World-building is essential for every story, but obviously genre will have a major influence on how much our story requires. Setting can add an entirely new level of dimension to our stories.
Category: World-Building
Feb 18 2019
So Very Cheesy: the Fantasy Diet
Kristen is away at a conference in San Francisco….so that means today, you get ME! And despite what the title implies, I’m not here to talk about the failed New Year’s diet (ask me if I even bothered). No, today, you get a super special fun rant from me about food in the fantasy genre. …
Aug 29 2018
DysFUNctional: World-Building from Orwell to Apocalypse
Say it with me: world-building is fun. Seriously! It’s the only way—aside from global domination—we will ever get to arrange the world exactly as we want. Don’t like green peppers on your supreme pizza? Banish them! Hate people who squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle? Declare them subversive enemies of the regime! Yet, some …
Sep 18 2017
Bring on the BINGE! Creating Villains Audiences Can’t Get Enough Of
Many of us have been there. It’s late. We know we have “adulting” to do in the morning (which is in two hours). Our sensible self has been nagging us to get our @$$ to bed so long we smothered it with a pillow around midnight. Whether it’s a book, or Netflix or HBO or …
Sep 13 2017
There & Back Again—Using Distance to Up the Story Stakes and Pace
It’s Squatter’s Rights Wednesday with me, Cait Reynolds. Today, we are going to go the distance. Literally. No matter what genre we write, our characters generally go places. The physical distance between these places impacts the timelines of our stories, pacing, and tension. Distance, great or small, can also be used to create atmosphere or …
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