Making Your Characters Different – Personification And The Importance Of Voice

 

We’re back guys. I’m so glad I made it to this week’s post. It’s been another difficult week for me, but I’m still here and getting to posting, so just remember that you can do it!

 

You’re stronger than whatever you think is breaking you down, trust me.

 

So without any further ado, let’s look at characters!

 

 

So last week we were just getting started on investigating our story’s cast and crew. Hopefully you were able to snatch at least an idea of where to place your characters, but today we’ll be looking at how they differentiate themselves from each other.

 

Of course, there’s an infinite array to ways to characterize your cast, but the specific technique we’ll be looking at this week is characterization through dialogue.

 

 

Everyone talks differently in real life. We all have our specific way of speaking that is never really like someone else’s. Whether it be through language, dialect, slang, or even painfully sharp grammar, everyone has little their own little traits that they put into talking. Your characters are no different from real life people, so you’re going to have to take that into account whenever you write their dialogue.

 

Character Voice is simply put, the way your character speaks.

 

For example, I as a person tend to use a lot of humor when I talk to people. It’s one of my go to’s. Sometimes I butt in with random obscure facts or make distant references about my past love life. Whenever someone says something to me I tend to repeat it. Those are some dialogue related tics of mine off the top of my head.

 

Naturally, when you’re writing, there are certain lines between true dialogue and prose that you have to be way of for the sake of clarity, but for the most part, your characters should sound like real people. (Or whatever real means to them.)

 

Last week I used Verena, a character from one of my WIP’s, as an example, so I’m going to continue with her usage for the purpose of making it more simple for you guys. (And because I love her, she’s seriously becoming one of my favorites.)

 

As a Duchess, Verena’s dialect is obviously going to be different than some of her subjects, or even some of the people living with her in the palace. As a person, she’s very controlled, her speech agonizingly formal even when she’s placed in situations where others would have cracked long ago. A big part of this takes roots in her background. She was raised in the palace, among (in her father’s time) polite and well behaved officials. This environment allowed her to grow into her regal persona with ease.

 

Of course though, she’s still a person. Everyone, even the most formal person in the castle, retains their human traits.

 

Verena has several people in her cabinet. With all her advisors and royal delegates, she keeps to her official tone, but with Ronan, the captain of her personal guard and close friend, she’s much more loose.

 

Her air of nobility still shines through in her conversations with him, but there’s a comfort in their relationship that’s evident. Ronan symbolizes the humanity of her character through her interactions with him, the words she uses, and the feelings behind every syllable said between them.

 

He’s just one facet of the contrast in her dialogues, but through that example hopefully you could glean that just like a normal person, Verena acts differently according to who she’s with and how she’s feeling.

 

Now It’s Your Turn!

 

So that concludes this week’s post, guys. Again, I hope you were able to find something useful within it.

 

Your optional quest for this week revolves around helping your characters find their voice. How do they act in certain situations? Around certain people? What influences from their past put this into their personality? Look at this and try to to ascertain something from what you think of them as a person.

 

I really hope you enjoyed this post you guys. As always, if you ever find any ideas and want to share them, the comment section is always open. I love your feedback.

 

See you guys next week!

 

And remember, everything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

 

DON’T FORGET INSTAGRAM LINKS AND ALL THE LINKS JUST TURN THEM IN

Character Work: How BackStory Shapes Your Characters

So what’s up guys! How’s it been? Wowie, it’s just been hard week after hard week for me, and while I may not see the point in it (at all) sometimes, there’s always a certain peace sitting here typing up posts for y’all always has on me. And even though my wrists are cramping a little right now I’m still gonna get this one done for you guys.

 

 

*** I actually finished writing this at a table with my friends. There are four of them and they’re both couples so I blogged instead of thinking about how I was the only person not making out with someone else.

 

Anyways, let’s get started !

 

 

Last week’s post was all about Character Voice and figuring out how to differentiate your characters’ voices from each other. A big part of Character Voice comes from past experience, so this week we’re going to delve into your character’s backstory and how those events resonate with them as a person.

 

 

Earlier this week I went to a religious convention at the Anaheim Convention Center with my Confirmation class. I saw and did and listened to a lot of things there that I realized had a direct effect on how I started to act later. This is a small example but the feelings that the convention put into me were impactful enough to change my behaviour at a later time, continuously. Things like this are examples of resonances.

