R.M. Archer's Blog

As fall hits, I always find myself wanting to read more classics. Something about the season just makes me want to return to older, (often) richer literature. Whether you feel the same way about fall or you’re just looking for classics to expand your horizons or strengthen your writing, here are seven of my favorite fiction classics (by order of how many times I’ve reread them).

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

A must-read for any fantasy fan, The Lord of the Rings makes the top of the list because I’ve read it… four times or so? Each time, I find new highlights of theme, writing, character, etc. This story is so rich, not only in the worldbuilding it’s praised for (though that is, obviously, a highlight), but in every facet of its writing and the values that Tolkien wove into it (both intentionally and innately). I also find it’s a very encouraging read, especially in times of cultural degradation, and it always helps me find a bit more optimism and hope in the ultimate triumph of light and truth over darkness and falsehood–which may also be a reason it appeals to me during the cold, dark months of the year.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days was my first introduction to Jules Verne, and I’ve read it twice so far (in addition to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, since then). I love the adventure of this one, as well as the characterization–especially of Fogg himself–and the setting descriptions (even though some of them are a bit… stereotyped). Verne seems to have loved to explore the world through research and writing, and thus far Around the World in 80 Days is the best example of this, in my opinion. In 20,000 Leagues he gets a bit carried away with all of his research into oceanic mechanics and wildlife… but Around the World in 80 Days keeps the focus on the adventure and wonder of world-hopping, and it’s a very fun book to read and reread!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I can’t remember if I’ve read Fahrenheit 451 twice or only once; in either case, I’m overdue for a reread and my recollection of the specifics of this book have grown hazy from the last time I read it. However, I greatly appreciate this book’s focus on the power of books and ideas, the worldview shift we get to watch within the main character over the course of the book, and the hopeful ending. The book is a bit slow to get started, if I recall correctly, but the core of the story is well worth the time spent.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter was among the first classics I read (Tom Sawyer, too) and played an instrumental role in helping me realize that I didn’t really hate classics as much as I thought I did. I’ve still only read it the one time (this one is also overdue for a reread), but the symbolism and thematic emphasis fascinated me when I read it and I actually had fun writing a book report on it. I’ve heard reports from people who’ve read it more recently and remember it more clearly that it’s anti-Puritan; while I don’t remember this being the case (I thought it was fairly balanced in that respect), I can’t report on that reliably until I reread it and refresh my memory!

The Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis

I first picked up the Space trilogy (or Ransom trilogy; call it what you will) after reading much of The Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis (another book on my to-reread list) and finding the themes mentioned from That Hideous Strength interesting. The book had previously explored either Perelandra or Out of the Silent Planet (or possibly both), and having that bit of context… I was surprised to realize that That Hideous Strength came from the same series. In that respect, I think I probably had an advantage in reading this series because I expected from the outset that That Hideous Strength would be quite different from the other two. I found, ultimately, that all three books are fairly different from each other, and each has its own distinct strengths. Out of the Silent Planet is absolutely fascinating from a worldbuilding perspective and is largely a philosophical/theological adventure story. Perelandra really hones in on the theological themes, including an entire debate that takes up a good chunk of the middle of the book. (Does this slow down the story? Sort of. But it’s also kind of the point of the book, so…) That Hideous Strength is very different, taking an astute look at the natural downward inclinations of society and how people are sucked into that downward spiral–as well as how they’re saved from it. All in all, an excellent series that I definitely recommend to sci-fi and dystopian readers.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The most recent addition to this list, Pride & Prejudice is a fun period piece with clever writing and highly distinguished characters (in the literal sense if not the societal sense). The writing sucked me in much more than I expected, going into it, and I found the emphasis on family responsibility and societal structure quite interesting, besides finding the ridiculous characters entertaining. Plus, it’s basically the original enemies-to-lovers story, and the relationship plot line is excellently done. It’s also interesting to see the different characters’ approaches to love and romance contrasted against one another throughout!

Phantastes by George MacDonald

Phantastes is another highly thematic read, and one I need to revisit because I’m confident it’s one that offers new insights upon each reading–and it’s a little weird in terms of the way the story flows (there’s a new setting with new characters in every or nearly every scene), so it’s quick to become fuzzy in my memory. That said, I do remember strong themes of what beauty is and means throughout the story (as well as how love and beauty relate to one another, if I’m not mistaken?), and the fairytale-esque settings and characters are captivating alongside the emphasis on theme.

There’s a quick summary of my seven favorite fiction classics! Have you read these? What did you think? What are your favorite fiction classics? Comment below!

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The post 7 of My Favorite Fiction Classics appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

As authors, we want our stories to reflect the values that we believe in. We want to write with integrity, discouraging those things we believe to be wrong and championing those things we believe to be right. But our characters don’t always believe the same things we do (nor should they; we write stories, not sermons!), which can lead to a tricky balancing act: being true to the characters and their stories without compromising what we believe or endorsing behavior we believe to be wrong. How do you handle that tension? Here are some tips.

This question was originally brought up by an email subscriber. Thanks to Joshua for the question!

There are two things I try to show in my writing when characters are operating from a worldview I disagree with; one is natural consequence, and one is disagreement from other characters. Neither of these has to be super overt, but including them on some level when a character’s behavior calls for them can help maintain the thematic integrity of your story.

Natural Consequences

All actions have consequences—whether positive or negative. Even if not immediate, negative behavior leads to negative consequences and positive behavior leads to positive consequences. Making use of these consequences is a really simple way to maintain a sense of right and wrong within your story—even if your characters’ moral compass isn’t entirely in line with your own.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using natural consequences. First of all, consequences are not always immediate—and to portray them that way in every instance runs the risk of making your story feel unrealistic and/or preachy. Some consequences are immediate—whether physical consequences like burning your hand when you touch something hot or metaphysical consequences like feeling guilty after you’ve stolen something—but some positive choices are uncomfortable for a time before they pay off, and some negative choices lead to immediate gratification before the negative consequences catch up. Portraying that instant or delayed gratification doesn’t negate the use of appropriate positive and negative consequences further along in the story.

Secondly, natural consequences should be proportionate to the action taken by the characters. A character who misplaces their faith might not see such drastic consequences as one who cusses up a storm or is actively immoral in some way, for instance. If a character steals something, they’ll have to deal with the attempted restoration of that thing—whether that means they’re pursued by the owner, pursued by the authorities, forced to return the item, forced to make additional restitution, imprisoned, etc. (The consequences will obviously depend on the particular circumstances and on the value of the thing your character stole.) Note that this idea of proportions applies to positive as well as negative actions.

In Calligraphy Guild, most of the characters follow a false religion, and the natural consequence I show is that their faith is insecure and they struggle with a great deal of doubt that’s never really resolved. This is contrasted with the characters who do believe in the world’s true God and find greater peace and firmer answers to their questions. It’s not a huge, obvious sort of consequence, but it is there.

Character Disagreement

Sometimes, you can raise the question of “is this behavior right or wrong?” and ensure your reader thinks through the morality of your characters by presenting a contrasting perspective within the story—through another character.

Disagreement from other characters should depend, of course, on the other characters in question. You can’t force a character to disagree with another, but any characters coming from different worldviews will have disagreements (the degree of disagreement depending on the degree of difference between worldviews).

Some characters will be really obvious and direct about their disagreement based on their personalities and/or how strong their convictions are about something; a really blunt or combative character might prompt arguments and debates with a character they disagree with, while a quieter character might simply be uncomfortable but try to ignore whatever it is they disagree with from the other character. Either way, you’re giving the reader multiple viewpoints and preventing the impression that your story is giving a blanket endorsement of the worldview you disagree with.

