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Worldbuilding for MasochistsAuthor: worldbuildingformasochists
A podcast by three fantasy authors who love to overcomplicate their writing lives and want to help you do the same. Language: en Genres: Arts, Books, Performing Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 168: It's Bigger on the Inside... of Book Two, ft. APARNA VERMA
Episode 12
Wednesday, 19 November, 2025
So: Whether it was always intended and contracted, you told the “standalone with series potential” fib, or the public has simply demanded more, you now have to write a second book in the same world. How do you expand the world while maintaining the throughline of your story? And how might you know when you've over-extended? Guest Aparna Verma joins us to discuss the perils and potential of broadening those horizons. One of the most frequent ways to grow the world you show the readers is to literally expand the setting and follow characters to new locations, encountering new cultures, learning new things. But that's not the only option: Your characters also might be staying in the same place but uncovering secret societies, joining a new economic class, discovering magic, or otherwise encountering an aspect of their own environment they didn't previously have familiarity with. And either way, how can growing the world also spur character growth? [Transcript TK] Our Guest: Aparna Verma was born in Rajasthan, India, and grew up in the United States. She graduated from Stanford University with Honors in the Arts and a B.A. in English. In 2021, she self-published The Boy with Fire, which quickly went viral on TikTok, and was later republished by Orbit Books as The Phoenix King in 2023. When she is not writing, Aparna likes to lift heavy (arm days are her favorite), dance to Bollywood music, and find cozy cafes to read myths from ancient worlds. You can connect with Aparna on TikTok at @aparnawrites, and Twitter and Instagram at @spirited_gal.
