16th January, 8:32 pm
Witness’ Room

*??? fades in, writing or reading by the desk thing*

Ryunosuke: …

The door swung open when I just knocked on it… Was it not even closed?

Um, hello?

???: …! *appears in front w/ book/paper*

Yes? How can I help you?

Ryunosuke: … Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?

???: … Excuse me?

Ryunosuke: Ah, well, there was a murder at SWC University recently, you see, and apparently you were there on the day of the crime…?

I'm the attorney representing the defendant, so I was wondering if I could ask you some questions…

???: Ah yes, of course! So the Yard's managed to catch a culprit, then?

Ryunosuke: Yes, even on the little evidence they have to actually back up their accusations…

???: And here I am thinking that they'd employed the services of some famous detective. Did he not end up being any good?

Ryunosuke: Well… *suddenly spots Sholmes from where he has just appeared in the background, reading amongst the paper*

…!

???: *turns around and also looks* …!

Now who in the blazes are you, and why is everyone suddenly traipsing into my flat?!

*Sholmes turns his head and appears on the right side of the text box and ??? moves to the left*

Sholmes: Ah, greetings! A pleasant surprise to see you here, Mr… Let me see…

Ryunosuke: Naruhodo

Sholmes: Ah ha ha ha ha! My apologies, sitting here for three hours stuffing all of this enlightening information into my head has stifled my memory.

???: THREE HOURS—!

Sholmes: The door was open.

???: … Ah.

Still, the point remains. What are you doing here?

Sholmes: Well, I should think that would be quite clear!

???: Really.

Ryunosuke: … You had the same idea, didn't you? We're both here investigating the SWCU murder.

Sholmes: Exactly, my dear fellow! I'm glad to see your deductive skills developing so quickly.

Ryunosuke: … And yet somehow, yours seem to still be languishing at the start line…

Sholmes: Seeing as how we are both currently pursuing the same thread, what say you to working together?

???: Whatever you decide, could you perhaps accelerate my role in it? Forgive me, but as you can see I am quite busy.

Sholmes: Yes… Busy planning your next MURDER!

???: … I'm sorry, what?

Sholmes: Your scheme is hidden well within the engrossing tomes amongst your piles of paper: but I am not fooled!

You are planning to deliver your next batch of POISONED COOKIES!

???: … I most certainly am not. I didn't even write those books!

Ryunosuke: … I apologize for my compatriot. He can be… very far off at times.

Sholmes: BEWARE THE HINTS OF ARSON HELD BETWIXT THOSE TREACHEROUS PAGES—

Ryunosuke: Anyway, why were you at the university that day? It wasn't and still isn't in session.

???: Oh, I was there because they had some job openings.

Ryunosuke: Job openings?

???: Yep. The university's currently hiring professors, so I went and threw my hat into the ring. Figured it was worth a shot.

Ryunosuke: … Ah, I see… So you were applying to become a professor at Scratch Writing Camp University, then?

???: That's it.

Sholmes: Do you have any hope of being selected?

???: … I'm sorry?

Ryunosuke: Sholmes, how is that even related?

Sholmes: Well I was just wondering how good you are at interviews, since we seem to be conducting one now and you haven't even introduced yourself.

We have already been talking for some time now, after all. If you're going to be a witness, we do need to know who you are, you understand.

???: …!

You're right. How remiss of me.

My apologies—the name’s Sun. They/them, if you’d be so kind. I’m just your average high school student sir, caught up in academics and music and totally not staying up way too late to work and read fanfic. No sir, not me.

Nope, I do not indulge in such pastimes as watching Critical Role or philosophy or film analysis or listening obsessively to the Oh Hellos nope not me at all ahahaha—

I also do not at all ramble in caps lock whenever I get too excited or use keyboard smashes way too often NOPE NOT ME—

*cough* But that aside, I am here in Britain to learn and hopefully teach some of your literary arts, as well as to marvel at all of the great writers who study and instruct at SWC university.

Seeing as I have come from the westernmost part of the North American continent, I must admit that adjusting to your time here in Britain has been difficult— My time zone is 8 hours behind yours, after all.

I do think I will manage, though.

Ryunosuke: …You’re new to Britain, then?

Sun: Not really. I’ve visited multiple times to attend SWC, and this time I've traveled early with the goal of getting some work there.

Ryunosuke: So you’ve been to SWC before?

Sun: I have attended SWC before, yes. The November 2020 semester was my first time, and I’ve been coming back ever since.

… That marks this semester as my fifth? If my math is not incorrect, at least.

Last semester, November 2021, springs to mind as the first time I was a teaching assistant. It was something I enjoyed quite a lot and have slightly more time for now, hence my hope of becoming a professor.