If you do have a character who would make a bigger deal of the disagreement, they might be on the side you want to promote or on the side you don’t want to promote. Either way, you can make this disagreement useful (when it’s in-character) to reinforce the values you believe in—or, at the very least, to raise the question for the reader.

In Calligraphy Guild, the predominant character who believes in the true God isn’t especially out-there about her faith; it’s common knowledge, but she doesn’t make a big deal of it. One of the characters struggling with doubt in her false gods, however, is a more argumentative character who ends up spurring a debate about religion; she’s the one who creates the opportunity for a more overt discussion of the topic, which allows for a more direct portrayal of both worldviews.

Levels of Subtlety

If you keep things proportionate and in-character, you can make the portrayal of differing worldviews as overt or as subtle as it needs to be for the story you’re telling. As you may be able to tell from these examples, Calligraphy Guild doesn’t have a heavy focus on showing a “right” and “wrong” worldview—despite one or two scenes in which these worldviews do overtly clash. The portrayal of these worldviews—and their disagreement with one another—arose naturally from the types of characters I wrote about.

The Lightning duology does have certain worldview elements that are more directly addressed, and greater clashes between characters over certain values and choices. As a small-scale example: Erika has no qualms about using coarse language while her best friend Nyla, on the other hand, finds it unpleasant to use or hear; Nyla doesn’t make a big deal of it because she prefers to keep the peace most of the time, but it is a point of minor tension between them and it is highlighted in small ways throughout the duology.

If your story isn’t suited to lots of worldview debate, you can still use these elements in subtle ways to avoid endorsing wrong behavior. If your story is served by more overt discussion of morality, you can ramp up these elements to make a bigger deal of the questions your characters’ actions raise. In any case, these are the two things I’ve found most helpful in contrasting right and wrong within the storytelling process.

What do you think? Which of these elements makes the most sense in the story you’re telling? Do you have any thoughts to add? Share in the comments!

Looking for more guidance in incorporating your values into your storytelling? Subscribe for access to my list of Worldview Focus Questions!

The post Portraying Characters When Your Worldviews Clash appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

Like any element of storytelling, worldbuilding has the potential to greatly elevate the quality of a project. But, also like any element of storytelling, it can be easy to fall into common pitfalls and fail to tap into the full potential of your worldbuilding. Today I’m addressing some common pitfalls that authors can fall into when it comes to worldbuilding, and how to avoid them.

*This post contains affiliate links, marked with an asterisk. Purchases made through these links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.Under-Valuing the World

One pitfall I see fairly often is that authors don’t value worldbuilding in the first place. They see their world as a means to an end, a backdrop that their characters can simply move around within–not really interact with. In the vast majority of cases, this does a great disservice both to your world and to your story! Not only does this prevent your world from becoming all that it could be and from offering readers the excitement of exploring a new world, it also precludes the opportunity to weave your world into your story and, as C.S. Lewis put it in his essay, “On Science Fiction,” “develop a story of real value which could not have been told (or not so economically) in any other way.”

Our own world affects our lives every day–even in the (many) cases in which we don’t notice. We are bound by the functional laws of our world–both physical and moral–and we are shaped by the cultures and families in which we are raised. Our worldviews, habits, etiquette, clothing choices, etc. are all shaped by the world around us. Our fictional worlds should be just as intrinsic to who our characters are–and the types of stories that are told within those worlds.

Not only does this give our worlds a function beyond mere set dressing, it also makes our characters and stories feel more real and organic, because they are naturally integrated with the world in which they take place; instead of your story feeling like “just another love story/adventure story/political story” in “just another fantasy world,” your story will feel organic and unique simply by the integration of worldbuilding and storytelling.

To solve this problem, the fundamental choice must be made to understand the potential of worldbuilding and its importance to storytelling as a whole. Beyond that, it’s important to learn what makes worldbuilding effective and how to integrate your worldbuilding with the characters you’ve created and the stories you’re telling.

Over-Complication

The next big pitfall that authors fall into when it comes to worldbuilding is that they over-complicate it–whether they over-complicate their worlds or the worldbuilding process itself. Worldbuilding doesn’t need to be complicated in order to be effective. In fact, sometimes sticking to a few simple elements is what best enables a world to serve its function within the storytelling process!

So why do we make worldbuilding complicated? There are a few potential answers to this question.

1. We think it has to be complicated to be interesting.

Your world does not need to be complicated to be compelling to your readers; it only needs to be unique. Building a unique world is not as hard as it sounds, either! If you are unafraid to put yourself–your interests and your values–into your world, then you are already creating a world that no one else could create. You are the core ingredient in creating a unique, compelling world. If your world is compelling and fascinating to you, that is going to spill onto the page and hook your readers as well! (More on this when we cover “generic concepts.”)

Not sure how to integrate your own interests and values with your world? The Worldview Focus Questions are designed to help!

2. We’re afraid of missing something.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in “what if I need to know this super specific thing and I haven’t fleshed it out yet??” that we end up diving down a million irrelevant rabbit holes and spinning off in a million complicated directions. Sometimes we end up using those super specific pieces of information, but often they end up adding nothing to the story we’re really trying to tell. And when we do hit points in the story where we need a detail we don’t have, it is so much easier to simply come up with those details in the moment (or leave a note to come back and develop those details later) than it is to try to flesh out everything ahead of time. We can’t prepare for every eventuality, and the most common result of trying is that we end up worldbuilding for years without ever putting a word on the page toward an actual draft. You will miss things, but you won’t know what you’re missing until you’ve written and found out.

3. We want the world to be perfect.

Your world will never be perfect. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be effective in serving its storytelling purpose and drawing in your readers! You can leave gaps and unanswered questions (in fact, these often contribute to greater reader curiosity!); you can get away with small inconsistencies; you can make things up as you go along when you need to. And, furthermore, the more complicated your worldbuilding, the more likely you are to have these inconsistencies and “mistakes” vs. if you keep things simple!

The question then becomes: How do you know how simple is simple enough and how simple is too simple? Well, that all comes down to purpose.

Lack of Purpose

This is smack in the middle of the list because it’s ultimately the core problem from which most other worldbuilding problems spring. If you have a purpose in place for your world, you’re less likely to undervalue your world’s role in your story, it will be easier to keep things from getting over-complicated, and you’ll have a clearer idea of what to pour your creativity into–and when you can get away with a generic concept or two.

Your world should have a purpose to your storytelling–and to the particular story you’re telling. Is it supposed to support your plot? Shape your characters? Provide a particular experience for the reader? All of the above?

From there, you can ask what decisions will best serve that purpose.

This will not only help with almost all of the other problems on this list, but also help you to ensure that your world is internally consistent and cohesive–which will help ensure that your world feels real and prevent it from feeling like a bunch of disparate pieces stuck together. (Your world’s core purpose should guide all of your worldbuilding decisions in the same way that the values of the cultures within your world should guide the creation of all other cultural elements.)

If you haven’t yet articulated the purpose of your world, thinking through your goals is the best first step toward overcoming the obstacles that have been holding you back so that you can make worldbuilding work for you and your story.

Generic Concepts

As we learn to write, we imitate. This applies to worldbuilding as well as other areas of the craft. We see worlds that we enjoy and admire, and we imitate them. At first, this is a great way to learn, but we have to move past imitation at some point or we end up lingering in generic worlds that offer nothing new to readers–or ourselves or our stories.

