WEBVTT 1 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:24.040 ProWritingAid: Hello, everybody! 2 00:00:25.570 --> 00:00:28.849 ProWritingAid: If you can hear me drop your location in the chat. 3 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.950 ProWritingAid: California, Canada. 4 00:00:44.150 --> 00:00:45.630 ProWritingAid: Maryland. 5 00:00:47.940 --> 00:00:50.380 ProWritingAid: I'm in Texas. Where are you, Julie? 6 00:00:50.730 --> 00:00:55.999 Julie Artz: I'm just outside of Seattle. So there's some local pals here 7 00:00:56.270 --> 00:01:01.330 Julie Artz: today, and some just over the border in Vancouver Perfect. 8 00:01:04.220 --> 00:01:19.479 ProWritingAid: We try to get showing we last night we had somebody who was attending, and it was 3 30 in the morning. Local time. I was like that is, that is, dedication to the craft attending a webinar at 3 30 am. Yeah. 9 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:30.340 ProWritingAid: alright. alright. As soon as it turns to the hour, everybody, I will get started with some housekeeping items 10 00:01:31.490 --> 00:01:37.710 ProWritingAid: which I'm sure you've heard several times at this point. South Africa, Colombia. 11 00:01:38.720 --> 00:01:39.960 ProWritingAid: Awesome. 12 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.430 ProWritingAid: Sioux Falls 13 00:01:49.030 --> 00:01:50.280 ProWritingAid: very cool. 14 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:53.739 ProWritingAid: You guys been enjoying this week. 15 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:04.070 ProWritingAid: Yeah, awesome. You are so welcome. We've had a blast, too, as a team. 16 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:09.130 ProWritingAid: Love it. 17 00:02:14.450 --> 00:02:16.410 ProWritingAid: Very good. Alright! 18 00:02:16.710 --> 00:02:31.700 ProWritingAid: So welcome to Science Fiction writers. Week 2023, the last day of the event. I'm crystal craker with pro writing aid. And I'm going to go through just a few notes, a few reminders. 19 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:56.500 ProWritingAid: So how to access your replays, they will be added to the head page when they are done processing by zoom. Unfortunately, we have no control over how long that can take. So just please trust us that as soon as we have it you will have it. Replays are available for everyone until September 20 eighth, but after this date replays are available only for pro writing Aid Academy members. 20 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:18.480 ProWritingAid: Don't forget that you get 40% off of an annual license of pro writing a premium. That is one of the highest discounts that we ever offer throughout the year. So take advantage of it. 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You can use the chat box links to your offers, and from our speakers will be available on the Sci-fi writers. Week Hub and in our participants guide. 24 00:04:16.269 --> 00:04:38.860 ProWritingAid: All right. Thanks for joining us today to day. We have Julie Arts. Julie helps writers who dream of a life spent telling stories that matter slay their doubt demons so they can send their work out into the world with confidence. An active member of the writing community. She is volunteer for SCBW. I. Teen Pitt and pitch wars, and is a member of EFA. The Author's Guild and A. WP. 25 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:50.689 ProWritingAid: A. Social and environmental justice minded story geek. Julie lives in an enchanted forest outside of Seattle, Washington, with her husband, 2 strong-willed teenagers and a couple of naughty, furry familiar. 26 00:04:50.750 --> 00:04:55.670 So I'm gonna stop sharing and go off camera and hand it over to you, Julie. 27 00:04:56.200 --> 00:04:58.029 Julie Artz: Great thanks so much. 28 00:04:58.330 --> 00:05:20.309 Julie Artz: Okay, everyone. I have a lot of material to Co cover today. So what I'm gonna do is save all of the QA. For the end. And we're gonna go through a few things. There are a couple of examples that I'm going to skip today, but you will get them when you download the 29 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:33.140 Julie Artz: slides afterwards, so don't worry if you see me zipping through. It's just because I want to make sure that you have enough time at the end for all your questions. So let's get started 30 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:34.990 Julie Artz: here. 31 00:05:39.440 --> 00:05:42.350 Julie Artz: Alrighty. Here we go. 32 00:05:43.400 --> 00:05:58.809 Julie Artz: So we today are going to talk about how to define world building across genres. Because I know we have more than just sci-fi authors here today, and lots of people who have who write multiple 33 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:12.220 Julie Artz: genres. We are going to identify the top 3 World building pitfalls Falls that I have found in in my work with writers. We're going to use planning and research to 34 00:06:12.630 --> 00:06:23.219 Julie Artz: avoid those pitfalls. We're going to understand how to do world building and how it enhances the plot theme 35 00:06:23.340 --> 00:06:30.250 Julie Artz: character triumphant. And then we're going to talk about my iterative approach to world building. 36 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:53.850 Julie Artz: Okay, so let me know in the chat where you are in your writing process. You might be just getting started on your first novel, or you might be multiple novels in and wherever you are, whether you're revising or whether you're do writing your very first draft. I've got 37 00:06:54.210 --> 00:07:00.530 Julie Artz: things that are going to help you with your world building today. But I just like to know what people are up to. 38 00:07:02.150 --> 00:07:19.860 Julie Artz: Okay, so what is world building? It is the act of describing your story's world. To the readers. It often involves thinking about the physical landscape, the plants, the animals, the inhabitants of the world, its history, its religion, its technology. 39 00:07:19.880 --> 00:07:27.490 Julie Artz: the culture of the different peoples that live there, including power structures, social structures, language. 40 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:38.310 Julie Artz: leisure, activities, and work. So regardless of what genre you're writing, you're going to be thinking about all of these different things that 41 00:07:39.320 --> 00:07:41.930 Julie Artz: are part of the world building. 42 00:07:42.670 --> 00:07:52.269 Julie Artz: Now, people often ask, is world building just for sci-fi and fantasy? And I want to tell you that it is definitely not 43 00:07:52.270 --> 00:08:15.659 Julie Artz: okay. It's a common myth that it only applies to sci-fi and fantasy. But if you want to immerse readers into a world that they haven't seen yet, whether it's on Mars or right nearby in Kansas or Seattle, or something like that, you need world building. So we're gonna talk about how the physical landscape, the culture, the religion of a book set. 44 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:28.009 Julie Artz: for example, in Finland, is not the same as a book set in Colorado in the United States. It's not the same as a book set in Central Australia. 45 00:08:28.080 --> 00:08:46.730 Julie Artz: It's not gonna be the same as something set in Mars, either. Right? So if you want people who are unfamiliar with the place that you're writing about, even if it's just the really specific world of your neighborhood. Then you're gonna use world building to describe to your readers what 46 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:50.920 Julie Artz: your story world is all about, and that takes world building. 