Sholmes: Ah, so you applied out of a love for teaching! Do you have anything in mind for what you might want to teach if you got the job?

Ryunosuke: …!

Sun: …

Mystery, Hi-fi, and Fairy Tales are the classes that I have an explicit theme in mind for, but in truth I don’t really mind what class I get. I tend to think of themes based on the class and not the other way around.

I would like to avoid Horror, Fanfic and Dystopian if possible, but if need be I would be willing to fill any gaps in genres unwanted.

Sholmes: I see! And surely you must have some skill as a writer, having attended SWC for some time and the confidence to take a chance at the professorship?

Sun: *blushes* …

Ryunosuke: … Well, if they had any questions about the sudden change in topic, they don't now.

Sun: Seeing as I have adjusted my speech to more befit that of this game and era, I rather think this is in and of itself an example of my writing, no?

… Though I do admit that I am not very proud of my prose in this… verbose manner of speaking.

…!

I do have a short piece here though, would you like me to read—

Ryunosuke: Oh no, don’t worry about it! I’m sure our dialogue is enough.

Sun: … Ah. Well, I suppose I could give a description of my piece, at the very least?

Ryunosuke: … Perhaps later.

Sun: …

Alright.

Ryunosuke: Thank god! Who knows how long we would’ve been standing here otherwise?

*Ryunosuke notices Sholmes looking pointedly at him, then follows his gaze to the interviewee*

Ryunosuke: …!

… And, u—um, being a professor must surely be a very time-consuming job! How much of your time will you really be able to dedicate to such a position?

… Note to self: Need to get better at asking smooth questions.

Sun: …

If I am being completely honest, probably quite a bit. I don’t currently partake much in British life, but I have the ability to, and SWC is a very good motivator.

For school days, I can be present for at least two hours. On weekends and during Spring Break, at least three. I don’t have that many extracurriculars and I don’t think homework will be a big problem, so it is a very likely possibility that I will be present for much more than that.

Sholmes: So you have plenty of free time at the moment?

Sun: Too much, probably. I have other things I could be doing, but… *shrugs*

SWC appeals to me more than the rest.

Ryunosuke: SWC sounds interesting and all, but running a class there sounds like a lot of work and responsibility for a small writing session at an unknown, niche university. Why is SWC “more important than the rest”?

…Why do you want to be a professor, anyway?

Sun: …Well.

First of all, SWC has long been a catalyst to me— and to others, I hope— for learning and growth. As such, whenever SWC comes around I always get excited not just for the writing but the improvement that will come with it.

Learning has always been something I’ve greatly enjoyed, and to be able to foster growth in others while continuing to learn myself (in the case of my acceptance, of responsibility, being a role model, managing a team, and so on) would be the ultimate culmination of a ‘learning experience’.

Additionally, over the years the university has given me a world I never thought I could’ve been a part of, and the close-knit community that comes with that. The inside jokes, the rivalries, the absurdly creative class themes and the camaraderie and writers…

…

SWC has come to mean a lot to me and I’d really like to give back as much as I can. To make it so that those after me can enjoy it just as much as I do.

Ryunosuke: …

I see.

Sun: *slightly emotional* And to think that now, the spotlight has been thrust upon us not because of our community or our art, but because someone’s died…

Ryunosuke: …

Sholmes: …

…Sun, why do you think you would be a good teacher? I assume there are plenty of writers out there dedicated enough to have also tried their luck, so why do you think that you, out of the dozens of others, would be a good choice?

Sun: … *evidently still distraught*

Sholmes: … Surely you thought about that before you applied?

Sun: *pulling themselves together* …My last semester enlightened me as to what exactly is required of a professor, and now as I’m thinking about it I do believe I have a few qualities that would be helpful.

Ryunosuke: … They’re only thinking about this now?

Sun: …I am going to give them in list form though because if I expound on them my brain will sound the bragging alert and shut down—

I am:

- Good at resolving conflict.
- Someone who is easy to approach, I think? Constantly yelling relatable writer things means that I’m not too intimidating… I hope…
- Organized and logical, making to-do lists, schedules and residing as the sole voice of reason in the chaotic mess that is my friend group.
- Constantly checking on everything! On campers and co-leaders, on the professor forum, on the class, on the word counts, etc. to stay up to date and make sure any rising problems are taken care of in a timely manner.

Sholmes: … Sun.

Sun: Yes…?

Sholmes: Do you have any idea what you’re getting into?

Sun: …What?

Sholmes: Are you prepared for what will be expected of you, and are you willing to rise up to the occasion and meet those expectations?

Sun: *inhales and sets their shoulders determinedly* From what I have seen and experienced from past semesters, yes. To both questions.

Sholmes: …

I was not just talking about your administrative responsibilities, sir Sun.

