Let's get granular! How much can your literal language -- the individual words you use, the cadence of your sentences, a conlang, a poetic tradition -- help convey your worldbuilding? Sarah Beth Durst joins us to talk about the fine tool of wordcraft in your prose and dialogue, as well as the importance of white space on the page. She also reminds us that fantasy fiction is always better with talking cats.
Our Guest: Sarah Beth Durst is the award-winning author of over twenty fantasy books for kids, teens, and adults, including Spark, Drink Slay Love, and The Queens of Renthia series. She won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Nebula Award three times.
Sarah was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, a small town that later became the setting for her debut novel. At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer. (Before that, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, except with real flying ability instead of an invisible jet. She also would have accepted a career as a unicorn princess.) And she began writing fantasy stories. She later attended Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk.
Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat.
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Transcript for Episode 56 (thank you, dear scribes!)
Episode 89: Stealing the Best Parts of History, ft. LAURA ANNE GILMAN
Episode 88: Hashtag Aesthetic, ft. MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL
Episode 87: Building Up Hope, ft BRANDON CRILLY
Episode 86: Live at WorldCon!
Episode 85: Falling in Love Again… with Worldbuilding Ft SARA MUELLER
Episode 84: Make or Break Worldbuilding Deep Dive: The MNG
Episode 83: Using Our Vacation Time
Episode 82.5: Live at ArmadilloCon!
Episode 82: From One-Note Worlds to Complete Space Operas, ft. Valerie Valdes
Episode 81: That’s Just Good Policy feat. VICTOR MANIBO
Episode 80: Festivus for the Rest Of Us
Episode 79: Building Past the Horizon
Episode 78: Reimagining Relationships w/ FOZ MEADOWS
Episode 77: Pull a Thread, Build A World w/ KRITIKA H. RAO
Episode 76: Farm to Table Fantasy ft. SARAH GAILEY
Episode 75: Worldbuilding Beyond Borders
Episode 74: FMK Worldbuilding Edition
Episode 73: In-Line Worldbuilding ft. MELISSA CARUSO
Episode 72: This is Cerulean, Right?: Fashion, Politics, and Power, ft. NATANIA BARRON
Episode 71: X Marks The Spot ft. PENG SHEPHERD
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