How to Create a Believable World

How to Create a Believable World

F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

No matter the types of stories or novels you write, all of them have to have a world. As the writer, you have the ability to shape and mold that world to whatever you want it to be. You get to God to your characters.

While the plot, characters, and all that other stuff are important, if you don’t have a world for your characters to live in, you don’t have a story. Create a believable world where your characters live and work is fun, hard, and exciting all wrapped into one. Let’s look at some ways to help you create your world.

Map it Out

The first thing to do in creating your world is to map out what it looks like. You don’t have to physically make a map, but jotting down some notes as to what it looks like, where things are located, and how things work helps to solidify your world. This will also save you hours of writing time. You won’t have to stop every few pages to figure out where the local drug store is located or if there is a hidden dragon cave down the street.

Look for Inspiration

Maybe you already know exactly how you want your world to look and work. Maybe you are going to place your characters in the exact world you live in. This is great. But for those of us who don’t already know what we want, we can find inspiration in different places.

First, other books. The smallest element from another writers book can help spark your world creation. This doesn’t mean you recreate what they have used, but it can help lead you towards your own world.

Another great source of inspiration is through movies. This is perfect for those who want to create fantasy worlds so that you can physically see common elements of fantasy lands. Movies like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, How to Train and Dragon, and Avatar can help you come up with ideas for your own world.

Set Rules

Once you have a good idea of how things look and the direction you want to go with your world, create rules for the world. People are going to want to know the whys of your world. Is it a realistic world with regular humans who have become extremely technologically advanced to the point where they almost seem magical? Do your characters actually have the ability to use magic?

If you are writing a realistic story based in the regular world, you still need to set rules for what is the norm for your worlds society, or at least make sure the reader knows that you characters play by the same rules that regular society plays by.

Create the History

The history of the world shapes what it is. Just because you are starting your story in the years 3058 on Mars doesn’t mean people aren’t going to want to know how the characters ended up there. Plus, your characters are going to need to know this information.

Things in your worlds past are going to affect your characters today. For example, in my book Loved by Death, my characters know why it is best to try and hide the supernaturals from human knowledge. While the reader doesn’t find out directly, the way the characters act is shaped by this information.

Think About How they Act, Talk, and Interact

Take a moment and think about the different regions of the country you live in. Think about the different accents you heart when you travel. If you live in the US, the way people talk in Texas is vastly different from how people talk in New York. Think about all the different British accents. This holds true for your world.

Is it normal for your characters to shake hands when they meet somebody? If not, why? Do they walk like normal people, or do they have to walk backward or on their hands? This may seem arbitrary, but trust me, it will help you, in the long run, to figure this out now.

What are Their Belief, Social, and Political Systems?

This plays into the world’s history. This is what dictates how they act and behave. Maybe the characters of your world were never exposed to organized religion; how did this affect them?

There may have never been a civil rights movement, so things still work like they did in the 1800s. What would happen if your world had no political system and everybody did as they pleased?

*Side note* writing these what-ifs are making me excited. I don’t know about you, but just sitting down and thinking about the world would work with these little changes makes me tingle.

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled program.

How Does it Look

Next, think about the flora and fauna of the world. Is it a barren wasteland? Are their beautiful flowers and animals everywhere? Is it post-apocalyptic or is it heaven on Earth?

How do your characters live in this world and interact with everything there?

Pulling it All Together

Once you have the bits and pieces figured out, you have to bring it all together in a way that’s believable and interesting for your reader. This is where plot comes into play. You have to make sure that you actually story will fit into your world.

If your plot doesn’t fit within the parameters of your world that you have just created, you better have a really good way to explain it or rework your plot. You may be the God of your world, but if you confuse the crap out of your editors and readers, you are going to have a lot of rewrites.

Even if you are writing a fantasy novel, you can’t just make it a free-for-all. There have to be some rules that everybody plays by. While Greek playwrights may have gotten by with using a deus ex machina, that type of plot devices doesn’t work as well today.

Get to writing your novels and stories. Create a fantastic world that is believable and makes people want to live there as well.

What books have you read that you wish you lived in?

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott

FYI:

Grab your copy of Loved by Death on Amazon. Make sure you keep an eye on Loved by Death: Book One of The Wolfsbane Chronicles. You never know what kind of sale you might find.