 

Just like the convention resonated with me, there will be certain events in your characters’ life that will stay with them long after they happened. Just like real life, your characters are affected by what happened in their lives. Certain things impact them, and with that impact their perception gets changed. When perception changes, so does reaction, and with reaction comes vocalization.

 

The convention let me see a happiness both within myself and around me that I genuinely had almost forgotten existed. Sometime while I was over there, a light inside of me had awoken. I don’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it was the sense of support around me, or the overwhelming positivity of the community, or the excitement in a certain pair of steel grey eyes I’ve grown to love, but whatever it was, it inspired me to get up and chase that feeling.

 

If light became a singular star, I’ve grown wings to pursue it.

 

Your character’s entire personalities are a splurge of everything that’s ever happened to them and how it made them feel. If you think of them as a real person ( which I have trouble with sometimes ) take that into account.

 

I’ve been using Verena the Duchess as an example for these last few weeks, so I’ll throw her here into this for the sake of continuity.

 

Verena’s father died when she was very young, which explains why she was crowned at such a young age. It also means that she carries this sadness with her, as she was young but still old enough to comprehend his passing. A huge part of her remains steadfast to what small memories she has of his image, which in turn leaves her with a strong desire to live up to them. This desire, coupled with her ever shadowing grief, takes a massive hold on the way she carries herself. In a country of warriors, a weak leader would be devastatingly unbecoming, resulting in her forcing on a reserved persona in order to keep the peace. At the time, that’s all she could manage.

 

In her dialogues though, her desire and borderline insecurity retain a steady position beneath her every word. This clashes with her own, personal views as a strong pacifist, which leaves her in the center of an emotional hurricane squeezed shut behind a mask of serenity. This complexity is the birthplace of the depth behind her conversations.

 

Depth is what makes the book interesting, remember that.

 

The reader will always be drawn to depth, that’s just the way we are as humans. It makes it an all the more interesting story to read.

 

That’s why Character Voice is so important. If you take into account at least one thing that affects every important character, your story will come out an infinitely more satisfying read.

 

That’s not to say that whatever you have isn’t satisfying, it’s just some tips to think about if you haven’t or observe and acknowledge if you have.

 

Now It’s Your Turn!

 

Alright guys! This was actually a really fun post to type. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.

 

Your optional side quest for this week revolves around thinking about the specific events that make your character special. Try to examine what happened to them that helped make them who they are today, and how it would determine their reactions to other events. As always, don’t be afraid to leave any ideas you want in the comments. You know it, but I love to hear your feedback!

 

Remember, everything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

Internal Conflict : What’s Troubling Your Characters?

What’s up guys! It’s so great to be over here and getting this post done this week. How have you been? My recurring theme of rough weeks still hasn’t let up, but things are looking up…slowly. But recovery is a gradual game so I just have to keep pushing through.

 

Okay, so last week was our second (ever) book review, which means that we’re going to be switching up the topic of our next posts in the weeks to come. Although we’re still going to be working on our characters, this week is going to focus a little more of what goes on inside them rather than shaping what the readers will think.

 

Okay, well, let’s get started!

 

* Internal Conflict – Pic 1 – Title

 

We’ve worked on building our characters up from the ground, so this week we’re going to look on what happens when problems shake that foundation.

 

Internal Conflict names itself. Internal is inside, and conflict is trouble, so Internal Conflict is, simply put, the character’s inside troubles.

 

Inside troubles are anything that goes on in your character’s head that wouldn’t if they were in their regular state of mind. This could be anxiety, depression, indecisiveness, or anger to name a few. It also tends to include the way these emotions manipulate the character’s decision making process, as well as their reaction to it.

 

* graphic – crazy thought clouds – pic 2

Our Second Ever Book Review!

 

How’re you doing guys! It’s been another full three weeks of topic posts, so you know what that means!

 

Hint – It means it’s time for a book review.

 

As with last time, I find immense value in the art of learning from others as well as yourself, so this week I’ve found what I believe to be a wonderful ( truly wonderful ) example of what we’ve been looking at for the last few weeks.

 

 

 

With these recent posts, our pinpoint focus has been on characters and how they work. While there is definitely more that we’re going to be getting into in the next few weeks, it would do us a lot of good to look at a masterful piece of work in the meantime.

