Hello all.
Looks like I picked an interesting but exciting time to join! I've been looking for a good Christian fantasy writing forum. Facebook groups and email listings are all well & good but there's something about forums that I vastly prefer. It's sad that many seem to be dying.
Much thanks to the admin that helped me get past registration!

Anyways, I write off & on but am trying to get more consistent. YA &/or Speculative Fiction mostly. I've got two novels plotted out but only partially written: one's straight-up fantasy with dragons, "brownies" and winged people (that are not fairies or angels or anything); the other's more alternate universe semi-dystopian based on an idea I had for "survival of the weakest." I've also got a novella almost done (regular YA), a couple short stories to clean up, and a few ideas percolating that I am refusing to work on until I finish something.

Unfortunately, I can't turn to the hubby/sisters/daily friends when I need help since they are just readers and don't understand the craft. So I was looking for a place with like-minded Christian fantasy writers I can bounce ideas off of, get helpful feedback, and hopefully contribute the same. Nice to meet you all!

Welcome to the forum!


I know the struggle, it's hard to keep on one project when there are sooo many!

Do you have plans to publish your novella?

What are some books / authors you enjoy reading?

Hello, Lady Sparks!

Welcome to the forum. Wow! It sounds like you have an original YA novel idea. Congrats!

This is a great place to bounce ideas off of people. Just not me if you're writing fantasy. I'm a historical fiction author, so I wouldn't be able to help you much.

And Sir I already asked the two questions I was thinking to ask, so I can't ask them.

I love the rabbit on your profile picture!

The novella has been an experiment. I'm a plotter who tends to get carried away with the details and has a hard time thinking of smaller ideas. So I made myself sit down and just write with no outline and barely any idea of the plot other than beginning and end. I've been refusing to let myself analyze or plan ahead. So I'm sure it's riddled with cliches, stereotypes and cheesy dialogue. I accidentally thought about it a little (oops!) and know I'll probably flip most of the second half with most of the first. I'm calling it My Drabble right now but I've got hopes it might be something decent when I finish and get to clean it up. But if nothing else, it's been a fun and useful exercise.

As for books/authors: I've read two by Jill Williamson and loved them so even though I haven't read the others yet, I consider her a fave (Replication & By Darkness Hid - I need to read the rest asap). Tolkien and CS Lewis, of course. Haven't tried Deker, though - I avoid anything too scary or intense and his books give me that vibe. Donita K Paul's books are fun. I read a lot of secular MG/YA fantasy, also, depending on if they cross my lines or not. Potter I like, love everything I've read by Dianna Wynne Jones. I've read the Twilight books and some Cassandra Clare (talk about rife with issues). The Larklight books by Philip Reeve are adorable. Oh, and I have inordinate fondness for the Wondrous Strange series by Lesley Livingston.

Glad you like the picture, Miss Elizabeth. My father-in-law took it years ago and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. He's like a little vampire bunny with grass fangs. And so much fantasy has a historical bent, I'm sure you'd bring a helpful perspective to most conversations.

Welcome to Holy Worlds, Lady Sparks! So nice to have you join us, and yes, exciting times for the forum!

I'm very much the same, but I find it hard to write consistently as my work weeks are up and down. I can have a mad busy week, where I don't have time for much else, and a quieter week where I write when I can. When I was younger I wrote all the time, but then I got a job and write much less. I see writing as my 'escape' now: when real life just gets a bit too much, I go and get lost in my writing world.

Thankfully my Mother loves writing, and has published short stories, and a book in the past, so I can throw ideas around with her; she's very wary of Fantasy though (which is my favourite genre, although I love Historical Fiction as well), so it's nice to come here for ideas that she just wouldn't appreciate or 'get' I suppose.

Looking forward to seeing you around here! If you have any questions whilst you're finding your way around the forum and etc, feel free to bob me a PM!

Welcome, again!

Welcome to Holy Worlds! Yes, a very interesting time for the forum. A lot of the most interesting material (especially if, like me, your imagination is sparked and fired by worldbuilding concepts) has been moved off to the archives, but as we all keep writing, subcreating, and chatting, more discussions will grow to fill the many rooms of the Holy Worlds forum once again.

I remember when I joined, five years ago now. I was looking for advice, writing tips, or some such, having just decided to devote more attention to the "big work" that I've felt to be my calling since middle school ... and found Holy Worlds to be not just a terrific repository of ideas and tools, but also a community. I only wish I'd begun my search a couple of years earlier, since the previous time I'd done any scouring of the Web was before the forum was founded.


