Episode 94: Natural and Supernatural Disasters

Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes... unstable wormholes, hellmouths, murder hornets, sharknados... When you're writing speculative fiction, the scope of disaster can be wild!

Do the local wizards cause occasional hails of turnips? Does Gondor have a tornado warning system? After a thousand-year flood, does magical FEMA show up to rebuild? Decisions about how your society plans for and reacts to disaster can imply a lot else about their infrastructure, government, religion, and other societal constructs.

Then there's the question of: Is the disaster the backbone of your plot, or just one plot element among many? That decision may shape the tone and even the subgenre of a book!

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Transcript for Episode 94 (tk)