Reasons to Enjoy Editing (Or to at Least Not Hate It)

Hello, all! I am currently in the midst of editing Song of the Selkies so it'll be ready for release next month. I confess that this is not my favorite stage of the writing process — which is part of the reason why I try to write very clean first drafts, so I don't have to spend more time than necessary here. Still, every stage of storycraft has its merits, so in an effort to keep my spirits up (especially as I'm ending a rather stressful week even outside of writing stuff), I've decided to find five reasons why I can enjoy editing, even if I don't love it.

Reasons to Enjoy Editing

1. I get to rediscover all the good bits and go "Hey! This is great! And I wrote that!" I don't think it's arrogant to say that I do genuinely like what I write much of the time. (If I didn't like it more than I disliked it, I'd probably stop writing.) Even in first-draft form, I'm often proud of particular scenes or bits of description or dialogue or narration, and I enjoy rereading these bits almost as much as I enjoy reading other peoples' writing. Editing gives me an excuse to do that, and of course it's an opportunity to take the good bits and make them better (difficult as that might be at times).
2. I can fix the parts I don't like without worrying about losing my momentum. I'm a very linear writer — while some writers can craft scenes and then go back and add in all the bits necessary to connect those scenes together, I start at the beginning and work straight through until I reach the end, no jumping around. (There are exceptions when I realize that I need to change details in a past scene to make the rest of the book work, but that's rare.) That means that, on days when the words are fighting me or in scenes that just won't work right, I typically have to push through anyway to get to the point where I know what I'm doing again. I rarely like what I've written during these periods, but editing means I can take (almost) all the time I need to turn these sections into something I'm happy with, without worrying about momentum.
3. I can find the places where I accidentally foreshadowed things and do it better on purpose. The other thing about writing linearly, specifically about writing linearly as an author who's more plantser than planner, is that I don't know all the details of the ending when I'm writing the early chapters of a book. And, depending on how long that book took me, by the time I reach the climax, I might not consciously remember those early chapters very well. Editing is an opportunity to go back and find the places where I accidentally foreshadowed something or created some parallel — quite possibly without knowing that I was doing so — and then purposefully polish those elements to bring out their full potential. It's also a chance to find the sections where I set up the potential for foreshadowing and then taking advantage of it.
4. I get to laugh at the cluelessness of the characters in their start-of-book state. I recognize that this sounds terrible, but it's not! I swear! But when I go back to the start of a novel and revisit characters at the start of their storylines and arcs, and I remember how much they don't know . . . it's funny, ok? That's especially true with the main character of Song of the Selkies — unlike Alys in Through a Shattered Glass or the Dennels in my Bastian Dennel series, Ceana is both highly idealistic and (though no fault of her own) lacking some very significant knowledge about her world, country, and neighbors. (That's not a spoiler; it's in the book blurb.) As a result, returning to the start of the book prompts a lot of "Oh you sweet summer child, you have a big storm coming" from me. It's genuinely delightful.
5. I get to read beta readers' comments! This is the absolute best part of the editing process: the fact that I get to see readers' reactions to specific parts of the story in context. I get to see which parts they especially liked, which bits made them laugh or cry or scream. I get to laugh as they snark at characters or make meme references. I get to "watch" them make predictions and piece together what's really going on. And, yes, I also get constructive feedback, but the fact that this is the one opportunity I have to see what it's like to read my stories for the first time, to come along on the reader's journey with them . . . that's something really special.

Do you love editing? Hate it? Feel meh about it? In any case, what do you especially like about it? Or, at least, what makes it bearable for you? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a! Over the last couple weeks, I've been working on some new projects, even though I'm not quite finished with BDPI #4. That's not something I generally do — I try to only have one project in the drafting stage at a time — but due to deadlines, I've had to make an exception. In any case, I figured this would be a good time talk about my take on a perennial topic in writing: how do you decide what ideas are worth writing? As many writers know, ideas are easy enough to come up with (especially when you don't need them, which is when you find out exactly why writers sometimes refer to ideas as "plot bunnies"), but figuring out which ones to invest time and energy in is another matter entirely. Every author has their own methods for making that choice, but here are the questions and litmus tests I, personally, use.

What Ideas Are Worth Writing?

