Choose Your Own World
A free, interactive world-building seminar from yours truly
You may have already seen this, but I’m doing something fun this Thursday and I’d love it if you could join me—
If you are…
A. A writer who wants to learn more about how to make worlds
B. A reader who’s curious about how authors do this whole “make a fictional world up from scratch” thing
C. Both of the above
…then this is for you: Choose Your Own World, a pair of interactive world-building seminars with me, for free, on Twitch, that will culminate in me writing a short story set in the world you help me build.
After brainstorming with other writers for quite a few years now, I’ve realized that nothing gives you a sense of how a writer’s mind works quite like being present while they’re brainstorming. So my goal here was to find a way for you to be present while I do some brainstorming— and not just present, but participating, via a series of Choose Your Own Adventure-style polls. And that way I can take you through my thought process, and share some of what I’ve learned after writing seven (published) novels.
The point is to 1. have a great time, 2. use a case study to give a lesson in world-building that may help you in your approach to your own, and 3. give you something new to read within the next six months, via this newsletter. So if you want to read the short story that will come at the end of this, subscribe to this substack, if you haven’t already!
A FEW QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
What if I can’t make it to the live sessions?
I’ll leave them up on Twitch afterward so you can tune in whenever! But you won’t be able to participate in the fun and games if you aren’t there, alas.
Can I come to one session without coming to the other?
Yes! Though if you can only come to the second, you should probably watch the first one before attending so you know what we’re talking about.
How much will this cost?
It will cost you zero dollars and zero cents! It’s free, baby!
What is this Twitch you speak of?
I’m not going to attempt to explain all of Twitch to you, but Twitch is kind of the perfect platform for this: you can watch for free at twitch.tv/vrothbooks without creating an account, or create a free account to participate in the chat. And Twitch will host the streams for later viewing. They also allow polls! Yay.
Will you help me with my story idea/manuscript/etc.?
No— I’m happy to talk about more general writing questions in the Q&A following the session, but for various reasons (some of them legal), I can’t get specific to your work or read it or anything.
Will you answer my Divergent questions?
No, that’s not the focus here, so I will ignore you if you ask Divergent questions (unless they’re very pertinent to the world-building/craft discussion). Go to my instagram (instagram.com/veronicaroth) to watch the many, many questions I have already answered there and saved to my highlights.
If you have other questions, feel free to ask in the comments! Otherwise, I hope to see you on Thursday. :)
V