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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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How to Format Your Finished Manuscript

as written by a perpetually flabbergasted editor

Congratulations, you’ve finished a manuscript! That monumental achievement alone deserves a reward. Please get yourself something delicious—don’t worry, I can wait.

Back? Awesome, because it’s time to talk about an important step of the prepublishing and/or pre-editing process, and that is how to format your manuscript.

When you’re writing your manuscript, it’s likely you have a unique setup. Fancy fonts, different text and document background colors, your preferred way of formatting the document—all elements work together to create a comfortable writing space where you can be your most creative.

As both a writer and editor, I have no problems with writers going wild with their documents’ technical aspects while they’re drafting—I do exactly the same thing when drafting. But when it comes time to share your project with other people—especially professionals in the publishing world—your snazzy setup is no longer going to be a benefit. I could share horror stories relating to document setup, from thousands of spaces used instead of the tab key to wacky file conversion issues.

Please don’t make your editor’s job any harder than it needs to be. Fancy formatting looks great, but it can be a nightmare to undo and wastes time that your editor could otherwise spend polishing the words themselves rather than what’s around them. It’s also significantly easier to work with a document that adheres to a standard format because it’s easier to catch mistakes that way—the editor isn’t distracted trying to wrangle extra spaces and text appearing in other languages.

Most publishing houses have what are called submission guidelines. Read them. Follow them. There’s little chance your manuscript is exempt from the rules, and believe me when I say authors who flaunt the guidelines don’t win the respect of the people who are working on their manuscripts.

If the publisher/editing service you’re submitting to doesn’t have obvious guidelines, first ask about them. They might have preferences. If not, as follows are some basic standard practices in North American publishing.

First off, if you can’t bear to give up your fancy writing setup, create a new copy of your document specifically for editing/submitting. Clearly label it as such. Make sure you implement any changes to this for-editing/submitting document, not just your fancy original.

Page and text setup:

Remove any document background images/page colors.

Change the entire document’s font to Times New Roman point 12. Make it black. Not dark gray, not dark brown—black.

Set the margins to one inch on all sides. This is Microsoft Word’s default document format, but not enough submitted manuscripts use it. Remember: layout for publishing comes after editing, not before. Editors are liable to completely change your document’s pretty formatting to industry standards anyway.

Set the document’s orientation to portrait, not landscape.

Center all section and chapter titles (e.g., Table of Contents, Chapter 1, Acknowledgements, About the Author, etc.).

Remove all double spaces from the file. Seriously. This is an incredibly easy step. Do not make your overworked, underpaid editor do this incredibly trivial and time-consuming task for you. Especially if you are using double spaces to indent or center content. If you, for some reason, are using the space bar to indent or center content, please stop what you are doing and follow these steps:

Use your word processor’s “center text” function. In programs like Word, this can be done by hitting Control + E. (Ctrl + L and Ctrl + R, respectively, align text left and right.) Do not justify your text unless the guidelines demand it.

Use the tab key to indent paragraphs.

But bear in mind that sometimes this can result in a “tab” character existing at the beginning of a paragraph. This is bad. Preferably, set the entire document to a 0.5-inch indent and delete all tab characters.

Seriously, though, you should be searching every document before you send it out or copy it to an online format for double spaces. Make this a good habit, and you’ll ensure you set yourself apart as a cut above the other writers out there.

Set the entire document’s line spacing to double.

Front matter, chapters, and back matter should be separated by page breaks, not by a series of blank lines.

If you really want to delight your editor or anyone else who needs to work on your manuscript, consider removing all leading and trailing spaces from the document (link embedded).

Style elements:

Run spell check. This sounds obvious, but trust me, I’ve received manuscripts riddled with obvious spelling errors. If you write with spell check off for one reason or another, turn it back on when you’re getting ready to send a document out. Make a full pass on the document, and pay attention to every instance of that red squiggle.

Make sure you’re spelling the names of your characters and places consistently. I’ve seen Matt become Mike in the next paragraph, and Donilo become Donillo. Editors’ trust in the author’s abilities to do anything with competence drop drastically when we find these kinds of careless errors.

Similarly, either use the American spellings or the British spellings. Be consistent.

