So here is a writing technique I've used for years but I've never really been able to articulate fully how it works- until now.

First of all, what is "declaring"?

In writing, I have no idea what other authors call this, but "declaring" is essentially stating plainly, to yourself and sometimes the reader, directions and limiting factors for your story. There are many forms of "declaring", one of them is the rather famous "lore bible" or "world building bible".

There are a few forms of "declaring" I would like to discuss.

First- lore bibles. Second- equipment/ability lists. Third, story priorities. Finally, is in story declarations.

Lore Bibles:

A lore bible is a simple concept. Lore is the back story and rules of your world in a fantasy or sci fi setting. It is the story of how your world and the elements in it came to be and how they work. By actually writing out a lore bible, basically a written record of your lore, you make it much easier to not only not contradict your own lore in story with character actions, but a lore bible can also help you figure out what you need to explain to a reader. (Well... okay a lore bible often doesn't tell you what you need to explain, generally experience and writing classes will teach that- and proof readers.) When a proof reader asks you a question about your world, your lore bible should have an answer in it somewhere. If it doesn't- time to write one! Bonus, if the reader's question was good (and it's best to assume most questions have a reason to be asked somewhere) it's something you need to explain in story. Remember, if you have to answer a reader's question because he's lost- other readers will often get lost of the same reason. Find or create your answer, record it in your lore bible and then find a way to put it in your story. Here is an example video-

(check comments for link-)

(I'm going to disagree with her on one point. When writing a lore bible- go hog wild! Describe whatever you want. Really, really flesh out your world in both your book and your mind and be ready to constantly change details. In fact I would wager that finishing your lore bible entirely before you start writing a story is impossible. There's too many factors you won't think of and it's difficult to know what's relevant before a single page of a story has been penned. Maybe you SHOULD write out a hundred spells for your book that only uses 4- how else will you, the writer, start to understand how spells are made in your world? Sometimes there are underlying rules to your story that you may never mention in story, but they still need to be there. Magic, for instance, needs rules or it just becomes a series of solutions you pulled straight out of your butt. Whether you explain that system or not in story, you need one in order to keep a consistent feel... this gets into our next subject.)

Equipment Lists:

Equipment and ability lists are more than they sound like. The last thing you want in writing is to put your characters in a situation and then just "make up" how they get out of it without any rules. This can lead to one anticlimax after another as your characters breeze through one scenario after another- or, inversely- it could lead to you creating up a bunch of supplies for your characters in one scene and forgetting what you just said they had in the next scene, making them look like morons for not using the same solution twice.

Example; Anticlimax:

Scene one-

A young boy tore over to Jenny. He grabbed her legs, his eyes wide with panic. "Help me, please, please, please!" Jenny looked at his fearful face. She gently got down on one need, holding his shoulder reassuringly.

"What's happening kiddo?"

"My cat is stuck in a tree- she's pregnant!"

Jenny looked up at a nearby tree, seeing a small cat in the upper branches. It was starting to "meow" louder and louder as it was holding on with its claws for dear life.

"Okay honey," she said to the panicking boy. "I'm going to need you to take this phone and talk to the police okay?" She gave him her cell phone. Jenny then stood up. "Now, to work we go!" she said to herself. She grabbed the ladder at her feet rushing over to the tree- but then she paused. "Ehhh... don't like the risk here..." thus she ran back to her front yard, and dragged her small trampoline over. She then pulled out her trusty tape measure, extending it to make sure the safety was actually under the cat. Finally she got out her climbing gear from her back pack including a belt to keep her secure.

Up the ladder she climbed, affixing long raw hide gloves to her hands so the cat's scratches didn't hurt her. She grabbed the cat, even as it slashed at her, her gloves doing their job. The cat eventually gave up fighting as she held her with one hand and carefully took the animal back to the ground.

Kinda- boring isn't it? At no point in the story was anything even remotely suspenseful after the hero got to work. Jenny apparently had all the material she needed for this particular adventure right on her and she executed it- well as well as you might expect for someone with the exact right equipment. The only way the story could remain interesting is if Jenny was incompetent.

However this is what can happen to a writer when writing a scene without knowing ahead of time what your character has on them- even if you don't tell the audience ahead of time.

A good idea is to determine what your character generally has on them as well as how their abilities and intelligence normally work. Then any adventure they have, basically, they have what they have.

A demonstration-

Jenny is twenty years old, a normal woman with no powers, who works in construction. She carries leather gloves and a tape measure as part of her job, along with a large knife and leather-man, again, more for her job than every day life.

Now, the adventure will be much harder to write, but more exciting to read-

A young boy tore over to Jenny. He grabbed her legs, his eyes wide with panic. "Help me, please, please, please!" Jenny looked at his fearful face. She gently got down on one need, holding his shoulder reassuringly.

"What's happening kiddo?"

"My cat is stuck in a tree- she's pregnant!"

Jenny looked up at a nearby tree, seeing a small cat in the upper branches laying on it's side. It was starting to "meow" louder and louder.

