World Building Post 2: Who are you making the world for?

Your audience.

Who do you want to reach with your world build? Who are you writing for?

Look at the book you want to write, the RPG you want to develop for whatever platform (Tabletop, PC, Console). Think about who you had in mind when you came up with your concept. We’ll come back to them in a second. First, let’s talk about the audience you always write for.

That’d be you.

When you set out to write a book, or design a game, you always hear that you should write the book you want to read, or design the game you want to play. 9 times out of 10, that’s what happens. That’s important. You don’t want to write something you don’t want to read or play, right?

Like the man says in Heat. “There’s another side to that coin.” What’s also important is knowing when to enjoy that book or game as a reader, or a player.

When you’re a writer, sometimes you lose track of that.

Pixar Studios has a set of guidelines that has served them very well when writing their scripts. I recommend reading those. Rule two from that list reads as follows:

“You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.”

As a writer, there are a lot of fun things you can do. Lots of little Easter eggs, pop culture references, nuances, etc. you can put into your world and narrative. Fun as that stuff is to do, you need to ask yourself:

• Why am I doing this?
• Is this because it sounds cool, or do I want to accomplish something with it?
• Will this serve the narrative

These questions seem to be a good yardstick. I don’t think this will be the last time we refer to them.

Ask yourself the following questions about who will be tromping through your world. Are they:

• Kids?
• Young Adults?
• Adults?

Of the above listed groups, ask the next questions:

• Out of all the groups listed, who will show most interest in your world?
• Which group will be easiest to write for?

You know what you’re interested in as an audience member. As you create your world you need to know your audience. Know what they like and what’ll keep them reading and keep them playing. A safe bet, since you know what you like.

Pulling another rule from the Pixar playbook:

Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

Before I go, I’ll leave you with a couple of questions to mull over, possibly the most important ones:

Will people enjoy the world you’re crafting? Do your enjoy the world you’re crafting?

Chasing the Muse:Writing as an Individual

Recently I was at Salt Lake City FanX. I was running my own booth for Big World Network and helping out the League of Utah Writers with anyone who came up with a question.

Due to a panel I was on about writing, I also answered a few questions about writing from a couple of vendors and some people enjoying the convention.

I loved it.

A question I was asked, more than once, was this. “Should I concentrate on writing short stories first, or should I focus more on novel length work?”

It got me thinking about how writers write. Some like to devote their time to cranking out a novel length book. Others like to crack out short story after short story. There are those crazy enough to do both.

So what’s the right answer?

If the writer is more comfortable focusing on the long game, concentrating on producing a novel. That’s what they should do.

If they want to write up an anthology’s worth of short stories, they should do that.

The end result will be similar. A tangible result with the writer’s name on the cover.

In the end it doesn’t matter if it’s a collection of stories, or just one.

The right answer here depends on what the writer wants to do.

Ask yourself, what do you want to do? How do you want to apply your effort?

Answer those questions.

Now go to it.

BONUS MATERIAL:

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” Ray Bradbury

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
― Ray Bradbury

 

Chasing the Muse: Working Hard for the Art.

As writers, artists, musicians, what have yous. We are all awaiting the muse to descend and make the creation of our individual artistry easier.

It took me years to realize, that ain’t gonna happen.

The muse does not descend on her/his/its own.

Not all the time. Sometimes not at all.

Like the quote from Blades of Glory about figure skating. “It’s like a cruel bitch mother, she’ll seduce you with chocolates and roses and then kick you to the side of the road like a dead raccoon!”

The muse has shown that it can be fickle at the best of times. Absent at the worst.

What can we do?

Chase it down.

Like courage, the muse must be pursued and captured.

In his Invocation for beginners Ze Frank said of courage. “Let me remember that my courage is a wild dog, it won’t just come when I call it. I have to chase it down and hold on as tight as I can.”

The same can be applied to the muse.

I said at the beginning of this blog that we all wait for the muse to descend. Some of us wait to create until the muse descends.

We can do that, but the amount of work we get done waiting for the muse to descend, to be inspired, depends on us.

