CathrynV

@ribbonash

No, I actually completely agree with you on content levels. That’s something I’m quite passionate about; explicit adult content (of any level of description; I do think such topics can be alluded to for edifying ends) should not be put in the YA section. It’s a stumbling block and it’s inappropriate. But I don’t think that more mature…[Read more]

I’m going to disagree with this point, actually. I think that 1) if your characters carry through a series that begins with them at a certain age, your readers will follow them through that and may even go through that growth with the characters. Take Harry Potter, for example. I’m not a fan of HP, personally, but plenty of kids “grew up with”…[Read more]

Basically what @elfwing said. If there’s more story to be told than can reasonably be done in one book, it ought to be a series. I had one planned standalone that ended up turning into a duology because a whole additional plot showed up, as a background thing in the first book but begging to be the focal point of a sequel

I’ve had other series…[Read more]

@godlyfantasy12 Thanks for the heads-up! Could I get a link to your post? ^-^

@kathleenramm

A sphinx. For all the same reasons. Plus, they speak in riddles, which would exercise my brain on a routine basis and potentially help me come up with more creative phrases to replace cliches because I could practice giving unexpected but accurate answers to said riddles. Plus, sphinxes are underappreciated and I like…[Read more]

3/3: And once you have a map image, Map to Globe is super cool! (Assuming your world is a globe.) And definitely helpful if you want to see where things are in relation to one another in 3D.

2/3: I also have a whole Pinterest board of posts related to fantasy cartography, if you want to poke through it.

@godlyfantasy12

The forum ate my post. Let me see if I can split it into pieces so I only have one link per post…

1/3: I have a blog post about different methods for getting a map. Inkarnate is mentioned; I also give a few tips for hand-drawing maps.

From a project I work on sometimes when I’m bored but have no intention of ever doing anything with:

River stepped into her room and hastily drew the locks, only releasing a sigh of relief after she’d done so.

@elfwing Seeing them combined was super fun!

@joy-caroline Those are definitely similar enough!

I plan on writing all of my fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian/post-apocalyptic stuff under the same pen name, because it’s all fantastical speculative fiction and I have the same recurring themes and focuses throughout (worldview, family, community, etc.). Plus, all of my worlds are connected in some way…[Read more]

@gracie-j

1. How do you keep your focus on writing instead of over-thinking?

This one’s already been well-covered. Sprints, and reminders that this is meant to be a mess that you can fix later.

2. How rough do your drafts look?

It depends on the book. Calligraphy Guild, came out extremely neat in comparison to most of my books, but it’s an o…[Read more]

@lewilliams To expand on that, I would presume (and hope) it makes a big difference whether you go to a secular college or a Christian college. I can’t speak from experience, of course, but the whole underlying worldview ought to be different, so what material is presented and what worldview the professors expect you to bring to the text ought to…[Read more]

@lydia-s I’m looking to go to college for youth ministry and worship arts, but I wasn’t planning on going anywhere until I stumbled across the perfect college while doing research for a book. XD When I was looking at writing as my only thing, I was like @jenwriter17 and planned to learn about writing by writing and from fiction-specific r…[Read more]

I really enjoy Unusual Things for worldbuilding advice, in particular. In general, Hannah Heath has been a favorite for a while, Go Teen Writers is great, Story Embers is amazing, (KP, of course), um… The Phoenix Fiction Writers have a couple of podcasts on their YouTube channel (and, I assume, on audio platforms like Spotify) and those are…[Read more]

I heard worldbuilding so I am here. XD I’ve been trying to get more consistent about my worldbuilding recently, so this is great timing.

(It’s so frustrating when I make a tiny edit to a post and then it vanishes.)

@nova21

One of the things that helps me the most is having a plan for managing plot bunnies. What I’ve found to work best for myself is allowing myself to explore an idea for a few days or maybe even a week and write down everything I know about it, all the questions I…[Read more]

@nova12

One of the things that helps me the most is having a plan for managing plot bunnies. What I’ve found to work best for myself is allowing myself to explore an idea for a few days or maybe even a week and write down everything I know about it, all the questions I have, all the character ideas, etc. I often make Pinterest boards. Anything…[Read more]

@kathleenramm

Working on the older character has actually not been too difficult. In fact, she’s the one character in this plotline who’s coming across the way she’s supposed to, and writing the POV character with her actually made him work better, too. XD So that’s been pretty cool. I created this character over a decade ago, though, so I kno…[Read more]

@iluvhim18

Oh, cool! 🙂