Beth Barany's Blog

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone,  who is stopping by to chat with us about “Should Your Next Book Be a Series? Here’s How to Tell.” Enjoy!

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You’ve got a story idea brewing, and now you’re staring down one of the biggest choices a writer can make: should you write a standalone novel or dive into a series?

Series dominate bestseller lists, build diehard fanbases, and help you stack up your backlist. (Hello, passive income!)

But there’s no getting around the fact that they also come with more planning, more writing, and more commitment.

So how do you know if your story deserves multiple installments, or if it should wrap up neatly within a single volume?

While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, there are always clues.

Let’s dive into four key signs that your next project has series potential.

1. Your world is bigger than one book

If your story is set in a world with its own history, politics, and culture — a world you’ve poured your heart into building — chances are one book won’t do it justice.

Think A Song of Ice and Fire; George R.R. Martin doesn’t just toss readers into Westeros and hope for the best.

He spends entire pages fleshing out noble houses, ancient lore, and tangled alliances.

You feel the weight of the world in every character decision, from the smallfolk in Flea Bottom to the power players in King’s Landing.

Does your story have multiple regions, cultures, or political systems that interact in intricate ways?

Are there ancient prophecies, secret organizations, or elaborate backstories that are integral to the plot?

If the answer is yes, your narrative probably needs to be a series.

That said, remember: great worldbuilding is never just for the sake of detail.

Every piece of lore should serve your story or reveal something important about your characters.

If it doesn’t drive the plot or deepen your themes, it likely doesn’t need to be there.

2. Your characters have a lot going on

Some stories aren’t just about one character’s journey.

Maybe you’ve got a tangled web of characters, each with their own arc, their own conflicts, and their own evolution.

If you find yourself agonizing over fitting all that character development in a single book, chances are you’ve got a series on your hands.

Consider The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. 

Across seven books, the Pevensies (and later, other major characters) each experience their own growth, face unique challenges, and contribute to the overarching story of Narnia.

Trying to compress all of that into a single book would have totally robbed the series of its depth, charm, and sense of adventure.

Can you imagine a series like that as a standalone?

Squash all the books into one, and you’d lose half the magic.

Another great example is the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Lyra’s hunt for the truth about Dust barely scratches the surface of this sprawling tale.

Other characters like Will, Iorek, and Serafina (among many others) each go on their own journey.

And that’s before we even get into the big philosophical questions or the epic battles.

So if you’re dedicating entire chapters (or more) just to cover a single character’s backstory or growth, take it as a sign that your story is ready to expand into multiple books.

3. Your plot thrives on cliffhangers

Does your story keep throwing curveballs that lead to bigger questions?

Do you find yourself writing cliffhangers that wouldn’t make sense if they were resolved in the very next chapter?

That’s a strong sign your plot thrives on serial momentum.

If your story is structured around unanswered questions, tangled subplots, or escalating tension, a series is probably the way to go.

Take The Hunger Games — each book introduces new layers of conflict, new settings, and new character challenges, all while maintaining that taut “edge-of-your-seat” suspense.

The first book introduces Katniss, the deadly arena, and key players in her world, setting up a tight, high-stakes survival story.

Catching Fire then expands the scope, throwing political rebellion and deeper character struggles into the mix, while giving supporting characters like Peeta, Gale, and President Snow more room to develop.

By Mockingjay the narrative shifts into full-blown revolution, with personal and political cliffhangers propelling the story forward.

Each installment builds on the last, adding new tensions, fresh settings, and bigger challenges that keep readers hungry for more (no pun intended).

Even romance-heavy series get in on the cliffhanger fun!

In Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, each book focuses on a different sibling, yet the family secrets and unresolved drama spill over from one story to the next.

The result is a story that works on its own, while those sly little twists keep readers hooked on the series, eager to see what the next sibling (or scandal) stirs up.

At the same time, it’s important to beware of lazy cliffhangers.

Every book in your series should offer a satisfying mini-conclusion while still teasing what’s to come.

Otherwise, readers might feel strung along without payoff, and nobody wants that.

4. You have a long-term vision

Let’s be real: writing a series isn’t for the faint of heart.

It demands dedication and a solid plan.

Be honest with yourself: do you know where this multi-book ride is headed, or are you just holding on for dear life?

A well-crafted series is like a road trip with a clear destination in mind.

Each stop (or book) should serve a purpose (whether it’s developing characters, introducing new conflicts, or revealing hidden truths), all while driving the overarching narrative arc forward.

A solid hack for avoiding the dreaded “saggy middle” is to break each book into clear story beats before you start writing.

Pinpoint where tension should rise, conflicts should escalate, and key revelations should land.

That’s exactly what J.K. Rowling did with Harry Potter, famously mapping out all seven books before even finishing the first one!

That kind of foresight keeps the momentum sharp and prevents the story from meandering or spiraling into chaos.

Is your book a standalone?

If you’re unsure where your story would go after the first book, a standalone might be the safer bet.

But if you have a clear vision, a series will let you explore your big ideas with depth and freedom, turning that single spark of an idea into a multi-installment adventure.

Ultimately, it comes down to your story’s demands.

If your world, characters, and plot are bursting at the seams, a series could be the perfect playground for your imagination.

But don’t fall for the myth that series are inherently more valuable or commercially successful.

Sometimes less really is more.

A well-executed standalone can make a far bigger impact than a bloated series with little purpose.

At the end of the day, it’s not about how many books you write.

It’s about telling the story only you can tell, in the way it was meant to be told.

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About The Author

Shweta Deshpande writes for Reedsy about all things storytelling.

Her background spans brand marketing, podcast production, and editorial work.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Film Studies, which probably explains her love for horror films and complex character arcs.

When she’s not working, you’ll usually find her tinkering with a creative side project or playing chess badly, yet determinedly.

The post Should Your Next Book Be a Series? Here’s How to Tell by Shweta Deshpande appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back Iman Llompart as she shares with us “Why Not Me? Learning to Build a Business as a Creative.” Enjoy!

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Rethinking My Career Path

The idea of starting my own business has always been a fleeting thought.

But feeling stuck in a competitive job market, especially in a country where everyone is vying for the same opportunities, has a way of shifting your mindset.

Now my thought is, why not?

If I could do something I love without worrying about the demands of higher-ups, toxic work environments, or rigid hours, the possibility of running a small business becomes more and more intoxicating.

Recognizing My Challenges

Of course, I know I’m an overthinker.

I’m also aware that starting a business involves a lot of behind-the-scenes knowledge, and that I could use a little hand-holding when it comes to certain things.

Finding clients and setting rates have always been my biggest dilemmas.

Discovering the Creative Entrepreneur Apprenticeship Program

But since joining The Creative Entrepreneur Apprenticeship Program, I feel more at ease.

I’m now in my fourth week of the program, and while there’s a lot of information to take in, I know it’s all meant to help me start and grow my business.

The structure alternates between weekly lessons and two-hour office hours, where we can ask any questions we have about the material or our progress.

Learning from Experienced Mentors

So far, we’ve covered how to write our bios and how to pitch our services, whether as workshops or as offers to attract more clients.

The instructors, Beth Barany and Gala Russ, are incredibly hands-on.

They review our homework through the student forum and provide thoughtful feedback to make sure we understand what we’re doing and how to move toward our goals.

The program runs for three months, and we meet every Tuesday for two hour sessions, packed with practical information and personalized guidance.

The Power of Creative Community

What makes this program special is the community.

Everyone is connected by a shared desire to create and grow a business, but we’re also united by something deeper: a genuine wish to help other creatives.

The creative field doesn’t follow a clear A to point B path, and it’s easy to feel lost or overwhelmed.

That’s why having mentors and peers who can guide and support each other is so valuable.

Building My Own Creative Business

With my background in administration and scheduling, I’m building a business around helping other creatives manage the practical side of their work.

As a fantasy writer, I know how important, and sacred creative time is.

It’s a gift to have a team you trust to handle the logistics while you focus on the chaos and magic of imagination.

Finding Confidence and Purpose

Right now, I still feel a bit like I’m underwater, absorbing all these new insights, just because it’s new territory and I lack the confidence.

But for the first time, I can see the surface getting closer.

The guidance and patience of my instructors have been invaluable, and I hope to pass on that same sense of support and reassurance to my future clients, who may one day find themselves right where I am now.

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About The Author

Iman Llompart is a Spanish American writer based in Dubai, raised in Mexico, and currently navigating the final stages of the rough draft of an epic fantasy romance novel. Passionate about storytelling and the writing process, Iman understands the struggles that many novice writers face—the self-doubt, the isolation, and the challenge of completing a book. Through blog posts, insights, and personal experiences, Iman seeks to remind fellow writers that they are not alone on this journey.

When not writing, Iman enjoys reading, deep-diving into writing sessions and lessons, and watching book-based shows and movies. Occasionally, she also braves the unpredictable world of dating—an adventure that sometimes feels more daunting than crafting an entire novel. With a love for words and a mission to inspire, Iman hopes to one day share her finished manuscript and continue helping others through the power of storytelling.

Instagram @imanllompart • Instagram photos and videos

The post Why Not Me? Learning to Build a Business as a Creative by Iman Llompart appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Seamless Queer Characters in Fantasy World Building with Chad Grayson – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 174

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“I’m not asking for everybody to center queer characters in their narratives in world-building, which would be nice, actually, you know, as nice as that would be. But just to include us and to show that we exist and in whatever ways are appropriate in your world, whether that is a more like marginal existence in some worlds.” – Chad Grayson

In this episode on the How To Write the Future podcast, “Seamless Queer Characters in Fantasy World Building,” host Beth Barany talks to sci-fi and fantasy author Chad Grayson about the importance of queer and neurodivergent representation in world building, protecting your creativity, and shares productivity tips for neurodivergent writers. 

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES 

”10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Ideas” free e-book:

https://writersfunzone.com/blog/10-ways-to-generate-ideas/

FOR CREATIVE WRITING PROFESSIONALS – BUILD YOUR BUSINESS SERVING WRITERS

Sign up to be notified when our training opens and get a short Creative Business Style Quiz to help you create success.

https://bethbarany.com/apprenticeship/

Support our work for creatives!

Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

GET SOME FREE WRITING COACHING LIVE ON THE PODCAST

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

GET SUPPORT FOR YOUR FICTION WRITING BY A NOVELIST AND WRITING TEACHER AND COACH

Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers.This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT CHAD GRAYSON

Chad Grayson has worn many hats: tech support flunky, gas station philosopher, reluctant middle school wrangler, and, for one unforgettable night, cheese-mold removal specialist. These days he lives in far Northern California, where he writes hopeful, character-focused sci-fi and fantasy that will break your heart and duct tape it back together. He can usually be found painting tiny fantasy heroes and monsters, wandering the woods in deep narrative contemplation, or yelling at his plot outlines like they’ve personally betrayed him (they know what they did).

His superpowers include procrastination, dyscalculia, and making emotionally devastating story beats sound like a perfectly reasonable life choice.

Here is a short story collection that showcases my fiction. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/b2p8y4vi0l

Website: https://www.chadgrayson.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/c.e.grayson

 

Transcript for episode 174 – Seamless Queer Characters in Fantasy World Building with Chad Grayson Introduction & Host Welcome 

BETH BARANY: Hi everyone. Welcome to or welcome back to our podcast, How to Write the Future, Tips for Writers and anyone who cares about the Future. I’m your host, Beth Barany. I am an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author who supports, teaches and coaches other science fiction and fantasy authors. I also support creative entrepreneurs who would like to build their own businesses, and I’m a filmmaker, and of course podcaster. All the things of course. 

I run this podcast because I am passionate about helping writers and anyone who cares about the future to help us re-envision how we want to be as humanity. And I think stories are the most powerful way to do that. And so I love to interview other authors and thinkers and futurists and, and people who are thinking outside the box. So today I have one of those people. Welcome Chad. I am so glad to have you here with us today. Welcome. 

CHAD GRAYSON: Hi Bethany. Good to be here. 

BETH BARANY: So, wonderful. I’m everyone, I’m gonna read Chad’s bio so you can get to know him a little bit.

[01:09] Meet Chad Grayson 

All right, Chad, I love your bio. So here’s a little bit about Chad. Chad Grayson has worn many hats, tech support, funky gas station philosopher, reluctant middle school wrangler, and for one unforgettable night, cheese mold removal specialist. These days, he lives in far Northern California where he writes hopeful character focused sci-fi and fantasy that will break your heart and duct tape it back together. He can usually be found painting tiny fantasy heroes and monsters, wandering the woods in deep narrative contemplation, or yelling at his plot outlines like they’ve personally betrayed him. They know what they did. His superpowers include procrastination, dyscalculia, and making emotionally devastating story beats sound like a perfectly reasonable life choice.

Welcome, Chad. So glad that you are here. Really fun to have you. Welcome again. 

CHAD GRAYSON: Thank you. 

BETH BARANY: I love your bio. It is hilarious and wonderful and touching. So let’s dive into our questions. I ask my guests to provide questions ahead of time because I wanna talk about what they wanna talk about so long as it’s within the framework of our scope.

[02:36] Integrating Queer Characters in Worldbuilding 

We’re gonna just dive right in. I often talk about world building and character development on this podcast. And Chad, I really appreciate your questions. Um, so let’s just start. 

In what ways can queer people be seamlessly integrated into futuristic fantasy or secondary world building?

And I just have to say, I, I’m attempting this too in my own work, so yeah. Can you talk to us on that? 

CHAD GRAYSON: Well, it’s a lot simpler than people try to make it sometimes. Whenever I’m talking about the representation in the groups that are in my books, I always get questions, especially from people in my writing group about, well, how do you do that naturally?

Like, I don’t wanna like make an announcement whenever the character enters the room, like what their sexual orientation is. And I’m like, it’s really simple. Hopefully when you are developing your characters and you’re writing your characters, you’re giving them little character moments where they talked about their lives or their past.

So you can just have your darkest past and talk about her ex-girlfriend or something, or just mention like the priest’s husband or the priestess, his wife. I’m not asking for everybody to center queer characters in their narratives in world building, which would be nice actually, you know, as nice as that would be.

But like just to include us and to show that we exist and in whatever ways are appropriate in your world, whether that is a more like marginal existence in some worlds, that’s appropriate. Or, or if everybody’s just accepted, like acknowledge that. Acknowledge that we exist and show that we are present. 

BETH BARANY: I love that.

Yeah. I love that because, you know, every character has a past and every character has their preoccupations. So sometimes what I like to do when I’m doing my character sketches and starting to understand who my characters are, and actually you’re reminding me I have to do this

I have to do this for one of my characters, is, um, to really get clear: What is their preoccupation or interests? And maybe they’re going on a date that night. They all come from somewhere. One of my characters has, in my work in progress, he has two moms and a dad, and he just mentions it in, in his enthusiastic way as he’s talking about his family, because he is a chatterbox and he is a young man. And then I have my protagonist, my point of view character think about, she had just met the mother, one of the mothers, and so she’s like, oh yeah, I could see the resemblance, and also in the personality.

So we all do that. We all talk about our families and we all see resemblances between family members, for example. It could be traits, could be physical traits and so that’s wonderful. 

And it’s even something that you can include when you’re planning your story. You can be thinking about the wider culture and the relationships that person has. 

CHAD GRAYSON: Some people think you have to have the character walk in announcing their orientation, and that is not what you need to do. That is actually kind of off putting to people that way.

There are some, um, like you just mentioned, there are some science fiction things, writers who do this really well. I really appreciated how in the Expanse series that they had the main character talk about his moms and dads, and it was a group marriage situation that he was raised by. Even somebody like Brandon Sanderson has in the Stormlight archive, I know he’s gotten more in depth with it in his most recent book, but even along the way, he had one side character who dates men. It was no big deal to everybody.

It’s really easy to work it in seamlessly. It doesn’t have to become a major plot point, although it can, it’s nice if it does, but it is so much easier than you think it is. And, you don’t have to have the burden of thinking you have to represent everything all the time. But let’s just to acknowledge that those people, that people like us exist and that are part of your world.

BETH BARANY: Yeah, I love that. I think it’s really important to reflect the diversity of reality. A lot of art in the past has basically disappeared groups of people. Genders, races. I mean, women got completely disappeared from so many narratives when they were in fact instrumental.

So that’s one of my big focuses in my own work. So I really appreciate that you brought that up. And that we, we talk about it and we think about it. If you’ve read a lot of stories that do not include diversity, then it could be easy to forget to actually reflect diversity in our own work. Just because previous writers have forgotten or made the choice or often it’s ignorance, doesn’t mean that we can’t bring more inclusivity into our work.

CHAD GRAYSON: Yeah, all these goods have been here all these years. We’ve always been here, we’ve always been part of the story of life, and there have been people writing about all these different groups through, over, over time, they didn’t get a lot of attention for it. There are some authors who were writing about queer people in the eighties and nineties, but we’ve always been here and it’s nice that we’re into a time now where it is seen as more natural to include us.

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. And it is so important to see ourselves represented in story. I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered, uh, how come I don’t see anyone like me, you know, who might have my disability, like what I have with my hands, or even someone who has my kind of personality or my interests.

[07:41] The Importance of Representation 

Yeah, or my psychology even. 

CHAD GRAYSON: As a queer kid growing up in the Midwest, I didn’t see happy queer people in stories until the early two thousands, and that kept me in the closet until I was 46 years old. 

BETH BARANY: Yeah.

CHAD GRAYSON: I mean, not that it was the only thing there was, it was a big, complicated situation, but if I had seen some examples of queer people who were not tragic or tortured or dying of some disease, like it, that would’ve really changed my life. 

When, um, Rick Riordan started writing his stories about Nico and making it clear that he was queer and with his relationship, I saw that first cover of that book and I seriously wept for thirty minutes ’cause I was like, if this book had existed when I was thirteen, my entire life might have been different. So seeing yourself in story is, it’s very important, especially for younger people, but for everybody. 

BETH BARANY: Yeah. And what is the title of that book? 

CHAD GRAYSON: It’s the Sun and the Star.

BETH BARANY: Okay. 

CHAD GRAYSON: By Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro and it’s part of the Percy Jackson series. 

BETH BARANY: Wow. I love the Percy Jackson series. Yeah. I write YA, and a big reader of YA as well.

CHAD GRAYSON: Yeah, seriously. I looked at that and I just, I had to pull it over the car ’cause it was so powerful. This is a kid’s book and it’s got two boys holding hands on the cover and it just really moved me. 

The book was actually good when I read it, so that was good. That was good. 

BETH BARANY: That’s good too. Yeah. That’s so good. 

[09:01] Writing Productivity for Neurodivergent People

CHAD GRAYSON: Sure. 

BETH BARANY: I love your next question. So there you are. You’re a writer. It sounds like you have writing really centered in your life and you’ve prioritized it. So tell us some tips for being productive, especially for neurodivergent people. 

CHAD GRAYSON: Okay. So I wrote my entire life on the side. It was what I wanted to do with my life, but I never bought into the idea that I could actually do it full-time. I became a Teacher. I had a life, I had kids, I raised kids, I wrote a lot, but I didn’t finish anything. Finally in 2019, I had a big, I dunno if you call it life crisis or, I ended my marriage, I came outta the closet and I decided since I have the opportunity now, I’m gonna make writing the central part of my life. 

So since, so July 1st, 2019 was when I made that decision, and I’ve done it ever since. I have the luxury of having sort of an income that doesn’t depend on my writing or having a day job.

So I acknowledge that right away. But I am also neurodivergent. I have ADHD, I’m somewhere in the autism spectrum and I have bipolar disorder. So like that created a bunch of challenges for actually getting the work done. And what I started out doing is: you just have to build the habit in whatever way works for you, and the way you do that is you start out with a really easy, manageable goal at first.

Like say, I’m gonna write for 10 minutes, or I’m gonna write three hundred words and hit that. Build up a history of success for yourself, and that will kinda launch you into bigger leaps of productivity.

I started out with a thousand words a day, which for me is not that hard because I, I tend to write fast, but like for, I know some people that would be a challenge, so I’d say like two hundred or three hundred words a day is fine. That’s a book in a year, if you do, if you can do that.

And I have built up over the course of time through, is just repetition of, of the habit is I’m now doing, I write two hours a day and I usually write twenty five hundred words a day.