47 00:08:51.590 --> 00:09:19.790 Julie Artz: If you're still not convinced, I've got a couple of examples here that are not sci-fi, they are contemporary worlds, that and historical worlds that take a ton of world building right. None of these popular stories are sci-fi or fantasy, but tons of world building went into the writing of them. The world building establishes what makes a particular world unique, its belief systems, its power strict structures. 48 00:09:19.790 --> 00:09:48.750 Julie Artz: It's cultural norms. Whether you're talking about British football, the world of competitive ballet, 1870, s. San Francisco, during the Tong Wars, Victorian England, or a story set in space right. All these aspects of the world impact your character, their motivation, the pressures that they're under from family, society, church, or government. What they think is important, what their day-to-day life is like, and that is all world building. 49 00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:59.799 Julie Artz: So how do we build a world? What goes into actually building a story world and bringing it to life on the page. Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. 50 00:10:01.050 --> 00:10:22.810 Julie Artz: Now, one thing I want to do is start with how not to do world building. So I have a little funny couple of funny slides here just to remind you. Look, I've got nothing against world robots. In fact, I love them. And we're gonna use some examples later on from murderbot diaries, which is one of my favorite sci-fi series. 51 00:10:22.810 --> 00:10:34.059 But if you're adding a magical creature, a new feature of technology or a droid, a new villain, villain, or some sort of unexpected hand of God. 52 00:10:34.230 --> 00:10:43.219 Julie Artz: Event, simply because you're in the weeds of your story, and you don't know what comes next, or you're worried that it's boring. Then you're not 53 00:10:44.310 --> 00:11:08.370 Julie Artz: quite ready to write your story. You've got a little bit more planning to do to bring everything together, do you? You need to think about? Do the things that you want to add? Reflect the themes of your story, not just to fill some plot holes with some cool technology, but to actually think about how these kinds of things 54 00:11:09.190 --> 00:11:11.179 Julie Artz: can 55 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:14.969 Julie Artz: help and support your plot and your character. 56 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:28.070 Julie Artz: so I love Pinky in the brain. I don't know if anybody else does. So I have this little image here. Please don't say, add a robot brain. 57 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:55.149 Julie Artz: Pinky, I'm worried. The murky middle middle of my story is boring. Are you thinking what I'm thinking is gonna add a robot. Look. I've got nothing against robots like, I said, but if you're adding them, then then you need to make sure that it fits the story world, and that you're not just adding, because because it's boring, or you're nervous, or something like that. So 58 00:11:55.160 --> 00:12:13.860 Julie Artz: so let's talk about what we should do since we've talked a little bit about what we shouldn't do. The first thing that you wanna think about is whether you have a primary world or a secondary world setting. And what that means is whether the 59 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:33.900 Julie Artz: you're going to set your story in the current world right. So if you're writing sci-fi. You can have nanotechnology that doesn't exist in the year 2,023, but you can add it to your world. And so that is a primary world we're set on Earth. 60 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:59.400 Julie Artz: We're in the year 2,023. We're not necessarily setting this story in Mars on Mars, or setting it really far in the future where we're using a primary world setting. But the other option is a secondary world, and a good example of that is again another one of my favorite series, the fifth season, and Kay Jemison's 61 00:12:59.770 --> 00:13:07.460 Julie Artz: a beautiful trilogy that is set in an alternate future situation. 62 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:08.600 So 63 00:13:08.920 --> 00:13:16.569 Julie Artz: One thing I want to to say is, even if you are setting a story in today's 64 00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:32.829 Julie Artz: present-day world, or you're setting it in a secondary world. Your biases about how power dynamics work and your culture and that sort of thing are all going to impact your story and being aware of that in your world building is really important. 65 00:13:32.830 --> 00:13:57.569 So you don't need to port all of the all of the power, dynamics, and and things that exist in our current world into your far distant world. So that is a really good opportunity to freshen your world building, to not just base it on what exists in this current world, and to really dream and expand. 66 00:13:57.570 --> 00:14:00.859 and your world into something brand new for your readers. 67 00:14:03.150 --> 00:14:04.000 Julie Artz: Okay. 68 00:14:04.170 --> 00:14:22.749 so if you're writing that primary world again set in this world on earth? You wanna really dig into the question of how your main character is different than your ideal reader. Right? Are they a different age, a different nationality, a different generation, a different socioeconomic 69 00:14:22.750 --> 00:14:37.940 Julie Artz: economic class, or a different profession. Those are things that will impact the character of the story and the culture in the way that they're describing the world. And so you want to think about those things as you're writing a primary world 70 00:14:37.950 --> 00:14:40.699 story and working on the world building. 71 00:14:41.450 --> 00:15:00.109 Julie Artz: If you're working on writing a secondary world, you might have some other things that to think of. In addition to everything that I just talked about for the primary world. You might have Flora, fauna, ecology and climate that is totally different. To go back to Nk. Jemison's example that I just 72 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:24.599 Julie Artz: used. There was a very destabilized Earth situation in that entire trilogy where part of the of the magic system had destabilized and caused these earthquakes, which were called shakes. That really really disrupted both the climate and the the flora and fauna of of life 73 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:47.900 Julie Artz: in nk, Jemison's world. You know, if you're in space, you've gotta think about things like life support, or even if you're on Mars, where there's no there's no real atmosphere for people to breathe in. What is the sentient life like? Is it just humans, or is there something else to think about what is transportation like if you're in another world. 74 00:15:47.900 --> 00:16:09.410 Julie Artz: or if you are in space? What's the history? And how does it impact what is going on with with your characters, the power dynamics, and that type of thing. And there can be other scientific considerations. As well. Think about those those robots that Pinky and the brain were debating about fit a minute ago. 75 00:16:10.550 --> 00:16:24.459 Julie Artz: Okay, so here's the first of our examples that I'm going to skip over that you will get in the slides. It is from The Bells, by Danielle Clayton, and it is really fabulous 76 00:16:24.870 --> 00:16:48.950 Julie Artz: example of how you can use very specific details to evoke a political system and a power dynamic that that is very different from what's going on in our world. So you'll take a look at that a little bit later. But you wanna think about story elements that are both significant to the story and significantly different from our world when you're when you're 77 00:16:48.950 --> 00:16:57.489 Julie Artz: writing Second world fantasy. And so that is one of the things that the bells is such a good example of there. 