Ready to Create a World?
Build your story world now with an interactive online course
ALL stories take place somewhere, no matter what the genre.
Learn how to make your story's world—and your novel—amazing!
Let the
World Building for ALL Genres
online course show you how it's done!
DON'T THINK YOU NEED TO CREATE A STORY WORLD?
You're WRONG!
Do you think story worlds are only needed if you write fantasy or science fiction?
WRONG AGAIN!!
All stories need a world. All stories take place somewhere. It's up to you, as the author, to create a believable story world that is genre-appropriate as well as story-appropriate.
How do you do that? The World Building for ALL Genres online course shows you exactly how!
What You'll Learn in This Course
Why Every Genre Requires a Story World
A story world is essential for readers to ground them into the space your story occupies. It gives your story believability if you get the story world right—and if you don't get it right, you can lose your reader before you realize it!
How the Story World Enhances Your Novel
The story world is more than a passive backdrop. It can act as its own character. It can affect the characters and character arcs of your story. It can modify your plot and impact the structure of your novel. Make the story world great and your novel will dramatically improve!
Techniques to Incorporate the World
So many authors are afraid of story worlds or get sucked into spending inordinate amounts of time building them instead of writing their novels. With this guide, you'll know when enough is enough so you can move from story world creation to writing!
What You Find In the Course
Unit 1: Introduction to World Building
Understand why your story needs a story world constructed, whether you're writing epic fantasy...or a contemporary romance. Learn why the myths about world building are holding back your novel so you can start making it the best it can be.
Unit 2: Story World and Characters
Learn how to define your world's boundaries and how Point of View (POV) and character arcs are essential aspects of creating your story world. Then progress to learning techniques to:
INTENSIFY READER RESPONSES;
UNITE OR SEPARATE CHARACTERS;
EXPAND CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS; and
CLARIFY CHARACTER THEMES.
Unit 3: Story World As a Character
The story world not only affects your characters, it can also act AS a character in your novel—often in vital ways. In this unit, you'll learn when the story world becomes a character in its own right, and how you incorporate your story world into your novel.
Unit 4: Story World and Plot
The story world not only affects characters, but also plot, and it can do so in multiple ways. Story worlds can create strong emotional ties, making the plot richer and deeper. Story worlds also can unify the spine of the story, making it stronger. And the story world can actually advance the plot, acting as an agent of change. Want to know how? This unit explains that!
Unit 5: Story World and Story Structure
The story world is powerful indeed, since in addition to characters and plot, a well-constructed story world can also affect the structure of the novel itself. There are specific places in novels where the story world has—or can have—enormous impact on the story. Know where those plot points are? No? You will after you go through Unit 5!
Unit 6: Story World and Theme
In the PREMIUM COURSE ONLY, you'll get an additional unit that explains how the story world can help you develop one or more of your novel's themes. You'll be guided through a discovery process to help you identify themes, then shown how to use your story world to reflect the theme, making the entire reader experience much richer and more engaging. This unit is ONLY in the Premium Course.
List of Lessons by Unit
In the list of lessons below, Lessons and Units in RED are ONLY INCLUDED IN THE PREMIUM VERSION OF THE COURSE. Lessons in BLACK are included in both the Premium and Basic versions of this course. The Basic version includes about 50% of the lessons that are in the Premium version. The Premiun version also includes a separate Story World Journal, not included in the Basic version, in which you record your ideas and exercises on incorporating your story world into your novel's text.
There are two ideal times to go through this course: First, just after you have a basic set of story milestones planned out for your novel. The Premium version in particular will help you decide where in that plan you want to pay special attention to incorporating your story world to enhance your writing.
The second opportunity for this course is when you're revising a draft. At that point you have a fully fleshed-out story and you can use the Story World Journal (in the Premium version) to ensure that you are making the best possible use of your story world to enrich your writing and improve the overall novel.
UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION TO WORLD BUILDING
1. Why You Need to Build a Story World No Matter What Genre You're Writing
2. Addressing Myths about World Building
UNIT 2. STORY WORLD AND CHARACTERS
1. Define the Story World's Boundaries
2. Set the Boundaries in Your Story World
3. Point of View (POV) and Story World.
4. Understand Character Arcs.
5. Define Your Story's Character Arcs [Interactive application to your novel]
6. How Story World Intensifies Reader Responses
7. Make Your Story World Intensify Your Readers' Responses to Your Novel [Interactive application to your novel]
8. How Story World Unites or Separates Characters
9. Make Your Story World Unify and/or Separate Your Characters [Interactive application to your novel]
10. How Story World Expands Character Motivations.
11. Let Your Story World Expand Character Motivations [Interactive application to your novel]
12. How the Story World Clarifies Characterr Themes
13. Make Your Story World Clarify Character Themes. [Interactive application to your novel]
UNIT 3. STORY WORLD AS A CHARACTER
1. When Is the Story World a Character?
2. Incorporate Your Story World as a Character. [Interactive application to your novel]
3. How Do You Put Your Story World into Your Novel?
4. Avoiding Data Dumps [Interactive application to your novel]
UNIT 4. STORY WORLD AND PLOT
1. Story World Affects Plot through Emotional Ties.
2. Create Emotional Ties Between Your Story World and Your Novel's Plot [Interactive application to your novel]
3. Story World Unifies the Spine of the Story.
4. Set Up Specific Ways the Story World Unifies the Spine of Your Novel [Interactive application to your novel]
5. Story World Advances the Plot
6. Use Techniques to Let the Story World Advance Your Novel's Plot [Interactive application to your novel]
UNIT 5. STORY WORLD AND STORY STRUCTURE
1. The Hero's Journey: A Review.
2. The Hero's Journey and the Story World.
3. Truby's Story Structure for ALL Genres
4. Integrating Truby's Story Structure with the Story World. [Interactive application to your novel]
UNIT 6. STORY WORLD AND THEME
1. Discovering Your Story's Theme
2. Make Your Story World Reflect the Story Theme [Interactive application to your novel]
30-Day Money Back Guarantee
If, for any reason, after working with this course for up to 30 days, you don't think this course provides you with specialized instruction on how to use your novel's story world to enhance your characters, plot, and story structure, just let us know at contact@megleader.com. We'll refund your money, no questions asked.