Sun: … I know, Mr. Sholmes.

Sholmes: Something is brewing at SWC University. You are prepared to face that?

Sun: …Yes. I am.

Sholmes: And you are willing to do so together with any students you receive.

Sun: …Yes.

Sholmes: What will you do to make their experience special, then?

Sun: Sorry?

Sholmes: Your students will be present while the University is caught up in an investigation; what will you do to ensure that they get invested in your class, in what SWC has to offer?

Sun: …Ah, so there is little I can provide in exact detail due to the uncertainty of finalized class assignments, but my general ideas go as such:

Encouraging and giving critiques myself whenever possible. If a writer is ever in need of advice or help or is just curious about how they could improve, I would like to try and create an environment where it's okay to ask those questions, however ‘dumb’ they may be.

I'll probably do something akin to setting up a project just for people to be able to ask questions and give each other advice.

As to the class itself, I'm thinking of attempting to create as immersive a theme and storyline as possible; something that connects to all of SWC and its parts, something for the campers to really sink their teeth into throughout the semester.

I've already got a metric ton of worldbuilding possibilities sitting around in my head and I admit they probably shouldn't be there in case I don't get accepted but TOO LATE NOW AHAHA—

Ryunosuke: …!

… Is that what I think it was?

Sholmes: … I see. Well, I do not think we have any more questions to ask, so we’ll be on our way now, if you don’t mind.

Sun: …You are not going to ask anything about the crime itself?

Sholmes: Well, you were in the classrooms and not actually in the vicinity when it occurred, so I do not think your testimony will have much bearing on the case. There are plenty of other witnesses whom we might consult as to the actual moment the crime took place.

Sun: … Ah. Well, good day, then; I must get back to my work.

*Sun goes back to their desk*

*Sholmes moves to the center of the screen.

Ryunosuke: …

“Not in the vicinity, so no bearing on the case.” …We both know that’s not true, Sholmes. What are you playing at?

Sholmes: …

Ryunosuke: And how were those questions in any way related to the murder we are investigating? It sounded like you were just conducting your run-of-the-mill job interview!

Sholmes: … I do not yet have all of the pieces, but I would be very careful indeed, Mr. Ryunosuke, with what you choose to denounce as ‘pointless’.

That interview has enlightened me to several interesting threads we could pursue, and I am at least certain that I can safely say that these are much murkier waters than we originally thought.

We must be careful, Mr. Ryunosuke. We cannot yet be sure of what dark creatures lie hidden beneath the surface.

Ryunosuke: Well that's definitely not cryptic at all…

And here I was thinking that we had nothing to go on.

What did Sholmes get from that that I didn't?

Just what exactly is going on?

Introduction:
Heya SWCers! I’m Sun, and this is my mini-workshop about the subsection of Fantasy known as Hidden Magical Worlds. These hidden worlds have been prevalent in literature for as long as writing has been around, and nearly every religion has some world of the dead or the gods hidden from mortals. The Chronicles of Narnia, Artemis Fowl, and Harry Potter are other notable book series with this type of world.

In this workshop we’re going to be discussing the specifics of creating a hidden magical world and the logistics of its worldbuilding. We’ll be doing this by addressing the questions:

How does the magical world stay hidden? How would they deal with discovery?

The “hidden” part

The factors concerning how your world stays hidden are perhaps the most important— after all, if the fact that your world is still secret makes no sense, the reader will lose all immersion in the story.

There are two main questions you need to be able to answer when considering how your world stays hidden:
How do they prevent the normal world from discovering them?
How do they prevent people from within the world revealing themselves?

There are five main elements you can use to answer these questions:

Power - If a story has a magic system, it’s very common for the world to be veiled by whatever power your society has at its disposal (illusions, messing with mind/memory, making certain places inaccessible, etc). This is a pretty easy and believable way to explain how your world hides, but beware— this explanation tends to be pretty vague, and if your story’s magic is intricate and complicated then a magic veil might come across as convenient and possibly even world-breaking. If you have written specific rules and limits for your magic, you must be able to explain your veil in the context of those rules.
Technology - If you do not have magic or your magic system is incapable of hiding your world, technology is another option. If your hidden society is sufficiently advanced, they can cloak themselves with complicated technology in a similar fashion to magic (force fields, illusions, etc).
Appearance - Sometimes, a society doesn’t need magic or technology! If they look, think, and act like the “normal society” (often humans, but not always) then they can just blend in; comparatively, a world of an entirely different species will be much more isolated and require more protection. It is important to note that if you have a secret society that blends in with your “normal” one, then they will be able to relate to each other psychologically as well— exchange of cultures will naturally happen as the two mingle in their day-to-day lives. (There will be more risk of the world being discovered, however, if the hidden people have the chance to build relationships outside of their world.) If you are writing a story with characters from both worlds meeting, this style might be best if you don’t want to deal with the complexity of your characters meeting a completely foreign society.
Geography - The geography of your world can be another way your world stays secret: the most believable way is if the society controls all of the travel in and out of the world (they control the only portal/train/teleporter, etc) and is in a location unreachable to begin with (deep underground, high in the sky, far underwater etc, though these tend to be a little less believable if your story’s set in the modern age with satellites and computers). Keep in mind that the more isolated your hidden world is from the normal world, the more that will impact the “hidden” people’s view of the normal world (us vs. them, racism, etc).
Disbelief - Disbelief is a powerful tool when it comes to keeping your world hidden. All of the above are important, but in the event that some information does make it out there, it is still unlikely that the normal world will believe it— after all, it is very easy to rationalize something if we want to ignore it. You don’t have to come up with a completely flawless way to keep your society secret, because it doesn’t really need it. As long as these reveals are inconsistent, rare, and unprovable enough, no one will bat an eye.