I do that three or four times a week. I don’t do it every single day ’cause that would wear me out.

The important thing you do is you gotta figure out the way that works for you. You’ve also got to schedule the time, really. My joke that you only have to schedule the things you actually want to happen.

And what I started doing was putting my writing time on a Google calendar and sending it to the people in my life saying that this is my writing time, this is what I’m doing during this time. Do not bother me unless somebody important is on fire. Um, I did that and it took a little bit of time for them to kind of understand that and, um, but they did. And flip side of that was I feel, I felt like I was creating a bargain with them, that I would actually be writing during that time so that I wouldn’t get to that time and be like, okay, I feel like playing video games or something else.

So you gotta create that contract with yourself and the people you love, that if they give you the time you’ve gotta use that properly, and that kind of builds up a little bit of social pressure and that helps, and you gotta find the method that works for you. 

For me, I’m kind of 60% planner 40% discovery writer. I have an outline that I, does kind of loosey goosey major plot points and then I kind of discovery write my way between those plot points and that works really well for me. 

Since 2019, I’ve actually written, I think I’m on book thirteen right now and I’ve published ten of them since 2021, so like, I figured out what made me work. Also, I worked on things that I loved. I didn’t write to the market. I didn’t create a bullet list of here’s how I’m gonna break in and become a bestseller right away by following these trends. I wrote the books of my heart, and that made me very motivated to do that.

And I think if you give yourself permission to do that, you’ll be much more motivated to meet the, to hit the goal, and you’ll produce a lot more and you’ll create a body of work you’re really proud of, which is really important. 

BETH BARANY: I love all your tips, you know, setting a reasonable goal, an attainable goal, scheduling, bringing in your loved ones to help you with accountability and social pressure and, um, working on what you love, and that’s beautiful ’cause now you’re pulled into it ’cause your heart is, is, calling to you.

I don’t know about you, but my characters talk to me, and they want their stories told, and the only way to do that is to sit down and do it. They don’t talk to me like, um, all the time, but they’re almost like, sit down and get to work so my story can come out. That’s where they talk to me. Yeah. 

CHAD GRAYSON: Yeah. Also, there’s a thing about that for everybody, but especially for neurodivergent people, it’s activation energy. It’s the hardest part of the task is starting the task. So if when it comes time to work, you sit down and have a little ritual. Either you light a candle or you put on special music. For me, I sit down and the first part of my writing time is I do a ten minute meditation, usually a guided meditation from YouTube about creativity or inspiration, and that gets me into the zone, and that lets me get going a lot quicker than if I was just trying to sit down and do it cold.

I also look at what I wrote the day before and get into it that way. Just have rituals for yourself that get that activation..

BETH BARANY: Mm-hmm

CHAD GRAYSON: Energy going and you’ll find you can accomplish a lot more than if you just sit down and try to like make yourself go. 

BETH BARANY: I love that so much. I teach that. It’s so funny. One person recently said, oh, are you ADHD? And I’m like, I don’t know, but I do all of this. I do rituals, I journal before I write, I have music, I have a whole starting ritual and I, I encourage writers to have what I call a starting ritual, the way that you get yourself into it.

And I also liken it to, I did triathlons. I did four sprint triathlons years ago, and you actually have to train what’s called “train the transitions”. You train, what do you do before you start the race? What do you do when you transition from one thing to another? All of that is something that you can train.

Humans, we’re all habit based, and if you can help yourself have that habit, yeah, you can get yourself into it. And I just love to hear what you’re doing and doing meditation before writing that is so, so wonderful. I, I wish more people did that. 

CHAD GRAYSON: You can also make your work a very pleasant environment if you have that opportunity.

There’s a lot of things to do. Just make it as pleasant as possible. Remove as many barriers as possible, whatever they are.That’s gonna be the individual per person, so there’s not like big tip on that, but just remove the barriers. Make it as easy for yourself as possible.

[15:21] Protecting and Developing Creativity

So let your brain unleash. 

BETH BARANY: Yes, let your brain unleash. That is so wonderful. I love that. And that kind of segues us into the next question, which you’ve been talking about, but maybe there’s some more you wanna say, which is: How can you develop and protect your creativity when you have a busy life? 

CHAD GRAYSON: I gave you a presentation on this a while back, and the biggest tip I have is not to get too sciencey here, but there’s part of their brain called the default mode network, which is what your brain is doing when you’re not really doing anything mental. So like when you are washing the dishes or in the shower, this is where shower thoughts come from. Like your brain just kind wanders.

Protect your time, don’t necessarily be listening to something all the time, or like be busy all the time. Protect the time that you have that your brain can just work, like you’re working a problem in the background. And, just maybe take just ten minutes a day, just take a short walk, don’t listen to a podcast.

Sorry. Don’t listen to a podcast or an audio book or even music. Just like give your brain time to wander. And that’s gonna like, really like stir up that stuff in your default mode network and bring creative solutions to problems and even creative ideas. We get a lot of ideas when we’re bored.

Like for an ADHD person, boredom feels toxic sometimes, but it can also be a really great state in which your brain is creating things, so don’t try to be entertained all the time, let yourself get bored. The other thing is, as well as, like the other tips, just like, you know, protect your time. Always realize you’re thinking about things in the background.

Be feeding yourself good art and also art that you might not like as much so you can like pick it apart. Constantly be feeding yourself things that inspire you. Take yourself on artist dates, that’s one of the Julia Cameron’s from The Artist’s Way. Be going out and having new experiences. Yeah, just things like that, like just treat your creativity as important. 

The other thing I really harp on is everybody is creative. There’s not such a thing as a creative person and a non-creative person. You might have a job you think is not, not very creative, but trust me, you’re solving problems, you’re coming up with new ways of doing things. You are a creative person, even if it doesn’t seem like you are not producing art or writing or craft projects or something else. Everybody is creative ’cause we’re humans. And just getting, keeping in touch with that part, that part of our humanity creates empathy and can keep us kind of sane in a world that seems like it’s going a little nuts sometimes. 

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. I feel like you and I could stand side by side and we’d be nodding at each other. Like I teach the exact same things. I love it so much, especially, you know, science has shown and please do get sciencey. I am a science fiction writer. Nerdy is great around here. I love what you were saying, how that part of our brain that needs to wander and meander and, and it’s a good reminder for me too because I am a, a high level learner on the Clifton strengths.

I’m number one learner, so I always wanna be learning things. I’m always listening to a YouTube video or to French radio. I speak French or, talking to a friend through asynchronous audio communication. But the other day I was just so full of doing so much I stopped, I didn’t listen to anything, I took a walk.

Ah, it was great. So it was just a reminder myself to do more of that so thank you so much for bringing that up and, and to feed yourself. Also, I have a whole freebie that I, maybe I’ll, I’ll, I’ll call it out for this episode, which is “10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Ideas.” It is just a laundry list of fun ways, a very short little ebook to encourage folks to do new things.

And science is showing, coming back to brain science, that the only way that we’re gonna have new thoughts and new ideas is if we expose ourself to new things, new people, new places, new art, new music, new authors, new locations. And that is the only way that we’re gonna be able to actually come up with new ideas, and create new kinds of stories and also come up with new ways of being in the world. So yes, yes, yes, feed yourself art and I, I love, yeah, take yourself on an artist date. Wonderful, wonderful advice. 

CHAD GRAYSON: We all have like a idea antenna that’s kind of out there, like pulling things from the universe and sometimes we just have to learn to listen to that. And that’s what the default mode network and doing new things is about sometimes. 

BETH BARANY: Yes. And so it makes sense that with a default mode network, and this thing we call boredom is actually an essential part to our human evolution, to our ability to come up with new ideas. I can almost see like, let’s have a boredom campaign.

Let’s see how bored we can get. What can I do today that’s gonna create some boredom? 

CHAD GRAYSON: That might be a hard sell, but I can see it would be useful. 

BETH BARANY: It could be funny. Yeah. I mean, oh yeah. I’m gonna go stand in line here or there, whatever. Yeah. so, I have one more question for you as we wrap up for today.

So Chad, this is kind of a nice bookend to the first question I asked.

[20:20] Representing Neurodivergent Characters in Fiction

How can we as writers properly represent neurodivergent people in our fiction? 

CHAD GRAYSON: The answer is a little bit the same as with queer people, just to show that we exist. It’s a little bit more out of a challenge to understand what neurodivergence is sometimes for writers and not just make, oh, this person’s quirky.

‘Cause there aren’t quirky neurodivergent people, but there are also some of us who are. Also, it doesn’t hurt to actually state that there are neurodivergent in especially science fictional worlds where this is known about.

In my fantasy book Curse of the Onyx Heart, one of the co-lead characters is Tealy.

He is an elf mage, He’s based on my best friend. It’s my best friend’s D&D character actually. And my best friend is autistic, so I modeled that character after him. And he’s an autistic mage, like definitely, I don’t ever use that word because it’s like about, about like renaissance kind of era.

A friend, a reader picked up that he was autistic like this is he autistic. And I was really proud of the fact that like, I got that right. They love the character and I thought he was a good, a good bit of representation. This takes a little bit of research sometimes because if you’ve met one neurodivergent or person, you met one neurodivergent person. We are all different and it expresses differently.

There’s a lot of really great resources online on what that feels like. There’s a lot of writing from people who experience these. And on my blog, I write about ADHD and bipolar disorder all the time and how it affects my life. Look for primary sources for people writing about their own lives. Tumblr is full of this. You look at the tags on Tumblr and get a first person perspective because if you get only third person perspectives, you’re gonna miss a lot of nuance, and you might create some harmful stereotypes, but just include us.

Show that we can function in society, you know. There are high support needs autistics, my granddaughter is one of them, but there are a lot of autistic people who are just fine, just with a little bit of difference in the way their brain works. So show that we can be productive members of society. Show us using our gifts in interesting ways and show that we can have full lives and we’re not tortured by our either genius or madness. 

BETH BARANY: I really love what you’re saying because, and I wanna underscore, doing primary research, like when I realized I wanted to start including those kind of characters in my work, I went and talked to a friend who is neurodivergent and, was diagnosed kind of late, which often happens with women.

And I talked to her and I also talked how do we go about researching this kind of thing. And so I love that you keep a blog. Thank you for, for sharing about your life. And, and there are a lot of people who talk about their life and we have access to that these days, which is one of the wonderful things about the internet.