Separate your scenes with fleuron breaks. Three centered asterisks (***) used without spaces is the most common method of creating a fleuron break and the one I recommend using, although sometimes three number signs/hashes (###) can be acceptable. Do not use fancy symbols or symbols created through special fonts. They will not carry through if your editor changes your entire document to Times New Roman.

Optional change: remove the indent from the first paragraph in a chapter or after a scene break.

Make a point of using punctuation consistently. If you’re going to use the oxford comma, use it every time. Use a single dash consistently. Punctuate dialogue properly.

Improperly punctuated dialogue is one of the most common errors editors fix. There are only a few basic rules, covered here (link embedded), so please make an effort to learn and use them.

Use paragraphs properly. New speaker = new paragraph. New subject = new paragraph.

Once again, if you really want to delight your editor, change all hyphens between number ranges to en dashes. 3-5 days will become 3–5 days.

Correctly title your document. The title isn’t somehow going to magically change from StupidProject.docx or afhuowjfoa;wijef.docx to TheHungerGames.docx between your submitting it and other people reading the title.

If possible, use the .docx file format.

I want to wrap this up by saying that yes, editors are here to catch the mistakes you’ve missed, and we invariably have obscure technical knowledge that most writers don’t know exists (in Greek, the question mark is represented by a semicolon), but it’s your job as the writer to put your best effort forward. Also bear in mind that not all editors get paid to handle formatting issues but are expected to resolve them anyway. Fixing these basic issues yourself or, better yet, not creating them at all will help both you and your editor(s) ensure the version of the book you put out is the best possible version.

#;;reference

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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Hey! I just wanted to ask. When writing about a fictional world, where magic exists and stuff.. when is probably the best time to say the types of magic and other razzle-dazzle and stuff? If you don't get it it's okay.. :3

Introducing Magic Lore

When it comes to magic, I am a huge proponent of no info-dumping just to explain magic.

I personally find that readers don’t actually need to know everything right off the bat because an in-depth explanation of magic tends to take away from the narrative and bore people — so the best time is not in the beginning. Don’t show all of your cards right away!

My favorite way to introduce magic lore and explanation is to bring it up as it becomes relevant. This way you’re sprinkling bits and pieces of information as they become important, and it doesn’t feel like you’re taking away from the story to force an explanation. Readers are smarter than people often think they are, and they don’t need their hand held!

Here are some suggestions of how to do this!

Have a character that doesn’t know how magic works.

If there’s a character that has no idea how magic in this world works, your audience can learn about how magic works alongside this character!

When you want to explain something, you can have this clueless character bring up that thing, and have a more knowledgeable character explain it, or have them discover the answer on their own.

The difficult thing about this method is balancing how much the character doesn’t know, and how much they ask. It gets annoying if it happens too often, but you also have to remember that they might possibly not know the things that are considered common knowledge in that setting — I think one of the best ways to work with this is to just have them question as much as possible, and have beta readers tell you if you’re doing it too much.

Harry Potter is a good example of this: He’s the main character who had no idea magic existed and that he was a wizard. Throughout the entire series — but especially the first book — Harry is in awe of the magical world, and more knowledgeable characters (Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, etc) help explain the rules of magic, how it works, and how society functions as a result.

Tales of the Abyss also did a similar thing, with a main character who had literally never been outside of his estate. He didn’t have any idea how magic worked, or the politics of their conflicted world — so through the entire story he’s constantly learning about everything in the world.

Explain it the first time it comes up

So maybe you don’t have a character that’s completely clueless — that’s okay!

For example, let’s say that there’s five types of magic in your story, and your main character uses type 1. In the beginning of the story, maybe you only talk about type 1 magic because your main character is using it.

Eventually, when you introduce a character who uses type 4 magic, it’ll be the first time your readers ever encounter type 4 magic — or even that there are multiple types of magic. This is your opportunity to elaborate on type 4 magic and explain it a bit, and mention the other types of magic.

Explain an outlier

I don’t know how your magic works, but sometimes there are people who use magic differently than what is considered standard. If you have a character who uses magic in a different way, it is your opportunity to elaborate upon what is different, and make a comparison/explanation to the standard style of magic.

Maybe something unexpected happens — elaborate on what was supposed to happen, and speculate why it didn’t. This can provide really relevant and interesting information for your readers.