78 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:16.659 Julie Artz: Okay. So, as I said before, there world building comes into play, not just in sci-fi. I know it's sci-fi week this week, and I love sci-fi. But there are other genres that you still have to consider world building for. So I've created this handy 79 00:17:16.829 --> 00:17:45.300 Julie Artz: image here with a table of different things to think about most of these you are going to use in sci-fi, and some of them you're going to use also in fantasy, contemporary or historical, depending on what you're what you're writing, and that's your systems of government factions or conflicts, religious beliefs, cultural traditions, historical settings, magic systems. Again, not necessarily for sci-fi, although I think there are some 80 00:17:45.300 --> 00:18:13.820 really really great examples of things that that incorporate magic systems even into sci fi in both in dystopian and and near future stuff that has both high tech items and magic systems. I love that kind of blurring of the genre. So that's something to think about as well. You've got technology systems, biological systems and environmental systems to think about when you are 81 00:18:14.370 --> 00:18:36.199 Julie Artz: planning your world building. And in addition to the slides that I'm providing to you today. I'm also going to provide you with a workbook that is download that will be available to you at the end of the of this presentation, and it will help you answer some questions about each of these these systems 82 00:18:36.490 --> 00:19:03.699 Julie Artz: and world building elements here. So I just wanna say here, as we're talking about this, that it can be really tempting to work on some cool stem inspired rules of magic or tech and be done with your role building. Be like, oh, this is cool. Here's a shiny thing, and I'm I'm ready to to move on with my story. But there's so much to more to world building. I love nk, Jemison's and 83 00:19:03.700 --> 00:19:13.070 on power structure in her world building 101 course, which I highly recommend looking up as a little bit of a companion 84 00:19:13.070 --> 00:19:37.670 Julie Artz: to the world building workbook that I'm gonna allow you to to download after this those power structures that she talks about include those cultural norms, the religious beliefs, government systems, social networks, and more. And she also talks about the natural landscape and resource scarcity and how that impacts the interaction between different humans. 85 00:19:37.930 --> 00:20:02.709 Julie Artz: And so this table, as I said, also doesn't list every single genre that's intentional. These are the kind of broad umbrellas, and of course there can be historical fantasy, or there can be you know, contemporary sci-fi or contemporary fantasy. There can be lots of mixes of of these. So if you're writing something, for example, like horror, or or 86 00:20:02.710 --> 00:20:14.209 romance, or something like that, pick the the category that is closest to what you're writing, and and make sure that you're kind of using this slide as a as a checkmark. 87 00:20:14.210 --> 00:20:38.780 Julie Artz: a checklist for what you're going to be doing when you plan your world building. Okay. Now, this example, I do want to to go ahead and and dig into. This is from all systems read the first of the murder Bot diarr diaries by Martha Wells, and it's such a great example of how to start a story with action. 88 00:20:38.780 --> 00:21:00.320 but at the same time weave in a lot of specific details about the world, building, about the voice of the character and about power dynamics that are gonna impact your story later on. So this is a perfect example in my mind of that triumvirate of plot, character, and world building that that I was talking about earlier. So I'm just gonna read quickly. 89 00:21:00.420 --> 00:21:21.049 Julie Artz: I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module. But then I realized I could access the combined combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. They'd been well over 35,000 h of movies, serials, books, plays, and music, it consumed as a heartless killing machine. I was a terrible failure. 90 00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:40.420 Julie Artz: I was also still doing my job on a new contract and hoping. Dr. Velescule and Dr. Barrage was finished. Their survey soon, so we could get back to the habitat, and I could watch episode 397 of rise and fall of Sanctuary Moon. I admit I was distracted. It was a boring contract so far, and I was thinking about 91 00:21:40.600 --> 00:21:52.209 Julie Artz: back burnering the status alert channel and trying to access music on the entertainment feed without a hub system, logging the extra activity it was trickier to do in the field than it was in the habitat. 92 00:21:52.650 --> 00:22:17.460 Julie Artz: This assessment zone was a barren so barren stretch of coastal island, with low, flat hills rising and falling, and thick greenish black grass up to my ankles, not much in the way of flora fauna, except for a bunch of different sized, bird-like things, and some puffy, floaty things that were harmless. As far as we knew, the coast was dotted with a big, bare craters, one of which Bartouj and Valescu had take, were taking samples in 93 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:42.589 the planet had a ring which, from our current position, dominated the horizon. When you looked out to see I was looking at the sky and mentally poking at the feed when the bottom of the crater exploded. Okay, I'm gonna stop there. This story could have started with something along the lines of on planet XYZ. Humans relied on bots to protect them from the extreme elements, and could have gone on into describing 94 00:22:42.590 --> 00:22:55.669 that that fan at the name of the planet, the fact that it had the rings and that sort of thing. But starting in this way with this really voicey thing from murder. Bot the main. The main character. 95 00:22:55.690 --> 00:22:59.140 Julie Artz: is really much more effective of at 96 00:22:59.580 --> 00:23:29.459 Julie Artz: really immersing the reader immediately into the world building in a way that is really, really engaging. And note that there's a lot of specific details here. There's the Hub system. There's the name of murder. Bot's favorite TV show. This rise and fall of Sanctuary Moon, which ends up being a really important theme throughout the book. There's a couple of the main characters in this first open opening couple of paragraphs, and that and a little bit of description of what the setting is. 97 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:49.249 Julie Artz: Is all about, but also a little bit of the culture too right? Because obviously the murder bot sees itself as a heartless killing machine, and the entire arc of the story is about how that is not really true, as evidenced by murder bot saying that it was a terrible failure 98 00:23:49.730 --> 00:24:00.509 Julie Artz: at being a killing machine. So there's a lot of complexity going on right here and and don't expect that you're gonna get this right the first time that you 99 00:24:00.510 --> 00:24:22.170 that you dig in to your world building because there's always going to be a series of like, putting too many details in and then backing out, defining a few more things, coming up with with ways to weave tiny details in without doing the dreaded info dump. And this is a really really good example of how to do that. 100 00:24:23.670 --> 00:24:45.609 Julie Artz: Okay, so while you're doing your world building. You want to think about the specific tech, the culture and the setting that make your story world unique. That's what's gonna keep it alive and keep you from digging too much into into tropes and and cliches that sometimes happen in in your first draft. 