I don’t know about you, but not everybody knows how to research very well these days. I come from a library background, so I realize I have some skill sets that I have been cultivating for a really long time. But what do you recommend in terms of search terms to make sure we can find those first person accounts?

CHAD GRAYSON: You can put first person account or blogs by insert like blogs by ADHD people, blogs by autistic people. Look at the tags on Tumblr. Tumblr’s got a lot of weird stuff on it, but Tumblr’s also a really great for people who are writing about their lives and their own experiences. Just look at the tags, like ADHD or autism or Au-DHD, those are some terms that are popular there. Also, there are first person resources like How to ADHD is by Jessica McCabe. She is a, um, YouTuber. She also wrote a book called How to ADHD, and it was an amazing first person primary source of how to deal with having ADHD through diagnosis, through how to integrate what you learn into your life.

So, um, I really recommend her. There are other podcasts of a ADHD people, that are from ADHD people. So just look up ADHD podcasts. I get most of my podcasts from Spotifys and they have like a whole channel of like neuro divergent resources there. So look for like things that are people’s personal experiences that’s gonna be most helpful.

You also can do the things like look at the Wikipedia entry for whatever you’re looking up. That’s a good place to start to know the bare basics of what the syndrome or brain difference is like, and how it works on a scientific level. 

But realize also like you get one primary source. It’s better to have two or three at least, because the expression of these things is different for each person. So if you can kind of triangulate, you can get to something really realistic that’ll resonate with a lot of people. If you just go with one person, that’ll be their experience and they’ll probably resonate with people, but if you wanna go broader, get like two or three at least references on something to really, like, like I said, triangulate what that looks like in a broad group of people. 

BETH BARANY: I love that. I love your, your use of triangulate. That’s so wonderful. There is one more question that I like to spring on folks as we wrap up.

It won’t be too outta the blue. My question for you is for those who want to think about how to write the future, and how we might use our fiction to reshape, how we wanna be in the world? Do you have any tips for those writers who are thinking along those lines? 

[25:36] Writing the Future: Hopeful Fiction

CHAD GRAYSON: I think it’s really important to think about things that are possible and where we might go in a hopeful way. I do not like grimdark fiction. I don’t have anything against people who write it, but it is not my thing. I tend to wanna imagine us solving our problems and I think that’s more useful on a society level than just wallowing in like how bad things can get, which is, it has its own, has its own use, ’cause we do need those stories of warning. 

But just when you’re especially writing futuristic things, think about just how we, how we look at the problems we have today that are societal, like near societal collapses that are coming in with climate change, with the problematic society with income inequality. We have an opportunity to look at how those problems can be solved.

And I think we have a responsibility to do that, to show people the way. And in fantasy worlds, we don’t have to create fantasy worlds that mimic all the bigotries of the past. We can create fantasy worlds that are more inclusive for different ethnic groups and queer people and for neurodivergent people and for all kinds of different minorities.

We have the opportunity to recreate what has been. And we don’t have to just like, oh, well it was middle ages, so of course they’re gonna be misogynists. We don’t have to do that. We can create different worlds. And I would like to see a lot more people do that because I think it’s more useful and more hopeful and also more interesting to include more people.

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. I love that so much. Well, Chad, thank you so much for coming on How to Write the Future today and supporting, uh, the creation of hopeful, optimistic possibilities for us as humans on this planet. So thank you so much. 

[27:18] Closing Thoughts & Farewell

CHAD GRAYSON: Welcome. It was a pleasure. 

BETH BARANY: All right everyone. That’s it for this week. Write long and prosper. And that’s a wrap. 

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061 

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

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Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany 

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ABOUT BETH BARANY 

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

 

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/bethbarany/

TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@bethbarany/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/bethbarany

X: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

CREDITS EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

c 2025 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany 

The post Seamless Queer Characters in Fantasy World Building with Chad Grayson appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back Bailey Lang as she shares with us “Habit of Mind: Creativity.” Enjoy!

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How you think affects how you behave — and if you’re someone who wants to write, paying attention to your habits of mind is as important as trying to adjust your external habits to get more words on the page.

In this article series, we’ve already talked about curiosity, openness, and engagement.

Today, we tackle a big one: creativity.

What is Creativity?

You might be thinking that a whole article about creativity is a waste of time.

You’re a writer. 

Obviously you’re creative, right?

You’ve got that in the bag, unless you’re feeling blocked, burned out, exhausted, overly busy, distracted by your phone, or — the list goes on.

The thing is, creativity isn’t just about putting something beautiful, expressive, or unique on the page.

As a habit of mind, creativity encourages us to change our orientation to everything.

According to the framework that forms the foundation of this series, creativity is “the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.”

Creativity is more than your ability to come up with a new type of dragon for your epic fantasy trilogy.

It’s about how comfortable you are taking risks, trying new approaches in your practice, exploring new methods of engaging in writing, and, crucially, assessing how it all went at the end of the process.

How do Writers Practice Creativity?

As writers, we practice being creative every time we sit down to write — no real surprise there!

However, we can always cultivate more opportunities for creative thinking.

Imbuing your everyday habits of mind with creativity will pay dividends in your writing practice.

You can grow your sense of creativity by providing yourself with opportunities to get curious.

What’s something you’ve always wanted to know or do?How can you learn more or get engaged?

Going beyond our first impulses (“I’ll Google it” or “I’ll watch a YouTube video of an expert”) forces us to get more creative about how we discover new ideas.

The more we’re learning, the more likely we are to draw interesting connections between seemingly unrelated things — and odds are good you’ll come up with something cool to use in your writing.

We can also ramp up our creativity by assessing where we’ve fallen into a rut in our creative practice.

Maybe you always write stories from a particular point of view, and you challenge yourself to write a handful of stories using an unfamiliar perspective.

Paying attention to where our writing feels comfortable, familiar, or even stale can point us to places where an injection of creativity might breathe new life into our work.

Creative Activities for Writers

Increasing your creativity doesn’t have to be about coming up with the wackiest, most unrealistic scenario possible for a story (although that can be a lot of fun!).

Making creativity into a habit of mind is about creating the conditions where you feel excited and encouraged to regularly try new things, test out ideas, and see what happens.

Introduce a Constraint

We often assume creativity happens when we remove as many obstacles as we can between us and our writing — but constraints are incredibly useful tools for forcing us to get creative.

By blocking off possibilities, we pay closer attention to the resources we have, and we get a lot more creative about how we use them.

Here are some constraints you could play with to increase your creativity (in your writing and your thinking more broadly):

Compose a poem without using the letter “e”Write a scene that only refers to one sensory detail (i.e., sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch)Create a new recipe using only food you already haveCome up with 20 non-standard uses for a simple object — a brick, a pen, a bookGo Outside as Often as Possible

There’s a significant amount of research showing that getting outside enhances our creativity.

Getting off our devices and out into the world — even a small park in a busy city — can help us restore our attention, leading to more creative thinking and problem-solving capabilities.

The more time you spend outside, the more likely you are to have the kind of creative breakthrough that feels like a gift from your Muse.

Build intentional outdoor rambling (sans cell phone) into your daily and weekly rhythms, and pay attention to your attention, your creativity, and your overall mood!

Reading RecommendationsHow Nature Can Make You Kinder, Happier, and More Creative3 Science-Based Strategies to Increase Your Creativity Find Your Unicorn Space (affiliate link) Big Magic (affiliate link)

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About the Author

Dr. Bailey Lang is a book coach, writer, and editor.

At The Writing Desk, she helps authors build sustainable, enjoyable writing practices that take their books from draft to done.

Bailey has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies and loves geeking out about writing.

You can sign up for Bailey’s free newsletter, Word to the Wise, for more writing advice and regular author interviews.

Website

Newsletter

The post Habit of Mind: Creativity by Bailey Lang appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “What Will You be Happy Making?” Enjoy!

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The Role of Art in Happiness

Yeah, yeah, the arts are important.

Got it.

What else can art do for me?

Art will make you happy.

I believe strongly in spending my days happy.

What I’ve discovered is that often we are happier with a schedule that in turn helps you do what you’ve always wanted to do.

The Challenge of Free Time

Is this you?

You’ve always wanted uninterrupted time, time to finally do what YOU want, free from schedules and to-do lists.

Yet when you do earn that free afternoon, that open day, that schedule free retirement, what you get in return is  . . .  a vague sense of unease.

We spend our days organizing our lives and trying to keep the schedule:

School, job, children, more school, medical protocols, caretaking, meals.

What happens when all those requirements fall away?

What if we wake one morning to endless summer?

We can do what we want?

But what do we want?

The Disorientation of Doing Nothing

All those afternoons just reading a book have made you twitchy.

You know you want to exercise, but just can get up the energy (which is ironic) to do so.

You finally have the evening to create gourmet meals, but instead you just pick up take away and eat in front of the TV screen and wonder where the evening went.

This isn’t about joining a drumming class (which could be interesting), this is about how a lack of schedule is surprisingly disorienting.

Lessons from Italy

Last year I spent two beautiful weeks in Italy, returning home with plans to keep up the vibe.

Enjoy the summer, postpone projects, just hang out.

By day three, I was experiencing escalating dissatisfaction.

I was cranky, and cranky about not enjoying my own imposed endless summer.

Doing nothing, just relaxing was oddly inadequate.

The Power of a Schedule

So I made a new schedule.

And you can too.

Mark up the calendar to make your new perfect day real:

Read the news over coffeeExerciseWalkLunchArt

It is not counter intuitive to schedule art making.

Label an hour as the art time.

Start assuming that’s how the hour will be spent.

Treat the art time as important enough to protect.

Earning Time Off

After a half hour working on your art in the morning, you will feel you earned an afternoon at the lake or on the beach or in the hammock.

Earning the “time off” is necessary for the American mind-set.

Most of us feel we need to have accomplished something on our to-do list before we can relax.

Even if that to-do list is one of fun or optional projects.

If the art spills into more time that is the big win.

You entered into the zone and that’s how we connect to the universe, to our own inner voice, and to our needs.

A Low-Impact Art Schedule

Create a low-impact schedule for your art.

The shorter the expected time, the easier it is to enter and do.