Create disagreement or discussion

You know how things work, but do your characters know how things work? Even in science there are a multitude of conflicting theories about how things on Earth work — you can do the same thing in your story! Maybe a couple of your characters don’t agree with each other on how something works, or the theory behind it and they get in an argument about it. This can reveal a lot about not only those characters like how they argue, what they’re passionate about, their opinions on magic, it can also help explain a lot of magic lore and what knowledge about it exists.

These are some of the techniques that I keep in mind when slowly revealing how magic works in my WIPs, hope this helped!

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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i'm currently writing a fantasy novel and i was wondering if you could help me with magic related things? I'm not entirely sure how everything works just yet and I'd like some ideas to help figure things out. I love your blog by the way and ty for all the hard work you do running it!

How to Write Magic

Magic plays a huge part in many fantasy novels and fanfictions; however, many people don’t know just how complicated it is to incorporate magic into a story.

Magic is tricky. It’s complicated. It can create tons and tons of plotholes galore, and these plotholes are prominent even in popular fiction like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings!

Here are a few tips on how to write magic without compromising the integrity of your story!

Keep reading

#;;reference

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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“you hold on to connections that you feel disconnected from, and then you wonder why you feel so disconnected from yourself. sometimes self love comes in the form of admittance—admittance that no matter how long or strongly you hold on, you can never force growth in a connection.”

— iambrillyant

#aboutbmy muse #Muse : ARTEMIS BLACK

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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Worldbuilding things to think about if you have magic:

How it interacts with public infrastructures like building and maintaining roads, bridges, damns, buildings

How it interacts with agriculture and weather, famines and droughts

How it interacts with smithing or crafts, animal care, farming, livestock, etc.

How it relates to healthcare, treatment, it affects epidemics

#;;reference

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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[id: a tweet by James L. Sutter. The tweet goes as follows:

[If you’re having trouble building a magic system for your story, try writing down four bullet points:

[*Something magic can do

[*Something magic CAN’T do

[*A price/toll that using magic incurs

[*What it feels like to do magic.

[end id]

#;;reference

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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Things to Consider when Creating a Magic System

What are the drawbacks of using magic? Does it have mental, physical, and/or emotional consequences for the user?

What tools are needed to harness magic? Wands? Spells? Magical artifacts?

How do people learn magic? Instinct? In school? From family members?

Can everyone use magic or are only certain people capable of using it?

Is the capability to use magic hereditary? What about different ways of using magic (transformation powers, teleportation, etc.)?

What is impossible for magic to do?

How long does it take to master different magical skills?

Can creatures other than humans learn magic? Are different creatures better at using different kinds of magic?

Does it require spells to be spoken, written, or thought?

Is it possible for someone to lose their magical abilities?

How do characters’ emotions affect their ability to use magic? Do their emotions affect the magic’s intensity or controllability?

How does the strength of a person’s magical abilities change as they age?

Can people normally perform any kind of magic or can they only perform things that fall under their specialty? Are their exceptions?

What rules restrict magic use in society?

How do people’s magical abilities impact their career prospects?

What kinds of magic are the most feared or seen as the most powerful? Which are seen as mere jokes?

How do people use magic to help with everyday tasks?

Can magical energy be stored for later use?

What objects or other factors can amplify someone’s magical powers?

When do magical abilities initially manifest? From birth? At a certain age? Under certain conditions?

What is the first spell a character is likely to learn?

What happens if a spell is performed incorrectly? Nothing at all? A weaker version of the intended results? Pain?

Can different spell casting methods be used to obtain the same result? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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WRITING TUTORIALS : CHARACTER QUIRKS

WHAT ARE QUIRKS AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary we define a quirk, as we are using it in this purpose, as follows:

quirk- ( NOUN )

PRONONUCIATION: ( /kwɝːk/ uk OR /kwɜːk/ ) DEFINITION:

an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, something that is strange and unexpected

Quirks are important because they set your character apart. We all remember Harry Potter for his scar and many of the character that we grew up loving contain these kind of traits as well. These traits can be broken down in a three different categories:

SYMBOLIC

quirks that represent your character's main struggle.

PHYSICAL

quirks represent the characters physical personality.

CONTRAST

which is a quirk that is the opposite of the way your character is portrayed, that you must justify with inner thoughts and motivations. These are elements of your character which allow them to feel three dimensional, the reader will be able to relate with the character and by that, it will be easier for them to get sucked into your story.

