writing a book: world-building & character profiles 🌎
creating the "cherrywood" universe and sharing resources you can implement yourself 🍒☕️🌻
I’m writing a book! Well, I’m attempting to. You’re invited to join along. 💌
Let’s be honest, documenting the process of writing a novel is not a revolutionary idea.
Every writer brings their distinct personality, style, and approach to the project. Personally, I tend to gravitate towards writers who attempt to write their book outside of their full-time job or writers who are writing a book for the first time. There’s a parasocial sense of camaraderie I sincerely appreciate. However, I also value the expert advice from experienced and published writers.
I’ve noticed two main buckets for novice and veteran writers. Both tend to share information in different ways:
The Vlog™️ - Is used to spend time with the writer as they film a set time of working on the project with pauses to update you on what they’ve done.
The How To™️ - Is used to share a piece or set of knowledge about one topic or step in the context of writing a book.
My goal is to give you both. However, I may lean more towards the former because I’m not an expert or published author. (Yet.) And I may not approach things conventionally or spend too much time on visuals. At the end of the day, I hope you see things through a new and inspirational lens. ✨
When Dani suddenly loses her job, she calls home and learns her father has rented their house and moved back to Cherrywood, a town she hasn't lived in since she was ten. With her sister away at college and her father running her grandmother’s flower shop, Dani must adapt to the slow pace of small-town life. Reconnecting with childhood friends, she uncovers the truth about the accident that made her family leave years ago. What starts as a temporary stay turns into a journey of hard truths, renewed friendships, and unexpected love. Dani learns that sometimes, the only way to move forward is to go back to where it all began.
Where to start?
I can’t say I’ve thought about the origins of any novel idea ever. But I did for this post! And these are the questions I believe I unconsciously ruminated on:
What story, theme, feeling, or experience am I trying to tell?
Am I investigating it, describing it, or building it?
What does community, cast, or characters look like in this world?
Who is the main character?
How does the main character fit into this world?
What auxiliary characters does the main character need?
What auxiliary characters make this world more believable?
Note: The answers to the above questions don’t need to be literary award winners. Write what you want to write. Write what you will keep you excited and determined. I really just wanted to write a small-town romance with a Latina as the lead. That turned into a coming of age and exploration of eldest daughter syndrome.
World-building is a sliding scale.
I like to think of world-building needs on a sliding scale. If a story is based on our reality, the writer will probably need fewer building blocks. However, the writer will probably need more building blocks if a story takes place in a science fiction or fantasy realm with different laws, languages, lands, etc.
Cherrywood is a fictional town based in the real world. Small towns aren’t as quaint and picturesque as Stars Hollow or Virgin River, so writers (like myself) can take some freedoms and liberties even when creating a “simple” setting.
A great example of this can be found in Ashley Poston’s latest book, A Novel Love Story:
I wish I could give you a step-by-step guide on what to do next. But I’m sure everyone’s would be a little different. And even if you do come across one, I guarantee you’ll take what feels right and leave the rest. I feel like intuition is going to be the commonality throughout this entire process.
Once you decide to start writing, especially at the beginning, I think inspiration sticks out to you like a sore thumb. Or it’s like frequency illusion, a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it. Things will call out to you and you will see them fit into your story.
One of those things might be music. And music can be a great place to start if you’re not having luck nailing down specifics. For world-building, music can inspire an opening shot, set a scene, or influence dialogue.
Sofia Coppola, from an interview with Festival De Cannes:
Music is an integral part of your films. It is never just there to support the plot. Why is it so important?
In my opinion, music is one of the key components of a movie. It contributes to the atmosphere that we want to translate on screen. I also listen to lots of music when I’m writing a script, and the music in my films often comes to me at that time. So on the whole, it comes to me very early in my creative process. It inspires me and influences my films. It breathes soul into them.
There are whole books that stem from a single song. You can even create a playlist and begin to filter music to it as you are creating and writing. Here’s my playlist for Cherrywood as an example:
Next, run your playlist and start collecting inspiration to create mood boards on Pinterest for the world. I have an article, “creative ways to support your writing with digital aesthetics,” that walks you through this activity.
But overall, you want to save anything and everything that inspires you. Take photos of things IRL on your phone, save Instagram posts and TikTok videos to a private folder, or take screenshots of random TV and film scenes you’d like to refer back to. Think of this collection as a physical file you can open anytime you need a little creativity boost.
Other world-building questions you can ask yourself are:
Where does this story take place?
Where does the main character spend most of their time?
What are people’s jobs or interests and where are the spaces that fit those needs?
What are interesting places that could exist in this world?
Is the setting in the past, present, or future?
Character profiles don’t have to be extensive.
Once upon a time, I was a girl who thrived on extensive character questionnaires. It was like completing a test on my favorite subject. But the truth is, you won’t refer back to 75% of the questions you answered about your character.
That’s why I created this quick (and free) Notion page for you with the information I complete about my main characters. You do not have to do this for every character in your story, but I highly encourage it for the important ones.
Cherrywood is written in a first-person POV by Daniela Flores, our main character. Dani is the oldest daughter of her small family; she is kind, quick-witted, impatient, overpromises, and thinks she’s always the smartest in the room. Her philosophy is generally realistic and careful, although she is a positive person by nature. She can be pretty closed off from different perspectives, and people tend to think she is intolerant even though she may think of herself as open-minded. Dani has recently been laid off, marking (what she thinks is) the first failure of her life. When she returns to Cherrywood, Dani lies about losing her job and says she’s on an extended vacation. The truth slowly unfolds as she meets people from her parent’s past.
Focusing on the hero of the story … I found this helpful exercise from Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody (oh my god, that’s a long book title).
We’re not plotting yet! But …
I was recently looking up a Celtic cross tarot spread for reasons. ANYWAYS, I noticed that the template for the spread could very well be used to map out your hero’s journey or purpose. Take it or leave it, but it’s one of the simplest and to-the-point templates I’ve seen.
The Present Situation: The character’s current situation, and their state of mind and/or how they perceive the issue at hand.
The Challenge: The challenge the character is facing or the problem they need solved.
The Past: The events that lead up to the current situation and/or how everything came to be.
The Future: What’s likely to happen over the next few weeks or months. It’s not the end point, but rather the next step on the character’s path.
Conscious: The character’s aspirations or best case scenario with regards to the outcome of the issue at hand.
Unconscious: The character’s subconscious state and how it is impacting their actions. This often gets at the core of the character’s issues.
Character’s Influence: Their perspective and impact on the situation.
External Influence: The factors that the characters cannot control that influence the final outcome, like energies, people, or events.
Hopes & Fears: What your character hopes will happen, and what they’re afraid will happen.
The Outcome
Finally, as your plot builds, I would consider what development is happening to your main characters and how that may affect the auxiliary characters they have crossed lines with. Does it also affect the world they live in?
I fear you may still want more character pointers … So, I leave you with two recent videos I watched on YouTube centered around character building. I’ve been loving each of these creators channels!
Remember, we’re in this learning and doing journey together.
That’s all for today, folks! I hope you have found this post to be both thoughtful and helpful! As for Cherrywood, stay curious. 👀
I know this post took a while to publish. Life picked up a bit, but I am back to regular scheduled writing. I thank you for your patience! Sunday Romantics Club has reached a new high of over 300 subscribers!! I am so thrilled for each and every one of you. <3
This is such an amazing post!!!! Also thanks for the shout out :) Super excited to follow along on your journey!
I love this! Thanks for bringing us along your journey!!