Do you mean that your outlines tend to grow so that what was originally conceived as a short story turns into an epic trilogy? Or something else? (For me, while things have often grown while in the planning stages, they tend to do so worse when I don't do any planning. And I've learned the hard way that it's easier to fix a fundamental plot flaw in a two-page outline than fifty or a hundred pages into a handwritten first draft.)

Anyway, welcome again to Holy Worlds! I hope we can help you grow your stories and hone your craft.

*shakes your hand vigorously and stuffs you with cupcakes* Yes, yes, exciting times, welcome, so glad to have you!

*gestures towards the Sci-Fi forum* Go post about your dystopian idea. Please. I must know more.

Thanks, Lady Elanor. I've always written very inconsistently as well. But I recently started a new job and it is *very* slow. I am busy just a few days of the week and bored out of my mind the rest of the time. Things should get busier eventually but I figured for now I should take advantage of the time and finally get some writing done!

I've been browsing the archives, kingjon. I'm definitely someone who can get sucked into research.

That's pretty much what I mean. Whenever a story idea gets into my head, it's usually a longer work right from the get-go. Short stories and flash fiction - I haven't had much experience with them and my attempts have usually ended up being more of a scene from a longer work than an self-contained smaller item.

As for outlines, I usually have a solid beginning and ending and then roughly fill in the middle. I've been dabbling with the snowflake method to help flesh out my characters and plots and I really like it. Don't think I'll take it all the way but it's a good way to get a solid foundation. (That's what brings me here, too - I'm missing a critical element of my ending and need help brainstorming. I'll start a post about it soon.)

Cupcakes!! Thanks, Lt General! *salutes* I suppose an AlternateUniverseSemi-Dystopian is more scifi than anything, eh? Though be warned it's very mild scifi - almost more like alternative history? You'll see what I mean...

Welcome to Holy Worlds, Lady Sparks!


I feel the same way. I'm not sure why most forums have slowed down.


I hope all your projects go well! Are you planning to submit the short stories to magazines after you finish them?

Welcome to the place, Miss Sparks.
Don't worry about finishing things. Worry about doing the next part. If you're on step 4 of 10, worry about 5, not 10.
^advice I don't follow

Yup. What I now call my "magnum opus, emphasis on 'big'" was originally---when I was in seventh grade---supposed to be one story, and is now at at least eighteen stories (in various planning/outlining stages, none even close to finished) in "the main line" and many more than that planned for the four "sub-series" (one story of which is complete, if in significant need of revision, and that only because it was for a class assignment in high school).


I bookmarked the page on the snowflake method years ago, but only started working through it a few months ago. (Slowly, each story at one stage before moving on to the next stage for any, and in parallel to my other development methods.) I really wish I'd read the page carefully and worked through it when I first found it. As usual, planning can save significant time and trouble later (a principle that crystallized for me when I took technical writing courses at the local community college).

Thanks, Jonathan. I haven't decided about publishing them yet - once they're cleaned up I'll get some feedback and think about it.

I know what you mean, Reiyen. One step at a time!

I was the same way, kingjon. Took a couple creative writing courses in community college and being forced to outline and revise really brought home how beneficial they are.

Uehuehuehue....welcome to Holy Worlds. Ignore those friendly folk; we're all mad here.

*hands you a frilled lizard wearing a fez*

Thank you!
*puts lizard gingerly into a cage...*

Are you implying that mad people aren't friendly? *raises eyebrows at Abi*

*hands you some habitat necessities for the frilled lizard cage*

Welcome, welcome! I REALLY want to know about your "survival of the weakest" concept. [EDIT: Found your thread for it!] I got burned out on YA dystopia a while back, but that sounds like something actually original.

Since no one's mentioned it, poke your head into our chat on occasional. We're a lively, goofy group who will either aid in procrastination or keeping you disciplined. No way to know which will occur until you're actually there.

Says the girl who hasn't been here in, like, months. *crosses arms and stares at you over her modly glasses* You got some 'splainin' to do, missy. How dare you leave us?

Years, actually. Dieki informed me my last login was in 2014.

My fiction-forming abilities are severely diminished. A mild manic swing and news of your acquisition prompted my return.

I cautiously poked my nose into the chat last week and got roped into all kinds of crazy but it was fun. I've never been too into dystopians myself - funny how genres aren't always particular about the writer's readerly presence.

Love the verse in your signature, by the way. It's been pretty much my life verse the past couple of years while my family went through some big changes and I struggled with anxiety over the entire thing.

AHA! My grand evil plan is working!

Oh, sorry, I'm derailing the thread. Carry on, civilians... *whistles*

*scurries in, bedraggled and inexcusably late as usual*

Welcome to the forums, Lady Sparks!

LOL The chat is quite an interesting place, isn't it?

Thanks, Caeli.