from this experience, I would meld the first movie with the second half of the book and find it quite an enjoyable whole, lol.

How about you? Have you read/seen Dune? What did you think? What were your favorite elements? Would you watch/read it again?

The post Thoughts on Dune appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Do your characters mind their manners? If so, this post will help you determine what manners they’re minding; if not, this will help you determine just how rude your characters are. Etiquette differs from culture to culture, and this post is for you if you haven’t yet considered what good manners look like in the fictional culture(s) you’ve created!

Greetings & Farewells

I’ve discussed how greetings and farewells may be communicated in terms of language before, and saying the right thing is an aspect of a polite greeting or farewell. Your characters should know (or conspicuously not know) if those above them in station–or those they don’t know well–should be given a fuller greeting than the more abbreviated greeting they may use with their family members or friends. There might even be entirely different greetings for use with different groups of people. Farewells likewise.

But since I have discussed language before, I want to focus here on non-verbal ways of greeting and goodbye-ing.

First, naturally, are first meetings. How you greet someone the first time you meet them (and perhaps even how you say goodbye the first time) will often differ from how you address them after that. If you’ve created a culture in which everyone is seen as a friend–or even a family member–the first time you meet them, either all the time or under particular circumstances (e.g. if they’re a citizen of the same country, if they’re a member of your religion, etc.), perhaps there is no distinction between first and later meetings. Or characters of a high rank may not be required to distinguish their greetings for those of lesser rank. But in cases where there is a distinction, think about what that may be. Do characters shake hands upon first meeting? Do they bow a certain way? Do they press a hand (or both) to their chest, maybe with a particular hand position? Do they spit?

I love the way Frank Herbert draws from the Fremen culture he’s built a custom of spitting as a sign of respect (“wasting” precious water for someone else), and the conflict it creates as this gesture means drastically different things to the Fremen vs. the Atreides. Some cultures may use kneeling as a greeting, but have different styles of kneel depending on who is addressing whom; though very little detail will likely ever get into my books, I developed a whole kneeling system for the kingdom of The Masked Captain in which the placement of one’s hands, which knee remains raised, and whether or not a sword is involved all have meaning (indicating rank, vowing protection or respect, etc.).

Where everyday greetings differ from first greetings, consider whether they have overlapping symbolism or distinct symbolism of their own. Maybe new acquaintances are met only with a nod of the head, keeping distance between characters, but those who know each other clasp hands to communicate trust and/or closeness in contrast. Maybe trust is communicated through the clasping of bare hands between those just meeting, but friends hug and communicate that same trust by touching their hand to an exposed arm or neck, carrying the same symbolism through.

As with everything, think about what is important to your culture and what they would communicate in their relationships with one another. In cultures where rank matters, greetings will likely reflect that; in cultures where rank isn’t a big deal, it won’t be a big deal in greeting. Where connection is important, touch and/or skin-to-skin contact may be an important element of greeting; where strength is important, maybe it matters how tightly you shake someone’s hand or embrace them; in cultures that value beauty, perhaps greetings are intricate works of art–almost like a dance (or dancing outright!)

The same principles can be applied to farewells. Think about your culture’s values, what is being communicated, and what factors (rank, closeness of relationship, etc.) may lead to variations.

Titles & Address

Titles are another topic I’ve handled from a linguistic angle, but I want to expand on it here just a little bit. There are multiple sorts of titles and means of address that we could get into: titles like “king” and “baron,” titles like “mother” and “uncle,” titles like “your majesty,” etc. These are all covered in that linked post. But there are other ways characters might address one another, with terms of endearment, their job title, or even insults.

Think about how children may be referred to, for example. In the real world we might refer to a child as “kiddo,” “tyke,” “squirt,” etc. Does your culture have any similar terms? As an example of how to apply this, I recently developed that children in Mandoria are referred to as “sprout,” when not called by name, which goes with their emphasis on growing things and the similarities between growing things like trees and people.

This category may also have a great deal of overlap with the previous points on greetings, especially when it comes to gesture. If certain individuals or groups of people are greeted a particular way, that is how they’re greeted/addressed and may also be connected to their title (if, say, you must always bow to the king when addressing him). Address may, however, be more frequent than “greeting” (again, take the “bowing when addressing” example; perhaps you greet the king by kneeling, but each time you address him–perhaps along with his title–you must incline your head in a lesser bow), making it a somewhat different consideration.

Hospitality & Association

Before you can greet or address someone, you must first know whether it is someone whom you should associate with–or even may associate with or must associate with. In a class system, perhaps it’s improper to associate above or below your class; perhaps there are rules as to who may address the other first; or maybe there are limits to the kind of association one may have with another (e.g. a member of an upper class may speak to a member of a lower class, but may never invite them over for tea).

These rules, whether official or simply accepted, may develop based on class, race, gender, etc. Some might even be healthy–e.g. preventing truly inappropriate behavior between unmarried men and women, preventing one class from overbearing on another’s customs, etc.–while others may be less so. They may affect who is allowed to associate with whom as well as who is expected to associate with whom. Perhaps the members of a particular class, organization, etc. are expected to all know each other and engage in hospitality with one another, and not to do so is just as impolite as it would be to associate with someone who is not a member of the expected group.

Think about what guidelines may have arisen in your culture–whether out of explicit values or out of practicality (if members of a particular class have no reason to interact much, perhaps they simply didn’t force it, and now it’s considered strange or outright taboo to break that habit when opportunities for interaction do arise)–and what limits they may create. Are the lines between groups absolute or are certain behaviors accepted while others are not? How does it differ when Group A initiates interaction with Group B vs. the other way around?

Polite Conversation

Not all topics are proper for polite conversation, but which topics those are will depend on your culture. Perhaps a medically-inclined culture speaks quite frankly about bodily functions, while a culture valuing privacy above all might not even acknowledge a burp–or allow one in public at all (more on the etiquette of bodily functions in a moment). Some cultures may think that it’s completely normal to speak of births and deaths, while others may find it disrespectful to the families involved.

This, too, may depend on who is speaking. There may be different standards for different groups, with particular groups expected to speak more “crudely” than others. This may be a double-standard, or it may be a difference in sub-culture between groups (and there may be those who see it from either angle within your culture, leading to conflict).

