Worldbuilding Gender Roles

First, a quick special note.

This blog officially turned 2 years old on the 17th. Yay! *throws confetti* The posts have been sparse for parts of the last year, but it still feels good knowing I made it through year 2 of this blog and plan to keep going into the future. Now on to the Worldbuilding topic.

Gender Roles

This is a topic I must admit, I have never thought about when it comes to any of my novels. Yet when it came to gender and sexual orientation topics in debate, my coach would always give them to me. He viewed me as the gender studies person for some reason I never figured out. In the notes I have from a conference, in the worldbuilding notes, one of the topics the speaker recommended to consider was gender roles, so let's consider it.

What are gender roles?
According to an online dictionary, they are the pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child's upbringing.

Another source explain that gender roles vary and different cultures have expectations for both men and women. But how does this correlate into the world one builds when writing a novel?

This is something I haven't really thought about before, though the first conference I ever went to had a focus on the topic. At the conference there was a focus on female characters in fantasy that don't follow expected gender roles. They were both roles that readers might expect based on their world and what was built into the fantasy worlds of the stories. There are many stories out there that have strong main characters that either follow or don't follow the gender roles of their world. And part of that decision is in the worldbuilding and the other part is in the creation of the character.


Gender Roles in My World

For the novel I'm worldbuilding, I haven't really thought to much on the gender roles. Both of the main characters are males and gay, so female roles only come in the one of secondary and other minor characters.

The human main character pretty much fits within what is expected of males (except maybe for the whole liking men part). He is more masculine than the fae one, which probably isn't that surprising. He is in the military, very methodical, thinks he knows everything, is strong and for the most part observant basing his decisions on facts and not emotions. He does what is expected of his type of being and enjoys being that way too.

The fae main character isn't really femme either. He is a wood fae and works on a sky ship keeping it in good shape. He is thin but strong. And in the fae he basically does what is expected, though some of the others don't understand his desires to travel instead of staying at one place.


This is one of those topics I will have to really consider as I start to worldbuild stories, and maybe even look at in all of my other series/worlds.


What about you?
Do you consider gender roles when writing?
What roles do your characters fit or don't fit?

MNW versus MNE

For the past two years March has been for March Novel Writing Challenge (MNW). In 2010, I took part in the challenge and wrote 65k on Standing Ground. It was the first time I'd made 50k in 15 days. However, in 2011 I only wrote 15k on a YA novel.

On the other hand, this year I joined an editing challenge. At first I thought the editing was to be done in February but then I figured out it was a prep challenge and the editing would be in March. There is even a web site to sign on to for novel editing month in March.

Now I am torn. Do I want to edit in March or do I want to write?


MNW isn't really an official event. My friend had a forum for it on Writing.Com for the 2010 one and in 2011 I had my NaNoWriMo plus group along with this blog for those that wanted to take part. But no official web site or anything like that.  So, if I was to do it this year then I would have to do it in my group or on a blog again since I don't know who all wants to take part in it this year.

MNE has an official site. nanoedmo site There are forums and already people signed up, ready to go. The challenge I'm doing this month is planning to edit for this even though some have started editing already.

MNW is nice compared to NaNoWriMo because the goals are different. While someone can write 50k if they really want to, they don't have to do that much. There is no set goal minimum or max. The writer chooses their individual goals and can work on novels that they have already started. Last year I started a new novel but the year before I had 15k done of the novel before March.

MNE does have a goal to reach as well. For the editing challenge the goal is to achieve 50 hours of verified editing. The verification is done on the site and in their rules they explain what they qualify as editing.

Tough decision.


What about you?
Are you taking part in Editing Month?
Or are you more of a writing in March type?
Should I do both?

WorldBuilding Wednesday Magic Systems

When worldbuilding for fantasy novels, it is a good idea to figure out the magic system at least by the second draft, or so I would think. Like with many aspects of the fantasy world, there are many things to consider when adding a magic system. And the two novels I really need to worldbuild both have magic but the systems are very different, which is important because the stories are very different so I wouldn't want the magic to be the same.


The steampunk-inspired one (needs a title so I can stop calling it that) has a fey main character and the magic is elemental. The elements in the story are water, fire, earth, wood and metal. Wood is the main characters element, so he can't control the others like he can control wood. Limits are good to have because having a character who is all powerful with magic can make the character a little boring and unrealistic. His magic is part of his trade, because he is a wood fey he loves to travel and gets work on a wood airship because he can magically fix the ship which is much easier when flying than having someone fix the ship by hand. But give him metal and he can't do anything with it, can't even really use metal weapons.

