Okay, this post is inspired by my speed read of YA fluff, The Selection Series. Whilst it's a light, fast read, the world-building leaves something to be desired. For starters, the background for the world is ludicrous. I can sort of buy that some guy called himself a king, I can even buy the population going along with it... I cannot buy the idea that he made himself a King by marrying his daughter to a Prince... That's not how monarchies work. I would have forgiven a lot of shoddy backplot, if the author had shown an ounce of understanding of the basic mechanics of royalty.

Which brings me to this. World-Building is important people, particularly in Fantasy and Dystopian genres. Nothing will kill credibility faster than a poorly made world. Keeping with The Selection for the moment, we have a world filled with castes (nothing wrong there - caste systems have leaked through every society on Earth, whether rigidly enforced by religion or entrenched through money) but beyond a mention of some poverty issues, very little was explained. Then we have the rebel groups. Beyond being called Northern and Southerners, and that one bunch were killers, that was all I knew about them.

When writing credible fantasy/dystopia/futurist, it's important to create a world that seem plausible. Melanie Rawn, a fairly prolific fantasy author, created a trilogy called 'Exiles'. This is a matriarchal, fantasy set on a different planet far in the future run by Catholic Separatists... And that's the biggest problem with it. Leaving aside the magic chuckers, the basic premise of this matriarchal world is 'Women run stuff cos they get pregnant', which makes no freaking sense, particularly as women get pregnant everyday in 'our' universe, and weirdly enough it hasn't given us the power. Plausibility is a bonus, now if Melanie Rawn had determined that only women had a particular power, or that it had always existed thus, without the need for ancient space traveller nonsense, the book would have been easier to swallow.

There is a proviso to the above. If you can write convincingly well, or craft some supremely wonderful characters, then world building isn't as important. But this is only going to work with certain authors. So make your world building work.

If you're writing dystopia, and you can't work out why America would turn into the hellhole you've decided it becomes...don't try to write it. Do a Suzanne Collins and set it so far in the future, and muddy the history so much, that no one can say it wouldn't happen.

If you're writing fantasy and want a world of centuries long seasons, or countries of only one season, actually think about how that would impact people. Because at some point, some smart-alec will argue that 'x can't happen because what are these people eating'

Know the rules and history of our world, if you're writing sci-fi. Realise that things change, but more things remain the same. Human nature has altered little in the past 2000 years, but cultural values have. It's no good taking Western society and giving it a hard-core patriarchy or  overly heavy government without thinking about how that would happen.

If you think about the above, your world building will improve, and as a consequence your book will be more likely to succeed.

A LOTR facepalm for this little doozy. I know this is a book review site, but I can take a walk to other realms and today my realm is Shannara.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Shannara Chronicles, I like to see actual fantasy on TV that doesn't rely on sex or total soap to succeed, but Shannara is making me sigh in utter exasperation. And the reason it's making me sigh is the writing... oh dear god the writing. Leaving aside the complete lack of build up to certain events, the inability of characters to actually critically think and be completely incompetent at the same time is beginning to annoy. Dear god, how can a bunch of highly trained guard fail to spot the ambush? Why are characters so against killing people they should? Seriously half of their problems in the future could be erased if they just kill that person who's caused them grief. (Yes I'm talking about the Rover plot here- please god let it die already) And that's not counting the inability of everyone to completely fail to sensibly deal with the remains of a shapeshifter, leaving it to go kill crazy and then they still don't notice anything.

Amberle is rapidly turning into twenty different flavours of useless and coming after such an impressive opening episode, it's not a good look. Let's face it, last episode a bunch of humans managed to track and surprize a party of elves and do it so well that none of the characters managed to draw a weapon, seriously that place screamed 'IT'S A TRAP'.

And though I don't usually notice this, but why is the only elf dragged to their death by wolves, the female one? And then there's the really bad rape attempt and Eritrea somehow unable to like, leave on her own...So yeah... every female character is a useless placeholder, with the exception of Eritrea, but she's a bad girl so.. whatever.

I do like Shannara and I want it to succeed but at the moment, its a mess of false leads and stupidity. Please writers, give the characters some actual ability and brains... for the love of god please.