Polite conversation may even have fewer allowed topics than restricted topics. Maybe acquaintances are only expected to speak of each other’s health and the weather, while friends have a broader pool to choose from. (I may have taken these particular topics from my recent My Fair Lady rewatch.) Again, think of how this may differ based on what group(s) your characters are from and the closeness of their relationship.

Mealtime Etiquette

Mealtime etiquette can range from quite simple (“here are three things you are not allowed to do at the table”) to quite complex (with the position of your dishes comprising a whole language telling your host when you’re finished, whether or not you liked your food, if you’d like more, etc., etc.).

There may be etiquette around who serves the food (whether it’s served all at once or passed around; who does the serving, in the former case; etc.), who eats first (the head of household? The oldest person present? The youngest present? The highest in rank? The most needful?), how much of one’s arm is visible at/on the table (keeping both hands above the table for the sake of proving you mean no ill will; keeping elbows off the table for sanitation; etc.), whether burping is allowed (or frowned upon or encouraged), whether a blessing is said (and how said blessing is addressed, and who says it), etc., etc.

Some of these things will be influenced by social structure (e.g. if authority structure is important, it may be more likely that the head of a household or group says the blessing and gets to eat first), the meaning of a meal (religious meals may be more structured than household meals, for example), the overall values of a culture (cultures valuing charity may prioritize feeding the needy before feeding the more well-off), etc.

If you do want to make table etiquette a language to itself, you’ll need to know what dishes and other accessories (like napkins) are used in a typical place setting–which could potentially comprise half a blog post to itself on the topic of meals as a whole. (Comment below if you’d like to see a post on that topic!)

Etiquette for Bodily Functions

This last category could be pushing the line of proper etiquette in and of itself, but I’ll do my best to remain polite. (Or, of course, you could skip this section and head straight into the conclusion.)

Your culture will likely have etiquette around various bodily functions that may occur in public–sneezing/nose-blowing, passing gas, burping, hiccuping, etc. Some of these things are rather hard to avoid when they come up (e.g. sneezes); your culture may simply accept them for this fact, or may have provisions for making them more polite–excusing oneself after passing gas or burping, others saying “bless you” when one sneezes, etc. These may be based on simple etiquette (“how do we make this offensive thing less offensive out of necessity?”) or superstition (e.g. beginning to say “bless you” under the belief that someone’s spirit–or the Holy Spirit–left them when they sneezed).

There may also be etiquette provisions for things that aren’t exactly public but are also unavoidable–such as the permission Rachel had to stay seated in Genesis 31 due to “the manner of women.” Particularly for cultures that are straightforward about bodily functions, these provisions may be polite ways to accommodate private facts of life when they affect one in a public setting.

There are my tips on creating fictional etiquette. Comment below with the most unique element of your culture’s etiquette–or the element you like best–and/or which category of etiquette you’re most interested to develop next!

The post Creating Fantasy Etiquette appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Have you ever thought about how your characters keep time? Our observation of time shapes our days, years, and lifetimes, shaping what we focus on when and how we are able to interact with others. If you haven’t yet shaped the calendar and divisions of time in your world, now is a great time to start. ;) This post will help you understand the critical principles to think through as you develop your culture’s calendar and timekeeping methods.

The Basis of Time

The easiest way to begin breaking down your culture’s view of time is to ask what they look to as the basis of their measurements. Do they look to one (or more) of the celestial bodies to shape their days and years? Are their seasons based on agriculture, husbandry, or the weather? Are their times determined by something earthly at all, or by a spiritual decree?

Think about how your culture’s marking of time fits with the rest of their values. A nocturnal society may have no need to measure the passage of the sun, but instead measure the passage and phases of the moon and/or the movement of the stars. An agrarian society whose days operate based on the rising and setting of the sun might not measure much by the moon or stars at all. A religious society might pay closer attention to both, believing they were created by their god, whether for the explicit purpose of measuring days and seasons or not.

What your culture pays attention to as the natural measure for time will affect how it divides time, measures time, and even determines the timing of special days/holidays.

Divisions of Time

Days, weeks, months, years (and decades, centuries, millennia). These are the divisions we operate under–not to mention the smaller divisions of hours, minutes, and seconds; or the less precisely measured (or precisely accurate in their use) divisions like mornings and evenings and the seasons.

While your culture will likely have days, at least, they may or may not be 24-hour cycles; they may be closer to 12, relying on daylight rather than passage of time, they may be longer or shorter if they’re based on working hours, or they may be as long as a combined “morning and evening” or “evening and morning” (which still may not be 24 hours depending on the astronomy of your world).

Years, too, will likely be measured by passage around the sun (depending on the astronomy and astronomical understanding of your culture), a number of sets of moon phases, a set of seasons, or something unique to your world like the emergence of a particular species or the passage of a slow-moving moon.

But weeks, hours, minutes, seasons… these may all differ or be more vaguely observed depending on your world and your culture’s attitude toward time (which we’ll address more specifically later). In a world that observes time by the moon, perhaps a week spans every every stage or every couple stages of a moon’s passage through its phases (for a real-world example, from full moon to first quarter/waning half, from first quarter to new moon, from new moon to third quarter/waxing half, from there back to full moon–or you could include crescent and gibbous if you wanted to break it down further!). Maybe an agrarian society measures weeks by the height of their crops. Maybe a polytheistic society has a ten-day week, with a day for each of their gods.

Smaller increments of time may be measured for the sake of particular tasks–cooking, baking, smelting, etc.–in which case they may be based around those tasks. Maybe an hour is known as a “leavening” because it’s based on how long they leave their bread to rise, for example.

Other measures of time may not be necessary to this culture; maybe they don’t bother with anything smaller than “mornings” or “evenings” because they prefer to let things take as long as they need to take or the bulk of their tasks are long or continuous rather than short or precise. On the other hand, a very precise society might have very precise measurements of time and may be more particular about how measures of time stack into one another (like our 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day, etc.)

Special Days and Holidays

I’ve talked about holidays before, so I won’t spend too much time on them here, but the way that your culture measures time can affect both when they set their holidays and how long those holidays last. Holidays based on historical events will, obviously, be based on the time in which they occurred; the time in which they’re celebrated may be more or less precise depending on how precise your culture is or isn’t about keeping time. (Maybe cultures that aren’t as precise use this as an excuse to have longer celebrations; if you party for days, surely one of those days is bound to be the right one.) Other holidays may be tied to certain seasons or natural cycles, differing some (or a lot) in their location on the calendar each time they’re celebrated.

