Stir the Plot

It’s my favorite question of all when it comes to world building. People need an awful lot of stuff when you get right down to it, food is probably on top of the list.

It is such a huge part of any culture that it seems unwise to skip this step. There are many interesting things you can do to add *cough* a little flavor and realism.

What kind of food?

It depends on many, many factors such as climate, region, culture, population size, time period, technology, knowledge, discoveries or trade as to what kind of food they’ll be able to produce or even consider.

Things like class, gender, type of work, access, difficulty to make, religion, time of year, holidays, might also play a factor in what people eat or are allowed to eat or deem appropriate.

What do your monsters eat?

Generally speaking, fantastical creatures need to eat as well and if they are offered a relatively easy source such as your livestock, they are probably getting interested. But even ignoring that, you should have a rough idea, though the more the better, how these creatures interact with your ecosystem.

You could say something like: My world only supports X dragons; their consumption is just that high. It’s just that I tend to roll my eyes when I have a story with loads of giant monsters while the ecosystem looks to be perfectly unaffected by it. Those things will make a dent.

Where are the goods coming from?

Ask yourself, can your world even produce silk? Is it imported? How can a tiny country in the middle of bloody nowhere support itself, let alone get its hands on these luxury items?

It’s just another tiny thing that will weaken my suspension of disbelief. That said, you don’t need to lecture me for page after page as these things can be woven into the narrative and drip-fed to me over the course of a book.

Play videogames.

If you are a gamer, that is. While world building is one of the things you can learn reading and writing, I find it is very interesting to literally walk around in somebody else’s to have a closer look. Fallout 3 did it differently than Fallout: New Vegas. You can look at Skyrim versus Dragon Age: Origins.

Like so many professionals within the publishing industry, Writer’s Relief loves to work with writers who have certain key attributes that point to success.

Quite a few people requested some form of trait/personality generator, and here’s the result!  I wanted to keep it vague enough that the options could work for any universe, be it modern, fantasy, scifi, or anything else, so these are really just the basics. Remember that a character is much more than a list of traits, and this should only be used as a starting point– I tried to include a variety of things, but further development is definitely a must.

Could pair well with the gender and sexuality generator.

Pow! Boom! Ka-Pow! 5 Tips to Write Fight Scenes

by JB Lacade

This guest post is by JB Lacaden. JB lives in the Philippines, writes fiction, and blogs at JB Learns to Write. He’s been published at Flash Fiction World, and can be found on Twitter (@jblearnstowrite). Thanks JB!

There are various elements that make up a great story—plot, story development, character growth, depth. All of these contribute to turning a good story into a great story. However, one more element that can spice up your story is a good action scene.

But how do you write a good action scene? Here are five tips to get you started….

Photo by Kelly Bailey

1. Read!

Great writers read, so why not give The Mistborn Trilogy a shot? Brandon Sanderson perfectly executed each one of the action scenes in his books (and believe me, there are a lot of them). If you want to study good action scenes, check out his books.

2. Character Development.

Take time to make readers care for your characters. After all, they’ll be the ones doing the fighting. Develop them so when the action scene finally comes, your readers will care enough about the characters to want to know what happens. Getting your readers emotionally involved is key to keeping them entertained.

3. Visualize Your Scenes.

If you, the writer, cannot visualize the fight, expect the readers to have trouble as well. Visualize how each moment of the scenes will take place.

Try writing multiple ways of how the scene plays out. Ask other people to read them out. Did they like what they read? Were they able to picture out a clear image of the fight?

Remember: Action scenes don’t always involve fights. They can also be about your protagonist trying to race against time to stop a time bomb. But they always must be clearly written.

4. Spice up your verbs.

Verbs are the bread and butter of every action scene. After all, action scenes need action words. Whenever I write action scenes, I make it a point to make use of the thesaurus.

If you just used the word block, try using “parry” next. Make use of energetic like “streaked”, “slammed”, or “punched.”

Below is a sample action scene:

The two swords clanged against each other. Barbaros shouted as he spun around and swung his sword sideways. Luka deflected the blow with his shield. Barbaros lost his footing. Luka saw the opening. He roared and drove the tip of his sword into Barbaros’ side.

5. Increase the pace.

One way of speeding up the pace of your story is by shortening the sentences. Longer sentences tend to slow down the momentum of the action. Another tip is to avoid using long descriptions. Use descriptions only if they are related to the action, otherwise completely abandon them.

PRACTICE

For fifteen minutes, write an action scene using tip number four.

