For writers still struggling to write the fantasy, romantasy, or sci-fi novel you’ve been dreaming about for years:

Is your system of worldbuilding, character development, and plotting a chaos of 53 open tabs, three notebooks, and lots of internal screaming?

There are probably moments when you give up. You leave your story, characters, and world neglected, as if you’re looking away from a friend calling out to you as they sink into quicksand.

Maybe you’ve been looking away because you have to. Because work and family demand so much of your energy. Because our world is not set up to support creative people.

Maybe you look away for so long that your story, world, and characters sink far down into your subconscious where you almost – almost! – don't notice them anymore.

But deep down, you know you must tell this story, like you're the chosen one and finishing this novel is your final boss battle.

Writing a sci-fi, romantasy, or fantasy novel is a hard journey, a mental marathon – well, more like 50+ chapters of back-to-back mental marathons – but if you have a story to tell, if you want to write more than you want the next Marvel movie to actually be good, it's worth it.

If you know – without a doubt – that you have an amazing story inside you, but it's not quite working and you're not sure why or how to fix it…

Then keep reading.

Because you’re going to look back a few months from now, having finally made progress on your novel, with every day feeling that much brighter because you have your story to look forward to, and wish that you’d had access to this information years ago.

But first…

Does the thought of finally finishing your story make you want to whoop with excitement and pride?

With all the time spent thinking up scenes, planning your world, staring at a blank page, revising, deleting, internally screaming, and sobbing over your laptop at 2am while you think “why can't I get this right”... shouldn't you finally have a novel you love?

We think you’ve earned it. Because you’ve put in the time. Because you’ve put in the effort.

You deserve to know exactly how to realize your creative potential and to feel how capable you are of exploring the vastness of your worlds and characters.

You deserve to leave writer's block behind. You deserve to wake up each day excited for the time when you get to write and feel like the boring drudgery of the day is a little bit more bearable because of it.

Not just that: You deserve to streamline your hurricane of ideas into a solid foundation for the book you've been struggling to write so you can finally write it and LOVE it. And know that others will too.

But before you can, you need to abandon a few lies that society has told you. Don't worry, they were never going to help you anyway...

The 4 myths you need to stop believing right now if you want to hold your finished book in your hand and think “I did it! Take that, Mr. McGrath, who said I should give up writing in ninth grade.”

Ah yes, society has been telling you this for so long that it has seeped into your subconscious only to come out and mock you like Gollum telling Smeagol nobody likes him.

Do you know what makes humans different from the other animals on this planet? The reason we clambered to dominance over every other life form (for better or worse. Okay, mostly worse)?

It's not opposable thumbs. Chimps have those. It's not tools. Crows use them. It's not even language. Most animals communicate.

It's stories.

It's the one thing we do that no one else does.

Telling stories is how we teach each other lessons to help us survive, whether it's how to fight a lion or how to weather depression. Stories are how we pass knowledge down through the generations (did you know that some fairy tales are 5,000 years old? Those are fantasy stories! Our oldest literature is.)

It's how we connect with one another.

Stories are everything to humans. The time you spend thinking about one is never a waste. It's what makes you and everyone else human.

But you might be thinking: I still have other, more important responsibilities.

The secret we've learned over years of balancing writing and other responsibilities is this: You don't have to lock yourself in a room alone for hours every day to be a writer.
 
If you can write 250 words a day, you'll have the completed draft of a 60K novel in 8 months. If you can write 500 words, you'll have it in 4 (though editing will take longer).

Here’s the other thing we’ve learned: It’s okay to do something because you like it. That's reason enough. I doubt many people are telling you that going for a walk in nature is a waste of time or that watching a movie is pointless (and if anyone does, run far away from them).

It's hard to believe it in a world that tells us that the highest achievement is more money, but doing something because it makes you happy is reason enough.

We know it feels like you're a flaming dumpster full of smaller flaming trash cans when your writing isn't what you want it to be. But every writer feels like that sometimes. Even the pros, even the bestsellers, and award-winners.

More than that, you must write crap before you write gold.

That's true of every skill and every craft. An artist's first paintings are never good. A blacksmith's first sword shatters.

Like any other skill, writing takes practice. Every single word, even if it's not great, makes you a better writer. Not everything you put on the page has to be mithril.