101 00:24:46.790 --> 00:25:11.890 Julie Artz: Okay? So like, I said, if you're writing, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. You may also, in addition to the things that we've talked about, have magic, high tech monsters, superpowers esp time, travel the multiverse. All kinds of things like that that you also need to weave into your story in addition to the culture and the and the setting, and that sort of thing. 102 00:25:12.270 --> 00:25:37.149 Julie Artz: So let's talk about 3 common mistakes that I see when people do try to build these complex worlds. The first one I touched on. It's tropes and cliches. They absolutely play tropes absolutely play a role in storytelling. In fact, sometimes that can really create a sense of familiarity to a reader. You know people that love to read sci-fi. They're expecting certain things 103 00:25:37.150 --> 00:26:01.860 Julie Artz: from a sci-fi story, especially if they have a particularly favorite subgenre like military sci-fi or space opera, something like that. That. But if you overuse those tropes or you aren't aware of those tropes, that's where you get into cliches, and that's what you wanna avoid. The other thing that I often see is undeveloped world building, and 104 00:26:01.860 --> 00:26:25.390 Julie Artz: and that is when the desire for being fresh overrides everything else the world can feel random or disconnected. You might throw some high tech in, because you just really want to make sure your story is exciting, and and that ends up giving the reader a sense that the world is underdeveloped instead of feeling really, really immersive. And of course the dreaded info dump. 105 00:26:25.390 --> 00:26:32.720 you know, just because we've created a fresh new world doesn't mean that we get to to start by 106 00:26:32.760 --> 00:26:46.630 Julie Artz: 20 or 25 pages of orienting the the reader to that world. We really have to dive right into the action, right into the voice of the character and and avoid that info dump. 107 00:26:47.510 --> 00:27:05.749 Julie Artz: Okay. so let's talk a little bit more about tropes and cliches. So we've got a robot here. And when I say robot, maybe you picture something like this there are. There's a long history of robots in sci-fi. There have been tons of robot stories. 108 00:27:05.750 --> 00:27:21.969 and if you have robots in your story. You wanna make sure that that yours stands out, and that it's not just derivative of other things that exist. So how do you keep that world building fresh. Well, the first thing is to be specific, because if I say robot. 109 00:27:21.970 --> 00:27:38.249 maybe you picture this robot that's here on the screen. But maybe the last robot that you encountered as a reader, or in a TV show, or something like that, was something very different. What if, for example, the last robot you saw was one of these. 110 00:27:38.590 --> 00:27:48.450 Julie Artz: and so if I, as a writer, just say robot, then you might be thinking of R. 2D. 2. You might be thinking of 111 00:27:49.050 --> 00:28:15.329 Julie Artz: of an old cartoon. You might be thinking of any kind of robot, and that's where you need to be really, really specific in your world building, and not just rely on using tropes from from other robot stories to establish your world because you don't know if you just say, robot, what exactly people are thinking, right? So being specific is the way to avoid that. 112 00:28:16.110 --> 00:28:35.830 Julie Artz: Okay, so how do you tell if your world building is underdeveloped. Well, it again. It relies on, reader, knowledge like, if you are assuming that every reader that's coming to your book has read 5 other robot stories then, and then they might not 113 00:28:35.840 --> 00:28:53.739 Julie Artz: actually understand what you are talking about. They might not be able to picture the same thing in their mind that you're picturing in your mind, and that is what world building is all about. Right. It's to make sure that the view that you have of the world is coming across on the page. 114 00:28:53.820 --> 00:29:03.850 Julie Artz: your role building might also be underdeveloped if it's borrowing too heavily again, if you are just sort of copying other 115 00:29:04.260 --> 00:29:13.299 Julie Artz: robots that you've seen. I'm picking. I'm really picking on robots here as an example. But it can be anything right. It could be it could be nanobots it could be. 116 00:29:13.500 --> 00:29:24.260 Julie Artz: It could be a dystopian future setting, which we'll have an example of here in a minute. Any sort of common sci-fi 117 00:29:24.320 --> 00:29:48.400 Julie Artz: convention can be overused, or you can borrow too heavily from it and stick to high level instead of getting really specific and making sure that your world is fresh. And that's when you get a real feeling of cliche. It's a fine balance between making this feel like a an immersive and and realistic and familiar world and making it feel like a cliche or derivative world. 118 00:29:50.720 --> 00:30:16.549 Julie Artz: Okay, so we talked a little bit about the dreaded info dump, and that is a long passage of exposition that is required in order for the reader to ins understand your story. If you go back to the murder bot example that I had we don't need any additional information. She drops us right into the action, and we don't sure we don't know anything we have 119 00:30:16.550 --> 00:30:32.719 Julie Artz: or we don't have everything about the world, but we know enough to understand that the murder bots there. They're supposed to be helping other characters stay safe in this foreign landscape, and there has been a giant explosion with life or Death Stakes. 120 00:30:33.230 --> 00:30:47.569 Julie Artz: that infodump, if you do that, instead of dropping straight into the action. You're gonna slow, the pacing down. You're gonna be telling the reader instead of immersing them. And you're gonna give away too much rather than trusting the reader and really letting them 121 00:30:47.750 --> 00:30:51.680 Julie Artz: them explore the world with you. 122 00:30:53.850 --> 00:31:20.249 Julie Artz: Okay, here's another example that I'm gonna save for you to review after the event, just to make sure that we have enough time for slides, for questions at the end. But the main thing is that family structures, spiritual beliefs and taboos can also be an important part of your world building. They again play into the family. The power dynamics and the political dynamics of your world. 123 00:31:20.250 --> 00:31:24.170 So it's important to think through them as you go. 124 00:31:24.170 --> 00:31:25.699 Julie Artz: Okay, so 125 00:31:25.780 --> 00:31:35.450 Julie Artz: how do we avoid all of these pitfalls that I've just gone over? Well, we do that with planning and I'm gonna teach you a few trick 126 00:31:35.470 --> 00:31:43.409 Julie Artz: tricks and tips on how to avoid those infodums, how to avoid tired tropes and logic holes and that sort of thing. 127 00:31:43.470 --> 00:31:46.910 So here we go. 128 00:31:47.700 --> 00:32:12.109 Julie Artz: Okay. So planning your world building, you're gonna check and to make sure you can answer the following questions. How is your world like others that you've read and watched? But how is it different? You'll have some similarities almost always. But you want to make sure you have plenty of differences, too. What tropes are you playing with? Are you? Are you leaning into existing tropes, or are you subverting them in a fresh way which can be really fun. 129 00:32:12.110 --> 00:32:36.120 What stereotypes and pitfalls do you wanna be sure that you avoid in your story? So, for example, if you are are writing a dystopian where there's some sort of life or death stakes that take place in a giant arena, and there is, for example, a young woman who's our heroine, who happens to be really good with a bow and arrow. 