Tag Archives: writing

June 2, 2025 · 6:00 am

Self-editing – a 3-step process #writing

Many people in my online community have asked for tips on self-editing. I don’t recommend it, as most people don’t have the tenacity to do a proper job of it. However, it can be done, so we’re revisiting a post from April of 2024 on effective self-editing. I hope this answers some questions!

As an editor, I saw every kind of mistake you can imagine, and before that, as a writer, I made them all. This is why I rely on an editor for my work. Irene sees the flaws that my eye skips over.

WritingCraft_self-editingWhen prepping a novel to send to Irene, I use a three-part method. This requires specific tools that come with Microsoft Word, my word-processing program. I believe these tools are available for Google Docs and every other word-processing program. Unfortunately, I am only familiar with Microsoft’s products as they are what the companies that I worked for used.

What follows are three steps that should eliminate most problems in a manuscript.

Part one: Beta Reading is the first look at a manuscript by someone other than the author. I suggest you don’t omit this step unless you can find no one who understands what you need. A good beta reader is a person who reads for pleasure and can gently express what they think about a story or novel. Also, look for a person who enjoys the genre of that particular story. Your beta reader should ask several questions of this first draft (feel free to give them the following list).

beta read meme 2Part two: Once I have ironed out the rough spots noticed by my beta readers, this second stage is put into action. Yes, on the surface the manuscript looks finished, but it has only just begun the journey.

In Microsoft Word, on the Review Tab, I access the Read Aloud function and begin reading along with the mechanical voice. Yes, the narrator app is annoying and mispronounces words like “read,” which sound different and have different meanings depending on the context. However, this first tool alerts me to areas that were overlooked in the first stage of revisions.

ReviewTabLIRF07032021The most frustrating part is the continual stopping, making corrections, and starting.

I use this function rather than reading it aloud from the monitor, as the computer screen tricks the eye. I tend to see and read aloud what I think should be there rather than what is.

  • I habitually key the word though when I mean through or lighting when I mean lightning. Each is a different word but is only one letter apart. Most (but not all) miss keyed words will leap out when you hear them read aloud.
  • Most (but not all) run-on sentences stand out when you hear them read aloud.
  • Most (but not all) inadvertent repetitions also stand out.
  • Most of the time, hokey phrasing doesn’t sound as good as you thought it was.
  • Most of the time, you hear where you have dropped words because you were keying so fast you skipped over including an article, like “the” or “a” before a noun.

This is a long process that involves a lot of stopping and starting. It takes me well over a week to get through an entire 90,000-word manuscript. I will have trimmed about 3,000 words by the end of this phase. I will have caught many typos and miss keyed words and rewritten many clumsy passages.

But I am not done.

Part three: the manual edit. This is where I make a physical copy and do the work the old-fashioned way.

Everything looks different when printed out, and you will see many things you don’t notice on the computer screen or hear when it is read aloud by the narrator app.

  • Houghton_Typ_805.94.8320_-_Pride_and_Prejudice,_1894,_Hugh_Thomson_-_Protested

    Illustration by Hugh Thomson representing Mr. Collins protesting that he never reads novels.

    Open your manuscript. Make sure the pages are numbered in the upper right-hand corner.

  • Print out the first chapter and either staple it together or use a binder clip. If you drop it, the pages will all be together in the proper order.
  • Turn to the last page. Cover the page with another sheet of paper, leaving only the final paragraph visible.
  • Starting with the final paragraph on the last page, begin reading, working your way forward.
  • With a yellow highlighter, mark each place that needs revising.
  • With a red pen/pencil, make notes in the margins to guide the revisions. (Red is highly visible, so you won’t miss it when you are putting your corrections into the digital manuscript.
  • Put the corrected chapter on a recipe stand next to your computer. Open your manuscript and save it as a new file. (ManuscriptTitle_final_Apr2024.docx.) Begin making the revisions as noted on your hard copy.
  • Do the same for each chapter until you have finished revising the entire manuscript.

I look for info dumps, passive phrasing, and timid words. They are signs that a section needs rewriting to make it visual rather than telling. Clunky phrasing and info dumps are signals telling me what I intend that scene to be but haven’t shown. Showing takes fewer words. Many times, I must cut some of the info and allow the reader to use their imagination.

I will have trimmed another 3,000 to 4,000 more words from my manuscript by the end of this process.

By the time we begin writing, most of us have forgotten whatever grammar we once knew. Editing software is a good tool for this. But editing software operates on algorithms and doesn’t understand context.

to err is human to edit divineI am wary of relying on Grammarly or ProWriting Aid for anything other than alerting you to possible problems. Look at each thing they point out and decide whether to accept their recommendation or not. 

You’ll get into trouble if you assume the AI editing programs are always correct. As I said above, they don’t understand context. Good writing involves technical knowledge of grammar, but voice isn’t about algorithms.

Novels are comprised of many essential components. If one element fails, the story won’t work the way I envision it. I always remember that it’s been months since a beta reader saw the mess I am working on and much has changed. I take a hard look at these aspects:

  • Characterization – are the characters individuals?
  • Dialogue – do people sound natural? Do they sound alike, or are they each unique?
  • Mechanics (grammar/punctuation flaws will be more noticeable when printed out)
  • Pacing—how does it transition from action scene to action scene?
  • Plot – does the story revolve around a genuine problem?
  • Prose – how do my sentences flow? Do they say what I mean?
  • Themes – What underlying thread ties the whole story together? Have I used the theme to its best potential?

Being a linear thinker, this process of making revisions works for me. It can take more than a month, but when I’ve finished, I’ll have a manuscript that won’t be full of avoidable distractions. It will be something I can send to my editor. And because I have done my best work, Irene will be able to focus on finding as much of what I have missed as is humanly possible.

Editors_bookself_25May2018If you read as much as I do (and this includes books published by large Traditional publishers), you know that a few mistakes and typos can and will get through despite their careful editing. So, don’t agonize over what you might have missed. If you’re an indie, you can upload a corrected file.

We are all only human, after all.

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May 26, 2025 · 6:00 am

Self-editing part one – 7 easy-to-remember rules of punctuation #writing

Many authors are just starting out in the craft and have never written anything longer than a memo or a social-media post before the novel they just finished. Once their manuscript is revised to their satisfaction, they might try to self-edit it rather than hire a freelance editor.

This can work if they took writing courses or had an education that included creative writing.

But I don’t recommend it. We see what we believe is there, not what is there.

A majority of new writers haven’t written since they left school. They don’t remember how to write a readable sentence or what a paragraph should (or should not) contain.

I certainly didn’t retain those skills. However, while I couldn’t afford to go back to college, I did go out of my way to educate myself.

First, we must think of punctuation as the traffic signal that keeps the words flowing and the intersections manageable.

Trying to learn from a grammar manual is daunting, to say the least. I learned by looking things up in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), which is the rule book for American English, and from working with my editor. Most editors in the large traditional publishing houses refer to the CMoS when they have questions.

