Episode 177: Getting in Tune: Music in Worldbuilding, ft. MIA TSAI

Music is a cultural universal, something human societies have been producing since our very earliest days – So how do we use it when writing novels? How do we put the audial experience onto the page? Guest Mia Tsai joins us to discuss how to go beyond just slapping a bunch of lyrics down on the page! Music is about emotion and communication, so part of the craft of writing it into a book will mean exploring how your characters feel about it, as well as the mental and physical responses they have when they hear a certain tune. Music can be the tool of the propagandist or the rebel; it can be sacred or profane; small and homey or huge and orchestral. Both its structure and its role in society can vary wildly by time and place, and interesting worldbuilding with music will benefit from looking outside the confines that Western imperialism built around the art. We also talk about building soundtracks for our novels! [Transcript for Episode 177] Our Guest: Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. Her debut novel, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy titled Bitter Medicine, was published by Tachyon Publications on March 14, 2023. Her sophomore novel, an adult science fantasy titled The Memory Hunters, will be published on July 29, 2025, by Erewhon Books. Mia lives in Atlanta with her family, and, when not writing, is a hype woman for her orchids and a born-again Knicks fan. Her favorite things include music of all kinds and taking long trips with nothing but the open road and a saucy rhythm section. She has been quoted in Glamour and Washington Post's The Lily and, in her other lives, is a professional editor, photographer, and musician. Mia is on BlueSky at @itsamia.bsky.social and Instagram at @mia.tsai.books. She is represented by Anne Tibbets at Donald Maass Literary Agency. Please contact Anne for all business inquiries.

One of the things that can make a novel memorable is its atmosphere. So what do we mean, exactly, when we use that word, and how do we craft it? Guest H. M. Long joins us to attempt to answer that question amid the nebulous, numinous clouds of vibes and aesthetics. Not every author's going to interpret it the same way, but it's a bit about the mood, a bit about how the setting creates the mood, a bit about the characters' sensory experiences and their memories of those sensory experiences, a bit about what details you use to pull the reader into the character's experience of the world. It's a bit about weather, a bit about lighting, a bit about the score and soundtrack you're trying to put in a reader's head. Writers can use common shorthands, familiar references, quick sketches of setting, vocabulary choices, and other tools to hack their reader's minds and invoke a particular energy and vibrance for their story. [Transcript for Episode 176] Our Guest:  Hannah (H. M.) Long is a Canadian fantasy author. She inhabits a ramshackle cabin in Ontario with her family, but she can often be spotted snooping about museums or wandering the Alps. ​Hannah writes for Titan Books and is the author of the Four Pillars Quartet (Hall of Smoke), the Winter Sea Trilogy (Dark Water Daughter), the Entwined Duology (2026), Ashmarked (2027), and more. ​For the latest updates, follow Hannah on TikTok (@hmlongbooks), Instagram (@hmlongbooks), and Twitter (@hannah_m_long). 

From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the characters in your world to tell. So where do folktales come from, and how can we use them in our worldbuilding? Amélie Wen Zhao joins us to investigate the roots of folkloric monsters and their narrative potential! We talk about the sometimes blurry lines between folklore, mythology, fables, and legends. Sometimes, that distinction is about the scale of the story: are we talking about the creation of the world, or are we talking about the little creature that lives in your oven to keep your bread warm? Folklore is often more personal as well as more localized, and thus the stories are often very culturally-specific -- and that means they can communicate a lot about your characters' beliefs and values, representative of the world they've grown up in! You also get to decide... are these creatures only stories within your world, or are they really real there? [Transcript for Episode 175] Our Guest: Amélie Wen Zhao was born in Paris and grew up in Beijing, where she spent her days reenacting tales of legendary heroes, ancient kingdoms, and lost magic at her grandmother’s courtyard house. She attended college in the United States and now resides in New York City, working as a finance professional by day and fantasy author by night. In her spare time, she loves to travel with her family in China, where she’s determined to walk the rivers and lakes of old just like the practitioners in her novels do.