(image link)

The epic fantasy series is very different. Sure, it has a non-human main character that does magic, only instead of a fey it's an elf. But there is more than one elf and not all elves are capable of doing magic, that they are aware of at least. The other elf will eventually be able to do minor magic because all of the elves have a certain level of magic abilities but most are minimal. Only one type has strong abilities and most of those don't exist anymore in the series as they were killed out of fear. The one main character does have those abilities but it's not easy for him, having to hide his abilities because of those that would act out of fear against him. And while he is technically very strong in his magic he is very careful about using it to the point of being self-conscious about what he can do. I'm still working on figuring out this magic system since it's not an elemental type.



Here is some thoughts on building magic systems that I found on a blog that has advice from Holly Black. These are six questions (posted here) to help with the developing of a magic system.


1. Who has it?

2. What does it do?

3. How do you make it happen?

4. How is user affected?

5. How is world affected?

6. How are magic users grouped & perceived?


These are questions I am considering when it comes to the magic systems that I am creating. So, what about you? Does your story have a magic system? What have you done to develop the magic system?

pick what I read next

I am trying something a little different. I thought it would be fun to do a poll on my blog to let the blog viewers help me pick which book to read. So, I have a poll up on this blog and on http://dawnembers.blogspot.com for people to vote. I have 5 books available, and if people vote, which ever one that wins will be the one I read next.

But I need votes.


So, it is up to you, readers: Which book should I read?

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Ice Land by Betsy Tobin
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
XVI by Julia Karr
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Year Plans and January Goals

First, some of the goals I made for 2011 and whether I succeeded or not. Then on to goals for 2012 and for January specifically.

2011 Goals/Reflection

Tattle Tell - Finish second draft. Edit. Send to beta readers by the end of February. Work on query.
-- Did finish the second draft. Have a couple attempts so far on the query but have work to do on it. Didn't send to readers yet but will after a round of editing.

Fantasy/Steampunk - Finish Worldbuilding and find a work in progress Title. Maybe start writing.
-- Still have a lot of world building to do but have a couple of scenes written, character profiles and outline done.

Angel/Demon - Finish first draft, edit and then send to beta reader.
-- nope.

Other potential books: Pick which ones and start writing them. This also means write one of them for NaNoWriMo 2011. Also make sure to write for MarNo with either a started novel or one of the new ones. List includes: TT book 2, Fantasy/Steampunk, I'm Sorry I Forgot You, XXY, Border Patrol dystopian, or Blood Prophesy book 1.
-- Did start the border patrol one in March and it's called Lighting the Wall. Also wrote Against the Grain and finished even though it wasn't on the list, and started OttoHahn in E Minor, also not listed.



Now for 2012 Goals.

I would like to finish at least two first drafts that I have already started out of Angel/Demon, Thomas/Kyle, OttoHahn in E Minor or Lighting the Wall.

Edit two novels, both mutant ones with already finished drafts. There is an editing challenge happening in February that I'm going to try.

Be ready to submit to an agent by the end of the year. I think that I'm close enough for this to be a realistic goal finally.

Reading goal = 50 books for 2012 at least and 10 of them being the first 10 in Wheel of Times series by Robert Jordan (though not 0, that one I will wait on for now).

Keep track of all fiction written, word count wise, and see how many words I write for the year in total.


January Goals

Blog at least 4 times
Read and write notes for mutant novel edits
Write 5k in Angel/Demon, Lighting the Wall, and OttoHahn in E Minor



What are your goals for January and/or 2012?
Hope everyone has a great year!

Progress Report

I have worked on a number of different novels over the years and 2011 was no different. So many novels that sometimes it is hard to keep track. So, I figured before I posted my goals for the year and for the month, I thought it would be appropriate to post a status report of all the novels I have at least started in some shape or another.

Young Adult

Tattle Tell - Second draft made it to 50,795. Will edit this year.
Lighting the Wall - Started in March and made it to 15,196
Ottohahn in E Minor - NaNoWriMo that I wrote 25,000 words in so far.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Standing Ground - First chapter fixed, so draft is still slightly over 90k.
the fantasy/mystery with steampunk elements - worldbuilding and have remnants of an outline and other notes
Gathered at Dawn - didn't write any in 2011, so still have the 50k from nanowrimo 2010

Romance/Erotica

Angel/Demon - not much progress but hope to finish this year, currently at 32,753 words.
Thomas/Kyle- would like to get done this year as I have 22,549 so far.
Against the Grain - NaNoWrimo book that made it to 100,000 words.

Books started but on the back burner:

Blood Prophesy series - chapters started for 2 of the books. (1 or 2 each)
Against All Evidence - 5 chapters started
Luigi - couple chapters/scenes done


I hope to finish a few of the ones I have started in 2012 and maybe start a couple. But that will be talked about more on my goal post, which will be the next blog post. ;-)

Success on 11-11-11

I made it to 50,000 words last night, during the 11th hour on 11-11-11. Holy goodness that was a lot of ones. And I beat my record from last year where I wrote 50k in 13 days. Only this year, I have a bigger goal. I'm not going to stop at 50k as I have two novels going this year, so I'm going to keep writing until I make it to 100k at least.



How is NaNo going for you?