130 00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:39.259 You might be 131 00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:51.630 Julie Artz: Being a little bit influenced by the hunger games, which is not a problem, because it's a wonderful, wonderful trilogy. But you want to make sure that you're doing some things that are fresh enough to differentiate your story from 132 00:32:51.700 --> 00:32:57.150 Julie Artz: from the from the hunger games. So 133 00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:20.929 Julie Artz: as you're going, though, you don't need to get this exactly right on the first go. You want to embrace the 0 draft and the 0 draft is before you even have a first draft. This draft is just for you. It's for your eyes, only you're telling yourself the story you're tell, not telling it for others to see yet. Okay, you can leave as many questions 134 00:33:20.930 --> 00:33:29.360 Julie Artz: here as you like, as you're as you're writing this 0 draft, you can use tk, which is a nice little editorial 135 00:33:29.360 --> 00:33:57.390 technique that I have. If you start your notes to yourself with a Tk, that's a letter combination that doesn't exist in the English language, so you can search on Tk and go through later and and fill in the blanks. Use that tk, with abandon. Make notes to yourself, say, I need to look up this this technology. I need to invent names for these things to make them more specific. I need to make sure that I'm doing what I need to. 136 00:33:57.390 --> 00:34:14.609 Julie Artz: I that I'm noting what I need to write later. And you can use Tk to do that and basically keep writing forward because there's some things that you can't discover about the world building until you have a pretty good idea of what your main character is and what their influences are. And so. 137 00:34:14.690 --> 00:34:33.540 Julie Artz: you know. Write this 0 draft and don't worry about the world building being perfect. There will be info dump. There will be some leaning on some cliches and tropes. That's okay. You'll fix those in the next draft. That's what I mean by an iterative approach to World Building. You know, it's 138 00:34:33.860 --> 00:34:53.940 Julie Artz: I'm absolutely sure that that Martha Wells and Kay Jemison, some of these really powerhouse sci-fi writers. They're not getting this stuff right in the first draft. They're they're going back in and and refining during revision. So once you get to the end of your 0 draft, celebrate, assess. 139 00:34:54.100 --> 00:35:05.580 Julie Artz: go through all those tks, start to fill in the blanks and plan your revision. Do not send it to your critique partner. Do not send it to an agent or editor yet, because it's not ready. 140 00:35:07.540 --> 00:35:32.950 Julie Artz: So you wanna once you've completed this 0 draft, revisit the pitfalls, look for cliches. Have you freshened or subverted tropes? Have you thoroughly considered your comp titles, and whether you are different enough from those comp titles. Have you created a solid story? Logic for your world? Answering those questions will help you figure out what you need to do in revision to improve your world building. 141 00:35:34.140 --> 00:36:03.250 Julie Artz: Okay? So we talked about the story triumvirate a little bit, and that is character theme and plot and everything that you choose for your world building needs to be in service to the story triumvirate again. You don't want to just throw in some cool tech because you're worried that the story is boring. You really want to make sure that the that the tech, the world building, the setting, the power, dynamics, and everything, enhance that character journey 142 00:36:03.250 --> 00:36:11.560 and explore the themes that you're trying to to create in in your story world. 143 00:36:11.710 --> 00:36:35.660 Julie Artz: So you want to make sure that your world building makes sense in the context of character, theme and plot enhances those themes, complicates the plot, but not unnecessarily so, and deepens the character arc by raising the stakes. And that is the sense of life or death that happens for a character. Right? That's the those are the stakes. So 144 00:36:36.660 --> 00:36:55.240 Julie Artz: okay, so you're going back to revise. You've finished your 0 draft. Hooray, and you need to really assess your world building. This is a good time to update the world building, planning document that you have started, and that can be the free download that I'm gonna provide you at the end of this 145 00:36:55.780 --> 00:37:20.660 Julie Artz: of this presentation. It can be a scrivener file. It can be a word document. It can be a notebook, but I really recommend writing it down, getting those names consistent, creating your style, guide all of those sort of things are gonna help you save time and create consistency and avoid plot holes. Right? So you're gonna update your world building document as you revise, it's gonna be a living document. 146 00:37:20.660 --> 00:37:45.150 Julie Artz: and it's gonna get tweaked all the way to the end of your of your revision process. You're gonna identify what your outstanding questions are and answer them. Ask yourself how the world is impacting your plot and character, how how stakes are raised. And eventually you're gonna read aloud, because that's a really good way to identify things that don't make sense names that sound too similar, that sort of thing. 147 00:37:46.580 --> 00:37:54.709 Julie Artz: Okay? So here's one more rule of 3. Besides that plot character, theme triumvirate. 148 00:37:55.820 --> 00:38:20.220 Julie Artz: And this is a really powerful and easy way to improve your world building, and that is to find 3 details in any given scene that you can weave in earlier in the story 3 details that you can weave in later, and 3 details that you can cut altogether. And I have an example of of how this might work in practice with a little sample scene that I have created for 149 00:38:20.220 --> 00:38:53.750 you, for a sci-fi story that doesn't actually exist. But here it is. Clara. Atlanta's green eyes glinted in the flickering electric lights of the rebel Bunker as she gazed at her mismatched battle gear in the clouded mirror before her. She adjusted the bandolier of knives banding her chest, and had belonged to her mother, had helped her during her own trials years ago, but her mother couldn't help her now, for she died 5 years before, when Clara was only 12. Clara bound her red hair in a braid and tucked under her helmet helmet marked with a red handprint that marked 150 00:38:53.800 --> 00:39:19.640 Julie Artz: her people. Since the collapse, and her mother's mekbo hung at her waist alongside a dented plasma plasma belt. Every warrior would have to defeat 3 others to survive the trials. She wouldn't fail on the third, like her mother had, and if she won she would be crowned, not simply captain, but rebel leader. Then she could take her revenge on Balkhlanda, the murderer who'd stolen more than her mother from her people. Okay. 151 00:39:20.120 --> 00:39:26.000 Julie Artz: so obviously, this is a just a little mini scene, and we're gonna 152 00:39:26.170 --> 00:39:37.699 Julie Artz: applied my 3 ahead 3 behind 3 delete to it. So we're going to start with 3 details that I think you can move earlier in the story, 153 00:39:38.250 --> 00:40:04.939 Julie Artz: or move later in the story, hinting at the fact that her that her mother couldn't help her. It's enough now to create a question. Maybe they don't know if she's estranged from her mother or her mother is dead. But we know something is there? That's ma that mom is missing from the picture, and that's going to make us read on to find out why why Clara doesn't have access to her mom. This list of 154 00:40:05.490 --> 00:40:18.040 Julie Artz: description, you know, looking in the mirror is a classic trope that's used in the opening of stories to introduce us to what a character looks like. But it's really not necessary, because we care less about what 155 00:40:18.040 --> 00:40:37.910 they look like and more about what is motivating them and and what is threatening them? And then the other thing is, there's a little bit of info dump here about this murderer, Balaclonda. Who's stolen more than her mother? So those things can be safer later to stay more in action. In this Mini scene. 