The good news is that you CAN speed up this looong process by learning ways to strengthen your ideas, improve your craft, and organize your thoughts (half of writing is just turning the chaos of thoughts into something structured).

You'll still need to practice, but your practice will be more targeted to the right skills you need to develop.

Every single author you've ever read or heard of learned from someone else. Every. Single. One.

Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, had his Norse epics and his friends in the Inklings.

N.K. Jemison, author of the first trilogy to win the Hugo Award for all three books, had the Viable Paradise writing workshop, the BRAWLers writing group, the Altered Fluid critique group, AND Launch Pad.

If you're not sure what to do with your ideas or your book, you're in good company – the company of every other writer in history.

The only part that is "natural" is the desire to tell a story. Everything else is learned. After all, no one is born knowing how to write ABC, much less how to write a 60k word novel.

Here's the thing: Story is structure. The difference between a pile of sticky notes or the scenes in your head is not the words themselves. It's the structure that ties them altogether.

Plot structures, character arcs, and worldbuilding systems have existed for ages because they work.

If you break down your favorite stories, whether in books or movies, you'll find that most of them follow a very similar structure. They might even have the same types of characters.

You might not always be consciously aware of the structure of a book, show, or movie while you're enjoying it, but you sure as hell notice when the structure goes wrong.

Have you ever watched or read something that laaaagged in the middle? Where characters changed suddenly and without proper build-up (hello, Game of Thrones season 8)? Where the final pay-off is just meh (hello, Game of Thrones season 8 again)?
 
These are all problems of structure.

But prompts, worksheets, and structure go a bit further than just providing the skeleton for your story.

Your first, second, third ideas are always going to be the things you've seen before, the culture you're most familiar with, the stories you've read and watched. That's just how the human brain works – what you are exposed to the most often is what you think of first (it makes sense from a survival perspective!).

Prompts and structures get you to dig deeper into your existing ideas to find new approaches, new aspects, and new ways of creating so your ideas become stronger and more original than they would be otherwise.

That’s why studies show that limitations lead to MORE creative and original ideas than the freedom to do anything at all.

The good news is that it’s easier than ever to organize your jumble of ideas into a personalized, structured plan, so you can FINALLY finish your novel AND love it, even if you've abandoned it three times already.

We’re going to show you how to:

📖 Build a solid foundation of worldbuilding, character development, and plot that makes readers wonder how you crafted something so complex and unique.
 
📖 Go beyond flat, clichéd worlds to build a believable and captivating setting that feels real and logical in the way all its elements fit together.

📖 Write what you enjoy reading without being jerked out of the story to think, "What the hell was I thinking here?!"

📖 Organize the inherently chaotic creative process so you can write with more clarity and produce cleaner first drafts.

📖 Develop binge-worthy character arcs that keep readers turning the page long after they should have gone to sleep.

📖 Find solutions for the feeling of "what the hell do I do with this scene" with tons of easy-to-understand explanations for everything you've been struggling with from magic systems to culture to character motivations.

📖 Use surprisingly simple methods based on psychology that make your characters into multidimensional people as real as anyone you know.

📖 Know exactly what happens in your story and discover places where it lags or misses important character beats.

📖 Describe your world without writing an entire essay about it. Instead, drop lush details into your story to make your world feel alive.

📖 Finally feel confident when you sit down to write so you can finish your book and hold it in your hands like you've always dreamed.

All of this is possible for you even if you've struggled to write a first draft or are on draft 5 of a book that just isn't working. 

But it does depend on taking a step-by-step approach to your ideas, either upfront if you're a planner or piecemeal and during revisions if you're a pantser (both work!).

The approach we’re going to show you has been the secret weapon of over 14,000 aspiring and published sci-fi and fantasy authors over the last four years.

Good question! After all, we could be four corgis in a trench coat for all you know.

Scribe Forge is a group of indie authors in sci-fi, fantasy, and romance with 50+ published books between us. When we're not geeking out over the latest episode of Doctor Who or losing our minds over the latest season of X-Men '97 (holy shit to all of it), we're nerding out over everything sci-fi, fantasy, and romantasy writing.

Seriously, collectively, we've spent 25 years learning EVERYTHING we possibly could about it. We've read every book, blog post, and article we could find (including some writing books that are out of print and can only be uncovered in the back corner of a library).