I use Bryan A. Garner’s “the Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation.”

Maybe (like me) you came up in the world of business before the computer revolution. If so, you may be familiar with several other grammar style guides. Each is tailored to a particular kind of writing:

  • The AP manual is for journalism.
  • The Gregg manual for business writing.
  • The CMoS is specifically for creative writing, such as fiction, memoirs, and personal essays, but also includes business and journalism rules.

You don’t need to know everything in the CMoS. If you know the fundamentals and are consistent with how you use them, your writing will pass most tests.

Punctuation appears complicated when one is new to it. This confusion occurs because some advanced usages are open to interpretation. The way you habitually use them is your voice.

One thing remains clear: the foundational laws of comma use are not open to interpretation.

If you consistently follow seven simple rules, your work will look professional.

Rule one: commas and the fundamental rules for their use exist for a reason. If we want the reading public to understand our work, we need to follow them. Let’s get the “don’ts” out of the way:

  • DO NOT insert commas “where you take a breath” because that many commas are unnecessary, and the habit creates run-on sentences.
  • DO NOT insert commas where you think a sentence should pause because every reader sees the pauses differently.

Rule two: Commas can join two independent but related clauses with the aid of a conjunction. (I repeat: independent but related with the help of a conjunction.)

The independent clause is a complete standalone sentence.

  • Boris worships the ground I walk on. His adoration tires me. (Two sentences.)
  • Boris worships the ground I walk on, but his adoration tires me. (One sentence.)

Dependent clauses are unfinished and can’t stand on their own. Join them in the sentence with a conjunction and omit the comma this way:

  • Boris worships the ground I walk on and brings me margaritas by the pool. (And is a conjunction, a joining word.)

You do not join unrelated independent clauses (clauses that can stand alone as separate sentences) with commas as that creates a rift in the space/time continuum: the Comma Splice.

  • Boris kissed the hem of my garment, Woofer, my dog, likes to ride shotgun.

What we have there is a wandering, run-on sentence created by the casual use of the comma splice. The dog has little to do with Boris other than the fact they both worship me. They should not be in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. Here is the same thought, written correctly:

Boris kissed the hem of my garment.

Woofer, my dog, likes to ride shotgun.

  • The dog riding shotgun is an independent clause and does not relate at all to Boris and his adoration of me. It is a different idea and should be in a separate paragraph. If you want Boris and the dog in the same sentence, you must rewrite it:

Boris and Woofer worship me and fight for the right to ride shotgun.

Rule three: a semicolon in an untrained hand is a dangerous thing. Some people (including Microsoft Word) think a semicolon signifies an extra-long pause but not a hard ending. The Chicago Manual of Style says that belief is wrong. Don’t blindly accept what Spellcheck or the AI editor app tells you!

So, when do we use them? We only use them when two clauses are short, complete sentences that relate to each other. Here are two brief sentences that would be too choppy if left separate.

  • The door swung open at a touch. Light spilled into the room. (2 related short standalone sentences.)
  • The door swung open at a touch; light spilled into the room. (2 related short sentences joined by a semicolon.)
  • The door swung open at a touch, and light spilled into the room. (1 compound sentence made from 2 related standalone clauses joined by a comma and a conjunction.) (A connector word.)

All three of the above sentences are technically correct. The usage you habitually choose is your voice.

I don’t hate semicolons, although some editors do. However, I generally look for alternatives to them.

Rule four: Colons. These tidbits of punctuation commonly head lists found in technical writing. Colons are rarely needed in narrative prose. In technical writing, you might say something like:

For the next step, you will need:

  1. four nails,
  2. two feet of rope,
  3. one banana, whole and unpeeled.

I have no idea what they are building, but I can’t wait to see it.

Rule five:  Oxford commas, also known as serial commas. This is the one war authors will never win or find common ground, a true civil war.

When listing a string of things in a narrative, we separate them with commas to prevent confusion. I like people to understand what I mean, so I always use the Oxford Comma/Serial Comma.

If there are only two things in a list, they do not need to be separated by a comma. If there are more than two items, separate them with a comma.

We sell dogs, cats, rabbits, and birds.

Why do we need clarity? You might know what you mean, but not everyone thinks the same way.

  • I accept this award and thank my late parents, Tad Williams and Poseidon.

That sentence might make sense to some readers, but not all. The intention of it is to thank my late parents, my favorite author, and the god of the sea. If I don’t thank Poseidon, my next fishing trip could end badly.

  • I accept this award and thank my late parents, Tad Williams, and Poseidon.

Regardless of which stance you take on the Oxford/serial comma, choose your poison and be consistent.

Rule six: We use commas after introductory clauses.

After dark, Boris changes into his bat form and goes hunting for enchiladas.

Rule seven: When writing dialogue, all punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.

  1. A comma follows the spoken words, separating the dialogue from the speech tag.
  2. The clause containing the dialogue is enclosed, punctuation and all, within quotes.
  3. The speech tag is the second half of the sentence, and a period ends the entire sentence.

The editor said, “I agree with those statements.”

  1. When dialogue is split by the speech tag, do not capitalize the first word in the second half.

“I agree with those statements,” said the editor, “but I wish you’d stop repeating yourself.”

If you follow these seven simple rules, your work will be readable. If your story is as original as you think it is, it will be acceptable to acquisitions editors.

Next week, we will continue our look at effective self-editing.

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May 19, 2025 · 6:00 am

Phrasing, pacing, and voice #writing

Today, we are revisiting the way our habitual word choices affect the pacing of our narrative.

We are encouraged to write active prose as opposed to passive, but what does that mean? First, the term “active prose” does not refer to the events that keep the plot arc moving.

Active prose refers to our word choices and how we construct our sentences.

A passive sentence is not “wrong.” No matter how active the phrasing, a poorly written sentence is not “better.”

Passive phrasing slows the reader’s perception of the story, which may be what you want.

  • “Deep in the forest, there was a cabin.” Passive, descriptive, longer.
  • “A cabin stood deep in the forest.” Active, verb forward, shorter.

The two examples say the same thing, but the words that surround and modify “cabin” change the mood of the sentence and set the tone for what follows. Neither sentence is right or wrong. It’s up to the writer to choose which style they go with.

Most modern readers don’t have the patience for long strings of descriptive, wordy sentences. However, they do like a chance to breathe and absorb what just happened.

Our task is to mingle active and passive phrasing to keep things balanced. That skill is a fundamental aspect of pacing.

Good pacing is about balanced prose as much as it is about staging the events. It is dynamic, engaging, and immersive.

How do we write balanced prose? It begins with the words we choose to show our story and the order in which we place them in the sentence.

The ways we combine active and passive phrasing are part of our signature, our voice. By mixing active phrasing with a little passive, we choose areas of emphasis and places in the narrative where we want to direct the reader’s attention.

