In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Clare Sager about building different worlds in our fiction.   Clare Sager is an office lackey turned full-time author. With both a bachelor of arts and a masters of arts in Creative Writing, she is now living her life-long dream of writing fantasy adventure stories of swoon-worthy, troublesome men and strong, sassy women who can handle them.   When she's not writing or master planning her next book, she's an editor, outline coach, and formatter. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, sewing, and lifting weights at the gym (she’s as shocked by the latter as anyone). Her stationery addiction knows no bounds, with a washi tape and fountain pen collection to rival that of a stationery store. She loves to spend time chilling out with her planner plotting world domination. She likes cats, coffee, and cocktails, and speaks fluent sarcasm.    What we talked about Why Clare felt compelled to build a different world for her fictional characters How consistently asking yourself “What if…?” will help you build better fictional worlds How to use a coin (or dice!) to populate your world with a wide set of characters  That diverse characters are just like any other characters The importance of being curious about the world and remaining open to what there is to learn (Re)sources mentioned on the show All about Clare: https://claresager.com  Clare’s books: https://claresager.com/books  Clare’s author services: https://services.claresager.com  The Decolonial Atlas: https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com Writing the Other Tumblr: https://writingtheother.tumblr.com Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice: https://annleckie.com  Kalynn Bayron, author of Cinderella Is Dead: https://www.kalynnbayron.com/books Jessica M. Butler, author of Sweet Pear: https://www.jessicambutler.com  May Sage: https://www.goodreads.com/maysage  Bethany’s Editing Your Novel's Structure: Tips, Tricks, and Checklists to Get You From Start to Finish: https://theartandscienceofwords.com/new-book-for-authors/   This week’s episode page can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2022/03/17/s2e9   Subscribe to our newsletter here and get out Doing Diversity in Writing Toolkit, including our Calm the F*ck Down Checklist and Cultural Appropriation Checklist: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8    As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires.    Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5   Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36    Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art, on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting, and on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtHfIaeylIgbAWVy3E66lmw