Episode 97: The Pick Up: LGBT Romance Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of The Pick Up, a LGBT romance novel by Allison Temple. They discuss genre, obligatory scenes in romance stories, and romantic conflict. 

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Show Notes 

“But the Love Story is the long-term mother of all Genres. It’s not just about how to survive today; it’s about how to last a lifetime...and even how to gain a measure of immortality. Good old Marcus Aurelius has a measure of immortality, doesn’t he? His work still resonates today...probably far more than it did in his own lifetime.
Love story is the structure that instructs us on how to discover the meaning of our existence. Both as individuals and as atomic particles that bump into one another in a complex action and reaction that comprises the human collective unconscious. Don’t forget that Marcus Aurelius is still bumping around in that soup today even though he left earth 1,836 years ago...and we think Cal Ripken’s Ironman streak is something...”

— Shawn Coyne

Send your questions for the 100th episode! 

 

Editorial Mission—Lovers Meet 

Review the scene in your story where your lovers first meet. Even if your main genre isn’t romance, you can still use the lovers meet scene to set up a love story subplot or to set up the relationship of the co-founders of a business, partners in crime, or best buddies. Write the scene where they meet even if you don’t include it in your story. It will provide insight into how the characters relate to one another.  

Consider characteristic moments for both lovers (friends, colleagues); tension created by awkwardness or hostility; how to set up conflict in the relationship given their strengths, flaws, and roles they play; and how to make it memorable for both. Get stuck? Find a model to use: Pride and Prejudice is fantastic.

 

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Inline Critique 

Episode 96: Forgotten December: Steampunk Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and guest host Jody T. Morse critique the prologue of Forgotten December, an as yet unpublished steampunk novel by Noah Deuker. They discuss the elements of an effective prologue and description of characters and setting.

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Show Notes

“Prologues are often filled with set up, backstory, and infodumping because we’re still processing information in our heads. We know we need that information at some point, but most of the time we don’t need to let readers know that information before the story even starts. Using what we learn from the prologue enables us to craft a better story and lay the hints and groundwork that will hook a reader and make them ready for us to spill the beans.”

— Janice Hardy

Editorial Mission—Prologues

Subject your prologue to the PUNCH BAR:

• P is for Purpose: Do you have a specific, story-related purpose for including a prologue?
• U is for Urgent: Does the reader need the information right away? (Or can it wait?)
• N is for Necessary: Can this be presented some other way to greater effect? (For example, could you include this in a flashback? A found letter? A character sharing information?)
• C is for Consistent: Is it consistent with the rest of the story? 
• H is for Hook: Have you grabbed the reader? (Compelling element, breadcrumbs, and promise of conflict?)
   
• B is for Brief: Is it as brief as possible to achieve your purpose?
• A is for Avoided: Have you avoided excessive backstory?
• R is for Related: Is it directly related to the main story?

PUNCH BAR is a mnemonic device I created (quickly!) to describe the elements of a prologue that works. If you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it!

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Inline Critique

Episode 95: Wingless Bird: Science Fiction Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of Wingless Bird, an as yet unpublished science fiction novel by Tori. They discuss the elements of a strong beginning hook. This week’s mission will help you revise your opening to pull the reader in right away.

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Show notes

“The commonalities, though, are simple: Grab the reader and never let go. Whether you grab them with a major outburst of action or plot, an utterly compelling character or even just a dazzling display of lyrical writing, you must absolutely seize the reader’s head by the end of page one. That opener has to be intensely interesting in some way: I need to know what’s going on, or I need to know this odd person, or how this dream ends, or why this beautifully wrought description of a beehive is so important.



I need to know. That’s the key to your opening. Create that need, and you’ve hooked ‘em.”

— Michael J. Martinez

Editorial Mission—Hook 'em

Check your first lines and opening paragraph. Have you raised a question in the reader’s mind with an intriguing character possessing a strong voice, strange circumstances, an interesting image or setting, or immediate stakes? Have you created a trail of clues for the reader to follow to a bigger hook, have you promised conflict?

