Worldbuilding: When writing fantasy, you should have a sketch of your plot already in mind. You need to know something about your characters and what they’re going to be doing in your story. That way, you can create exactly the kind of world or environment best suited to the needs of your plot, and you won’t waste a lot of time creating a more elaborate setting than you can use. I usually focus on the following four elements:

         Social/political structure
         Climate/terrain
         Everyday life
         Ethics

I consider whether my characters are going to be roaming around feudal kingdoms or an imperial empire. I want to establish what the power structure is at the family level, village level, and so on to the top. Then I decide where my protagonist fits in that hierarchy. Often I use models from history as a template that I then adapt to support my intended plot. For example, the kingdom of Nether is based loosely on medieval Russia; the kingdom of Mandria is based loosely on France. That’s why the two countries have differing aristocracies and titles. In my novel The Pearls, I had to plan an imperial army, and figure out the ranks and substructures within each legion.

The climate of my story world matters because it’s going to affect the characters in the story, just as they must also cope to some degree with terrain. If, for example, the setting is a harsh desert land, then game and water will be scarce. Your characters – if they aren’t carrying provisions with them – will have to take time to hunt, and it won’t be easy. Blazing heat and armor don’t mix well. Or, if the climate is extremely cold and snowy, visibility is poor, travel is hampered, and there’s a danger of characters freezing to death. People who are uncomfortable, thirsty, and hungry are going to become short tempered, which leads to conflict, which leads to story development. Unless the characters have a magical means of transportation, they aren’t going to be able to move about faster than they can walk, ride an animal, or float a boat.

Everyday life is a delight to create. I love all the details of what characters eat, wear, play with, carry, and live in. Everything from forging armor to shopping for horses to dancing to music to cutting firewood can spawn endless details of how the characters in a story live their ordinary lives. Whenever possible, I try to incorporate the appropriate physical senses (taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell) to provide a vivid sense of place. There is a danger to this fun, however, in that if you aren’t careful you never leave this part of the story preparation and the story itself never gets written. The details should also be consistent so that they’re plausible to readers. For example, if your story world is a dangerous place where folks are commonly assassinated, no one is going to throw a huge banquet without having bouncers at the door to check the credentials of arriving guests. Bodyguards will be vigilant. People will have personal food tasters checking out their food before they dine.

As for ethics, what code do your characters live by? What principles or beliefs do they support? If they have a religion, what is it? What does it mean to believe that particular doctrine, and how will it be challenged in the story? Is magic a common part of the story world? If so, it will be developed as part of everyday life. If it’s uncommon, or forbidden, or greatly feared, then it’s going to be flashier and more dramatically presented in the story. Magic has to be limited; otherwise, if your protagonist possesses a magical sword or special abilities that can get her out of any kind of danger, there won’t be any need for readers to care about the outcome. But if your character can’t always control the magical sword or is the only one in her family without special gifts, then she’s at a disadvantage, and readers will enjoy worrying about how the story will turn out. Whatever rules of magic you create for your story, you must then abide by them. You can’t cheat just to save your characters and expect readers to like it.

Above all, once you’ve created your story world, feed in the information small bits at a time. Avoid stopping the plot for huge information dumps that go on for pages. Open your story with action, get your protagonist in trouble, and move quickly through events. If you feel you must explain nine thousand years of world history to readers in chapter one, chances are no one will ever continue to chapter two when the barbarians actually attack the village. So hold off on the background and endless passages of description until you have readers hooked and intrigued by what’s happening.

Have patience: No matter how good or talented you think you are, it takes a long time to become a published author. Writing involves long, solitary hours of hard work. If you don’t like being alone or if you want quick results for little effort, then this isn’t the profession for you.

Commitment: If you become a writer, you need to be sure you’re in it for the long haul. It takes months to write a novel, more months – perhaps even a year or two – to market that manuscript to a publisher, and several more months to a year before a purchased manuscript becomes a published book. It’s foolish to waste time by sitting around and waiting for a letter of rejection or acceptance; you have to be writing on the next project, living on some kind of belief in yourself even when no one else seems to share it, and remaining determined to keep trying until you succeed in breaking in.After your first book is published, you have to commit yourself to being a professional, working the hours, meeting your deadlines and contractual obligations, making whatever revisions are requested, and always striving to better your work.
     No matter how many books you get published, there’s never a guarantee that the next one will sell. Or that the public will read what you’ve written. It’s always a gamble.