LOOKS AND PHYSICAL QUIRKS

UNIQUE HAIR // EYE COLOR

EXTREMELY SHORT // TALL

SOME DISCERNING PHYSICAL MARK - BIRTHMARK, FRECKLES, MOLE OR SCARS

WEARS UNUSUAL GLASSES

HAS BRACES AND HEADGEAR

LARGE FEET - MAY MEAN THEY ARE CLUMSY

BITING NAILS // LIPS OR CHEWS ON HAIR

CONSTANTLY FIDGETING AND CAN'T SIT STILL

ACNE, ECZEMA, OR OTHER SKIN PROBLEMS

MANY TATTOOS OR PIERCINGS

OFTEN SICK OF HAS ALLERGIES

TALKS VERY LOUDLY OR QUIETLY

SAYS EVERYTHING LIKE IT IS A QUESTION

TERRIBLE BREATH - POSSIBLE COFFEE OR DRINKER

GETS SWEATY EASILY - ESPECIALLY WHEN NERVOUS

UNUSUALLY HAIRY ARMS // LEGS

VERY LONG PAINTED NAILS

ALWAYS HAS FACEFUL OF MAKEUP

STUTTER OR SPEECH IMPEDIMENT

TUCKS HAIR BEHIND EARS

CONSTANTLY CHEWS GUM

ALWAYS PICKING THEIR TEETH

SMOKES AND HAS RASPY VOICE

BREATHS HEAVILY // SNORES

EXTREMELY MUSCULAR

WALKS VERY SLOWLY OR QUICKLY

LEFT-HANDED // AMBIDEXTROUS

CONSTANTLY SCRATCHING THEMSELVES

NOTICEABLE PHYSICAL TICS

ALWAYS WEARS DISTINCT ITEM OF CLOTHING // ACCESSORY

SYMBOLIC QUIRKS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR PLOT POINTS

Never talks about the past

THIS BE A CHARACTER HAVING A ROUGH PAST THE ULTIMATELY COMES BACK TO HAUNT THEM, AN ENEMY THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE VANQUISHED, OR AN UNPLEASANT TRUTH ABOUT THE CHARACTER RESURFACING AFTER A LONG TIME.

Picks on skin // clothing when tense

THIS COULD HINT TO A CHARACTER GROWING UP IN, AT LEAST, A VERBALLY ABUSIVE HOME. THIS COULD ALSO REFERENCE SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN MADE TO DO THINGS THEY DON'T WANT TO IN THE PAST. OR AN INDIVIDUAL THAT HAS PROBLEMS CONTROLLING THEIR EMOTIONS. THESE INDIVIDUALS CAN HAVE ANY OF THESE COME UP TO AFFECT OTHER CHARACTER VISIONS OF THIS ONE.

Hypersensitive sense of hearing

THIS CHARACTER COULD HAVE A HIGH LEVEL OF TRAINING GIVING THEM THESE SKILLS, EXPERIMENTATION DONE ON THEM AND THEY ARE RUNNING FROM OTHERS WHO WANT TO CAPTURE THEM. THIS COULD BE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR THAT SAVES THE DAY - OR HINDERS IT - LATER ON.

Constantly paranoid

THIS CHARACTER MAY HAVE MANY REASONS FOR BEING PARANOID. ACTUALLY BEING HUNTED COMES TO MIND, BUT ALSO ABUSE OF VARIOUS KINDS-PERHAPS FROM CHILDHOOD-, MILITARY BACKGROUND WOULD ALSO LEAD TO A CERTAIN LEVEL OF PARANOIA OR LAW ENFORCEMENT BACKGROUNDS.

Has a weakness for small animals

THE CHARACTER THEMSELVES WAS SAVED BY SOMEONE IMPORTANT A LONG TIME AGO, THEY LIKE ANIMALS MORE THAN THEY LIKE PEOPLE, VILLAINS WHO ARE EVIL BUT STILL HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR ANIMALS AS WELL.

Compulsively cleans spectacles

THIS MAY COME FROM REPEATED TASKS, FOLLOWING THE SAME MOTIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. IT COULD BE A NERVOUS TICK, OR SOMETHING THEY DO TO COMFORT THEMSELVES. IT COULD BE SOMETHING THEY LEARNED FROM A FAMILY MEMBER AND DO A SORT OF MEMORIAL TO THEM.