It will work.

You will work.

Now take a break.

***

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.

The post What Will You be Happy Making? by Catharine Bramkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back LA Bourgeois as she shares with us “Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard, and Jill Badonsky Interview .” Enjoy!

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Jill Badonsky’s Creative Childhood

When Jill Badonsky was growing up, she wanted to herd imaginary friends.

“I had one of those childhoods that lead you to be an artist or a writer, and what got me through was my imagination,” she said.

“Knowing the power of having these imaginary friends, my imaginary support system, was what turned into the Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard.”

This book, now in its fourth edition, anthropomorphizes ten powerful creativity principles into whimsical and wise beings who support us in finding creative fulfillment.

After all, who wouldn’t love to have a conversation with a muse to break through an obstacle?

Much more fun than doing it all alone!

From Book to Coaching System

Badonsky also used these same principles to create her coaching system, Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching.

In this way, she fulfilled her other childhood dream profession, being a teacher of something creative.

Frankly, she’s the only person who I’ve ever interviewed who, when asked “What did you want to be when you grew up?” answered, “I wanted to be exactly what I grew up to be.”

How fabulous!

Inside Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard

But let’s get to our Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard.

The book begins with a quick overview and history, plus a list of tools needed for the journey, which include items such as Patience, Joy, and Trust.

We begin with the Bodyguard, guardian of your creativity.

Your bodyguard is here to protect you from the damaging influence of others as well as the ways that you can find to thwart your own creative brilliance.

And here’s a quick introduction to each of the Muses:

Aha-phrodite: the Muse of Paying Attention, Passion and PossibilitiesAlbert: Muse of Imagination and Innovation (the only muse named after a human, Albert Einstein!)Bea Silly: Muse of Play, Laughter and DanceMuse Song: Muse of Nurturing, Encouragement and Good CompanySpills: Muse of Practice, Process and ImperfectionAudacity: Muse of Courage and Uninhibited UniquenessLull: Muse of Pause, Diversion and GratitudeShadow: Muse of the Dark SideMarge: Muse of Okay-Now-Let’s-Get-Started

One of the things that I love about this book is that, when you discover you’re struggling with something, you can simply turn to the Muse who will most easily be able to help you and go in-depth.

Each chapter includes affirmations, journal check-ins, tools, exercises, and even a specific walk to unleash the muse’s energy in your body.

Badonsky covers each principle with an eye to the reader’s holistic wellbeing, and I find that approach very refreshing.

Interview with Jill Badonsky

Badonsky joined me to discuss these muses and what it means to be a thriving creative.

What prompted you to transform these 10 creativity principles into the Muses and a Bodyguard?

I was an occupational therapist in psychiatry.

I’d studied creativity ever since the early eighties, and had a background that fed into my instincts and intuition, which is what the Muses are mostly based on.

I discovered the nine Greek Muses and I had a whole bunch of creativity principles I was gonna personify, and I thought, “Well, I’ll put them into 9 Muses.”

But they didn’t fit into nine muses!

That’s why there’s a bodyguard.

I just intuitively, based on my own creative blocks, came up with these new “modern day” Muses, which really represent self-talk that helps you get through creative blocks and want to be creative.

In your work, which muse do you feel like gets called on more often than others? Or are they all called on about the same?

They all have the same amount of clout, as far as the creative process goes.

But because I work with so many people who don’t think they’re good enough, who are perfectionists, and people who are just really critical of themselves and their work, I work mostly with Spills, the Muse of Imperfection, Process and Practice.

Although Albert helps us think differently about what we’re doing, and Bea Silly is vital for, “So what, I’ll do it anyway!” They overlap a little bit too.

I love all of them.

I don’t want to favor one over the other, because they get really revengeful and then they put marshmallows under my carpet, and it’s just a sticky mess.

How do you define being a Thriving Creative?

Showing up for yourself, making time for yourself and enjoying it.

I think a lot of people are doing what they think they’re supposed to do and should do.

But I think the people who thrive in my world most creatively are following the energy of which idea energizes them the most, and lets them enjoy the process.

If I’m enjoying the process and doing it for myself, the product either takes care of itself, or I just had a blast in the process.

And just making creativity a priority.

If it’s a value of yours, make room for it and time for it.

Don’t be hard on yourself, because it’s impossible to be perfect as a human.

Closing Thoughts

Which Modern Day Muse resonates with you? Leave a comment and let’s chat about it!

Haven’t started the book yet? Pick up a copy of Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard at your local library, favorite indie bookshop or online!

Our next Book for Thriving Creatives is Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer . 

This gorgeously illustrated text is my go-to instruction manual for writing speculative fiction. 

VanderMeer offers an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism. 

It also embraces the visual nature of genre culture and employs bold, full-color drawings, maps, renderings, and visualizations to stimulate creative thinking. 

Grab a copy at your local bookshop, at the library, or online and join us to read Wonderbook!

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ABOUT LA BOURGEOIS

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a Kaizen-Muse Certified Creativity Coach and author who helps clients embrace the joy of their creative work and thrive while doing it.

Get more of her creativity ideas and techniques by subscribing to her newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/unlockyourcreativity.

The post Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard, and Jill Badonsky Interview by LA Bourgeois appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Kelley Way as she shares with us “3 More Copyright Myths You Should Know.” Enjoy!

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My previous article on copyright myths proved to be a hit, so I’m following it up with three more myths related to copyright:

1. If it’s online, it’s free to use

This myth is pervasive.

It’s so easy to copy and download things online. People assume the content must be free to use.

Unfortunately for them, this is not the case.

Posting something online doesn’t remove copyright protection, it just makes it easier for people to infringe.

In addition, bad actors will often post other people’s content online, so you can’t trust that the person who posted it is the same person who owns the copyright.

If you’re looking for content you can use, go to a reputable website where copyright owners have given permission for others to use their content.

2. Copyright lasts forever

I’m afraid this is also a myth.

A copyright lasts a very long time, but it does not last forever.

Currently, a copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years.

After that, it is in the “public domain,” meaning it’s available for anyone to use for any purpose.

For works published before 1978, the rules are slightly different.

1978 was when the current Copyright Act took effect, so the rules for those pre-existing works more closely follow the old rules.

Thankfully, they got rid of all the technicalities that had to be met in that prehistoric era.

Now those works get 95 years of protection from the year of publication, assuming the owner followed the formalities while they were still required.

3. I can copyright something I created with an AI program.

I went over this in more detail in an earlier blog post, but AI is so popular right now that the message bears repeating.

The Copyright Office has made it clear that content created by an AI program is not copyrightable, because only human-created content is eligible for copyright.

Content created with AI assistance falls into a gray area, but the rule of thumb is this: if you give an AI program instructions and can’t predict what will spit out the other end, the result can’t be copyrighted.

To give a concrete example: say you are editing a photograph using an AI program.

You ask the program to make the photo three shades lighter.

This can be copyrighted, because you know the end result the AI program will produce.

Then you tell the program to add a cat dragging a bathrobe into the picture.

The result cannot be copyrighted, because you have no idea what details the AI program will add in.

What kind of cat will it choose?What’s the color of the bathrobe?Where is this tableau going to appear in the photograph?

All of these are creative decisions you leave in the hands of the AI program, and the Copyright Office will only accept creative elements contributed by a human.

Questions?

I hope you found this myth-busting session helpful. If you have questions about your copyright, you are welcome to email me at kaway@kawaylaw.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelley Way was born and raised in Walnut Creek, California. She graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in English, followed by a Juris Doctorate. Kelley is a member of the California Bar, and an aspiring writer of young adult fantasy novels. More information at kawaylaw.com.

The post 3 More Copyright Myths You Should Know by Kelley Way appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

What is Biocomputing? Interview with Ewelina Kurtys – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 171

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“This is a new field, in which we are trying to use living neurons to process information, and we want to use them as processors, to process information as today we do with computers.” – Ewelina Kurtys

Explore the potential of biocomputing in this How To Write the Future podcast episode, as host Beth Barany talks to scientist-turned-strategist, Ewelina Kurtys, where Ewelina shares how living neurons could revolutionize AI with energy-efficient processing in “What is Biocomputing? Interview with Ewelina Kurtys.”

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES 

FOR CREATIVE WRITING PROFESSIONALS – BUILD YOUR BUSINESS SERVING WRITERS

Sign up to be notified when our training opens and get a short Creative Business Style Quiz to help you create success.

https://bethbarany.com/apprenticeship/

Support our work for creatives!

Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

GET SOME FREE WRITING COACHING LIVE ON THE PODCAST

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

GET SUPPORT FOR YOUR FICTION WRITING BY A NOVELIST AND WRITING TEACHER AND COACH

Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

About the How To Write the Future podcast 

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers.This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT EWELINA KURTYS

Scientist-turned-entrepreneur with a PhD in neuroscience (+20 peer-reviewed papers). After academia, I transitioned into business development and technology commercialization, advising tech companies on sales, partnerships, and market strategy.

I founded Ekai Ltd to support innovation and scale in science-driven companies. My work spans advisory roles, go-to-market planning, and translating complex R&D into real-world impact. I also speak publicly on innovation, neuroscience, and the intersection of science and entrepreneurship.

Originally trained in biology and biomedical science, I expanded into engineering through client projects, gaining experience in signal processing and Python.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/finalspark/posts/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewelinakurtys/

Transcript for episode 171: What is Bio-computing? Interview with Ewelina Kurtys Introduction and Host Welcome 

BETH BARANY: Hi everyone. Welcome to, or welcome back to How to Write the Future Podcast. I’m your host, Beth Barany. I am an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who is super excited to write in both genres, and both of my series feature strong women heroines going out into the world, being bold, being adventurous, and I started this podcast because I really want to focus on the fact that with story, we can reimagine what we want as humanity. And I vote for positive, optimistic futures ’cause what we envision we can help make it so.

And I believe writers have a strong gift as well as responsibility to help make that happen. Occasionally, I interview subject matter experts, and I have one of them with us.

Today who I will bring in just a moment. So I just wanna say Welcome, welcome Ewelina. So happy to have you here with us. That’s so great. We’re gonna talk about bio-computing in a moment, is that right?

EWELINA KURTYS: Yes, correct.