1. How long have I been actively interested in this idea? Because, as I mentioned, I don't like drafting multiple projects at once or starting one project before another is finished (or at least at a pause point), I have a built-in filter for ideas that won't have enough staying power to make a full story. While the amount of time I wait on a story varies based on some of the other questions and tests on this list, it's almost always at least a few weeks, if not months or even years, between when I come up with a story idea and when I actually write it. So, if I'm still interested in and excited about the idea by whenever I have time to write it, it's probably worth investing some time into. (I will still jot down ideas that I think could be worth pursuing when I come up with them, but if you could get a look at my "Story Ideas" note, you would realize that's far from a guarantee that I'll actually write them.)
2. How much do I know about this idea? This one should be kind of obvious, but sometimes what seems clear to me is sometimes less so to others, so I'll list it anyway. An idea that has a solid main character or two, along with a beginning, end, and maybe a few middle scenes, before I even start outlining is far more likely to be written than a story that just has a general concept. Of course, this goes along with the first question; the longer I've been interested in an idea, the more likely it is that I've put thought into some good plot points and character arcs. And, yes, as some of you may have realized, this does mean that retellings (especially combined retellings) have an edge, since they come preloaded with a set of events, characters, and such to work with . . . but at least 75% of my ideas these days are fairy tale retellings anyway, so it's not that much of an edge.
3. Does this fit with an established storyworld or series? As I told a friend the other day, I don't like to waste a good storyworld or a good set of characters. I love worldbuilding and character creation, but both of those activities take time, and when I can, I'd rather expand an existing world and give already-loved characters more time in the spotlight. Plus, on the business side of things, there's already a bit of a built-in reader base for series stories. So, for example, new Bastian Dennel, PI stories or ideas I can turn into new BDPI stories tend to get precedence over stories in an entirely new world — though there are exceptions if the idea passes other tests, as in the case of Through a Shattered Glass and one of the new projects I've been working on this week. This question doesn't exclusively refer to published storyworlds either. If I can fit a story in the same world as another book that I plan to revise and publish later, that also gives it a boost up the priority list because it means I'll be more likely to be able to get back to that other story later.
4. Can I combine this with another idea I've been thinking about? One of the top ten best feelings in a writer's life is when the shiny new idea provides the missing pieces for an idea you've had for ages but haven't been able to justify working on. It happened with The Midnight Show, when I realized that my new idea of a jazz-age-inspired fantasy world and a private eye/singer main character pair could fit with the old idea of a Twelve Dancing Princesses story where the "princesses" are being pulled in to play roles in a musical. It happened with Through a Shattered Glass, when my need for a Snow Queen retelling came together with my interest in Return to Wonderland version of the Alice books. It's a wonderful discovery, and it frequently bumps ideas quite a ways up the priority list.
5. Does this work with a contest, writing challenge, or group release I want to participate in? This is the question that can either be the deciding factor in choosing between two books that both check all the boxes or can overrule the results most of the other tests. It's the reason why I have three published Bastian Dennel, PI books but still haven't rewritten Blood in the Earth. It's why BDPI #4 is going on pause so I can write something I just came up with in the last couple months. The key is that this question has something the others don't: a fairly firm deadline. And a story with a deadline almost always takes precedence over a story without.

How do you decide which stories you're going to write (or tell in other ways)? What are your deciding factors? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I no longer know what I am . . . at least when it comes to the planning vs. pantsing debate. For those who haven't heard these terms before, they refer to how one approaches the process of writing a story. A planner is usually characterized as putting in a lot of time preparing before writing a word in the actual manuscript; they'll make outlines (sometimes extraordinarily detailed ones), fill out character profiles, do ALL the worldbuilding, and more. A pantser, or seat-of-the-pants writer, generally prefers some variation on winging it, or figuring it out as they go along. In between are the plantsers, those who do some combination of the two, which is the category I usually put myself. However, for some of my more recent novels, I've found myself doing more and more actual planning, specifically outlining, not necessarily because it's my natural inclination, but because it seems necessary for the stories I'm writing. So, because of that shift — and because I recently read a rather interesting planning vs. pantsing article from the lovely folks at Tor Publishing that got me thinking about the topic — I'm going to take today to share some thoughts on planning, pantsing, and the space in between.

Thoughts from a Reluctant (Possible) Plotter

(Because this is still a thing people talk about, right?)

1. Even at my most pantser-ish, I don't write without some kind of plan. Not anymore, at least. I generally do want at least a rough idea of where I'm starting, where I'm going, and where I might pause along the way. I might not always write it down — for short stories, I rarely do any planning outside my head — but I can't sit down with a concept and a first chapter and go for it. Well, I could. But I probably wouldn't — if nothing else, because if all I have a concept and a starting point, I probably got the idea yesterday, and all the ideas I've been chewing on for months or years take precedence.
2. More planning means less time stuck . . . sometimes. You would think that the more detailed the outline, the more you build your characters and the world, the more likely it is that the actual writing would go smoothly. But for myself, there tends to be a point at which "time spent planning" and "time spent stuck" cease to have any kind of correlation. I actually have an idea of why this is . . .
3. It's easier to diagnose — and fix — story problems during writing than outlining. I've been dealing with this recently, and it's the reason why I just had to start BDPI#4 over from the outline. I had a solid outline with, for me, quite a bit of detail. I'd put a good bit of thought into the outline. But it wasn't until I actually started writing that I started to realize that my story in its current form had some problems. I think this is often why I like working with looser outlines; they give me more space to fix issues without throwing everything out of whack.
4. The more detailed the outline, the more likely it is I'll have to redo the outline. Ok, I don't have a ton of data points for this, and I know that there are stories I've written with very loose outlines that I ended up having to rewrite the story itself from more or less the ground up. But I can say with reasonable confidence that I've only rewritten two outlines (Gilded in Ice and BDPI#4), and both were pretty detailed. I can also say with considerable confidence that the more detailed the original outline, the more annoyed I'll be about going back to the drawing board.
5. My last point actually comes half from that Tor article I referenced earlier (which you should read, by the way): planning and pantsing really are just two different ways of doing the same thing (feeling out a story and a world), and which one is preferable may depend on story as much as author. The reason I'm planning more might be that I'm getting more comfortable with outlines and that I have to write my books faster . . . but it's also because I'm writing different types of stories. Between Two Worlds, which had a very loose outline, was a fantasy adventure that was primarily character-driven. It needed to be flexible enough to accommodate moments when the cast did something unexpected. My Bastian Dennel books, on the other hand, are very plot-centric. Characters need to be in the right places at the right times; they need to discover the right clues in the right order. That demands a more detailed outline, if only so you can make sure you know what they need to find and where they need to be before you point your characters in its direction. So, even if I'm currently writing a lot of detailed outlines, there's no guarantee that'll always be the case — it'll depend on what stories I'm telling.

What are your thoughts on plotting, planning, and plantsing? Do you notice a difference in what kind of outlines you make for different types of stories? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, all! As y'all are probably aware, there's a lot of writing advice out there — in fact, depending on how many blogs and newsletters you follow and what kinds of things you search on Google, you probably can't open your email or your internet browser without running into someone telling you how to write better. A lot of that advice, especially in the area of tips and tricks, is pretty standard stuff, but there's some more unusual material out there too — and some of those more unusual tips work far better than you expect when you read them. I've been meaning to make a post for a while about some of the odd tricks that've helped me the most, and since I've spent the last several months Writing (and rewriting and editing) Like Mad, I felt like this was a good time to do just that.

Writing Tips and Tricks
(That Shouldn't Work as Well as They Do)

1. Write in a non-serious font. The original version of this advice was to write in Comic Sans specifically — why? Because traditional serif and sans serif fonts (at least the readable ones) are, well, traditional. Serious. Clean. Meticulously shaped. They pump up the pressure to produce perfection. Comic Sans? It's chill. Relaxed. A little messy. It breaks past the block that makes you revise a sentence over and over again and just lets the words flow. And it works. It has a major benefit of handwriting (lack of pressure) paired with the major benefits of digital (speed and editability). It's wonderful. To be fair, though, any readable handwriting font will work in a similar way. I drafted more than a few college papers in Comic Sans, but I like more scripty fonts for fiction. For example, the Bastian Dennel, PI novels were drafted in Ink Free, and my Super Secret Mystery Project is in Segoe Print.
2. Don't end your writing session at the end of a scene or chapter. Some people even say to end in the middle of a sentence, but I think that's a bit extreme. The point is to avoid the paralysis of figuring out how to start a scene before you even get your writing muscles warmed up — sort of to give yourself a runway for the next writing session. I confess that I haven't always used this one, especially when my inspiration doesn't extend beyond the chapter I just finished, but I'm making a point of doing it in my current project, and I think it's helping a lot.
3. Write your way into a scene. When you don't have a runway from your last writing session . . . make one! It's a draft, you're going to edit anyway, so if you need to, just start writing with a messy description of what's going on as the scene opens and maybe where you're going with it and keep going until you can transition into the real prose. Then go back and delete all the leadup. I've only used this one a few times, but it does help — it's a little like the Draft Zero concept that Deborah O'Carroll has told me about or the similar method that Sylvia Mercedes uses to rapidly draft her books, just on a very small scale.
4. Having problems with a scene? Change the weather. This is one I actually used in Gilded in Ice. (Chapter 15, to be exact.) The exact advice doesn't work for every scene, but the general principle does: if you're stuck on a particular scene, change some detail about the setting or situation and you might just find the words flowing more readily. Changing details like this — whether it's the weather or the time of day or the whole location — helps you pull away from the idealized version of the scene in your head and actually write the version that can exist on paper.
5. If your story feels off now, the problem is probably about ten lines back. This one goes along with the previous tip, especially since I find this also tends to happen when you're trying to force the story or characters in the wrong direction. While it can be risky to engage your inner editor during a writing session, if you're stuck, it may be worth looking back at what happened earlier in the scene (or even earlier in the book!) and trying to find the cause. It's definitely better to look in the moment than to push on with the book and end up having more story weight resting on a cracked support

What are your favorite writing tips and tricks, whether odd or unusual or otherwise? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, all! As I mentioned in my July Doings post, my big project this month is editing Gilded in Ice (again) based on feedback from my beta readers. In honor of that project, I thought I'd share some of my favorite tips and tricks for making editing as painless — or, at least, as effective — as possible. Hopefully these will also be helpful for anyone who's now facing the challenge of editing their Camp NaNoWriMo novel.

Editing Tips and Tricks

1. The first time you edit, retype everything. Or, at least, as close to everything as you can. This is a technique I picked up by necessity — again, until 2020, I've generally written all my first drafts by hand — but I've continued to use it even for stories I draft digitally. For me, at least, retyping everything makes it easier, both practically and mentally, to change what needs to be changed and to look for those changes. After all, if you have to retype it anyway, making adjustments isn't so bad. (This also helps me make my prose more concise, since I often want to shorten the amount of time I spend editing.)
2. Change the font from version to version. There are a few different reasons why I do this — admittedly, one of them is that I don't write my first drafts in what you'd call professional fonts. Why you should do it, though, is that changing the look of the page helps you break out of the urge to skim or to zone out because you've seen this so many times, especially in late stages of editing. Of course, there are a lot of ways to accomplish similar changes: printing your manuscript, switching from black on white to white on black, or even just adjusting the zoom level. You don't necessarily need a new font for every version, just for the first one or two major rounds of edits and any time you feel you're growing too complacent. (As a bonus, changing your font means you don't miss any mistakes in punctuation because your font hid them!)
3. Many eyes make easy edits. Look. No matter how skilled you are at grammar, you will miss stuff because this is your story and you've seen it a hundred times and you're attached to all your little stylistic bits and bobs regardless of whether or not they make the story better. So get another person to look at it at some point in the editing process, whether that's a paid editor, beta readers, or a fellow writer who you trade manuscripts with. Just make sure they understand your style and have a good grasp of the laws of grammar.
4. Save what you cut! The hardest part of editing is cutting lines, paragraphs, and sometimes whole scenes that you really loved . . . so make it easier on yourself both now and in the future by saving what you cut! The easy way to do this is just by creating a new version of the document for each stage of edits, but you can also copy bits you cut into a separate document and save that. Then, in the future, you can come back to those pieces to reuse them if they fit somewhere else . . . or you can realize they really aren't that great and feel good about yourself for removing them.
5. Don't rely too much on spellcheck — of any kind. If you're a fantasy author, you're already used to ignoring spellcheck to some degree. But no matter what genre you're writing, you have to know: spellcheck will fail you. It doesn't matter if it's Microsoft Word, Grammarly, or something else entirely. It's a useful tool that will catch some mistakes, but it won't catch all of them — and sometimes it'll flag things as mistakes that are either correct or (more frequently) are deliberate stylistic choices. Or it'll get confused by too many changes and try to suggest changes that aren't correct at all, regardless of whether or not they're necessary. The point is: if you only trust spellcheck, it will fail you.

Do you enjoy editing? What are your favorite editing tricks and techniques? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello, all! So, spoilers are, of course, a Big Deal, both in fandom and in culture as a whole. It's considered common courtesy to take care what you share about your favorite stories, to mark spoilers when you post about them online, and to ask permission before sharing spoilery info in a face-to-face conversation. In some cases, studios and creators have even published official reminders to their audiences to be careful about what they share. On every level, people take spoilers seriously. In fact, I would argue that they take them a little too seriously — that spoilers don't necessarily spoil your enjoyment of a story and fandom culture (and fandom creators) might need to take a collective chill pill when it comes to dealing with them.

Some Thoughts on Spoilers

1. It's possible to fully enjoy a story while knowing all the spoilers (or all the major ones). Harry Potter, Fairy Tail, Critical Role — these are all stories I've gotten into after learning a lot of major spoilers. Storms, I knew every character who died in Harry Potter before I ever picked up the first book, and I'd heard summaries of half the story arcs and character backstories and character relationships in Fairy Tail months and years before I considered watching it. Knowing those spoilers didn't make me enjoy the stories any less. I watched Fairy Tail until I ran out of English episodes (it's one of only three TV shows I've actually watched sort of all the way through). And, yes, I did sort of drop off with Harry Potter — but my decision had nothing to do with what I knew or didn't know and everything to do with my feelings on certain tropes.
2. Knowing spoilers can help you enjoy a story more in some cases. Let's talk about Critical Role. I got into this fandom through fanart, listening to the theme song (which showed up solo on my YouTube feed one day and is AWESOME, just FYI), and especially through fan-made animatics. As a result, I came in knowing . . . well, not the same level of spoilers I knew about Harry Potter, but still a lot of spoilers, including everything from the biggest events, reveals, and twists in the game to the best and funniest small moments in the story. And yet I've stuck with this show much, much longer than I've stuck with shows that I went into "clean." Why? Knowing the spoilers meant I'd already fallen in love with the characters, so I had more patience with them when they frustrated me. It meant I had a sense of anticipation and eagerness when I realized I was getting close to seeing one of those big moments for real or when I noticed something clearly foreshadowing or leading up to one of those big moments. And it meant I had twice the fun of seeing those small, fun moments — both the pleasure of watching the moment and the excitement of recognizing "Oh, that's the context for this!" In a sense, it's like having the best parts of both the first-time read/watch and the reread/re-watch at once.
3. Too much focus on "no spoilers!" can lead to bad storytelling. Look. I love a good twist as much as anyone. I praise authors like Brandon Sanderson and Megan Whalen Turner for their ability to pull off massive twists that you don't see coming but make perfect sense in hindsight. But a trend I'm picking up on lately is that creators (especially TV/movie studios, especially Marvel) are focusing too much on making sure their audience never saw it coming. I have even heard — second- or third-hand, but the source was Tor.com, so it seems pretty reliable — that some recent shows had last-minute changes made because fans had guessed what was going to happen. But the problem with doing that is that now, all your foreshadowing is just red herrings . . . and your new twist may not have the support it needs to make sense. If you accept that sometimes, people will guess what's coming — if you accept that for many people, finding the clues and guessing what's going to happen five minutes or five pages in advance is part of the fun — your stories will be stronger.
4. Too much emphasis on going in "clean" could make people think there's only one acceptable way to experience a story. This isn't something I've seen happen yet, but it seems like the logical progression of the current cultural attitudes. If fandom keeps obsessing over "No spoilers!" and going into a story "clean," it makes people think that the only way you can truly enjoy a story is if you know nothing about it except the blurb and maybe your friend's favorite character. Which, if you remember point #2, is nonsense. But if someone has that attitude, they're probably going to miss out on a lot of amazing works of storytelling because they accidentally were exposed to spoilery information and now they think it's ruined. But — look. Even if you don't agree with what I said earlier about spoilers improving your experience, you have to admit that there's more to a story than its big twists. Characters, world, themes — spoilers might affect your view of these a little, but they don't have to take away your ability to enjoy them.
5. Obsession with no spoilers can hinder fans' ability to bring new people into the fandom. Of course, the other side of thinking people can only enjoy a story if they go in "clean" is that you have a much harder time talking about the story. And if you can't talk about the story, how are other people going to get into it? I watched Fairy Tail because my roommate had told me so much about it — careless of spoilers because at the time, I didn't watch anime, and I didn't plan to start — that I wanted to know more. I played Portal because some online friends kept making references to GLaDOS and neurotoxin and cake and I wanted to know what they were talking about. I read . . . well, a lot of books, quite frankly . . . because I'd seen people share favorite snippets or excerpts or fanfics, sometimes very spoilery ones, and was curious about the story they came from. If I hadn't seen or heard the spoilers, I wouldn't have experienced the stories. And that would've been a tragedy.