All of these factors can be mixed and matched to bolster the secrecy of your world.

Despite all of this preparation, your society should still be prepared in the case that something happens and someone does find out about the hidden world. Memory wipe? Forced assimilation? Murder?

There are three questions you need to be able to answer when thinking about possible ways your world could handle discovery:
1. How accessible is the method?
2. How quickly can it take effect?
3. What are its moral repercussions?

The more time-consuming, difficult, and morally questionable the method of limiting knowledge spreading is, the more likely it is that it will not be effective and the world is discovered.

And though these questions are guidelines you can use to build your world logically, it doesn’t mean that you have to answer them perfectly— often, that can even make for a boring story. You can build the hidden world so its ways of staying concealed are flawed, then write a story about the consequences of its discovery; or the society’s method of handling discovery is morally questionable, and your protagonist grapples with the inner struggle of going along. Have fun with it!

(Pretty much all of this workshop came from Timothy Hickson’s book On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume I. Go get it, it’s very clear and very helpful!)

sun this is awesome !! great workshop <3

{plus first lol}

Something was… here? Now there is: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGGfJ-gw58/H0UKiKgBoZ0fCjaXUUaKzA/edit?utm_content=DAGGfJ-gw58&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Hidden Magical Worlds: A SWC Mini-Workshop

Introduction:
Heya SWCers! I’m Sun, and this is my mini-workshop about the subsection of Fantasy known as Hidden Magical Worlds. These hidden worlds have been prevalent in literature for as long as writing has been around, and nearly every religion has some world of the dead or the gods hidden from mortals. The Chronicles of Narnia, Artemis Fowl, and Harry Potter are other notable book series with this type of world.

In this workshop we’re going to be discussing the specifics of creating a hidden magical world and the logistics of its worldbuilding. We’ll be doing this by addressing some questions:

1 - How does the magical world stay hidden? How would they deal with discovery?
2 - What is the society like within the world? Why do they stay hidden?
3 - How do geography and population affect the hidden world?
4 - How does the concealed world fit into the narrative?

And with these guidelines established, we’re gonna get started!

(Just a note that after Part 1, this workshop gets increasingly technical— if you finish Part 1 and think “I don’t think this is for me,” you don’t have to continue if you don’t want to! There is a summary at the end of this workshop with the main takeaways. As well as that, this workshop poses a lot of questions about your worldbuilding. Don’t feel pressured to answer all of them! It’s not required to have a good Hidden World, just a general idea can often be enough :>)

1 - The “hidden” part

The factors concerning how your world stays hidden are perhaps the most important— after all, if the fact that your world is still secret makes no sense, the reader will lose all immersion in the story.

There are two main questions you need to be able to answer when considering how your world stays hidden:
How do they prevent the normal world from discovering them?
How do they prevent people from within the world revealing themselves?

There are five main elements you can use to answer these questions:

Power - If a story has a magic system, it’s very common for the world to be veiled by whatever power your society has at its disposal (illusions, messing with mind/memory, making certain places inaccessible, etc). This is a pretty easy and believable way to explain how your world hides, but beware— this explanation tends to be pretty vague, and if your story’s magic is intricate and complicated then a magic veil might come across as convenient and possibly even world-breaking. If you have written specific rules and limits for your magic, you must be able to explain your veil in the context of those rules.
Technology - If you do not have magic or your magic system is incapable of hiding your world, technology is another option. If your hidden society is sufficiently advanced, they can cloak themselves with complicated technology in a similar fashion to magic (force fields, illusions, etc).
Appearance - Sometimes, a society doesn’t need magic or technology! If they look, think, and act like the “normal society” (often humans, but not always) then they can just blend in; comparatively, a world of an entirely different species will be much more isolated and require more protection. It is important to note that if you have a secret society that blends in with your “normal” one, then they will be able to relate to each other psychologically as well— exchange of cultures will naturally happen as the two mingle in their day-to-day lives. (There will be more risk of the world being discovered, however, if the hidden people have the chance to build relationships outside of their world.) If you are writing a story with characters from both worlds meeting, this style might be best if you don’t want to deal with the complexity of your characters meeting a completely foreign society.
Geography - The geography of your world can be another way your world stays secret: the most believable way is if the society controls all of the travel in and out of the world (they control the only portal/train/teleporter, etc) and is in a location unreachable to begin with (deep underground, high in the sky, far underwater etc, though these tend to be a little less believable if your story’s set in the modern age with satellites and computers). Keep in mind that the more isolated your hidden world is from the normal world, the more that will impact the “hidden” people’s view of the normal world (us vs. them, racism, etc).
Disbelief - Disbelief is a powerful tool when it comes to keeping your world hidden. All of the above are important, but in the event that some information does make it out there, it is still unlikely that the normal world will believe it— after all, it is very easy to rationalize something if we want to ignore it. You don’t have to come up with a completely flawless way to keep your society secret, because it doesn’t really need it. As long as these reveals are inconsistent, rare, and unprovable enough, no one will bat an eye.

All of these factors can be mixed and matched to bolster the secrecy of your world.

Despite all of this preparation, your society should still be prepared in the case that something happens and someone does find out about the hidden world. Memory wipe? Forced assimilation? Murder?

There are three questions you need to be able to answer when thinking about possible ways your world could handle discovery:
1. How accessible is the method?
2. How quickly can it take effect?
3. What are its moral repercussions?

The more time-consuming, difficult, and morally questionable the method of limiting knowledge spreading is, the more likely it is that it will not be effective and the world is discovered.

And though these questions are guidelines you can use to build your world logically, it doesn’t mean that you have to answer them perfectly— often, that can even make for a boring story. You can build the hidden world so its ways of staying concealed are flawed, then write a story about the consequences of its discovery; or the society’s method of handling discovery is morally questionable, and your protagonist grapples with the inner struggle of going along. Have fun with it!

2 - The society inside

As with any other society, a hidden world needs an economy, politics, industry, transportation, and all of that good stuff if it’s going to be convincingly functional. Balancing these with staying hidden is difficult but important in order to keep up the idea that this has been happening for a long time.

Economy - Resources have worth because of their scarcity. The less of something there is, the more it will cost. And in a secret society, many resources will be limited due to the inability to go out into the ‘normal world’. Animals like cows and pigs need land to live, so a world that’s underground or has little land will have difficulty with procuring meat, dairy, gelatin, etc. Getting those things might mean having to go out into the normal world markets, which brings risk; and risk raises prices further. The higher the prices, the more a certain resource will be a luxury reserved for the elite. Thinking about what resources your world would have access to is a good way to shape your society itself as well— a world with little meat might become vegetarian, a world without wood make their buildings out of stone. If the society has magical artifacts that would reveal the world if they got out into the ‘normal’ one, how would the government regulate their trade? With licenses, registries, background checks?
Politics - Governing a hidden world will heavily affect the decisions the government makes. What does secrecy mean the government needs to do? What governmental structure does this best? How related is the government to the ‘normal’ world? The size of the government will also stem from the society itself. A widespread fear of discovery would lead to a large centralized government with the power and the surveillance capabilities to protect its citizens. If your concealed world has multiple groups spread apart, unified regulation will be much more difficult; it might fall to the regional governments to watch over their citizens, with differences in governance between each. The most important thing to note, however, is the relationship between the hidden government and the normal government. If they interact with each other, then political/social trends of one world will affect the other. Democracy? Bureaucracy? Fxscism? They will leak from one world into the other. If the worlds are more separate, then the governmental styles will be as well.
Society - Secrecy will affect the society’s structures and values as well. If the veil protecting the world is kept up by a select few mages, will they be the elite? Are children bullied for associating with the outside world? The more separate the society is from the ‘normal’ world, the more distinct their languages, values, and social structures will evolve to be. It is sometimes helpful to find a “separation point” where the cultures of the two worlds will diverge. For example, if your hidden world story is set in our modern world, consider how a society that separated itself before the Renaissance and Enlightenment would not adopt the critical and open thinking of those eras.

The last thing to keep in mind is why your society is even hiding in the first place. Hiding from a whole other society is expensive, time-consuming, and labour-intensive. The most common reason is some form of “The world isn’t ready for us!”, either because they don’t want to get eradicated by the main society, or they think that their world is better off without them. Both of those motives seem reasonable at first glance, especially if time has allowed stereotypes about the normal world to fester; however, consider:

No matter the consequences, if there is something to be gained by exposing the world then someone will.