Besides holidays, your culture may have other special days that come up more frequently or have different purposes. Perhaps they have days or seasons of mourning and remembrance, perhaps days or seasons of rest, etc. These, too, will shape–or be shaped by–the rest of your culture’s timekeeping. Our 7-day weeks, for example, are defined by the sabbath. In the Old Testament, there were 7-year and 70-year cycles that shaped the rest of the Israelites’ calendar. Your culture may have similar changes of pace every so often.

Measuring Time

Now that we’ve discussed what your culture bases their timekeeping on, we can ask how they actually measure the passage of time as it passes. For example, cultures that keep time based on the sun may have sundials or sticks with which to measure the sun. Moon-observant cultures might have devices that allow them to measure the width of the moon and determine its proximity to fullness. Others might measure based on the height of crops (as previously noted), the general height of the sun (measuring with their hands rather than a sundial, for example), the position of the stars, a clock with hands and/or numbers, a device that measures time by the flow of water or sand, etc.

Consider not only their attitude toward time and how they keep it overall, but also what resources they have at their disposal and how much invention they’re willing to invest in keeping time. Maybe they have intricate clockwork, or maybe they’re content with a stick in the ground. This, too, will reflect your culture’s overall attitude and values.

Attitude Toward Time

As a near-final point, let’s look more closely at your culture’s overall attitude toward time. Do they have a mindset of “Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom”? Is it more of a “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” attitude? Do they view time as a precious resource, or as just another part of the everyday backdrop to take for granted? Do they believe time must be filled to the brim with work or other activity, or do they make time for rest?

In a similar but distinct vein, what do they think of time and history as a greater whole? Is time viewed as cyclical, does it have a clear beginning and end, or do they see some combination of the two? Is destiny seen as fixed or malleable? Are people believed to have an afterlife beyond the limits of time to look forward to, or is time within their world all they have?

The answers to these questions will greatly influence how much attention and care your culture gives to time–both in general and within their everyday lives.

Lifespans & Personal Timekeeping

I won’t spend a lot of time here before I wrap up, but I want to add a brief note about timekeeping as it relates to individual lifespans (with things like birthdays). In a society that thinks more communally or that doesn’t make a big deal of keeping time, birthdays might not even be a consideration; it may not much matter how old you are as long as you’re doing things with your life. The same may be true in a culture that sees time as something designed by a deity; to mark time around your own life may be seen as selfish and even idolatrous.

In other cultures, however–those that highly value individuality, life, or growth, for example, and don’t also have objections based on other values–birthdays may be normal. In such cases, the general principles discussed before will apply; more precise timekeeping cultures will likely be more precise about birthdays, less precise cultures less precise; birthdays may be celebrated over a longer or shorter period of time; etc.

I may talk more about age and birthdays in another post; comment below if that’s a topic you’d be interested to see me cover. In the meantime, the closest I have is a post that discusses coming of age in fictional cultures.

Now I’d love to hear from you! Have you built fictional calendars before? What patterns does your culture follow in its timekeeping? If this is a topic that’s new to you (or even if it isn’t!), which point(s) did you find most interesting?

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The post Calendars & Timekeeping in Fantasy appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Today I’m going to mix a post for readers with a post for writers and talk about worldbuilding lessons I’ve learned from the books I’ve published (whether I learned these lessons before or after I published a given book). So for those of you here for worldbuilding lessons, welcome. For those of you curious about what you might find in my published works, welcome to you, too. Let’s get started.

Short Story Collection Vol. 1: Solidify before you publish (& what you publish is semi-permanent)

We’re taking this list in release order, so Short Story Collection vol. 1 is up first. This is a lesson I learned from both the first and second editions: What you publish is semi-permanent. This means that if you’re publishing short stories, say, set in the same world as longer projects you’re either working on or have planned… you should be pretty confident in the world you’re putting on the page.

Escape Room and Silence have shaped some of my worldbuilding decisions for Lightning and the rest of my projects in the same world. Maintaining the fact that those with the superpower bug don’t have pulses, for example, (sort of a physiological headache at times, but you make it work when you have to) and working out the timeline of things like the first Genetic Deviance experiment and the formation of Elderwood-Montgomery Technologies with other events in the series.

In the second edition, I wrote Caithan while I was still working on Calligraphy Guild and published it before I’d learned some of the lessons I’ll share with that project. This led to some inconsistencies–especially as it relates to how those from Virilen culture come of age. This, too, I’ve managed to work with, chalking up the disparity to the fact that Caithan takes place in a culture of Virilens who have been taken from their homeland and are extremely deliberate about holding onto the distinctions between themselves and the culture around them.

The lesson here is somewhat two-fold. 1) You can work around–or through–published details that you might have written differently now. Even if a detail might not be your current first choice, there are ways to make it work with what you’re still building. But 2) it’s a lot simpler to look ahead before you publish, consider the consequences of what might seem like “throwaway” details, and make sure the pieces you’ve built fit with your overarching purpose for the world.

Lost Girl: The tone of your world matters… a lot

Confession: When I wrote Lost Girl, I hadn’t read Peter Pan. I had seen the 2003 movie and maybe the third season of Once Upon a Time and that was the extent of my experience with the story, which means I didn’t capture every detail perfectly. But I knew the general shape of the world and I understood the feelings that Neverland had come to evoke in readers and viewers.

The number of reviews on that book that say something to the effect of “The author clearly has a love for Neverland” makes me laugh. Especially when you’re emulating an established world, the details don’t have to be precisely accurate as long as the core elements remain (e.g. Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, pixie dust, a reluctance to grow up, etc.) and the reader gets the same overall feeling and impression of the world.

I’m not saying you should therefore be careless or fail to do your research like I did; you should also learn from that little mistake and do your research ahead of time. But if you’ve done your research and now you’re worrying over all the little details… zoom out a little. If the key elements are where you need them and the tone is what it needs to be, relax. (Most) readers won’t question as much as you think they will.

(P.S. For anyone concerned: If I were to write a prequel or sequel to Lost Girl, it would have the proper background that it should; I, too, have learned the research lesson.)

The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles: Exploring as you go leads to places you might not expect

The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles started from a single seed of an idea (or bean, if you will), and from there I totally made it up as I went along. (Unfortunately, there are a couple of spots where you can still tell.) What this meant was that I got to explore the world as if I were just as new to it as anyone else (because I was) and learn things as Solem or other characters mentioned them. As a result, I was just as surprised and impressed as Solem when he reached the castle and found its architecture drastically different from anything he was accustomed to. I was right there with him when he learned of Kinley’s backstory–and Quin’s.

While these surprises may lead to some tricky editing later, they also reignite your wonder with writing and worldbuilding and they take you to places you might not expect. Ambrel is nothing like my other worlds–or even like I expected Ambrel to be when I started. But that means that I have so many unknown avenues I could explore if I ever returned to that world!

This is why I like writing vignettes for my more established worlds, as well; these allow me to get on the ground with my characters, explore elements that aren’t as familiar to me yet, and discover new details I hadn’t consciously intended. This can be especially great if you’re getting bored with your world or you otherwise want to prompt some new ideas.

P.S. I’m working on a new–much prettier–edition of The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles right now; the interior has been drastically re-formatted and the back cover has been reworked for a better look. If you want to hear when that edition launches–either to step into Ambrel for the first time in this new edition or just to add a prettier and more readable edition to your library–sign up below and be one of the first to hear about the relaunch!

Calligraphy Guild: If you dislike an element of your world, it might be out of sync

When I was writing Calligraphy Guild, I was only about a year into my journey of building worlds with cultural worldview in mind. I understood that worldview colors everything, but I hadn’t quite sorted out how that looks in certain corners of worldbuilding.

As I was writing, Sakura’s schedule and her attitude toward school–as well as Sinh’s–always felt wrong. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but I knew that Sakura wasn’t the kind of character who should hate school and I also knew that the school structure I had put in place was one Sakura would not enjoy.

Then it finally clicked. Sakura wasn’t the problem; the school structure was. I had shaped it after American public school by default (and, ironically, not even after my own personal experience). Not only did it not fit with Sakura and the character I was working with; it didn’t fit with the culture I had built. I had made a point to shape the entire Hairen society around community, family, and the arts… and I had failed to apply those same principles to their educational structure. (This inspired my post on “fantasy school… or not,” and I recommend checking that out for more on the topic.) Sakura was behaving like she belonged in the culture I’d built, and Hairen’s educational structure was decidedly not.

Now, hopefully it’s clear that the point here is not “never base your educational system off of American public schools” (though if you want to know whether or not that would be a good fit, check out the post above). The point is, if an element of your world–or even what appears to be a character issue–is rubbing you the wrong way, if you’re enjoying your world except that one point… take a look at that piece in relation to everything else. Compare it against the values you’ve established for the culture, or the foundational principles of your world as a whole. Make sure that you’re not, like I was, missing some crucial piece that would bring that element back into line with everything else.

Not sure how to know what’s out of line? I can help! Check out the Worldbuilders Guild and sign up below to get on the waitlist and be one of the first to join this spring!

Writers, which of these lessons was most helpful to you? What lessons have you learned from your own writing projects?

Readers, which of these stories interests you most? Did you enjoy the peek behind the scenes at the making of these books?

Comment below and let’s chat!

The post Worldbuilding Lessons I’ve Learned from Each of My Published Works appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

If you’re like me, developing governments and politics might not be the most thrilling part of worldbuilding. But it is an important facet to think through–especially if your stories tend to prominently feature governments and/or politics. (Anyone else end up writing lots of political stories even though you’re not a big politics person?) So today I’m going to show you the most critical pieces of shaping a fictional government. Once you have these principles in place, the rest is a lot easier and less time-consuming.

The Function of Government

First, it must be noted that government is inherent to society, whether or not it’s systematized. Every family, every group, every organization, every nation has some sort of government that informs the way it runs and what rules are enforced. The fundamental function of government is to bring order to a body and ensure that it remains within predetermined parameters, using rules and consequences administered by those in authority. Government is found at every level, from self-government all the way up to the government of an entire empire. It’s important to be aware that where there is no intentional structure, the gap will be filled by rules, authorities, and consequences that were not intended. It is inevitable that your world will have some form of government within it.

But as you look beyond the fundamental reality of government, you can consider the function(s) that a particular culture would assign to its government. Was your culture’s government instituted to keep its populace safe, to keep them in line with an externally imposed set of rules, to simply enforce inherent moral law, or for some other purpose?

What purpose your culture assigns to its government will be informed, as always, by that culture’s values. A culture that values liberty will likely have a more hands-off government that only steps in where civilian order fails, while a culture that values safety might want its government to step in more often and provide security, and a society that values order might have a strict, legalistic government.

Of course, your culture’s purpose for its government may or may not align with the purpose the government assumes once in power. Government authorities may overstep their responsibilities or shift the focus of government. Whether or not the governed notice–or can do anything about it–will depend on further details of your government’s structure and, again, the values of your culture as a whole; shifts in line with your culture’s existing values may be excused even if they’re not fundamentally proper for the government to focus on.

The fundamental function of government, the functions assigned to a specific government by a given culture, and the functions taken on by a government in practice may or may not fully match. These three categories of government purpose are the foundational base for shaping the structure of your fictional government.

Three Spheres of Government

In general, any government—intentional or not—will have three primary tasks: to outline and communicate law, to interpret and apply the law, and to punish those who break the law. These powers may be broken up by category, or one part of the government may be assigned multiple categories to handle; that’s where government structure comes in. But let’s first look at the functions of each of these spheres in brief.

Legislative Responsibilities

Your culture’s legislature has the responsibility of outlining law and communicating that law to its people. This does not necessarily mean that your legislature is creating law; some cultures will only put words to the basic moral law their consciences already understand, while others may impose additional laws for the sake of clarity or control.

What your culture writes legislation on will depend on–you guessed it–what they value. Cultures that value religion may take law directly from the perceived and/or known will of their god(s), cultures valuing liberty may draw laws from conscience, cultures aiming for safety may have laws to prohibit a great number of potential dangers (maybe even everyday hazards), etc.