Obviously (I hope), I'm not saying that we should stop marking spoilers or that it's wrong to want to go into a story without knowing what happens. There are books that I do try to avoid spoilers for because I know half the excitement of the book is going to be the big twists. And I would never knowingly/willingly reveal spoilers to someone who I knew wasn't OK with hearing them. But I do think we need to consider if maybe, just maybe, spoilers aren't as big a deal as we've made them out to be.

What do you think about spoilers? Will knowing what's coming ruin your enjoyment of the story? Or do you agree that maybe we're putting a little too much energy and emphasis into not knowing them beforehand? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

 Happy Friday, everyone! So, everyone probably has figured out by now that I am a pretty big fan of D&D and tabletop roleplaying games in general. I play in two games, I run another, and I'm in the process of writing two campaigns, which between them get roughly the same amount of time, energy, and excitement as my actual novels. Some of my best memories of the last couple of years come from D&D sessions, and weekly D&D games have helped me keep some of my college friendships not only alive but thriving. So, yeah. Whatever its reputation, D&D can bring about a lot of good things.

But I'm not here to talk about the pros of D&D for people in general (though I totally will write that post if anyone wants to read it). I'm here to talk about how D&D can help writers specifically. And I'm not just looking at people who write and run a full homebrewed campaign; these points apply to players and DMs alike, whether they're working with a pre-written campaign and world or a completely original story and storyworld. Some will apply more to certain situations, but I think they're all pretty universal.

D&D's Worth for a Writer

1. It teaches you how to hold your stories with a loose hand. For many writers, it can be difficult to see past your particular plans for your story, whether it's a full outline you've built or the way you think a character is or a scene you really want to have happen. We get caught up on these things and, as a result, get stuck because we didn't see the better option. But if there is one truly universal constant in D&D, it's that you can never get too attached to a particular way you want a story to go. Sometimes things will work out how you planned. But there are a lot of factors to consider — the DM, the (other) players, your own ability to speak, and, of course, the dice — and sometimes . . . it doesn't happen. Your players take out the long-term boss after only two encounters. Your DM throws a whole flight of blue dragons at a city you thought was safe. A fellow player turns on the party or decides his character is going to have a mental breakdown. The story you thought you were going to tell isn't going to work, so you have to be willing to improvise — but the story as a whole ends up better for it. The same is true in writing. Maybe the story isn't going to go the way you thought it was going to go. Or maybe your beta readers say that scene you love needs to go. It's not fun. But a willingness to improvise, to hold your story loosely, will bring a better result.
2. It helps you learn how to tell a story with others. This is related to my previous point, but still somewhat different. D&D is a game in which four or five different people are trying to tell at least that many stories at the same time and interwoven with one another. You have to learn how to share the spotlight and how to build off each other. You have to learn each others' strengths and your own strengths and play off of each other. And these are the same skills you need (in a more intense form) if you want to do any form of collaborative writing, whether that's coauthoring a book, sharing a storyworld, or any other type of collaborative formalized storytelling.
3. It's a good testing ground for new ideas. This one does apply more to DMs than players, since it's hard for players to bring something in for the short term and then drop it if it doesn't work out. But if you have that freedom (or if you don't mind doing some long-term testing), D&D can be a great way to see how people react to a particular character, dynamic, concept, or so on. You just have to keep in mind that your creations may not come off like you imagined them in your head . . . and they're always at the mercy of the dice. (And that is why a particular NPC, who was supposed to be thoroughly epic and mysterious, instead became the subject of many a joke . . . but it's fine. He works better in written form.)
4. It allows you to tell stories you can't tell in a traditional form. I am never one to disparage the written word. But some stories, characters, and concepts can be better explored in other media (which is also one of the big reasons I think certain types of anime, graphic novels, and webcomics are super cool . . . but that's a topic for another post). You can take the story of a D&D campaign and write it down as a book, and it may or may not work depending on how you go about it and how much editing you do. But, in many cases, you couldn't have written that story first because you wouldn't have thought to write it the way it happened. The funny thing is, though, that telling those stories helps you write the other stories better because it gives you another perspective and thoughtspace to work from.
5. It teaches you a lot about worldbuilding. This is the most DM-centric point here. Worldbuilding is key in any fantasy story, but it's especially important in D&D. Why? Because your players need to, in a certain sense, live in the world you're building, more so than readers need to live in a book's storyworld. And you have both less time to introduce setting elements than you would in a book (after all, as a DM, you can only talk for so long before your players start getting annoyed) and fewer opportunities to reinforce those elements. So, you have to make the most of what space you can use, which means making sure you can attach important details to things people remember — which usually means backstory or people. It's a challenge. But once you've done it for a while, or once you watch a DM do it well for a while, you can pick up ways to give your written worldbuilding a little more oomph.

