What the reader needs to know…

I am still struggling with the WIP. After going to COsine in Colorado Springs, I became convinced that I’m starting in the wrong place and doing too much scene-setting, but when I try to revise I bog down in considerations of what the readers need to know,

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Designing Magic

Fantasy writers are often advised “to know the rules for your magic.” But “knowing the rules” does not necessarily mean that writers need to make up a list of dos and don’ts and a lot of magical theory. What they do need to know – and keep

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Getting the Backstory In

A character’s backstory – all the stuff that happened to them prior to the start of the novel – starts with the highs, lows, traumas, and major life events of the character’s past. This is the stuff that has shaped the character’s personality – what they want,

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Backstory, part 2

While the amount of backstory the writer needs to make up, and whether they make it up in advance or as they write, varies a lot depending on the writer’s process, the amount that goes into the story has almost nothing to do with the writer’s process,

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