In the legislative category, there is also the responsibility of communicating the law to citizens–whether that means printing charters for each region of the kingdom, distributing charters to those with judicial responsibilities, posting laws in relevant locations (e.g. laws of transportation provided upon purchase of a means of conveyance, laws for food and drink posted in eating establishments, laws on discourse posted in debate halls and other places of frequent discussion, etc.), etc.

Judicial Responsibilities

With the law established and communicated, it moves into the hands of the judicial party. The magistrate may overlap with the legislature and/or the executive, or may be separate to avoid a conflict of interest or too much power entrusted to one person/group. Regardless, the magistrate is responsible for interpreting the law and applying it to specific cases, passing verdicts and judgment on those thought to infringe on the law.

A judiciary body cannot be impartial. Because sentient beings have biases, it is inevitable that they will judge from those biases—despite their best efforts otherwise. As such, you must determine how your society manages this reality, if they are even aware of it. If they are unaware of this element of judgment, they may have more difficulties in judicial contexts and a bigger problem with partiality in legal cases. If they are aware of it, they may not care; certain classes may be discriminated against knowingly, without recourse. Or, of course, your culture may find ways to minimize the adverse effects of an inherently biased judiciary. Does your culture require the majority of a diverse jury to agree on a verdict before it is passed? Do they require members from every class in their nation to be represented on a smaller judiciary panel? Are biases controlled, with judges representing the largest population of their region? In each case, different consequences will apply and need to be considered—to varying degrees depending on the kind of story you are telling.

Executive Responsibilities

The chief executive of a nation—be it an emperor, president, king, chieftan, etc.—will serve as the face of that nation. He or she represents their nation to others, and to their own people, and thus shapes widespread perception of the nation they govern. If your culture cares about how their nation looks to those around it, this may shape the requirements for an executive.

This part of government is also responsible for fulfilling the law, which means that general law enforcement, investigative departments, and those responsible for carrying out sentences all fall under the executive category. This is where you’ll need to think about the consequences of criminal actions, because the executive will be responsible for carrying out those sentences (though they’re determined at the legislative level).

Cultural Values & Government Structure

Now that the general functions and responsibilities of government have been laid out, we can start to look at how they might be structured. Does your government have a separation of powers? Is there some overlap, with one branch still separated–either above the others or simply kept separate for ethical reasons? Or are they all wrapped up together under one leader or council?

The way that these various aspects of government function can also be determined by government structure. Take, for example, any sort of constitutional government; the government’s actions are limited by an existing piece of legislation, which requires a whole process to alter.

Again, what your government can do and how it is shaped will depend on your culture’s overarching values, and, in fact, I have a whole list of potential government types along with some notes on what types of cultures might choose (or allow) them. If you’re looking for a quick-start resource, I recommend checking it out.

The overall questions you’ll want to ask are: Who can wield power (the rich, the intelligent, the elected, etc.)? Within that group, who is responsible for what responsibilities? And what are the limits of their power, if any?

There are the basic building blocks of a fictional government, distilled from a much longer chunk of the book I’m currently writing about worldbuilding. (Check out the progress bar in the sidebar for a quick glimpse at how far through I am.) If you’re interested in hearing more about that book as it gets closer to completion and publication, sign up to the newsletter below (plus, get access to the worldbuilding checklist and accompanying mini-course that goes through the core elements of your world!). And thank Catherine Hawthorn for the push to turn these worldbuilding posts into a book in the first place!

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you find is the most difficult (or the easiest) part of developing a government? Do you enjoy the process, as a whole, or wish you didn’t have to spend so much energy on it?

The post Developing a Fictional Government — The Short Version appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

If you’ve started a project, chances are you love at least one thing about that project; otherwise, why invest time in it? But do you know why you love it? Do you know how to keep that spark burning once you hit the murky middle, you’re struggling to wrap up all your plot threads surrounding the climax, or you’re fighting through edits?

Today I want to talk about why you should choose something to love about your project, and how that’s going to help you through the writing process and beyond.

Start with the Basics

If you’re doing this exercise at the outset of your project, it will probably be pretty easy to choose at least one thing about your project that you love. The idea is fresh, the concepts are exciting, and all you have to do is capture these details on paper. What do you love about the idea? What is your favorite aspect of the story to write? What scene(s) can you not wait to get to (and why)?

If you’ve already passed the excitement phase and you’re into the mundane stage of maintaining a writing habit to hit the mark of a completed draft, or you’re struggling to maintain editing momentum, then you might have to do some harder thinking. Think back to when you started. What did you love about the project then? How has the story developed as you’ve gone along, and what are some ways in which it’s gotten stronger? What new details have come out in this draft that you couldn’t have imagined when you started? What scenes or characters still make you happy when you work on them? What is your mission with this book?

Write down anything you can think of. The more things you can find, the easier it will be to regain your motivation, but even just one thing you love about the project–if it’s a meaningful enough thing–can be enough to remind you why you’re working on this project.

Why Write it Down?

We humans are forgetful creatures, and when the going gets tough it’s all too easy to say, “Maybe a different project would be easier.” Sure it will be… for about as long as this one was easy. The fact is, you can’t write a book on emotion alone; eventually, your emotions will shift and you’ll get distracted by something that’s easier or feels more fun in the moment. If you’re a new writer, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re trying to complete a project then it’s going to be a problem.

Writing down what we love about our projects helps us remember the why behind the initial interest in our ideas–and sometimes even a measure of those new-project emotions–so that we can remind ourselves of the purpose of these projects and motivate ourselves with meaning instead of fleeting feelings.

These notes of things you love can help you through the mundane and difficult stages of writing, and they’ll also help you to communicate that love for your project to readers when the time comes to share your book. Chances are, the right readers will love (at least some of) the same things you do about your book!

Adapting the List

Your list of things you love about this project doesn’t have to stay static. If you lose interest in the characters that were keeping you going, find something new to love. If your story changes with revisions and new things pop up, add them to the list. If you mature in your writing skill and suddenly you look back at projects that aren’t as good as you remembered, hunt for new things to appreciate. (This is especially important with projects you’ve already published!)

Your project isn’t static as long as its in progress, and neither is your level of writing skill; let the list of things you love about each project grow and shift with you.

