#writingtipss

Inspiration for every country

Map, or basic understanding of the layout. I recommend Inkarnate for making maps!

Major historical events, think about how wars have sparked new political philosophies and how they’ve shaped cultures today (think about how Liberalism stems from a response to oppressive monarchies)

What’s the culture of the different countries in your world? What kind of arts do they practice, if the arts are widespread? What’s available for entertainment, does the average person have enough downtime to participate in leisure? What’s the architecture like? What are the major exports of each country?

Are there any major historical figures in your countries? Any influential works of literature that have been studied?

What does daily life look like for people in different socioeconomic classes?

Is the culture of country side villages and towns similar to urban areas? How does it differ?

What is the religion? Does each country follow something different, or is everyone the same? Is it mono or polytheistic? Who are the religious leaders? Do people attend church, or is worship practiced in private? Are there any rituals?

Building off of religion, is there any religious conflict?

What does the government look like? Is it an absolute monarchy? Constitutional monarchy? Or some form of democracy or republic? Who’s the leader and what other positions hold power?

Does each country have a government, or is your world ruled under one government?

What do the different classes look like in your country? Do the higher social classes look down on those beneath them? Is there a general sense of class consciousness, and class conflicts?

Climate of each country, territory, or state

Typical jobs of every country, territory, or state

What kind of transportation is available?

What does the military look like? Is there one? Do any militias operate in the rural areas?

Does your world have any myths or legends? What were they influenced by, and how do they influence the culture? Are there any superstitions around these myths?

Typical foods, what do most people eat? Is the food bland, or flavorful? How does access to food differ for different people, and does the type of food eaten change with social status?

Type of laws, do the people have any protected rights? What might get someone thrown in a cell for a night? Do your countries have an organized prison system, or do they operate by throwing everyone in the castle’s dungeons?

What kind of economy do the different countries have? Is it regulated by the government? What’s the major currency?

What’s the social life like? Are there certain customs to follow? What’s considered polite or impolite?

How are foreigners seen? Is there any hostility towards them, or are the citizens of your countries more accepting of other cultures?

What are the relationships like between countries?

What weapons are used in war?

What’s the general attitude towards war and other conflicts? Do any of your countries use a pacifist approach? Do any countries protect their neighbors from a common enemy?

Sanitary system, do they have sewage? Think about how disease was common in cities before proper sewage was invented.

Educational System for the poor, is there any sort of public education? Is there any sort of access to higher education, if it exists in your countries?

Educational system for the rich, do nobles typically hire tutors or is there a system of private schooling?

How is education viewed? Is it valued?

How do the people communicate, between cities or even countries? Is there any form of published communication, or is everything passed through spoken word?

Morality, what is considered moral or immoral?

What are the beauty standards of your country? How are different physical appearances viewed?

What’s the clothing like? What does the average peasant wear, what does the average noble wear?

What language is spoken? Do different countries speak different languages? Is there a common tongue?

Are good hygiene practices common? How often does the average person bathe?

Is marriage viewed as a religious or legal institution? What’s the general attitude towards marriage? Is it common? What does the courting process look like?

Are water and other resources readily available? Do they have to be outsourced to other countries?

Science, is it accepted? Do people actively research new things in your countries?

Going back to the prison question, what is the legal system like? Do people get trials? What sort of crimes result in different penalties? Who makes the final decision of punishment, a judge? The lord ruling over the territory the crime took place?

How is death treated? Are funerals held? Do they bury their dead, or use funeral pyres? Are funerals viewed as a celebration of the person’s life, or a time to mourn?

What kind of diseases are common? What do the symptoms look like?

What are your countries’ attitudes towards alcohol and other substances? Is drinking a common practice, or widely frowned upon?

When looking at these different aspects of your world, it’s also important to remember that the histories of our world don’t have to dictate what happens in yours. For example, public education wasn’t really common in the United States until the 1800s. On the other end of that, one of the earliest formal schools was founded in Egypt in 2061-2010 BC and many Middle Eastern cultures have pushed for education since then as the ability to read religious scripture was important.

Now that National Novel Writing Month is upon us, we’re faced with the daunting task of writing 50,000 words by the end of the month. Here are some things to do/keep in mind to make the daunting task a little less daunting.

50,000 words in 30 days is a little over 1500 words a day. That’s only 5 pages of your book every day.

If you have a busy schedule, save some words for the days you’re not as busy. If you have work or school 5 days a week, try shooting for 1,000 words on weekdays and 3,000 on weekends.

Skip parts that you’re stuck on. Since NaNoWriMo is all about time, skip the parts that waste it. Don’t know what your first line should be? Don’t worry about it, what happens directly after it? Tell the story, hook your reader later.