Avoid distractions: This is hard to do. We get lonely writing in a room all by ourselves. But as part of your commitment to being a professional writer, you have to plant yourself in a chair in front of your keyboard every day. As part of your commitment, you have to keep your writing time sacred and not sacrifice it to go do something more fun. It means setting up your day and your life so that while you’re working on your book, you are interrupted as little as possible. Turn off the phone. Take the tv set away from your writing area. Shut the door. Get up an hour earlier than the rest of your family in order to work during peace and quiet.
     Don’t overcommit yourself with too many obligations while a book is in progress. Life gets in the way enough without us sabotaging ourselves with avoidable interruptions like moving, volunteering for committee work, attending conferences, helping friends, etc. You can be a friendly, sociable human being between writing projects. Otherwise, when you have a deadline, be a writer and get the manuscript done.
     Even if you’ve graphed out the available hours in a day and think you have plenty of time to fit writing in between other activities, remember that writing is a mental process. If you’re worried about something, or unable to focus on the book because you’re juggling too many other details and plans, that’s distraction. Get away from it as much as you can.

Learn your craft: Although writing depends on talent, it isn’t enough to be brilliant. You also need to know what you’re doing. There are plenty of books on writing techniques, plenty of available classes, plenty of writers groups out there. Check into them to gain knowledge about handling viewpoint, organizing the story into sequential scenes of conflict, introducing characters, and varying the story’s pace. Learn to read critically as a writer instead of just for pleasure. When you finish a story you really enjoy, look at how that author put the plot together, brought in new characters just when the momentum was sagging, ended chapters with hooks so that it was very hard, if not impossible, to put the story down.
     Even if you’re struck by inspiration and the story pours out of you onto the page … what are you going to do the next time, when inspiration doesn’t strike? Or what are you going to do when an editor asks you to make some changes, using terms you’ve never heard of?
     When you’re competent at the writing craft, you can deliver consistently good manuscripts over the course of your career.

Get the story moving fast: Novels today are competing with a lot of other entertainment. I think it’s important to grab a reader with the first 25 words or so. If you’ve grown up reading Dickens and Tolstoy, you’ve certainly gained an excellent foundation in plot and characterization, but you won’t be up to date with pacing. Think about the best, quickest way to hook a reader’s attention right away. Avoid starting the story with a lot of background explanation. Until readers are interested in what’s happening to your characters now, they probably won’t care what’s been happening to them before the story opens.

Keep complications coming: It’s not enough to get your protagonist in some kind of trouble on the first page; you have to keep building complications into the story. If everything is easy for your characters, the story will stall out and die. If things get progressively harder, the story will keep rolling. Kind of a paradox, but that’s the way it works.
     If you’ve written several chapters, and the story is starting to bog down and get boring, increase the conflict and see if it doesn’t perk up.

Complications come best from an antagonist: Your protagonist needs an opponent, someone motivated to stand in direct opposition to whatever your lead character wants or is trying to accomplish. Then you can have genuine, engaging conflict for readers to enjoy.
     A steady of stream of random bad luck is boring to read.

Don’t imitate your favorite writers: Okay, maybe you’ve got a favorite author whose books you love. This author has inspired you to write stories of your own. Terrific! Just make sure that when you start plotting and world building you don’t slavishly imitate what your favorite writer is doing. Create your own worlds and your own characters. Find your own style by trying to write as clearly and simply as possible.
     Imitation may be flattery, but it will train you to be nothing but a derivative copyist when in fact you need to be developing your own unique voice and approach to story.

Be a doer, not a dreamer: To quote Billy Crystal’s character in Throw Mama from the Train, “Writers write.” Too often, people would rather be a writer than actually do the writing. That’s because it’s very hard work.
     You can’t learn, improve, or achieve by wishing for it. You have to sit at the keyboard and meet the challenges despite fatigue, doubt, worry, and uncertainty.
     And after you’ve completed a book, please understand that the next one will bring new challenges of its own. It can be scary, but it’s also part of the appeal.

Print out the pages as you go: Psychologically it’s important to print out your daily quota. In a project as long and involved as a novel, it helps to see those pages stacking up. They’re tangible evidence of progress. And even if they’re not very good pages at the moment, so what? You have to write a rough draft before you can begin to revise and refine the story and characters anyway. How can you edit and polish if you never begin?
     From a practical standpoint, printing out pages is just extra insurance against hard drive crashes and other equipment failures. Yes, I’m sure you’re wise enough to make backup copies on zip drives, CDs, and memory sticks, but what does it hurt to have a hard copy stashed in your car in case your house burns down or a tornado strikes?

Never give up: If this is what you really want to do, then persevere. Opportunities come to those who are prepared, so get ready for them. Besides, the only sure way to be a failure at writing is to quit.