156 00:40:38.990 --> 00:40:41.270 Julie Artz: So if we're gonna 157 00:40:41.520 --> 00:41:06.449 Julie Artz: have things that we're gonna a few things that we're gonna move earlier in the story I chose here that red hand print that marked her people that's on her on her helmet. Because that's a really evocative visual. That, I think, is way more important than than her eye color or her hair color, because it shows that she's wearing the sign of her of her people. The rebel bunker is another 158 00:41:06.450 --> 00:41:31.359 another thing that gives us a lot of information about what her setting and life is like. So I would maybe work that in like into a beginning scene, instead of saving it until later. Here, and same with the warrior that that has to defeat 3 others to survive the trials. Like you. We might see Clara practicing how she's gonna defeat these these warriors, what kind of skills they have, and what her 159 00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:37.049 strengths and weaknesses are which will establish her as a character earlier in the story. 160 00:41:37.050 --> 00:41:55.729 Julie Artz: and finally, if we're gonna delete a few things. Ii pulled out the green eyes and the red hair because those are common cliches in the speculative genre. There's way more red haired green eyed people in fiction than there are in in actual real life. 161 00:41:55.730 --> 00:42:20.689 So maybe I would swap those out for something a little bit different. The trials it. There's nothing wrong with having trials. It's just that there are quite a few books that use some sort of trial like this especially in the Ya space, because it can be a marker of of coming of age. And so you might wanna call it something different than the trials. For example, the hunger games which are definitely a trial. There's a trial 162 00:42:20.690 --> 00:42:24.900 in the in the givers, while there's many, many other examples. 163 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:43.669 Julie Artz: and also you can see here. You know, the rebel alliance, which might sound just a little bit like a story that we're familiar with Star Wars. So again, I would maybe call the Rebel Alliance something different, just to freshen it up, even if the idea of of rebels is similar between the 2 stories. 164 00:42:44.230 --> 00:42:49.080 Julie Artz: So that is 3 ahead, 3 behind, and 3 delete to delete. 165 00:42:49.840 --> 00:43:08.149 Julie Artz: That's a really really good way to go through scene by scene and make sure that you have things in the right order. And that you're giving the reader just enough information to understand the story and stay immersed in the action. And then you're weaving in details as you go along all the way through your story. Okay? 166 00:43:08.150 --> 00:43:33.089 Julie Artz: So when you get through and you've plugged all of these plot holes and done all these different things, you're gonna double. Check your work. You're gonna make sure that your names are consistent. That's where that style sheet or that world building document can really be helpful to you that you've eradicated cliches that you freshened up or subverted tropes. That you have no more than 2 to 3 sentences of World Building Exposition at a go. And II really mean that 167 00:43:33.090 --> 00:44:06.870 Julie Artz: some people are probably going. Oh, my gosh! It can't just be 2 or 3 sentences, but it really can. If you go back and look at the examples that that I've given here. They're really weaving in just little snippets at a time into the action. That's really giving us a sense of an immersive world. You wanna make sure that there's no obvious logic holes or inexplicable or too convenient items in your world building, and that you know the answer to the infamous question, Why why does the world operate this way? Why is the character doing what they're doing? Why, why. 168 00:44:06.870 --> 00:44:20.640 Julie Artz: why, and if you know something's off, take one more pass before you send it out. Better to know that you've gotten everything that you can filled in before you start sending this out to agents or editors or readers. 169 00:44:22.550 --> 00:44:48.350 Julie Artz: Okay, so when you are ready for feedback, I've got a little tip that I call stoplight feedback. You can really get down in the weeds. With your beta readers if you aren't really specific about what kind of information you're looking for. So I really like to have people use the stoplight method of feedback and that is literally they can just highlight in different colors, in word or Google Docs, or whatever you're using. 170 00:44:48.350 --> 00:45:00.889 Red. If the reader is completely confused, or there's some sort of big logic issue like a character that appears out of nowhere, and we don't know who they are or what they're doing. Yellow. 171 00:45:01.290 --> 00:45:23.329 Julie Artz: If this sounds too much like a a familiar or popular other work of fiction or movie or television show and green. For I love this. That's a simple way to let Beta readers go through and kind of give you an idea of what's working and what's not without them getting into the details and like trying to rewrite the world. The book for you. 172 00:45:24.120 --> 00:45:26.019 Julie Artz: Okay? So 173 00:45:27.380 --> 00:45:52.030 Julie Artz: I know that's a lot of information, and you will have these slides so that you can go back through and review. But in summary your next steps are to make sure you're including world building in your planning. Not just character, not just plot, but including your world building knowing your genre, so you can either avoid or freshen tropes and cliches. You keep your plot. 174 00:45:52.030 --> 00:46:23.740 Julie Artz: theme, and characters in mind as you do world building, and make sure that it creates a sense of a cohesive world. Revisit your world building during drafting and during revision. Ask for feedback from readers on your world building and keep learning, and the best way to keep learning is to keep reading other people who are doing really good world building. There's so much that you can learn just by reading reading, and it's a it's a low cost, no cost way to learn right? 175 00:46:23.740 --> 00:46:31.610 Julie Artz: But the short and long of it is plan now, so that you can play in this world that you've created later. 