Some types of narratives should feel highly charged and action-packed. Most of your sentences should be constructed with the verbs forward if you write in genres such as sci-fi, political thrillers, and crime thrillers.

  • Stephenie gripped the handhold, bracing herself.

The above sentence is Noun + verb + article + noun + transitive verb + noun.

Verbs are action words, but all verbs are not equal in strength.

Verbs that begin with hard consonants are power verbs. They push the action outward from a character. Other verbs pull the action inward. The two forces, push and pull, create a sense of opposition and friction. Dynamism in word choices injects a passage with vitality, vigor, and energy.

  • When we employ verbs that push the action outward from a character, we make them appear authoritative, competent, energetic, and decisive.
  • Conversely, verbs that pull the action in toward the character make them appear receptive, attentive, private, and flexible.

A poor choice of words makes a sentence weak. Passive construction can still be strong despite being poetic.

Has someone said your work is too wordy? An excess of modifiers could be the offenders.

  1. Look for the many forms of the phrasal verb to be. These words easily connect to other words and lead to long, convoluted passages.
  2. Look for connecting modifiers (still, however, again, etc.).

Concise writing can be difficult for those of us who love words in all their glory. Nevertheless, I work at it.

My goal during revisions is to make use of contrasts to show the story with the least number of words.

  • dwell on / ignore
  • embrace / reject
  • consent / refuse
  • agony / ecstasy

Many power words begin with hard consonants. The following is a short list of nouns and adjectives that start with the letter B. The images they convey when used to describe action project a feeling of power:

  • Backlash (noun)
  • Beating (noun or verb)
  • Beware (verb)
  • Blinded (adjective)
  • Blood (noun)
  • Bloodbath (noun)
  • Bloodcurdling (adjective)
  • Bloody (adjective)
  • Blunder (noun or verb)

courtesy Office360 graphics

As you can see, some nouns are also verbs, such as beating or blunder. When you incorporate any of the above “B” words into your prose, you are posting a road sign for the reader, a notice that danger lies ahead.

If I want to create an atmosphere of anxiety, I would use words that push the action outward:

  • Agony (noun)
  • Apocalypse (noun)
  • Armageddon (noun)
  • Assault (verb)
  • Backlash (noun)
  • Pale (modifier)
  • Panic (verb or noun)
  • Target (verb)
  • Teeter (verb)
  • Terrorize (verb)

If I want to show the interior workings of a character without resorting to a dump of italicized whining, I could write their internal observations using words that draw us in:

  • Delirious (modifier)
  • Depraved (modifier)
  • Desire (verb)
  • Dirty (modifier)
  • Divine (modifier)
  • Ecstatic (modifier)

So why are verbs so crucial in shaping the tone and atmosphere of a narrative? When things get tricky and the characters are working their way through a problem, verbs like stumble or blunder offer a sense of chaos and don’t require a lot of modifiers to show the atmosphere.

We are drawn to the work of our favorite authors because we like their voice and writing style. The unique, recognizable way they choose words and assemble them into sentences appeals to us, although we don’t consciously think of it that way.

In the second draft, I finetune the plot arc and character arcs, and most importantly, I adjust phrasing.

The tricky part is catching all the weak word choices. Those of you who write a clean first draft are rare and wonderful treasures. I wish I had that talent.

When I find a stretch of blah-blah-blah, I reimagine the scene. I go to the thesaurus to see how to strengthen the narrative while still keeping to my original intention.

There are times when nothing will improve an awkward scene, and it must be scrapped. Be brave and be bold, and cut away the dead wood.

Things to remember:

  • Where we choose to place the verbs changes their impact but not their meaning.
  • The words we surround verbs with change the mood but not their intention.
  • Modifiers are words that alter their sentences’ meanings. They add details and clarify facts, distinguishing between people, events, or objects.
  • Infinitives are mushy words, words with no definite beginning or end.

Modifiers and infinitives are necessary for good writing. However, like salt or any other seasoning, they have the power to strengthen or weaken our prose.

So now you know what I have been doing here at Casa del Jasperson. Cleaning up my excessively wordy work-in-progress is time-consuming. However, I enjoy this aspect of the craft as much as writing the first draft.

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May 12, 2025 · 6:00 am

Foreshadowing and pacing #writing

I’m sitting here on a cloudy Sunday morning in May, sipping tea and wondering what to write for this post. Things have been crazy on the home front for a couple of months. Well, for the last year, really. Now my husband is settled in a good place where he can be properly cared for around the clock. I am adjusting to having more time on my hands than I’m used to.

He’s in a lovely, caring home now. I go there to visit him every morning after I tend our small veggie plot in the community garden. And yes, although I do have the time now, I struggle to find the ambition to reorganize my jumble of an office.

However, while housekeeping still bores me, and I no longer have a valid excuse for not doing it, I always feel like writing.

Which seems more important than filing the pile of medical and legal documents that depress me.

I just don’t always know what to write.

And, sometimes, it’s hard to know where a story should actually begin. Is it the eve of a party? Is it the day of a friend’s funeral? Where does the story begin?

Wherever the story starts, I want the reader to keep turning the pages, and a little foreshadowing can encourage them to do that.

Hints that all is not what it seems are an important aspect of the narrative. They pique the reader’s interest and make them want to know what is really going on and how the book will end.

But what is foreshadowing? It is the subtle warning that danger lurks ahead, a few clues embedded in the first quarter of the story to subliminally alert the reader that things may not go well for the protagonist. We include small warning signs of future events, bait, if you will, to lure the reader and keep them reading

In the opening paragraphs, I will focus on the protagonists and hint at their problems. Novels are built the same way as a Gothic cathedral. Each scene is a small arc of action and reaction. These arcs support other arcs in layers, creating an intricate structure that rises high and withstands all that nature can throw at it.

In the first draft, we all commit sins of craftsmanship. These are secret codes, road signs for us to examine in the second draft:

  1. Clumsy foreshadowing, baldly stating what is going to happen later. We rewrite those scenes to make the clues less obvious.
  2. Or we might commit the opposite sin, neglecting to foreshadow so that events seem to arrive out of nowhere.

Recognizing those signals can be a challenge, but hopefully, our beta readers will notice and comment. My writing group is central to my work process.

We all know the opening paragraphs are vital. They are the hook and must offer a reason for the reader to continue past the first page. These paragraphs usually sell the book.

Getting the pacing right in those opening paragraphs and maintaining it to the last page is, in my opinion, the most challenging part of writing.

How much exposition is needed? What can be cut without making the story choppy and confusing? What must stay? When a possibility is briefly, almost offhandedly mentioned, but almost immediately overlooked or ignored by the protagonists, that is a form of foreshadowing.

Is that hint enough for the reader to understand what is going on? It’s easy to accidentally frontload the opening pages with a wall of backstory. I learned the hard way that long lead-ins ruin the chances of your book making readers happy.

