Category Archives: Brightest Kind of Darkness

Writing Tips – Worldbuilding

Brainstorming BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS's world!

On a message board I’m on, someone asked about worldbuilding, ie how do you do it.

I’ll admit, world building can be both fun (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!) and intimidating (MY WORLDS AND PLOTS GROW LIKE KUDZU, AND THERE I AM BLITHELY SPRAYING MIRACLE GROW ON THEM. Of course, after the fact, I can be found pulling my hair and wandering around the house mumbling, “How am I going to get all this into one book and the romance, too”), but I did try to find a way to answer the question that might help things click into place.

You know me…I gotta make it visual…well, at least relate it to something one can visualize. :wink: So here goes.

The Puzzle of Worldbuildlng

Try to relay tidbits of the world in the natural course of the story…via characters discussing things or visiting places or events happening where the world building can be woven in seamlessly piece by piece.

Maybe one way to think of laying out the mythology in the story is to do it the same way you would approach working on a 500 piece puzzle. For instance, the bits of your worldbuilding you DO know–the basic framework of your world–would flow easily early on in your story and should be slipped into place without much effort. Consider this first layer of worldbuilding like the puzzle’s outside pieces, where that one straight edge helps you form the main border.

Once all the outside pieces are placed, you then work your way inward, using the picture on the front of the puzzle box to help you decipher the colors and shapes stamped on the pieces, turning them until they all finally come together in a completed puzzle and overall picture. You do this secondary part of your worldbuilding via creative dialogue, action/fight scenes, flashbacks, dream sequences, a hunt for something/discovery of something, etc…anything that flows into the natural unfolding of the story. This deeper level of worldbuilding happens throughout every scene, even down to the last few pages.

P.T.

One contest, THREE chances to win Brightest Kind of Darkness!

SweetSwan is having a wonderful contest over on her LovelyLit blog highlighting BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS. Not only did she review BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS, she also gave it 5 hearts! Yay! She also posted an interview, where I reveal some fun details behind Ethan and Nara’s story AND what’s ahead for them in book 2! 🙂

Here’s a snippet from SweetSwan’s review…

“Excellent!! The action started from the very first page!! The timing and pace were great!! The romance was sweet and steamy! The mystery was infalliable with soo many twists! The authors writing style was beautiful. I was blown away by how perfect the book seemed, especially considering it was self published! Other self pubished books ive read had errors or were very short. This book didnt have any of those problems!! Its def ready for prime time! I honestly think its ranked in the top books ive read this year!! ~ SweetSwan at LovelyLit Reviews


CONTEST details…

SweetSwan has all the details for how to enter her contest on her blog under the title THE GIVEAWAY. This is the code (below) you’ll need to put the lovely banner she created on your blog’s sidebar.

<center><a href=”https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058J4KSQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=margasbooks-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0058J4KSQ” title=”Click to Order”><img src=”https://margaretskipper.webs.com/widgetdarkness.gif” width=”90%” border=”0″ alt=”Click to Order” /></a></center>

If you scroll down my main blog’s sidebar under CONTESTS, you’ll see the pretty banner she created!

To ENTER, all you have to do is add the widget to your blog. If you don’t have a blog or webspace, you can also add a link back to SweetSwan’s post on either twitter or fb (once a day, with a max of 7 total).

Each person can get up to 15 entries (1 for widget posting, 7 for twitter, and 7 for fb) although only one is required to have a chance to win. For each entry, please make a separate comment on SweetSwan’s blog post with a direct link and your email or a way to contact you. At the end of the contest (Tuesday, Oct. 11th at midnight), SweetSwan will randomly pick 3 winners out of the comments on her LovelyLit blog using random.org. This is open to anyone who is able to receive and view kindle books!

That’s it for now. Hop on over to LovelyLit to comment and let her know you’ve entered.

Good luck!

P.T.