176 00:46:33.470 --> 00:47:02.400 Julie Artz: Okay, I mentioned a few resources while I was going through this and one is nk, Jemison's World Building Guide or Masterclass Series. If you have access to masterclass her World World Building Guide is on her website, it's a free Pdf download. It's really helpful if you wanna hear her go through it. She did. Actually talks through world building with Ezra Klein on his show, and that is really worth a listen as well. There's a reason that Nk. Jemison has won 177 00:47:02.400 --> 00:47:21.960 as many awards as she has, and it's because she's phenomenal at world building. I also really love Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer. It's a. It's a book about world building. It's beautifully in illustrated. It's a work of art in and of itself. The world building tool on one stop for writers can be really helpful as well. 178 00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:46.909 And also Clary and West, right here in Seattle and the Science Fiction writers of America, classes are really really great in world building, and they get a lot of really good faculty to come. Teach you more about the details. And like, I said, don't forget to read as part of your learning process. Read in your genre read things that are slightly different. Read, read 179 00:47:46.910 --> 00:47:49.280 to refill that creative. Well. 180 00:47:50.070 --> 00:48:02.869 Julie Artz: okay. I know that was a lot. But I'd love to keep in touch with you. So here are a few ways that you can that we can connect. You can find me at Julie Arts on 181 00:48:02.980 --> 00:48:21.719 Julie Artz: Instagram. I actually need to update this because I'm moving from the bird formerly known as Twitter to Blue Sky, where I am also Julie Arts. But I'm on Facebook and occasionally on medium as well. And you can reach me at my website, which is Juliearts. Com. 182 00:48:21.870 --> 00:48:46.240 Julie Artz: Okay, as promised. Here is a QR code that you can use to download the both the slides and that free workbook that I was talking about earlier. So you can just take your camera your phone camera right now and open this up. This will pop up a link for you that will take you right to downloading the slides. 183 00:48:46.240 --> 00:48:59.849 Julie Artz: If you cannot get this to work, never fear. The link will also be in the in the hub available to you. Okay, so we've got 13 min to go, and I would love 184 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:14.349 Julie Artz: to hear some questions. I see that there are some here, so I'm gonna go ahead and stop the share and take a look at our QA. Just remember that I there's 99 comments in the 185 00:49:14.890 --> 00:49:26.870 Julie Artz: in the chat. So if you have a question that you accidentally put in the chat. Please go ahead and put them in the Q. And a. So I can make sure that I can get to them. I won't have time before the top of the hour to 186 00:49:27.970 --> 00:49:31.569 Julie Artz: tip review all 99 comments. Okay. 187 00:49:34.380 --> 00:49:42.500 Julie Artz: let's see that first question. I'm gonna I'm gonna let the providing aid folks answer. But 188 00:49:42.500 --> 00:50:06.989 Julie Artz: this is a good one. Does grounded fantasy. Sci-fi mean that it's the primary world or on earth. I keep looking at it up, and it seems like every answer I get varies. Well, I I've seen grounded, used in a couple of different ways. I have definitely seen it used as grounded in our current world. But sometimes it actually just means 189 00:50:07.340 --> 00:50:32.269 Julie Artz: that you're being really specific and immersive. So yeah, I think in general, grounded fantasy. Sci-fi means that it's something that's a little bit familiar to us. But I think even some like alternate future fantasy and sci-fi can still be grounded. So there is some gray area there. But in general yes, it's grounded in something that is similar to our world. It is giving the reader something that they can 190 00:50:32.270 --> 00:50:40.250 latch on to that's going to be familiar to them, even though a lot of the other aspects of the story are different. 191 00:50:40.420 --> 00:51:08.979 Julie Artz: How to describe the world without getting too wordy or boring the reader with too much information. Well, that is a great question, and I really think that the key there is to avoid infodump. And I'm not kidding when I say, do not have more than 2 or 3 sentences in a row of description. If you do, you're you're pulling them out of the scene to just tell them things instead of showing things through the world. So go back to the slides and look at the examples that I've shown 192 00:51:08.980 --> 00:51:29.180 Julie Artz: about. How they all of those authors have woven action. Ha woven world building into the action. And that is a really really good way to learn how to do it yourself is by looking at how the how the really successful sci-fi writers are doing world their world building. 193 00:51:30.450 --> 00:51:55.439 Julie Artz: I write hard sci-fi, and I get really caught up in the plausibility of my world building. How do you toe the fine line between just making things true in your world by writing them in and ensuring everything makes scientific sense. That's such a good question. Age and II mean, I think, that like when you have Neil Stevenson, for example, one of the things I love about him is that when I read his books II sometimes have to look up and see if something 194 00:51:55.440 --> 00:52:01.369 is actually real in the real world, or if it's something that he's invented, and he has had a couple of times where he's 195 00:52:01.370 --> 00:52:18.510 Julie Artz: invented something in this fiction that has become real as the book has been published. So it it's there is a fine line, and it's really it's really difficult. But the thing I would say is, you don't want to get so caught up in your world building that you never get 196 00:52:18.510 --> 00:52:42.360 Julie Artz: to actually completing the story right? So remember that even the really cool scientific tech even the things that I know. That's the thing that probably draws you to the world and makes you wanna write about it. But it it's in service to the story. The story's not in service to the world building, if that makes sense. So think about how the tech 197 00:52:42.540 --> 00:53:01.210 Julie Artz: really pushes the characters to explore whatever it is that they're exploring and how it motivates them and and keeps them doing things to work toward their goal, and and put also puts up barriers to keep them from that goal, which is what creates the tension and mistakes in their story. 198 00:53:01.410 --> 00:53:03.880 Julie Artz: Yeah, great questions. Everyone 199 00:53:04.940 --> 00:53:29.660 Julie Artz: explain. Tk, again. Okay, yes. So it when you're drafting. You might realize, oh, I need to look up the specific detail about nanotech but I don't want to interrupt my writing session to do that because I wanna hit my word, Count Goal. And I know I've got a hard stop in an hour. So I'm just gonna type in the letters, T, capital T, capital K, and then I'm just gonna write look up 200 00:53:29.660 --> 00:53:40.199 Julie Artz: how nanobots work to to cure cancer. And so that's my note to remind myself what I need to look up for a later draft. And I'm just gonna keep 201 00:53:40.200 --> 00:53:59.269 Julie Artz: moving on. I'm going to leave a little gap in my story, and it's totally okay, because eventually I'll go back and fill in that that little hole, and I'll be able to find it by using, find and replace just on the letters. TK. Because again, that letter combination doesn't exist in English. 202 00:53:59.550 --> 00:54:13.579 Julie Artz: If you are writing in another language. Where the letters TK. Exist, I apologize and try to find a different letter combination, or maybe a character combination or something. If you're not writing in English, that will help you. 203 00:54:14.410 --> 00:54:21.399 Julie Artz: use a unique character combination that you can easily search on to find those types of 204 00:54:21.410 --> 00:54:24.770 Julie Artz: of places where you've left holes for yourself to fill in later. 205 00:54:26.920 --> 00:54:28.180 Julie Artz: Okay. 206 00:54:31.300 --> 00:54:33.000 Julie Artz: if there was one book 207 00:54:33.310 --> 00:55:02.829 Julie Artz: or th, okay, 3 Science Fiction book that you'd recommend reading. What would it they be? Oh, my goodness! That that's impossible to to say, because there are so many different subgenres, and everybody has their their things that they like. So I really like in the sci-fi space. I really like like dystopian and alternate future. So I'm really into climate fiction. So things like Station 11 or 208 00:55:03.030 --> 00:55:26.120 Julie Artz: nk, Jemison's books, which I've mentioned already. You know, they just did a TV series of of hue Howey's wool, which is really really great. Those are. But there's so many examples. Like I'm not the best person to ask about military sci-fi, and some of those other genres that are really really popular. 