"Okay honey," she said to the panicking boy. "Look, I don't have a phone on me right now-"

"You don't carry a phone?" he asked flabbergasted.

"Do you?"

"I- yeah- why don't you carry a-"

"Kiddo," she held his shoulder a little harder. "Go call for help okay? Let me handle this." Jenny looked up at the cat with a cringe, trying to talk herself though what to do. "If I just wait, that's the safest option... but that cat looks ready to pop- how did she get up there anyway?" The scared mother cat meowed loudly again. Jenny pulled out her construction gloves, shaking her head. "Well- here goes nothing."

Jenny counted herself lucky she didn't need a running start to get to the first climbable branch of this tree. Her experience working on high unfinished buildings made her completely un-phased by the height, and even gave her experience with awkward climbing, but still, as she reached the branches where the cat was holding on, she had to pause.

"Hey there..." she reached her hand out to the cat, it hissing. Jenny pulled her hand back. "Right- you're scared and you don't know me." She looked at her climbing gloves and sighed. "Was thinking these might protect me if you snapped, but you could always go for my wrists huh?" The cat just meowed in response, not wanting a fight, but not wanting to be handled by someone she didn't know either. She tried again to reach for the cat- this time the cat swiping at her, the branches shaking when it did- the pregnant cat was much heavier than she probably realized.

Jenny pulled back again. "Those things won't hold her if she fights me..." Jenny's heart started to beat faster as she noticed the cat was starting to roll over- as if by nature. "No... honey, hang on, don't have them yet- you and your whole new family will die if we don't get you down first..." But it wasn't like the cat could understand her, it just continued to slowly role over.

"Um...um... think think-" Finally Jenny looked down at her belt and the tape measure attached to her side. She grabbed the ruler part and flung the the large metal retractor out in front of the cat. The mother cat took the bait, turning its head to follow the contraption, even swiping at it.

The branches did not hold this time though. Jenny having to shoot out her hand as the cat fell, grabbing the now furious animal in her right hand. She pulled in the cat, taking several scratches to her arms, but having to just take the pain. "Honey, I'm just trying to help." The cat eventually stopped, not having the energy to fight in her state. The meowing got louder and louder as Jenny had to climb down the tree with only one hand now.

Finally, bleeding and in pain herself, Jenny laid the cat on the grass near the tree, watching with a tear in her eye as she saw one of the kittens peeking out.

Sure, either way this story is just your run of the mill "cat stuck in a tree" adventure, but this was probably noticeably more exciting. When Jenny had all the right equipment there was no opportunity for the situation to get worse as the cat fought her for instance. Also, without Jenny having the right equipment, she had to be clever about dealing with the entire situation- she had to be resourceful and just take risks.

The problem is, if you, the writer, didn't think of what that equipment was ahead of time, it becomes hard to figure it out on the fly.

Things get even worse if say- you managed to make the scene above on the fly, but in Jenny's next adventure, on the fly you gave her a net she had to be clever with- a net- something that would have been incredibly useful here and now Jenny just looks like an idiot for not using it.

Here is the trick. In your mind- or better yet on paper- list the abilities and intelligences of your character and what they carry on them. List it once, and unless you find a point in the story where the character would logically change their "load out" NEVER CHANGE IT! For instance, Jenny doesn't carry a phone- thus she never has one on her when it would be useful. Maybe over her adventures she realizes how much of a crutch it is to rely on someone else having a phone, but she has to learn that- or if that doesn't come up, she just never has one. Avoid saying the character just woke up one day and arbitrarily decided to change what they carry on them.

Fans of role playing will probably recognize this a little. This is like choosing your equipment before an adventure. Even if you have an infinite bag of holding, it doesn't matter if the tool you want was never put in it- if you don't have it, then you don't have it. Very few GMs will allow you to just say "well it makes sense I would just have a dagger somewhere right?". If it wasn't declared as equipment on your sheet from the beginning of the game and you didn't buy or steal one- you don't have a dagger. Your character isn't a living Swiss army knife, he's going to run into situations he isn't prepared for. A character having to "wing it" is always more fun than a fully prepared character.

The same kind of idea also applies to things like super powers. Declare in your mind or on paper what the limits of these powers are or at least how they tend to work. Say you have a character with control over lightning and their dog gets taken hostage by an enemy that is immune to lightning. "Why don't they just use electricity to speed up their movements and hit the bad guy really hard, knocking them out instantly?" The answer to that question is obvious- "I never gave my character that ability and it's not a logical conclusion from how his powers work".

If your character is an incredible electrokenetic, for instance, how does that work? It's more important to know how the power works than any "limits" it might have- limits might just be inherent. Controlling externally manifested electric charges has nothing to do with influencing body movements. "Why can't they influence the electricity in someone else's body then?" Answer- "that's only a valid thing for the power to do if it's not based on sight and its ridiculously precise". Even if a character has the raw ability to do something, if you gauge how well trained they are, that will also explain actions they do or don't take. Thus, without saying, for instance, how much electricity your character can manifest or how far away, you have already answered all kind of questions about how its used or not to be used.

