Guides

• How do you create a novel character?

  A believable novel character needs a clear motivation, a wound or lack rooted in their past, concrete relationships with other people, and room to change over the course of the story. The fastest way in is to summarize the character in one sentence, then layer in those four pieces one at a time.

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• How do you build a fantasy world?

  Rather than trying to design a fantasy world from the ground up, focusing on the handful of rules that make your world distinct, detailing only the geography the story actually needs, and keeping those rules consistent is a far more sustainable approach.

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• How do you map the relationships between novel characters?

  As a novel's cast grows, keeping track of who's related to whom, who's allied with whom, and who's a rival gets harder to hold in your head. Recording family ties in a family tree, and non-family relationships (alliances, rivalries, mentorships) on each character's own profile, keeps you from contradicting yourself as the story moves forward.

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