Like I said the muse is a fickle thing. Inspiration strikes at the damndest times.

Picasso said. “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” He also said. “I do not seek. I find.”

Two great quotes. They inform you on how one of the great artists of our time worked.

Key word. Worked.

Work helps inspiration…

Careful. You’re veering into metaphorical territory.

I’ll tread as lightly as I can.

As I was saying, work helps inspiration. It helps you sort out the good ideas from the bad. The great from the mediocre.

Gordon B. Hinckley said. “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.”

I have a writing partner who works all the time, he’s a writer and a painter.  He even writes when he’s sick as a dog. He once told me. “I write all the time. I paint all the time. I do this so that when inspiration hits me, I’ll be ready for it.”

Art, no matter what you do, requires a lot of hard work. If you want this to be a job, not a hobby, then you’ve signed up for a difficult task.

Put in the hours, it’ll be worth it.

BONUS FEATURE:

Picasso Quotes

 

 

 

 

Musing on Failure

Failure.

That’s a word you don’t want to think about at 5:00 in the morning.

I was, though. Reluctantly. I’d have preferred sleep, but the word just kept repeating.

So I got up and thought a little more about it.

Thought even more about how I’d like to be asleep.

Then I got myself and my kids ready for our day, and came back to write this. All the while I thought about failure and why we’re programmed to fear it.

Why, through our formative years, are we taught that failing is tantamount to death?

Lot of big words there, chief.

You gonna bust me about my vocabulary now?

Just remember to keep things simple. You may write with a thesaurus in your head, but not everyone reads with one.

Go away.

Let’s take a look at failure and why it shouldn’t scare everyone as much as it does.

Note: I’m not downplaying anyone’s legitimate anxiety at all. Read on.

To a scientist, failure is a fact. It’s a consequence of experimentation. To prove hypotheses, they must test them. Some past muster. Others fail. They examine the results of their tests and try again.

I’ve generalized the methods scientists use to test theories. I’ve generalized a great deal. I hope any scientist, of a scientific mind, or just plain smarter than I am, will forgive me for that.

It’s the process of discovery that I’m interested in relating to the reader in terms of learning from failure. Vis a vie: Starting point, testing, collecting data, more testing, more data collection, more testing, results.

We’ll get into all of it a little later.

Some of us are so psychologically afraid of failure, that we set ourselves up to fail. We’re afraid of how failure will make us look, worried that the failure will impact our future, even worried that the potential failure speaks to our level of intelligence (or our perceived lack thereof).

In an article titled “10 signs that you might fear failure” (Link below) Guy Winch, Ph.D. describes these traits and others.

First, he informs us that if you feel very worried about potential failure all the time, speak to a mental health professional. I echo that. Take care of yourself.

Second, if you are able to do so, there are two ways you can conquer your fear. I’ll paraphrase, because the article is excellent and needs to be read.

1. Own the fear. Everyone fails. It will happen. Don’t bury your feelings. Let ’em out. All joking aside, express your fears to those who you trust. They’ll understand. They’ve been there. Learn from them. Let them help. What are friends for?
2. Focus on aspects of control. So you’re afraid to speak in public? Find someone who’s great at it, see if they can give you some pointers. Like this one. Afraid the audience is going to laugh at you? Make sure they laugh at what you say. Be funny. Make yourself memorable.

I acknowledge that everyone will handle things differently. You will find your way through this.

Again, if you are crippled by your fear of failure. If you are having difficulty functioning, please seek help. Do not stay silent.

I also acknowledge that, if you are able to manage it, failure can be very valuable.

How?

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla both learned from failure.

Thomas Edison learned 1,000 ways not to make a lightbulb.

Tesla learned not to trust Edison.

Bad joke. Sorry.

Tesla moved onward and upward. Making spectacular discoveries of his own.

Failure typically teaches us three things.

