April 2023

Marc Agbayani

            When it comes to writing prose, there are many factors to consider for your piece of fiction. You might ask yourself: What genre do you want to write about? What is the world like? Who are the characters, what are their goals, where do they live, and what kind of clothes do they wear? All of these aspects pertain to the process of worldbuilding. In worldbuilding, good stories will use setting and characters to help illustrate the environment to immerse the reader. The most important part about worldbuilding is that you write every detail consistently. This means that for every idea that is introduced, it must follow a logical timeline or pattern.

Example #1 – Genre

Let’s say you want to write a story about space travel. Well, then, this will likely fall under the science fiction genre. Readers may expect to read about spaceships, new planets, aliens, advanced technology, or laser weapons. However, if you start writing about dragons or nightmarish creatures on page twelve of your story, your worldbuilding becomes confusing and jarring. This is an extreme example, but the point is that the reader will be so distracted trying to understand how these beings could live in such an environment that they won’t be focusing on the story itself.

Example #2 – Time

Continuity can fall under many areas, including the logic of time. For instance, perhaps one of the characters in your story is a 25-year-old actress named Sarah, who was born in 2010. Her mother was born in 1940, while her father was born in 1935. See the issue here? If Sarah was born in 2010, and her mother was born in 1940, that means her mother was seventy when she gave birth to Sarah. How often can mothers give birth at that age? While possible, it certainly isn’t the expected age range and would have implications for your character, so writers must be careful when they bring up a concept such as time.

Example #3 – Physical Details

Let’s talk about one more scenario where continuity is important. You are writing a story about a man named David who plans a beach trip with his college friends. David decides to wear his sunglasses to the beach. The story goes on: he plays volleyball, swims, and sits by a bonfire at night. At this point, David is described as having a twinkle in his eye as he comically tells his friends how he got in trouble at school for crashing a class dressed up as Mario. That sounds like a pretty typical scenario, right?

Well, at no point is it mentioned that David has removed his sunglasses. How could others notice his eyes when they are covered up? But more importantly, why would he be wearing sunglasses at night? It is fairly easy for writers to miss small details like this, but even the littlest detail could have a significant impact. That is why keeping track of what the characters wear is another important aspect to look out for.

Recommendation

If you struggle with continuity in your writing, I recommend checking out this article for guidance. It lists several methods to help you keep track of details, characters, and events in your stories. This will make everything organized and reduce the continuity errors you may cross along the way.

Link: https://www.madeleinevasaly.com/blog/2022/8/3/tools-for-maintaining-continuity-in-fiction

Connor Ryan

One of the most complex aspects of writing a story is knowing the scope of an idea. Writers often find themselves writing an epic fantasy and running out of gas halfway through, or they might try to cram a century of worldbuilding into a flash fiction piece. It happens to nearly every writer and often becomes a roadblock that stops a story from reaching its full potential. So how can writers narrow or expand their plot?

M.I.C.E. Quotient

The best way to understand the scope of your story is to examine Orson Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient. Card outlines four main aspects of a story’s focus in his book, How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Character and Viewpoint. These are milieu, idea, character, and event. Most fantasy novels, such as The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, revolve around the story’s milieu, also known as the setting. With many pages describing forests, kingdoms, and lore, the emphasis on milieu is apparent in the Hobbit, yet it also embodies the other three principles of storytelling. Stories that revolve around character spend less time on the plot and more time focusing on how the character acts and reacts to their environment. Stories where an event pushes the plot forward, such as Stranger Things or The Umbrella Academy, are generally more action-packed. The development of characters and worldbuilding often take a backseat to the stakes.

Writing a Novel

When attempting to create a novel, writers should have a combination of two or more of these principles to justify its length. For example, a mystery novel is based upon an idea, a question of who performed a crime. However, for the reveal to have a significant payoff, the author must spend time developing each character through their motives and desires. Thus, if a writer has a story that focuses on the milieu, the next step to extend the plot is to explore the characters’ relationships with one another. The longer the story, the more elements of the M.I.C.E. Quotient should be included.

Writing a Short Story or Flash Fiction

Writing a short story is often much more complicated than people think. People tend to have ideas that are too big to fit into a few thousand words. If writers struggle to make their story more concise, they should examine their plot for the underlying focus. Is it milieu, idea, character, or event? Once the writer has discerned which of these is most important to their narrative, they can begin eliminating things that do not further that concept. For example, suppose a writer is writing a fantasy story that focuses on the life of a single fairy. In that case, the writer can hopefully eliminate some unnecessary backstory and lore and instead spend more time fleshing out the fairy into a three-dimensional character. Essentially, short stories, especially flash fiction, should focus on one concept and eliminate any excess storytelling.