Examples from My Books

I had this lesson hit me strongest when I was struggling to like Lost Girl. I’d grown, the story was more romance-heavy than most of what I write, the writing wasn’t totally up to my current standards, and it just wasn’t something I liked. But other people were reading it and enjoying it, and I didn’t want my lack of affection for the story to prevent readers from finding it if it was their thing. So I reread it with the aim of finding something to like, I let it be what it was instead of what I wished it was, and I realized it actually wasn’t that bad! Since then, I’ve ensured that I always have something to love about each of my projects.

Lost Girl is fluffy, it’s insta-lovey, it’s not something I would likely write now. But, it’s enjoyable fluff. It’s sweet if you want something that focuses on the romance and doesn’t take very long to read. I still enjoy the Neverland setting and the bit of exploring I did with Lost Girl. And there are some pretty cool lines in there, if I may say so.

With Short Story Collection vol. 1, I love that I get to introduce readers to two of the worlds that I’ve explored most in my writing: Esleon and Deseran. I love that there’s something out there that gives readers a taste of those worlds that have been living in my head so long, even though full novel projects take me a lot longer to get out there (though Calligraphy Guild does take place in Deseran).

The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles is unlike anything else I currently plan to write. It’s quirky, it’s fairytale-centric and draws from that world significantly. But that’s the fun of it! I love the fairytale vibes, Solem is a really fun narrator, and I enjoy the way I got to weave together a bunch of different fairytales into one continuous story.

Calligraphy Guild‘s list of “loves” is too long to include here. I love the characters, the world, the educational structure of Virilia, the romance, the friendships, the writing community, the overarching community, the dragon ink, the quiet fantasy tone… etc. etc.

There are two reasons I’m sharing these examples. One is because I do like my books, so I like talking about them and sharing them with readers who might enjoy them. But reason #2 is that I hope these examples demonstrate that your lists can look different for different projects. If one project has a list too long to document and another project just has one primary feature that you love, that’s okay. That doesn’t (necessarily) mean that the latter project is less worthwhile to pursue–or promote.

What is one thing you love about your current project? If you have a book published, what do you love about it?

The post Why You Should Choose to Love Your Project appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Today I’m excited to share a guest post from Cate VanNostrand, who has been a long-time friend and supporter of my work and, I’m happy to announce, recently launched a blog where you can learn more about her and her work! There will be a link to her website at the bottom of the post and I highly recommend you check it out. But for now I’ll pass you over to her!

History has a huge impact on the way we write. Whether we’re basing our stories off of real-life historical events or using history to inspire our own worldbuilding efforts, history has the power to shape our writing and help us improve our craft. Here are some of the things I’ve learned as a history major and how I’ve applied them to my storyworld.

Lesson 1: Sometimes We Only Remember the Highlights

If someone were to ask you to name one moment in French history, what would you say?

The French Revolution is often what springs to mind first for most of us. However, France has been around since 486, when Clovis I became the first official “king of the Franks”. There are so many interesting figures of French history. Joan of Arc, the nineteen-year-old warrior who put Charles VII on the throne and helped end the 100 Years War, is one example. Charles de Gaulle, a World War II military leader and later president of France, is another.

Russian history is another great example. Most of us know how the Romanovs were brutally murdered in 1918 due to their royal standing, but few of us also know that Russia used to be commandeered by Vikings (more on that later). While some historic moments will never (and should never) be forgotten, sometimes we forget just how deep a culture’s history goes.

This can come into play in your worldbuilding. If you’re writing a story with multiple peoples, consider what each civilization knows about each other. In Lord of the Rings, almost everyone knows how Isildur defeated Sauron, and how he also took the One Ring for himself. But few people know that Númenor was destroyed because Men rebelled against Eru Illuvatar (Tolkien’s version of God) and worshiped Morgoth.

And don’t forget to take current events vs. history into account. In my work in progress, Heart of an Elf, the Woodland Elves are familiar with the Dwarven Wars and how the current king is the laughingstock of his realm. However, only elven scholars know about how the first human king after the Great Fire was courageous and led his people to victory against the Fallen Dwarves. Current events can have a huge impact on how one civilization views another; using history to show a kingdom’s true colors is a great way to give your storyworld depth.

Lesson 2: Some Legends Are Based in Truth

Legends are often founded in truth, or some semblance of it. King Arthur is said to have led the Britons against Anglo-Saxon leaders (this historical theory is the inspiration behind the 2004 movie King Arthur). Robin Hood’s existence is questionable, yet some scholars believe that the character from the 1819 novel Ivanhoe was based on real men who were loyal to King Richard the Lionheart. Even Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have become American legends.

When building the history of your storyworld, consider people who could be a source of heroism and inspiration for your characters. In Lord of the Rings, Lúthien Tinúviel was a legendary she-elf who passed up immortality in order to be with her love, Beren. Her story is referenced in The Fellowship of the Ring, and again in “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen,” when Aragorn calls Arwen by Lúthien’s name. Who are some people that you can make into legends for your characters to look up to?

Lesson 3: Not Everyone Views History the Same Way

Last semester, I had the amazing opportunity to take a class on Russian history. One thing that stood out to me was the beginning of Russia, or “Kievan Rus”, as it was called. The origins of the Russian Empire are fairly sketchy, and due to this, there’s some division among Russian historians. The most prevalent theory (known as the Norman theory) dictates that the first king of Russia was a Viking named Rurik. The primary source for the Norman theory is The Russian Primary Chronicle, written by Nestor, a Russian monk. The problem with the Norman theory is that the Chronicle is not a completely trustworthy source, and this creates issues for the Russian historian community. In addition, there are some pro-Eastern historians that do not want their country to be affiliated with Vikings or any other Western located influence.

The point I’m making is that some people view history differently, either due to the difference in their cultures (when people hear about Vikings, they picture Ireland or Norway but not usually Russia) or because they don’t want to accept that as a viable theory. While this can be a headache for historians, it’s an easy way to create conflict in your storyworld.

Do your characters view history similarly across the geographical board? In the 2019 film Captain Marvel, Kree pilot Carol Danvers and her friends find out that the Skrull (an alien species Danvers has been told to fight against) were not the instigators of the Kree-Skrull conflict as Danvers was brought to believe, but were instead war-torn refugees. In Kara Swanson’s Heirs of Neverland trilogy, Peter and Claire believe that Captain Hook is a complete villain, but his side of the story is far more complex and tragic than they could have guessed.