Series of Unfortunate Events – My Thoughts

Series of Unfortunate Events – My Thoughts

F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

I’ve not done a post about a book in a while, so to make up for it, this book will talk about all 13 books in the Series of Unfortunate Events book series. Don’t worry, this won’t be a long post, but there may be spoilers.

Now, I had read these books when I was younger. When Netflix came out with their series for the books, I decided to re-read them so that I could refresh my memory. I didn’t allow myself to watch the series until I had finished reading the books, so that was fun.

For those who are not familiar, these books are aimed towards younger/middle age children. I don’t typically care what age group books are aimed at. I read what I want.

The first book, The Bad Beginning, starts out with the three Baudelaire children being told by Mr. Poe that their parents had perished in a deadly fire. This is just the start of the children’s unfortunate lives.

One thing you will quickly notice about the books is that Lemony Snicket enjoys alliteration. He also tries very hard in every book to convince the reader to stop reading the books, or to turn their attention to something different.

In The Grim Grotto, which is the 11th book, he repeats information about the water cycle. While it may sound like these diversions from the main story would be annoying, it really isn’t. (At least not to me) To me, I think they are fun and make Lemony a character. It is meant to be a retelling of a story, so it makes sense that Lemony would get to have his own attitude.

Book after book, the children have to face Count Olaf. Each time they discover who he is right off the bat, yet no other adult in the books ever recognize him. It becomes frustrating at how dense the adults are.

If anybody reading these books ever think that maybe things will change for the Baudelaire and that they will get to live a happy life, you are sadly mistaken. Lemony Snicket even assures you that nothing is going to change for them.

Guardian after guardian is killed by Count Olaf. They get accused of murder. They have to run around the hinterlands and hitchhike with strangers. Sleep in an unfinished hospital wing. Sail in a broken down submarine. Get separated from each other. And almost thrown down a mountain. Those aren’t even the worse things that happen to them.

But, finally, you make it to The End. A small glimmer of hope shines inside of you. “Maybe,” you think to yourself, “Things will change for the Baudelaire children.”

Well…

You wouldn’t be completely wrong, but you won’t be right either. Count Olaf is there and some dumb adults that don’t think for themselves. The island turns out to be a safe place for the children. They believe them about Count Olaf. They even lock him in a cage on the coastal shelf.

Yet, something is fishy about the island and Ishmael, and it’s not just the ceviche.

Ish turns out to know everything about the children and he claims that everything he does is to “protect” the villagers. The children could stay as long as they “don’t rock the boat,” but they are Baudelaires and they can’t stand injustice. So, of course, they rock the boat.

They get themselves isolated on the coastal shelf with Olaf and stranded Kit Snicket.

Oalf manages to enact one more crazy plan and releases a deadly poison on the island. The children find out that the apple tree on the island can help, but they can’t get all of the others to believe them. Instead, they ship out with Ish.

I won’t go into any more detail. I will say, the exact outcome of the Baudelaires or any of the other characters that didn’t die aren’t shared. You’re left to wonder how things worked out for them. If they were about to go back into the world without being chased by the police. Or if they joined VFD. Of if they found the Quagmire triplets.

This seems to be a problem for some people. I update my Goodreads when I finish a book. When I added The End, I noticed there were a few people who didn’t like how he ended the series. They didn’t like the mystery that was left. They wanted it wrapped up in a pretty little bow, and that the kids lived happily ever after.

I get that, but, I also understand why it was wrapped up the way it was.

Lemony Snicket never hid the fact that the Baudelaires’ story would be a series of unfortunate events. (It’s the name of the books.) Plus, the books are supposed to be written by a person sharing what he has learned. I feel the way the last book wraps things up fits in with the whole premise of the books. Diaries and journals are rarely wrapped up into pretty little bows, and that’s basically what these books are supposed to be.

I love these books. I always have and always will. When I have children, they will read these books. They may seem morbid to some, but I think they also teach a lot of valuable lessons for adults and children alike.

FYI:

Grab your copy of Loved by Death on Amazon. Make sure you keep an eye on Loved by Death: Book One of The Wolfsbane Chronicles. You never know what kind of sale you might find.