We've spent unhealthy amounts of time with every mapmaking and writing tool out there, just for funsies. Hell, Eva even tried to pass off a fantasy map as a legitimate part of a work presentation so she could do it at the office (no one was impressed but it was a really good map).

One of our team did a degree in Anthropology for the SOLE REASON of learning how to worldbuild better by understanding cultures. Another reads Scientific American for fun and takes copious notes for worldbuilding. And my pastime is psychoanalyzing strangers for character backgrounds (I'm fun at parties).

Together, we've spent thousands of hours learning about writing and a couple hundred more streamlining all that knowledge into guides and workbooks that are simple, to-the-point, and less overwhelming than our 25 years of trying every character questionnaire out there, so that others can write their stories sooner, with more confidence and less stress than we went through.

Tool #2: The Essential Worldbuilding Blueprint and Workbook

Create a living, breathing world that readers will get lost in as they uncover all its secrets.
 
Worldbuilding is confusing and overwhelming because there's just SO MUCH to think about and every little thing affects everything else in a complex interconnected web.

You can easily spend years just on worldbuilding (I know because I did – hi, Eva, here and I'm a recovering Worldbuilding Addict).
 
But we streamlined and simplified the process so you can build an immersive and logical world in less time while avoiding inconsistencies. Here’s how:

📖 Learn about the worldbuilding elements that actually make a difference in your story (and the ones you can skip) with 19 bite-sized chapters that get right to the point so you can get writing.

📖 Discover how to integrate worldbuilding into your current writing process so you don’t waste energy forcing yourself to create in a way that will never work for you. If you don’t have a writing process yet, we provide guidance on worldbuilding methods so you can find the best one for you.

📖 Build a world that readers can’t resist, from its solar system to its current political system, with 150 pages of step-by-step worksheets. (We know it sounds like a lot, but we walk you through it, and you’ll have a complete world in a matter of weeks).

📖 Tie together all the elements of a world, from its tech to its environment to its culture, to create a logical and cohesive world that just makes sense.

📖 Uncover the little details that make your world feel lived in and real, enriching your reader's experience and passion for your story without overloading them with info-dumps.

📖 Discover new sources of conflict for your stories and characters, so your book is more binge-worthy than you even thought it could be.

📖 Look up what you need without falling into a Wikipedia rabbit hole in the middle of a writing session with quick reference charts on everything from geography to religion.

📖 Learn about genre-specific worldbuilding for stories in sci-fi, fantasy, and urban fantasy so you’re ready to write no matter where your muse leads you.

📖 Use the built-in world bible to track and organize all your details in one place. Never lose sticky notes or spend time searching through 20 different Word docs for the info you need.

📖 Start creating THIS MINUTE with easy-to-use digital worksheets that have no learning curve. Load them into your favorite writing program or print them and write by hand. Available in printable PDF, Word/Google Doc, OneNote, or Scrivener.

Topics covered:

● Worldbuilding methods
● Stars and Planets
● Locations: Geography and Climate
● Fictional Beings: Animals, Aliens, & Paranormals
● Ecosystem
● Magic
● Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance
● Science
● Technology
● Social Structures (family, government, economy, law)
● Values and Ethics
● Religion, Mythology, and Philosophy
● History
● Art
● Fashion
● Architecture
● Games and sports
● Holidays

Learn each topic in 10-20 minutes on your lunch break and complete each worksheet in a few hours.

Tool #3: The Essential Character Creation Blueprint and Workbook

Get to know your characters better than anyone else in your life, so they drive the plot in ways you never thought possible.
 
The key to a successful story is well-written characters that readers want to spend time with. After all, why give up hours of your life for characters you don't enjoy (even if that joy is just hating their guts)?

While character ideas are easy; making the character multidimensional enough to carry an entire story or series is as tricky as The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time.

This step-by-step process shows you how to understand your characters with page-turning secrets about character development that advance your plot and make your characters unforgettable. Here’s how:

📘 Go beyond the surface of your characters with 20 chapters and 13 worksheets on creating real fictional people who readers feel attached to on a personal level.

📘 Learn a surprisingly simple method to make a character more realistic. It only takes a few minutes to implement!

📘 Tie character development to plot to keep readers turning the page long after they should have gone to sleep.

📘 Discover what most aspiring writers don't know about the role of relationships in building memorable characters.

