IMG_20160729_170401 Escape From Clichea worldbuilding workshop

Arianne "Tex" Thompson gave a 1.5 hour workshop that alone was worth the ArmadilloCon admission ticket. It was ostensibly on worldbuilding (subtitled "Escape From Clichea"), but it was really much more than that. It was chockfull of useful writing exercises that would let you better organize your thoughts and carve out your identity as a writer, surmount the hurdles everyone experiences in the course of writing a novel, and avoid the pitfalls that can sink a novel.


It is worthy of an entire blog post, but for now here are just some tidbits having to do with developing your unique identity as a writer. These are some exercises Tex Thompson had us do at the workshop.


Write down 3 things you have been paid to do. Then 3 things you could write an article about. If the things on those lists have nothing to do with writing, that's completely fine. Those are things that make you unique. They help you stand out between other writers. They could, for example, give you ideas for your blog posts (which are part of how a writer attracts and keeps an audience).


Another way to mine ideas for blog posts. Write a list of 3 stories that you want your work to be compared to. Then write down common elements between them. For example, Tex Thompson said that for her, those elements are: (1) ensemble cast / team effort; (2) people with different abilities or powers; (3) big, wild, slightly-ruined world.

Those elements would be great to mine for your blog or convention panel topics. For example, based on the elements above, you could write a post on top 10 superhero teams. (Superheroes are not my thing, but I can see how such a blog post would have lots of appeal in the wider population.)