The degree of order or messiness in a location can be a reflection of personality.
Daily Life and Routine
It’s helpful to take a look at your own life as an example and apply this to your characters and setting.
What places are familiar to your character?
Does your character tend to be at the same places on daily basis, or is there a variety to the week or month?
Will these locations be important to the plot in some way?
Keep in mind sensory details here—everything from the taste of toothpaste to the smell of the character’s workplace.
Occupations
Certain job positions can have their own sub-culture with jargon the average person may not understand. You can sometimes still incorporate this by putting things within context so the reader can figure out what is meant.
Pay careful attention with careers you’re not familiar with on a personal basis—if possible, verify that you’re accurate in the portrayal with an authority in that field.
Tools and Technology
Consider the technology characters will come across throughout their day, including forms of transportation and communication. If you need full historical accuracy, make sure you don’t have anything that didn’t exist during your timeframe (an extreme example would be an iPod in the 1940s, but there are more subtle details that some readers will notice if you’re sloppy).
With futuristic technology, it’s helpful to look at current on-the-horizon advancements and take them to a point where they’re widely available to the public.
Communications and Media
How does news spread?
What are the forms of personal communication?
How long does it take for information to reach distant recipients?
How are the media systems structured?
Is there a variety in options or only one main source?
Arts and Music
These can be expressions from your characters (artists, musicians, etc.) or background elements (character notices a painting or song playing). They’re great tools for starting a dialogue and revealing character attitudes.
Art and music can also help establish timeframe—for example, songs from particular eras can be mentioned at strategic points to show a progression of time.
Sports and Entertainment
What are the culture’s sports?
Are they team or solitary based (this can be a reflection of values)?
How does the audience participate in events?
Are any of the sports dangerous?
Are they highly competitive?
What skills do players need to win?
How and where do people like to spend their off time?
Fashion and Dress
Clothing can be an indication of social status, occupation, and personality (including situations where dress is in conflict with what someone would typically expect).
Overall trends can be used to indicate timeframe. Pay careful attention to color and textures.
Food and Meals
A large percentage of our sense of taste depends on smell, which is why foods don’t taste quite the same when you have a cold, etc. Keep this in mind with sensory details.
Meals can range from a required ritual to survive to an elaborate social event. When you have a meal in your story, consider the purpose behind it and how you can use it to reveal information about your characters.
Education
How are children taught?
Are there formal schools or some other form of education?
How is education viewed by the overall society?
Are certain forms of education considered more valuable over others?
Is continued learning important to the adult population?
War and Military
If any, what peoples are at odds with each other and why?
What methods does the society used to defend itself against attackers?
When are militaries formed? How are they trained?
Medical, Health, and Illness
What types of medical care are in place?
What is the degree of technological advancement?
What are common illnesses? Are they season-related?
How is medicine viewed by the culture?
What are the moral safeguards in place?
What happens when and if someone crosses a line?
What is the overall health and average lifespan of the population? Why?
Timelines and History
When starting a novel series from scratch, it’s helpful to have a basic timeline of major events in your plot. These can be placed by the character’s age and/or a specific date.
If your story takes place during the same time of a major historical event or events, consider using them to ground your story and add realism. Major historical events can make impressions on individual views and attitudes. Even if you don’t put your characters into the middle of a historical event, you can still have it impact them through a friend or relative being involved.
While Internet searches can yield a lot of information, I like getting as close to the original sources as possible (old newspaper scans, books and magazines written in the time period, etc.). Don’t just look at primary stories but also advertisements, letters to the editor, how the information was angled, and anything else that might go unnoticed unless you focus on it.
If you’re going to have a historical figure as a background character in your novel, do your homework on their personality and typical dress. Again, try to get as close to original sources as possible, as traits about a person can sometimes be exaggerated or changed after they’ve died.
If you’re making a change to our historical timeline (alternative history, time travel, etc.), consider how the changes you make will impact all areas of your society or culture. Sometimes a character may think they’re alternating only one thing but accidentally changes a lot of things. How can you use this in your setting and plot? This can also build from minor difference to realizing something major has changed as the story progresses.