I try to open the story with my characters in place and get the introductions out of the way. Within the first few pages, a question of some sort must be raised, or I must get the inciting incident underway. This is crucial for the pacing as it sets the characters and the reader on the trail of the answer, throwing them into the action.

Usually, there is no reason for the characters to hear the twelve-paragraph saga of the Caverns of Despair before they enter them. The readers also don’t need to know that history. The name is descriptive and is an indicator of what lies ahead. Names of places can be a form of foreshadowing that don’t slow the pacing.

Often, side characters will drop clues regarding things the protagonist doesn’t know, knowledge that affects the plot. Subplots that advance the main story’s plot arc are excellent ways of introducing the emotional part of the story, but beware.

Side quests are often fun in a video game but can ruin the pacing of a novel. They can be distracting and make for a haphazard story arc if they don’t relate to the central quest. I think side quests work best if they are presented once the book’s overall atmosphere is established and the core crisis is underway, and only if they are necessary for the completion of the principal quest.

Like Bilbo finding the One Ring.

Sometimes, we open the story by dropping our characters into the middle of an event. Even if we do that, we still need a pivotal event at the 1/4 mark that completely rocks their world. The event that changes everything is the jumping-off point for the story.

As a reader, I notice when a character suddenly displays a new skill or knowledge, something they never showed before. When this happens, it’s usually explained away as a Chekhov’s Skill. I usually stop reading at that point and forget about finishing the book.

Without briefly foreshadowing that superior ability, the reader will assume the character doesn’t have it, and the narrative becomes unbelievable. A casual mention early on of the characters using or training to use that skill would make it believable.

The most crucial aspect of foreshadowing is the surprise a reader feels when the clues come together to form a complete picture of the imminent disaster. This is the moment when the reader says, “I should have seen that coming.”

We have many reasons to pursue good foreshadowing skills. In my opinion, the most important is that it helps avoid using the clumsy Deus Ex Machina (pronounced: Day-us ex Mah-kee-nah) (God from the Machine) as a way to miraculously resolve an issue.

That literary faux pas occurs when, toward the end of the narrative, an author inserts a new event, character, ability, or otherwise resolves a seemingly insoluble problem in an unexpected and miraculous way.

Pacing is a combination of action and reaction. Transitions bookend each scene. They are a door into the scene and the way out. The way out is always the way into the next scene. How we use those transitions determines the importance of the passage. The bookends determine the narrative’s pacing.

Transition scenes get us smoothly from one event or conversation to the next. They push the plot forward and control pacing.

  • Action, reaction, information, reaction, action, reaction, rinse, and repeat until the story reaches its conclusion.

So, now that I have rambled on about writing, I will get busy and clear up my office. I always feel better once a disagreeable task is properly finished.

And then, maybe I will make some headway on my work in progress. Working in a lovely, organized space—what a concept!

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse, 1902. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:John William Waterhouse – The Crystal Ball.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:John_William_Waterhouse_-_The_Crystal_Ball.JPG&oldid=1009616986  (accessed May 11, 2025).

IMAGE: The One Ring, Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:One Ring Blender Render.png,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:One_Ring_Blender_Render.png&oldid=914989927 (accessed May 11, 2025).

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May 5, 2025 · 6:00 am

Worldbuilding – Calendars and Maps #writing

I discovered early on that keeping a calendar and a map gives me a realistic view of my plot arc. A calendar of events helps me remember in what season an incident occurred when something arises later in the first draft that pertains to it. Foliage changes with the seasons, and weather is a part of worldbuilding. Spring foliage is very different from autumn in the part of the world I am from.

And there are other reasons for keeping a calendar as well as sketching a simple map that no one but yourself will see.

A calendar of events helps you with pacing and consistency. In conjunction with a map, a calendar keeps the roadblocks moving along the story arc. It ensures you allow enough time to reasonably accomplish large tasks, enabling a reader to suspend their disbelief.

When it comes to calendars, I suggest you stick with what is familiar, and here is why. In 2008, a lunar calendar seemed like a good thing when creating my first world. The storyline and world of Mountains of the Moon was originally for an anime-style RPG that was never built due to several reasons, a tech crash being only one. When the project was scrapped, I still had the rights to my storyline, maps, and calendars.

My calendar for that world was (and still is) a hot mess.

In the game as we envisioned it, the calendar wouldn’t have been a problem as the days of the week were only mentioned in terms of when a shop was open. But that storyline eventually became my Tower of Bones series, which is set in the world of Neveyah. The calendar I devised so long ago for the game is an annoyance to me now.

  • Thirteen months, twenty-eight days each, named after astrological signs. Capricas, Aquis, Piscus, etc. (Not that many people know what time of year Taurus or Capricorn are unless it’s their birth sign.)
  • The names I assigned to the dates and months are problematic: Lunaday, Tyrsday, Odensday, Torsday, Frosday, Sunnaday, and Restday.

Not confusing at all. Nope.

In 2008, I had no idea just how awful my choice of names for the days and months would end up being. The calendar could have been scrapped and switched to our real-world calendar when I decided to turn it into a novel, but that didn’t occur to me.

And now, seventeen years later, I’m stuck with it. It’s why all my other books are plotted using the modern Gregorian calendar.

So take my advice and keep it simple.

But lets go back to the maps. 

Maybe you think you aren’t artistic enough for mapmaking.

Original Map of Neveyah from 2008 © 2008 cjjasperson

You don’t have to be an artist to draw a rudimentary map of an imaginary place. The rudimentary elements of the first map of my World of Neveyah series were scribbled on graph paper during a phone conversation. It evolved from there to the map you see at the left.

Later, it evolved into an art piece for the books because I love pretty maps, such as those in the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

I use pencil and graph paper at this stage because the story chooses the geography. As the rough draft evolves, sometimes towns must be renamed. They may have to be moved to more logical places. Whole mountain ranges may have to be moved or reshaped so that forests and savannas will appear where they are supposed to be in the story.

Maybe you think you don’t need a map. If your characters are going from hither to yon, and you are writing about their travels, you probably should at least make good notes. But truthfully, it’s not a lot of work to scribble a few lines and note towns and landmarks. If you are designing a fantasy world, you only need a pencil-drawn map. Even if the story is set in a town, it helps to know where our characters are going in relation to their home base.

These maps and notes and calendars are for your use only, a way to avoid introducing confusion into the story. So, your map doesn’t have to be fancy. Lay it out like a standard map with north at the top, east to the right, south to the bottom, and west to the left. Those are called cardinal points, each at 90-degree intervals in the clockwise direction, which is standard in modern maps.

Many towns are situated on rivers. Water rarely flows uphill. While it may do so if pushed by the force of wave action or siphoning, water is a slave to gravity and chooses to flow downhill. When making your map, locate rivers between mountains and hills. Rivers flow to a valley and either continue on to the ocean or pool in low spots and form lakes and ponds.

