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Hey there! You're reading the Tuesday Telegrams, a bimonthly newsletter from author Naseem Jamnia. Every other Tuesday, I send out a Telegram that's either writing related or a personal essay. You're currently reading a writing-related Telegram, which is where I give updates on projects, behind-the-scenes look at my work, craft discussions, recent publications, event news, and other publishing things.

You can change whether to receive a writing-related, personal, or all Telegrams in the footer of this email. Go to "Update your profile" and choose from the drop-down menu.

After my last writing Telegram about being on sub, I received a flood of texts and emails—I'm really touched; thank you for reaching out. It's been difficult not knowing what's going to happen to my career, but I have to believe we'll sell these books one day, and hopefully soon.

I have two workshops on inclusive worldbuilding coming up, one this Saturday for Washoe County's The Bias Inside Us project (geared toward teens), the other a reprisal for a broader audience with the Heretics' Workshop. Since inclusive worldbuilding is something I pride myself in, I thought it would make sense to abridge it and turn it into a Telegram!

Let's start with the idea of worldbuilding to begin with, which is, literally, the process by which a world is built. Every genre uses worldbuilding to some extent, although the term tends to be used for speculative fiction. This makes sense—speculative fiction might take place in our world, but often, it takes place in a new one.

The crux of inclusive worldbuilding for fictional worlds is an examination of the assumptions you're importing into that world. Inclusive worldbuilding asks deliberate questions around various types of power (and usually either answers or implies an answer), which means it's a direct commentary on the oppression built into our own.

I'm going to give you a worldbuilding craft exercise before I give you brainstorming questions. Deconstructing another's craft is the single most useful skill you can learn as a writer, because once you see how something is built, you can use those same techniques (or see how to adjust those techniques).

Choose a recent speculative fiction text (preferably novella or novel-length to really dig in) and ask yourself these questions. I recommend writing out answers so you're forced to articulate your thoughts, and include quotes and/or page numbers to refer to as examples.

• What was the setting? Was it primary or secondary world? How was that setting built? What details did you get about that setting?
• What was the speculative element(s) used in the text? How was that element(s) integrated into the story? What was the relationship between those elements and the larger world?
• What was clear to you about the speculative element(s), and what was left in-between the lines? (For example, how much about the magic system or technology was explicitly told versus left to infer?)
• How did the author build those speculative elements? Did it come through character, setting, plot, conflict, etc? Can you deconstruct a specific example?
• What questions about the speculative element(s) and larger world did you have by the end of the text?

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your own worldbuilding, particularly in a secondary world. You can also ask these questions about the text you analyzed above to get a better sense of what is and isn't on the page.

• Magic: Who has access to magic? Is it taught or innate?How and when is magic used? Who is in the magical community (or communities), and who is considered outside? What are the relationships among these groups? How do various cultures interplay with magic?
• World history: What is the relationship between your area of focus and the larger area in which it's situated? What governs whatever your area unit (e.g. town, city, country) is, and who is involved in that governance? What is that area's relationship (if any) to empire, migration, disaster, national triumphs? Is there diaspora? Why?
• Marginalization/identity: Who is the dominant? Who is marginalized/othered? How does that otherness manifest? What is codified into laws, structural systems, and societal norms? What is viewed as invisible and might also be marginalized as a result (e.g. disability)? What might be a source of shame for an individual, and how does that relate to a cultural or structural power imbalance (if any)?
• Culture: What kind of environment is your area of focus, and how does that come out in the local culture? What does that culture value, and why? How do those values relate to the environment, history, etc? What is a typical family or community structure? What kind of faith(s) is practiced, and where did that faith(s) come from? How are those faiths treated in your focus area versus elsewhere?

Embedded in these are questions of relational power and whether they're structural, cultural, or both. Always ask yourself why you're including a detail and what the implications of that detail are. Thoughtless reproduction of real-world oppression makes for sloppy worldbuilding (versus deliberate reproduction—that's a choice, and you can own that choice).

What I've learned in my own work is that making inclusive choices without grounding in fundamentals can also make for sloppy worldbuilding. For example, I deliberately wanted to create a queernormative and trans-normative world in The Bruising of Qilwa. Doing so brings up questions of gender norms, familial structures, and succession for nobility, for example. The gender thing has actually been a sticking point, as I've been figuring out why there even is gender in a world where fluidity is the norm. (I've ultimately broken it down into femininity and masculinity and am placing traits/societal expectations into those, but I'm still playing around with it.) As someone who has traditionally done worldbuilding from the top-down, asking yourself bottom-up questions might save a lot of headaches later.

This is not exclusive by any means, but a place to get started. Can't wait to hear all about your worldbuilding explorations!

WIP Check: I've drafted the dark academia!

Much to my surprise, I finished drafting the dark academia! Much to my chagrin (although not my surprise), it came out much longer than I anticipated—32k without footnotes, 37.6k with. The good news is, since it's supposed to be funny (I hope...), I can slash things I'd otherwise have to expand and explore. My hope is to get the main text under 30k—if I can get it to 25k and under 30k with footnotes, I will be DELIGHTED. (Unfortunately, one of the longest sections is when they're doing research, which means I have to slash... all that research. 🥲)

I knew this would be a book about trauma, but I was surprised just how much of it is about trauma. Both of the main characters decided to return to Hyde Park despite their major undergrad-related baggage, but it's not until they're at the end of their PhDs (when the book takes place) that they realize just how little they've dealt with said baggage. I, too, have trauma around my alma mater, enough so that digging into those memories sends me into a panic attack. But writing this manuscript allowed me to lean into both what I loved about undergrad and to criticize it based on institutional history and policies, not just my own experiences.

Where I've Been/Upcoming Events

I mentioned above that I'm doing a worldbuilding workshop through Washoe County Libraries this Saturday, March 9, from 1-2pm. Please share with young writers—this is geared toward them!

I'll do a similar workshop for a wider audience via the Heretics' Workshop on Sunday, March 17, from 1-2:30pm.

I'm also going to be in the Bay Area (at Alibi Books in Vallejo) on March 23 to chat with Izzy Wasserstein about her debut novella, These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart! I had the pleasure of blurbing the novella, where I said:

And, finally, if you're in Washoe County, please sign our petition against bogus book challenges. Nevada authors, sign up for Authors Against Book Bans and wait to hear from me, our chapter leader, in the coming weeks!

At long last, Sword & Kettle's latest mini-chapbook series, New Cosmologies, is in our shop! Kay and I hand-bound 1100 books between us, and I designed the layouts for all of them! We're really proud of this collection and hope you'll check them out. I'll be working on ebooks soon!

Your biweekly Palestine check: Serviceman Aaron Bushnell did a radical act of solidarity and self-immolated, which has been used to protest brutality around the world for decades. I find the words in his video haunting and so important: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal."

And he was right. Over 100 people were killed and 700 people injured in Gaza when Israeli soldiers attacked people trying to get food in what's being called the Flour Massacre. UNRWA can still use our support, especially given how the US has suspended their funding despite no evidence that any of its members are part of Hamas (which was what Israel has alleged and, as recent as yesterday, doubled-down on by obtaining "confessions" under torture).

From author Daniel Jose Older:

• ​Guante’s resource for artists who want to speak out on Palestine but aren’t sure how​
• ​A moving open letter from Jewish students at Brown
• ​Writers Against the War on Gaza​
• ​Take action with Jewish Voice for Peace​
• ​Take action with the Palestinian Youth Movement​
• ​Support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions​

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