Author Adventures: Fantasy World Building with Rebecca Ross

At the end of May, I took a class from one of my favorite fantasy authors: Rebecca Ross.

She’s best known for two duologies: The Elements of Cadence (A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless) and Letters of Enchantment (Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows). Her writing is beautiful and poetic and boy, does she make you FEEL THINGS.

I’ve been studying her work for years in an attempt to write a book that evokes even a fraction of the emotion that hers do.

So naturally, when the ad for the class popped up on IG, I jumped at the chance to learn from her.

I was not disappointed.

The class was focused on fantasy world building. Namely, how to relate your world to your character’s emotional journey—or as she puts it, creating echoes between the world (the magic system, culture, folklore, etc.) and the characters.

It was a combination of pre-recorded video modules, practice exercises, live Q&A sessions, and forum posts.

At first, I was hesitant to post my answers to the weekly discussion questions on the forums. But I’m so glad I did, because two wonderful things happened as a result.

Complimented by the Queen

First, Rebecca Ross herself commented on one of my posts.

This might not seem like a big deal because she was the instructor, but there were over 200 people posting on these forums and she only posted a handful of times. I’m not going to share my post because it won’t make sense without the context of the class, but here’s her comment (because its short, and because I will never get tired of reading it):

To have the queen of poetic writing call an element of my story beautiful, lovely, and unique was invigorating to say the least. I would be lying if I said I didn’t read the comment at least once a week. Maybe more, but who’s counting?

Critique Partners

The second thing, while not as immediately thrilling, was even more valuable: I formed critique partnerships with people from the class. We’ve exchanged writing many times now, and the experience has been as validating as it is helpful.

I’d heard the advice countless times in my writing journey: Find a critique partner. Form a relationship with another writer. Find someone who is strong in areas where you’re weak. Someone you can talk to when you’re stuck. Someone who will be honest. Someone whose opinion you trust.

Now I understand what the advice was getting at. We’ve only just begun working together, and the people—and the relationships I have with them—are already exceeding my expectations. We give each other meaningful feedback on a regular basis, I look forward to keeping these professional and personal relationships for a very long time.

Putting Myself Out There

I learned so much from Rebecca about world building, but the main thing I took away was that if I put myself out there, good things might happen.

If I post about my story, a published author might love it. If I put my name on a contact list, a fellow writer might reach out.

If I write a book, someone might read it. They might love it. They might look for my name on bookstore shelves.

And if I don’t take these chances, I will never know what I might have missed.