You might want to note where rivers and forests are situated relative to towns, or in the case of towns, what streets and cross streets our Heroes must travel. We need to take into account the fact that detours add to the distance and increase the time it takes to travel using the common mode of transportation.Rivers, mountains, lakes, and ponds make travel difficult, forcing a road or trail to go around them. This creates opportunities for plot twists in a fantasy story. Thieves, highwaymen—a lot of good plot fodder can be had with the right geography.

If your work is sci-fi, consider making a map of the space station/ship if that is where the story takes place. Billy Ninefingers is set in a wayside inn. I made a drawing of the floor plan for my purposes, noting who resided in each room, on the Rowdies’ floor because the inn is the world in which Billy’s story takes place.

If your characters travel, I suggest you keep the actual distances a bit general in the narrative because some readers will nitpick the details, no matter how accurate you are. Readers may not see it the way you do because their perception of a league might be three miles, while yours might be one and a half.

Both are correct. League (unit) – Wikipedia

Fantasy readers like maps. If you are writing fantasy but feel your hand-drawn map isn’t good enough to include in the finished product, consider hiring an artist to make a nice map from your notes.

No matter what genre we write in, we want the narrative to feel real for the reader. We do this through worldbuilding. Maps and calendars, no matter how rudimentary, are foundation tools of worldbuilding in my writing process.

I hope this little two-part series on worldbuilding has helped you visualize your work more easily.

Previous in this series:

Worldbuilding – the stylesheet/storyboard #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

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April 28, 2025 · 6:00 am

Worldbuilding – the stylesheet/storyboard #writing

If you want to succeed at completing a project with the ambitious goal of writing a novel, I suggest planning in advance. I have mentioned before that I like to storyboard all my ideas.

That way, if I become lost or find myself floundering in the writing process, I can come back to my stylesheet and remind myself of the original concept of the story.

Many people use Scrivener for this, but I was a bookkeeper for most of my working years, so I still use a spreadsheet program. Excel works for me because I have used Microsoft products since the early nineties and am comfortable with that program.

Some people use a whiteboard, and others use Post-It Notes or a combination of the two.

Scrivener currently (in 2025) costs around $60.00, which is not too bad. I have never invested in it, but some of my friends swear by it. On the good side, they have a 30-day free trial period, so if you are interested, test it out. #1 Novel & Book Writing Software For Writers

However, Google Drive has a free program called Google Sheets. This program is similar to Excel (which I use), so the principles I will be discussing are the same.

Admittedly, this program doesn’t do what Excel does, but it is perfect for this if you don’t have Microsoft Office.

However, you can create a stylesheet in any way that makes you happy, even using a notepad and a pencil.

The important thing is to organize your plot notes, research, and background materials in a way that is accessible and makes sense to you.

On line one of page one – I give my project a working title and write that at the top of the spreadsheet (line 1). I save it with that label, something like Strange_story_stylesheet_05-May-2025. That label tells me three things: Working title (Strange Story), type of document (stylesheet), and date begun (May 5, 2025).

  • If my outline is an idea for a short story meant for a specific purpose, I include the intended publication and closing date for submissions. (This is necessary for anthologies but not needed for a novel)

On line two, I label my columns with the categories listed below. Then, on the ribbon, I open the view tab, highlight the third row, and click freeze panes. This allows me to scroll down the spreadsheet while keeping the title and column headings visible.

Page one of my storyboard works this way: I make a list of names and places with four pieces of information pertaining to the story, all on the same line.

Column A heading – Character Names: list the important characters by name and also list the important places where the story will be set.

Column B heading – Role: What their role is, a note about that person or place, a brief description of who and what they are.

Column C heading – What do they want? What does each character desire?

Column D heading – What will they do to get it? How far will they go to achieve their desire?

Page Two contains a brief synopsis of what I imagine the plot will be. This will be the jumping-off point for when I start writing and will change radically by the end of the process.

Page three of my storyboard contains An OUTLINE of events, including a prospective ending. I keep this page updated as things evolve. In every novel, a point of no return, large or small, comes into play, so I will make a note of when and where it should occur in the timeline of the plot arc.

Page four might be the GLOSSARY. This page is a list of names and invented words, which I list as they arise, all spelled the way I want them.

Page five will have MAPS. They don’t have to be fancy. All you need is something rudimentary to show you the layout of the world.

Page six will feature the CALENDAR of events. This is especially important, as readers despise mushy timelines.

This is how the tabs for the storyboard are labeled, allowing me to easily access what I need:

But what if your book spawns a series? The next novel should be easier to write if you kept a storyboard for book one. The storyboard will grow with each installment in that series.

The stylesheet/storyboard is a good tool for fantasy authors because we invent entire worlds, religions, and magic systems. We don’t want to contradict ourselves or have our characters’ names change halfway through the book with no explanation.

Creating the storyboard/stylesheet helps me to know who my characters think they are in the first draft. Having an idea of their story and seeing them in their world is a good first step. Write those thoughts down so you don’t lose them. Keep writing as the ideas come to you, and soon, you’ll have the seeds of a novel.

Storyboarding plays a direct role in how a linear thinker like me works. It takes advantage of the ideas I have that might make a good story as they come to me. Those notes inspire me to begin writing the first draft and keep my imagination running.

Next week, we’ll talk about how maps and calendars are essential tools, how to make them, and why I include them in my storyboard.

Credits and Attributions

The Screenshots of the Sample Storyboard Template are my own work, © 2025 Connie J. Jasperson, All Rights Reserved.

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April 21, 2025 · 6:00 am

Idea to story part 12 – theme, plot, and the character arc #writing

Two months ago, we began our series, Idea to Story. The previous eleven installments are listed below. We have created a sample story, a romantasy. We have met our protagonists and the ultimate antagonist. We know what their world is like and have given them a worthy quest, and we discovered what genre we are writing by paying attention to the tropes that arose as we were laying down the plot.

Now, we’re going to examine the themes that have emerged. We will strengthen the story arc and make the characters more vivid by ensuring a strong central theme is woven through the story.

But first, what is a theme? It is an idea, an unspoken message that winds through the arc of the story and generates action. Themes are subtle but move the characters to action and define why the action happens. For an incredible list of themes, go to A Huge List of Common Themes – Literary Devices.

Before we talk about the themes we want to incorporate in our story, let’s look at how the master of themes, Henry James, wove them into his work.

Henry James is a 19th-century writer you might have heard of but never read. However, he can teach us so much about using a story’s themes to create memorable characters. You may be familiar with the titles of some of his works, such as The Turn of the Screw and The Golden Bowl. Filmmakers and playwrights are still turning his work into movies and plays.

Henry James was a master at writing one common theme into a story—lust. Lust for sex. Lust for money. Lust for control.

Lust for power.

Henry James wrote one of the most famous novellas ever published, the Turn of the Screw.