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Inline Critique

Episode 94: Edge of the Future: Science Fiction Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of Edge of the Future, a science fiction novel by Andria Stone. They discuss ways to reveal character, including thoughts, reactions to events, and reactions from other characters. One thing to consider (especially in science fiction or fantasy) is how to convey what’s normal for the wider culture and within particular groups. This week’s editorial mission will help you make your characters unique.

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Show notes

“The secret of standout characters is their uniqueness. It can be developed in any number of ways, from their appearance to their opinions. Principles, perplexing quirks, and inner puzzles all can help but too often are shortcuts and substitutes for the harder work of building a standout character from the ground up.”

— Donald Maass

Birthday giveaway winner

The winner of our birthday giveaway is Ayesha Depay. The four books she won are The Story Grid, Story Genius, Writing the Breakout Novel, and Making Shapely Fiction. Thanks to everyone who left a review! They help people find the podcast, and we appreciate the feedback. 

Editorial Mission—Unique Characters

Make a list of all the major characters in your story. Then identify the qualities that make them unique. How are you showing this in the story? How could you show it? Do you provide contrast so the difference is clear to the reader?

 

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Inline critique

Episode 93: The Writer's Internal Genre

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark talk about the internal genre for your journey as a writer. As writers, we face resistance in different forms (we hit a snag in our project, life throws us a curve ball). These unexpected events are opportunities to become derailed or renew our commitment to our work. Leslie and Clark explore what you can do to stay on track.

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Show notes

“Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business. When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.”

— Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North—meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.

We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we feel toward pursuing it.”

— Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Additional resources

Leslie attended The Story Grid Workshop last weekend. The tagline for Shawn Coyne’s book of the same name is What Good Editors Know, but the book, podcast, and blog cover more than editing. It’s about story: the one you're writing as well as the one you’re living. You’ll find lots of supportive resources here.

Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, The War of Art, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, and The Knowledge. He understands the daily struggle with resistance and urges us to Do the Work! You can find out more about him and his writing here.

Editorial Mission—What Do You Really Want?

Today we want you to explore what you really want for your life. This is a difficult exercise for many because they feel they don’t have real control over their lives. Maybe they’ve made too many commitments and compromises, and it is too late to change direction.

It is never too late! This is your life and you deserve to live the one you want. But you have to make some choices. 

The first thing I want you to do is imagine that you are alone in the world. You have no commitments, no family, no friends, no bills, no job, no boss, in short nothing. What you have is a blank canvas and a fresh start to create your ideal life. What do you look like in that blank space? Take a look at what you want for your body, your mind, emotionally or spiritually. 

What in your life is actually stopping you from doing that? 

Commit to change or accept that this is the way it is. What do you need to make that change? Take one step every day in pursuit of that goal. No matter what.

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Episode 92: Day 115: Science Fiction Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of Day 115, a science fiction novel by J. M. Bedard. They discuss pacing, providing enough detail to make clear the setting and characters’ vantage point, and questions that pull the reader into your story.

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Show Notes

“Pacing is the speed at which the reader perceives things to happen in a story.

What’s the difference? Speed is objective, but your reader’s perception of speed isn’t. As the writer, you can make a fleeting moment last a week or a year go by in the blink of an eye.”

— Robert Wood

Editorial Mission—PACING

To get a feel for the pacing in your story and what will work best in individual scenes, it helps to experiment with the pace, different speeds and different ways of increasing and decreasing the rate at which the reader receives information. Take a scene from your story and use the methods below to increase and decrease the pace. Keep tweaking until you find what feels like the optimal speed.

Be aware of the needs of the story, but also consider what you tend to write, what’s easiest for you because you may be choosing that by default. 

