Zainah Yousef

Mentorship is one of the most classic dynamics observed in fantasy stories and often plays a grand role in the shaping of a main character’s life, personality, and growth. Mentors serve as an important part of things like the hero’s quest and are often parental figures for the main characters as well. Creating a powerful […]

I’ve recently noticed a trend in fantasy, especially with the rise of romantasy, where most relationships that are focused on in books are typically romantic relationships. While I love great and well-written romance stories and subplots, and I’ve written plenty of posts here on my page about romance, I do also feel like there isn’t

World building is a very extensive process and the main goal of proper world building is to ensure that your world doesn’t just fit in your story, but also feels immersive and expansive. Geography is part of that process and it affects everything from the political landscapes to the economy to the daily lives of

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of books and stories out there (including my own) use things like flashbacks and dreams throughout the narrative. Especially when it comes to fantasy, these sorts of things help a lot in building the overall story. However, sometimes, flashbacks and dreams are misused or are overused in a way

Writing is a difficult task, not because it necessarily requires a lot of time, but because it requires thinking, planning, outlining, drafting, editing, etc… and there are lots of things that go into the writing process. However, you’ll often find that many seasoned writers are aware of this and don’t choose to go into writing

Writing books is not something that comes with a particularly standard format. Every writer will have their own preferences and their own way of doing things, and there are a lot of writers out there that will give you their own version of how things are done in their world. From writers who write their

As a writer, you’ve probably heard a lot about different options for world building and writing tools and planning out there. I personally have written a few articles where I talk about the best world building tools and the best tools for writers overall. There’s lots of software to choose from and there’s a lot

Fantasy is often associated with the concepts of magic and world building in fantasy often includes a lot of mention of magic and magic systems. However, there are some fantasy stories that like to combine the worlds of technology with magic (magi-tech). This could be due to a number of reasons, like writing a sci-fantasy

Tropes and trope-based marketing have been sort of buzzwords in the online writing community and on book communities as well. A lot of books have lately been marketed by showcasing what tropes are included within them, with a big one being enemies to lovers. There’s also tropes like grumpy x sunshine, found family, etc… These

As a writer, I often find myself wanting the next best thing for productivity. It’s easy to fall into the game of being unproductive when you’re working from home or even when you’re taking care of your writing hobby. Maybe you just have a desire to be really productive on that side-hustle that you’ve been