 

image via Goodreads

Fans Of The Impossible Life, by Kate Scelsa, to this day holds its position as my all-time favorite book, which is strange, considering that it is a purely and wonderfully simple coming of age novel, without the towering palaces and shining paladins that I’m used to being magnetized to.

 

Even so, my love for it never falters.

 

 

 

A major part of my infatuation with this novel stems from its depth. As I hoped I haven’t painfully drilled into your brain by now, depth is what draws readers in and what continuously keeps them interested. When an author executes something as beautifully as Scelsa was able to in Fans Of The Impossible Life, the result lies in a quiet kind of vulnerability both inside and out of the printed word.

 

The book follows the path of three teenagers, two of them finally returning to school, one of them ditching it, and all of them carrying their own biting scars. Mira is clinically depressed, Sebby lost himself, and Jeremy has to face the world all over again. The novel pens the tale of their world, and navigates its way throughout the ups and downs of their slowly intertwining lives. Told through three different points of view in three different narrative styles, Scelsa really struck the point with her poignant writing style.

 

Our last few weeks we’ve been looking at characters, and I chose this novel because it dove deeper into my emotions than any other story I’ve read. The chapters felt alive to me, and I know that sounds cheesy and pretentious but that’s the only way I can describe it right now. The emotions I felt could have only surfaced as the result of the power of depth. The words were raw, naked, blisteringly honest, and bled unadulterated vulnerability. That’s how Scelsa was able to convey the feelings in the way she did, and that’s how I as a reader was drawn in. Her characters were real, you could tell she thought of them as such, and treated them, because in the end they felt real, and that’s one of the best things you and I as authors could achieve. There are countless of other things you could look at in that book, there’s just so much to it that it’s almost hard not to gush about ( haha sorry because I know that’s what I’m doing ). I still take my stand though, and if you really want to see the power of this book up close, I strongly recommend going out and reading it.

 

You Don’t Actually Have To Do Anything This Week

( Part 2 )

 

Again, as you  know, your sidequests are always optional, but as with the last book review, there isn’t much I’m going to ask of you this week. Of course, if you really super duper want to, I guess you could leave your opinions on the book if you’ve read it already ( or if you want to ) but as always, it’s completely your decision.

 

A Dedication.

 

Fans Of The Impossible Life is all about the power of true friendship, and because this week has been especially tough on me, I wanted to give a shout out to a huge reason on why I was able to type this post.

 

 

There’s a lot of things that go into friendship, and Wendy symbolizes all of them to me. My gratitude for having been able to become friends with her this year goes beyond all bounds. You guys have heard me post in the intro paragraphs for weeks that it’s been tough but if there was one things I could say I’ve been counting on during it all it would be Wendy. Huge shoutout to you, Wendy, I’m so glad to have been able to meet you. 🙂 

Casting Your Story : Character Voice

 

We’re back guys. I’m so glad I made it to this week’s post. It’s been another difficult week for me, but I’m still here and sitting the couch, admiring the curtains I love so much, and writing this post, so just remember that you can do it!

 

You’re stronger than whatever you think is breaking you down, trust me.

 

So without any further ado, let’s look at characters!

 

 

So last week we were just getting started on investigating our story’s cast and crew. Hopefully you were able to snatch at least an idea of where to place your characters, but today we’ll be looking at how they differentiate themselves from each other.

 

Of course, there’s an infinite array to ways to characterize your cast, but the specific technique we’ll be looking at this week is characterization through dialogue.

 

 

Everyone talks differently in real life. We all have our specific way of speaking that is never really like someone else’s. Whether it be through language, dialect, slang, or even painfully sharp grammar, everyone has little their own little traits that they put into talking. Your characters are no different from real life people, so you’re going to have to take that into account whenever you write their dialogue.

 

Character Voice is simply put, the way your character speaks.

 

For example, I as a person tend to use a lot of humor when I talk to people. It’s one of my go to’s. Sometimes I butt in with random obscure facts or make distant references about my past love life. Whenever someone says something to me I tend to repeat it. Those are some dialogue related tics of mine off the top of my head.

 

Naturally, when you’re writing, there are certain lines between true dialogue and prose that you have to be way of for the sake of clarity, but for the most part, your characters should sound like real people. (Or whatever real means to them.)

 

Last week I used Verena, a character from one of my WIP’s, as an example, so I’m going to continue with her usage for the purpose of making it more simple for you guys. (And because I love her, she’s seriously becoming one of my favorites.)