209 00:55:26.120 --> 00:55:47.600 So I would say, go look at your bestsellers in in the specific subgenre that you're that you're writing more than any other genre. I actually think sci-fi has more difference between the subgenres than than other genres. So it's really important to make sure that you understand the tropes for your specific 210 00:55:48.100 --> 00:55:50.370 Julie Artz: for your specific subgenre. 211 00:55:51.490 --> 00:56:15.180 Julie Artz: What is your favorite way to get down world building notebooks and app or software pinning stuff to wall, etc. I personally use scrivener because I really really like to keep everything in one place. So I don't lose anything. I'm terrible at changing spellings of names and calling one character by 2 different names and all of that sort of stuff. So I keep it all in one document. 212 00:56:15.180 --> 00:56:40.139 But you, you know that's that's a very personal decision. If you don't wanna use scrivener if if it bothers you, whatever you can do it in a notebook. You can do it. Some people use pinterest and if they're very visual, they can then put images and and music and photos and that sort of thing. Into the world building. It's really just a matter of figuring out what works best for you. But I, personally really like 213 00:56:40.140 --> 00:56:59.199 to keep things in scrivener. I keep all my research notes in there. I keep all my my naming lists and and special words that I use again to get those specific details in there. I keep all of those in right in scrivener, so that I can access them as I'm writing. 214 00:57:01.520 --> 00:57:27.289 Julie Artz: I have been told that I tell the reader about the world rather than show them, how can I fix this? Yeah, that's the classic info dump, and it is definitely a very, very common thing in early drafts. So I my best advice would be to go back to the examples that we have talked about today in this presentation, or also in your comparable titles. And look at how they, how they do it. 215 00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:52.099 Julie Artz: Show, showing the reader, the world in action is way better than telling them about it. It's just like the example that I was talking about with the murder bot diaries where you're gonna say, you're gonna start with the with murder bot actually in action guarding their people. And then an explosion happens instead of starting with a long passage that's explaining the entire back story of murder bot and of 216 00:57:52.100 --> 00:58:15.690 the planet, the specific planet that they're on. So anytime that you have more than I would say, 2 or 3 sentences of description of your world that can be an indication to you that you need to really immerse them in a scene that shows the world, and action is a great way to do. That conflict is with another. Character is a great way to explore power dynamics. 217 00:58:15.690 --> 00:58:39.700 If you're in a really harsh environment that you're trying to to explore, you've got that kind of man versus world. Opportunity there to show the reader the harsh landscape and to work from there and really show them in scene but it isn't a one step process. It's really an iterative process to really refine out that info dump 218 00:58:39.700 --> 00:58:45.700 and and to show the world by weaving in those tiny little snippets of detail. 219 00:58:47.520 --> 00:58:59.549 Julie Artz: Will the slides be available. Yes, and I think somebody posted the link in case that that QR code in case you missed that QR code. But it will also be in the Hub. 220 00:59:01.080 --> 00:59:29.829 Julie Artz: and in addition to the slides, I also have a world building workbook for you that will help you keep track of all of these details. What's your opinion on hardmagic versus soft magic? Do you think that one has better world building than the other? I'm not gonna take a position on that. That seems like the kind of thing that could really get someone in hot water. Different readers, like different kinds of hard magic, soft, magic, hard sci-fi, soft sci fi like. I'm not. 221 00:59:29.830 --> 00:59:53.710 Julie Artz: I think, to each your own what you like to write. You will find readers that like it. What you like to read, you'll find writers who write it. It's it's important, either way, to keep a good internal logic. There's just when you're looking between hard and soft it's it's about how like rigorously scientific the world building needs to be. So, for example, in a lot of 222 00:59:53.710 --> 01:00:17.890 Julie Artz: in lot of magic systems. You really have to have make sure that there's like a conservation of magical matter. That's like the sign, like a scientific way of looking at it. But you have all kinds of stories, for example, Harry Potter, where there's no conservation of of magic energy right like the they can draw from a seemingly endless well of power and 223 01:00:17.980 --> 01:00:25.069 and obviously that has not that lack of scientific rigor has not affected the giant 224 01:00:25.690 --> 01:00:39.099 Julie Artz: behemoth that is the you know, the Harry Potter, IP. So so I think it's just a matter of knowing what you're writing and following the the conventions for that, whether it's hard or soft. 225 01:00:41.430 --> 01:01:10.940 Julie Artz: Okay? Gonna try to quickly buzz through these last 3. We've got 2 min left how to create a non-human character that people can identify with while also making it not human-like. Okay, I'm gonna say, go read the murder bot diaries, because that is absolutely the best example, not just with murder, bot themselves who is obviously part human and part part mechanical, but also with art, which is a spaceship 226 01:01:11.740 --> 01:01:42.150 Julie Artz: operating system. That is one of the main characters in in the Murderbot diaries. They're they're really, really. distinctly, not human, and also a very engaging character. So I think that's the murder. Bot diaries by Martha Wells. The first 4 books are are novellas, so they're really quick. Read they're absolutely fabulous, and the world building is just amazing. So I highly recommend them. 227 01:01:42.240 --> 01:02:05.689 Julie Artz: how do you deal with the sadness that you probably won't ever get to show the readers all of your world building, and wish they just lived in the world as you do in your brain. That's such a good question, Lou. Ii like to think about it as the iceberg, right like what goes into the stories just a little bit at the top, and there's so much more underneath. But it, even if it's not on the page, it's creating a richness for the the reader that's really 228 01:02:05.690 --> 01:02:13.189 that's really going to to add depth, even if you don't have every single bit of your research showing up on the page. 229 01:02:13.230 --> 01:02:33.559 Julie Artz: Oh! And last question I signed up for the scan and got today's presentation. Is there another link for the workbook you mentioned? The workbook will come to you in a second email within the hour. So there we go. It's 120'clock, and I think we got everybody. Everybody's questions answered. 230 01:02:34.170 --> 01:02:59.450 ProWritingAid: yes, thank you so much, Julie, for generously spending your time with us. This was such an informative session. I learned a lot. So everyone thank you for joining us. We really enjoyed you being here, and don't forget to check the links that I've shared throughout the chat. To get Julie's freebie and join us on the community chat. Thank you. Everyone have a wonderful day.