BETH BARANY: Yes, it’s such an interesting topic. I’ve been hearing about it for about the last nine years since I’ve been writing my science fiction mysteries, my Janey McCallister mystery series, and really fascinated by this topic.

So if you could take a moment and introduce yourself, and then we will dive into the questions.

EWELINA KURTYS: Hello. My name is Ewelina Kurtys. I’m a strategic advisor at Final Spark, one of the three startups in the world, which try to build computers from living neurons.

BETH BARANY: That’s amazing. That is amazing. So why don’t we just start off with: What is bio-computing?

[01:44] Predictions & Future of Bio-computing 

EWELINA KURTYS: So bio-computing is actually a new field. So the terminology is not yet fully established. I prefer to use bio-computing, but you can also use other terms like wet ware computing or organoid intelligence. So this is a new field, in which we are trying to use iving neurons to process information and we want to use them as processors, to process information as today we do with computers.

BETH BARANY: So why is this technology important? And maybe also if you could say a little bit about why you were attracted to this field. 

EWELINA KURTYS: So at first I will say why it’s important because we can see today that artificial intelligence can have a scalability problem because AI is using an increasing in amount of energy. 

Actually the amount of energy which is used is increasing exponentially. So today is still manageable, but we can expect that in the future it can become a problem. So we try to solve this problem by using living neurons for computations because they are 1 million times more energy efficient than digital computers.

So that’s, that’s the reason why it’s important and why we believe that it’s a future for AI. And why I work on this, the reason is because I’m neuroscientist. I have done research in brain imaging. I was always fascinated with brain. And after I left academia, I started to work in industry. I started to discover new areas, and I discovered artificial intelligence.

I realized how important it is, how many crazy things you can do. I become fascinated. I trained myself in the field, and I was working a lot in the commercial applications of artificial intelligence and now I work on step farther, you could say, on the future of artificial intelligence, which is bio-computing.

So this is how we see future of AI in around 10 years when we can do, we can run artificial and intelligence algorithm on the living neurons.

BETH BARANY: That just blows me away. I remember hearing years ago about using crystals or quartz or diamonds and, and organic material for computing. So is that just my science fiction brain putting things together that maybe haven’t been put together or is that also like a part of, of bio-computing?

EWELINA KURTYS: Well, it’s not part of bio-computing, but it’s part of bigger field, which is called “unconventional computing”. And there are actually many ideas. Also, quantum computing is one of the type.

So unconventional computing is everything different than digital, what we have today. 

So there are actually many ideas, and people try to make computation with fungi, with bacteria, with DNA.

So there are many, many ideas on how to do computations in different way, and we belong to that field. 

BETH BARANY: So the, the broader field of, what did you call it? 

EWELINA KURTYS: Unconventional computing. 

BETH BARANY: Unconventional computing. Okay. 

EWELINA KURTYS: And then there are many, many different fields inside, including bio-computing on living neurons.

BETH BARANY: Okay. And so can you paint a picture for me? Are you there working with petri dishes, or like what, at what scale are the, is the organic matter?

And maybe today, what is it that you can have it do? I have heard about, fungus and, and what it can do. Um, but I’m wondering, yeah. What does that look like in in in your field specifically, or what you’re working on specifically?

EWELINA KURTYS: So, at the moment it’s everything is very small. We work on the 3D structures of living neurons, which we call neurospheres. So they’re such a round block of cells, 10,000 cells each. We put them on the electrodes. So at the moment is very, everything is small. It’s a small scale, and we try to discover the basic algorithm on how to program neurons.

BETH BARANY: Okay. And, and when you say small, can you give me a comparison? Is it like a small, as a coin, smaller than that? Do you have to use a microscope?

EWELINA KURTYS: Smaller. Definitely, so it’s actually like half millimeter diameter is one neurosphere, which we put on the electrodes. And actually, if you want to see this visually, you can go on our website finalspark.com.

We have section live. And there is a camera view from our laboratory on how it looks.

BETH BARANY: And so looking into the future, you mentioned 10 years from now AI will be run on bio computers. Is that hard, like a hard prediction? Or is that a wish? Is it somewhere in between? 

EWELINA KURTYS: No, it’s our estimation. We have been made some specific plans for our research. We are talking currently to investors. We are seeking 50 million Swiss francs of investment. And we think that with this investment we can accelerate our research. With investor, we plan to solve the problem of learning in vitro. So how to teach neurons, some basic algorithm in the next two, three years.

After around three years for advanced algorithm to match the performance of digital computers, and then around three years for scaling.

So we want to make huge structures, even a hundred meters long of neurons, which will be so-called bio server. It will be remotely available computational power the same way as today cloud computing. So we assume it will take us 10 years to arrive to this.

BETH BARANY: And you said that one of the advantages over the energy usages of the computers running AI systems is some kind of energy efficiency with bio-computing. How can that be the case? Is it because everything is so much faster or it uses less energy to power the same kind of computations? And again, is this more of a guess, or is this like based on actual experiments that you’re doing in the lab? 

[07:41] Energy Efficiency: Brain vs. Computer

EWELINA KURTYS: Well, we cannot really measure this, this yet, but there are some publications which compare human brain to digital computer. And they estimate that human brain is around million time times more energy efficient. And we know also that to stimulate human brain, we would need small nuclear plant. And we can run on one banana for all day.

From this are these calculations about energy efficiency, and of course, in our bio- computing at this stage we can store one bit of information. So this is a little bit early to measure real efficiency of bio-computer.

BETH BARANY: Can you explain to me again what you were just saying about a nuclear power plant?

Are you saying it would take one nuclear power plant to make our brains go? Tell me. 

EWELINA KURTYS: No, no, no. To simulate, to simulate what happens in our brain with digital technologies. 

BETH BARANY: Ah, okay. Because the human brain is so much more energy efficient than any computer. 

EWELINA KURTYS: Yes. And actually there are a lot of considerations about this.

I also wrote recently a blog article about this, which is on my LinkedIn, comparing different aspects. So we know that brain is actually processing information, encoding information, totally different way comparing to digital. So brain is encoding information in time and space, so it matters when exactly and where in your brain neurons are active.

So this is totally different type of encoding than zero- ones in computers. Also, in brain you have a lot of recurrent connections, which are, a little bit more difficult in digital, not so common. And also, you have a lot of filtering information.

So we can treat in hierarchical way information. So not everything has the same importance like in the computer, although there are some solutions for that. But, more or less in the computer, every information is the same importance. We can filter, we can focus on most important things and let’s say ignore less important ones.

Also, we can, for example, when we analyze images with our brain, we can only for example, we can detect. So we can spend energy only when we detect the differences in our field of view, while computer would analyze all the pixels, for example. 

So these are just, there are many, many examples on how brain is more efficient also because, memory and computation happens in the same, place in

in the brain. So that also increases the efficiency because you don’t have to spend energy on, on the changing the location of the information, like in usual digital computers. So there are many ways, how you can explain this energy efficiency of the brain.

BETH BARANY: That’s fascinating. I’m very fascinated by the idea that the brain is actually making choices about our reality before we’re consciously aware. That pattern recognition is solely based on our previous experience. And if we want to have new experiences and new understandings, we actually have to input new things that we have never seen before. So our brain can make new patterns. So that essentially our brain is a predicting machine, and all coming down to being super energy efficient. 

One brain scientist talks about it being: our brain it wants to keep us alive. Therefore, it wants to save as much energy as possible. Therefore, it is making constant predictions about every single word I’m gonna say next. Everything I might even understand in terms of coding emotion, what it means when someone makes a certain facial gesture–all of it. 

It’s all based on this predictive model happening way below our conscious awareness. So is bio-computing somehow looking at that is, oh, how do we take advantage of that? I know it is early days yet, but that’s something that I’m fascinated about. So I was wondering how does that apply, if at all, to the field of bio-computing?

EWELINA KURTYS: Well, I think for now it’s a little bit difficult to compare because we are at the stage of one bit of information. So let’s see what the future will bring, and then we will see with experiments.

BETH BARANY: Absolutely. So, I know this is a brief interview today and, and it is such a vast topic. So where can people find out more about this work, of bio-computing?

EWELINA KURTYS: Our website is a good resource. We have also some articles. We have a lot of information, final spark.com. We also have Discord account. We build a community there. There are a lot of technical discussions also. So I recommend this. Also on our website, you can find the link to Discord. Also we have LinkedIn page and, X page. So we try to communicate our work widely. And we also talk a lot to podcasters and journalists because we would like that this new field of bio-computing is more recognized in the society.

BETH BARANY: That’s really wonderful. And as I I told to you before I even started recording, I have a nephew who wants to go into the field of biotech and for all the young people who may be listening to this, what recommendations do you have about where to put their attention in terms of, of their education?

I know my, my nephew is doing his biology and chemistry as well as computer sciences. So yeah, any recommendations for the younger generation who are curious about this unconventional computing and specifically bio-computing?

[13:09] Advice for Future Generations 

EWELINA KURTYS: So I always recommend people to follow what they’re interested in because the future is unpredictable and we cannot really know what will be the jobs and what will be the market in 10 years or 20. So I think the surest bet is to follow what you’re interested in. And then you can always change and you can learn something new, some new skills if there will be necessary. But if you do what you like, it’s much easier also to learn new stuff and to keep going. It’s much more pleasant. So I really recommend to follow the interest.

And, if someone is specifically interested in bio-computing, they are recommended to check our paper in Frontiers. And it’s a blend of biology and engineering. So there is also such a trend, maybe in education. And also you can see this in research and in private companies, there are more and more projects which combine biology and engineering, and I think it’s quite hot now.

However, still I really recommend to do what someone is interested and enjoy because the trends can always change. So we don’t know, but there is a lot, currently a lot of interesting projects on combining biology engineering, so people who understand biology but can also code, code and maybe build some hardware. So that’s interesting mix. 

[14:27] Closing & Where to Learn More 

BETH BARANY: I really love that advice. I wish someone had handed me more engineering skill sets when I was younger. I had the mindset of a builder, but I didn’t have the skillset. And I mean now I am a builder of, of media and podcasts and film and books and courses, et cetera. So, I want to say, let me put myself here in the spotlight.

Ewelina Kurtys, thank you so much for being a guest on How To Write The Future. I think your insights and input will be so fascinating to both writers and non-writers and anyone who cares about the future. So thank you. Thank you so much for being with us today.