This is a common flaw with Hidden Magical World villains who are doing something other than revealing their world— if they could profit from exposing their magic/technology, or gain power/influence in social circles, why are they simply trying to kxll the king’s daughter?

Some people get around this by making the villain solely interested in the hidden society, or at least require that the villain control the secret society before they move on to the ‘normal’ one.

Additionally, there is an ethical aspect to why the world is hiding: is it even moral? Often, hidden societies have superior magic or technology that would benefit the normal world, and it is valid to ask why your society is hiding if revealing themselves would help everyone. If you are going to bring up this dilemma, be aware that this is a very heavy question, and that if you bring it up it will most likely dominate your story.

If you’d like to avoid this question, you can center your narrative around the secret world so that the characters don’t have to worry about the outside world at all. If you are going to include the normal society, you will have to grapple with how your characters deal with the moral questions. Would they reveal the world? Why/how would they justify keeping it secret?

3 - Why the world is the way it is

Geography and population will also heavily affect how your society has stayed concealed for so long. The more people in your secret society, the more people who could reveal the world and the harder to pinpoint where the leak came from (and therefore the lesser the consequences for revealing the world). In, say, an underground city with a smaller population where the few exits are heavily controlled by the government, it will be a lot harder for the secret to get out. Adding on to this, a geographically concentrated society makes secret-spilling people easier to track down and discourages interaction with the ‘normal world’. Large, spread out cities are difficult to pass off as having been around for a while.

4 - Using the hidden world in your story

The secret world trope is so common because we like the idea of a magical world parallel to our own, within reach for your average Joe Schmoe to find. When we read such narratives it is easy to place ourselves in the shoes of Joe Schmoe, and so immerse ourselves in the story and imagine we are the ones finding the magic. This need for wish fulfillment that many readers have has lead to many authors using three common points to quickly immerse their hungry readers:
1. The hidden world is set adjacent to our modern human world.
2. The protagonist is a ‘normal world’ human who discovers the hidden one.
3. Many things we recognize are given a second, magical meaning.
Using this triumvirate in tandem will help your reader immediately identify with the hero and their journey.

However, do not fall into the trap of assuming that you have to use these tropes to build a good Hidden Magical World narrative— your character can already be immersed in the hidden society, the world can be in a different time period, neither worlds have to resemble ours in any way… Be careful in writing a story that relies too much on the above points, because they have been used so often that your story will start to feel stale. Pick one or two or none at all; there are plenty of other creative ways to get your readers to be immersed in your story.

Conclusion:
Wow, that was a lot of information o.0

To summarize:

• Think about how your society hides: if it is logical within your magic system, if your level of technological advancement is appropriate, etc. The more your people can blend in with the ‘normal’, the less the veil is required but the higher the risk of discovery. The more geographically separate your hidden world, the more stereotypes and “us vs them” thoughts will prevail.
  
• Think about how your society would do damage control if information about them got out. Accessibility, difficulty, and morality will affect how much people will question it and how sustainable it will be. Disbelief is a powerful tool as well; the method doesn’t need to be entirely foolproof, just effective enough that information gets out too rarely for ‘normies’ to make anything of it.
  
• Secrecy will affect the resources and economy of the society, and the government may need to be more centralized or decentralized based on the needs of their people. The more separate from the outer world, the more politically, financially, and artistically distinct the culture will be. Think about when the worlds separated, and how that changed societal morals and structure.
  
• No matter the consequences of revealing the world, if there is something to be gained someone will do it. You can choose to tackle this question full-on or to minimize it, but dismissing it will seem ignorant. Tackling the question within the narrative will most likely dominate it.
  
• The smaller and more geographically tight-knit a world, the lower the discovery risk.
  
  

And with that, thank you for coming to my ted talk! I hope it was in some way helpful to you, and good luck with the weekly

(Pretty much all of this workshop came from Timothy Hickson’s book On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume I. Go get it, it’s very clear and very helpful!)

Introduction:
Writing emotion through character is perhaps the most classic way of “showing, not telling”. One can say “John was sad,” but the true meat of writing, how we get our audience to really care, is to describe the specific ways in which our characters display their emotions. Real people experience feelings differently, after all, so showing that our characters do too gives them more depth and something concrete for the audience to relate to. Does John become cold and distant when sad? Does he cry? Does he lash out at others? Emotions affect our body language, our thought process, and our relationships (among other things), and so these are all descriptive ways we can write emotions without explicitly naming them. Additionally, writing your characters’ emotions out as above is a great way to subtly build their personalities: who a character is as a person informs how they experience an emotion, and so how a character experiences an emotion in turn helps readers learn more about them.