(SOURCE) Adjectives — descriptive words that modify nouns — often come under fire for their cluttering quality, but often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue. Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good sentence, but when you find just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives:

Adamant: unyielding; a very hard substance

Adroit: clever, resourceful

Amatory: sexual

Animistic: quality of recurrence or reversion to earlier form

Antic: clownish, frolicsome

Arcadian: serene

Baleful: deadly, foreboding

Bellicose: quarrelsome (its synonym belligerent can also be a noun)

Bilious: unpleasant, peevish

Boorish: crude, insensitive

Calamitous: disastrous

Caustic: corrosive, sarcastic; a corrosive substance

Cerulean: sky blue

Comely: attractive

Concomitant: accompanying

Contumacious: rebellious

Corpulent: obese

Crapulous: immoderate in appetite

Defamatory: maliciously misrepresenting

Didactic: conveying information or moral instruction

Dilatory: causing delay, tardy

Dowdy: shabby, old-fashioned; an unkempt woman

Efficacious: producing a desired effect

Effulgent: brilliantly radiant

Egregious: conspicuous, flagrant

Endemic: prevalent, native, peculiar to an area

Equanimous: even, balanced

Execrable: wretched, detestable

Fastidious: meticulous, overly delicate

Feckless: weak, irresponsible

Fecund: prolific, inventive

Friable: brittle

Fulsome: abundant, overdone, effusive

Garrulous: wordy, talkative

Guileless: naive

Gustatory: having to do with taste or eating

Heuristic: learning through trial-and-error or problem solving

Histrionic: affected, theatrical

Hubristic: proud, excessively self-confident

Incendiary: inflammatory, spontaneously combustible, hot

Insidious: subtle, seductive, treacherous

Insolent: impudent, contemptuous

Intransigent: uncompromising

Inveterate: habitual, persistent

Invidious: resentful, envious, obnoxious

Irksome: annoying

Jejune: dull, puerile

Jocular: jesting, playful

Judicious: discreet

Lachrymose: tearful

Limpid: simple, transparent, serene

Loquacious: talkative

Luminous: clear, shining

Mannered: artificial, stilted

Mendacious: deceptive

Meretricious: whorish, superficially appealing, pretentious

Minatory: menacing

Mordant: biting, incisive, pungent

Munificent: lavish, generous

Nefarious: wicked

Noxious: harmful, corrupting

Obtuse: blunt, stupid

Parsimonious: frugal, restrained

Pendulous: suspended, indecisive

Pernicious: injurious, deadly

Pervasive: widespread

Petulant: rude, ill humored

Platitudinous: resembling or full of dull or banal comments

Precipitate: steep, speedy

Propitious: auspicious, advantageous, benevolent

Puckish: impish

Querulous: cranky, whining

Quiescent: inactive, untroublesome

Rebarbative: irritating, repellent

Recalcitant: resistant, obstinate

Redolent: aromatic, evocative

Rhadamanthine: harshly strict

Risible: laughable

Ruminative: contemplative

Sagacious: wise, discerning

Salubrious: healthful

Sartorial: relating to attire, especially tailored fashions

Sclerotic: hardening

Serpentine: snake-like, winding, tempting or wily

Spasmodic: having to do with or resembling a spasm, excitable, intermittent

Strident: harsh, discordant; obtrusively loud

Taciturn: closemouthed, reticent

Tenacious: persistent, cohesive,

Tremulous: nervous, trembling, timid, sensitive

Trenchant: sharp, penetrating, distinct

Turbulent: restless, tempestuous

Turgid: swollen, pompous

Ubiquitous: pervasive, widespread

Uxorious: inordinately affectionate or compliant with a wife

Verdant: green, unripe

Voluble: glib, given to speaking

Voracious: ravenous, insatiable

Wheedling: flattering

Withering: devastating

Keeping your writing realistic and relatable is a challenge all writers face.  We want our readers to connect with our characters and we want our stories to feel as real as possible. If you’re having trouble making your writing realistic, try following these simple tips:

Strengths and weaknesses

All of your characters need both strengths and weaknesses to be relatable. Your protagonist definitely cannot be a “perfect” character; otherwise you run the risk of alienating your audience. No one wants to see a character doing everything perfectly all the time because that’s just not how it works in real life. We want to see them making mistakes and learning from those mistakes to become a better person.  All of your characters need to have weaknesses and flaws.

Focus on world building

A world that hasn’t been fully developed will not come across as very realistic. Your readers want to understand how your world works and how your characters engage/connect with your world. Take the time to develop your world and figure out how each character would live on a daily basis. If you don’t have an understanding of how your world works, your readers won’t either.

Listen to real conversations

Writing realistic dialogue is super important if you want readers to relate to your writing. Listening to real conversations will help you form your own dialogue. How do people really talk to each other? How can you put that into your writing? I know dialogue is stylized in books and film, but realistic dialogue goes a long way. Do your best to avoid clichés.

Humanize your characters

You need to take it a step further than just developing strengths and weaknesses. Focus on character quirks, hobbies, accents, etc.  Filling out character sheets will really help you develop your characters properly. The more the audience knows about them, the more realistic your characters will be. Humanize your characters by focusing on what makes who they are. Take those character archetypes to the next level.