📘 Focus on THIS instead of endless lists of traits and pointless questionnaires about your character's favorite color and food.

📘 Use the principles of human behavior and psychology to create a protagonist that readers love or a complex antagonist that readers love to hate.

📘 Use the built-in character bible to track and organize your all your characters in one place. Never lose details and end up accidentally changing your main character’s backstory halfway through your draft.

📘 Works with your current writing process. Complete the worksheets in whatever order makes sense for you. If you don’t have a writing process yet, we'll help you find one.

📘 Start creating THIS MINUTE with easy-to-use digital worksheets that have no learning curve. Load them into your favorite writing program or print them and write by hand. Available in printable PDF, Word/Google Doc, OneNote, or Scrivener.

Topics covered to make your characters so real that they drive the entire story and you avoid the dreaded writer’s block (just let your characters take the wheel):

● What makes a compelling character
● Where to start when creating a character
● Body, senses, and mind
● Traits and flaws
● Contradictions
● Social values and expectations
● Relationships
● Ethics
● Perspectives about the world
● Skills and knowledge
● Lies, truths, and ghosts
● Wants and needs
● Normal life
● Appearance and gestures
● Defining introductory moment

Tool #4 is a free bonus: 10-Minute Story Structure Crash Course

Get this right and readers won't want to put down your book until the last page.

Now that you have your main ideas, world, and character, it's time to dig deeper into story structure. You'll also learn how to write chapters that keep your plot moving, even during the non-action scenes. Here’s how:

⭐ Avoid guesswork about what happens next in your novel with the essential story beats that satisfy readers and have them clamoring for more.

⭐ Create a plot structure centered on the two types of compelling conflict so you can write stronger stories today.

⭐ Learn the key to writing scenes that drive your plot forward and keep readers up long past their bedtimes.

Topics covered:

● Story beats for the beginning, middle and end of your novel.
●Turning points to drive the plot forward (and the different types).
● The two kinds of conflict that create a meaningful story.
● Internal vs. external conflicts in different genres

FAQ

Still not sure if this is right for you? Here are 6 ways to know you’re ready to use The Essential Fantasy & Sci-fi Writer's Bundle to write and finish the epic sci-fi/fantasy/ romantasy novel you've always dreamed of:

1. You're new to fiction writing and have an idea you know will make an epic book. You want to make sure you nail it from the start with the most practical, step-by-step strategies for sci-fi/fantasy writing.
 
2. You've been trying to write your draft for months or even years but keep getting stuck or overwhelmed until you feel so discouraged, you lock your book away and try to forget it. But you keep coming back to it over and over. You KNOW you have to tell this story.

3. You already finished a first draft (whoop whoop!), but revision is kicking your ass as you find plot holes, flat characters, and gaps in worldbuilding. You could use some extra help to make your story the best it can possibly be.

4. You've finished many drafts and maybe even published some books (double whoop whoop!), but you want to learn new strategies to strengthen your world, characters, and plot. You don't have time to spend researching everything out there and want to gain actionable insights that you can apply right now.

5. You have no problem investing a few hours a week into writing (planning, dreaming, and revision all count) because you know every minute spent on your story is a meaningful step toward holding your finished novel in your hands.
 
6. You’re excited to try The Essential Fantasy & Sci-fi Writer's Bundle to turn the hurricane of ideas in your head and  all those mad scientist sticky notes into a plan for a binge-worthy book. You look forward to waking up each day excited for the time when you get to sit down and work on your story.

If you caught yourself nodding your head to at least 3 of the 6 points above, you're ready to write the epic book you know is inside you.

Imagine three months from now…

… you sit down at your laptop and open your manuscript.

You've combined your random ideas into a coherent whole. You've built your fictional world (or at least the parts you need at this moment if you're a pantster), and it’s so immersive you feel like you've visited it. Your characters are as real as any person you've met.

You put your fingers to the keyboard, and you know what happens in this scene because your characters take over and drive the story for you.

You feel confident as you write because you have mental clarity around your ideas, world, characters, and story.

You know if you hit a roadblock, you'll find a way to knock it down like throwing a red shell at Dry Bowser.

Imagine 12 months from now…

… when you write “the end” on the last page of your draft, sit back and think, “I finally did it. I told my story.”