Increase the Pace 

• Stick with the main story
• Balance of Dialogue/action/exposition—more of the former two
• Change scene and POV character often
• Choose showing over telling, choose direct experience rather than reflection
• Cut words
• Zoom lens
• Shorter sentences/paragraphs/chapters
• Word choice: strong verbs with hard consonant sounds, avoid adjectives and adverbs

Decrease the Pace

• Wander into subplot
• Longer sentences/paragraphs/chapters
• Increase exposition in balance between action/dialogue
• Linger in describing/introducing characters, places
• More showing, reflection
• Zoom out, wider view

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Inline Critique

Episode 91: The Snakes of Playa del Carmen: YA Thriller

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of The Snakes of Playa del Carmen, a young adult thriller novel by Penelope Aaron. They discuss backstory, including its purposes and methods of delivery, foreshadowing, dialogue sentences, where to begin your story, and Leslie’s birthday giveaway. 

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Show Notes

To enter the book giveaway for Leslie's birthday, send a screenshot of your honest review from iTunes or Stitcher before January 25, 2017, to writershippodcast@gmail.com for a chance to win two of my favorite books on the craft if writing (The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne and Story Genius by Lisa Cron) and two of Clark's favorite books (Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass).

Download the punctuation dialogue sheet here.

“Backstory is the accumulation, the totality, of the earlier events and histories of those people and things and places that make up your story world.
***
Backstory is part of the setup for plot and characters; it is not a substitute for unfolding events.
”

— Beth Hill

“If we can eliminate an event from a character’s backstory and it doesn’t change this story at all, it’s irrelevant, no matter how interesting it is.”

— Jami Gold

Editorial Mission—Backstory

When you write your first draft, include every detail you can think of that might be relevant. You are trying to get the story down, and you don’t want to hamstring yourself or overlook or discard something that might be vital (or lead to something vital) by bringing the editor in too soon.

But once you’ve completed the draft and you enter the revision zone, then make every detail earn its place and don’t give anything away for free. Consider the purpose for each detail.

Purpose

• Reveal motivation
• Change the pace and tension of the story
• Plant seeds for later scenes
• Provide context and meaning for what’s happening
• Reveal how reliable the character is
• Sleight of hand

As you look at the purpose for including backstory, think about what in the present moment of the story causes the revelation of the information. For example, your protagonist might hear her friend say she hates cheese, but she remembers a time when the friend ordered and devoured a cheese plate at the local tea shop. Cheese references aside, above all, don’t include a detail only because it’s fascinating. As Jami Gold said in the quote above, if you could cut this fact from the character’s backstory or the history of your world without effect, then it isn’t necessary.

Consider how you’re revealing the detail. Vary the method of revealing to avoid too much exposition, control the pace and tension, and uncover the way you can best uncover the detail for the reader. 

Method

• Indirect & direct
• Exposition
• Dialogue
• Thoughts and reflection
• Flashback
• Prologue

Length

• A sentence or two
• A paragraph or two
• A full scene

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Inline Critique

Episode 90: Kill Screen: Literary Thriller

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of Kill Screen, a literary science fiction thriller by Benjamin Reeves. They discuss unreliable narrators and the ways characters are dishonest, revealing facts to the reader, setting, and tension.

Want to read on? You can find Kill Screen here or visit Benjamin's website.

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Show Notes

“Every human being is, to some degree, an unreliable narrator. When we tell our stories to others, and even when we tell our stories to ourselves, we create our own version of events and of our lives as a whole. We don’t necessarily mean to deceive. But we can see and understand our experiences only from our own viewpoint—a shifting viewpoint at that. Facing the truth is a messy business. It involves denial, and pride, and the fact that understanding takes time; it relies on perspective (or lack of it), and the pesky fact that we can only face the truth we can stand to face at any given moment.

***

The unreliable narrator is an effective technique that makes for such a rich reading experience because we are all familiar with our own deceptions, confusions and egos, and with the times we wish the truth were different. The humanity of your protagonist is key. If the little lies and the tunnel vision and the character flaws that you create are those we know from our own lives, your reader will stay connected to your character. Finding the truth in the untruths will elevate your story. An unreliable narrator is not just a device, but also the skilled portrayal of a realistically flawed human being.”

