Tara Swiger: an inspirational resource

This post is part of a series to augment the Guest Resources available for free download.

This and other guest-inspired content is gathered in my Guest Directory for you to explore.

Find my personal inspirations in the Spark Directory.

One of the most cohesive, customer-oriented brands I've encountered is that of Tara Swiger, a self-described "pink-haired author, maker and Starship Captain." Though she began entrepreneurship selling hand-dyed yarn, her small business experience led her to teach marketing insights adapted for the creative community.

Now, owners of handmade businesses across the globe find direction and camaraderie through her online courses, books, and in-person classes. Unabashedly herself, Tara Swiger built her niche as a genuine, compassionate guide into the intricacies of a profitable craft business. By pinpointing the common traits of creative personalities, Tara provides courses that meet the specific needs of her clientele.

Check out these Guest Resources for more inspirational content!

The mainstay of her teaching underscores how pervasively emotions impact creative output. While the typical business mindset "powers through," Tara's methodology encourages her clients to integrate emotional feedback into their goals and business operations.

To further serve the needs of her clients, Tara runs an online community of entrepreneurs called The Starship Adventure, and dubs each member the "captain" of a unique enterprise. This playful Star Trek metaphor seats each of her clients at the helm, empowering them to exchange ideas and define goals unclouded by disparate business advice.

As a self-published author, I've found solace and reprieve in Tara's community and ideas of emotional relevance. I discovered her as I was working to publish my Tales of the Known World saga, and her singular approach to business was a voice of inner stability amidst an unfeeling tide of marketing schemes hungry for the bottom line.

You can connect with Tara
at TaraSwiger.com here.

And be sure to subscribe to Tara's awesome newsletter, if you haven't already!

That's it for this post! Check out the latest guest-inspired content for more.

Download the Guest Resources here, or start your adventure below.

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The Forests of Kalrein: a map for Awakening

This post is Part 5 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

The Forests of Kalrein

Towering black pines of the faeries.

Geography and Climate

In Chapter 3 of Awakening, the Forests of Kalrein lie north of the Front Rishi, filling the western reaches of Allana. The black pine forests are deep and dark, stretching west of the D'jed Mountains and forming the southern border of the Draconans. Springs are rainy and summers warm, but autumn brings cold downpours and snow crusts the winter pines.

This region also borders the Plains of Rishi, the Great Sea, and the North Sea.

Flora and Fauna

The black pines of Kalrein support a flourishing food chain. Insects, birds, and small woodland creatures thrive off the cones of the pines, as well as berries and other underbrush. Larger animals like the speckled wyvern and heart-tail deer meander through the dappled shade, avoiding predators like the black-tipped fox and the stark wolf, which hunts in packs up to twelve strong.

People and Dress

The faeries of Kalrein are a small people, with adults standing about four feet high. Their skin ranges from green to violet, mostly in bright or pastel hues, and they sport two sets of gossamer wings that allow them to fly. They have short ears with backswept points that are often pierced, especially for women. Faeries are skilled tanners and tend to dress in all manner of leathers, usually in muted or natural colors. Both men and women tend to have open-backed garments allowing their wings freedom of movement, though women's clothes are typically laced up the front whereas men's clothes tend to button or hang open. Kalrein faeries have a long-standing blood feud with the neighboring mountain elves, and they can usually collect a bounty for turning in the severed right ear of a mountain elf.

Native Magic

Faeries have strong air magic, which is what ultimately allows them to fly. They tend to be somewhat adept at their latent water magic as well, and the combination of these two elemental magics gives them a profound mastery over the tanning process. In exchange for such powerful elemental magics, faeries tend to have average sensory and special magics. For Kalreini faeries, Intent magic tends to outweigh Scent magic, but both are weak enough to not allow for any real latent powers to arise.

Check out the Magic Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Cultural Values and Traditions

The Kalreini faeries value independence and tradition, and they tend to be a fairly isolated people who do not travel nor take kindly to outside visitors. Though generally even-keeled, faeries become rather hostile towards visitors, even faeries from other regions of Kalrein. Yellow and brown are viewed as the colors of magic, as faerie skywriting tends to be one of these colors. Families are matriarchal and trades, particularly hidecraft, are handed down from one generation to the next. Though part of the Allanic Empire, Kalrein is self-governing and pays its dues to the empire while enacting its own laws within the forest. Each village has its own chieftain and establishes its own council where members of influential families preside over legislation and the hearing of local grievances. The chieftain acts as tie-breaker and ultimate decision-maker.

Faeries measure their age in years, with the new year on the winter solstice as set down by the ancient merfolk calendar. However, the vernal equinox used to mark the new year, and spring celebrations are held throughout Kalrein, though they are no longer considered new-year festivities. Children come of age when they reach sixteen years old, and depending on a family's wealth and class, the coming-of-age may be celebrated with a small family feast or a large social gala. As adults, faeries are expected to take up the family trade or at least enter into an apprenticeship for some trade. Families with seats on the village council also expect their members to promptly wed and produce heirs to continue the governing line. Failure to do so is punishable by social ostracization rather than legal retribution, except in the case of some chieftain heirs, who are forced on a pilgrimage to find and wed a spouse before they can take up the chieftain position.