One of your characters may have learned about a war or a certain era from one perspective. However, that may not be the same for other characters.

Lesson 4: Some Great Stories Fall Through the Cracks

Have you ever seen a movie where one of the subtitles is, “based on the forgotten true story”? Some amazing stories from history can fall through the cracks. NASA mathematician Margaret Johnson wasn’t a name that came up in our history textbooks, but after the 2017 movie Hidden Figures came out, her story became a nationwide sensation.

Additionally, an event that one culture may have never known about may be an essential part of another country’s culture. In my world history class last spring, we learned the sad story of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization in the 1970s that fiercely protested against the Argentinian human rights violations. During my thirteen years of school, I had never heard how these brave women tied their childrens’ nappies around their heads and rallied against Argentina’s dictator, begging for the 3000 missing to come back home alive. But my teacher was Columbian, and all too familiar with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and many similar heart-wrenching stories.

This sad historical fact can have an impact on your storyworld’s history. Maybe one of your elf’s ancestors turns out to be a human, the first to marry an elf. (I’ve noticed that the lost-but-true-story technique works really well in terms of genealogy.) Finding out forgotten historical moments can change a character’s motivations entirely–and revamp your plot in the process.

Lesson 5: A Clash of Worldviews Can Lead to Pivotal Moments in History

All wars, battles, revolutions, and major political upheavals typically come down to one primary motive – a clash of worldviews. The Russian Revolution is one major example. The Romanov family had occupied the throne of the Russian Empire for 300 years, but in 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate when the Bolsheviks caused the people to revolt against their tsar. While the royal family’s worldview was aristocratic and focused mainly on tradition, the common people were tired of decrepit living conditions. The result of the opposing mindsets was both tragic and dramatic.

The French Revolution worked in a similar fashion when starving peasants overthrew the restrictive and apathetic monarchy. After the dust settled, Napoleon Bonaparte, with a more expansive and less aggressive worldview, took over as dictator of France.

How can you use this in your worldbuilding? Think of it this way: what happens when differing worldviews collide? They cause conflict. Conflict is vital to a story’s progression. In Jodi Lynn Anderson’s Tiger Lily, Tiger Lily’s people and the pirates are separated by their worldviews, due to the pirates’ love for murder and revenge and the Wind People’s aversion to violence. In my own storyworld, Ilmarien, there was a huge divide between the three first elven brothers because one was extremely devoted to Elu (who is God in my world), one was agnostic, and the oldest bound himself to Versu (who acts as Satan in my world). The results were catastrophic, but they helped to cause tensions between my elven characters. How can you use opposing worldviews to enhance the history of your world?

History isn’t for everybody. But when you take the time to examine Earth’s past and how we have changed with the times, you’ll find plenty of ways to build up your world’s history and make it stand out.

I hope this helps illustrate ways you can dig deeper into writing your storyworld’s history. Comment below what you think! Do you mirror historical events in your writing?

About the Author

​Cate VanNostrand is a college student and freelance editor living in the South with her three siblings, her amazing parents, and her imaginary pet phoenix Lasair. Cate’s life’s goal is to honor God with her writing, wherever He leads her. She can often be found scribbling down words in a notebook, or frantically typing them into coherent form on her laptop. When she’s not writing, she’s probably singing to rock music, pretending she can play the piano, and binge-reading YA novels like there’s no tomorrow. Find out all about her and her latest work at the Southern Story Scribbler.

The post Worldbuilding Lessons from a History Major – Guest Post by Cate VanNostrand appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

I recently talked with an author who told me she struggles to worldbuild for her own projects and generate all the details, but she loves helping other authors refine their worlds and problem-solve.

Is this you, too? If you’re a problem-solving author and you feel like it takes more energy than it should to generate the initial ideas for your world, I want to challenge the way you think about worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding is Problem-Solving

When you flesh out your world, you’re solving problems for your characters. You’re figuring out where they’re going to live, what they’re going to eat, what sort of work they’re going to do, how they’re going to find entertainment, etc.

This is true of whole societies, as well. The societies you build will have problems, and they’ll need solutions to those problems. Worldbuilding solves those challenges–whether they’re challenges unique to the society you’re shaping or they’re the challenges naturally faced by any fallible society.

All that you need to have built “from scratch” in order to solve these problems are the tools you need at your disposal for constructing the answers: the resources and values of the context in which your characters live.

Geographical Context

The geographical context of your setting will inform what resources your characters have for meeting their physical and societal needs. Maybe the question you’re immediately interested in answering is, “What is my character’s home like?” The setting and resources around that character will influence the answer. What resources are primarily used for building (stone, wood, etc.)? If homes in this culture reflect the natural world around them, what does that natural world look like? What natural shelter can be found in this setting?

Obviously, the more detail you have, the easier these questions will be to answer. But you don’t have to build entire biomes in order to flesh out your character’s world. If you take just a few minutes to choose a handful of physical resources and give the area a basic physical shape (are there mountains, forests, a river, etc.?), you’ll have what you need to start answering questions. (Which, in my experience, will lead to more questions which will lead to more answers which will lead to a more and more fleshed-out world.)

Cultural Values

While I personally love diving into the values of a culture, that step can be super quick, too! All you really need are 2-3 core values (concepts like beauty, vitality, strength, faith, piety, wealth, etc.) to give you a powerful starting point. A culture that values efficiency may craft very simple houses, or simply work with what shelter already exists; a culture that values beauty or the natural world may spend more time crafting aesthetically-pleasing homes that reflect their surroundings; and different combinations of values will add greater variation.

For more on this idea, sign up for the free Worldbuilding Checklist mini-course! I elaborate on this point in one of the first emails in the series.

After you have these two foundational elements in place, everything else is a matter of asking and answering questions–and you can absolutely limit the list to questions that are relevant to your characters and story. If your strength is problem-solving, focus on that in your worldbuilding! There is no one-size-fits-all approach; make your process work for you.

If you’re looking for help uncovering the right process for you, check out The Worldbuilding Toolbox, where I cover the key elements of strong worldbuilding and different approaches to help you get there.

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With the new year and new goals, it seemed like a good time to put together a list of resources for those of you looking into indie publishing. This is far from an exhaustive list, but it gathers all of the resources that I’ve used (as well as a couple I haven’t). Feel free to drop your additions to the list in the comments if you’ve found great self-publishing tools yourself!

*Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission on purchases made through them at no extra cost to you.Blog Posts & Online Articles

Indie Publishing 101: Traditional vs. Independent Publishing – Scribes & Archers

Indie Publishing 101: What Does it Really Take? – Scribes & Archers

Indie Publishing 101: Non-negotiables (and what you can get away without) – Scribes & Archers

Indie Publishing 101: What NOT to Do – Scribes & Archers

Why to Invest in Developmental Edits – Scribes & Archers

Why to Invest in Line Edits – Scribes & Archers

Why to Invest in Copy-Edits – Scribes & Archers

Author Career Investments You Should Be Making – Scribes & Archers

More Author Career Investments You Should Be Making – Scribes & Archers

Building Your Community as an Author – Scribes & Archers

How to Write a Back Cover Copy for Your Book – Go Teen Writers (I pull this up every time I need to write a book blurb!)

Average Industry Rates for Email as of September 2023 – Constant Contact

2023 Email Marketing ROI Statistics: Open Rate to Revenue – Barilliance

Books

The Productive Writer by Sage Cohen

The Business of Being a Writer* by Jane Friedman (This book has a heavy emphasis on traditional publishing rather than indie publishing, but still has a lot of good info)

The Extroverted Writer* by Amanda Luedeke

Platform* by Michael Hyatt

How to Market a Book* by Joanna Penn

Editors & Service Providers

Jane Maree – Developmental editing, line editing, and proofreading. I worked with Jane on Calligraphy Guild and I suspect she’s a better fit for faster-paced works, but her overall editorial skill is solid (especially when it comes to grammar and proofreading).

R.M. Archer – Line editing with add-on technical edits (copy-edits and proofreads). I specialize in speculative fiction but accept most genres on a case-by-case basis.

Claire Tucker – Line editing, copy-editing, and proofreading

Hope Ann – Line editor and prose coach

Emma Flournoy – Proofreading

Kristianne Hassman – Virtual assistant

Naomi Sowell – Virtual assistant

Covers & Formatting

99designs

This is where I got my Calligraphy Guild cover from Alli May, as well as the artwork I used for one of my bookmarks which was designed by RavenFire. The 99designs model–setting up a query with some information about the book and my general ideas for the cover, then letting artists submit designs–worked really well for me, but you can also work with artists on the platform directly if you know exactly what you’re looking for.

99designs also offers interior formatting, though I don’t have any personal experience with that branch of their services yet.

Any eBook Converter

If you need to convert your book to .epub or .mobi for ARC readers or direct customers, this tool works well. Ebook conversion is always a little bit awkward, but Any eBook Converter has made it the least awkward out of anything I’ve used thus far.

Publishing & Sales Platforms

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing

This is what I’ve ended up using for all of my books so far, for printing as well as most of my distribution. It’s simple to use and there isn’t a lot of overhead for the platform itself; they do, however, take a 40% royalty off of sales (a rate which has increased recently).

Their paperbacks are solid quality and their ebook conversion is fairly reliable. They have a new hardcover option that I haven’t used yet because the only option currently available is for laminate hardcovers (no dust jacket; the cover is printed directly on the book). Some covers look good on a laminate hardcover; I just don’t like the look for any of my currently published works.

Pre-order services are only available for ebooks right now; there is no option to put hard copies up for pre-order.

Amazon’s customer service is pretty hit-or-miss (I can’t remember if I’ve had to interact with them for KDP, specifically), but their informational database usually communicates clearly and is a helpful resource.

IngramSpark

I tried using IngramSpark for Calligraphy Guild because it enables you to put hard copies up for pre-order. I didn’t get very far because their initial upload cost was expensive ($50/book) and the actual upload process was a headache; the very precise file requirements were complicated to accommodate, and I didn’t personally find the cost (in time and money) worth it. The upload cost has since been removed; I’m not sure if the upload process has gotten any smoother in the years since I tried using Ingram.

IngramSpark does allow you to create a nice hardcover with a dust jacket, but their website doesn’t do a good job of displaying what options are available so I’m not sure what exactly they offer as far as hardcover design. On the clarity point, you can find answers to your questions on the IngramSpark website if you know what to ask, but their base navigation goes in circles and it’s hard to find things like their profit gauge or what formats they offer from their main page. I haven’t worked with their customer service; hopefully the communication is clearer there.

It’s also important to note that IngramSpark focuses on wholesale for bookstores and libraries rather than direct sales to readers, so you’ll make a lower profit when you factor in the recommended bulk-order discount for those retailers, but you’ll likely have a better chance of reaching those retailers than through Amazon alone (and, ideally, those retailers will buy in bulk, thus bumping up your profit through quantity). That said, KDP still seems to be the best option for sales directly to readers (and the print cost is a little higher with IngramSpark vs. KDP, so KDP is still your best bet if you want to print your books for direct sale through your website, as well).

Vervante

Vervante has tons of paperback printing options, from everyday novel paperbacks to notebooks and the like. They can even do covers with gold foiling! Their customer service is great, and they’re great if you want a really independent option. The catch is… they’re really expensive. Paperback copies of Calligraphy Guild would have cost me almost $22 each if I’d gone with Vervante, versus the $5.52 printing cost through KDP. For myself currently, Vervante is only an option in my mind for special edition printings.

WooCommerce

This is the tool I use for my website shop, and thus far I’ve only had trouble with it once (which was a problem with the order in which I updated my plugins, not a problem with the platform itself). If you want to distribute independently, WooCommerce is a great tool for doing so.

ISBN Services

For acquiring your own ISBNs (versus having an ISBN generated for your book by Amazon), ISBN Services is a good, affordable option. If you’re using a printing service other than KDP, having your own ISBN is a necessity.

Online Marketing Resources

Coursera* – Online college course catalogue

Passive Income Superstars – Marketing blog and newsletter

GotPrint – Bookmarks, business cards, etc.

VistaPrint – Business cards, etc.

Buffer – Social media scheduling

MailerLite* – Newsletter platform. (Side note: Leaving Mailchimp for MailerLite was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my business.)

Interested in a checklist for the self-publishing process? Sign up to the Scribes & Archers mailing list to get access to my freshly updated self-publishing checklist!

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