Writing Roots

Fans love getting immersed in the worlds of the media they consume. This can be anything from detailed worldbuilding to providing them with ways to make it their own. As an author, one of the best ways you can make this possible is by leaving room for your world to be explorable. An explorable world can be for you to expand in the future or for your readers to build upon with fanfiction. Listen fo...

Scene-setting is one of the hardest parts of the author’s job, especially if you’re dealing with made-up worlds and locations. Even if you’re basing the story in the modern, known world, you will need to set the scene for your readers. That can be anything from describing the room they’re in, or a whole country. The problem when it comes to scene-setting is the level of detail involved. Too much a...

Even if you are writing fantasy, sci-fi or any other speculative fiction, you need to make your worldbuilding feel real. There needs to be reason and order to those cool elements you want to include. As fun as it is to be able to add dragons and magic and incredible artificial intelligence, if you don’t connect it to the world, readers will feel lost. In this episode, we talk about ways to help yo...

Zooming in is one of the most powerful tools of storytelling. The same goes for the worldbuilding. Authors can, at times, get wrapped up in the expanse and scope of the world they’ve created – on the geography and cultures, the monsters and heroes. It can be easy to forget the most powerful way to show that worldbuilding is to focus on the small pieces. By zooming in, explaining something small, y...

Readers explore the world through the eyes of your character. This means that if you want to make your worldbuilding real to your reader, you need to make it relevant to your characters. This can be done through having the character learn about the world, such as in a portal fantasy or hidden society story. Or you can simply reveal the world by showing how the world interests the characters. Liste...

Storytelling rests on three main pillars: the world, the characters, and the plot. All three should work together to help you craft a story that will capture the reader’s heart and mind. Over the next three months, we will talk about these pillars, starting with worldbuilding. When it comes to creating the world, from the physical locations to the cultures to the magic, you need to know a lot less...

Characters don’t always know what’s happening as the plot unfolds. When they get confused, as the author, it is your job to make sure the reader isn’t also confused. This is why understanding how to convey this emotion is so important. It comes down to a delicate balance of giving a reason for the character to be confused while still making your reader feel comfortable that they know enough – or w...

While this is one of the four core emotions we have covered before, we wanted to take a deeper dive into it. Happiness is often forgotten in storytelling, especially when the characters are in a world full of war, destruction or constant fighting. Yet happiness is essential in order to show the full range of a character, and for the readers to truly experience the tragedy of losing that happiness....

Characters have secrets. It’s a given, really, in the realm of storytelling. Some characters, however, have more secrets than others. In this episode, we are talking about the types of characters who play things close to the chest – where no matter what the subject, they’re likely to hold something back for one reason or another. This often stems from one of two reasons: they’re either just like t...

Guilt weights heavily on many protagonists in a story. It’s not often an emotion felt by the villain, though it can be the root for a different emotion which they use to fuel their motivation. Overall, guilt is a useful tool to include in your arsenal of characters. Which means you need to understand it and its companion emotions. In this episode, Ley and Leigh discuss both guilty and apologetic e...

Whether it’s a lovable but infuriating protagonist or a punchable antagonist, it is quite common to include a character whose defining trait is smugness. In this episode, we take a look at this form of pride and break down the variety of ways to employ it in a story. First aired March 20, 2023.

Much like courage, the emotion of vengeance is easily a plot device. It’s common enough in stories and has seen a rise in popularity with the morally gray heroes. If you want to use it in your own story, it’s important to understand the emotion itself – how it starts and grows into action. Listen for a breakdown of vengeance, what it is, what it means, and how you can use it in your own story. Fir...

If you ever write a physical conflict, pain will be a key element to the story. Too many authors forget about injuries or gloss over the reality of what a punch or stab would mean for the character. Unless magical healing is involved, any hit will have consequences. In this episode, we break down what pain means, how it affects the body, and how you can accurately include it in your story. First a...

While similar, terror and horror are two different ways to represent fear in your story. Knowing when to apply each one is the important part. Most characters will feel some kind of fear during their story. It could be the fear of the unknown future, fear of loss, fear of something they just witnessed, and many more. Listen for more about the specific fear experienced with terror and horror and ho...

Courage is one of the niche emotions that nearly every book will contain regardless of genre, age group or tropes. Protagonists especially will have a moment when they need to be courageous despite their circumstances. This emotion, however, is often misunderstood and misapplied to writing. Fear is not the opposite. Courage is best represented by action despite fear. In this episode, we talk about...

Throughout March, we will be covering a variety of specific emotions, starting with reverence. This is not solely a religious emotion. A character can experience reverence towards many things, from a hero the idolize to a place of significant trauma. Listen for more as we break down what reverence is and how you can use it in your story. First aired March 2, 2023. The post S41E1 – Writing Emotions...

In some ways, releasing a book to the world means it’s no longer yours. The world and its characters belong to the audience. However, the responsibilities still belong to you. The post-launch mindset is a delicate balance of accepting and letting go while doggedly pursuing another success. Listen to this episode for more about what to do after a book launches and the mindset you need to continue g...

A book blurb is one of the most important steps on the road to publishing. A blurb – that text on the back of your book or in the website description – can make or break any sale. Writing a simple synopsis is not nearly good enough. Blurb writing is an art of its own. We invited Jessie Cunniffe of Book Blurb Magic to join us and discuss the process of writing a blurb. She breaks down the elements...

There is a lot of work that goes into publishing a book beyond writing. Getting into the right mindset and having a checklist of things to accomplish can help make the process easier to tackle. In this episode, we breakdown the steps you should take to get it from a final draft to published. First aired February 23, 2023. The post S40E7 – The Pre-Launch Mindset appeared first on Writing Roots .

Having representation in fiction is important. It reflects the reality of our world to have a varied character base. This includes having characters with disabilities, from different races, or of varied sexual orientation and gender identities. When writing those characters, you also need to make sure they’re more than a stereotyped token character. A sensitivity reader can help with that. In this...

We’ve said before, when you market your books, you want to market yourself as an author. You want people to be as much a fan of you as they are of your writing. Part of this is making sure you have a good author bio. If you’re writing non-fiction, a bio is critical to getting the audience to trust you. For fiction, it’s more about connecting with them. In this episode, we talk about the tips and t...

Audiences have certain expectations for books, from the plot and themes to how long it should be. And while there is no set standard and plenty of exceptions, there are guidelines to help you know the target word count based on the genre. It’s been a while since we’ve talked about word counts. In Series 13 , we discussed how to add or subtract to reach a target, and in our genre episodes, we brief...

Whether you divide your chapters as you write or do it as you edit, picking the right beginning and end of each chapter is vital. It can dictate the flow of your book, how fast a reader progresses through the story, and often how much they put the book down. Each reader views chapters in a different way. For some, chapters are good breaks. A time to pause and put the book down. For others, especia...

Editing your story is vital, but it can be one of the most difficult things to begin. Writers often have a passion, a fire driving them to continue to the end of their manuscript. Editing is where things begin to feel more like work. That’s why in this episode, we’re addressing the topic of finding the motivation to edit. From anxiety over the mistakes you know are there to believing the first dra...

When you are getting a book ready for publishing, the first step is going to be accepting that the book will never be perfect. And then you need to accept that just because it’s imperfect doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take steps to making it better. Perfection is a paralytic. Holding ourselves to high and unrealistic standards can keep us from achieving anything. Trying to make a manuscript perfect w...