On the surface, the Turn of the Screw is a gothic horror story. The four main themes are the corruption of the innocent, the destructiveness of heroism, the struggle between good and evil, and the difference between reality and fantasy. A fifth theme is the perception of ghosts. Are the ghosts real or the projection of the governess’s madness?

However, there are several subthemes interwoven into the fabric of the narrative:

  • Secrecy.
  • Deception.
  • The lust for control.
  • Obsession.

What I take home from the longevity of Henry James’s work is this: find a strong theme and use it to underscore and support our characters’ motives.

So, now we know that literary themes are a pattern, a “melody” that recurs in varying forms throughout a story. They emphasize mood and shape the plot.

The main theme of our story is the struggle between good and evil. In Donovan’s well-planned manipulation of Kai under the guise of brotherly mentoring, we have the subthemes of deception and the corruption of the innocent. In Val and Kai, we have the dangers of ignorance and the subthemes of arrogance and class prejudice.

Our three main characters are people. In real life, people are a mix of good and bad at the same time. Some lean more toward good, others toward bad. Either way, their intentions are logical, and they desperately want what they think they deserve.

Most importantly, our characters lie to themselves about their own motives and obscure the truth behind other, more palatable truths. These unspoken truths are the themes we must weave into the fabric of our story by subtly showing a pattern.

Two themes we want to emphasize in Donovan are the desire for power and the use of fear as a means of control. However, at first, we want the tug-of-war for control of the child king, Edward, to be focused on the regents, Kai Voss and Valentine.

The story opens from Val’s point of view, so we lean a bit toward her. But not entirely, as Kai’s chapter shows he has good intentions.

By hinting at the pattern of Donvan’s actions in the first quarter of the book, his lust for power becomes clear. We hope to create in the reader a sense of helplessness to stop what we see coming. This is emphasized as clues appear, indicating that Val and Kai are acting on misinformation that is deliberately fed to them.

Once Val and Kai find themselves in the dungeon, new themes will join the story. Both are in their mid-thirties and are established and respected in their respective peer groups. However, both must have a coming-of-age arc. Despite their apparent adulthood, they each have a lot to learn about real life.

But what about young King Edward? For Val and Kai, the theme of parental love is shown in their actions of caring for him from the beginning. While he is not their child, he is in their care and both love him as if he were their son and are secretly jealous of each other. They have differing goals for him, which causes friction, but the reader doesn’t doubt their sincere love for the boy.

Edward is sickly, cursed with a wasting disease. All through this tale, he has been a McGuffin, the object of the quest and a pawn in Donovan’s game of power. His character arc is limited because he is bedridden and unaware of the war for control centered on him.

When she wakes up in the dungeon, Val realizes who truly set the curse on Edward and who murdered the boy’s parents in the first place. She realizes that if she can’t rescue Edward, Donovan’s curse will kill him, and Donovan will become king. She is miserably aware that she will need a wizard to counter Donovan’s sorcery. Unfortunately, the only sorcerer she has access to is Kai, which means she must rescue him first, something she despises having to do.

Conversely, Kai is glad to be free but not pleased that it is Valentine who has rescued him. He doubts her motives and refuses to believe his brother betrayed him, until they overhear the guards talking.

Val and Kai must learn to work together. As they do, the theme of romantic love will emerge.

What other themes might emerge as we write our story? How will we recognize and underscore the patterns, the melodies that appear in the narrative?

This is where writing becomes a craft, and to excel at any craft, we must work at it.

Thank you for sticking with me as we worked our way through this long and involved process of taking an idea for a story and building the characters, the world, and the plot.

While the story of Val and Kai is just a sample plot for demonstration, I have used these weeks to reexamine the different aspects of my current work in progress. Talking my way through a plot with my friends really helps, so thank you!

Previous in this series:

Idea to story, part 1: novel, poetry, memoir, or short story? #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 2: thinking out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 3: plotting out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 4 – the roles of side characters #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 5 – plotting treason #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 6 – Plotting the End #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 7 – Building the world #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 8 – world-building and society #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 9 – technology and world-building #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to Story part 10 – science and magic as world-building #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 11: Genre and expected tropes #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

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April 14, 2025 · 6:00 am

Idea to story, part 11: Genre and expected tropes #writing

Two months ago, we began our series, Idea to Story. The previous ten installments are listed below, but over the last ten weeks, we have met our protagonists and the ultimate antagonist. We know what their world is like and have given them a worthy quest. Also, we know how this story must end.

As we were meeting the characters, we realized that the sample plot is for a “Romantasy,” a subgenre of Fantasy, and we gave it a title that plays to that category, Valentine’s Gambit. If we choose to publish this story, we know which “shelf” (category) in the e-bookstore will best fit it: Fantasy Romance.

We will want to read books in that genre by well-known authors. This way we will know what our target market wants. The tropes may be anticipated by the reader, but we want our novel to incorporate them in a creative and unique way.

The expected tropes we have included when we plotted the story arc are:

  • Enemies to lovers Romance
  • Child in jeopardy
  • Quest
  • Gaining control of magic
  • Wise mentor
  • Battling the powerful enemy

This will ensure our novel fits its genre and subgenre. But what exactly are genres? Publisher and author Lee French puts it this way, “Literary genres are each a collection of tropes that create expectations about the media you consume.”

For a deep dive into the many genres that exist, go to List of writing genres – Wikipedia. Be prepared to spend some time looking into every aspect of the category you think you write in. If you do the research, you will be better able to market your work to its intended audience.

Genre and tropes are intertwined. If we are going to find readers for this novel, we must understand who we’re trying to sell it to.

We need to know what that reader expects to find in their favorite kind of book. Genres are like a display of fruit at the grocery store. Each kind of fruit has it’s own spot in the display, such as bananas and oranges and grapes. But each kind of fruit, such as apples, are divided into several varieties, and each variety of apple is a little different from its neighbor.

In novels, the different subgenres (flavors) within a genre are created by the tropes the author has chosen to include in the narrative.

Mainstream (or general) fiction is an all-purpose term that publishers and booksellers use to describe works that should appeal to the broadest range of readers and has a chance for commercial success. Mainstream authors often blend genre fiction stylistic practices with those considered unique to literary fiction. It will be both plot- and character-driven and may have a narrative style that is not as lean as modern genre fiction, but won’t be pretentiously stylistic.

Science fiction features futuristic settings, science, and technology, along with space travel, time travel, faster-than-light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

  • Hard Sci-fi is characterized by attention to detail in theoretical physics, chemistry, and astrophysics. Accurately depicting worlds that more advanced technology may make possible is critical.
  • Soft Sci-fi leans toward the social sciences, exploring psychology, economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology.
  • Other main sub-genres of Sci-fi include Space-operas, Cyberpunk, Time Travel, Steampunk, Alternate history, Military, Superhuman, Apocalyptic, and Post-Apocalyptic. Go to the internet and look up the typical tropes of these subgenres. Then write me an awesome Space Opera – my favorite sci-fi subgenre.