Creating a story is about finding the right balance of elements that best deliver a writer’s idea. Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient can be especially helpful to beginning writers as it allows them to identify the main focus of their story as well as ways they can make positive additions or subtractions from their plot. I highly recommend any writer to pick up a copy of Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Character and Viewpoint, as it provides valuable information to all writers looking to write a novel or short story.

Elizabeth Rhodes

The most daunting part of writing can often be the start of the writing process. What to write? All writers, especially beginners, will often sit at their desks, paper, or computer in front of them with no words to put down. It can be frustrating to find inspiration when wanting to write the perfect poem. Wanting to write “perfection” is usually the first block that causes a writer not to write in the first place. Expecting to write something remarkable on the first try is an unrealistic expectation. No written work is perfect; revision and even scrapping are necessary. There is no shame in writing a “not so fantastic” poem on the first couple of tires. So, after this has been established, and if there are still no words written down there, here are some more tips that might be useful. 

Listen to some music. You might think music would be distracting when trying to write a poem, but in fact, for some, it can help motivate them to write. Poetry has a musical flow when written well, so listening to music can help the writer imitate musicality. Music also conveys a lot of strong emotions and has a story, which can help give ideas about what to write about. Music with lyrics or without are both helpful; it’s often more useful to listen to instrumental or chill music; that way lyrics won’t get in the way of what you are writing, but that does not mean that listening to some T-Swift won’t give you some inspiration for your next love poem!  

Talk a walk. Simply going outside can give you a lot of inspiration. Many poems are derived from nature; looking at birds or walking on grass can help create ideas and images for your poetry. Though, you don’t have to get ideas from nature; you can find inspiration from anything; you can write a poem about being stuck in traffic. The idea is that being out in different environments allows a writer to observe the world around them. It’s essential to notice the little things; taking notes while being out can be helpful so you can remember the things you have observed when you have time to write later.

Blackout poetry is also a useful tool for inspiration. Blackout poetry is creative and simple. Get any old book that you don’t mind ruining, a sharpy, and mark out any words you don’t want. Keep the inspiring words or the ones that really stick out to you. Then after you cover up the unnecessary words, see if what you have can be a poem. It’s both meditating and might inspire your next great poem.

Reading poetry is also essential for any poet, but most don’t realize it can actually inspire a poet to write. When reading other people’s work, we are more likely to learn from them and be more willing to try new forms of poetry. Listening to poetry is also helpful because poetry is best when spoken out loud; while we hear the poem, we hear the musical tone and can understand more of the author’s intent in the poem when they are speaking out loud. Poetry Foundation is an excellent start to finding audio poetry, and they even have a poem of the day that can inspire new ideas!

If all else fails, then simply start writing, it doesn’t matter what or if it’s good or bad. Just start typing or scribbling on the page. You can start off as a prose, write a list of events that happened within the last week and don’t stop, don’t quit until you have nothing left to say. Then look back and take out 90% of it. Leave the important concrete words, see what you have, shape it into a form, and create a poem. See, not too bad, right?

Inspiration does not always come, but it’s always available if you are looking in the right places for it. There are many days I don’t want to write, or I don’t know where to start. Taking a step back and looking at something I’ve previously written might inspire me to keep going, to realize that I too can be a great writer if I take the time and simply start somewhere. So, good luck with your next inspired poem!

Veanna Guevara

The Lies of Locke Lamora is an adult high fantasy, fast paced, heart wrenching book series written by Scott Lynch. The first book follows Locke, Jean, Bug, Calo, and Galdo, five thieves who steal to their hearts content as long as it’s within the terms of The Secret Peace—until the Grey King interrupts their all too important game against the rich.

Aspiring writers will note how this book is rich with descriptions and imagery, suggesting a likeness of Venice. So much so that the reader can easily envision the city of Camorr and its relatable characters. The setting is a character within itself; nothing is left to the imagination, which makes the place feel more concrete.

Additionally, The Lies of Locke Lamora has an interesting way of showing grief throughout the story. The way that Scott handles grief differently with each of the characters is masterful.  It is raw and powerful—slow, yet all-consuming. Young writers can explore the complex relationship between characterization, theme, and reader connection as they follow along the journey Scott’s given them.

With that said, this book is special and will always have a place in my heart. In this case, this book is great for those who are struggling with describing the areas of their fantastical world. It also showcases how grief is different with everyone.  Needless to say, I highly recommend this book series for those who love heists and found family tropes.