— Deb Caletti

 

Editorial Mission—UNRELIABLE CHARACTERS

In what ways is your protagonist unreliable or dishonest with himself and others? Even if you don’t have a character like Holden Caulfield or Humbert Humbert, there are things your character can’t see about himself and the world around him. Do a timed writing session for 10–20 minutes exploring where he is less than sincere. Consider what the positive and negative story-relevant consequences are for him and the people around him. Then spend the same amount of time writing about the ways in which your character is completely aware and trustworthy. Do any consequences flow from this? Then review your manuscript to see if your understanding of the character is showing up in your character’s thoughts and behaviors and the reactions that other characters have to him.

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Inline Critique

Episode 89: Edge: Atompunk Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the beginning of Edge, an as yet unpublished atompunk novel, by Ethan Motter. They discuss the ordinary and special worlds of the story, mysteries and questions, world building, scene and summary, and dialogue tags with similes to reveal emotion. They also talk about the importance of setting writing goals for 2017.

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Show Notes

“It’s a good idea to make the Ordinary World as different as possible from the Special World, so audience and hero will experience a dramatic change when the threshold is finally crossed. In The Wizard of Oz the Ordinary World is depicted in black and white, to make a stunning contrast with the Technicolor Special World of Oz. In the thriller Dead Again, the Ordinary World of modern day is shot in color to contrast with the nightmarish black-and-white Special World of the 1940s flashbacks. City Slickers contrasts the drab, restrictive environment of the city with the more lively arena of the West where most of the story takes place. ”

— Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey

Look for Leslie's post on setting writing goals here.

 

Editorial Mission—Ordinary World

Review your story’s opening for clues about the ordinary world. Keep in mind that just because we use world doesn’t mean you are limited to the setting (consider Pride and Prejudice, for example). Consider what the essence of the change will be once the inciting incident happens. How can you effectively demonstrate the contrast? What specific details will can you reveal that will allow the reader to experience the change?

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Inline Critique

Episode 88: Let's Call This What It Is: Literary Short Story Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique “Let’s Call This What It Is,” a literary short story by David Austin. They discuss plot- and character-driven stories (and the need for both elements), experimenting with the opening of your story and where to start it, brand names, and reviewing your year.

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Show Notes

“The truth though is that it just doesn’t matter what kind of “What if?” you dream of exploring. The best “plot driven” Stories have compelling protagonists who chase subconscious internal objects of desire while they are also trying to get the President of the United States out of the U.N. before the tidal wave hits. And “character driven” Stories also require compelling quests for conscious external objects of desire, remission from cancer for example, while the lead character struggles with deep subconscious internal objects of desire like the need to attain some kind of meaningfulness before death.”

— Shawn Coyne

Here is a great post from Now Novel with a list of tips that genre or commercial writers can learn from literary writers.

In this post, Nathan Bransford weighs in on what defines literary fiction.

Editorial Mission—Always Learning

It’s easy to keep reading the same type of books, same genres. We can learn a lot from stepping outside our reading comfort zone, however. Innovation is a key, but it’s also gives you a different context to notice different techniques and aspects of story. 

Find a book from a genre you don’t write in and ordinarily don’t read—then read it. You might look for a book that is representative of the genre or an that is a crossover in that it fits squarely within genre fiction but is considered to have literary qualities (for example, books by Ursula K. Le Guin, P.D. James, Colson Whitehead, Orson Scott Card—wild card: listen to the Serial podcast). After you’ve read (or listened to) to your selection, think about what you liked and didn’t and why. Look at what worked and didn’t. Consider what you can learn and apply in your own writing. 

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Inline Critique

Episode 87: Ascendancy: Sword and Sorcery Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the opening of Ascendancy, a sword and sorcery novel by A. B. Corley. They discuss transitions between scenes, tweaking dialogue so that the characters are distinguishable, and diction in dialogue.

Listen now

Show notes

“Transitions are important in fiction because the writer can’t possibly portray or account for every moment in a character’s day, week, or life. A story may stretch over years—readers don’t need to know what happened every minute of those years.

So, we use scene transitions to skip periods of time or to change to a new location in the story, glossing over events that happen between the new and old times or locations.”