We often start the worldbuilding process with a lot of exciting ideas, shiny notions, and fun experiments -- so then, how do you make it make sense? Even in an invented world with its own history, geography, magic, and other special conditions, we generally still want it to feel like the society could plausibly have developed as we're presenting it. Guest Andrea Stewart joins us to discuss how we can create systems of power and culture-making in invented worlds that still reflect how real people really behave. [Transcript for Episode 174] Our Guest: Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Stewart is a Sunday Times Bestselling author whose short stories can be found in such venues as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Galaxy’s Edge, and others. Her debut epic fantasy novel, The Bone Shard Daughter, was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy and Debut Novel, and the BookNest Award for Best Traditionally Published Novel. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes

There comes a time in the life of every author when they have to do that truly terrifying thing: Talk about their book. In this special crossover episode with SFF Addicts, we talk about talking about writing! A lot of that involves the beast we all face these days: social media. Branding, marketing, algorithms, trends, parasocial relationships -- It's a lot. How much do you really need to do, and how can you set boundaries around your public and private selves? But there are also times and places an author may need to talk about their book beyond social media and marketing. Sometimes, you have to do it in (gasp!) real life! What techniques can we use to get more comfortable with public speaking? What's good etiquette for being on a panel at a convention or conference? How can you engage with readers one-on-one in a way that makes them see you as an interesting person, not just a book-shilling Gollum incapable of taking about anything except your precious? We share our experiences and offer our perspectives on navigating those situations! Our Guests: SFF Addicts is a weekly sci-fi, fantasy and writing craft podcast co-hosted by Adrian M. Gibson and fellow authors M.J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly, bringing you interviews and writing masterclasses with your favorite SFF authors. Past guests include: George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb, James S.A. Corey, Scott Lynch, Christopher Paolini, Martha Wells, Joe Abercrombie, John Scalzi, Chuck Wendig, Fonda Lee, Mark Lawrence, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Nicholas Eames, Michael J. Sullivan, Andrea Stewart, Travis Baldree, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gareth L. Powell, Hugh Howey, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rebecca Roanhorse, Chelsea Abdullah, RJ Barker and many more. The full episode archive can be found here. You can also subscribe to the FanFiAddict YouTube channel, where all episodes are available in full video. The Book of Spores anthology is a mind-altering, multi-genre anthology, featuring 16 strange stories by authors from the FanFiAddict book blog and SFF Addicts Podcast. Kickstarter | Pre-order here   Adrian M. Gibson is an award-winning Canadian SFF author, podcaster and illustrator (as well as occasional tattoo artist). He was born in Ontario, Canada, but grew up in British Columbia. He studied English Literature and has worked in music journalism, restaurants, tattoo studios, clothing stores and a bevy of odd jobs. In 2021, he created the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow authors M. J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly. The three host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses. Adrian has a not-so-casual obsession with mushrooms, relishes in the vastness of nature and is a self-proclaimed “child of the mountains.” He enjoys cooking, music, video games, politics and science, as well as reading fiction and comic books. He lives in Quito, Ecuador with his wife and sons. His debut novel is MUSHROOM BLUES, which is available to purchase here. www.adrianmgibson.com @adrianmgibson on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Threads M.J. Kuhn is a fantasy writer by night and a mild-mannered marketer and business owner by day. She is the internationally bestselling author of Among Thieves  and Thick as Thieves, cohost of SFF Addicts podcast, and lives in the metro Detroit area with her very spoiled cats, Evie and Thorin Oakenshield. www.mjkuhn.com @mjkuhnbooks on Instagram and TikTok   Greta Kelly is the author of the critically acclaimed adult fantasy novels THE FROZEN CROWN, THE SEVENTH QUEEN and THE QUEEN OF DAYS (Voyager) and the co-host of SFF ADDICTS Podcast. Her writing has also appeared in Nerdist, i09 and Writer’s Digest.  She currently lives in the U.S. with her husband EJ, and daughters Lorelei and Nadia who are doing their level-best to take over the world.  You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok @gretakkelly. www.gretakkelly.com