As I mentioned earlier, the best way to make your world unique is to weave in your own interests and values, because these are unique to you. No one else has exactly the same combination of interests and values that you do, which means that no one else can integrate them into a fictional world in the same way you can. (For that matter, no one else will approach that integration the same way, so even the very process is an additional step toward making your world unique!)

Does moving away from generic concepts and toward unique, personalized worlds mean you can never use elves, dwarves, magic academies, or other familiar fantasy world tropes? Of course not! These elements have become fantasy staples for a reason; we enjoy them, as readers, and they provide a familiar point of entry. We understand what elves are, or how magic academies work, and they provide a starting point as we explore unfamiliar worlds.

But knowing that these elements are generic, knowing why we like them, and knowing how to put our own spin on them enables us to use them intentionally and to imbue them with our own unique flair while maintaining those features that we enjoy and that provide that point of connection with readers–striking a balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar that ensures our worlds don’t feel generic on the whole but that our readers have someplace familiar to start instead of feeling like they’re being thrown into a fully alien world.

Disorganization

While the rest of the list has largely focused on the intangible elements that go into building an effective and cohesive world, it is also true that it’s difficult to create a cohesive world when your notes are scattered and disorganized. This is a real, practical obstacle, as well!

If you’re facing the disorganization of worldbuilding notes scattered among binders, notebooks, sticky notes, unrelated computer folders, online documents, etc… take a breath. I’ve been there, and I promise it doesn’t have to be a nightmare to fix!

The first step to tackling disorganization is to know how you prefer to work and keep notes. Do you like to keep analog notes? Do you prefer to have things digital where they can easily be rearranged? Do you like to be able to access them across devices? Do you take notes on paper but reference notes on your computer?

You also need to know your options. Analog options might include a simple notebook or 3-ring binder, or even a bulletin board. Digital options might include World Anvil*, Scrivener*, a Word document, a Google document, a personal Wiki tool like Zim Wiki, etc.

(Not sure what it would look like to use these different tools for worldbuilding? Here are my own tips and guides for tools I’ve used: World Anvil, Scrivener, a basic document or notebook, a 3-ring binder)

Once you know your preference in terms of process and the tools available to you, you can sort out the best combination of the two–whether you find one tool that works really well for you to keep everything in one place, or whether you end up using a hybrid system but working it out to ensure nothing gets lost along the way.

Setting up a new system can be tedious at first, especially if you’ve spent years with disorganized notes, but finding the right system for you will pay off for years–and worlds–to come!

Have you fallen into any of these pitfalls before? Which struck you most? Are you facing a specific worldbuilding obstacle I missed? Comment below with your thoughts!

Interested in learning more about the principles that go into effective worldbuilding and how to organize your worldbuilding system and notes? Enroll in The Worldbuilding Toolbox to get my “starter kit” advice for effective worldbuilding!

The post How to Avoid 5 Common Worldbuilding Pitfalls appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

If you’re a Christian reader, you may have heard the term “reading with discernment” tossed around, or something like it. Read carefully. Choose your books wisely. And this is good advice. The problem is… it’s vague. What does it mean to read with discernment?

Ultimately, I think reading with discernment will lead to different readers choosing different books. There is no one-size-fits-all result when it comes to reading with discernment. But there are a few principles to keep in mind as you consider what reading with discernment means for you and how you can choose your reads wisely.

Expose the Works of Darkness

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” – Eph. 5:11, NKJV

The world is broken, and fiction reflects that. We cannot—indeed, should not—avoid brokenness or darkness in the stories we read. When we try, we end up with stories that show only a disjointed piece of life and we can even grow blind to brokenness as we distance ourselves from it more and more.

We ought to read books that reveal brokenness, and our hearts ought to break for it. We ought to be repulsed by that darkness and to grieve for the brokenness.

This brokenness is often contrasted by hope in Christian-authored books or thrown into sharp relief for its lack of true hope in secular fiction. Both can teach us important things about the warped nature of the fallen world and the importance of the hope we have in Christ.

Reading with discernment should involve awareness of darkness and brokenness, and an intentionality toward exposing it—whether that intention has been made on the part of the author already or whether you as the reader can make use of a story to that end in your own life and/or for someone else.

Know Your Weaknesses

I don’t believe in avoiding content just because it’s uncomfortable; sometimes discomfort is critical for realizing the importance of something. However, some things really should be avoided. First on the list of things to avoid would be anything that will cause you to stumble.

If reading coarse language tempts you to use that language, avoid books with bad language. If reading about physical relationships (whether sexual or merely romantic) causes you to lust, avoid reading about physical relationships.

 “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” – Matt. 5:29

On a similar note, some things just do more harm than good. If graphic violence makes you sick, avoid it. If bad language serves no purpose in a book, you’re better off avoiding it. God can work through brokenness for our edification, but if brokenness is no more than broken… it’s not helpful for our sanctification.

Worldview issues can also fall into this category. If you don’t feel well-grounded on a topic, it might be better to avoid books that could nudge your thinking before you know what Scripture says.

Personally, I avoid most biblical fiction about actual Bible figures and most books about angels or demons. There are some exceptions, and as I grow firmer in my scriptural understanding I may venture further into these topics, but for now I focus elsewhere.

Knowing where your worldview is weak is an important part of reading with discernment.

Know What to Always Avoid

Glorification of sin, or books that dwell too much on depravity. Books hopeless enough to drag you into depression. Books that mock the gospel. These are a few categories that have no edifying value–at least not enough to outweigh the negative influence on your mind.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” – Php. 4:8

It’s important to use discernment when deciding what to read so that we don’t just throw out anything that could be bad—or read anything, willy-nilly, without concern for the spiritual consequences. Both ditches are a problem. But reading with discernment doesn’t mean that everything should be nuanced to death. There are still books out there that are simply spiritually unprofitable, and some that are outright spiritually harmful. Reading with discernment should put those in a “don’t read” camp for all believers.

Don’t avoid discomfort, but don’t put yourself in a mentally or spiritually compromising position, either.

That’s my advice for reading with discernment. Hopefully those points help you in your pursuit of wise reading! Questions? Anything you disagree with me on? Comment below and let’s discuss!

Looking for edifying book recommendations? Subscribe for my full, ever-growing database of recommendations—set up to be sorted by genre, content warnings, etc.!

The post What Does it Mean to “Read with Discernment”? appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

I’m back! At least, I’m easing into being back. And as we near the final portion of the year, it seems an appropriate time to discuss how to effectively revisit and renew progress on the goals we set at the beginning of the year. Pull out those goals you set for this year, brush the dust off if you need to, and let’s get started!

Assess Progress

The first step to a productive goal check-in is to assess how far you’ve come, where you are, and how far you still have left to go. I’ll use one of my own goals as an example throughout this process.

One of my goals for this year is to finish editing the Lightning duology and send it to beta-readers. (Those are actually two separate goals on the list, but for these purposes I’m counting them as one.) I made a plan at the start of the year that accounted for my 3-month hiatus, but I did not account for how busy preparing for that hiatus would make me in April and May, so I fell behind the plan. Right now, I’ve done the worldbuilding prep I wanted to do before editing, I’ve made notes on the entirety of both Lightning and Thunder, and I’ve determined that Thunder needs to be completely re-outlined and rewritten. That leaves me with the new outline, new draft, plot edits on both books, character edits on both books, worldbuilding edits on both books, as many repetitions of each of those as necessary, and possibly a round of line edits before the duology is ready to be sent to beta-readers. Phew!

