By: Gemma Martiskainen

Creating a plausible world is a challenge unique to fantasy. In other genres of fiction, you work within the parameters of Earth, and the reader will immediately know how the society runs. The setting is familiar to them, so you don't need to spend much time explaining the characters' surroundings. But when you build your own world, you must slow down. For the reader to empathize with the characters, they must understand the world the characters live in. As the writer, you should try to make the world look like it could really exist.

By: Daisya Spencer

Okay, I’m going to get a little transparent here. Burnout is something that I struggle with and I know I’m not the first person, nor will ever be the last, that struggles with this. The reason I am saying this out loud is to 1) hold myself more accountable and 2) to look back on this moment where, in these rare moments, I am being completely transparent with myself. 

I remember a conversation I had with a fellow student during my community college days. We had a class together. He wasn’t very much of a writer but was incredibly insightful in that he knew what to say. Anyway, I relayed to him the issues that I was having with my writing, and how I mentally wanted to finish a certain work-in-progress on time. His response, although not verbatim, “Why the rush? Just have fun with it.” And he was right.