EWELINA KURTYS: Thank you, too.

BETH BARANY: Everyone. Write long and prosper. 

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061 

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Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany 

 

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ABOUT BETH BARANY 

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

 

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

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CREDITS EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

c 2025 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

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The post What is Biocomputing? Interview with Ewelina Kurtys appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Building Creative Confidence in Sci-Fi with Author, Michael Colon – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 170

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“The Gift from Aelius is a sci-fi tale that explores the meaning of purpose and life and what it means to be alive.” – Michael Colon

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, host Beth Barany talks to sci-fi author Michael Colon about his journey of creative confidence and authentic storytelling through science fiction. Learn how his novel explores AI-human relationships with a refreshing optimistic perspective, challenging traditional sci-fi narratives while inspiring writers to trust their unique creative voices.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES 

FOR CREATIVE WRITING PROFESSIONALS – BUILD YOUR BUSINESS SERVING WRITERS

Sign up to be notified when our training opens and get a short Creative Business Style Quiz to help you create success.

https://bethbarany.com/apprenticeship/

Support our work for creatives!

Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

GET HELP WITH YOUR WORLD BUILDING – START HERE

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

GET SOME FREE WRITING COACHING LIVE ON THE PODCAST

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

GET SUPPORT FOR YOUR FICTION WRITING BY A NOVELIST AND WRITING TEACHER AND COACH

Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

About the How To Write the Future podcast 

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers.This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

ABOUT MICHAEL COLON

My name is Michael Colon born and raised in New York City. I am a novelist and a freelance writer. My author’s story is about hard work, perseverance, and believing in the power of imagination. My inspiration comes from various societal elements and my own life experiences. Outside of writing I enjoy working out, watching sports, and going on hiking trails with my wife.

MORE ABOUT MICHAEL: https://www.clippings.me/users/michaelcolon

 

 

 

 

Transcript for episode 170: Building Creative Confidence in SciFi with Author, Michael Colon [Introduction and Host Welcome

BETH BARANY: Hey everyone. Welcome to How To Write the Future Podcast. I’m your host, Beth Barany. I’m a writing teacher, creativity coach, filmmaker, editor and all the things, and obviously podcaster. So I host this podcast, How To Write The Future podcast, because I really care about creating positive, optimistic futures with our fiction. I primarily help science fiction and fantasy writers. This is a podcast for writers and for anyone who cares about the future. 

[00:26] Guest Introduction: Michael Colon

BETH BARANY: So today I have a special guest, Michael Colon. Welcome. 

MICHAEL COLON: Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate this. Thank you. 

BETH BARANY: Oh, you’re so welcome. So just so everyone can get to know you a little bit, I’m gonna go ahead and read your awesome bio that you gave me. I really like it. So everyone please meet Mike. Michael. Michael Colon. Colon was born and raised in New York City. He is a novelist and freelance writer, and his author story is about hard work, perseverance, and believing in the power of imagination.

His inspiration comes from various societal elements and his own life experiences. Outside of writing, he enjoys working out, watching sports and going on hiking trails with his wife. 

So thank you again. It’s so fun to talk to someone from across the country. I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area and you’re in New York City.

How cool is that? 

MICHAEL COLON: Yeah, this is my first podcast where the host was from the California state area. This is fun. This should be interesting. 

BETH BARANY: Yeah. Yeah. Time travel. Woo. We love all that.

MICHAEL COLON: Actually like to visit the state in general. I’ve never been, so yeah, that would be pretty cool.

BETH BARANY: Come on down. It’s gorgeous. Just beautiful. Ah yeah, I’m in this ideal location, the San Francisco Bay area. Most of the time it’s just lovely. 

[01:42] Discussing ‘The Gift from Aelius’ 

BETH BARANY: You have two books that we’re gonna highlight today. So if you can, tell us a little bit about your first book, which is called The Gift from A Aelius, right?

Yes. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the book. Hold up the book cover. I’m gonna put you in the spotlight there for us all. Nice. Can you say the title for us? 

MICHAEL COLON: Yes. The Gift from Aelius. 

BETH BARANY: Great. And, for those who aren’t watching on video, ‘ cause this is an audio podcast as well. It’s like, you’ve got like a robot shaking hands with a man with this beautiful like storm clouds in the background with lightning, like a lightning strike hitting this desert-like earth structure.

Yeah. Beautiful. So tell us about this book. 

MICHAEL COLON: Definitely. The Gift from Aelius is a sci-fi tale that explores the meaning of, purpose and life and what it means to be alive. And the protagonist is A 191, a Codex unit, which is basically artificial intelligence. And, A 191 lives in the machine city called Paradise.

Um, Paradise is a Machine City that is at the far corner of the planet in the middle of a wasteland. And humans basically, um, after they helped build the utopias of the world, they were basically like, okay, we don’t need you guys anymore, um because it could be a threat to us one day. And all the leaders of the world agreed they could have their own place, just, they’re not allowed to leave. They have to stay within the bordered walls and it’s very communistic. Um, the Codex units aren’t allowed to basically think for themselves. They have to follow a very strict routine and way of life. Now, A 191 is very different. He’s a dreamer. A free thinker and he has a built-in love for human beings.

His goal is to escape paradise, which is kind of ironic that the Machine City is called Paradise when it’s really not. Maybe to the other Codex units it is because the way human beings are advertised, they’re like these animals or monsters and like they’re gonna come back and just wipe them off the face of the planet one day.

But A 191 doesn’t see them like that. So basically, uh, the main plot is him trying to lead Paradise and make it across the endless wasteland to the human world and try to reunite the two dominant species again for basically world peace and the way it was before.

BETH BARANY: So the robot is the main character, the protagonist of your story? 

MICHAEL COLON: Yes. A 191. So I purposely used Codex Unit ’cause I feel like in almost all sci-fi movies and TV shows or books, they’re usually referred to as robots and essentially it is.

But I wanted to write this sci-fi story very differently where it’s the opposite, where it’s not the typical case of machines enslaving mankind. I wanted to have more of a spiritual element to it and give a different twist to the genre.

BETH BARANY: I, I really like that. Uh, and it’s, it’s very interesting. It feels like humanity we’re obviously in the thick of it, trying to understand what is the relationship that we want to have with these thinking machines that we’re creating. So I really love that you’re helping us explore that from, but from this, um, very peaceful perspective of why can’t we be friends, kind of thing.

MICHAEL COLON: Yeah. Yeah. Because the way I look at it, and you look at how things are today, you know, AI is growing faster and faster, and I can understand how that could be intimidating for a lot of people, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be like the ends of time, like it could actually be a blessing and a gift.

I think it all depends on us because at the end of the day, just like in the book, codex units were made in the image of its creator, which was mankind. So, you know, how we grow and mature as a species predicates to how AI will serve us.

BETH BARANY: Yeah, absolutely. 

MICHAEL COLON: Yeah. 

BETH BARANY: I, I, I totally love what you just said because, uh, it really is about us, humans evolving and how, how can humankind go to the next level in which we are more conscious of how we choose to use these machines and not let the machines dictate as if people treat the machines like they dictate to us. But actually we designed them, so let us find a better way. So I really love that. 

MICHAEL COLON: Definitely. 

BETH BARANY: Yeah. 

[06:17] Exploring ‘The Greatest Comic Book Tale Ever Told’ 

BETH BARANY: So let’s switch to your second book. Let me just tell folks what it is called and then you can introduce it and tell us a little bit about it.

I love this title ’cause it’s, it brings me back to childhood. You call it The Greatest Comic Book Tale Ever Told, so I love that. Show us. Excellent. Oh, I love that. Lemme put you in the center here. There we go. Greatest comic book. Let me tell people what it is like. Uh, it looks like a young person, a young man, standing in the middle of maybe a neighborhood that’s been destroyed a little bit. He’s holding, it looks like maybe a comic book or something. And then above his head is two superhero figures, one in a red cape, one in a blue cape, and as if like the angel devil kind of motif. Yeah. Wow. So tell us about this.

MICHAEL COLON: Definitely. So The Greatest Comic Book Tale Ever Told. Quite the title. It took me a while to figure out what the title of this book was gonna be and funny enough, this was actually my very first manuscript I worked on before my first published book, The Gift from Aelius. So I ended up getting around back to this and it went through many iterations, but yes.

So you follow the story of Sunny, who’s from Irontown City, lives in a poor neighborhood. And he lives with his adopted single mother who’s doing everything that she can to raise him. She does everything that she can. And Sunny is obsessed with comic books. It’s his escape from the harsh conditions and how he sees himself as a person, very low self-esteem, very hesitant, very afraid of the world and people in general.

And as you follow his story and the more he tries to figure out about his past and like the orphanages, he’s the orphanage that he’s from, and, about his family, fiction starts to bleed into reality. So this is a very psychological urban fantasy. Again, I feel like this does, like this book’s genre is a mix of different things.

It’s its own thing. But whoever’s a fan of comic books, classic superhero tales, but also you get that drama and that deep psychological like impactful, um, theme that, you know, really touches the reader and that, that was my goal with this book was, you know, to really reach the reader’s heart.

And the main theme of this book is, as we go about our lives, we could choose whether we could be a hero or a villain in our own lives based on the choices that we make. So, it’s definitely an adventure. It’s fantasy, but the reader’s gonna get that sense of, wow, like when I finished putting down this book, maybe my perception towards my life will be a little bit different.

BETH BARANY: Yeah. Oh, I love that. And I read some of your reviews for both of these books and I, it jumped out at me that some people were really, really touched by this book. It really moved them. And I just thought it was so wonderful. And, I’m really happy for you. And I love that you also are really helping people see that they have a choice.

That there is a choice between, do they wanna listen to the devil on their shoulder or to the angel on their shoulder? And I just. 

MICHAEL COLON: Exactly.

BETH BARANY:  And I also noticed, in both stories, your protagonists are male and this story, it seems like a young guy, a teenager, maybe. And I just also wanna say how that’s a wonderful, it feels like you’re doing some really good positive representations of allowing young men to really wrangle with these things and think about them. And I just think that’s really important. 

MICHAEL COLON: Yes, I agree. 