Here’s the thing. Assessing your progress accomplishes two things: It helps you acknowledge the work you’ve already done, and it makes it crystal clear how much and what you need to do next.

It’s super important to make note of your positive progress, because this will help you 1) remember how far you’ve come and 2) stay motivated to keep pressing forward. Don’t let your progress go unappreciated!

It’s also important to know how much you have left to do, so that you can take stock of how much is left, estimate how long it might take, and begin to take action on the next step before you.

Assess Value

Once you know where you are, you can ask yourself if you need to keep going the same direction or if this goal is no longer serving you. Is your goal still relevant? Does it still serve your longer-term–and shorter-term–needs and goals?

Getting my next book(s) done is certainly still relevant to my long-term goals! And it’s still relevant to my mid-term goals, as well, as my plan is to publish Lightning next October and Thunder the following January (Lord willing and I don’t end up making changes to the plan). The biggest question is whether or not it’s still in line with my short-term priorities and goals, as I do have a baby taking up more of my time now!

Even if your short-term needs change and the goal has to be adjusted or postponed, it may still be worthwhile to make those plans for accomplishing the goal differently.

Maybe you have a goal that you realized you set only because you “should,” or that you were excited about when you set it but you’re not anymore, and it’s not serving any larger purpose. It’s okay to scrap that goal and move on to something else.

Other goals may still be perfectly in line with what you’re aiming toward right now, and they may only need minor tweaks in order to get done! Which brings us to the next step…

Assess Challenges

If you have unfinished goals, think about why they’re unfinished.

Maybe it’s a mere matter of time; maybe you’re still on track to meet your original deadline, or maybe you’re even ahead of the game!

Sometimes, however, we’re tripped up on the way to completing our goals and we fall behind or drop goals altogether. If you have goals in this category, think about what got in your way. Did you forget about the goal? Do you need to put it somewhere it’s more readily visible? Did your priorities change? Did you find that there was an extra step you hadn’t accounted for? Did you just procrastinate? Assessing these challenges will equip you to address them as you move forward–in whatever way is necessary.

Besides past obstacles, be aware of what future obstacles could crop up between now and the deadline. Do you need to account for a vacation or holiday break? Are you about to hit a stage of the process that you don’t like as much? Do you have additional projects taking up more and more of your time? Being aware of these will enable you to work on preventative measures now, before you get tripped up and slowed down.

While I’m not currently planning to make any drastic changes to my plan for the Lightning duology, I do know that I’ll need to have grace for myself if I’m not able to keep up with the timeline I had previously set. Not only am I now balancing writing with a more active stage of motherhood, but I did add two entire steps to the editing of Thunder that I hadn’t counted on, and they’re going to take extra time. Assessing challenges may lead to a direct change in plans, or merely a different plan of approach to a goal.

Adjust Course

Once you know where you are, where you’re going, the value of your goal, and the challenges that are prone to arise between you and completing this goal… you can adjust accordingly!

Some goals, you can scrap entirely. These are the goals that are no longer important to you or serving a larger purpose in your broader plans.

Some goals can be replaced with something more suitable–whether a different goal in a similar category, a sub-set of the original goal (e.g. if I were to replace “finish editing the Lightning duology” with “complete the rewrite of Thunder“), or something totally different that’s more in line with your current priorities and values.

In some cases, you may need to adjust the deadline of a goal. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the goal, but you overestimated how much you would be able to work on it, or how quickly. A simple tweak to the timeline can easily remedy this!

Maybe nothing about the goal needs to change, you just needed to take a look at it, remind yourself what’s next, and take the next step with renewed motivation!

Course adjustments don’t have to be major, but they do ensure that you’re able to keep moving in the right direction to accomplish the purposes you’ve set out toward.

How often do you revisit your goals? What’s the most critical step in your process? Share in the comments!

Already setting goals for next year? This post has tips for setting effective goals as an author!

The post 4 Tips for Revisiting Goals appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

I momentarily interrupt the blog’s summer hiatus to celebrate that Scribes & Archers had its 8-year anniversary on Saturday! I asked my newsletter subscribers what I should do to celebrate and a Q&A was the top-voted option, so here’s this year’s celebratory Q&A post! Thank you to Amelie, Jocelyn, Cate, and Aaliyah for sending in questions!

Writing Questions

Do you use block scheduling? A planner where you do a little each day? Or how do you organize your schedule for maximum productivity?

I’ve tried block scheduling before and it’s never worked for me because I personally need a more flexible system that can adjust for differences between days and between larger seasons in terms of energy levels, other activities, what projects I’m interested in, etc. I’ve found that it works best for me when I can work with the natural ebb and flow of my energy and attention as much as possible instead of trying to force it onto certain things at certain times–which I find also makes it easier when I do need to exert a little bit of extra energy toward diverting my attention to a specific project when it’s on a deadline, work for someone else, etc.

I do have a day planner for making sure tasks get done–especially platform tasks, back-end to-dos, and housework–and I have assigned some weekdays to certain top priorities, but I don’t have a strict schedule. I mostly work on whatever is the next necessary step for whatever projects I have in the works, prioritizing whichever projects are holding my attention on a given day (unless I’m on a close deadline or editing for a client), and do as much as I can on that before moving on to the next thing. When I have a task list, I generally do my best to work straight down so that everything gets done, but, again, nothing is completely set in stone.

Over the spring, I started using Notion to keep track of current and upcoming projects and tasks–and the next steps within each one, as applicable–so I have a very clear view all in one place of what I’m working on and what’s next; that has helped to streamline things, since my notes and thoughts were functional but a lot more scattered before. (If anyone’s curious, I may post about my Notion setup in the future; comment below if that’s something you’d be interested in seeing!)

If you’re interested in reading more about how I get things done and keep all (or at least most) of the plates spinning, my 7 time management tips for authors are all drawn from my own practices.

What is your primary source of inspiration?

I referenced my on-the-go notes to identify the answer to this question and I came away with: my surroundings. I keep names from street signs, snippets of description based on things I see when out and about, lots of different descriptions of the sky, story concepts that have sprung from interesting settings, etc. I guess it’s no surprise that my interest in settings/worldbuilding extends to ideas from real-world settings (even if I usually spin those ideas into fantastical settings).

How long have you been writing?/When did you first start writing?

I’ve been writing for about 16 years. But my grandma recently showed me a document she found that was a “story” I wrote before I understood words (composed of keyboard smashing), so I suppose it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say “forever,” either.

The first story I remember writing was when I was six or seven, and it was a mystery story that stole the characters from all of the mystery books I enjoyed reading (Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, maybe the Happy Hollisters?). It was awful and no longer exists anywhere except my brain, as far as I know. I promptly decided that the mystery genre wasn’t for me, as a writer, and I pivoted to a very DnD-esque fantasy story (which was… slightly less horrific). While my start in the genre wasn’t spectacular, I definitely enjoyed fantasy quite a bit more than writing mysteries!

How much research do you do for books with worlds based on other cultures?

It depends. Some of my fictional cultures are more or less heavily based on real-world cultures, so some simply require more or less research; but it also depends on the needs of a story, whether there are particular areas I need more help developing ideas for (food, for example, doesn’t come very easily to me, so I tend to research ethnic cuisine for inspiration), and what the priorities of the fictional culture are.

