The Pen of a Ready Writer

Map of Pelestia and surrounding countries I started a three-ring binder for this. I have tabs and dividers. I am building a world. I've built little worlds before for stories, but none of them needed very much building.  This one is bigger and the world plays into my story in a vital way.  So I am drawing maps and naming rulers and playing around with economies and politics and religious views and weaponry and technology and many other facets. And I would like your advice:     How do you build a world?     Do you have any checklists that you use?

Hi!  I'm linking up for Beautiful People, the monthly character questions hosted by Sky and Cait.  This month, I am featuring the two brothers from ToP.  They are supposed to be jointly ruling the country while their father is ill -- a challenging arrangement, to say the least. I don't have pictures for them yet, so I will give you a brief physical description.   ----Calene is 35 years old, blonde hair, tall -- usually seen with a pleasant countenance or a slightly pained look (when around Droben).   ----Droben is 30 years old, dark hair, stocky -- usually seen with a scowl, amused look, or a showman's face. http://furtherup-and-furtherin.blogspot.com/ 1. Do they get nightmares? If so, why or what of? Calene: Sometimes. Various themes, but one reoccurring theme involves him not able to manage the country.  Sometimes he dreams that Droben ruins everything. Droben: He hates nightmares. He'd rather stay up late and then take sleep medicine. 2. W...

     I've been working on ToP in my spare moments, trying to figure out how to say all that I want to say.  The thing about ToP is that it is layered.  There is not just one arc.  And that is true of many stories -- especially big, fat ones.  But what I haven't learned from "how-to" articles is how to plot all of those layers.      One of the things that I am doing is a character relationship chart, which I invented (and shared here ).        Some relationships stay steady through a whole book, but many of them follow an arc. Examples: Strangers to friends.   Love at first sight to a lasting solid relationship.   Friends to enemies.   Enemies to arc-enemies.   Enemies to friends.      And those relationships may be viewed differently by the different parties involved.  Maybe Joyce was trying to make friends all along, but Brenda couldn't see that until t...

I wrote this piece especially for the Chatterbox event , but it might eventually find its way into ToP.  Enjoy! Petura lifted her chin and her skirts simultaneously and sat down on the fallen log.  Bits of rotting bark brushed loose and scattered across her satins.  Petura brushed them away but they crumbled into the finest damp powder and smeared mahogany stains across her pink gown. Heron watched her and then turned, striding away through the forest.  Dry twigs snapped under his feet. "Where are you going?" Petura felt a twinge of alarm.  Surely, he wasn't leaving her alone in the forest! "Come on.  I'm taking you home."  His steady stride didn't slacken. "You can't be serious.  The palace is 2 days travel by carriage." "Then I am taking you to the nearest lordly dwelling and dropping you off there." "On foot?" Heron was getting farther away but he still did not stop.  "That is my usual method ...

Getting ready to head home after running some errands at work.      Life is pretty exciting around here these days.  I left TCK to sit for a few weeks, and now I am plunging back into edits.  I found that a couple of my themes were nebulous, and nebulous is never good.   Subtle is good.  Nebulous?  Not so much.  With my material, I could take the theme one of two ways.  So I am trying to decide where to go with it.      I sent TCK to one of my beloved beta-readers on April 1st (along with a plea, begging her not to pull any April Fool's stunts on my story -- I can take criticism like a champ but jokes are too much when my baby/story is involved).  And I sent it to a couple other readers later in the week.  Can't wait to get all their feedback and work on my story again.      Pouring over the list of "what I should have done" (aka, an editing checklist) always sparks my imagination for storie...

Eli Wallach via Pinterest      I invented a chart last week to track my character's relationships.  It was awesome and really helped me with my story.  Here's what I did:      I made myself a chart with columns and rows.  Each column was titled with the name of a character or group of characters.  For Droben's chart, the columns are titled: Calene, Petura, girlfriend, lords, commoners, rebels.  They are the people who Droben interacts with most in my story, and I want to mark how he sees his relationship with them.      Here is part of Droben's relationship chart: Calene Petura Girlfriend Lords Commoners Rebels Irritated with controlling brother Amused by greenhorn Loves her (and others) He can handle them. Some have very real complaints.  Should be respected but not allowed to rule you.  Treat with resp...

     Interesting title -- perhaps I should explain.  You all, I presume, know Anne-girl...and if you don't, you should immediately skip over to her blog at http://scribblingskeyboard.blogspot.com and get to know her right away.  Anne's blog has been my favorite for a long time.  I don't know why.  I just like it so much.  Her stories have meat to them...and adventure...and not too much mushy stuff.      Sooo...anyway, she started talking about book butterflies...which are like plot bunnies...only not exactly.  Plot bunnies and book butterflies can look alike, but it seems to me they have a subtle difference.  Here is how I explain it: Plot bunnies are stories ideas that bounce into your head while you are working hard on your WIP.  Their goal is to distract you from your goals -- giving you a grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence complex.  They make your current goal look stale and b...

I told you a little while back that I had this new, great story brewing.  Since then, I worked on it a little bit, just to give myself something to come back to once I finish my other projects.  Here are some snippets from it:      The carriage rattled along, jolting Petura and the Lady of Wenshau over every gully and log.  Petura set her teeth and wondered why her brothers had not seen fit to maintain the highways.  There were two of them, were there not?  Shouldn’t they be able to accomplish twice the work?      Petura looked into the dark eyes, hoping to find a friend there, but the maid dropped her eyes under Petura’s stare.       Her moves were not as graceful as Tansy’s, and she had a way of squaring her shoulders that was almost warlike, but she could never be mistaken for a kitchen drudge or a common peasant girl.        Rila’s lip curled back in a mixture of scorn an...

     I have suddenly been jolted by a super-awesome story idea.  It is like a very small bit of lightning coursing through my veins.  The magnitude of it is a bit mind-blowing...when I think of what I want to accomplish.  But it is also loosely based around events and people in my own life, which gives me a strong foundation for the tale.      But I am busy working on my story for the Rooglewood Contest and on Broken Clouds (which I committed to for the 100for100 Challenge at GoTeenWriters)...which means that I cannot abandon them in my inspired pursuit of a new tale.      So here is the balance point:  How can I write enough down (now, while my inspiration is hot) so that I can set it aside (to finish my current projects like a good girl) and yet pick it up later without losing this energy I feel?