Does not drink Alcohol

CHARACTER IS LATER THROWN INTO AN ENVIRONMENT OF DRUNKARDS, FORCED TO TRY AND MAKE THEIR WAY AND HELP OTHERS THOUGH THEY ARE UNCOMFORTABLE. THEY COULD HAVE GROWN UP IN A FAMILY OF DRUNKS AND SWORE IT OFF OVERALL. THIS IS ALSO LEADS FOR THE POTENTIAL OF THEM COLLAPSES INTO DESPAIR AND DRINKING AS A RESULT AS A LATER PLOT POINT AS WELL

PARTING WORDS

But it is also important to remember that the other characters around your main character help reflect their strengths, weaknesses and flaws. It is important to have a foil as well. A foil character ( think Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter or The Master in the Doctor Who ) is a character outside of the main influence of the antagonist that helps define a character and allow them to grow. If not for all of his exchanges with Malfoy, Harry might not have made the choices he did, had such a concrete idea of his moral system. Remember to not overexaggerate the number of quirks, flaws or traits that you show in your characters, it should highlight your character and provide a balance.

There should

ALWAYS

be a reason to give your character a

TRAIT, PHOBIA, FLAW, OR QUIRK.

I HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPED YOU LOVELIES. HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY AND TONS OF LOVE

-BRITTANY

#Writing tutorials #writing tutorials : quirks #quirks #character quirk #writing #writing help #writersoftumblr #brittanyballwrites #okay to rb

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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I have officially finished edits on the first draft of my book AGENTS OF THE ETERNAL. It came out about 106.6k and I'm honestly kinda happy with it 😆

#authorspeak #brittanyballwrites #agents of the eternal #s; agents of the eternal

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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“i’ll never be good enough.” you mumble to yourself as you delete the last hour of work from your document.

we’ve all been there, and it’s not a fun situation to be in.

but you listen hear, you awesome person. that shit is GOOD. even if you don’t think it is. it is AWESOME.

think about it, in order to write that “not enough” “pile of shit i call a book”, you had to come up with that pile of shit from scratch

like,,,, you came up with that all by yourself. no one showing you the ropes, or giving you help along the way.

YOU DID THAT. and it’s GOOD. any type of writing is good writing. and if you think it’s bad? move on and edit it a few days from now and make it BETTER.

if you delete anything, i will come for you and delete your fucking big toes, you hear me? deleting and self doubt are your biggest enemies as a developing writer, so don’t become your own worst enemy! (insert “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit reference here)

power through that shit cause you’re goddamn good at what you do and i NEVER want to hear you say otherwise.

#i needed this

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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One of my friends posted this to be deep, but honestly? That's a lot of good words to write with.

#;;reference

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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youtube

today we’re talking about building a magic system!

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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Hello! I hope you're well! I was wondering, do you have some advice for the best-friends-to-lovers trope? My characters have been best friends since childhood and start living together but I have trouble getting the romance going as they're already very affectionate towards each other.

I’ve written quite a few articles surrounding the subject that I thought might be helpful, so I’ve linked them below :)

Guide to Writing Friends To Lovers

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

Resources For Romance Writers

Resources For Describing Emotions

Relationships Between Characters With No Connection

Relationships Between Polar Opposites

Skinny Love Prompts

Enemies Turned Lovers Prompts

Best Friends Turned Lovers Prompts

Tol & Smol Prompts

Guide to Writing Enemies To Lovers

“Just Friends” Playlist Listen On Spotify

Childhood Friends to Lovers

Hope these can help you!

VISIT THE WORDSNSTUFF WEBSITE AT WORDSNSTUFFBLOG.COM

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee or supporting me on Patreon.

Wordsnstuff also has a newsletter, which you can subscribe to by filling out the pop up on wordsnstuffblog.com.

I’d also really appreciate it if you would check out my separate blog dedicated to my current work in progress. I also run writing sprints over on snapchat.

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brittanyballwrites · 4 years

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Questions to Help World Build

I’ve realized I have a big problem with my writing. I am awful at world-building. Like, I just start writing without thinking about the world. And since I write fantasy. Well. That’s pretty no bueno and leads to all kinds of problems down the road. So I did some brainstorming with my friends and we created a list of over 100 questions to help think about our stories’ worlds and make them more concrete. Thanks to everyone who chimed in and gave me a hand!