I try to take as much inspiration from real-world cultures as I need to color my own setting, while still honoring the real culture and creating something unique for my own world. It’s generally helpful, in my experience, when I can draw inspiration from real cultures that share values in common with the cultures I’m trying to build; it’s easier, then, to maintain the heart behind the details I draw on and avoid twisting real-world cultural details into something that would be entirely foreign to someone from that culture (at least, that’s the intention).

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Y’all are going to get really tired of “it depends,” lol. Different stages are more or less fun for different projects. But my most common favorites are the worldbuilding (of course) and editing. I enjoy getting to polish what’s already written and make adjustments that bring the messy draft closer and closer to the story as it’s “supposed to be” in my head.

What is your least favorite part of the writing process?

I suppose formatting doesn’t count because it’s really more part of the publishing process, but if it did, definitely formatting.

In the actual writing process, I guess it would be either outlining or drafting. Not because I really dislike either (though sometimes I do); I just don’t always enjoy them as much as other stages of the process.

What are some of your favorite themes to incorporate in your books?

Community and family come up quite a lot. Forgiveness and reconciliation are pretty common, too. Those are probably the top four that I tend to incorporate over and over.

At what stage in the writing process do you generally decide on a theme?

Usually after the whole first draft is written, because I usually don’t have a theme in mind until it works its way into the story organically and I’m able to see it after the fact. Sometimes I have an idea for a story with a very particular theme from the outset, and sometimes I have to work in a theme more intentionally during edits, but the theme usually arises during the drafting process and just needs to be highlighted more in edits to some degree or another.

How much time do you usually spend writing each day?

This is another thing that changes from season to season. Sometimes just a few minutes, sometimes a few hours, depending on my level of time, energy, and inspiration; and depending on how intently I’m working to get a project finished and/or whether I’m participating in a writing challenge/event.

I do consistently write more on days that I have writing sprints scheduled in my Discord server, especially when there’s a lot of engagement from other authors as well, but I’m not always working on book projects; sometimes I use that opportunity to knock out blog posts or newsletters, too.

Who is your favorite character (from your books) and why?

Let me limit this to characters from my published or ongoing books, because there are way too many otherwise. So from Lost Girl, The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles, Short Story Collection vol. 1, Calligraphy Guild, and the Lightning duology…

I still had to sit here and deliberate for quite a while, lol. I like so many of my characters, and for such different reasons. But four come to the top of my mind–Makio, Zen, and Sairsha from Calligraphy Guild, and Nyla from the Lighting duology–and they essentially break down into two character types that are often my favorite: strong, protective, thoughtful men; and compassionate, creative, enduring women.

In terms of fun to write vs. characters I like on a personal level, there’s also the category that Erika falls into in the Lightning duology, which is the snarky, calloused, isn’t-really-quite-as-tough-as-she-thinks-she-is woman. Tora from Calligraphy Guild is also in that category. I find that those characters come very naturally in terms of their voice, but they’re not always the characters I would want to hang out with all the time. (I would probably hang out with Tora, but Erika and I would not get along very well, lol.)

Which of your characters do you think is most like you?

Duyên in Calligraphy Guild was initially based on me before coming a bit more into her own character, so she has a lot of similarities with me, but I don’t know which character would be the most like me, because I do feel like there are some distinct ways in which I’m not so much like Duyên. (Being fictional, she has the freedom to be a little more perfect than I am, lol.)

I don’t know. I see aspects of myself in many of my characters, but it’s hard to determine which one has the most of me in them. Duyên is as close an answer as any, I suppose.

What are some of the best lines you’ve ever written?

Readers seem to like, “It seems you have saltwater and stardust in your veins,” from Lost Girl. (I like it too.)

A lot of my favorite lines aren’t in published works yet, lol. Like this one from my phone notes: “There’s a reason they call it a golden age. The years are beautiful and prosperous… but also soft and easily wasted.”

Or this opening line from a project I might not ultimately pursue (shared previously in a post about precise prose): “Darkness descended on the city. The sparkling lights of the towers tried to resist, but still it pressed down, as thick and vile as the blood coating Vix‘s knife.” I also like this one because I wrote a complementary closing line for if I did pursue the project, and I enjoy how they describe very similar details with very different tones.

As for published lines, I like these from Calligraphy Guild:

“I will love you whether hope or fear wins out.”

 

Duyên watched Lonpaia’s deft fingers work for a moment. “Why are the gods so fickle?”

“Why are men so fickle? It’s simply the way of things.”

“But shouldn’t gods be better?” Duyên looked back up at Lonpaia.

Lonpaia paused her work and turned toward Duyên. “That is what we all wish for. And yet I can’t help but think they’re simply men with the powers of the universe at their fingertips.”

Reading Questions

What are your favorite books?

I started with a very long list here and was able to whittle it down slightly… I do have a full list of recommendations available–and set up to sort by genre, content level, etc.–available to newsletter subscribers, so check that out if you’re interested in more!

(Links to my reviews, including content notes when relevant)

Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, the Truth series by Dawn Cook, the Scorch trilogy by Bethany Meyer, A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup, Sing to Me of Rain by E.B. Dawson, The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson, the Beaumont and Beasley series by Kyle Robert Shultz, Phantastes by George MacDonald, Harbinger of the End by Nicki Chapelway

Sci-fi: The Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis, the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, the Whispers of White duology by Miranda Marie, the Fire Rain Chronicles by Miranda Marie

Dystopian: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Giver by Lois Lowry, the Out of Time trilogy by Nadine Brandes

Nonfiction: Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson, The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson, The Surprising Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Jerry Root and Mark E. Neal, Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland

Other: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Which books most influenced your writing and/or desire to become an author?

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks really kicked off my interest in fantasy and contributed a lot to my early series/first major fantasy world, which I still intend to revisit and publish in the future. I consider the Shannara series my “origin story” as a fantasy author–alongside the Link’s Crossbow Training Wii game that got me interested in The Legend of Zelda and the worldbuilding behind Hyrule.

Beyond that, I was particularly influenced by Faye Fite’s Terebinth Tree Chronicles, The Maze Runner series by James Dashner (albeit in a different way), and The Lord of the Rings.

What is one fiction book you think everyone (and maybe specifically young adults) should read?

Probably The Lord of the Rings, if only because it’s hard to find another fiction book that I think is of such universal value. There are many other books that I think have great themes, stories, characters, etc., but almost all of them have much narrower appeal/applicability than LotR.

For young adults specifically, though, I might add the Out of Time series by Nadine Brandes, because I think it does such a good job of addressing the themes of purpose and identity.

General Questions

How are you doing?

I’m doing well; thank you for asking! My daughter was born in June, so I’ve been adjusting to that change in our household dynamics and enjoying watching her grow. And I’m taking advantage of this last month before my hiatus ends, especially as my husband just went back to work and that’s presented additional an additional challenge and adjustment.

If you could only listen to one musical artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Probably Andrew Peterson. The Arcadian Wild would also be a contender, but Andrew Peterson probably wins out.

Do you have any pets?

Not presently, no. My family had cats for most of the time I was growing up, but my husband and I haven’t had any pets.

Are you a coffee person or a tea person? If so, which kinds?

I love the smell of coffee, but I’m firmly a tea person when it comes to taste. Black teas are my favorite, my go-to at home is Bigelow’s vanilla chai, and when I go out my default is a chai latte (which led me to develop a homemade chai latte recipe so I didn’t have to spend $5 every time I wanted one, lol).

Not a question, but thank you so much for all the work you’ve put into growing your platform and blessing us with your research, tips, and wisdom!

Aw, thank you, Amelie! I’m glad it’s been a blessing!