The main thing to remember is this: Science and Magic cannot coexist in the genre of science fiction. The minute you add magic to the story, you have Fantasy.

Fantasy is a fiction genre that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. The genre of Fantasy has its share of snobs when it comes to defining the sub-genres, the same way sci-fi and literary fiction do. The tropes are:

  • High Fantasy is set in an alternative, fictional world rather than the real world. It often includes elves, fairies, dwarves, dragons, demons, magic or sorcery, wizards or magicians, invented languages, quests, and coming-of-age themes. Readers expect and demand multi-volume series. Often, the prose is more literary, and the primary plot is slowed by many side quests. Think William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien.
  • Epic Fantasy can be dark and serious but is always epic in scope. It usually explores the struggle against supernatural, evil forces. Epic fantasy shares some typical characteristics of high fantasy, and its readers also demand multi-volume narratives. Tad Williams’s Memory Sorrow and Thorn is a classic Epic Fantasy.
  • Paranormal Fantasy often focuses on romantic love. It includes elements beyond scientific explanation. Think ghosts, vampires, and the supernatural.
  • Urban Fantasy can be set in historical, modern, or futuristic periods, and the settings may include fictional elements. It must be primarily set in a city.
  • Romantasy contains all the elements of a classic fantasy story. However, the developing relationship between the two main characters is as central to the story as the primary quest. It must have a happy ending for the protagonists.

Every genre has a subgenre of horror. In Romance, the horror subgenre might be Gothic or Paranormal, but the focus must be on a developing romance. The roadblocks will not feature blood or gore, but terror and a perception of danger will be a feature the pair must overcome.

Romance—Novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people and must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. The story will be character-driven, and the roadblocks must be believable but surmountable. There must be a happy ending for the couple, or it will not be received well by readers of Romance.

I mention Classic (Literary) Fiction last because it is the most complicated and least understood genre of all. These works are considered difficult to read because the style of the prose uses a wide range of vocabulary and may be experimental. This requires the reader to go over certain passages more than once, which many readers dislike doing. However, these books can be satisfying as they present ideas that require the reader to think beyond their usual bounds. Stylistic writing, heavy use of allegory, and the deep exploration of themes and ideas are strongly represented in these novels.

Our final installment in this series will explore how to recognize and make use of the themes that emerge in our work. We will focus on the themes in our sample Romantasy, idea threads that will wind through the narrative, and subtly reinforce our characters’ stories.

Previous in this series:

Idea to story, part 1: novel, poetry, memoir, or short story? #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 2: thinking out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 3: plotting out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 4 – the roles of side characters #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 5 – plotting treason #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 6 – Plotting the End #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 7 – Building the world #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 8 – world-building and society #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 9 – technology and world-building #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to Story part 10 – science and magic as world-building #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

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April 7, 2025 · 6:00 am

Idea to Story part 10 – science and magic as world-building #writing

I can’t deny my sincere love of all things sci-fi or fantasy. While I read in every genre, speculative fiction is my “comfort food.” I purchase both indie and traditionally published work and read them all.

Two months ago, we began our series, Idea to Story. The previous nine installments are listed below, but throughout the series, we have built our two main characters. Val, (Valentine), is a lady knight and captain of the Royal Guard. The initial enemy, Kai Voss, is the court sorcerer. Both are regents for the sickly, underage king. Most of the other characters are in place.

I must be honest—both sides of the publishing industry, indie and traditional, are guilty of publishing novels that aren’t well thought out. Thus, we are planning our novel so that we can avoid contradictions.

Inconsistencies in the science or magic system are usually only one aspect of haphazard plotting and world-building. When an author or publisher skimps on the revisions or ignores the beta reader’s concerns, they can be unaware of the contradictions built into the narrative. If they rush it to publication, the book fails the reader.

Magic must be treated the same way science is. It must be presented as a naturally occurring aspect of the world our characters inhabit.

  • Magic and the ability to wield it gives a character power.
  • Science and superior technology also give our characters power.

Power and how we confer it is the layer of world-building where writers of science and writers of magic must follow the same rules.

Science is not magic, and it should not feel to a reader as if it were. It is logical, rooted in the realm of both factual and researchable theoretical physics. Science is limited by the boundaries of human knowledge and our ability to build technology.

However, an author’s imaginative exploration of theoretical physics makes the possibilities boundless.

In my opinion, magic should be like science. It should follow certain natural laws and have limits. Magic is believable when the ways it can be used are restricted and most sorcerers are constrained by the laws of nature to mastering only one or two kinds.

But why restrict your beloved main character’s abilities? The obvious answer is to allow your character to grow, to give them a true character arc. No one has all the skills in real life, no matter how good they are at their job. Limits create tension, and tension keeps the reader reading. When too many people are given superior powers, you make things too easy.

I have read many sci-fi and fantasy novels featuring characters with empathic gifts.

  • In fantasy, it is portrayed as a form of magic.
  • In science fiction, it’s portrayed as a mysterious property of the quantum universe that some people can access.

If an empathic gift has entered your narrative, ask yourself these questions: what sort of empathic gift does your character have? Are they good at emotion reading, mind reading, healing, or foresight?

  • How common or rare is this gift?
  • How did they discover they had it?
  • What can they do with it?
  • What can they NOT do with it?
  • Is there formal training for gifts like theirs?
  • What happens to people who use their empathy to abuse others?
  • Has society made laws regulating how empaths are trained and controlled?

Are you writing a book that features magic? I have a few questions that you may want to consider:

  1. How do they learn to fully use their gifts? Apprenticeship? Trial and error? A formal school, ala Harry Potter?
  2. Are there some conditions under which the magic will not work? Is the damage magic can do as a weapon, or is the healing it can perform somehow limited?
  3. Does the mage or healer pay a physical/emotional price for using or abusing magic? Is the learning curve steep and sometimes lethal?

When you answer the above questions, you create the Science of Magic.

So, what about superpowers?

Superpowers are both science and something that may seem like magic, but they are not. Think Spiderman. His abilities are conferred on him by a scientific experiment that goes wrong.

Like science and magic, superpowers are believable when they are limited in what they can do.

If you haven’t considered the challenges your characters must overcome when wielding magic or weapons technology, now is a good time to do it.

  • How is their self-confidence affected by this inability?
  • Do the companions face learning curves, too?
  • How can they remedy this situation?

These limits are the roadblocks to success. Overcoming them offers opportunities for action and growth.

In the story we have been plotting for the last nine weeks, Kai is the court sorcerer. At their father’s behest, he was trained in the art of sorcery by his half-brother. Donovan is slick, always playing the long game. He made sure that Kai does not have full knowledge of the craft, although, at the outset, Kai is unaware of this treachery. When Donovan makes his move, Kai is utterly defeated and ends up in the dungeon.

