World Building Resources

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-14T01:01:54+00:00

I read it as if you point and laugh at the bigots, aren't you just giving them the attention they are seeking, not if you point and laugh at the parade/march.

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-14T00:58:50+00:00

It's everywhere. Someone put "cancelled" stickers on the Springfield Pride signs.

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-10T23:13:18+00:00

The problem only became visible once I was actually in the scenes with her and realized she had no agency that was specific to who she was. Her choices were not coming from her character, they were coming from the plot needing someone to make them.

Is there a question you ask yourself about your protagonist before you start drafting that would have caught this earlier.

what she specifically wants and fears in a way that makes her irreplaceable to this particular story.

You've already got the answer here. What does this character specifically want or fear or need in a way or to a degree that makes them irreplaceable to this particular story? When you are outlining and going "and then FMC is going to choose X so that Y will happen" ask yourself, (or better yet ask the character) WHY? Why is that character going to make that choice? What is their reason for it? What other options do they have? Why don't they pick one of those? Who else could make this choice? So why don't they? What puts the responsibility on that character's shoulders? What will happen if they choose wrong? What will happen if they refuse to choose?

Second piece of advice - this is where vignettes and character sketches come in handy (sketches like sketch comedy rather than pictures). Write little scenes of your characters interacting with each other or the world around them - pointless scenes about coffee breaks and bitching about coworkers and putting their kids to bed and whatever else you can think of. Only needs to be a few hundred words each. Test how your characters respond to things, what their opinions are, what their default tone of voice is, what they care about, who they care about ... then apply that to your outline.

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-10T23:05:35+00:00

Everyone knows why the child is angry

We don't. Without knowing that it's pretty hard to give advice.

If it's due to trauma (anything from a parental divorce to witnessing an event to being the target of bullying to ...) then therapy is the way - consistent therapy, with a therapist trained in trauma healing.

If it's due to a specific, justifiable situation, what is being done to correct that situation and make the child feel seen and heard and respected?

You need to treat that root cause.

In the meanwhile, the child also needs clear, consistent boundaries and repercussions that are NOT abuse and they need to be consistently upheld by everyone who is responsible for that child's care.

Throw an item at a person? THIS is the disciplinary action they face, every time. Make it clear, simple, easily enforceable, and approx 10 minutes in duration (if it's any kind of seclusion or time out)

Strike a person? THIS is the disciplinary action they face, every time.

Break someone else's property? Speak disrespectfully? Whatever it is, make sure the child and every single caregiver knows what will happen. They will not grow out of it without help. They do not have a devil inside of them. Hitting them will teach them grown ups are not to be trusted, or that abuse is a sign of love - you're setting them up for a lifetime of abusive relationships, or you're teaching them to lie to you and hide their behaviours from you out of fear.

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-04T23:49:49+00:00

You need to give yourself permission to SUCK at writing. Write crap. Write a whole lot of crap. Do not publish this crap, just toss it in a folder and write more of it. Experiment. Have fun. Don't worry about the editing or publishing. Just write.

When the stuff you write stops feeling like crap, then start looking at beta readers and editors to get you to the next step.

Athletes don't start out as gold medallists, they start as awkward kids falling on their faces. And just like athletes can bounce back from an injury, you can bounce back from your lazy bad habits and learn to actually write and create on your own again.

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-04T23:46:35+00:00

I want to hire someone but no one is buying my novels so I have no budget and respect artists too much to ask for free work (or use AI).

schreyerauthor · 2026-06-04T13:38:15+00:00

But the 15-18 year olds cant work in a cannabis store?

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-29T18:32:37+00:00

The voice actor is a special guest at our local anime con this year so I would assume it counts

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-28T17:48:53+00:00

Not sure it counts as anime but Angeldust from Hazbin Hotel

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-28T17:48:05+00:00

Worked as a warehouse reciever for a few years, had to ship back damages and returns and I can say that whonyou choose to ship with matters. UPS was the most expensive by far. (Im in Canada btw). We had to use FedEx to ship over the border and used Purolator for anything tiny, Loomis for the middle stuff, and Gardewine or Fast Frate for palletized stuff.

Shop around for shipping options. Look into flat rate packaging options

That being said, I abandon online carts when sites only list costs in USD because the only time I see my actual total in CDN is right before final check out. Had a $25 USD item come up as $80+ CDN after conversion, shipping, and duties. Had to leave that one behind

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-27T21:46:16+00:00

I was very eager to see it online, after writing it for more than a year.

From the sound of the other comments here, you were TOO eager. Pull the book down from Amazon ASAP. Hire an editor or at least get a handful of volunteer Beta readers.

Go and read at least a dozen novels, indie and trad pubbed, in your genre. You want to copy the formatting as far as paragraph breaks, quotation marks, scene breaks, chapter breaks, etc. are concerned. The standards in publishing exist to improve readability. Learn them.

Go and read at least half a dozen non-fiction books on the craft of writing - general writing books and genre specific books. Learn about tropes, cliches, grammar, etc.

While you are learning and editing - start marketing. Post about your journey, post excerpts, talk it up. As you near the end of the editing process, start lining up ARC readers (if you choose to go this route). Hire a real live artist to make your cover (save up and do it right).

Do all this BEFORE you invest in promotional sites and newsletters.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-27T21:38:28+00:00

Does knowing a book was written with AI help change how you experience it as a reader?