Best Way to Develop and Build Characters

Best Way to Develop and Build Characters

F.A. Huffman1 Comment

Welcome to the first post of 2019. I hope your holidays were fantastic.

I’m starting off the year by talking about characters. You can’t have a story without characters. No matter how hard you try, there are going to characters, human or not. Even if there is just a person describing a scene, that narrator is a character.

Stories have characters (duh obviously) but it can be difficult to create well-rounded characters that people enjoy reading. The key part of any character is to make them human. Now, that doesn’t mean they have to be human, they just have to act like a human. That means they have human ideas and characterizations and the like. They are driven by beliefs and dreams.

One of my favorite blog posts about character development is The Writing Cooperative article, How to Create Authentic and Powerful Fictional Characters written by Valerie Black. Click the link to read. It’s a good read.

As with the article I just shared, there are lots of archetypes for your main protagonist, which I will probably dedicate a blog to later on. For this blog, we are going to look more at how to build a character.

What’s in a name?

The first thing you need to do is figure out a name. Coming up with a cast list for your book is a good idea. As a rule of thumb, try to make your names as pronounceable as possible. Also, the names need to fit with your story. If you’re writing a story set in 17th century England, the name Payton is going to fit very well.

Now, I know, coming up with names can be difficult. It’s like naming a child. You want to make sure it works for them when they first come to fruition and when you write their last line. When push comes to shove, you can always use source material. Search online, grab a book, magazine, whatever you have around you to find names. Be careful not to accidentally use the same names in different stories that aren’t meant to have the same characters.

Another tip for names and this isn’t something that I do, but it is a good idea. Write out a long list of possible names for your story that way you will have some if a new character were to pop up. You never know when a random person will appear in your story.

But what will I wear?

Names are fine and dandy, but you still have to know what your character looks like. You need to know things like their age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, race, all those things.

It’s easy to come up with your character based on their social and educational status. The trick comes when they are from specific locals. If you are writing about people in Atlanta, Georgia, you need to know how those people act and speak. Unless you are going for something funny, you want to try to avoid stereotypes of what you think people sound like. That’s where research comes in.

Putting it all together.

You’re going to have characters that come together easily you know them down to their blood type. Then there will be others that you just have a mental image of. No matter how detailed you have your characters, you have to make sure you know them. If you don’t know them, you can’t convey their story. This is especially true if you write in a POV.

One great way to get to know your characters is to answer a bunch of questions from their point of view. This will put you in their mind so that you get to the essence of who they are.

Are they important?

Lastly, you have to figure out if the character gives to your story. Ask yourself what each of your characters mean to your story. This should be something you do for every character, no matter how long or short their time is in your story. All characters should grab your reader’s attention.

If a character isn’t adding something to your story, get them the hell out of there. It’s better to lose a character than make your readers stumble through a scene with confusing characters.

Now, this is by no means the end all be all information for character development. These are just three tips that can help you get started. We will look at more character development information in coming blog posts. But this should get you started.

FYI:

Grab your copy of Loved by Death on Amazon. Make sure you keep an eye on Loved by Death: Book One of The Wolfsbane Chronicles. You never know what kind of sale you might find.

Three Ways to Write Your Truth

Three Ways to Write Your Truth

F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

My last post on writing your truth was a bit jumbled because I went into without a plan in mind. I knew I wanted to write about it, and I just started writing. Hopefully, you were still able to get something from it. I’m back again to talk about writing your truth. Here we are going to talk about three ways to make sure that you write your truth and not someone else’s.

In my opinion, the simplest definition of writing your truth is writing what you really want to write. Writing your truth isn’t something outlandish or some mysterious being that only a few can tap into. Writing your truth is something everybody has the ability to do, all it takes is some time and effort.

There is one hard part about writing your truth. You have to know you.

Find Out Your Beliefs

In order to write your truth, you have to know yourself. That’s the first thing in writing your truth. Know yourself. Take some time to sit down and write out the things you believe. Those are your truths. The things that you believe to be important in life. Not what other people tell you, but what you believe. These beliefs have been forming throughout your entire life. And whether you know it or not, you have been living your life based on these beliefs.