Warriors and Guardians

Though Kalrein has no mounted riders, all adults are expected to render services of guard duty, patrolling the mountain borders on the lookout for the elves with whom they feud. The eastern realms of Akveld and Klizveil, which border the elven D'jed, are home to the fiercest warriors, many of whom render guard duty services as their full-time profession. These warriors are viewed as the pride of Kalrein, and there is no honorable way to leave one's family trade except to take up the sword against the mountain elves. Normal life in Akveld revolves around ranching, and many full-time warriors retire to wyvern ranches to serve as private security once their days of border patrol are done.

Languages

Kalrei is the ancestral language of the faeries, though it has been replaced with Allanic in most Kalreini homes. It is written with a flat chisel in a series of alphabetic runes comprised of short lines and dots. Though Allanic is the spoken language of Kalrein, the faeries still use their ancestral alphabet for writing, and they have adapted several of their runes to represent Allanic sounds not found in Kalrei. Now only spoken during rituals and ceremonies, Kalrei sounds flighty and musical to an Allanic speaker, with three distinct tonal ranges and rhythmic oscillation of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Check out the Language Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Characters from The Known World

In the book Awakening, Vithril is a faerie from the forests of Kalrein. While on a journey to visit the faeries on the other side of Allana, Vithril encounters a little boy named Darek and his guardian Kingard.

Bound by a faerie curse to follow Darek wherever he goes, Vithril abandons her planned pilgrimage and flees with her fugitive company into the dreaded D'jed Mountains.

With only Kingard's word as protection against the local mountain elves, Vithril must join their quest to reach the mythic city A'lara before it's too late.

That's it for this post! Up Next: Northern reaches of dragons and men...

Download the Atlas of the Known World here, or start your adventure below.

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Portent V of Awakening: a riddle in rhyme

In the novel Awakening, there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga.

Start with Portent I here.

These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

From darkness warped and witnessed hence
The builders rise beneath the fall
Of prince enthralled as fled he whence
The binder heard the master's call

Awakening astride the rift
Of knowledge gained and lessons learned
The builder freed would freely gift
Unbridled bride and suitor spurned

They flame and bound and binder met
Who begged forsaken their consent
When evil stole away his debt
By darkness came and darkness went.


Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World?

Share your interpretation!
Comment below with your take on this portent.

This prophesy details the events that unfold in Part 2 of Awakening. Its three stanzas mirror the three chapters of Part 2, and it alludes to each of the characters as their journeys coalesce and the true nature of their quest is revealed.

Can you guess who the forsaken are? (Hint: if you haven't read Part 2 yet, let me send you this free ebook.)

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Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.

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Alongside every prophesy is an attribution block. This block contains a byline giving the name of the person who said the prophesy, and a dateline giving the day the prophesy was first said. Here is the attribution for this portent:

Valehyn Ryihdas Dynde VI
2:3:1:6/13, 2:1:2 IX
V 2:1:2:3/5, III:IX

The portent attributed here has been interpreted, and it references multiple events that culminate on an exact date. An additional verified dateline has been added to the attribution, noting the final date when the portent comes to pass.


That's it for this post! Up Next: The second falters, third prevails...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.

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The Sutek Desert: a map for Awakening

This post is Part 4 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

The Sutek Desert

Eternal sands of the mystic Dua Dara.

Geography and Climate

In Chapter 2 of Awakening, the reddish sands of the Sutek stretch from the back of the D'jed Mountains to Allana's east coast. There, the elevation sheers into steep cliffs and escarpments. To the south, dunes spill out into the neighboring plains, while in the north, desert highlands sprout rocky buttes from coarser sands.

Few clouds pass the D'jed to rain on the Sutek, so water is pulled from wells and the rare oasis. Arid summers scorch the lapsing breeze, until winter's cooling air stirs whirlwinds and raging sandstorms.

This region also borders the Katei Ocean and the Back Rishi, of the Plains of Rishi.

Flora and Fauna

Desert insects ground a food chain supporting lizards, hares, and jackals, and domestic camels range wide swaths of land to graze on sparse patches of thornbush. Though cacti grace the rockier highlands and a few natural springs bring green to the sands, most of the Sutek's plant life is irrigated by well water. Elusive and skittish across vast distances, herds of wild pegasi roam the deep desert, but their feeding habits remain unobserved.

People and Dress

An isolated and private race of men, the Suteki shun the outside world. Tall and bronze, they sport golden eyes and dark hair, typically black with a bluish sheen. Men shear close to their heads, while women prefer hair grown long and wound in topknots. Both genders tie on sandals and wear lightweight robes, white to reflect the desert sun. As children, white ropes cinch their waists, and girls adopt a red rope at first blood. Boys ascending to manhood receive a blue rope, as do women after marriage.

