"Hooking the Reader through World Building," with S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin is an author of young adult soft science-fiction, a blogger of writing tips and tricks, and a rising college senior in Pittsburgh. He's written and self-published three hard sci-fi books since 2004, and is finishing the fourth draft of "Embassy," the novel he hopes will become his debut in traditional publishing. You can follow him on his website, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.


Welcome to my first post in our newest series, "Hooking the Reader through World Building." Today I'm going to talk about some key elements to your stories' worlds and environments. So stick around and take a few notes!

#1. THE WORLD SHOULD REFLECT THE STORY.

This is the most essential part of world building. You aren't going to set a fantasy novel on a spaceship with laser cannons. You're going to have mountains and vistas and magic and dragons and ugly creatures and dark forests and castles and straw towns. Imagine if "Lord of the Rings" happened in the "Star Wars" universe.

Another aspect to consider is what can the setting do for the story? Think of your main character's goals. Is he trying to run away from something? Is there another world that is better than the one he lives in? How will he get there? Who will he meet along the way? What obstacles will he face?

Incorporate all of these elements into the setting. Marshes, mountains, rivers, graves, deserts, outer space, lack of air in a spaceship, traffic on the interstate...heck, even a flight delay. Make it work for your world.

#2. USE CONCRETE DESCRIPTIONS.

If you want your reader to visualize your world, don't start throwing abstract imagery around and assume your colorful words will paint a picture.

No. Just don't. Please. The key to effective imagery is this: simplicity. Use the words that get the job done -- and nothing more. Don't start bombarding your story with similes and metaphors. I beg you. Sure, it's okay to use one or two. They won't hurt anyone. But if you compare every river to a winding snake, or every building to an elegant monument....it's going to get old FAST. Just say it as it is, and stop.

Then sprinkle on some grander visuals -- but limit them.

As I like to say: "Don't paint. Build." It's fine to paint the main character's personal views to help emphasize what they think, but nature and cities are nature and cities. Make it easy for your reader to see the world by keeping your descriptions SIMPLE. Or, as the heading says, concrete.

#3. KEEP DISTANCES AND TERRAIN REALISTIC.

Who here can trek 1,000 miles in four days on foot? Anybody? No? Well that's a good sign. Now, have you ever read a book where characters walk impossible distances in no time at all? Or, say, cross a city in a few short minutes?

As authors, we need to be wary about relativity. Space and time play a HUGE part in world building. Unless your characters have teleports, or use magic to cross the country, prepare to dig in and figure out a way to fill in the journey.

Leave us with the sense that the characters did more than skip across the city, arm in arm a big smiles pasted on their faces. No, show us some of the jay-walking, brake lights, stop signals, crowded sidewalks, and beeping horns. The tug of the current in the river, the chill of the icy water on our skin, the weight of our waterlogged clothes, the short breaths we make as we try to stay afloat.

This stuff happens in real life, so why would it be so easy in the story?

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That concludes this week's post! Hope you're able to use these tips to develop your story worlds better and pull your readers into the next level of the story. If you liked what you saw, please share this post and leave a comment below!

Until next time,
S. Alex Martin

Character Essentials: "Hooking the Reader through Character Building, Part 4" with S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin is an author of young adult soft science-fiction, a blogger of writing tips and tricks, and a rising college senior in Pittsburgh. He's written and self-published three hard sci-fi books since 2004, and is finishing the fourth draft of "Embassy," the novel he hopes will become his debut in traditional publishing. You can follow him on his website, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.



Hey everyone, welcome to my last post in this series. Hope you enjoyed Brian's post last week!

Today's post is a bit shorter because I'm going back to college tomorrow, so I've been packing and shopping--all while finishing the fourth draft of my novel, Embassy. Yeah. I've been rushing around all week.

Anyway, I want to look at two specific ways to show how to develop characters: involvement their world, and how they deal with events.

#1. INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR WORLD.

Characters need roles. When the story opens, readers want to know who the characters are. What do they do? What events have shaped them? If you show your characters place in society, the reader will better understand what journey the character is going on and why they are going on it.

This is why it's so crucial to understand character back stories. Some people like to list hobbies and education and favorite foods and colors, etc, before they begin writing the story. Other people (like me) let the characters shape themselves as they write.

Here are examples of a character's  involvement  in different novels:

Robert Langdon is a professor of religious symbology at Harvard University, and is called upon to investigate religious-related happenings in the Vatican and other cities. ("Angels and Demons," by Dan Brown)

Hazel Lancaster is a cancer child who must cope with death, and falls in love with a boy who lost his leg to cancer. ("The Fault in Our Stars," by John Green)

Beatrice Prior is a sixteen year old girl who lives in a world divided into five factions, and the day has come for her to make a choice: stay with her family, or join a new faction. ("Divergent," by Veronica Roth)

You can see how these characters are involved in a world that directly relates to the story. Use that to shape your characters, and then present events that will progress the characters' changes.

#2. DEALING WITH EVENTS.

Characters need to react to their worlds. This means  there need to be events that force the characters to make decisions--and sometimes they won't make the right ones. When necessary, complicate their lives. Make bad things happen. Make good things happen. But let your characters show their true selves in the choices they make, and maybe show how they change through the story.

We'll see three major ways characters act in their worlds: some will be active and seek out challenges. Others will be passive and let things progress as they are. Still, others will be reactive and make choices only as events happen.

Let's take the examples I used above and show how the characters react to the events in their stories. Keep in mind some stories have a mix of the three ways characters act:

ACTIVE: Robert Langdon must track down and stop an Illuminati plot to attack the Catholic Church after the death of the Pope. He must ACT and figure out where the Illuminati will strike, how they'll strike, and do so before the antimatter bomb destroys the Vatican and kills millions of people. (Angels and Demons)

PASSIVE: Hazel Lancaster can't really do much for her condition. She goes to support group, thinks about death a lot, and pretty much lives knowing she will die one day. When she meets Augustus Waters, they both have their jokes and travel together using his "Wish." But their reality always looms over them. (The Fault in Our Stars)

REACTIVE: Beatrice Prior joins a new faction and must react to her world and circumstances. Fights, fear tests, and a dark plot are ever-present. All of this is thrown at her and she must adapt to the situations. (Divergent)

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Well, that's my last post in this series! Brian will be back next week with the final installment of "Hooking the Reader through Character Building."

Have questions? Need clarification? Comment below and I'll reply!

Until next time,
S. Alex Martin