In this episode, we're delving into a common mistake many writers make: Writing the blurb after completing their story.

I'll walk you through why creating your book's blurb before writing your draft can give you incredible clarity and direction for your story's outline. Using a structured approach, I'll share my own experience crafting a blurb for my upcoming book, the challenges I faced, and how it helped solidify my plotlines.

Whether you're just starting your draft or mid-way through, this episode provides valuable insight into using your blurb as a powerful tool to enhance your writing process. Grab your favorite hot beverage and join me as we explore this crucial step in writing your novel!

Resources:

• How to Write a Blurb/Back Cover Copy – Jeffe Kennedy

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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