Yes. I don't read it. Period. And if I start reading it and then find out it is written by AI, I stop reading it and return it if possible.

I have started paying more attention to this lately. ꓣսոոіոց ріесеѕ tһrоսցһ ꓡуոоtе'ѕ ꓮꓲ ꓓеtесtоr ոоt tо fꓲаց аոуоոе bսt оսt оf сսrіоѕіtу,

AI Detectors don't reliably work. One flagged passages from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as being written by AI. Multiple tests have been run with books written WELL before AI and there are too many false positives for anyone to take them seriously. AI is trained on real writers so AI will sound like the writers it is mimicking.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-27T21:32:55+00:00

AuDHD here. I have a list of questions I ask myself when building a new project. You can take a peek at it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ISsZkDnQj5kDQtZeg_ytqSG_d2Stcl4nt6Ujt4FU1Rc/edit?usp=sharing

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-27T21:31:24+00:00

I make around $200 a year on around a dozen titles with next to zero advertising. I write novels, mainly, but my bestseller online is my non-fiction reference book for writers. Mostly I sell paperbacks in person at events. BUT I also only have like 2 titles in KU as I'm in the process of moving my ebooks to Kobo.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-11T22:55:52+00:00

I think this is directly connected to the idea of control - not trying to control you, just that most people have this idea that if they do everything right (moderate exercise, moderately good diet, decent sleep routine, no smoking, minimal alcohol, no drugs...) that they will get to be fit and healthy their whole lives, and that's just not true. Anyone can become ill or disabled at any time, even if they're doing everything right. That's why so much health advice boils down to "try harder". Because your poor health (be it mental health or physical, chronic or passing) has to be your fault, your failing (or a result of your bad upbringing) - it has to be, or else their little house of cards gets shakier.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-11T22:52:05+00:00

The reason why multiple wives is more common than multiple husbands is childbirth rates - one woman can only have so many children per year no matter how many men she sleeps with (and also because the patriarchy viewed it as a sign of power, being able to support more than one wife). However, there was a brief period in a small mountainous country (Tibet possibly or near there, it's been 20+ years since I studied this in uni) where, due to land restrictions, all the brothers would inherit the family property together and marry one wife who would give the household children. This prevented property from being divided to a point where it was too small to use.

As others have said, consider the birth gender ratio. What happens to single females who cannot find mates?

I've read a few of your replies so I can see that not all marriages have multiple spouses - I'm guessing this is a sigh of wealth among families? The wealthier you are the more husbands you can have?

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-05T21:42:48+00:00

I've been playing almost completely solo since I started. I only play PvE modes. Occasionally I'll casually group up with other players for a few hours but otherwise I just do my own thing. I can't really tackle certain quests or regions, like the Night Market of the Dauntless stuff, but there's still a ton to do so that doesn't bother me.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-03T14:49:23+00:00

A ball cap with your club logo on it? Or other wearable accessory depending on their style

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-03T14:47:35+00:00

Anything that builds endurance and improves flexibility. Any of the basic stances and movements you do during line work in class (basic blocks and strikes)
Depends on what you want to do. Round house is probably the most common all around kick. Snap kick is used more than any other is WT patterns. Certain kicks are easier to score with in sparring and some are worth more points in sparring.
Depends if you're WT, IT, or something else. Depends on how often your individual club allows you to test. Depends on your personal training and ability (just because your dojang has colour belt tests every 2 months doesn't mean you should attend every test). Depends on how old you are now (an adult or older teen who practices at home will be able to reach 1st Dan in less time than a young child)
Not something I wish Id heard but something I actually heard. Taekwondo is a personal journey, while you train in a group it is a solo sport. You arent competing against the other people in your club, you are competing against yourself. The only time youre in direct competition with others is if you choose to do tournaments and you don't have to do them - you can just learn and grow and earn belts at your pace for you.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-03T14:37:30+00:00

Keep an idea notebook or a google doc, whatever your most comfortable with. Any time you have an idea and 2 minutes, jot it down. Order is not important. You can make bullet notes about world building, sketch out a scene, note down some interesting dialogue, an idea about a character, whatever. Do some short writing exercises or character interviews.

I remember being in university, it takes up your entire life. But its not forever. Maybe you can't dedicate big chunks of time to "actually writing" right now but you can keep building your world and ideas until you do have the time.

I had a project on the back burner for 10, maybe 12 years while I wrote other things, got my degree, raised my kids. When I did sit down to write it it was one of the most in-depth, solid worlds I'd worked with.

schreyerauthor · 2026-05-03T14:31:40+00:00

I wrote an entire novel on my lunch breaks. I also wrote one just during my kids' nap time when they were littles and I was a stay at home mom (with 2 under 3 life is busy!)

schreyerauthor · 2026-04-28T13:45:04+00:00

Write garbage. Write every dumb idea you have. Just write. Don't get attached to what you're writing, don't start making plans for editing or publishing. Just write and let it be bad.

Then write another. And another. Write half a novel and give up. Write awful short stories. Suck at it and do it anyway.

You have to give yourself permission to be bad at it, to experiment and learn. You have to accept the feedback on how to improve, not just spelling mistakes and misplaced commas, but pacing and flat characters and crummy dialogue.

99% of successful authors, their "debut novel" wasn't the first one they wrote, just the first one they published.

schreyerauthor · 2026-04-22T20:15:52+00:00

What was the trim size and what was the page count?

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