Backgrounding Your World Through Point of View

By Juliette Wade, @JulietteWade 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Even though we've spent so much time and effort on our worlds, the last thing we want if for it to read like we spent all this time and effort on our worlds. We want them to feel seamless, natural, as if they were real places. We want readers to see the people in the world. To help us do that, please enjoy this Golden Oldie from Juliette Wade today. She's probably one of the best at backgrounding worldbuilding details I know, with tips and examples on how to slip your world into your story so readers absorb it all in without realizing it.

Juliette hosts the Dive into Worldbuilding show on Google Hangouts, where she uses her academic expertise in anthropology and linguistics to take discussions of worldbuilding topics beyond the default. Her short fiction explores language and culture issues across the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy&Science Fiction, and Analog magazines.

If you're a fan of worldbuilding and want to take your skills further, you can also become a part of the Dive into Worldbuilding workshop. Join Juliette's Patreon and get brainstorming prompts, research links, exclusive peeks into research topics, or even get Juliette to help you with your work directly. https://www.patreon.com/JulietteWade. If you're interested in learning how linguistics can enhance your fiction writing, Juliette has an on-demand lesson called The Power of Words, now up at The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers.

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Take it away, Juliette...

Going Beyond the Default in Your Worldbuilding

By Juliette Wade, @JulietteWade 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Creating a rich world makes for a great novel, no matter if that world is based on fantasy or the world we know. But all too often, we rely on the default setting for our genre--such as medieval Europe for fantasy--and we rob ourselves of the chance to craft something unique. To share some tips on creating interesting world, please help me welcome worldbuilding guru, Juliette Wade.

Juliette hosts the Dive into Worldbuilding show on Google Hangouts, where she uses her academic expertise in anthropology and linguistics to take discussions of worldbuilding topics beyond the default. Her short fiction explores language and culture issues across the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy&Science Fiction, and Analog magazines.

If you're a fan of worldbuilding and want to take your skills further, you can also become a part of the Dive into Worldbuilding workshop. Join Juliette's Patreon and get brainstorming prompts, research links, exclusive peeks into research topics, or even get Juliette to help you with your work directly. https://www.patreon.com/JulietteWade

Take it away Juliette...

How to Use Foreign Languages (Real or Imaginary) in Your Novel

By Juliette Wade, @JulietteWade 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: I recently received a wonderful question about using made up languages in a novel, and I knew just where to go to get the answer. One of my critique partners (and best buds) is a linguistic anthropologist who writes science fiction and fantasy, and deals with this topic all the time. I can't think of anyone better suited to share tips on how to handle this situation.

Juliette Wade's first short story, "Let the Word Take Me," appeared in Analog Magazine, followed by her novelette, "Cold Words," "At Cross Purposes" with cover art by Bob Eggleton, and "The Liars," appeared on the cover of Analog's October 2012 issue with art by Michael Whelan. Other short stories include, "The Eminence's Match" in the Eight Against Reality anthology; "Smoke and Feathers" in When the Hero Comes Home 2 from Dragon Moon Press; with two more stories coming soon: "Lady Sakura's Letters" in the inaugural issue of STRAEON from Stupefying Stories, and "Mind Locker," which will appear in Analog in the coming year.Her most recent story is "Suteta Mono de wa Nai" (Not Easily Thrown Away) from Clarksworld Magazine.

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Take it away Juliette...

Re-Envisioning a Scene Without Rewriting it

By Juliette Wade,  @JulietteWade

Thanks so much, Janice, for inviting me to post! In the spirit of Rewrite Wednesdays, I'm going to talk about situations where you want to re-envision a scene without actually rewriting it completely.

To explain what I mean, I'll start by telling you about an interesting - and to me somewhat baffling - experience I had a few years ago. I met a young and talented writer in an online writing community and happily agreed to look at some of her work. I liked a lot about the story, the characters, etc. It did have issues, though, so on a couple of sections I gave her an in-depth critique, with my opinions, including how she might go about changing it to sharpen the focus. For each section she thanked me and sent me a revised version.