A traditional Japanese clock, wadokei, that counted hours from 9 to 4, starting from sunrise, and then starting once again from sunset. (1-3 were not used for religious purposes.) They’re super interesting and confusing. You should definitely check them out.

Temporal

Is your story set in the past, present, or future?

Specifically, what year(s), month(s), day(s)?

Are days 24 hours? Or does time pass differently in this world?

How many months are there in a year? Is it a seven day weekday? Does the concept of weekends exist?

Have most existing societies developed a timekeeping device?

Is there a way to communicate across long distances?

The concept of time zones is still relatively new to our world. Prior to the late nineteenth century, timekeeping was a purely local phenomenon. Each town would set their clocks to noon when the sun reached its zenith each day. Do standardized time zones exist across the world?

Geographical

From a planet perspective, is it Earth? If it is not Earth, or an alternative version of Earth, what is it like? Is gravity the same? Does it have a moon or multiple moons? Can you see other planets? Is it closer or further from the sun? If so, what impact does that have on the climate and passage of time?

What town, state, region, country, continent, planet does this story take place in? What are its bordering/nearest neighbors? Draw a world map if you want.

What kind of land is it? Landlocked? Mountainous? Along the sea? Desert? Tundra? Tropical forest? Plains? Agricultural? Industrial?

What kind of plants and animals are common to the area? Are there any that do not exist in the real world?

What are the most common crops and livestock in various regions? What geographic features influence certain regions ability to grow/raise their crops and livestock (positively and negatively)? Are the regions diets strongly influenced by what they are able to grow themselves, or do other circumstances (like strong international trade) allow them to have more varied selections? How does religion influence what is considered ‘normal’ to eat?

What, if any, natural disasters are common to the region? Earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, monsoons, blizzards?

How many seasons does it have? Are any longer than others?

What is the typical weather like for those seasons?

Does the region have any unusual geographical features that set it apart? Perhaps there is some weird thing like Devil’s Tower just chilling out. Or hot springs because of volcanic activity?

Is it easy to travel from place to place within the area? Is it difficult to travel because of terrain/technology issues, or because travel is strictly regulated?

Main Locations: Cities

Many stories take place within one city. In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, a character remarks, “So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams.” What personality does this city have? What soul does it have? What does it dream of when it slumbers? If your story takes place within a settlement, town, or city, give these questions some thought.

Exactly where is it located within the lands you conjured up in the above Geography questions? Does it have a bay? A river? Does it butt up against mountains? Draw a map of the city.

How big is the city? Is it compact, or sprawling?

How old is the city?

What is the history of the city? How did it come to be? What tumults and triumphs has it seen?

What is the population? Is it currently increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same?

Does the town have any claim to fame? Any tourist attractions? What are they? What’s the story behind them?

If it’s a big enough city, how many and what kind of districts does it have? Residential, Commercial, Industrial, etc. Where are they?

Are there any areas that are deemed unsafe? If so, where are they and why are they unsafe?

Is there public transportation? What kind, bus, tram, train, subway, monorail? Is it good?

How do people get around this city if not by public transportation?

Are the roads narrow or wide? Crisscrossing in a methodical grid or higgledy-piggledy?

What are the buildings like? What materials are they made of? If they’re wooden, are they new wood, old wood? If they’re painted, what colors? If they’re stone, what stone? If they’re brick, is it new red brick or blackened, crumbling brick? If they’re glass and metal, are they sparkling with new hope or dull and jaded?

Are there many skyscrapers? Or are most buildings 1-3 stories tall? What does the skyline look like?

Are there many parks?

How is the city powered? Coal? Hydroelectric? Wind? Nuclear? Has it always been so?

What is the city’s main source of revenue? Agriculture? Tourism? Manufacturing? Mining? Something else? A combination? Dive deeper into this. If it’s agriculture, what do they grow? Tourism–what is famous? etc. This will help to determine what a lot of people do for a living.

What are the demographics? Ethnicity, age distribution, distribution of upper, middle, and lower class, etc.

How many schools are there? Universities? Are any of them good? Do they specialize in anything? Do schools even exist? Perhaps there are clans that teach their children everything they need, for example, or education isn’t viewed as important.

Are there any particular landmarks within the city that standout?

How many and what kind of restaurants are there?