1. How not to do something. Every thing we fail at is a teacher if we let it be. If we spend time lamenting that we failed in our efforts that’s time wasted. If we look at where we succeeded, and where we can do better next time, then our labor isn’t in vain.
2. How to something. As mentioned above, when we fail we typically have some success before things go kaput. Knowing what we did well will help when we reapply ourselves.
3. How to do it better. This is all sounding repetitive, sure. More often than not, to succeed, you need to be repetitive. When you know where you failed, and where you went right, then you can do it all again. This time you can do it better. Sometimes it’s not about how much we can do. It’s about putting more effort into our work. Quality over quantity.

A harsh teacher, but a teacher nonetheless. Failure, while it makes us nervous can do us good.

Especially if we learn.

BONUS MATERIALS:

10 Signs That You Might Have Fear of Failure

How to conquer the fear of failure – five proven strategies

Five ways to make peace with failure

21 important lessons learned from failure

Being a Pantser: Advantages and Disadvantages.

I’m what’s known in writer’s parlance as a ‘Pantser’.

As in I write by the seat of my pants, and I make no outlines.

I have a concept of how my characters stories are going to play out, but there isn’t any set path as to how they’re going to get there.

Typically, this is ok for me.

Being a Pantser gives me a certain amount of freedom. I can discover new things about the story and characters as I write.

The disadvantage is, without a plan, I tend to meander. It’s vexed more than one editor. Likely more than one reader.

Lately, as I’ve taken on more projects and ideas have come at me with little to no filter, that I need structure.

So I’m going to attempt to become a Planner.

Books one and two of the Lineage Saga were written in the Pantser fashion. Since book two is, more or less, finished, I will be writing book three as a Planner.

Pray for me.

Regaining Steam.

I used to write everyday. I woke up before my wife and boys, and I wrote. After I sent my dears off to sleep, I would write.

Took its toll, sure, but I loved it.

Then I stopped.

I started running a publisher and also started working part time again.

I kept telling myself that I would pick it back up again, when l was less busy.

Then. Life. Just. Kept. HAPPENING!

I thought back to when I started writing. How I would just write. Didn’t matter where, when, or how. I’d just write.

At school? I’d write.

At work? (Where I am now), write write write.

Out with my friends, or family? If there was ever a lull in conversation, pre-iPhone, I’d be scribbling in a composition book. Now, I use the notepad feature to write.

Tell the truth, I still do all of that. However, I don’t do it consistently.

Rather, I didn’t.

In the past year. I’ve picked up where I left off.

Let me tell you, it’s rough. I’m doing it though.

A quote I like along these lines comes from Og Mandino.

Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated, not by a single explosive burst of energy or effort, but by the constant daily application of the best you have within you.

I love this quote. I love the idea behind it. It’s something I do my best to remember daily.

It all boils down to a simple word: Habit.

I fell out of the habit of writing. Started treating it like a hobby instead of a serious commitment. I’m getting back into the habit.

Like I said, it’s rough, but it’s doable.

If I can do do it you can too.

Some of you who’re reading this might be saying: All well and good to say ”If I can do it you can too”. But I don’t have any time. I have a job. I have a family. I have commitments. Applying myself daily just isn’t feasible.

Right. Understandable. Bills need to be paid. Food needs to be put on the table. Little ones need to be cared for.

You don’t work all the time, though.

Stay with me here.

The work day ends. The kids will, (eventually), fall asleep. Leaving you with time to…

Fall asleep yourself.

Before you do, though. You could be writing.

Or, if you’re dead on your feet, you could sleep a bit first. (Sleep is God. Worship often). When rested, wake up a little earlier than normal and write.

You can also write on your lunch breaks. Or during slow periods at your job. Again, I’m writing this while I’m at work…

Wait a damn minute! Why’re you talking about this?

Well, there’s a point to it.

Habit is everything. Especially when you want to write.

I’ve taken a look at some writing advice online, and I’ll avoid re-posting it ad nauseum. I will, however, post the links of some of the articles below. Great advice.

The most important thing to do is to write every day.

Even if you don’t like what you write, write. Get into the habit. Keep the habit sustained. Even if you write crap, save it. You never know if it will turn into something.