Do you play D&D, or are you interested in playing D&D? What other benefits do you think roleplaying might have for writers? Or, if you're not into roleplaying, what's something you've learned about writing from a not-explicitly-writing hobby? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello, friends! In case you haven't noticed, the month of March is almost over, and April is almost here. And that means . . . you know it . . .

I've participated in every Camp NaNoWriMo event I could since 2012 or 2011, one of the two, and I'm not about to stop now — especially since I need the extra motivation to finish certain projects. (Mechanical Heart edits/rewrites are taking so storming long. I blame politics.) However, I'm also pretty sure that this round of NaNo-ing will be more difficult than some of the other times I've done it. I'm busier; I have more stressful classes; and I'm having trouble with my project but I don't have time to take a real work-on-something-else-to-reset-my-brain break. I know others are in the same boat, so I thought I'd give us all a hand by posting some Camp NaNoWriMo encouragement for the month.

(Also, on a housekeeping note: because I would like to not die of stress, I will probably take a blogging mostly-hiatus for the month of April. I'll post Doings next Friday-ish, but that's about it.)

Camp NaNoWriMo Encouragement

1. There's a reason you're writing your story. There is a purpose to the fact that you are writing this story at this time. You probably have your own reasons for writing what you do, whether you just want to have fun or you're trying to finish a to-be-published book before its deadline. But there are other reasons too; there are plans at work beyond your own. So whatever you're writing, even if it's the "wrong" book in some sense, there is purpose behind it.
2. Imperfect but existent is better than the imagined ideal. Or, in other words, what you write doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be written. This is something I really need to remember this month, since I'm kind of in a weird spot with my WIP. I'm writing a lot of new material, but I'm technically editing the book as a whole, so I feel pressured to make everything perfect the first time around. But I need to keep in mind that what's written can be edited and made better, but what stays only in my head does me no good, no matter how good or bad it seems.
3. The only true failure is giving up. Did you put words on your page? Did you make words you had better than they used to be? Did you sit down and try to make the words go even if they didn't cooperate? If you did any of these things, you have not failed, even if you didn't accomplish exactly what you intended.
4. You are capable of more than you think. The only thing easier than overestimating your abilities is underestimating them. We so easily say "Oh, no, I can't do that; that's too big a challenge for me." And sometimes that's true — sometimes there is a story you're not ready to write or a goal that's too much of a stretch. But those situations are rarer than you think. And here's the thing: for me, at least, if I say "I don't know if I can do this, but I'll try anyway," I often succeed. Even if I don't, I learn more from trying than I would from doing nothing.
5. Camp NaNoWriMo is an adventure. Here's the thing about adventures: they're never easy. If they were, they wouldn't be adventures. But the challenges in adventures always mean something; they're never purposeless. And, y'know, every adventurer has bad days — it's not all ponie rides in May sunshine, as anyone who's read The Hobbit knows. But, as we also know from that book, even dragons have their endings, and bad days don't last forever.

In conclusion, whether you're pumped and ready for Camp NaNoWriMo or not at all ready but hoping to give it your best shot, don't forget that it's an adventure and you need to give yourself grace for the bad days and take full advantage of the good days. Best of luck, and may the words flow easily from your pens!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Tech to Save a Writer's Sanity

Ah, technology. For some writers, it’s a blessing; for others, a bane, and for most of us, it’s both. Nonetheless, almost every writer uses it at some point, whether they’re looking for epic motivational music on YouTube, collecting character inspiration on Pinterest, actually writing on Microsoft Word, or searching the internet for answers to one of those weird questions we all end up asking eventually. As a primarily pencil-and-paper writer, I’m a little less reliant on technology than some of my friends, but I still have a host of programs, sites, and apps that I use pretty regularly for writing-related purposes. And because I figure some of these might be helpful for others, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites. Some of these you probably already know about and might even use yourself, but others you might not be familiar with.