Take a good look at the above pictures. Some are indies and the rest are commercially produced, but what they all have in common is that the cover image is striking. You may have the world's best book in your hands, but if you package it wrong, no one will discover it. I know it seems shallow to pick up a book by the cover, but that is what people do. A great cover attracts the eye and gets someone reading your blurb, which may lead to your book being read. As someone who has picked her next read from the 'most gorgeous cover lists' on Goodreads, I can assure you that I'm not the only person who does so. If you've spent your time writing your novel, please give it the best chance you can. 

If like me, you don't know one end of paintshop from the other, then I definitely recommend you invest some money on designers. I understand that going down the designer route is expensive, but take a look at the following: The cover on the left was designed by me and the cover on the right was designed by Ida at Amygdala Designs
 

As I am not artistic, it took a long time to design my cover and I think I did okay, but I would never say that anyone would take a look at it and go 'wow, I love that cover, must have a look at that'. I decided to take the designer route when it became clear that I had no clue of how to produce the second cover. To do it properly, you need access to things like shutterstock and be able to pay for image use, you also need to know how to blend images on paint or photo shop. I've lost count of the amount of covers I've seen where the characters on the cover clearly weren't in the same photo and badly photoshopped. Even more covers use fonts poorly. Some fonts just don't work on covers and the amount of gratuitous, 'fancy' font use I see is sad. Think to yourself of how 'you' decide to read a book and I don't mean from recommendation, I mean from going into Waterstones or Barnes and Noble and picking a book off the shelf. I'd be willing to bet that you go to your usual genre, fantasy or chick lit or literature and you will then pick up a book with an attractive cover.

So spend a little and hopefully people will pick up your book. You don't even have to spend a lot. Amgdala Designs sells 'off the shelf' covers for a very reasonable price.  The Book Cover Designer also handles one off covers at reasonable rates. Check out the message threads on Goodreads to discover the best, most reasonably priced sites and take the plunge. Your book sales will be glad you did.

Last night, I finished watching the first season of Once Upon a Time. I know it started several years ago but I missed it the first time it was on. Anyway having been intrigued by it for some time, I got the DVDs and started watching. It had a fascinating premise, a good cast (though Robert Carlyle beat everyone in the acting stakes) and some great ideas. However, as much as I enjoyed it, I would not describe it as a great series.

Great series need great writing. The West Wing is a fine example of outstanding writing. Plots are actually given some thought and the characters are written true to themselves. There are no instances of the characters failing to act or being forced onto certain paths because the writer's had decided that this would happen, regardless of the reality of the situation. 

And this is the issue with OUAT. Characters in this show are not written well enough, their arcs are not given enough thought. The writers have decided on a course, but rather than think logically about that course, they've settled on the easiest way to get there, regardless of how badly it comes across. There is a world of difference between character development and character drama. Development feels natural, drama is not.

Take the evil Queen winning all the time. She does not win because she's smarter or more cunning than every other character, she wins because every other character is written to be stupid. Never has the words 'Evil wins because Good is dumb' ever been more apt.

The will they/won't they crap between Mary Margaret and James is another example of lazy writing. Writer's seem to think that a happy couple is difficult to write for or boring to those who watch the show, so they do anything to prevent that... Even to the point where I was ready to leap into the tv to kill the stupidity. It is possible to write an awesome couple without relying on UST or will they/won't they. It just needs some thought. In addition people become far more invested if either side of the great pairing is in danger.

I'm not even sold on the basic idea that Henry is Snow's Grandson. Unless this is explained in later series, how can the Queen or Rumpelstiltskin have left the town to adopt the kid, just so he can run off to find Emma later? It's a macguffin that doesn't make a lick of sense. 

In addition why is this place so horrible? So they're stuck in small town Maine without their bestest buddies/lovers etc. But as nobody remembers anything. (with a couple of exceptions) why is it so bad? No seriously, why is the queen being the mayor of a small town considered some kind of victory for her?

Nor, for that matter is the writer's insistence on trying to give a sympathetic back story to the Queen as a reason to feel sorry for her. A. it was the worst mash of 'women are only evil because of the bad men' and 'she had her heart broken, that's why she's mean' that I've ever seen. Sorry but women can be evil, they can be selfish, we can be cruel without having a sob story in our history.

I still enjoyed the show, but it isn't a show that's going to stand the test of time. It's bubbly froth that could have been outstanding. And that's the worst thing about it. Please writers, stop mistaking soapy drama for character development.