 

As a Duchess, Verena’s dialect is obviously going to be different than some of her subjects, or even some of the people living with her in the palace. As a person, she’s very controlled, her speech agonizingly formal even when she’s placed in situations where others would have cracked long ago. A big part of this takes roots in her background. She was raised in the palace, among (in her father’s time) polite and well behaved officials. This environment allowed her to grow into her regal persona with ease.

 

Of course though, she’s still a person. Everyone, even the most formal person in the castle, retains their human traits.

 

Verena has several people in her cabinet. With all her advisors and royal delegates, she keeps to her official tone, but with Ronan, the captain of her personal guard and close friend, she’s much more loose.

 

Her air of nobility still shines through in her conversations with him, but there’s a comfort in their relationship that’s evident. Ronan symbolizes the humanity of her character through her interactions with him, the words she uses, and the feelings behind every syllable said between them.

 

He’s just one facet of the contrast in her dialogues, but through that example hopefully you could glean that just like a normal person, Verena acts differently according to who she’s with and how she’s feeling.

 

Now It’s Your Turn!

 

So that concludes this week’s post, guys. Again, I hope you were able to find something useful within it.

 

Your optional quest for this week revolves around helping your characters find their voice. How do they act in certain situations? Around certain people? What influences from their past put this into their personality? Look at this and try to to ascertain something from what you think of them as a person.

 

I really hope you enjoyed this post you guys. As always, if you ever find any ideas and want to share them, the comment section is always open. I love your feedback.

 

See you guys next week!

 

And remember, everything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

Casting Your Story: Choosing The Right Characters

Hi guys! How has your week been treating you? Mine’s been a little rough, but a big plus is finally being able to share this post with you! I find it incredibly important and it is actually one of my favorite subjects.

 

 

My office for this week was the theatre dressing room. It was a little noisy but I was still able to get it done. I’m glad I was able to do it though, I missed spending time there. Besides, sometimes hearing intense soprano voices is fun.

 

Well, without further ado…let’s get to it! (I’m so excited!)

 

 

Your story needs characters. That’s simply a fact of existence. Without characters, your world would still exist, but it would be nothing but a blank, flat, featureless plane of existence. However, a big part of it isn’t just characters, it’s the right characters.

 

How are you going to fit them into the plot? What types of traits do they bring to the table? You’re looking for the right kinds of people to fill your stage. Everyone has to have a purpose, they all have to do their part to move the story along.

 

 

When birthing characters (yes birth, I consider my characters my babies,) take into account what you are getting them into? Are they really the right person for the job?

 

The Emotional Why plays a big part in this. What is the potential suitor looking for? Why are they doing it? And most importantly, does it fit with the story?

 

I’m going to snatch an example from my Fantasy WIP, using a favorite character of mine.

 

Verena takes the role of a Duchess. She’s poised, regal, and elegant in everything she does, all traits befitting of someone in her position. Her main part in the story, however, stems from her ideals. As a person, she’s a strong pacifist, yet she reigns over a continent built upon warfare. There’s bound to be conflict there, but she holds true to her standards, and it’s this quiet confidence of hers that helps push the story on.

 

You see, if I made her weak minded, then all of her headstrong determination and somewhat stubborn stance would not have existed at all, thus cutting all her story progression. My point being – don’t make your characters boring.

 

It may not be a play, but your reader is an audience, don’t forget that.

 

Now It’s Your Turn!

 

Okay guys, so again I apologize for being a little wavy in terms of subject matter, but hopefully you were able to take something away from this. Remember too, this week we’re only scratching the surface of working with characters, so with next week I’ll try to bring more understanding to the door.

 

For your little optional side quests, why don’t you try thinking of some characters for your story? I assume you already have some, and it that’s the case, try and understand why you are putting them where they are. Don’t be afraid to leave any ideas of yours in the comments, I love your feedback.

 

Ok, so that ends this week’s post. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

 

Remember, everything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

Our First Book Review Together!

Hey guys! I actually got to write this post while on the move. Ha, I use “on the move” to describe the little walk I took through town. Before sitting down to type I got to get some boba, a food bowl, and some macarons! It was honestly the best time, which may have contributed something to the rate at which this post was completed. (I was really optimistic for the first time in a long while, so that happiness must have given my fingers a typing boosts haha.)

