(Sorry about missing! I currently work at a defense contractor as a content writer and things have been hectic over the last couple of weeks with the events in Afghanistan. I expect to get derailed again soon, but writing helps me deal. At any rate, I beg your forgiveness in advance for possible further disruptions.)
Intro
In this third part of the Writing Craft series, we are now going to get so far down into the weeds that you can smell the freshly-cut grass and start sneezing from all the pollen and cursing in disgust as you realize that you parked your car under a pine tree and your entire car is now dotted with sticky pine sap.
We will talk about writing sensory details, how to extend that outward to the basics of writing setting (whether you choose to do a lot of preparation or not), how to write “the rules” of your story so that you manage your readers’ expectations, and when to do all of the above. (Appendix A will contain three chapter-opening templates—an excellent way to learn the rules, then break them!)
We will also answer the question of what a hook actually is, and break down some simple ways to write one. (In Appendix B, I’m going to write a bit about how to optimize the rest of the opening of your book to help attract the right readers and search engines, too, if that’s something you’d like to try.)
Even though this is a book that dives down into setting details and how to communicate your world-building to the reader, I’m not going to focus on what to build with your world. There are other books that cover that topic brilliantly. (May I recommend Stant Litore’s Write Worlds Your Readers Won’t Forget if you need assistance in that area?)
What we are covering here is how to take the world you have designed (or are in the process of designing, if you don’t plan ahead as you write) and make it feel real to the reader.
What world should you create? That’s your problem. All we’re worried about here in Volume 3 of Writing Craft is how to get away with whatever mischief you have in mind.
Addressed in depth in this volume
- An in-depth look of sensory details and summary details.
- An in-depth look at how to write setting.
- An overview of what “the rules” are for your story and how to write them.
- An in-depth look at when to include the various types of setting.
A note on branding and worldbuilding
I noted that I wasn’t going to discuss worldbuilding per se in Volume 3 of Writing Craft, but I do need to touch on it.
What world should you build?
That is, should you try to figure out what world readers want to read about now—or, even better, what they will want to be reading a lot more about soon—and write that? Or write without regard to what your audience might want?
And how accurate should that world be?
How much research should you do ahead of time?
How much worldbuilding should you do ahead of time?
I’m going to address the last questions first: when it comes to setting, you don’t need to be accurate or well-researched ahead of time. What you write never needs to be accurate as such. It just needs to meet audience expectations.
The thing about meeting audience expectations, though, is that you get to choose your audience. Part of what you’re doing when you write “the rules” of your book (which we’ll cover later) is to set expectations for your audience. That may mean that some people choose not to become your audience, because they’re not on board with the expectations that you’ve set with your book.
And that is okay.
You need to set boundaries with your audience. A lot of writers I know have trouble setting boundaries with other people, particularly fans. But setting boundaries with your audience is a good thing.
Another way to look at setting boundaries with your audience is as “branding.”
Branding is when you give the readers what they want, but only in the particular way that you want to do it.
Oh, sure, branding is often seen as a marketing tool that helps establish what you do as a writer, what makes you enjoyable to read and what makes you unique. But branding also helps you establish what you will not do.
If your brand is wholesome romance and you get a reader request to add sex to your work, you’ll know that adding sex is not for you.
If your brand is very naughty erotica and you get a nasty letter from a reader saying that you shouldn’t write so much sex, you’ll know that removing sex is not for you.
If you want to experiment and change up your brand a bit, that’s one thing. But getting your marching orders from irate fans who want you to be a completely different writer is likely a very bad idea–as soon as you make that reader happy, another reader will come along who would like your books better if only…if only…
Readers don’t get to set expectations for your work. They may have expectations (which you can overcome with “the rules”), but they don’t get to dictate what you write.
The writer gets to decide what the expectations are for their stories. If the writer sets correct expectations and delivers good work, it leads to a body of work that the author can stand behind throughout their career.
When you’re considering what worlds to build, think about where your talents as a writer overlap with your personality.
If there’s a hot new market that overlaps with both of those, great! Go for it.
But don’t let other people decide what your writing boundaries are—or your brand. Writing solely for profit, fame, or other people’s happiness without considering your own long-term goals is a great way to start chasing an unbeatable algorithm and burn out.
Writing with your audience’s needs, hopes, and dreams in mind is no bad thing. But please remember to balance your audience with yourself, and write things you can sustain.
So if you’re the kind of person who loves to do stacks of research before you write, do it! Do it consistently and talk about the joy it gives you to do it that way. That’s your brand.
And if you’re the kind of person who likes to jump off the edge of the creative cliff, discovering the elements of your world as you write them, do it! Do it consistently and talk about the joy that it gives you do to it that way. That’s your brand.
There are readers who want to know all the details…and readers who hate knowing all the details. And there are readers who want the same sort of world that they’ve been to before, and those who want to go somewhere new.
You get to decide which ones are yours.
(Next time, we start talking about writing with the senses!)