What are you still doing here? Get writing!

BONUS FEATURES!

Here are the articles on writing I found in the course of researching this article. Like I said, good advice here.

Check out the 12 daily routines of writers for some interesting insights into your favorite writers daily habits. (Kurt Vonnegut’s is especially interesting).

The 21 day Myth by Jason Selk

12 daily routines of writers By James Clear

7 habits of highly successful writers by John Rampton

Suffering

I am once again, suffering from Writer’s block.

However, this is a problem that I think a lot of us suffer from but don’t generally address as typical ‘writer’s block’.

Let me explain.

I’ve recently started to work on completing the sequel to my first book.

Working on that gave me an idea for another series.

Writing down that idea gave me another idea.

Then my Wife shared an article with me about Westerns, and how they’re making a comeback. I’ve always wanted to write a Western.

Any ideas I’ve had for my sequel have been squelched by the mass of ideas for other books that have popped up.

I think there are, at least, two different types of writer’s block. The block where our creativity is blocked by our stagnation, and the block caused by too many ideas trying to push through the gate at once.

Pushing ourselves out of a stagnant state is relatively easy in comparison to getting the flow of ideas under control.

You grow stagnant, all you have to do is get up and get out. Do anything but write for a little while. Vacuum, change the temperature, open some windows, be active. Soon you’ll have ideas start to grow in your head.

The other problem is a little trickier. You vacuum, you get an idea. Change the temperature, idea. Open windows? IDEA! Be active? IDEA! IDEA! IDEA!

Curing stagnation is like trying to get barren soil fertile again. It’s patient and hard work.

Getting your imagination to cool down so you can concentrate on one idea, is like trying to get rid of crab grass, dandelions, or bull’s head stickers. There’s no easy way to do it.

Getting the flow of story ideas unstuck is tricky. Getting the ideas in order, outlining them and actually writing about them would go a long way towards getting our creative process unblocked.

All this coming from a guy who’s having problems with step one…

Well, I’ll give my own advice a shot and let you know how it goes.

What Motivates Me?

So I’ve written myself into depression today.

How did that happen? Easy. I tried to write about why I’m stuck creatively in some areas.

I figured out that I don’t need to explore that. I know what’s wrong! I just need to find some good motivators.

Why not write about that?

Here’s some of the things I do to get myself motivated.

To Start With:

1. I get light into my space. If I’m writing at night, I light the place up. If I’m writing in the daytime, I throw open the blinds and let the sunshine in!
2. Keep the browser closed! I do my level best not to hit up Facebook, Imgur, Reddit or other Time Suck sites. I wish I were better at staying away, but I’m not.

To Get Into It:

1. Set the mood. I get my Itunes and my YouTube playlists up and running. Depending on what I’m writing, I need that mood music to fuel the scene.
2. Research. I love to research the crap out of what I write. It’s fun! But I can overdo. So I limit myself to an hour on the computer. Then an hour in the library. Then another hour on the computer…

THE ACTUAL GORRAM WRITING:

Yes, I said gorram. I aim to misbehave.

1. The soothing sounds of silence. After I get pumped up, after the research, I hear the whir of my computer and the clicking of my keyboard. There’s nothing better.
2. Tick tock, tick tock Clarice. Some writers time themselves. I’m one of ’em. Hell, I have to. I have kids and a wife that need me to pick them up. So I can’t lose track of time. Speaking of which, I’d better wrap this up.

BONUS FEATURES!

Motivation comes in all forms. Speeches, music, pictures, quotes. Whatever.

Here are some great things I employ to light a fire under me.

ZeFrank’s Invocation for Beginners

The Great Dictator’s Final Speech

V’s Fifth of November Speech

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Complete Dream Speech

Captain Picard’s Great Speech’s 

Gifts, Talents and Jumping

I’m surrounded by people who do some pretty fantastic things. They’re just fantastic. Period.

Acquaintances, friends, family members. The talent around me does not run short.