I apologize for the awkward quality, but hey, does this font look familiar?

Another picture I took – my view while eating lunch and drinking that long awaited boba.

So last week we were able to wrap up the first short series of posts, and although Grow Your Story had its own rough edges, we were still able to push through it together. Hopefully, you were able to pick up some ideas and maybe even get a little bit of footing on setting your story, but this week’s post is going to be a little different.

I’ve been trying to implement a little bit of my own work into the posts to give you a sense of whatever I may have been talking about, but I am also a firm believer in learning from others. There’s a lot you can teach yourself, a lot you can learn on your own, but as with Character Take, everyone brings something different to the table. It’s important to cherish other people’s work as much as it is to focus on your own.

The First Book Review

Following with my line of learning from other people, I wanted to focus on a specific book at I think highlights on the different topics we’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

Picture via GoodReads

Love Is The Higher Law, written by David Levithan, is, in my mind, a glorious example of StoryWorld and all its aspects. Taking place in New York city immediately before the September 11 attacks, the novel focuses on the lives of three teenagers and how drastically their worlds became twisted and warped by the horrific attacks. The lives of Peter, Jasper, and Claire were never the same after the event, and they shared in both the world’s grief and the harmony of coming together. Overall, the book carries the powerful examples of humanity we’re so frequently starved from in our everyday life.

I chose Love Is The Higher Law because of the way Levithan creates and maintains his world. Obviously, the novel’s specific timestand would make for a rather sensitive and emotional plot, but Levithan pulls it all together in such a way that it allows for just the right amount of emotional weight without forcing me to put down the book. (I have a problem with that sometimes, don’t tell anyone!)

The first post we talked about was Location, dealing with where you put your characters and why their StoryWorld means what it means to them. In this book, even with all the characters located in the same city, Levithan doesn’t put any of New York’s diversity to waste. He places all the characters in specific points, far away from each other, so that when you read it, you think “And just how are they supposed to come together in the end?”. And as the story deepens, the characters do intersect, and their worlds collide, resulting in a type of literary harmony you have to be careful to watch for.

World Sync revolves around the story’s atmosphere, and how it reacts in time with the characters and the events. This is a central facet to the progression of events throughout the novel. The brutally honest and heartbreakingly real emotions demonstrated by the world around them is enough to charge the story and see it through. If I had to choose a concrete example of World Sync, this book would definitely top that list.

And finally, Perspective and the Emotional Why. Again, this novel provides an insane amount of diversity relating to this topic. From the focal points of the main characters to the unanimous members of the crowd, Love Is The Higher Law demonstrates the sheer amount of difference within the impact of a single event upon millions. Don’t expect this to be flat, its multiple layers prove crucial in what make it such an amazing and worthwhile read.

You Actually Don’t Have To Do Anything This Week!

So as you can see, I didn’t really introduce anything new to you in this week’s post. All I did here was show you guys a good summary and example of our last three weeks of work. Because of this, there aren’t really any assignments (I say with caution) that I could give to you.

If you really wanted to, you guys could tell me about any books you’ve read and how they provide great examples of WorldBuilding properties. As always, no pressure, just leave it in the comments if you want to.

🙂

Remember, anything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

Grow Your Story Part 3 : The Emotional WHY

Perspective is unique because of its comparative infinity. You can look at a building from a thousand different angles and hundreds of different distances and still be able to capture a unique picture, or ask a million people the same question only to be left with countless different answers. There’s no end to it, because everyone and everything carries with them their own take on the world, and that right there is where it gets interesting,

 

 

My office this week was originally the dinner table, though I later moved outside to finish the post on the porch in the sun. The contrast in temperatures was the real reason why I was able to finish this, or else I would’ve frozen on the spot.

 

 

World Sync is placing focus on how the world reflects the story. Last week we worked on making your world and your characters work together to make the story, but this week we’re gonna switch that around and look at how your characters actually feel about the world you placed them in.

 

Think About It

 

A big problem of mine is that I tend to make a lot of characters, a lot of them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, a multitude of characters has plenty of its own benefits, but there are plenty of things that could go wrong with that too.

 

I’m not going to get to deep into what that could mean (because there are quite a number of problems that I run into) but I am going to look at the most relevant to this week’s post.