Are there supermarkets, open air markets, or both?

Where do young people go to spend time? What about adults?

Do people there bustle or do they amble?

What are the nights like? Does the city grow quiet, or does it grow rowdy?

What does the city smell like?

If you had to give your town a color, one that represented its personality, what color would it be?

Main Locations: Houses (or buildings, but mainly houses)

There are many stories that have a house or headquarters or hospital or some sort of building as their main setting. These questions will mostly be geared towards helping you figure out a house, but you can apply these to other buildings too probably.

Exactly where is the house located within the city or outside the city? How does your character usually get there? Draw a map.

What year was the house built?

Was this house built by the current family or their ancestors? Who else lived in the house before the current dwellers? What were they like? Did they leave their mark on the house somehow?

What style is the house? Bungalow? Cabin? A shed? A cave? (makes the following questions mostly useless if so lol)

How many stories is it?

What is it made of? Wood? Brick? What color is it?

Does it have a lot of windows?

Are the curtains usually open or drawn? Are thee curtains at all?

What does the front door look like?

Is there a porch?

You enter the front door. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you use the side door because the front door is for show or something. Anyways. You enter the house. What room do you step foot into?

Draw out the floor plans for each floor. How many rooms are there? Where are they? How big are they? How are they connected? What color are they? What style of decor?

Is there a basement? Is it used or is it just a home for spiders and darkness and unwanted things? How about an attic? Crawlspace?

How many bathrooms?

Are there any rooms that only certain people are allowed to enter? If so, why?

What is the flooring? Carpet? Wood? Tile? Linoleum?

What does the house smell like?

Government/Military/Economy

In other words, “the boring stuff,” if you ask me. But this is a very important aspect of any world.

What sort of government is in place? Democracy, oligarchy, etc? Is it a just or corrupt government?

How are goods exchanged? Bartering? Money? Coins and bills? Credit cards? A specific kind of sea shell? Lol

What are the police like? Strict? Lax? Is there a curfew?

Do taxes exist? If so, do the people feel as though they are heavily or unduly taxed?

Where is the intersection between theology and law? Is it common to have religious leaders in positions of power? Are laws based around religious ideology, or is there an effort to keep them separate?

Is there an organised structure devoted to halting criminal acts? Are they corrupt? Who runs the organisation? How does their reputation change based on demographic? What is the history of the organisation, and how does that history influence how it operates today?

Regarding potentially criminal acts, what is the elgality of prostitution, sex work, ect.?

What about drugs and other illicit substances? Alcohol, illicit drugs, recreational use. Legality, festivity, age limits, etc.

Underbelly. How prevalent is crime, what sort of crime (scaled from pickpocketing to human trafficking) is there? Are there areas that have bad reputations because of it?

Regarding war, are there currently conflicts in the world? Are they international or civil wars? How common is it to have an active war? What is the history of war? What does current warfare look like (Is it dudes in metal suits swinging swords? Have longbows been invented? Gunpowder? Tanks? Missiles?) Is military service mandatory or voluntary? How is the military seen? Is there a sense of patriotism for the military, or does the common man fear it?

Is there stigma around certain genders entering the military? Are come genders regarded as better recruits than others? Is it illegal for some genders to enter the military? Does a person’s sexuality affect their ability to serve?

How has religion influenced war? Have there been holy wars in the past? Do any religious institutions hold their own military forces?

Cultural/Historical

I’ve put these together because events in history lead to cultural change. You can apply these questions not only to the world/country, but also the city or even the neighborhood, workplace, or school that your story takes place in.

What is the history of the region? Who was it settled by? Was another group of people displaced? After that, did any new cultures come in? Did they get along?

Were there ever any wars or serious conflicts in the region? What was the cause and what was the outcome of the war if there was one?

In our world, the internet, social media, and film/tv are massive cultural drivers. They determine the latest fashions, jokes, topics, and expressions. What are the big cultural drivers in your world? Books? Plays? Radio? Oral tradition?

Is it a collectivistic or individualistic society?

What languages are spoken by your characters? Is multilingualism common?

What sorts of cultures can be seen? Do any clash? Do any mesh?

What sort of foods are most common?

What superstitions do people hold? Is there a version of “knock on wood” or throwing salt over your shoulder after a funeral? What are the roots of these superstitions?