That’s the first thing you are going to do in order to write your truth. Take a moment, five to ten minutes, and write down a list of your beliefs. I don’t want superficial beliefs either. Nothing simple like I believe in God or I believe the sun is hot. I want specific beliefs. Things like people need to fight injustice, marriage should be between two people that love each other, people should be allowed to be whatever they want to be. I want you to go deep. Take some time to go do that now.

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I’m serious, write your list now.

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Welcome back. Now that you have your list of beliefs you now know the things that you should write about. While you can write about things that go against these beliefs, such as a person who isn’t necessarily religious could write a book that is religious in nature. But doing so is going to be very difficult.

It will take quite a bit of planning and forethought. You will find it very hard to embrace these truths because they aren’t yours. The only way to successfully write something that goes against your truths is to change your beliefs about them. But that’s a different subject.

Don’t Be Silent

The second thing is to stop silencing yourself. I’m a woman, so I can only speak from a woman’s perspective. Women tend to silence their selves more often. I could speak on why I think that is, but that’s not my point here. Many people will stop themselves from writing their truth because they think that it’s something that others don’t want to hear, or that they will be ridiculed for it.

They feel shameful for their truths, so they stop themselves from writing about it. Now, I want to explain that I am not telling you to be hurtful or mean to others. That’s wrong no matter what. (I’m pretty sure I put that in my last blog about writing your truth and is a boilerplate agreement from now on when talking about writing your truth. DON’T BE MEAN AND HURTFUL)

What I am telling you is to be nice in how you write your truth. No matter what it is, you can write your truth without hurting other people.

I know that this may seem like I am verging on a touchy subject, and I probably am, but it’s important that we talk about this. Writing your truth is the only way you are going to feel happy and comfortable with your writing, and, yes, it will likely upset somebody. But as long as you didn’t blatantly attack somebody or you weren’t outright mean, then you have nothing to be afraid of. I’m not here to talk about ethics, just the matter of not silencing yourself.

To recap, the second point is that you should not let society or others silence you just because you are afraid that they are going to judge you for it.

Be Vulnerable

The last tip is to be vulnerable. This will go hand in hand with the second tip because you are putting yourself out there to be judged, which is a vulnerable position. Vulnerability is the key to writing your truth. Which we will go in-depth on later on. All I am going to say right now is that if you don’t feel a little bit vulnerable when you are writing and putting yourself out there, then you are probably hiding at least part of your truth.

Remember, understand your beliefs, don’t silence yourself, and be vulnerable. Once you have accomplished those three things, you will be well on your way to writing your truth.

“Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Buddha

FYI:

Grab your copy of Loved by Death on Amazon. Make sure you keep an eye on Loved by Death: Book One of The Wolfsbane Chronicles. You never know what kind of sale you might find.

A Quick Christmas Wish for You and Yours

A Quick Christmas Wish for You and Yours

F.A. HuffmanLeave a comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8t8bM8YGgQ&feature=youtu.be

Today’s post is going to short and sweet. I just want to stop by and wish everybody and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah (sorry, I know this one is already over), Happy Kwanza, and a Happy New Year. Hey, even Happy Boxing Day if you celebrate it. Whatever your preferences are, I wish you happy whatever you celebrate. I hope it was or will be filled with love, happiness, good food, a family you like to be around, and presents galore.

In the video above you can see how I decorate and everything.

My tree went up the day after Thanksgiving, and presents were put under shortly thereafter. My parents and I tend to go overboard with gifts. Books will always be given to somebody, my mom and I are big readers (duh). On Christmas Eve, we go to visit my grandparents on both sides. On Christmas Day, it’s just my parents me. We open presents and eat a big meal.

We do New Years in a “big” way as well. We always watch the Rose Parade, and we always have ham, greens, and black-eyed peas. I love the holidays, any holiday really.

I would love to learn what you guys do for the holidays and what some of your favorite traditions are.

Happy Holidays everyone. Have a great end of the year and I will see you in 2019.

“I celebrate everyone’s religious holidays. If it’s good enough for the righteous, it’s good enough for the self-righteous, I always say.” – Better Midler

FYI:

Grab your copy of Loved by Death on Amazon. Make sure you keep an eye on Loved by Death: Book One of The Wolfsbane Chronicles. You never know what kind of sale you might find.