As we jump into April, we're sharing some of our favorite tips in the pre-writing stage, starting with Worldbuilding!
Tip #1: No matter the genre, every book needs a world, so don't forget to build one.
Tip #2: Keep your own rules to avoid breaking reader immersion.
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Welcome to the Author Wheel podcast. I'm Megan Haskell, award-winning fantasy author of the Signore Chronicles and the Rise of Lilith series.
Speaker 2:
And I'm Greta Boris, usa Today bestselling author of the Mortician Murders and the soon-to-be-released Almost True Crime series. Together, we are the Author Wheel. Our goal is to help you overcome your writing roadblocks so you can keep your stories rolling. This month, we're going to be talking about everything that goes into planning a novel, in other words, the things you do before you write chapter one. We're going to be talking about world building, how to plan a series, brainstorming tools and techniques, and how to research without getting lost in the weeds.
Speaker 1:
So let's take a deeper look into one of my absolute favorite parts of storytelling world building. But don't go running away if you're not a fantasy author, because tip number one everybody needs to do world building, not just fantasy authors. Reader immersion depends on it. So it really, it really truly doesn't matter what genre you write in. You're still having to incorporate setting, culture, history, geography All of it is interrelated with your character development. Characters can't exist in a void, and readers are drawn into the story by characters and their relationships. So if they don't connect with the character, they won't keep reading, which is why even small-town contemporary stories need to have that strong sense of place, and that's what world-building really is.
Speaker 1:
Nalini Singh is actually one of my favorite writers because she's able to capture the feeling of place and bring her characters to life within it. Now, admittedly, she did start as a fantasy writer. She's mostly a fantasy writer and I think that's you know probably where her strength comes in from, but she's also branched out into contemporary romance comes in from, but she's also branched out into contemporary romance and I've read, I think, all of her contemporary romances as well. The stories are set in New Zealand, which is a place I've never visited before, as it is on my bucket list but I haven't been there yet.
Speaker 2:
I want to go too.
Speaker 1:
My gosh, it looks so pretty, anyway. So I definitely want to go, but I have never been there. It also features rugby players, which is a sport I've never watched. I know nothing about it, except that it's kind of sort of like football but without pads or something I don't know. And yet, despite that, it all feels as real as if I'm in my own home watching college football, which I do love. And she does a great job of thinking through the trials and troubles of the athletes, the culture of the game, the geography, how they travel through the space I mean, she lives in New Zealand so it's probably a little bit easier for her but at the same time she's really thought through all of these elements, both real and fictional, and how they interact with those characters. And she does all of that while still telling a compelling romance story. So that's just to say that the setting is as much of a character often as the characters themselves, and the world building is part of that Great tip.
Speaker 2:
Tip number two is kind of adjacent to tip number one and that is is kind of adjacent to tip number one. And that is once you build your world. You got to stay consistent Because if you deviate it really will break reader immersion and often they'll get mad at you and we don't want readers mad at us.
Speaker 2:
Mad readers are no bueno, as my daughter would say yes, yes, I agree with your daughter, no bueno. So the thing is, if you think through things before you start writing, it's really much easier to keep your story rolling, as we say, if you don't, you might just write your character into a corner, and I'm going to give you an example of that. When I started with the Mortician Myster mysteries, I did not stop to think through the magic system because primarily, it's a mystery, it's a paranormal mystery, it's not a fantasy, it doesn't have what we would think of, strictly speaking, as magic. But I quickly learned that anything that is not actually normal world stuff that happens like a paranormal thing or a time travel thing, anything like that, is still under a magic system and that system has to have rules. So my main character gets final sensations of the dead when she touches their hair.
Speaker 2:
I thought, oh, that's all I need to know Just right away and have fun. But then in book three I decided she needed to get a hit that's what she calls it from a skull. Well, skulls obviously don't have hair. But I very cleverly thought or so I thought at the time that a hair hiding under the shellac that someone had painted on the skull was enough for her to get hit.
Speaker 1:
So I'm sorry, shellac on a skull, that's just.
Speaker 2:
Because they were trying to make it look old as well, oh, okay. There's a whole reason for that. They were shellacking it to make it look old. All right, so it might not have been like actual. Well, anyway, we're getting into the weeds here, darling.
Speaker 1:
Yes, we are Sorry, Sorry, tangent. That's what we do. Yes, we do.
Speaker 2:
Anyway. So I was reading a scene from my critique group to my critique group about this and a writer, friend of mine, who's quite brilliant, said wait a minute, greta, if she can get a hit from a disconnected hair, a hair that is not actually no longer attached to the person, how come she's not getting hits from hairbrushes or touching the clothing of a dead person? Maybe there's a hair on it, or what is your rule? I'm like oh my gosh, you're right, I have to have a rule. So after lobbing it around my critique group, we decided together I needed some moral support on this that if the hair still had a follicle attached then she could get a hit from it, but if it didn't, she wouldn't.
Speaker 1:
it would have been way easier that work with the skull then still so there was a follicle, the hair was in a follicle and the follicle was still there somebody had yanked that hair right out of that person's head, so in a more violent fashion.
Speaker 2:
So there's still a follicle on it.
Speaker 1:
See, there you go. Now you got the rule, and even if you don't explain that to the reader, you have it in your head, exactly, and so there.
Speaker 2:
But I will say it would have been a lot easier for me if I'd have figured out that kind of thing before I started the series, because then I had to go back through, you know, before I established it. So set the rules up on the front end and stick to them. That is tip number two.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I will say just as a quick tangent here too that I think sometimes that's easier said than done. You can do all the planning in the world, but then you do hit some point in your story where all of a sudden it is it doesn't have. It has to be a skull and you hadn't really thought that through. But the key here is to think through what you've already established, make sure it stays consistent so that you don't break that reader immersion.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, do your best. To be upfront, I'm not always great at that, but do your best.
Speaker 2:
No, I know, but then you have that brain puzzle to figure out. Well, how can I make this?
Speaker 1:
work, but sometimes you can't and you got to go a different way.
Speaker 1:
And then you got to think about rewriting and changing the story, and that's okay too. Just don't break the reader immersion, exactly All right. Well, do you want more on world building? We do have a course that has world building in it, and that's Layering your Story World how to Make Fiction Feel Real, and the companion book, planning a Novel. If you're enjoying this podcast, please consider supporting the show. At the bottom of each episode's show notes is a link where you can, you know, just toss us a couple bucks. It really, really, truly helps us cover the costs of hosting and editing and all the other things that are critical to the creation of the show. Plus, you'll get a shout out, which is always nice. Another way to support the show is to leave a five star review and share it with a writer friend, especially these quick tips, which are often actionable. So if you hear something that you like that you think will help someone else, please just share the link. Until next time, keep your stories rolling.