Do your fantasy elements ever feel like an afterthought? Like they exist in the world because they're cool or convenient? You're not alone. It's a struggle to weave a magic system, worldbuilding, and/or supernatural elements into the heart of the plot.

In this episode of The Fiction Refinery Podcast, we'll explore the concept of a fantasy plot line. It's a layer of storytelling that makes your fantasy elements integral to your protagonist’s journey rather than decorative details.

Drawing inspiration from Secrets to Writing a Fantasy by Stanley and Cook, I'm sharing how I'm applying this idea to my own work-in-progress. I walk through my external plot versus fantasy plot and break down an example from Fourth Wing.

Whether your story features dragons, curses, or quiet elemental magic, you’ll come away with a clearer understanding of how to make the fantastical matter.

In this episode, I’m sharing how I started framing my antagonist and what I pulled from Rayne Hall’s book Writing About Villains. (It’s a quick, actionable read, and if you have Kindle Unlimited, it’s included there.)

Here’s what you’ll hear in today’s episode:

• Why I chose the Evil Overlord archetype as the foundation for my primary antagonist
• How a secondary antagonist (the fanatic) adds depth to the conflict
• Why I’m considering a tertiary antagonist for the romantic subplot
• How I’m thinking through goal, motivation, and stakes for my antagonist so he isn’t just evil for evil’s sake

This episode is all about creating a clear foundation—archetype, goal, motivation, and stakes—that I can build on once I move into the outlining stage.

📚 Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Writing About Villains by Rayne Hall

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In the last episode, I shared the first 3 things I do before I even consider outlining. In today's episode, I'm sharing the next 3 things that I do (plus a bonus one).

These help me establish the foundation for my story, so that when I sit down to write, I know the essentials. This ensures I don't write an outline that I'm dissatisfied with 3 scenes into writing my first draft.

Today, I'll be sharing how I...

1. Choose the best answers to my many questions
2. Establish character arcs
3. Pick a theme
4. A fun bonus step that I've just started doing

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Today, I'm sharing 3 things that I do BEFORE I start outlining. This is the pre-work to the prep work.

My story ideas are never fully fleshed out enough to begin immediately outlining, so here are 3 things I do to make decisions about the story I'm going to write so I can outline effectively:

1. Write down my favorite ideas
2. Craft the premise
3. Making the tropes and other ideas work with the premise (and vice versa)

Once I've done these three things, I'm closer to being able to outline. In next weeks episode, I'm sharing 3 more things that I do before outlining (plus a bonus item).

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Outlining is a fundamental part of my writing process, and today I'm sharing why. Over the past 12 (probably more...) years, I've struggled to find a writing process that works for me, and now I finally feel like I'm honing in on what's working for me. Outlining is not for everyone, but if you're considering outlining for your first or next story, I'm sharing all of the reasons I have been loving it.

This is the first episode in not only the podcast but also a series where I'm taking you along for the ride and sharing my entire writing and editing process (mistakes and all). It's going to get wild.

I hope you'll stick around and join the journey. Whether you're working on your first story or are a novel-writing veteran, I'd love to learn about your process and story. I'm hopeful we can support each other on this journey.

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 Writing a book is one of the most exciting and most overwhelming things I've ever done. Some days the words flow and other days not so much. Maybe you know the feeling.

I am Jennifer, a writer and developmental editor, and I'm inviting you to join me as I navigate the ups and downs of writing my next story.

I'm not here to tell you how to write your book. Instead, on the Fiction Refinery podcast, I'm going to be sharing what I'm learning in real time: the false starts, breakthroughs, experiments with outlining and drafting, and the insights I'm picking up along the way from books, movies, and other writers. If you're on your own writing journey and want some company along the road, this podcast is for you.

Together we'll swap ideas, share struggles, and hopefully make the process feel a little less lonely.