We’ve all got inborn talent, a kind of starter kit for the harsh world we call home. If we didn’t have it, we’d all go insane. Some are talented at athletics; some can charm birds from the trees with their voices. Others have a natural way with numbers.
There are thousands of things that people are naturally good at.

But talent alone isn’t enough.

Growing up, I fell in love with the Robert Redford movie “The Natural”.  A movie about baseball and one man’s journey to be the best there ever was. The first line of the movie comes from the main characters’ father.

“You’ve got a gift Roy. But it’s not enough. You’ve got to develop yourself. If you rely too much on your own gift, then you’ll fail.”

As a kid, I didn’t know what that meant.  As I’ve grown up, I understand those first lines of “The Natural”.  I’ve learned that our talent gets us interested in certain fields. And it will only take us so far.

Talent like any muscle, needs development. If we don’t put work that muscle, it atrophies.

Another quote that’s a little more brutal but related, comes from James A. Baldwin. “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.”

A talented ruin is a person who says, “I’ve always had a book inside me.” and never writes it. Or someone who says, “Oh I used to sing all the time, but life got in the way. Now I never sing anymore.”

Developing your gift is taking voice lessons after or before work, or on your day off if you get one. It’s practicing in the shower and every spare moment you get and sharing that gift with everyone. It’s doing what you love to do, and developing that talent to the best of your ability. Be it writing, or playing an instrument, or working on cars, cooking, etc. the list goes on into infinity.

Talent extends into so many areas. Sad to say, so many people won’t develop it. ‘Time won’t allow’. Or ‘there will be time later’. So many excuses.

Hate to tell you people, time isn’t what won’t allow, it’s you. More good news, later will not come. Now is all that matters.

Steve Harvey, wrote an article. “You’ve Got to Jump to be Successful”.

“The only way that you can soar? You got to jump. You got to take that gift that’s packed away on your back. You have to jump off that cliff and pull that cord. That gift opens and provides the soar. If you don’t ever use your gift..your [sic] just going to go to work. If you’re getting up everyday to go to a job that you hate going to..that ain’t living man…you’re just existing. At one point in time, you oughta see what living’s like but to only way to see what living’s like…you gotta jump.”

Like I said at the beginning, I am surrounded by a lot of talented people. People who are already soaring.

Some days, I jump off the cliff and hit the rocks below. I’m happy to say that most days I fly. I haven’t soared for awhile though and I’m ready to soar again.

Where are you? A Map to World Building

I am an admitted pantser.

Meaning when I write, I plan almost nothing out. When I write, it’s by the seat of my pants.

I did say ‘almost nothing.’

There is something I do work on.

When I write, I build worlds. It’s my favorite thing to do.

I love the questions about the world my characters are going into. Is the world magical, non-magical, or modern with magic? Are we riding horses, or horse sized pit bulls? Where do my characters live? Regular houses, castles, or undergrounds caverns?

Then I deal with the minutia. How does emergency transit work? What about other emergency services? What powers the secret base of operations? How do we transport large items?

Are there classes? Caste systems? Can certain cultures interact peacefully with others, or are their taboos? What are the fighting styles of these cultures, how did they evolve? What are the religious practices of these cultures. Are they real or false?

The questions are infinite.

There’s a good chance that none of this will make it into the book.

Why bother with any of it?

There may be gaps that need to be filled. Tiny bits here and there. Throwaway lines. Small scenes giving the reader a glimpse at the larger world beneath the action.

It’s the juice. The sauce for  the goose. The horseradish for the prime rib. It’s the extra stuff you don’t necessarily need to enjoy the main course, but it’s enhances the flavor…

Wait a minute.

Lots of metaphor and no interruption.

Excuse me.

Hey!

Busy.

Are you playing Minecraft while I’m writing?

I do have a life outside of you, ya know.

Ugh.

Get me a Coke.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. World Building goes hand in hand with building your character from the ground up. A good detailed background for your character can dovetail nicely into your world you’ve built for them.

Here are a couple of handy little pictures I’ve come across with topics on World Building. I’ll probably be talking about this with Jared Quan in a future Twitch stream.