"This is hard to say..."

Liz's heart stopped when she read those words from her editor.

"You book needs a lot of work. It isn't publishable."

Liz's heartbreak--and night of eating comfort cheese while scrolling the internet--led her to learn the greatest secret of her writing journey.

If you’re like Liz, there are probably moments when you want to give up on your novel.

You’ve revised, deleted, and written the same thing in 12 different ways… and you just can’t make it work.

So, maybe you turn away from your book because the constant struggle is too much.

Maybe you look away for so long that your story, world, and characters sink far 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.

The truth is: Writing a sci-fi, romantasy, or fantasy novel is 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.

The secret of most successful authors.

When Liz’s novel needed work—a lot of work—she read everything she could find about the craft.

A lot of the information was contradictory and just plain confusing. But in reading advice from other writers, she realized a secret that would change everything for her.

It was this:

Successful authors have a system.
 
It might be complex with many moving parts that need an entire wiki to keep track of, like George R.R. Martin.

It might be simple like V.E. Schwab’s idea that every character has a motto.
 
It might even be largely subconscious like the indie writers who pound out a book a month.

Some authors organize every plot point before writing and some just write and figure out the details in editing.
 
The system differs depending on each writer’s process and the way their brains are wired.

But everyone has a system: The steps they follow, to shape the chaos of their ideas into a well-structured page-turner.

The reason Liz’s novel didn’t work was that she had been stumbling blindly in the dark like a tomb raider without a torch—and it showed with generic worldbuilding, flat characters, and a poorly paced plot.

She needed a framework for turning the amazing ideas in her head into an amazing story on the page.

Not just any system, but one that worked with her current process and the way she preferred to write.

How to find your own writing system.

Each author’s system is uniquely their own, patched together from their experiences and the knowledge they’ve learned from other writers.
 
You take a bit from this author, a bit from that one, and Frankenstein it into a system that enables you to turn your ideas into stories and stories into published novels.

Sometimes the system changes as you learn new things. Sometimes it changes as you face different demands from life.

In the end, the system is your own.

But if you don’t know where to start to build your own writing process or you need something RIGHT NOW to fix a draft that doesn’t work …

There is a shortcut.

A way to speed run finding your own writing system. A way to fix problems in your novel right now before you even have your own system nailed down.

And that’s to borrow a system from someone else and use it to figure out your own.

A system based on 25 years of testing every piece of writing advice out there.
 
The same system used by 15,000 other fantasy and sci-fi writers over the past four years to improve their novels and build their own unique writing systems.

Sounds good and all, but does this system ACTUALLY work?

No piece of writing advice will work for everyone. That’s just how creativity and our minds operate.

But the system we’re going to show you will help you with two things:

1) Practical, step-by-step actions you can take right now to fix problems in your novel’s worldbuilding, characters, and plot.

It’s a sort of first aid or emergency care for your story.

You’ll find that parts of this system dovetail perfectly with your own creative process and you'll add them to your writer's toolbox.

You might ditch some of what we show you, which brings us to the second part.

2) This is a starting point to create a unique writing process that works for you.

Based on 25 years of research, writing, and testing, our system gives you the best of worldbuilding, character, and plotting intel.

And because it’s worksheet-based, you can simply take what you need and ignore the rest.
 
If you’re a planner, answer the worksheets upfront. If you’re a pantser, answer them as needed or during revision to fix any issues in your book.

Basically, it’s a source for developing your own system, complete with different worldbuilding methods and ways to tie rough ideas together into a story.

Don't believe us? Check out what writers just like you have to say about Scribe Forge.

Introducing the writer's block-busting Chaos to Clarity: The Essential Fantasy & Sci-fi Writer's Bundle

Five writing guides and workbooks that give you the tools and knowledge to turn your ideas into a finished fantasy or sci-fi novel.

Available in PDF, Word, Scrivener, OneNote, and print formats.

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.

Chaos to Clarity: The Essential Fantasy & Sci-fi Writer's Bundle is a streamlined system for writing the book of your dreams and developing your own writing process.

Write an epic novel with unforgettable characters and immersive worlds that readers will return to again and again.

You’ll do it with help from five writing tools, including our bestselling worldbuilding guide and a brand-new method for organizing scores of ideas. 

Available in PDF, Word, Scrivener, OneNote, and print formats.

Buy now or scroll down to see what’s included:

Tool #1: The Pando Tree Method to Turn Ideas into Story

FINALLY turn your thought dumps into a coherent world, story, or character RIGHT THIS MINUTE even if you’re overwhelmed and have no idea where to start.

Like us, do you begin a project with a bunch of vaguely related ideas that you struggle to wade through like a hobbit through a snowbank?
 
Learn how to organize your thoughts into a manageable structure that provides you with crystal-clear guidance to develop your unique world, characters, and plot. Here’s how:
 
⭐ Discover a surprisingly simple method for combining dozens of brilliant but unrelated ideas to build a world, character, and plot while avoiding all the dead ends that only waste your time.
 
⭐ Learn how to integrate all the elements you’ve dreamed up into one clear structure without all the plot bunnies taking over and running wild.
 
⭐ Use all your varied interests to create a world, characters and plot that are new, different, and uniquely yours while still being coherent and logical.

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

Tool #5 is a free bonus: The Book Compass Tracker

Organize your novel with a comprehensive and fully customizable system to help you structure your story in a way that will delight your readers.

Everything you're going to learn about character arcs and story structure will make your story better than ever before. But it can be hard to remember and keep track of SO MANY moving parts (it's like a steampunk robot in here).

The Book Compass helps you track every scene, every character development, and every plot twist so you remember what to include and where.

(It also works for pantsers! After you write a chapter, add it to the tracker and keep on pantsing. Once your draft is done, you'll have a record of every plot point and character change to make editing easier.)

Here's how it keeps your story on track:

📖 Hit all the right story beats at the right time for a book that’s more binge-worthy than the last season of Stranger Things.

📖 Record the arcs for every main character all in one place to make sure their development is consistent and logical.

📖 Know exactly what happens in every scene so you don’t end up with a dozen gigantic plot holes.

📖 Use it right away with no learning curve or time wasted figuring out how to work a new program. If you've ever made a spreadsheet, you can use the tracker (and without the mind-boggling equations!)

FAQ

Want a print version? Click here.