Plotting, Outlining, and Conflict
Plotting and outlining styles vary from writer to writer, and there is no right or wrong answer to the issue other than finding what’s effective for you. I use what I call “key points”—events that need to happen for the story to make sense. Usually I’ll start at the ending and work my way backwards to events that lead up to it. When I’m writing, I focus from getting from key point to key point but also have room to explore. It keeps me on track without causing a feeling of being restricted.
Conflicts need to have variety. In each book, I try to find several character-driven conflicts (including personality clashes and internal struggles) and at least one external conflict (something the characters must confront but not necessarily be able to stop.) If you alternate between conflicts, it builds tension for the reader and adds overall interest to the books. I got a better feel for this by watching episode-based television shows, which typically have a primary (A-Story) and secondary (B-Story) set of conflicts that switch out through the story. When a minor conflict is resolved, have at least one more to take its place.
Since not everything you do will be planned upfront, there is also an option of seeding upcoming conflicts and details in previous books—what I call layering—which is a great advantage to having a self-published series. With ebooks, it’s often as easy as uploading a new file. Paperbacks have a slightly longer process to change, but it’s worth the effort.
Writing Workflow
Once you have everything in place, work on a scene by scene basis—treating each chapter as its own mini-project. Every scene has its own purpose or objective, and your focus needs to stay on getting yourself to the next key point. Some chapters may come together in single session while other can take several weeks depending on its complexity and what’s happening in other areas of your life at the time.
Something that I do that’s against
conventional advice is edit on a chapter by chapter basis as opposed to doing the entire rough draft in one run without editing. That doesn’t exempt me from editing everything again once I reach the end of the book, but it does make it a smoother process in my opinion. Take your time and look over chapters several times at different angles.
When time is tight, you sometimes have to make tough decisions to find opportunity to write. According to when you work best, staying up a little later or getting up a little earlier can give you some leverage—but it’s also tiring the longer you do it. Temporarily cutting other activities—TV, Social Media Surfing and Games, etc. can help as well. In my case, I worked to build up my writing income so I could eventually transition from a full-time (44+ hours/week) job to a part-time job that supplements writing full-time. It does take awhile and can be frustrating, but the motivation and passion for your dream will help a lot.
Keeping a notebook and pen (or the notepad feature on your cell phone) throughout the day can allow you to make use of free time you may have away from a computer—lunch breaks, waiting in line, etc. If you have goals in place by the time you get home, your time in front of a screen will be more effective.
Something that is also an option—what I did from the very beginning—is posting rough drafts online for reader feedback. If your intention is to traditionally publish, you may want to find out your prospective publisher’s requirements and make sure this won’t be considered a violation. In my case, I liked the idea of self-publishing once the book was finished and wanted a variety of perspectives. Long-term, this helped improve my writing ability. At this point, three legitimate sites for posting fiction are Writing.com, Gather.com, and Wattpad.
Chapter, Book, and Series Structure
Introductions, middles, and endings of stories have unique purposes, and there are patterns regardless to scale. Beginning sentences, chapters, and books are meant to draw your reader into the story. Middles enhance and increase conflicts—all leading to the climax of the story. Endings typically have at least some sense of resolution, although you may have a cliffhanger or set-up for the next book in place. The two things I keep in mind at all stages are reasons readers should care about the characters and what I can do to put those characters in either an emotional or physical conflict.
Even if you never intend to write a screenplay, studying episode-based television structure is helpful—especially if you can find shows within your genre that you enjoy. The behind-the-scenes special features and director commentary found on many DVDs and Blu-rays can be a wealth of information for writers. With sci-fi, I recommend J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 and also the original Twilight Zone series.
Once you learn the basic concepts of structure, you’ll recognize patterns in nearly everything you read or watch. (The unfortunate side-effect being the “twist” endings of many movies and shows will be ruined for you in the middle of watching them.) The advantage this gives you as a writer is you’ll be aware of expectations and when you may need to shatter them.
A helpful book on this topic is Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress. I mentioned it earlier, but Stein on Writing by Sol Stein also has a section on the topic.