And thank you to all of you reading, whether I see you comment, send in questions, etc. or whether you read quietly. Your support helps keep me going and contributes a great deal to my being able to continue building Scribes & Archers and Worlds with a View Publications* as the years go on. <3

*More on this momentarilyPlans for the Next Year

Over the next year, I intend to continue blogging on my usual every-Tuesday schedule, focusing particularly (but not exclusively) on posts that cover worldbuilding and indie publishing. Scribes & Archers is a well-oiled part of my writing sphere, so I don’t intend to make much alteration to it. I did make some adjustments over this past year, especially over the spring, in terms of cleaning up organization and making things easier to find. I adjusted my menu setup, endeavored to make my additional writing resources easier to find, and streamlined my post categories. In short, I tried to minimize the clutter.

The bigger changes in the coming year will relate more to my publishing and course-offering efforts. I mentioned Worlds with a View Publications a moment ago; this is a new name I’ve adopted to encompass all of my work moving forward, including books, courses, and this blog. “Worlds with a View Press” is what I hope to use as the “publishing house” for my books in the future, with imprints for nonfiction and for my NA/slightly less “clean” fiction, so that it will be clear at a glance what’s what–especially in terms of content level. “Worlds with a View Academy Press” will be the imprint used for books like Building a World with a View; the imprint name for NA like the Lightning duology is still pending.

The hope is to release Building a World with a View by this time next year, with Lightning and Thunder following in the fall and winter of 2026. Additionally, my hope is to launch the Worldbuilders Guild to a broader audience (vs. its waitlist alone) early next year!

Support the next year of content

If you’re interested in supporting my work further in the next year, there are a few ways you can contribute–whether tangibly or intangibly.

1) Comment, email, etc.

This helps me to know what’s most helpful and encouraging, and gives me the opportunity to get to know you better! If you’re interested in helping shape the direction of my content, this is the most direct way to do so.

2) Subscribe to the newsletter

This is where you’ll get the most content and updates from me, the best resources, and the most information about my projects, available books, and courses. Subscribing will also give you the opportunity to share your input on projects, blog posts, etc. when I’m crowd-sourcing (like I did to choose the topic of this post), to help steer my efforts more indirectly.

3) Buy a book or enroll in a course

If you’ve been eyeing one of my books–for yourself or a friend–or you’re interested in tools to help strengthen your worldbuilding skills, now is a great time to check out the shop! What I make off of these sales (aside from a tithing portion) always goes right back into operating costs so that I can continue to do what I do.

This is also the last month you’ll be able to join the waitlist for my upcoming mentorship program, the Worldbuiders Guild, if you’re interested in joining early and gaining access to a membership discount.

4) Review a book or share a testimonial

Already read one (or more) of my books, taken one of my courses, or made use of my editing services? Sharing a review or testimonial helps others find out about my work and determine whether or not it’s the right fit for them! You can review my books on Amazon and Goodreads, and testimonials can be shared via social media or sent to me for use in sales pages, quotes, newsletters, etc.

5) Support me through Ko-fi

Ko-fi is a platform that allows followers to support the creators they appreciate with small, “coffee-priced” donations. These, too, go directly to the costs of overhead and project expansion.*

*New releases, educational resources, tools like World Anvil and Aeon Timeline, etc.

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6) Book an editing slot

Self-publishing or querying in the next year and interested in getting a professional set of line edits on the manuscript beforehand? I’d love to work with you! Line edits tackle the readability, flow, and consistency of your project, ensuring your writing excels at connecting your readers to your story. Slots will re-open in mid-September, but you can go ahead and get your query in now if you don’t mind waiting for a September sample.

Submit your query

Again, thank you all so much for your support and interest in what I do! Have more questions that didn’t get answered in this post? Comment or send me an email! I’d love to hear from you!

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Hi there!

This is just a quick notice for those who may not know that I’m taking the months of June-August off from blogging in order to focus on a new baby!

There will be only one new blog post going up between now and September, and that will be a blog anniversary post in early August.

While the blog will be quiet, I do have a full summer email series set up for newsletter subscribers! You can subscribe to get those weekly bonus emails here:

If you’re not interested in getting the full summer series but you do want to hear when I return to posting in the fall, you can subscribe via this form instead:

(I do recommend signing up for the summer series, as it’s full of bonus goodies!)

Looking for something in the meantime?

A list of popular posts can be found on the “About” pageThere is also a list of affiliate links on the “About” page, if you’re looking for writing tool recommendations!My books can be found under “My Books” or in the shopAll of the resources and services I offer authors can be found under “For Authors“

Thank you for visiting Scribes & Archers! I look forward to returning this fall!

The post Summer Hiatus Notice appeared first on Scribes & Archers.

In my last post before beginning my hiatus, I wanted to share something that would be relevant over the summer, so I’ve decided to talk about worldbuilding challenges–like World Anvil’s upcoming Summer Camp challenge.

Didn’t know I was going on hiatus? Want to get an exclusive email series over the summer while I’m gone? Sign up here for all the summer fun!

*This post contains affiliate links, marked with an asterisk. Purchases made through these links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I’ve participated in various worldbuilding challenges over the years–mostly World Anvil‘s* various events and the worldbuilding week of my own Preptober Prompts event–and they’re always a lot of fun! In my case, they make an already enjoyable part of the process even more fun, but I believe that worldbuilding challenges have benefits even for those who aren’t so naturally disposed to enjoy worldbuilding, and today I want to talk about some of the benefits I’ve seen from such challenges!

Worldbuilding Challenges Stretch Your Skills

Some worldbuilding challenges–like World Anvil’s Summer Camp–encourage you to think about new elements of your world (or flesh out things you’ve already started to build), and some focus on strengthening your worldbuilding process and/or skills. In either case, they can be a great way to develop your worldbuilding skills, as even those that focus on developing new elements of your world can often focus on areas you might not have ventured very far into before!

You may find yourself learning more about how to develop certain elements (which will then pay off the next time you have to develop something similar), how to research certain things effectively, or how to tie in different elements that you haven’t had to tie together before.

And, of course, when a challenge is specifically focused on helping you grow in your worldbuilding skill or refine your process, the growth is even clearer.

Challenges Expose Gaps

When you participate in a worldbuilding challenge, you may find that some of the prompts are about things you’ve already fleshed out, but you’ll likely find that there are also of plenty of prompts that make you stop and think about things you’ve never considered before. Sometimes, these unexpected gaps are just for-fun areas–maybe even areas you’ve skipped on purpose–but you may also find from time to time that you’ve missed something that could add great clarity or color to your world!

Another great thing about worldbuilding challenges, though, is that they don’t only expose gaps; they also help you fill those gaps! Some challenges may offer more support in this area than others–there might be additional tips & tricks attached to various challenge prompts (like in my Worldbuilding Checklist mini-course), or you may have only a prompt to work with–but, at the very least, the challenge offers an opportunity to flesh out that new area, and focused time to do it in.

Challenges Add Fun to the Worldbuilding Process

Whether you’re already a fan of worldbuilding and want to have fun with it alongside others, or you find worldbuilding challenging and need encouragement to find the fun in it, worldbuilding challenges are great for adding fun to the worldbuilding process. (Plus, often, competition, for those who need a daring push to get into things.)

Worldbuilding challenges aren’t meant to be taken too seriously. If you’re feeling obligated to accomplish every challenge step and it’s no longer fun, take a step back and reframe it. Worldbuilding challenges are for fun. They’re meant to provide a break from your normal worldbuilding routine, challenge you to think outside the boxes you may be stuck in, and work on whatever prompts are fun for you. Nothing says you even have to keep everything you develop for a worldbuilding challenge!

