Worldbuilding Questions and Ideas for Six Planet Types

Worldbuilding is a massive undertaking.

You're responsible for figuring out who and what exists, how days are spent (and how long is a day, anyway?), and what these beings believe about everything from religion to politics to pineapple on pizza to medicine and everything else under the sun(s).

Now imagine doing that for an entire planet.

Yeah. My head just exploded, too.

Looking at some of my favourite fictional universes, and a few others along the way, it feels like one of the best ways to keep things more manageable (and less "the Big Bang is throbbing inside my head") is to break things down. One step at a time.

The Importance of First Lines for Storytellers

Say the average length of a novel runs around 80,000 words. Contained in those 80,000 words are likely thousands of sentences. How important could one line out of thousands possibly be?

When it comes to first lines, I think you'll find they're nearly as important as successfully pitching the One Ring into the fiery depths of Mount Doom (or, to be a little less dramatic, as important as having matching seam allowances when piecing a quilt or wearing a pair of jeans that don't squash the life out of you during a long car journey), but let's explore that theory, shall we?

How to Use 2, 5, 10, or 30 Minutes as a Writer

Do you ever feel like there’s not enough time in the day to do everything you want to do as a writer and, when you do have time, you’re not sure what to do with it?

Say no more. Today we’re going over tasks you can do in as little as two minutes out of your day, right on up to a luxurious thirty minutes.

Midpoint Reflections on Find the Write Spark

Hey there, creative soul! As we’re into the second half of July, I think it’s about time to check in about Find the Write Spark 2019, don’t you?

If you haven’t heard of this before, there’s still time to join in or do your own version of the challenge! Read this blog post to find out what all the excitement is about.

As a quick recap, Find the Write Spark is a monthly challenge where we take passages written by some of our favourite authors; transcribe them word-by-word onto a fresh sheet of paper or electronic document, paying attention all the while to the effect created by the choice of words, sentence structure, and so on; and then rewrite the passages in a whole new way.