Tech to Save a Writer's Sanity

(Or at least make their lives a little easier and more productive)

1. Evernote
   What I use it for: So. Storming. Much. Where do I even begin? A friend of mine told me about Evernote around the time I got my new phone, and I am so glad he did. I installed it on my laptop and my phone- which means any document I create on one shows up on the other- and I use it for everything, even stuff that isn’t writing related. I keep notes on it about my current WIPs, possible character names, and future story ideas, along with random other information like radio stations, wi-fi passwords, and my ever-growing list of books I want to look up. I’ve written blog posts, story chapters, and even short fiction on it. I’m currently in the process of transferring my entire worldbuilding notebook onto it. And, yes, I could do all that in an email draft, but Evernote allows a lot more organization and way nicer formatting. Also, apparently there are Evernote templates for writer-y things like character creation and worldbuilding, so that’s nice if I ever get around to checking them out. Which I probably won’t, but y’know.
   What I don’t use it for: Long projects. You can’t write a novel in Evernote- well, you probably could, but it’s not exactly ideal. However, you can write just about anything else in it, and you won’t have to email it to yourself (which I did a lot of before I installed the app).
   
2. yWriter
   What I use it for: Editing Destinies and Decisions, mostly, and sometime in the future, I’ll probably rewrite my fairy tale retellings on it. However, people who do their first drafts on the computer could write in it as well. It’s basically a free sort-of-Scrivener with fewer features and a less snazzy interface. It’s great if you’re working on a story and you need to move chapters around, rewrite scenes multiple times, and so on. You can easily create a new version and still hold on to the old version, or you can reference an earlier scene without having to scroll back in the document. yWriter is also nice if you want to investigate a Scrivener-type program, but don’t want to do the Scrivener free trial for whatever reason.
   What I don’t use it for: Any project that I don’t want tied to my laptop- which is one of yWriter’s chief faults. I have yet to figure out how to easily export the files to a Microsoft Word document that I could work on elsewhere, other than copy-pasting scene by scene. I also don’t use it for editing straightforward projects like Blood in the Snow, only projects in which I know I have to totally move scenes around and add a lot of new material.
   
3. Forest
   What I use it for: Ok, so this one isn’t a writing app, but I think it’s super helpful for writers because it decreases your potential distractions. Basically, you set the amount of time that you want to focus and the app plants a virtual “tree.” If you navigate away from the app during that time, your “tree” dies (and you feel like a slightly horrible person). You can set up Forest to allow access to certain other apps- music, name generators, Google Translate, so on- but it’ll keep you off stuff like Pinterest, Hangouts, or whatever else your distraction of choice might be. It also functions pretty well as a timer, for those who like to set “Write for X Hours per Week”-type goals. (I also just discovered that there’s a Firefox extension version in addition to the app, which I’m 100% going to get- apparently it keeps you off particular websites as long as it’s running, and yeah, I can definitely use that.) 
   What I don’t use it for: For one thing, I obviously don’t use it when I’m writing on my phone. I also try not to use it if I think I might have to use blocked apps for actual writing-related purposes; for example, if I know I’ll be introducing a new character and I want to access my reference pictures on Pinterest, or if I think I’m going to end up Googling a bunch of stuff. Other than that, it’s pretty fabulous.
   
4. Name Generators: Behind the Name, Fantasy Name Generators, FaNG (app), Name Generator (app)
   What I use each for: Behind the Name is always my first choice for main character names. It’s got a wide range of names (with history and meaning!) from languages and cultures all over the world. If you know what you’re looking for, you can browse name lists, but if you’re not really sure, you can use their random renamer to generate a bunch of options. Usually, I pick a few different language groups I’m thinking about and set it to give me a first name, three middle names, and a last name, generate ten or so of those, and combine as necessary. I also sometimes use the Fantasy Name Generators site, which actually has both real and fantasy names. It doesn’t give you meanings, but it’ll generate ten names at a click. Plus, you can use it for place names, descriptions, riddles, and a ton of other stuff. Finally, on the app side, we have FaNG, which is designed for roleplaying games and provides names for a few major RPG types, plus some real-world names from a couple cultures, and the Name Generator, which focuses entirely on real-world names from a wider set of languages. 
   What I don’t use each for: As I already said, Behind the Name and the Fantasy Name Generators site are generally my first two choices for name creation. Usually, I’ll use Behind the Name more for planning major characters and the Fantasy Name Generators for minor characters, non-characters, and on-the fly names. However, both of them require internet to work, so when I’m on the go, I’ll use whichever app has names that fit my setting.
   
5. Yearly Word Tracker Spreadsheets
   What I use them for: Er, well, tracking word count? But the tracker is also set up so you can keep track of time spent writing, daily and monthly averages, monthly and yearly totals, and monthly and yearly goals. Plus there’s pretty art, which I find pretty motivational. There’s also a version specifically for NaNoWriMo, but you don’t need it; I’m generally fine with just the normal November page in the year-long tracker. But yeah. I find that keeping a record of how much and how long I write helps me be a bit more regular with my writing, so that’s helpful.

What are some resources- whether software, apps, websites, or another form of tech- that you find particularly helpful for writing? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)  

P.S. What do you think of my new header? I'd love to hear your input- what you like about it, what you don't like, what you think could be better. Thanks in advance!

The Plantser's Guide to Worldbuilding

Hey’a, everyone! A while ago, someone asked me to post about my worldbuilding process. I originally wanted to do a full-on how-to post, which is why it took me so long, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I can get the information across just as easily and a lot more concisely in a list post- which is what we’re doing today!

