When I started outlining Renegades, I must admit that I didn't give much thought to creating the universe in which the story was taking a place. Renegades take place in a different star system in a world where Earth never existed, but the people are like normal people and there are no aliens. (This greatly confused at least one of my aunts, but she only reads romance novels and not any science fiction/fantasy, so I'm just going to ignore her.) I had given all the planets names and had an idea in my head of what I wanted them to look like. Some were very industrialized, while others were more primitive. I was trying to create a sense of the have and the have nots in a different star system.

But besides planet and city names and general ideas, I didn't do much else on world creation until after I outlined. As I was preparing my character descriptions, I found myself creating a lot of the world around them. For example, it's important to figure out your characters' religions and belief systems. Mine was pretty easy because I already knew that I wanted my story to take place in a world without religion, so all my characters are atheists.

Other things you want to consider:

• Education system
• Government
• Races/cultures
• Travel methods
  
• Ecosystem
• Wildlife
• Pets
  
• Currency
• Language
• Topography
• Weather
• What houses/living structures are like
• People's jobs
• Laws
• Societal norms
• Fashion

I could go on, but those are the basics every author should know about their world.  If you're writing hard science fiction then there are even more details you need to know.

I also think it's helpful to draw a map of your world whether you have different planets or everything takes place on one planet. My drawing skills are sub par, but a sketch is all you would need. I even included details about how long it takes to travel between each planet by my preferred method of travel. These are details your readers will think of, so you need to have the answers!

Hope that helps. And if you haven't yet, you can enter to win a signed copy of Renegades on Goodreads! And don't forget to sign up for my newsletter.

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Now that you've written your outline, it's time to start developing your characters. This step is critical to writing a compelling novel. Since you've written an outline, you probably have a fairly good idea about who your main character are going to be, but this step is still important. If you want the reader to connect with your characters then you have to make them seem real.

First, look at your outline and think about the dramatic plot points. What type of characters are going to make those possible? For example, Renegades required a person capable of hacking government security systems. So what was the profession of one of my characters? The developer of the government security system. I also needed my team of renegades to be able to travel freely around the star system, so I made sure that one of the people they teamed up with happened to own a ship. A lot of the time, the needs of your story will dictate the characters you have to create.
  
Second, make your characters believable within the context of your story. If your female heroine is a superhero or in a fantasy novel then it's fine that she has super-human strength. If she's not a superhero then you might want to make her strength more believable.  If you make a character that can hack a government security system who hasn't worked in that field before, you need to explain where he acquired those skills unless readers won't take the story seriously.

Third, remember, no one is perfect. Every character, even the protagonist, must have some type of character flaw. Have you ever met a person who was seemingly perfect in real life? I have before, and I wanted to punch her in the face. No one likes those people. The reader wanting to punch your character in the face is not good (unless that's what you want, of course).

Fourth, everyone has a distinct voice. Think about the conversations you have with people. If they were transcribed for you to read, it's likely you'd be able to pick out who said what without any speech tags. Although you need to use speech tags in your writing to assist the reader, you should be able to read a transcript of the dialogue from your novel and know which character is saying what. If everything sounds the same then the characters aren't developed enough.

Lastly, know so much more about your characters than what you write in your novel. Before I wrote a word of my first draft, I had several pages of notes on each main character. I knew their birth dates, parents' names, siblings, where they lived, what their motivations were, what they studied, physical characteristics, what they enjoyed to do in their free time, strengths and weaknesses, etc. You certainly don't have to reveal all this information in your novel, but knowing each character like he/she is your best friend will help you write them more realistically.

Hope this helps with your character development! Next up: World creation!