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Katie Wright's avatar

Chocolate!

Me (having a completed zero draft), before listening to this episode: I think my worldbuilding is pretty solid

Me, after listening to this episode: Welp, I guess I know what I'm working on before I start my first draft

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Anna Mercier's avatar

This was me with my edits. Diving back in to tighten it all up!

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

😂😂 this is me after recording the episode

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Irene Keselman's avatar

Chocolate!

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

😉

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Charli Kent's avatar

One of my students told me she was reading Inheritance Games and I snapped off, "Oh a JLB book!" The teen gave me a look like WTH? You have infiltrated my life. And no one else I know will get this moment. LOL

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

🤣🤣🤣 one day, it’ll spread as a nickname!

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Carmen's avatar

Chocolate!

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

chocolate noted! 😋

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Katie Wright's avatar

I was relistening to this and thinking about some major worldbuilding I'd glossed over in my WIP. I found myself getting a little overwhelmed with choices (I'd requested the paralyzing nature of too many choices as a topic a while back), and refocused back onto which options will highlight the themes and push the main character.

I think that this may go a long way toward narrowing down worldbuilding choices and story beats (time will tell).

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

I remember your choice question! It's been on our radar for sure. But I'm so glad that worldview and theme first are helping you pare down some of the options to find what's best for your words. That was my biggest takeaway while researching this topic!

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Katie Wright's avatar

I think that this + id list is the answer to that too many choices question! I'm taking that with me into strengthening worldbuilding before I move forward from my zero draft and...there are some big changes happening. Haha......ha.....

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Anna Mercier's avatar

You've totally got this! Also, I'm with you. The more I think about the idea of "simplifying" in writing, the more I realize it starts from the get-go with our id lists and big ideas. Then it ripples out to worldbuilding, themes, etc. Simple in terms of what we're making impactful, but complicated in how we weave it together???

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Katie Wright's avatar

Definitely. Like if you can distill your book into theme and big idea/id list vibe, then you’ve simplified it into a few main ideas, but creating a full world with magic and characters that feel real and complicated that revolve around those ideas is hard

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Amanda Ciancarelli's avatar

Chocolate! ♥️ listened to this episode on my commute this morning and thanks to both of you, my brain was FLOODED with a million* world-building ideas for my contemporary WIP. I’m excited to dive in on my lunch break!

(* okay it was like two, but that’s two more than I had yesterday)

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Lyssa Mia Smith's avatar

Two world building ideas = a million in our book, especially for a contemporary! So, so glad it helped. (And I see your chocolate 😊)

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