How do you world build?

I’m sure there are any number of techniques for world building out there and if anyone’s reading this I’d be happy to know how you build the world in your books. But the method I’m using probably isn’t one many use. While in law school, I discovered that my key to writing was to pose a bunch of questions to myself and then figure out the answers. So far the same tactic seems to be working well for building the world my novel will exist in. I’ve posed a lot of questions for the world itself and the magic that will inhabit it. I don’t have a lot of answers to the questions yet, but the questions make me think before I put answers to paper. Now as I think about it, this is probably a result of the Socratic method used in law school, but I’ll use whatever works!  So now I’ll pose a question to you my reader. How do you world build?

Real Life and the craft of writing

It’s funny sometimes how real life gets in the way of writing. And in my case it’s not anything major. I’m simply job hunting, reading up on other job possibilities (I’ve realized I’m not terribly interested in the practicalities of the legal profession), and reading up on the craft of writing.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading on the craft of writing recently. I’ve also been reading some advice given by various authors. When it comes to both categories, I’m all for reading as much as you can. However, I tend to follow more of the former as opposed to the latter. I think advice from other authors is good to think about, but not necessarily take as gospel. As for writing itself, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and internalizing about 75% of it. The remaining 25% I’m still sifting through and figuring out what will work for me and the book in my head. Not every “rule” of writing a book will fit every book you write. I think part of the fun of writing the book is figuring out which 10-15% of the rules you’re going to break.

Ebooks, the library, and work

This weekend I discovered the wonders of borrowing ebooks from the library. I’ve had a Kindle Fire for a few years now and for the first time this weekend borrowed an ebook from the library. It was actually very easy to do. The best part about it for me is that there are no late fees! My first book was Inferno by Dan Brown. I’m about a third of the way through it at this point and I’m entertained so far. It’s not award winning by any means but I am finding it entertaining.

By training, I should be a lawyer. My undergraduate degree was in political science, I graduated from law school, and I’ve passed the bar. However, I’ve discovered that as much as I love the law, I’m not terribly interested in the day to day of actually being a lawyer. So for now, I’m simply looking for a job that will pay me enough for me to live on my own but leave me time to read and write at night and on the weekends. Being a lawyer doesn’t leave much room for personal time. I’ve come to realize I want more from my life than being a workaholic.

Writing & Inspiration

Until recently, I didn’t know how to turn on inspiration. But then I started reading The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers by Laura Oliver and that all changed. If you’re looking for ways to get inspiration jump started, it’s a good read. The suggestion she gave that has worked wonders for me is to do something you’d consider mind numbing or repetitive. That keeps the non-creative side of your brain busy but lets the creative side wander and make connections. So far I’ve discovered that driving works best for me.

What do you use to keep your writing organized? Once upon a tried using a program called yWriter, but it was too much for me. During law school I learned to use OneNote to great success, so for the moment I’m using that. If you’ve never used OneNote, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s a Microsoft Office product that is meant for taking notes and keeping things organized. I used it in law school to take notes. I have one notebook just for writing projects, then within that notebook I have sections for various writing projects, including my writing exercises. Within each of those sections I have different pages. In the writing exercises section, each exercise gets its own page. One really nice feature is that I can make a to-do list and transfer those reminders easily into Outlook.  One other terrific feature of OneNote as opposed to Word for example is that OneNote automatically saves all the time. In fact, there is no regular save button in OneNote. It simply saves everything.  There is a save as option if you need to save a project as something else however. Hopefully OneNote can help me keep my novel ideas straight and organized.

The Selection Series

Well, I finished The Selection series over the weekend. Overall, it wasn’t a bad series. However, it’s more romance than dystopian.  The dystopian aspects of the book felt more like afterthoughts. The romance was really what was front and center. I was hoping that the split would be more even, especially since the series is marketed as The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor. So while the series itself was entertaining, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.

After I had finished that series, I tried the Warm Delicacy series by Megan Duncan. It’s a vampire series, with vamps ruling the world and humans providing sustenance for them via blood banks. The first book, Savor, was actually pretty good with an intriguing plot twist at the end that made me want to read the second book, Indulge. Indulge picked up and ran with the love triangle that was set up in Savor but it just didn’t work for me. I won’t give away the plot device, but under the author’s constraints the love triangle just didn’t work for me. Between that and the slow pace (and idiocy of most all of the characters), Indulge ended up on my Books I Gave Up On shelf over at Goodreads.

The attempt at a dystopian setting in The Selection series made me think this weekend about the setting in my own potential novel. Originally, I was thinking of a dystopian society, but now I’m not so sure. I know I need a strict, government fearing, government spying type of society for the plot to work right. But now I’m not so sure a dystopian society is the way to go. Either way, the story has to be set at least a little into the future.  It’s been an eye opener to realize how much impact setting can have on a plot.

Reading and writing character

I finished the Paranormal Public series by Maddy Edwards last night. What a ride that was! The series starts off fairly slow but it definitely built bit by bit until it was a thrilling ride. Now it’s time to find a new series to dive into. I’m thinking about The Selection series by Kiera Cass. If you’re interested in what I’m reading/have read/want to read, there’s a link to my goodreads profile on the right. I’m pretty good about updating it every few days. I’m always picking up new ebooks for my kindle fire and they get added to my shelves within a few days.

I’ve been thinking about characters today and how they’re created. So far in my own novel evolution, I have the basic idea for a story. However, I don’t really have a main character. I know who I think it should be within the context of the story but I don’t feel like I know the ins and outs of that character and who she is. I’ve heard about authors whose characters speak to them and I can’t help but be jealous. Looks like reading on creating characters is in my near future. I know my characters will have to have flaws. I’ll have to fight the desire to make them perfect because I always cringe when my favorite character does something stupid.

Once I have a better idea of where I want my story to go (of course, no guarantee it goes that way!), I plan to write at least 1,000 words every day. Some days I’m sure I’ll write more than that. But 1,000 words every day is going to be my minimum. Ideally the story would top out between 60,000 and 80,000 words but for now I’m just going to let the story take me where it will. Freaking out over word counts is for the editing stage of this process.

Current Reading

As I said yesterday, I’m a prolific reader. These days I read a lot of different genres, from fantasy to YA to romance to sci-fi. I’ll read the occasional biography, but generally I stay away from horror. I also tend to have several books going at once, skipping between them as I get bored with one. I’ve been trying to read Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin for awhile now, but it’s so dense I can only read a little at a time before I’ve got to try something else.

Most recently I’ve gotten into the YA series called Paranormal Public by Maddy Edwards. It’s an interesting series and an easy read. I generally like books with magic and paranormal abilities so it’s right up my alley. It’s about a girl named Charlotte who discovers she’s a paranormal and should attend a college for paranormals. Unbeknownst to Charlotte, there’s a war brewing in the paranormal world and she’s about to be at the center of it. The story is told in first person and while it’s no award winner, it is entertaining.

I’ve also started re-reading the Hunger Games series. However, this time I’m reading it with a closer eye on the literary devices Suzanne Collins uses to such great success. I’m paying closer attention to things like why the dialogue works or how she’s carefully added the necessary backstory. When I’m done with the Hunger Games, I’ll probably go back and reread the Divergent trilogy, though I’ll say I didn’t enjoy that one as much as the Hunger Games the first time around.