But let's say you've said that Jenny has imprecise, external, electrokenesis and she's never really had the chance to be well trained. Still- from that, it's now up to your imagination to figure out how she uses that power. When a reader says "why doesn't she make force fields?", maybe the answer to that really is "Hm... maybe she should... let's see if I can incorporate that.".

(A warning. It is possible to say "she just didn't think of that"- but a better answer is, "she's just not experienced enough with her powers to think up solutions like that on the fly" or "that's just not how he fights, he has a strategy that doesn't involve that". Remember, it's always better to explain a weakness in your character's strategy via an understandable factors, not her being empty headed.)

Story Priorities:

Another kind of story declaration is declaring, in your mind- or better yet on paper- what your story MUST have. Remember, the most important things in writing are always developing your characters and plot- in fact if something you wrote in your story contributes to neither, it generally needs to be deleted.

First, write out who your characters are. What are their personalities like, what do they REALLY want out of life?

The process of listing out your characters traits might be helped along by role playing scenarios with them in your mind or with a friend. Maybe your character is the kind who, if a cougar jumped out of the bushes at them would barely react. Maybe they would scream like a little kid. Maybe they would go for their trusty side arm. Maybe panicking for them- means showing the offending object in a flood of electric energy. Play out the scenario and find out!

Three things you should list, personalities, goals and drives.

A personality is something like a character who loves to tell jokes or is nervous in social settings. It's just how your character normally behaves, whether when alone, in public or surrounded by friends and family. (Maybe list all three as they can be drastically different.)

A goal is what your character wants to accomplish and, more importantly, why. Say your character wants to find lost children- why? Is it because they were lost once and had to grow up without their family? Is it just a passing fancy? Also remember, a character's goals can ABSOLUTELY involve other characters in the story- really its best if they do.

A drive is how passionately they pursue their goal. Just because you have a goal to do your job at the mall and get your paycheck- that doesn't mean you're gonna get yourself killed trying to protect the cash register. Actually, it's probably best to list drive last. A girl who is a joker and does things on a whim might make sense if she does things without caring too much about how they turn out. Her drive doesn't HAVE TO match her personality and goals, in fact, if they don't, that can be a good thing. However, you still need to be aware if those things don't jive because the other characters in your story should probably be surprised by it. A person with a personality that appears flighty having extreme passion- there's probably a good story there, which not only should your reader recognize, so should those around them. Maybe your shy boy character, turns into a lion when someone he loves is in danger- that's something people would notice. It's also a good thing to explore in your story as you go- how did that come to be?. (Don't be fooled though. A character whose drive and personality match perfectly can also have an amazing story. James may be a person who snaps at people all the time and is furious from his past of abuse, out on a mission to stop other abusers, or to save one particular abused child. Maybe nothing is unexpected, but we can see James as a man on a mission, which can be fun too. Also, a man like that- if he ever accomplishes his goal, where does he go from there? How does he ever have a friendly or fatherly relationship with the girl he rescued- or will he just move on after putting in so much effort? Does he just want to save kids from bad fathers and never be one himself? Is that because he doesn't think he CAN be a good father? Does he think he's "damaged goods"? How does he live just moving on like that? There's so much potential story there!)

Before you start your story, REALLY get to know your characters. Spend days, months or even a year if you need, really trying to understand who they are.

Next up, -and this one isn't fun for many, many, many people, but it's still best if you do it- make a summary of your plot. Yes, there are writers who never need to do this, and there are writers who make a summary- and then the story writes itself and the summary only KINDA resembles what actually happened and the ending is completely different. Yes, all of that is possible, and you should definitely be open to changing your mind if the story sounds better another way, but if this is your first story, or if you've had a lot of frustration, it's probably NOT a good idea to expect a "story writing itself" scenario to just happen for you. It's really best to know where your characters are going before you figure out exactly how they get there.

Best do some research if you want to see story summaries yourself, I don't use them too often myself as I've been working on many of my stories in my head for decades at this point. I don't recommend that method unless it happens on its own like it did for me.

In Story:

Finally we come to "in story" declaring. This plays into the last chapter really, making sure your readers understand the structure of your world and scenes. How much do you tell your readers, how much can you hold in suspense?

My rule of thumb, and this is just a personal one- unless you have a specific reason to hold something in suspense, reveal things like equipment, power rules and lore BEFORE they become important (not all at once of course, but just keep in mind you have a deadline of sorts). The exception to this is often intense fight scenes and the like, where characters not knowing each other's strategies just makes sense- hence the reader doesn't know, or you judge this is the time to SHOW your character's skill instead of telling (showing is always better than telling, just makes sure things are making sense). Do remember to try to at least imply rules if you're revealing things on the fly for the sake of "show don't tell". Show don't tell is great- just make sure it doesn't read like "STUFF happened!".

As to character traits, those should usually be shown rather than explained. Character history should also be shown best you can, but I get that sometimes a giant flash back just isn't practical given what's happening in your story- you'll have to judge on that one.

Remember, don't "just write". Have a plan- which itself will involve writing most likely so- just write- but write your plan before you write your book!