 

The Emotional WHY

 

So I have these characters, and I have their roles in the plot, and I have what they say and what they do all planned out, even including the deeper reasons as to why they do it. The problem lies in the way they feel about doing it.

 

You’re characters are still people, and even though they have their own set path in life (and maybe even death, yikes) they still retain their unique emotions and reasons for feeling the way they do.

 

Every person feels life differently. Every person has their own set of weights that they carry with them. And every person sees the world as something different than the next. This is what makes the real world so incredibly, beautifully, and horrifyingly unique. It adds depth. And depth is what makes a great story.

 

Each of your characters has their own past, each of them carries the different things they’ve done and been through with them as they stride through the plot. As with real life, these weights should bleed unto the way they see themselves and the story.

 

As I’ve stated before, I have my problems with this. Many members of my cast of characters tend to end up lacking in their why department. I have them do what they’re supposed to, but they themselves have no push, no drive steering them in their decision making process, even if it has a predetermined result.

 

An example I can give you, however, lies in the main character from my Manhattan WIP. One of the characters is constantly troubled by thoughts and memories of his family issues, leaving him with a general distrust in people because of the betrayal he’s suffered in the past. This hole in his heart is replaced by the one group of people he allows himself to be vulnerable around – his friends. However, when those same friends start getting into unsavory situations, he chooses to stay with them because the intensity of his need for love, when coupled with the overwhelming loneliness of his childhood, leaves him with no other reasonable option. This is his why, because he couldn’t fathom the thought of losing the only family he’s left with, even if they’re starting to go down the wrong path.

 

Every character needs a reason and a why for everything they do, though it doesn’t always have to be heavy or emotional, remember that.

 

Now It’s Your Turn!

 

Okay, so after all that, I really hope you guys took something away from this post. Whether it’s something small or the entire thing, as long as you found something in it, that makes me happy. As always, feel free to leave any of your ideas or plans to implement the emotional WHY into your story. I love your input, so don’t feel shy!

 

Anything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

 

See you next week!

Grow Your Story Part 2 : World Sync

 

I’ve heard a countless number of times that the world is interconnected. That beneath the surface of the earth there lies metaphysical connections between all life. Like thousands of tiny plants we lay our roots and live our lives, unaware of each other’s existence yet totally and irrevocably laced to one another. There’s just something about that idea that intrigues me. Something about the prospect of being interwoven, about being in sync with the world around me, puts in me the wonder of possibility, unity, and enlightenment.

Knowing that the world is there, that it feels things as you do, there has to be beauty in that, right?

 

StoryWorld : World Sync

 

Last week we talked about location, hopefully giving you at least an idea about where you want your story to take place. In location you created the world, but as I also stated last week, there is more to your StoryWorld than physical location. This week we’re going to look at another one of my many terms and what it means.

 

Let Your Story Evolve

 

When you think of an empathic environment, what comes to mind? Cloudless skies to indicate a character’s joy, the gray rain of depression to signal deep sadness, or an office building to emphasize officality? Those are all examples of using the world to set a mood, and are a great way to start, but World Sync includes taking more than just that into account.

 

You see, your world has to grow alongside your character, it has to change as they do. Not physically so much as interaction wise. As the setting of the story, its job is to change and evolve throughout the progression of the plot.

 

A solid example, in my opinion, of World Sync would be that of Christa Desir’s novel Bleed Like Me. I’m not going to spoil any of it, but I will say that Desir does a good job of making the world fit into the storyline. She designs it so that it morphs and switches with the main character’s mood. As the main character is a troubled, discarded teenager, there’s bound to many switches, but the novel doesn’t fail to keep up with them.

 

And on a pseudo related note, I was able to find the storyworld map I mentioned last week. Considering we’re working on evolving worlds right now, I think that this map offers a great way for me to relay my take on World Sync with you guys.

 

 

For this storyline, World Sync is used on a more intense scale than my Manhattan based WIP. Based on the outline of this one, I could glean that the world revolves around the battles fought in a continent wide war being fought. Using the different settings offered from the different locations, I was able to place the battles in areas that would offer the best output to the reader. A tense showdown is best fought in a darkened spire of ruins, or a full scale invasion would be most nail biting when targeted on the one city that was supposed to be the safest. Fantasy offers a plethora of ways to use these techniques, but a real world setting could be just as powerful with just a little more work.