Are there religions? If so, what are they? Do any conflict with each other? Are zealots or extremists an issue?

Does slavery or indentured servitude exist?

Are there any class or caste systems? If so, what are they, and what does an average day look like for a member of each class/caste?

How does a person’s appearance change from country to country? Do certain countries have very distinct fashions? If so, are the fashions influenced by religion, surrounding countries, the cultural majority or international trade partners?

How does a person’s clothing relate to their social standing? Is it very easy to assume someone’s roll by appearance alone? Are there punishments for dressing above or below your social standing?

Does the society place a great deal of importance on a person’s presentation, or is the society more lenient on such things?

Is there an emphasis on conformity to a dress code, or is individuality encouraged? How strictly is clothing regulated by gender binary? Is it commonplace to see a man and a woman walking down the street in the same cut of clothes? Is there a social stigma when a person does not conform to the most common form of dress for their gender?

How are sexual rights viewed? Does the LGBTQ community have the same rights as people outside the community? How are sex acts between people of the same sex viewed? Is it legal? Taboo? Are there cultures that encourage those relationships in some circumstances (like how the romans were down with guys with guys in the military)?

Are there any groups of people that are victims of prejudice? If so, who are they, who holds these views against them, and what views specifically are they?

In regards to gender, do certain societies hold differing beliefs? Is there a commonly accepted number of gender identities or does it change regionally? Is the most common gender spectrum a binary, or do certain racial and cultural differences allow for a wider range to be seen as the baseline?

Are children raised by their biological parents or are children considered to be in the care of the wider community? Is it common/acceptable for extended family to raise children, such as parents needing to study, work, or serve time in the military? Is adoption a common thing in society? Is there a stigma around adoption/being adopted? Do cultural or religious views impact how adoption is seen by the wider community? What is adoption like for a single perspective parent? When adopting, is interracial adoption accepted/common, or is it seen in a negative light? Are some societies more open to adopting children outside of their own race?

How is sex and virginity viewed? Does religion influence it? What is the age of consent? What is appropriate on a first, second, third date? Is sex something that is talked about openly, or something taboo? Are you supposed to wait until marriage? Do couples stay monogamous while dating? Do some regions place higher importance on virginity than others? Do some place higher importance on one gender’s virginity than others?

How is marriage viewed? Are arranged marriages a big thing, or are people free to choose? Is monogamy common? How is a marriage symbolized? A wedding ring, or something different?

How is divorce viewed? What is the divorce rate? Can people remarry?

Magic and the Supernatural

If magic or spooky stuff doesn’t exist in your story, disregard this section.

Does magic exist? If so, who can use it? What are the limitations to their magic? What things are they capable of using their magic to do? What things are they incapable of doing?

Are there laws against what kind of magic can/cannot be used? What sort of laws? Who enforces them? What are the punishments for breaking said laws if they exist?

How does the existence of magic affect religion? Are there religious institutions that infuse magic into their worship? Are there religious sects that see magic as immoral and in direct opposition to their faith? Have there been conflicts in recent or ancient history between religion and the supernatural? Do some sects employ people to hunt and/or enforce law over the supernatural?

Assuming that magic does exist, is it taught? Are there different schools of magic? Is there a system of ranking for magic users based on their skill level?

Do non-magic users look towards magic users with respect or fear?

What role does magic play in this world? Has technology not advanced because magic solves many problems? Or has technology advanced and the use of some magics has become unnecessary?

Are there any mythological creatures/monsters, such as vampires, demons, skinwalkers, dragons, or other creatures of your own creation? Are they common? Do people believe in their existence? Do people worship them? Where can they be found? Do they interact with humans? Do humans fear them or try to put up with them as they do nature?

Do the dead continue to exist in some form, such as ghosts or zombies or the like? Can the dead be summoned or brought back to life?

Are there human/supernatural hybrids? Perhaps a half-demon half-human, for example? How are these people viewed by their peoples, and by society as a whole?

How has the supernatural influenced war? Do armies tend to have a mix of regular and supernatural soldiers/weapons? Have there been wars between the supernatural/magical and those without? How does magic influence a person standing in a mixed army? Is it more likely for a magical being to be promoted than a non-magical being? Conversely, are supernatural being forced into service and seen as pawns?

The End!

Please feel free to reblog and share, and add on any questions you think should be added!

#;;reference

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