If you’re feeling like this is a lot, don’t worry— we’re going to break it all down before we put it all together again. Onward!

Part 1 - Body Language:
People very rarely openly communicate everything through just their words, and that’s where body language comes in! When openly writing out your characters’ thoughts may be clunky, or impossible in the perspective (hello third person objective), body language pulls a lot of weight in conveying characters’ true thoughts and feelings.

Even subtle things can convey an emotion, if you are careful enough with your description: is your character holding themselves rigidly or loosely? Are their eyes glazed over or focused? Are they sitting tightly with their feet on the floor, or are their limbs splayed all over the couch? We could go on and on about what specific actions convey which emotions, but some general rules of thumb are that people with heightened emotions will move more suddenly and energetically, while more lethargic emotions will cause people to be more reserved (and possibly even curl in on themselves). For more specific actions, the chart here is a decent (but not comprehensive) resource.

Keep in mind your character’ intentions while writing too! If they’re in a tense situation and don’t want to give their emotions away, they’ll most likely stand/sit stiffly, or have an expression flash over their face for only a second before letting the mask settle in again. If a character is trying to act happy while not really feeling so, you could say “their smile didn’t quite reach their eyes” or “their gestures were strangely mechanical.”

Body language can sometimes come naturally to us, so even when you think there might not be much to describe I promise you there is. Even in a completely neutral conversation, how do you hold yourself when you’re talking to your friends versus your parents? In a formal setting, how do you stand compared to if you were at home? Add in emotions, and then you have something to work with.

Body language is also a great way to tag and add context to your dialogue! Because we can’t hear tone through the page, body language is the main way to imply tone without explicitly writing out “he said, annoyed.” Consider:

“He won’t listen to me.” Alex rolled her eyes.

versus

“He won’t listen to me!” Alex crossed her arms.

I would be careful to not overdo the body language too much, as with any description if you go on for too long the pacing of your story will get a bit rough. You don’t need to write out every minute detail, but choose the most important ones for what you want to convey: big actions (rolling eyes, a flourish of the arm) perhaps, but smaller actions as well (an eye twitch, tense hands) if you’d like to be more subtle, show that a character is trying to control their body language, or that your narrator is attentive.

Part 2 - Perspective:
Perspective is the framework through which our stories are told (unless, once again, you are writing in third person objective). How your character sees the world is the lens through which your audience sees it too— and perspective is affected by, you guessed it, emotion! As a result perspective is yet another way to convey a character’s current emotions to a reader. An event will come across differently to someone who is feeling pessimistic compared to someone who is feeling jubilant.

Take the following two examples from this site here, which outlines a useful technique to practice this idea; take a seemingly unrelated event and write out a small paragraph detailing your character’s thoughts about it. In this case, the author Marisa D. Keller used the event of leaves coming out in spring.

“The leaves came out today. It breaks my heart to look at them, all new, innocent, untouched by the ravages of entropy. I think about their future, chewed by insects, spotted by disease, stripped from their twigs by a careless child who hasn’t learned what death is.”

“Overnight, the leaves had come out, and even though {I} knew they had their own schedule, it was easy to pretend they had arrived to celebrate with {me}, green fireworks exploding all around, flags waving, tiny hands clapping, the birds all aflutter with the news, flying back and forth joyously to relay the story: {I} kissed {her}! {I} kissed {her}!”

It’s the same event, but interpreted very differently based on the characters’ mindsets.

It’s worth noting that this all still applies even in third/second person! Just because the pronoun changes doesn’t mean the thoughts do.

I lingered at the cliffside, eyeing the harsh white cut of the stone and the sea beyond it— water as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect mirror to the indescribable pit in my heart that had drawn me out here in the first place. Water and salt and clouds and the inescapable blue out and out and out, enough for me to drown in. I was already drowning in it, perhaps.

You lingered at the cliffside, eyeing the harsh white cut of the stone and the sea beyond it— water as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect mirror to the indescribable pit in your heart that had drawn you out here in the first place. Water and salt and clouds and the inescapable blue out and out and out, enough for you to drown in. You were already drowning in it, perhaps.

Lauren lingered at the cliffside, eyeing the harsh white cut of the stone and the sea beyond it— water as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect mirror to the indescribable pit in her heart that had drawn her out here in the first place. Water and salt and clouds and the inescapable blue out and out and out, enough for her to drown in. She was already drowning in it, perhaps.

Part 3 - Interpersonal Dynamics:
And now we get to perhaps the most complicated bit. When writing scenes with multiple characters you need to think about the above, but you also need to consider how previously established relationships will affect the emotions people feel and how they express them.

As noted briefly in the first section, how people are with their body language will depend on their relationship with the other characters in the interaction. Are they friends? Enemies? Does one know something the other doesn’t? As a result, are they relaxed and open with their body language, or tense and controlled? Are they trying to act and be deceptive, or natural and honest?