— Beth Hill

 

Editorial Mission—Smooth Transitions

Look at the transitions between scenes to see if you are providing a smooth reading experience. Have you identified the place, the passage of time, and the POV character (if applicable)? If not, find a way to add them to keep your reader oriented in time and space.

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Inline Critique

REWIND Episode & More

 

Description

This week Leslie and Clark are taking a short break from recording, but don't worry—they'll be back soon! In the meantime, the subject of setting has been top of mind at Writership lately, so we're bringing you two great podcast episodes that discuss setting in story.

We're starting with last week's episode from the Story Grid Podcast by Shawn Coyne, author of Story Grid and a top editor for over twenty-five years, and Tim Grahl, struggling writer. Then we're rewinding to episode 78 of our own Writership Podcast to look at another aspect of setting.

Story Grid Podcast episode:
What is the Setting for your Novel?

Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl discuss what the setting is (exactly) and the four questions you should ask yourself about the world your story inhabits.

The Writership Podcast Episode 78:
Me and My Bacon: YA Critique

One aspect of the setting that is sometimes overlooked is time, including duration. In episode 78, Clark and Leslie explored this this aspect of setting while discussing Ceanmohrlass’s YA novel Me and My Bacon. 

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Show notes

“People are almost always aware of time in their daily lives—time of day or month or year; time in relation to a job or task that needs to be completed; time in terms of religious holidays or seasons; stages of life such as infancy or teenage years, school years, years of fertility, and old age; era, such as the Roaring Twenties or Regency England or the frontier years on Mordant Five; or time as it relates to anticipation of either a dreaded or an eagerly anticipated event. Readers stepping into a story world should also step into the time reality and expectations of that world, at least the reality of the major characters. At least of the viewpoint character.”

— Beth Hill

EDITORIAL MISSION - IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Think about the different aspects of time in your story. Consider the setting: the year, time of year, time of day in which your story is set. Is this clear to the reader at the outset? How could you make it more evident without telling? What details could you use? How much time passes over the course of your story? Within individual scenes? Have you conveyed this through your view point character? Track it on a calendar to be sure it all makes sense.

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Inline Critique

Episode 86: Acolyte of Shadow: Fantasy Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of Acolyte of Shadow, an as yet unpublished fantasy novel by Daniel Kellberg. They discuss dialogue, descriptive beats, pacing, and backstory.

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Show Notes

“Delivering backstory through dialogue is storytelling within a story. Generally, anything longer than three consecutive lines of speech by one character comes off as lecturing, so, even if your character is supposed to be a bore, demonstrate it once then move on. Backstory should be sprinkled, not shoveled. Can you spread out the delivery of the details of backstory for dramatic revelations?

Examine your reasons for telling backstory through dialogue. Why is one character telling so much to another character? Would it be more dramatic and interesting to have the other character discover this information in bits and pieces and then confront the “telling” character for more? Allow the listening character to challenge the teller to break up the lecture.”

— Joni M. Fisher

Editorial Mission—What’s your dialogue doing?

Effective dialogue serves a variety of purposes. You can use it to reveal backstory and other information to the reader (and your characters), but make sure it’s serving other purposes as well. Here are some other things your dialogue might accomplish: 

• Reveal character, goals, motivations
• Demonstrate character’s reactions to one another and story events
• Reveal setting, mood, tone
• Increase tension and conflict
• Advance the plot
• Create a change in the scene with revelation or action
• Increases the pace of the storytelling
• Reveal theme 

Take a scene in your story that is heavy with dialogue, and check each line against this list. Does the dialogue do more than reveal information? If it’s being lazy, try revising or cutting it.

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Inline Critique

Episode 85: "Doing the Work": Contemporary Short Story Critique

Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique “Doing the Work,” an as yet unpublished contemporary short story by Julie Prudhome. They discuss stories that tackle social issues and ways to use them powerfully, brand names, and questions we explore in our writing.

Trigger warning: This submission contains a discussion of child abuse and exploitation.