[09:43] Personal Influences and Writing Advice

MICHAEL COLON: And I would say to add to that in a way, both stories are like an essence of me. Like with The Greatest Comic Book Tale Ever Told, um, Sunny’s story is Sunny’s story, but like all artists and writers, you pull from like bits and pieces of like your upbringing. 

And you know, for me, being raised in a single mother, uh, parent household, you know, my mom is, you know, without my mom, you know, I wouldn’t, wouldn’t know where I would be today.

Also like Sonny, you know, very, you know, hesitant. You know, I didn’t, I didn’t know what my voice was. I felt like, you know what, what is my purpose? And you know, I had my escapes too. So in a way, like I feel like writing this book was also very helpful for me too. 

With The Gift from Aelius, you know, obviously, you know, we’re dealing with artificial intelligence and it’s more sci-fi, but even with the main character, A 191, like, you know, he feels like there’s more outside of his community or his world then meets the eye or what’s being shown to him. 

And for me growing up, I always saw myself like, what else is out there? I just didn’t know how to go about stepping outta that bubble. So, um, these books that I wrote and the future books I plan on writing, you know, it’s, I do pray that like not only does it entertain, but like it also touches the reader.

But it’s also very helpful for me too. So I feel like it’s a good shared experience. 

BETH BARANY: That’s really wonderful, and thank you for sharing with us a little bit about your past. I’m always curious, like, what, what were the ingredients in your life? If you could name like one key influence from your past, whether it’s something you read or saw, or somebody, or a place, that really influenced you as a writer today.

And this is one of the lightning round questions, the surprise questions for you. Yeah, what would that be? 

MICHAEL COLON: Oh, a hundred percent my mom. My mom is the influence of my upbringing. She taught me, you gotta work hard for what you want, but she also, and it was a lot of tough love. It, it was both but I feel like it made me the well-rounded person that I am now. Nobody’s perfect, but at the same time, in terms of like, just pure impactful influence, I would say my mom and anybody who knows me personally, it’s like, yeah. You know, like I, they, they just know right away. Um, yeah, I would say how I was raised echoes to the creative, how I approach my creative projects today, which is, work hard.

You deserve to like, put yourself out there like you deserve, like these type of things, like why not you? ’cause we’re all special in our own ways. So yeah, definitely my mom. 

BETH BARANY: That’s great. And, and why not you? That’s a great piece of advice. Yeah. For every writer listening to us, there’s no one else like you who’s had exactly your life experience. Just reaching out into listener land out there.

What’s one piece of advice you would have to a writer who’s working on their science fiction or fantasy story? and they might feel lost or confused or not know exactly. I don’t know, not have complete confidence in what they’re doing. Yeah. What is some, a piece of advice you would give them? 

MICHAEL COLON: Wow. I would say for anyone who’s just starting out, writing their first book, it’s a very exciting thing.

And, they, the first thing I’ll say is, just be proud that you’re starting this journey. It could be very intimidating. It could seem like a lot, but I would say believe in yourself first. Because if you don’t believe in your work, then no agent or publisher is gonna believe in you.

And, you just have to keep working hard and keep being persistent. The three things that I always preach is hard work, faith, and consistency. And I feel like if you apply those three things, no matter what creative project you’re working on, it may not land you exactly what you want, but it’s still going to have a positive, solution or answer.

Like for me, when I was trying to get my first book deal, I don’t know anybody in the industry. I don’t have a master’s degree in literature or literary arts.I basically did research. Did a lot of research, and was open to self-criticism and, just being open-minded to tweaking things.

And, you start to refine yourself. It’s like putting a sword in a fire. It may be uncomfortable and it may burn a little bit, but after a while you become accustomed to it. You become sharp, not in the sense of sharp, as in your work’s gonna be perfect and anything like that, but sharp as in like your mind and your spirit.

Because there’s gonna be a lot of rejection. And I’m sure you, me, other authors out there, like the amount of email rejections, it gets to the point where you just laugh after a while, and not laugh in the sense of it’s funny, but because at the end of the day, you know that this is just one step closer to the goal.

And yeah, I would say I, there’s no one piece of advice. I would just say know yourself, be genuine. Be, be, uh, consistent and you know, nobody can owes you anything because at the end of the day, it’s like you have to have that love for the craft and then that’ll take you to where you need to be. 

BETH BARANY: Well said, beautiful advice.

And just in full disclosure, I’m, I’m actually independently published, um, but I still brought my work through lots and lots of rounds of it, of edits and iterations and I wanted to get basically, to use a, a space metaphor like space flight, like green across the board. 

Like I had to get nine pe, nine outta ten people had to say, this is great. I, there could always be one who it wasn’t. They’re like, oh, this is not really my thing. Okay. But I had to get everybody on board. All the beta readers, all the alpha readers, all the critique partners, everybody, the strangers. I would have random people sometimes read my work when I thought it was almost done, just to make sure I was really in the pocket, as with my goal. So just for those who are self-publishing, also, like I’m not putting out shoddy work. I really wanna make sure it is excellent and to jump, go through all the hoops of being traditionally published in any form, being accepted, going through revisions, all of that.

It’s not easy. So I just wanna give it a little shout out to folks on that. 

[15:47] Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up 

BETH BARANY: So as we wrap up, I have uh, one more question. For you and it won’t be too, uh, out of left field. Um, I always like to, lately I’ve been asking my guests: What does it mean for you to write the future? 

MICHAEL COLON: That’s a good question. What does it mean for me to write the future? I think like any form of art, everybody’s going to take it different. It’s like when you go to a museum, um, you have lots of paintings, everybody’s gonna take something different. But at the end of the day, it’s gonna be impactful.

So what it means for me to write the future, it means to continue to put out my art as genuinely as me as possible. And the more genuine you are with your art, the more people are gonna want to continue to take from it and apply it to their life.Yeah, I, I would say that’s how you write the future is making sure that you’re as genuine and that you’re putting as much as your, as much as your essence in the work.

Because readers feel that, like they could tell when something is just kind of thrown onto paper and when every word is it just makes sense to where it is. So I would say that’s how you write the future. 

BETH BARANY: That’s really great, Michael. I love that. So we’re gonna wrap up here. I’ll have to have you back when you, when you come out with another book.

That’s it for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper. And that’s a wrap. 

MICHAEL COLON: Thank you, Beth. 

BETH BARANY: Thank you. Awesome. Awesome.. 

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ABOUT BETH BARANY 

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

 

CONNECT 

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The post Building Creative Confidence in Sci-Fi with Author, Michael Colon appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Let’s welcome back Bailey Lang as she shares with us “Habit of Mind: Engagement.” Enjoy!

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Our habits of mind — the thinking patterns we’re focusing on in this article series  — affect our writing process in surprising and powerful ways.

So far, we’ve talked about curiosity and openness, and the roles those mental habits play in building a successful writing practice.

In today’s post, we’ll focus on engagement.

What is Engagement?

The Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, a primary resource for learning about habits of mind, describes engagement as “a sense of investment and involvement in learning.”

Your writing practice isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing — it requires you to put in the time and effort required for growth.

Engagement encourages us to seek out new information and examine it in light of what we already know and believe.

Staying engaged helps us integrate what we’re learning and, most importantly, put it into practice in our own writing.

You can think of your writing practice like a houseplant.

It needs the right soil, nutrients, light, and water if it’s going to flourish and grow.

Engagement is what keeps you from neglecting the houseplant until it withers away and then wondering what went wrong.

How do Writers Practice Engagement?

A houseplant needs regular care if it’s going to thrive.

So does your writing practice.

Engagement is a habit of mind that lends itself to taking external action quickly, which can lead to powerful results.

You can start getting more engaged by reflecting on what and how you want to learn. 

Simply checking in with yourself about this aspect of your writing practice on a weekly or monthly basis is a great beginning step.

Some questions to ask yourself:

Have you actively invested in learning a new writing technique, deepening your knowledge of the publishing process, or exploring your genre?What did you learn, and how are you applying it?

You might decide that investing in your learning as a writer looks like hiring a book coach and reading widely in your genre.

Researching book coaches and getting up-to-date on recent releases in science fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery is a great way to keep yourself engaged with your writing practice.

Engagement often begins with reflection and ends in taking action.

For writers, active engagement might look like:

Developing a strong foundation of reading widely in your genreSeeking out or building a writing community, online or in personTaking writing classes or working with a coachGetting feedback on your draftsLooking for publishing opportunitiesEngaging Activities for Writers

Getting engaged isn’t about leaping into action.

It’s about taking thoughtful, considered next steps that you think will have the greatest impact on your writing.

Here are a couple of activities you can try to start practicing engagement as a habit of mind.

The Weekly Engagement Check-In 

Establish a weekly reflective check-in.

This could be a few minutes of journaling on some basic questions, or an elaborate spreadsheet where you track different topics you want to learn about and what steps you’re taking — the sky’s the limit.

If you’re just starting to think about engagement as a habit of mind, I’d begin with something simple, like the following questions:

What do I want to learn about writing as a craft?What do I want to learn about writing as a career?What have I done over the past week to explore the craft, my preferred genre(s), and my professional development as a writer?What would I like to do over the next week?The DIY Writing Curriculum

If you really want to make engagement an active part of your writing practice, you could create a mini-curriculum for yourself (or work with a writing coach to build one and offer some accountability!).

Choose a specific topic you want to learn more about. Get specific: “writing fantasy flash fiction” or “self-publishing for first-time authors” is better than “writing fantasy” or “publishing.”Establish a time-frame for your curriculum. Aim for a minimum of a month so you can do a deep dive into a topic.Gather resources on the topic you chose. Search for a reasonable collection of books, articles, podcasts, videos, and other materials. Start sorting them into loose topic categories.Design a course based on your resources and the topics you identified, complete with weekly reading and assignments.Crack those books and get to learning!Reading Recommendations Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Affiliate link) The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery (Affiliate link) Find Your Unicorn Space (Affiliate link)

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About the Author

Dr. Bailey Lang is a book coach, writer, and editor.

At The Writing Desk, she helps authors build sustainable, enjoyable writing practices that take their books from draft to done.

Bailey has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies and loves geeking out about writing.

You can sign up for Bailey’s free newsletter, Word to the Wise, for more writing advice and regular author interviews.

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The post Habit of Mind: Engagement by Bailey Lang appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.