When approached with a playful attitude, challenges are great for making the worldbuilding process fun and for encouraging community and collaboration around the craft!

Worldbuilding Challenges Provide a Break from the Norm

If your worldbuilding process has started to feel stale, a worldbuilding challenge might be just the thing you need to pump life back into it! Worldbuilding challenges offer something different–usually from outside your own brain, though you could also build your own worldbuilding challenge for yourself if you wanted to–and add new variety to the worldbuilding process (and sometimes to your world as a whole, depending on the prompts and how much they do or don’t line up with what you develop out of habit).

Worldbuilding challenges are great if you need a break from another part of the writing process, from your standard worldbuilding process, from a particular world, from a particular part of the world, etc.

Challenges Offer a Great Opportunity to Receive Feedback

Lastly, challenges are almost always community events, and many involve constructive and encouraging feedback as part of the fun. If you’re interested to know what parts of your world are most interesting or connect best with people, where your world could use further fleshing out, what readers want to know, etc., worldbuilding challenges are a great way to get that sort of feedback on your world.

This is particularly the case with World Anvil, as their events include live pages that collect “featured articles,” leaderboards, etc.; they make presenting your worldbuilding and receiving comments easy; and they encourage community feedback on “articles” submitted for events! (And for anyone nervous about getting such feedback, I’ll assure you that I’ve gotten several comments on articles over the years and it’s all been very positive, even where people have had critiques or suggested areas to flesh out.)

Interested in participating in worldbuilding challenges? World Anvil’s Summer Camp takes place in the month of July, so now is a great time to give World Anvil a test run*, if you haven’t already, and prepare to participate this summer! World Anvil also hosts a month-long worldbuilding challenge in December, plus various smaller challenges throughout the year.

If you’re interested in worldbuilding challenges with a smaller community, and/or challenges that focus on worldbuilding skills and process as well as prompts for developing your world itself, you should check out the Worldbuilders Guild! The Guild isn’t open yet, but it will be opening to the waitlist this fall (with a limited-time discount) and to everyone else (at full price) early next year. If you want to be an early part of the community and one of the first to start the journey to worldbuilding mastery, you should join the waitlist!

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I’m not one to do a “digital detox” every new year, but I significantly pared down my inbox in January, which drew my attention to the nearly 2,500 books I had marked to-read on Goodreads, many of which reflected past interests and reading habits I’m unlikely to return to… and I suspect I’m not the only one with such overwhelming stacks of books looming from the to-read pile (whether that pile is visible or not).

Especially as we look toward summer reading, it seemed a fitting time to discuss how to declutter that TBR (To-Be-Read pile) and get back to reading what you’re interested in—with the ability to clearly see the next interesting book on the stack.

Start at the Bottom

Start your purge with the things you’re least likely to read. With my emails, this meant starting with the oldest emails and working my way up to present. With my TBR, this means starting with my “might want to read” list before tackling my “to-read” list.

Starting at the bottom makes it easier to get rid of things quickly because you’re not starting with all of the hard decisions of whether or not to keep the things you’ve recently added. You will get to those eventually, but by then the pile will be much smaller and you’ll have more breathing room when it comes time to make those more difficult judgments.

Remove Books Liberally

If there’s any significant doubt that you’ll really want to read something, either delete it or move it to a “look at later” sort of list. You can come back to these if you’re really bored, want something different, or have some time to kill on book-sorting, but delete as many books as “don’t spark joy.” (While I find that difficult with books I already own, I promise it’s much easier with books you’ve only thought about reading… and sometimes only thought about once.)

There’s also no harm in removing a book from the to-read list. Unless you’re getting rid of physical books, you can always add a book back onto the list later if it catches your eye again!

Focus on the Present

Just because you were interested in a book three years ago doesn’t mean you still have to be interested in it now. If your subjects of study have moved on or you no longer read a particular genre, category, or plot type, you can remove those books without shame. (Exceptions may be made for interests that you know are recurring—mythology is such a topic for me—or that you have a strong suspicion will return in the relatively near future.) I’ve scrapped a lot of romance-heavy YA, dystopia, and YA fantasy from my lists; it doesn’t appeal to me the same way now that it did when I was 14, and that’s probably a good thing, lol.

If It Helps, Sub-Categorize

If this idea overwhelms you, skip it. But if it helps you to be able to see sub-categories when you’re choosing what to read next, then it may be worth adding things to genre- or topic-specific Goodreads shelves, tagging books in LibraryThing, or otherwise marking what books are about (or what tropes they contain, etc. depending on what is helpful to you) while you’re already going through everything. With my email, I did my best to add labels to everything obvious as I went along so that I can easily archive things to specific folders; with the right tools, you can do a similar thing with your books.

While I find this most useful for categorizing books I already own (which I do in LibraryThing), I do have some specific shelves in Goodreads for particular genres.

Prioritize

With your list pared down, you can make a plan to 1) read the books on said list and 2) add new books with more specificity.

This doesn’t have to be rigid; you can choose a whole category or two to start with. Maybe you want to read about classic authors and you want to read books from authors you know, or maybe you want to read all of the books you currently have on loan or on your physical “current reads” shelf (this is me), or all the books you own but haven’t read (also me).

Maybe you know you don’t enjoy “strong female characters” or romance-heavy stories, so you just don’t add those unless a book really catches your eye.

This is not to say that you should be fearful about adding new books because “what if they’re the wrong books?” It’s good to read outside of your comfort zone every once in a while, and you can always do another deep clean later for the books you don’t end up reading after all.

Hopefully this has been a help to those of you struggling, as I have, with keeping your TBRs managed in a way that serves you and your reading habits instead of adding clutter to the process. If you decide to pare down your TBR, let me know how it goes!

In the meantime, what are 3-5 books you’re most excited to read next? I’d love to hear about them!

Interested in getting edifying book recommendations, reviews, and other bookish content delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up and get instant access to my ongoing book recommendation database!

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Last month, it was brought to my attention that I didn’t yet have any articles on developing gender roles in fictional cultures, which led to the topic floating around in my brain until a post outline formed (likely helped along by the fact that I do have a section on gender roles in Building a World with a View, so this is a topic I’ve written about before even if it wasn’t in an available format until now). While some folks prefer to avoid gender roles as a fraught topic, knowing how your culture views the responsibilities and roles of men and women makes a huge difference in how they frame society as a whole; broader societal structure has its foundation in the structure of gender roles and family units, whether we like that reality or not, so gender roles are an important topic to consider when fleshing out a fictional culture!

Consider Natural Strengths & Weaknesses

Men and women have different natural strengths and weaknesses–biological and otherwise. The same is probably true even if you’re working with a fictional race rather than solely human characters; unless you’re building a fictional race specifically to explore the question of what a culture would look like in which men and women are identical, any species is going to have natural distinctions between men and women in some area or another. Knowing what these distinctions are gives you the foundational facts that your culture will have to account for (or ignore) as they work out their conception of gender roles.

Human men, for example, are physically stronger than women. Women are naturally more physically weak (even physically strong women are still at a biological disadvantage against men when it comes to physical strength), but they also have biological abilities that men don’t–like carrying and growing babies from conception to term (and then delivering those babies).

While these fundamental differences are unchanging (though people may believe otherwise), how a culture views these differences and values or devalues the distinct strengths of either gender can differ drastically and create drastically different gender roles from culture to culture.