One thing that I didn’t immediately understand when I was first starting out was that authors don’t necessarily write a book in linear order. If you have a key scene that is clear in your mind, write it first then build around it. If you have several sub-stories, you can write each one out and then alternate them at the end—with some small transitions usually needed to keep time and pacing consistent. This was how my first book came together, and I used the same technique on at least portions of the others.
Editing and Revision
No matter how methodical you try to be about typos and errors, no one is perfect. Having other people look over your work will allow you to correct minor mistakes and refine the quality of your overall story. Sometimes criticism can be hard to take, but it’s better to do it at this stage compared to after the book has been released.
In some cases, your project may reach the point where hiring a professional editor will make sense. One tip that I got from an editor in this area is you can often get a lower rate for a fine-tuned revision as opposed to something highly riddled with errors and typos. Get it in the best shape that you can first—run it by several trusted friends and beta-readers—and it could save you money.
Each time I finish editing a book in my series, I go back and look over my previous books—check both for continuity and for anything I can add (or sometimes remove) to make the overall story better. To new readers, this gives a feeling that every detail was in place from the very beginning—making it a more enjoyable and solid story.
Thoughts on Self-Publishing
Currently, I work with four self-publishing companies. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and CreateSpace are both owned by Amazon. PubIt.com is owned by Barnes & Noble. Lulu.com has its own system and also distributes to Apple and Barnes & Noble as well. I’ve had positive experiences out of all of them, and they fit my needs at this stage in my career.
The decision of self-publishing vs. traditional publishing is not an “either-or” question. Many authors I know are now doing a combination of both, and I’m favorable to that philosophy. In my case, I started my series when I was twenty-four and had no connection to the traditional industry. I’ll turn thirty this year and have sold books in eight countries across four continents just from the sites I mentioned—something that still amazes me.
In the area of deciding on a self-publisher, I just want to say overall to be cautious—just because scams are still rampant. With the exception of paying for proof copies of paperbacks, I’ve never had a company require payment for set-up costs. They make income when I sell a book, and it’s a “win-win” situation as far as payment ratios. Some companies offer optional services like formatting help, cover design, etc.—but they make it clear that they’re optional. Do your homework, and network with other authors about their experiences. Check the Better Business Bureau website for any complaints and also a general web search beyond the company’s website. Regardless to which path you choose to publish, read contracts and make sure you fully understand the terms before you agree to them.
One of the myths about self-publishing is that you’re on your own. That doesn’t have to be the case. Locally, I team up with other authors on events and split expenses. Online, I have friends and mentors from a variety of genres, and we pass things along to each other that are helpful. Most self-publishing companies will respond to specific questions and provide tutorials and resources to make the process easier.
Marketing, Finding Readers, and Ongoing Education
Even before you finish your novel, there are several marketing books available that can help you get started. Here are the four I recommend:
Get Known Before the Book Deal—Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform by Christina Katz
Sell Your Book Like Wildfire by Rob Eagar
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers (2010 Edition) by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Michael Larsen, and David L. Hancock
The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry
A large portion of my early marketing wasn’t fully intentional—I just made my rough drafts available for free to readers online as I was writing and linked back to my previous books. The main mistake I see many writers make—especially on Facebook and Twitter—is spending more time begging people to buy their books than genuinely reaching out and interacting. This can often have a negative impact on readers who might otherwise like and buy the books with a different approach.
Even if you don’t want to give away portions of your actual books, there is still an opportunity to reach readers through short stories and regular blog posts. If they get to know you and get to know your characters, it’s a natural transition for them to buy from you. Focus on establishing positive experiences and relationships, and s
pecific marketing techniques will have a genuine base to hold them.
Author Bios, Chats, Interviews, and Q&A Sessions
When you start talking about your book—in person or online—you may get an opportunity to be part of a chat or Q&A session. This can often start out in a group environment and later for you personally, especially if you’ve just released a new book. I’ve compiled this list from dozens of chats, and they also have applications for your blog, website, bio pages, and press kit.
Childhood Questions
Where are you from?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What was your family life like?
What was your school life like?
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
How do you think your background has influenced your writing?
School Questions:
What was your favorite subject? What was your least favorite subject?
Did you have a favorite teacher or teachers? What made you like them?
What outside activities were you involved in?
College Questions:
Series Craft 101 Page 3