Relationships form the basis of how people view each other, and therefore how they might react to them differently: If a child gets into an argument with a parent, for example, they will express their anger differently than if they get into an argument with their younger sibling. Even when not writing direct interactions, our thoughts can be driven by our emotions surrounding different people: love is an obvious one, but it can be smaller things such as silent gratitude toward someone who helped us, or disappointment at an unfortunate event. These emotions can then, as with the perspective examples in the second section, influence our interpretation of later events. An angry character might see someone else’s actions as more hostile than they really are, and a bitter character might see a harmless offer as someone trying to screw them over. In this way, when two angry (or any other heightened emotion) characters interact, they’ll subconsciously egg each other on and the situation will escalate until something shocking— a hurtful enough phrase, an external event, a reality check from a third party— happens.

It’s important to keep in mind that emotions will not stay static when multiple characters are interacting! As new things are said and topics move, so will the characters’ feelings and judgements of each other. This means, as you might’ve guessed, that characters’ body language and perspective will change too. A dramatic betrayal, a confessed secret, or other such sudden gamechangers will cause body language and thoughts to pivot suddenly as the character processes and changes to reflect the new situation. Slower events with more buildup (a large public announcement or friendship that gradually drifts apart) will likewise result in slower changes in body language and viewpoint.

Part 4 - Bringing It All Together:
Once you’ve got all these pieces, all you need to do is put them together! Be sure to pay attention to flow and pacing: people rarely think in long paragraphs and then engage in quick conversation. They observe and think and move and talk at the same time, so try to write your characters as such.

Here’s an (admittedly long I am so sorry aaa) example from a history project I did recently:

It’s the same every night.

Olga starts putting out the kerosene lamps, ignores the layer of dust building up on the mantel, and at 9 pm sharp there’s the knock on her door. She takes the last lamp to the door and lets Lena in after peeking through the peephole. Her friend hands her some food. Olga scarfs it down. There’s an awkward silence while Lena waits, and then she always asks,

“Still not cooking?”

And Olga always replies, “The kitchen still feels too empty.”

The conversation usually branches from there,
Did you see the nice weather today
How was Christmas did you like the snow
Did you end up cleaning the house today
How are you doing
How are you doing
How are you doing
How are you doing
How are you doing
but it’s always tiring and Olga has been wondering for a while why Lena chooses to come by every night— there’s a distinct exhaustion to both of them that makes this routine seem pointless.

Maybe before Olga would have pointed this out the moment it came to mind, confronted Lena about it, but now the air is heavier and the house is colder and it takes her longer to think about these kinds of things.

It is the fifth day when Olga finally asks, finishing the pirozhok and hiding her grubby hands in the folds of her plakhta. Lena stares, but doesn’t say anything; they are both more comfortable in the silences.

“So why do you come by?” God, Olga hates how tired and desperate she sounds. She hates that she isn’t strong enough to say the implications out loud anymore.
Why do you care
Why do you bother
What’s the point

“…Well.” Lena takes time to digest the points, cocking her head to the side. Olga chooses to think that her friend does this because she can’t think of an answer, and not because she’s trying to put anything into words. “I suppose it’s ‘cause I care about you, Olya, and because no one else is going to any lengths to check on you. Not even yourself.”

A strangled choking noise adds to the underlying tension, and it takes Olga a second to realize that she made it. She shouldn’t have asked but she did she did she did she did and of course no one is checking on her, because Vasenka was always the one checking on her and
he
is
not
here.

“I can’t stay here,” Olga whispers, almost to herself. The smell of oil everywhere screams every time she almost decides to go outside, repeating the name of the lost man who helped bring it up from the ground. Vasenka worked the earth and so he’s still tied inexorably to it, and Olga doesn’t want to but she hates it hates it hates it.

“You don’t have to, Olya.” Lena is whispering too, now, and the breathy, quiet acknowledgement feels like a benediction. “You don’t have to if you don't want to.”

Olga shrinks inward, feeling the oily warmth of her hands against her heart, and rasps, “then where do I go?”

Activity: (Daily team, feel free to workshop/edit/entirely change the following prompt I made them up on the fly)
Write x words (I was thinking 300?) of an emotionally charged scene between at least two characters, including descriptions of body language and someone's perspective. Include one of the dialogue prompts below.

“You don’t understand, (name). I have to do this. Don’t you dare try and stop me.”

“No, I don’t hate you. Not yet.”

“… I don’t know what I would have done without you, you know? I haven’t had the chance to thank you yet.”

“I think I understand why, now. I’m sorry if you didn’t want me to know. But I do, and we’re going to talk about it whether you like it or not.”