It's our first episode of 2026, and that means it's time for another listener Q&A episode! From nitty-gritty craft details like writing good dialogue and measuring your pacing to broader concepts like "How do you make worldbuilding fun again after burnout?", we answer your burning questions about the work we do and how we do it. And as a sidebar: If you want to be eligible to nominate for the 2026 Hugo Awards -- perhaps, say, for your favorite worldbuilding podcast? -- you need to secure a WSFS Membership by January 31st! [Transcript for Episode 172]

As we turn the pages of our own calendars, let's think about how the cultures we build in fantasy and science fiction mark the passage of time! What shapes the patterns of life for your characters? Do they judge years and seasons and months by the movement of celestial bodies, by agricultural phenomena, by winds and rains and storms, or by something else? The lunisolar calendar is a frantic hodgepodge in our own world; how does that change if your planet has multiple moons? Does your month divide into smaller units like weeks, or not? Different cultures will conceive of all these things in varying ways, and attention to detail with your calendar can communicate a lot about your world to your reader. The calendar and timekeeping can touch on everything from religion to labor practices to human biology. Your culture's choices might reflect their priorities and values -- or, perhaps, what those priorities and values were at some time in the past when the calendar was set. And then, of course, you might also have to name all those months and days of the weeks! So how do you handle that? Our own world has been wildly inconsistent with the choices, which means so can your invented societies!  We also look back at our writing years of 2025 and our intentions and hopes for 2026! [Transcript for Episode 171] PS: Find your birthday in the French Revolutionary calendar!

We know we’re worldbuilding masochists – But when is too much really, really too much? Some of us try to do all our worldbuilding at the start of a project -- and some of us do it as we go. However you work, where's the line between worldbuilding that's helpful to you and worldbuilding that's become a way to evade actually writing? And, does that line change depending on what your own intentions and goals are? Often, it's important to consider the difference between the worldbuilding you need as an author in order to get the full scope of a project straight inside your own head and the worldbuilding that a reader needs in order to understand the story. If worldbuilding is an iceberg, just how much do you let float up to the surface, and how do you shape the worldbuilding that you put on the page? Worldbuilding often works best when it can pull double-duty, also serving to reveal character, communicate stakes, and set the atmospheric mood. We also talk about what you can do with the worldbuilding that doesn't make it on the page! Tolkien had his appendices, but writers today have all sorts of options: You can include them as bonuses for pre-order campaigns, put them on a blog or a Patreon, or, I dunno, make a podcast about them! [Transcript for Episode 170]

Few things are more glorious than opening up a fantasy book and seeing a gorgeously detailed map right up front. So what goes into making that masterpiece for you to feast your eyes and imagination upon? In this episode, we discuss our love of maps, some of the ways we make maps, and the relationship between the map and the text. We also share some of our favorite maps, as well as exploring some non-traditional types that we'd love to see more of in fantasy and sci-fi novels. Creating a solid map for your world is something that might seem basic at first, but doing it well involves a lot of different skills and knowledge bases: everything from geology and plate tectonics to linguistics and political science. A map really can be a microcosm of your world and its story. How are you going to create yours? And, as promised, here are some of the links we said we'd drop in the show notes! Marshall's Maradaine Maps Inkarnate (a classic fantasy map generator) Watabou City Generator (make a town or city) Azgaar (spin up some worlds!) Tectonic Explorer (lets you play with crashing continents into each other) The enormous maps of our co-created world Time lapse video of border changes in Western Europe (ie, smash the HRE with a hammer) The Holy Roman Empire Germany in the 18th century Cross-section of life in a medieval castle Official Star Wars galaxy map Less official but more granular Star Wars galaxy map The medieval-style Star Wars map Star Trek galaxy map [Transcript for Episode 169]

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.