In this week’s episode, JP and Crys decide to try something new and guide their question using tarot, making this episode 0 in The Author’s Tarot Journey: The Fool. They use this card to analyze how to introduce your story world without overwhelming their reader.
Question of the week: Do you have tips for introducing your story world? Share your answer here.
Show Notes
Building Better Descriptions Worksheet
Transcript
JP: Hello, friends. This is episode number 84 of the Write Away Podcast. And it is Saturday, February 26th, 2022 as we are recording. I’m JP Rindfleisch with my cohost…
Crys: Crys Cain.
JP: How’s your week been?
Crys: Good. Almost done with the romance book. I still have to write the last chapter. I am waiting for my co-writer to upload her chapters, which is fine cause we haven’t published since August. So August, September, October, November, December, January, February. Six months, actually it’ll be March when we publish this, so like seven months between publishing. I’ve never gone that long between publishing before, JP. It’s so exciting.
JP: That’s amazing. Yeah.
Crys: Yes, I haven’t published. Hoorah for me!
JP: That is a good thing though, because like we’ve discussed in our special Tarot episode, the hustle culture is a real and permeating thing and it’s been nice to see you be like, no.
Crys: Yeah. It’s been a struggle for me. And honestly, a lot of the people that I connect the most within the Indie community are also very high output. We’re addicted to productivity, we love creating. Whether the success of publishing is anything, we love the success of completing. And that gets very addictive. And yeah, we definitely talked a lot about that in our Year of Tarot episode for February/March. So if you would like to hear us jabber on a bit more about that capitalism, can head on over to our Patreon for access to this very uplifting episode.
JP: They’re not that bad.
Crys: No. They’re not that bad. It’s been a really good way for me to reflect because I’m really bad about just letting time go by, and then I’m like, how did a year just disappear? I think I talked about it last month, that I find that any way of measuring my time as it’s happening, whether it is our tarot episodes with our reflections on our business and our writing, or it’s Pomodoros in the midst of a day, they help me be far more aware of the passing of time and what I’m doing with it.
JP: Definitely. 100%. And then every time I don’t do it, and then I’m like, how did three hours pass? I get very upset.
Crys: Yeah. So how was your week?
JP: I am in California and I’m going to be here for two weeks. Which I can’t complain cause it’s going to be like seventies and eighties, which back home it’s like 20. Yeah, so that’s been going on.
Let’s see, I can’t remember what I’ve said so far. So I’ve submitted the third book for diagnostic, submitted the first book for copy editing. And I got back some comments for the non-fiction piece, and we’re expanding like the scene analysis that I did for every scene in the master work that I’ve been reviewing.
We’re expanding it to about double what it currently is, which is really nice. I really liked the format. It’s going to be a handful of work. I’m excited to dig into that. I’ve already started a little bit. I’m trying to figure out a faster process because it’s causing me to pull from three different places for each scene. So it’s just a little bit of like tediousness to kinda search around. So I’m trying to figure out a faster process, but that’s been a really challenging and interesting thing that I’ve been working on this week.
Yeah. Lots of things. Lots of things on a plate that I’m ready to throw out the window, but I’m not ready yet.
Crys: Yeah, for sure. So we decided to switch up how we choose our questions for a while. This was something JP brought up a while ago because we’re already doing our Year of Tarot, but for our business, which we have on Patreon. And that’s where we do a 13 card draw, one for our yearly theme, and then one for each month. And then we use that to guide our focus for each month coming and also to prompt our reflection from the month before. But rather than scramble, sometimes when we don’t have a topic at the forefront of something that is like bothering us or that we’ve been talking a lot about, cause sometimes we’re just in a lull, we decided to guide our questions using the tarot.
We’ll definitely go through the Major Arcana. We don’t know really how far we’re going to take this, but definitely the Major Arcana. And so this week we’re going to start with The Fool. And how the pattern will work from now on is that we will describe what the card is, some of the keywords with it, and then we will have a question that is prompted by that card that deals with craft. We will also be recording business prompted questions, but those will go exclusive to our Patreon.
JP: Yeah. And I’m excited to go through this process, because not only will it address a question that’ll be related to that card, but the idea is that we’re also giving you insight as to what that card means. And hopefully you will be more inclined to use tarot in your writing and in your business.
Crys: Excellent. All right. So since we’re starting with The Fool, which is number zero in the Major Arcana, can you describe this card?
JP: Absolutely. So normally when this card is presented, it is shown with a person, usually a man, taking his first step off of what looks to be a cliff, and usually there is some sort of a town below. The key about this is it is the start of a journey. And this is a character who is considered the quote unquote Fool to whatever the journey is that is ahead of him. So he is, or she, or they, are these individuals who are at the precipice of something new.
So upright, that means it’s a new beginning. They show representations of innocence and spontaneity because they’re just about ready to take that free first step, and they’re also this free spirit. In reverse, it would be the opposite of that. So you have holding back, recklessness, and risk-taking. I really liked this card because it shows all of the opportunities and potentials that are just before you begin that first step that you take in a journey.
Crys: And one of the things I really like about this, especially as we’re talking about life in general, but also like storytelling, is that The Fool is both the start and the end, because there really is no start and end, it is the circle. This is the point at which the circle meets. You can think of this also how the ace in playing cards will sometimes be the highest value and the lowest value. This is very much the same for The Fool.
JP: Exactly. Yeah. The Fool, when you talk about like a journey through life, which is basically what the tarot is, The Fool is always the start of something new, but everyone always hits The Fool at some point constantly throughout their life because you learn something new if you are a human. There is no way that you are always the master at everything that you do. So it’s always that moment that you’re willing to take that new risk. That’s when you fall back into that Fool, until you reach that top goal, and then you start over again.
Crys: Okay. So the question that you were inspired by this card is how do you introduce your main character world and show what they need to become without over loading the reader?
And my first answer is, first of all, you are The Fool in this instance when you’re starting a book. You need to have fun, take risks, enjoy. You’re at the least risky part of your journey most often, and you can be a little reckless, you can take some risks. And so, enjoy what your story can be before you get deep into the weeds.
JP: Yeah, totally agree. And I think too, The Fool being your main character, which is when you talk about writing and whatnot in The Fool’s journey, The Fool always represents that main character’s first steps. It’s their first stage in the journey. It’s Frodo while he’s still in the Shire.
And these characters, they don’t know what’s ahead of them. They’re just taking these first steps. Like when I go to write a first character, I’m not writing them as if they know everything that’s about to hit them. They know nothing. And so I am more focused on bringing that personality to life. What’s the common thread about them, that’s going to be carried throughout the whole story? And I’m trying not to focus too heavily on like physical characteristics, but more on getting that heart of that person. Why are they the right person for this story? That’s the questions I’m asking myself.
Crys: And this is why I often lean into knowing my characters lie or my characters wound, different people describe it different ways, or it’s helpful for them to describe it different ways, because that is going to thrust me forward into what my character has to learn, the struggles that they are going to encounter over and over, different facets of them.
And I try to get that in as soon as possible in my story. One, because it makes your character relatable to see the lie that they believe that many other people are gonna believe in their life, or that they’ve seen other people believe in their life and seen the pitfalls that they’ve fallen into. And so for me, one of the first things that I try and get out there is that lie, like the thing that our character believes that is not helpful for them in their life.
JP: Definitely like having that kind of within the first few pages, that really lets you set the anchor towards what that character is.
I think too, so we have writer is basically The Fool, because they’re starting this journey. You have, the character is The Fool because they are starting the journey, but your readers are also The Fool because they are just opening this page, they’re just opening this chapter, they’re just starting this story.
And I think that it’s really important for us not to overload them with details and information about the story world and about our characters that may not necessarily be important. It’s not the moment for them to be taught, it’s the moment for them to be shown what this world is through action and through just immersion. And then later, they can be taught some of those specifics about our story world. But I don’t think that’s the time yet. I think now it’s the time to immerse them and be okay with the fact that they don’t need to know the answer.
Crys: Yeah. In one of my decks, the image of The Fool is like a duckling just breaking out of its shell. And there’s this sense of naivety and not knowing things yet versus being willfully ignorant.
JP: Yeah. And like the way that I think about this with readers and like the story world, if you have a highly fantastical story world, and you either have gods or you have a magic system, this isn’t the moment to teach them what every little facet of the magic is. It’s the moment to show them what that magic might look like without having to explain it, because it’ll come later. Now we’re just showing that sense of awe, that sense of like, this is a big world, that this is something new, this is something fun to enjoy. And later we will be taught some of these steps.
Crys: And one of the things, so thinking specifically about not overwhelming the reader as you’re introducing your main character, we’re always taught to avoid info dumping.
A lot of fantasy readers will accept a lot more info dumping than other genres will, but I still think that the best stories will avoid info dumping as much as possible. And one of the ways that I encourage people to practice avoiding info dumping, and this is an exercise that both helps you with expressing emotion, including description, and doing it all from a deep point of view where you are getting your characters opinions. You’re also learning more about your character, and not just the world itself, but what your character thinks of the world.
I’m going to include a downloadable link in the show notes for this, but the quick version of it is that you write a scene or a description of the room you’re in and just write that. Then you take that same scene, or that same description, or exercise. You’re now going to take those same words and you’re gonna think, okay, who is my character? Like, if you wrote a description of your room that you were in originally, take you out, put somebody with a very specific job in it.
If you’re writing this for your book, practicing this with a scene in your book. What is your character’s job? Are they a traveler? Or it doesn’t even have to be a job, it can be a role. Are they a traveler? Are they a shopkeeper? Are they a carpenter? How would they describe the room or the scene differently than anyone else? And it might even be fun if you’re doing a scene from your book to pick a completely different character and plop them in there and compare the two. Then you’re going to do the same exercise a third time, and you’re going to give your character a very specific, strong emotion.
And then write that scene again and see if you can get that emotion and that job across, without ever using any of those particular words. There’ll be more description in the handouts that you can download in the show notes.
And the positives about this, one, you’re immersed because you are getting characters opinions, you’re getting characters emotions. It’s helping you figure out what details are most important to describe to your reader because you’re parsing out what’s most important to your character. This helps you avoid over or under describing, and it helps you include emotion naturally. Maybe not intuitively, this is a thing that a lot of us have to learn, but it becomes far more natural to include emotion this way than trying to add emotion after the fact.
JP: Definitely. As an overall recap, this is a moment to explore, be spontaneous, and not be bogged down in details, as much as be more immersed in emotion, dialogue, and getting that heart to on the page.
Crys: I’ve found, and we’ve talked about this in a different episode, I’ve found now that I am further along in my writing career, that beginnings have become much harder for me to write than endings, because I know that the beginning has to set up what I want the ending to be. One of the things I’ve been trying to encourage myself to do is just to enjoy writing that beginning because I can always go back and change it. I can always change where the story starts. And so to just embrace the fun of writing the beginning.
If you would like to hear the business version of this story, we’ll be talking about how you come into new projects and set yourself up for success over on our Patreon. Thank you so much for joining us this week. And we’re really excited about this new way of bringing up questions for us and hope that you like it as well.
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