Val springs him from the dungeon when she escapes, but then what? How can we resolve Kai’s knowledge gap and give him an edge his brother can’t detect? We need to find him another teacher or two.

Valentine’s grandmother is an herb woman blessed with some empathic abilities. She has knowledge Kai could benefit from. She also has friends who are practitioners of a way of magic that is considered beneath the formal school Donovan and Kai were trained in. If Kai can stop being a spoiled rich boy, he can learn what he needs to know.

Val has no magic but has knowledge of available military technology and ideas for how it can be used in unexpected ways. All she has to do is stop looking down her nose at Kai and work with him.

Her grandmother will resolve that situation with a sharp dose of reality for both our protagonists.

Excalibur London Film Museum via Wikipedia

The limits of their magic and technology force Kai and Val to be creative. If they are going to rescue the boy king from Donovan’s clutches, they need to use that creativity. Our characters must become more than they believe they are.

Whether your story is set in a medieval castle or a space station, limiting the personal power of the protagonist creates tension, raises the stakes, and makes the story more believable.

Next up – Genre, Themes, and the Expected Tropes of our story

Previous in this series:

Idea to story, part 1: novel, poetry, memoir, or short story? #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 2: thinking out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 3: plotting out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 4 – the roles of side characters #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 5 – plotting treason #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 6 – Plotting the End #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 7 – Building the world #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 8 – world-building and society #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 9 – technology and world-building #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

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March 31, 2025 · 6:00 am

Idea to story part 9 – technology and world-building #writing

Today, we’re going to look at how the available technology affects the believability of our narrative. Eight weeks ago, we began our series, Idea to Story. The previous installments are listed below, but over the course of the series, we have built our two main characters, Val (Valentine), a lady knight, and the initial enemy, Kai Voss, a court sorcerer. Both are regents for the sickly, underage king.

We also have our ultimate enemy, Donovan Dove, Kai’s half-brother, and most trusted advisor. The basic story arc has been plotted (an enemies-to-lovers romance), and we have a working title that speaks to the genre of romantasy (fantasy romance), Valentine’s Gambit. We may keep the title, or we might not.

When we began this journey, we allowed the characters to tell us the story as they saw it. They showed us snippets of their world, and we started placing the set dressing in each scene. Our characters’ place in society has been determined, so we have an idea of their preconceived notions and cherished prejudices.

At the outset, the characters and the plot leaned toward a pseudo-medieval type of society. A large segment of the fantasy genre is set in a pseudo-medieval era. The most common failure I see in this type of fantasy is the assumption that only minimal technology can exist in a medieval era.

Yes, sewers were often open trenches, but while much of the available tech was reserved for the upper classes, it did exist. One can only admire our ancestors. Their creations are the foundations of what we consider modern amenities.

So, let’s talk about the level of technology for your novel. No matter the genre or era you set it in, no matter the world, each occupation has a specific historically available technology. What tools are available to them?

  1. Hunter/Gatherers?
  2. Agricultural/farming?
  3. Greco-Roman metallurgy and technology?
  4. Medieval metallurgy and technology?
  5. Pre-industrial revolution or late Victorian?
  6. Modern day?
  7. Or do they have magic-based technology?
  8. How do we get around, and how do we transport goods? On foot, by horse & wagon, trains, or space shuttle?

Our sample story is set in a pseudo-medieval era, so what sort of technologies are available to Val, Kai, and young King Edward?

We must do the research.

Sanitation: In Europe, how was public sanitation handled during medieval times? We can go back to the Etruscans for this, circa fifth century BCE. In the better parts of town, folks had covered sewers. According to Wikipedia:

Sanitation in ancient Rome, acquired from the Etruscans, was very advanced compared to other ancient cities and provided water supply and sanitation services to residents of Rome. Although there were many sewers, public latrines, baths and other sanitation infrastructure, disease was still rampant. The baths are known to symbolize the “great hygiene of Rome”.

Around AD 100, direct connections of homes to sewers began, and the Romans completed most of the sewer system infrastructure. Sewers were laid throughout the city, serving the public and some private latrines, and also served as dumping grounds for homes not directly connected to a sewer. It was mostly the wealthy whose homes were connected to the sewers, through outlets that ran under an extension of the latrine. [1]

These modern amenities traveled with the aristocracy to all the lands conquered by Rome and remained available into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

What other amenities might our quarreling couple have? In the article,  Medieval Technology, Hanna Woody at Clemson University tells us that these (and many more) technologies we think of as modern appeared and were in use during medieval times. [2]

Thus, if the plot goes the way we planned, Val and Kai will have all the conveniences of a Tudor Castle, an herb woman’s forest cottage, and a mud hut. Valentine’s Gambit will be nothing if not classy.

If you are writing about a craft that you are unfamiliar with, DO THE RESEARCH. You will interpret your research and will either get it right or be way off the mark. Either way, it’s your story, but readers will point out where you got it wrong.

Are you writing science fiction?

TED Talks are a fantastic resource for information on current and cutting-edge technology.

ZDNet Innovation is an excellent source of existing tech and future tech that may become current in 25 years.

Tech Times is also a great source of ideas.

Nerds on Earth is a source of valuable information about swords and how they were used historically.

Digital Trends

If you are writing a contemporary novel, you need to know what interests the people in the many different layers of our society. Go to the magazine rack at your grocery store or the local Big Name Bookstore and peruse the many publications available to the reading public. You can find everything from mushroom hunting to culinary, survivalist, and organic gardening. If people are interested in it, there is a magazine for it. An incredible amount of information can be found in these publications.

If you seek information about how people farmed and worked in historical societies from post-Roman times through to the late Edwardian era, Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley is still available as a second-hand book and can be found on Amazon. This textbook was meticulously researched and illustrated by a historian who personally knew the people she wrote about.

Resources to bookmark in general:

www.Thesaurus.Com (What’s another word that means the same as this but isn’t repetitive?)

Oxford Dictionary (What does this word mean? Am I using it correctly?)

Wikipedia (The font of all knowledge. I did not know that.)

Looking things up on the internet can suck up an enormous amount of your writing time. Do yourself a favor and bookmark your resources, so all you have to do is click on a link to get the information you want. Then, you can quickly get back to writing.

Next week, we will look at science and magic and talk about how limitations offer opportunities for action.

PREVIOUS IN THIS SERIES:

Idea to story, part 1: novel, poetry, memoir, or short story? #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 2: thinking out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 3: plotting out loud #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 4 – the roles of side characters #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 5 – plotting treason #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 6 – Plotting the End #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 7 – Building the world #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Idea to story part 8 – world-building and society #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

 

Credits and Attributions

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Sanitation in ancient Rome,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sanitation_in_ancient_Rome&oldid=1277682552 (accessed March 28, 2025).

[2] CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license. To the extent possible under law, Clemson University has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Science Technology and Society a Student Led Exploration, except where otherwise noted. (Accessed March 28, 2025.)

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