Listen now

Show notes

“In a moment of despair bred of one too many rejections, a wise friend asked me: Which is more important to you: To do something about climate change, or to be a writer? I didn’t have to pause to think. I am a writer, I said. And instantly, I realized I needed to approach the topic differently—not by trying to move other people to some desired end but by exploring as deeply as I could my own story about being a mother in the dawning age of climate change. This was a story of what it feels like to know that people we love are at risk of something we feel we cannot control. It meant diving deeper to be more honest, more real and more vulnerable.”

— Lisa Bennett

Here’s the post containing the above quote. The author shares how she decided to present a story that explores climate change.

This episode of Writing Excuses, has a great discussion about social issues as elements in stories. 

In the show introduction we mention Scott King's book Ameriguns: A Thriller, which you can find here.

Editorial Mission—What’s Your Question?

Whether we write about social issues or not, there are questions that we tend to explore in our writing. This week, look at your body of work, I mean everything. If you write nonfiction in addition to fiction, include that too. What is the question (or what are the questions) you circle? That is, what questions do you explore in your writing? What fascinates you? You may need to dig a little, but this will help you find out what it is you want to say through your writing. And being aware of that will help you write, revise, market, you name it.

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Inline critique

Episode 84: Women’s Historical Fiction Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of a women’s historical fiction novel submitted by an anonymous author. They discuss tension, conflict, character traits, and description.

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Show Notes

“Tension isn’t an experience of the moment, it’s a partial experience of the moment with a constant focusing of attention on what comes next. Tension depends on the idea of events beyond the section in which the reader actually feels tense.

The constant force that keeps events tense is the reader’s constant awareness of what comes next.”

— Robert Wood

Editorial Mission—Increase the Tension

Below, are several options for increasing the tension in your story. Look for places where you can apply them to keep your reader fully engaged.

• Time pressure
• Characters with opposing goals
• Take away something she’s relying on
• Increase the stakes
• Reveal a twist
• Make it personal
• Conflict waiting to happen/anticipation

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Inline Critique

Episode 83: The Moorpark Horror: Middle Grade Horror Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of The Moorpark Horror, a middle grade horror novel, by Russell Gibbs. They discuss proactive protagonists, making transitions clear, and conflict.

Listen now

 

Show Notes

“The passive protagonist is one who either has no goal–or is making no effort to achieve his goal. If your character spends most of his time staring out the window or observing as other people do things, that’s a good sign he’s lapsed into passivity.”

— K.M. Weiland

 

Editorial Mission—Active Protagonist

Read the first quarter of your book and ask yourself these questions for each scene: 

• What does the protagonist want in this scene?
• How does it relate to her big goal for the whole story?
• What does she do to try to get what she wants?
• What stands in her way?
• What does she do to overcome the obstacles?

This will reveal whether she’s actively pursuing what she wants or waiting to see if it will come to her. 

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Inline Critique

Episode 82: Archmage’s Rage: Fantasy Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the first chapter of The Sentinels Sworn Book One: Archmage’s Rage, a fantasy novel by Andrew J. Cardin. They discuss world building, strategic use of exposition, point of view, tightening your prose, and the role of sidekicks. 

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Show Notes

“Your cast has the knowledge of the past, present, themselves, and each other that your readers or audience members will need to know in order to follow events. Therefore, at pivotal moments, let your characters use what they know as ammunition in their struggles to get what they want. These revelations will deliver the pleasure of discovery to the emotionally invested reader/audience as the fact quickly vanishes into the story-goers background awareness.”

— Robert McKee

Editorial Mission—Strategic Exposition

This week, schedule ten minutes each day to write about your world, whether it’s fantastical or commonplace. I recommend free writing (no editing, no crossing out, keep writing through misspellings and grammatical misadventures). Write by hand if you normally type and try different locations if you can. The object is to get as many details down as possible over the course of the week and shake things up so that you are accessing deeper layers of your mind and the story.