The Purpose & Origin of Gender Roles

What your culture sees as the purpose and origin of gender roles will affect how it shapes those gender roles. A culture whose purpose for gender roles is to optimize the societal impact and personal well-being of its citizens will have very different-looking gender roles from a culture which views these roles as a way to control the way people engage in society–or to keep whichever gender they prioritize more highly in power over the other.

Likewise, a culture that sees gender roles as a human construct will have a different attitude toward them–and different resulting guidelines–than a culture which sees gender roles as having been instituted by their deity.

Your culture’s purpose for gender roles and their perception of the origin of gender roles will also impact what areas of life these roles have an impact on. Some cultures may only expect gender roles to be observed when it comes to what work one does; some may have gender roles that dictate where a person should predominantly spend his or her time in a physical sense; some gender roles may impact one’s interaction with society through dress, etiquette, etc.; some gender roles may influence some combination of these areas.

Cultural Prioritization of Gender

Once you’ve established the natural strengths and weaknesses of men and women in whatever race you’re working with, there are two questions of cultural priorities that will form the backbone of cultural gender roles; prioritization of gender, and prioritization of tasks.

Some cultures are biased toward either men or women, some view the two as equal and equivalent (more on that later), and some view the two as equal but different. Which category your culture falls into will affect its overall idea of gender roles. If neither gender is prioritized over the other, then gender roles may be more nuanced–or, on the other hand, practically non-existent. If, however, the culture prioritizes women, for example, gender roles may be more strict in favor of women and their natural strengths, and the roles and work of men may be looked down upon.

It should be noted that prioritization of gender and prioritization of tasks don’t always coincide. Say you have a society in which men are acknowledged to have greater physical strength so they’re assigned physical labor, but the culture prioritizes women, who are acknowledged to be physically more fragile and given the work of artistry, motherhood, etc. There are two ways this prioritization of women might play out. On the one hand, you might have a culture that sees physical labor as a “necessary evil,” looks down upon men and their physical work, etc. On the other hand, you might have a culture that acknowledges the necessity of physical labor in a more positive way, appreciates men for sparing women that physical work, and sees men less favorably than women but still acknowledges their purpose and value within society as a whole.

If a particular gender is prioritized over the other–in either direction–keep in mind that this will have a negative effect on those who are of the lesser-valued sex. This may lead to a culture in which the devalued gender neglects their natural strengths and leaves gaps in society as a result, or in which the devalued gender tends to abuse their natural strengths because they feel those strengths are repressed but they don’t know how to use them properly because they were never encouraged to do so. Or, of course, you might end up with a combination of the two.

Imbalanced prioritization can also have a negative effect on the more highly-valued sex, as they may have fewer boundaries around their strengths and thus abuse those strengths–or use them to abuse the opposite sex–and may be blind to their natural weaknesses.

Cultures with a more balanced view of the value of men and women may have the same weaknesses if they treat men and women as having entirely equivalent roles; while cultures that have a balanced view of both the value and the respective roles of men and women may better equip their people to know their strengths and their weaknesses and to use their strengths in tandem vs. in competition. (More on that shortly.)

Cultural Prioritization of Tasks

Sometimes, as we’ve just discussed, cultures have an underlying gender bias. Sometimes, however, a culture values or devalues certain tasks which are best fulfilled by either men or women, and gender bias may arise out of that bias toward or against particular tasks.

For example, let’s say you have a culture that doesn’t believe in harming living things unless it’s absolutely necessary–and still sees causing harm as distasteful even when it is necessary. Men might be most naturally suited to things like hunting, defending against invaders, etc., but all of these tasks would be seen as undesirable by the culture at large. Then, even if your culture doesn’t have anything against men for their own sake, they may look down on men for being the ones to do the distasteful act of causing necessary harm.

This can also work in reverse. If you have a culture which highly values children and family, you might end up with a culture that places somewhat disproportionate value on women because they’re the ones who most nurture their children–even if that culture also acknowledges the value of men in training, disciplining, protecting, and providing for their children.

Knowing what tasks your culture does or doesn’t value–which will be greatly rooted in their core cultural values–and tying that into the strengths and weaknesses of either gender can go a long way toward developing your culture’s gender roles.

Collaboration, Competition, or Conflation in Gender Roles

I’ve already alluded to this a great deal, but it’s critical to know how your culture views the relationship between the roles of men and the roles of women, and there are three basic options for this: gender roles may be collaborative, competitive, or conflated with one another.

Cultures that acknowledge the distinctions between men and women but value both equally are most likely to have collaborative gender roles–roles that complement one another, so that men and women work together in their respective roles for the betterment of society. Though, it could also be interesting to explore a culture in which men and women are viewed as equal-but-different, yet their roles are set in competition against one another somehow; while a more unlikely dynamic, it would be an interesting combination to work through for a culture.

Cultures that acknowledge the distinctions between men and women but value one more highly than the other, or that value both equally but don’t appreciate the distinctions between the sexes, are most likely to end up with gender roles that are competitive–gender roles that set men and women at odds with each other, either causing one group to look down on the other or pushing men and women to vie for the same roles within society. In either case, this is likely to lead to conflict and resentment between men and women.

Lastly, cultures that value men and women equally but try to erase the distinctions between them may conflate gender roles, so that they appear non-existent. This can lead to the same conflict of men and women trying to fill the same positions and getting in each other’s way, and it can also lead to certain roles going unfilled–or underfilled–as no one of either gender is prepared or encouraged to fill any specific role.

Flexibility of Gender Roles

Not only is it helpful to know what your culture expects of men and women within its society, but it’s also important to know how stringent its gender roles are. Overly strict gender roles can generate disproportionate dissatisfaction among those who feel like they don’t naturally fit the mold expected of them, while gender roles that are too loose can easily leave people feeling unsure of where they belong and lacking guidance to figure it out. The dynamics available, of course, are many and varied, as they will depend not only on where your culture falls along the spectrum of strict vs. loose but also how that interacts with their unique expectations and prioritization for gender roles.

There are two big things to understand when deciding the flexibility of gender roles in this culture. One significant factor is the culture’s underlying values. For example, order-focused cultures may be naturally strict on most things, gender roles included, while a culture that values nature might instead have gender roles patterned after the most common strengths and weaknesses of men and women but leave more room for exceptions when they naturally arise.

The second biggest thing to understand is that the strictness of gender roles is a spectrum. Some cultures might be incredibly strict, encapsulating everything from work to clothing to way of speaking to etiquette under the umbrella of “gender roles” and leaving no room for deviation; some cultures might have very clear guidelines around what types of work each gender is meant for, but allow for greater flexibility in how they fulfill that work and/or in how they engage with society beyond that work (in dress, etiquette, etc.); some may have no guidelines at all, as previously mentioned, leaving men and women to work and interact with society in whatever ways they please without regard for sex.

This will, of course, be highly influenced also by your culture’s purpose for gender roles and where they believe  these roles came from, as discussed earlier. There may be less room for flexibility in gender roles that are perceived to have been instituted by a deity–but even so, how broad these guidelines are may only extend to those areas on which that deity has spoken; perhaps the deity has given clear guidelines on how each gender should dress, but not on how they must work, for example. Of course, there is always the possibility that your culture may take this beyond the direct instructions of their deity to create stricter guidelines than they were given, as well.

There are a few core things to think about when developing your culture’s idea of gender roles. Is this a topic you’ve explored in your worldbuilding before? Which point stood out to you most? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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