A bit of a disclaimer before we get started: I am neither an expert on the topic nor am I a hardcore planner. If you want advice from someone who fits that description, Jill Williamson has a fabulous series over on Go Teen Writers and a legit published book with tips on basically every aspect of creating a unique fantasy world, both of which I’ve read and highly recommend. However, I do have a method that works really well for me as a pantser/plantser. And if you are a fellow non-planner or you just want a technique that’ll let you do some planning without getting overwhelmed or bogged down in all the details, then hopefully my tips will help.

The Plantser’s Guide to Worldbuilding

1. When you’re getting ready to write your novel, focus on what’s necessary. This is the key to my method. If you don’t remember anything about it, remember this: if something probably won’t significantly affect your story, don’t worry about it. Focus on what you know will affect your plot and you don’t get bogged down in planning every little detail, you don’t become overwhelmed, and you don’t have to search through pages and pages of notes trying to find the information you need. Granted, you won’t know very much about other areas of the story, but that’s fine. For example, when I created Udarean for The Way of the Pen, I focused most of my worldbuilding on the Authors and the Order of the Pen- in other words, the world’s religion. On the other hand, when I planned the world of Blood in the Snow, I focused a lot on the Bloodgifts, the ruling families of the two main empires, and the political interactions among different countries. I still know relatively little about the governments of Udarean or the religions of the Blood in the Snow world, but that’s ok, because those things don’t significantly affect my main characters or my plot. When I need to know them, or if I get a brilliant idea sometime, I’ll sort them out; until then, I don’t need to stress about not knowing.
2. Know your storyline before you start worldbuilding. I’m not saying you have to have every scene planned out in excruciating detail, but you need to know something. I, personally, make a bulleted list of Significant Events and general plot movements that I think might happen. This plan helps me figure out what aspects of worldbuilding I need to focus on, which, as I already said, is vital to my method.
3. Come up with a world concept. Or, in other worlds, know how to answer the question “Where is your world similar to?” For example, the world concept for Blood in the Snow is “fantasy almost-Asia.” Most epic fantasy novels have “Medieval Europe, but with X” as their world concept; for steampunk it’s usually “Victorian England, but with X.” You can also have a world concept that’s a mix of several places and times: Udarean blends Greece and Japan, and Aralan has elements of medieval, Victorian, and modern England and Germany. The world concept is useful as a jumping-off point for brainstorming culture, food, architecture, and so on, for research, for picturing your world, and, of course, for naming characters. That said, you do have to be careful to make sure that your world doesn’t become completely identical to the country or countries you’re using for your concept, because at that point you’re basically writing historical fantasy and might as well just go all the way and make it truly historical. (Edit: As one of my readers pointed out in comments, when using this method, you do have to be careful about cultural appropriation. Respectful inspiration is good. Stealing from a culture is bad. If you need to do research to make sure you're dong the former and not the latter, do the research and don't be lazy.)
4. Know your important places. So I said earlier to just plan what’s necessary, which means that worldbuilding can look different for every book . . . But that doesn’t mean there aren’t patterns. There are certain things that I plan for almost every story I write (or else wish I had planned!), and they mostly have to do with place. A short list of locations you might want to think about:
   • Country names. At the very least, know the name of the country your character came from, but it can be helpful to know what the surrounding countries as well. Knowing a few distinctive features about the culture or geography about each country is good too. For example, there are eight countries or regions in Berstru, and although I’ve only really developed about half of them, I know a little something about each one. (Pemew, for instance, is characterized by swamps; Arahad used to be a major center of culture but isn’t anymore; and so on.)
   • Capitals/Major Cities. This one’s only really necessary in your character’s home country and any country they’re likely to travel to. Again, know the name and one or two especially distinctive things about the city. No need for more.
   • Major Land/Water Formations if your character is likely to encounter or reference them. You don’t need to know every river in the country. You don’t need to know every mountain on the continent. That said, if there’s a major mountain range or river or something somewhere, try to have an idea what it’s called and where it is. This is doubly true if the place is somehow magical or especially culturally significant.
   • Maps are actually super handy, if you feel like making them. They don’t have to be terribly detailed (most of mine are super sketchy, just rough outlines really), but they can help you sort out where countries are in relation to each other, where the cities are, mountain ranges and rivers, and so on. If you’re going to be working with a particular world long-term (e.g., over the course of multiple books), it can be helpful to make one.
5. Build and adjust as you go. Sometimes, you discover that some element of your worldbuilding needs to be changed to improve the story’s plot, and unless that element is a major plot point in previous books, that’s fine. Change it, make the adjustments needed, and keep going. Sometimes you need to actually write about the world in order to really know what it’s like, and that’s fine too. Sometimes you come up with an insight about your world or a country or culture or region or something in your world after you’ve finished your story, or when you’re midway through the series, and that’s fine too. Jot down the idea, make the necessary changes, and keep going. In a lot of ways, your world is another character in your story. You can put details down on paper, but there’s always something you don’t know, always something you can discover, always a new way for it to develop. If you keep that in mind, world-creation goes a lot better.

What do you think? What methods do you use for worldbuilding? What advice would you give on the topic? Do you think that the world is a character? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)