On the last day, look over what you’ve written and pull out the top five details you mentioned on each day that communicate something about the world. How do you know which ones will do that? Make your best guess; you know your world better than anyone, but try to see it with fresh eyes (this is why I suggested writing by hand and changing location). In today’s example, I would definitely include the spire and shards, for example. 

In the alternative, look at a scene from your manuscript each day for a week and cull the details about your world for your list. 

Take that list of 25–35 details and record why the reader needs to know each one, when they need to know it, and who can deliver it (and how) to greatest effect. Add these details to your story in the appropriate places. 

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Inline Critique

Episode 81: Dark Water: Dystopian Science Fiction Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique “Dark Water,” a short story by James Middleton. They discuss world building, genre, and how details can affect the stakes in your story.

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Show Notes

“I’m not going to tell you how to start a bug-powered vehicle, I’m just going to put you inside one with somebody who knows how, and send you off on a ride.”

— Kameron Hurley

 

Editorial Mission

Viewing your fictional world through your main character’s point of view will help you convey the details that he or she would notice. To that end, we suggest that you interview your character. As an intrepid reporter who will tell the character’s story, create a list of questions based on what you want to know and what aspects of the world aren’t clear to you (topography, climate, government, cultural practices, technology). Ask some wild card questions just to see what comes up: What’s your favorite place? What do you eat for dinner? 

Then change your role and answer the questions as the character. Get into character as much as possible. Change your location and perhaps the means of recording the answers (grab your phone and record your voice). Try wearing an article of clothing that reminds you of your character and adopting his posture or mode of speech. Your character can act as a guide to help you enter the world. The more you can become your character, the more easily you will access what he or she knows about the world. 

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Inline Critique

Episode 80: As Realms Unravel: Epic Fantasy Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the opening pages of As Realms Unravel, an epic fantasy novel by Steven T. Bushar. They discuss world building, flashbacks, conflict, and dialogue.

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Show Notes

“Above all, worldbuilding is not technically necessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there. A good writer would never try to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn’t possible, & if it was the results wouldn’t be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives us a clue to the psychological type of the worldbuilder & the worldbuilder’s victim, & makes us very afraid. [sic]”

— M. John Harrison

 

Editorial Mission - An Alternate Approach to World Building

One of your characters has just arrived in your setting. She writes a letter to her parents describing what she has encountered so far. Experiment with different purposes: At first she wants to reassure them. Then she wants to scare them for attention.

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Inline Critique

Episode 79: Hiraeth: Family Saga Critique

Episode Description

In this episode, Leslie and Clark critique the opening pages of Hiraeth by Robert Fritz Gaston, an as yet unpublished family saga novel. They discuss point of view, tense, introducing characters, and characteristic moments.

Warning: NSFW! This episode contains some adult language.

 

 

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Show Notes

“The Characteristic Moment is a work of art. We can’t be content to open with our character doing any ol’ thing. We have to select an event that will: Make the protagonist appealing to readers, introduce both his strengths and his weaknesses, and build the plot.”

— K.M. Weiland

Editorial Mission

A characteristic moment tells the reader right away who your character is in the briefest span of time (number of words) in a way that connects to the plot before life changes as the result of said plot. It also allows the reader to compare it with another moment at the end of the story that demonstrates how the character has changed. It should show his strength and his flaws. That is a lot of heavy lifting for one moment in a story to do. But you can craft it! 

Make a list of your character’s defining qualities. Everything you can think of. Strengths, weaknesses, what he wears, how he talks, the way he looks at life, good habits and bad, the way he treats people, etc. From that list pick the top three that are related to what happens in the plot and write a scene that demonstrates those top three things.

Want to see an example of this in action? In the opening scene of this story, William’s family gathers for a photo. Everyone looks “clean-cut and poised.” Where is William? He is hiding out having a quiet drink and smoke behind the trellis. We find out later in the scene that he is wearing the same outfit he wore for the last photo, and it’s a bit tight. So we know that William doesn’t quite fit in with the family in at least two key ways: appearance and caring about appearance, showing up for things that don’t seem as important (contrast with how he shows up in the next scene, and smoking).

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Inline Critique