Understand where your story needs to go. Whether you’re a detailed outliner or a pantser, knowing where your story is going will speed up the process between Point A and Point B. What’s your inciting incident? What’s the climax? Connect the dots.

Try not to worry about quality. Emphasis on try, because I’m assuming you still want something that resembles a novel after this. But your main goal during the event is your wordcount, you can go back and edit on December 1st.

Find a routine that works for you. What space do you feel allows you to write the most? What time? Do you need your lucky socks?

Put your phone away! Writing can already be pretty distracting on a computer, but I find that phones are even more distracting because you have all of your apps on top of what you have access to on your computer.

Figure out what gets you in “the zone.” I personally use playlists (and if you make one for your project, you can add it to the project information on the site!) that remind me of the story, so I have an auditory reminder to write as well as the task at hand. I also like looking at the Pinterest boards for my project, because it gets me excited to add words to the images in my head!

Less of a tip, more of a reminder: if you drink unhealthy amounts of caffeine (no shame, I do too) I just ask that you drink some water with it too.

We all remember being the curious child asking our teachers, parents, guardians, and other adults in our lives, “Why?” Why is the sky blue, why we have to do something, why anything is the way it is. But one of the most important questions for writers is, “Why does this happen?”

Whenever you’re stuck at any point in your outlining process, or even writing process, look at the plot point you’re working with and ask why it happens. Maybe the heroine was sent to a bar where she received a crucial piece of information, which sparks a whole chain of events. What’s the piece of information, and what are those events?

You can raise the stakes as much as you want but if your reader doesn’t understand the outcome of failure, rising stakes won’t have the impact you want. And, don’t be afraid to make your characters face those consequences on a smaller scale.

(First of all YES, even though I do my best work with deadline-induced anxiety)

I feel like I’m somewhat qualified to help with this, because I usually average anywhere from 2,000-4,000 words per writing session. However, I wasn’t always able to sit down and write enough for a chapter in one go. Here are some things I’ve done over the years to help boost my “writing stamina”:

Start with smaller wordcount goals per session. When you set out to meet a huge goal, and don’t meet it, you’re setting yourself up for a loss of confidence in your abilities. So, you’re writing 300 words per session now? Set that for your goal, and whenever you go over that goal it feels more like the accomplishment it is rather than beating yourself up for only writing 300/1000 words.

Slowly build your way up to longer writing sessions. Writing is exhausting, as much as some people who don’t write like to disagree. Train your brain like the muscle it is, rather than going to lift 300 lbs. without starting to train at 50.

Try words sprints! Give yourself anywhere from 1, 5, 10 minutes to just write anything and everything on your mind. It could be related to your WIP, or your internal monologue. This can act as a sort of warm-up for your brain, and can help you clear the fog most of us usually have at the beginning of a session.

On the topic of warm-ups, try writing a “warm-up story”! I don’t know if there’s a proper term for this, but it’s a technique I like to use. Find a writing prompt you like, or come up with something, and just write a few paragraphs before switching over to write your main story. Since it isn’t your main project, it can help alleviate the pressure for quality since you’re not intending it to be seen by anyone else.

Have you tried outlining? This might feel a little bit out of left field, because what do outlines and wordcounts have to do with each other? But when you’re experiencing— maybe we should call it writersblock lite™ — I have a feeling you know what to write but physically can’t. Outlining ahead of time means you have the words you want, essentially already written. So, for the sake of jumpstarting the process you can always just copy your outline word for word and revisit the section when your brain is cooperating.

With regards to your deadline comment, if you’re struggling with your current project try and break it down into smaller parts. Similar to what I said in my NaNoWriMo post, figure out how many words you need for your deadline and figure out how many days you have. Do a little math, and there you go. So, for NaNo, 50,000/30 = 1667. Breaking it down into smaller chunks can help alleviate the stress that usually causes writersblock, so maybe you can break it down into smaller chunks where 300 words per session gets you to your deadline. Then, using the previous tips you can up that session count until you’re ahead of your deadline.

Continuing off of alleviating stress, figure out if there’s anything you should do before writing. I usually can’t write if my homework isn’t done, so I’ll go submit my work before writing. I also like to clean up my environment a bit, so that my workspace isn’t super overwhelming. And if you have any internal stresses, try journaling about them (or use your wordsprint to get it all out!).

One final thing, I like to give myself a certain amount of time for a session. So, I’ll sit down for 30 minutes to an hour, take a break, and either go to bed or start another session. Giving yourself a certain amount of time can help make the “I’m writing now,” distinction in your brain. And, taking the break after your session can help reduce fatigue.

I lied, one more thing. Try writing little snippets when you have free time on your phone. When I’m at the gym or on my breaks at work, I like to type out any ideas for scenes I have. Sometimes I even type out dialogue and action, which gives me a really easy starting point when I sit down to actually write.