 

For my Manhattan WIP, the storyworld spans from glitzy, well off brownstone mansions to deep within darkened Harlem alleyways. The characters’ emotions and plot tension have to hone in in order to provide the reader with the maximum amount of suspense. I started off this draft with the main character inside a school setting to establish a sense of normalcy before twisting their world up. It’s a little unstable right now but I’m going to be working on it.

 

And so should you.

 

It’s Your Turn!

 

I know that this post was a little out there, and I apologize for it, but I hope you take whatever you can from it. Tell me in the comments any plans you have (and want to share) about how you plan to get your world and plotline in sync. How are you going to maintain that process? I love hearing from you guys, so don’t ever feel shy!

 

Remember, anything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!

Grow Your Story: Starting With Location

 

Anything that’s ever become great has to have started somewhere, right?

And nothing that’s ever amazing truly stands alone.

Wonder lies in the little things that make up a spectacle. In all the tiny pieces that together form a masterpiece.

You see one thing and it’s a glimpse, but if you focus on the wider picture you’ll get the world.

And that’s where it all starts.

 

 

I’m going to kick off my first post with a quote from the one and only Morgan Freeman, from his role as God in Bruce Almighty (2003).

 

“I Am God”

 

His three words, as God, symbolizes everything he gets that comes with that position. He is God, he has control, and when it comes to your StoryWorld, you can too.

 

An Overarching Concept

 

You see, the StoryWorld (yes, capitalization) isn’t just the world that you set the plot into. StoryWorld is what the universe (basically you, as the author) gives your characters and what your characters take from it. When you think about it, it’s almost like real life.

 

Except you have control, which is always fun.

 

When creating a world, take into account everything that makes up the story. The characters, their dynamics, internal conflicts, external conflicts, tension, location, and time. Everything is set there for a reason. Don’t waste words on anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. Going into detail there is for another time though, but just keep that in mind.

 

To start, I want to use something I consider (and you should too) a universal example of an intricate and well built StoryWorld.

 

Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wonderfully created by J.K Rowling, addresses many if not all standard needs for a tellable storyline. You have an array of characters, distinguished categories for them to fit into, and a riveting physical setting that interests the reader without pulling too much away from the novel’s progression. It gives Harry things to do throughout his day, provides challenges to him, and offers him ways to interact with the other characters.

 

I’m not going to be able to cover everything that makes up the world of your story, that’s not my job, and frankly I’m not sure if such a thing is possible. Plus, it’s fun to figure out some things on your own, but I do want to lay a few things out that I really hope will help you. I’m sure that then I’ll be able to figure out some stuff of my own that way.

 

Well then, let’s start simple.

 

Back To The Roots: Location

 

StoryWorld at its most basic form is setting. Setting, that magical word that covers everything from time to place to era. Setting.

 

Let’s look at that.

 

You’re going to have to start with location. Where do you want your story to take place? I know it sounds like a simple question, but there is so much more to it than you may think. When deciding on a location, take into account the characters, the way they interact, and how they do what they do. What happens? Where does it happen? And why? All those factors stem from location.

 

 

For my current WIP, I’m setting my storyline into the streets of modern era Upper Manhattan, with the vast majority of the characters being either born and raised there or accustomed to life already. Because of that I’ve had to research the culture there and take into account how to make the characters act in a way that’s both reminiscent of them as people and of their real world culture. My StoryWorld Map for this one is woefully simple, which I appreciate, because my WIP doesn’t demand too much from the world as it does the characters. People already know at least the basics of Manhattan, I’m lead to assume.

 

Now, if, for instance, you happen to be working on an epic fantasy or something of the like, location is going to have to play an immensably larger part in the story than Manhattan does for me. A little more work may be in order to create something like that. Deep within my computer files is there an example of a long lost fantasy world of mine. I’ll find it so you guys can see it next week. But for now…

It’s Your Turn!

 

Alright! So in wrapping up the first of both my StoryWorld series and the first of my posts in general, I want to send you off with not only a good luck, but a little sidequest for you to partake in (only if you want to!). I’m looking forward to getting back to you next week, but in the meantime feel free to leave any of your ideas in the comments. It would be so awesome for me to see if you guys took anything from this post, so tell me! What’s the location of your story? The time? Era? You don’t have to cover them all but anything you send is appreciated.

Remember, anything unwritten has yet to be finished, so go and write it!