Native Magic

The Suteki make poor elemental mages, though on occasion some demonstrate Earth magic talents. Their sensory magics tend to be quite powerful, Flavor magic predominant with Light magic as a strong latent ability. Animal magic is fairly common, fostering a tradition of skilled caravans and herders. Though Suteki eyes are gold with the sight, only Dua Dara mages learn to harness their latent Gift of portent. They remain the only known landfolk with the power to soothsay.

Check out the Magic Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Cultural Values and Traditions

Tribes hold prayer and piety as virtues, and view magic talent as a sacred blessing. Water is precious in the Sutek, and the color blue is correlated with holiness, sanctity, and magic. They emphasize independence and respect, particularly for oneself and one's elders. Many family clans comprise a village tribe, and individuals receive varied rank and council status from their clan name. All Suteki bear their names with pride, withholding them only to spite their enemies, and take grave insult to those who would converse with faces covered.

They measure age in hazes, and all grow one haze older on the first sandstorm of winter, which marks the new year. Boys reach manhood on their twentieth haze, and announce their chosen occupation on their fifth day as men. The Feast of Haze commemorates this first decision of adulthood, which the tribe encourages no matter how foolhardy. They find that self-discovery and learning experience outweigh the risk of error.

Warriors and Guardians

As pegasi warriors, the Dua Dara swear to protect the sanctity of the desert from outsiders. To join the sacred mages, a boy with strong animal magic must bond a wild pegasus foal before his fifth haze. The dangerous rite requires him to venture alone into the deep desert and return within three days. Successful boys leave their families for the brotherhood of Dua Daralel, where they master their magics and learn battle tactics and pegasus care. Once young Dua Dara reach their twentieth haze, the high council assigns them to a specific Daralel, which remains their base for border patrols until retirement or reassignment.

Languages

Though isolated from the Allanic spoken in most of the Known World, the Suteki language is mutually intelligible for the most part, and translation is rarely necessary. Written in a curvaceous script like that of the merfolk, Suteki sounds formal and archaic to an Allanic speaker. Vocabulary and pronunciation differ in places, but both languages derived from a single origin. Similarly, the Dua Dara hand signals used during flight mirror many signs of the gryphon riders from the neighboring plains, suggesting a historical alliance now lost.

Check out the Language Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Characters from The Known World

In the book Awakening, Tirrok was raised as an orphan after he was found in the village well of Jahari as an infant.

With no family name to rank him amongst the villagers, he struggled as an outcast despite his adoption by renowned Jokkel the Guardian.

Tirrok attempted the Dua Dara entrance rite in his youth, but though he bonded a pegasus foal, he was not inducted into the brotherhood.

Now the Feast of Haze looms before him, and he prepares to reveal his scandalous decision to seek his fortune in the outside world.

That's it for this post! Up Next: Towering black pines of the faeries...

Download the Atlas of the Known World here, or start your adventure below.

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My All-Time Top Five Favorite Sentences: a wordsmith workshop

This post is Part 1 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find more guest-inspired content in my Guest Directory.

This week, I'm pleased to introduce guest blogger Jocelyn Crawley, author of Erudition. Her top five favorite sentences unveil the precision writers use to craft their best work.

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I don't do much outside of writing except reading. And when I read, I'm always on the lookout for writers that have an innovative way of doing things. Whether the doing involves an exceptional articulation of the absurd or an inventive complication of something simple, ingesting a well-written sentence is an activity that leaves me in a state of mental reverie.

Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to read a lot of really great books that conform to the aforementioned (and somewhat subjective) guidelines for literary excellence. These days, my literary surmisings have caused me to conclude that the following five sentences are amongst my absolute favorites:


#5. "By nature I am fitted to be a hidden observer of people strutting across the stage of life—rather than to be a skilled actor flooded with limelight under the eyes of an audience."

- Tawfik al-Hakim, Diary of a Country Prosecutor

The ingenuity indigenous to this passage is plentiful. In addition to utilizing the ostensibly universal and ubiquitous world as stage metaphor effectively, al-Hakim appropriates the analogy to juxtapose two important and elusive modes of existence: the observer who dissects the behavior of other people and the actor who is subjected to the aforementioned type of dissection.

#4. "The housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment."

- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Queen of the long sentence, Bronte is likely a cherished, canonized author because her choice of words and their arrangement are as artistic and meaningful as the concepts that the terms are used to articulate. Like thoughtful decorations that enhance the aesthetic appeal of a home, key phrases like decent phlegmatic, shrill ejaculation, and wordy wonderment make the concept Bronte delineates here illustrative in addition to meaningful.

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Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!

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#3. "A single window slit glowed in the distant stable complex, and she ghosted toward it."

- D.N.Frost, Awakening

Here is a short text that contains several subtle forms of brilliance that induce a deep, cerebral pause. On one level, the author does an excellent job of problematizing our sense of singular space insomuch as we are presented with a distant object that a character is moving towards. In addition to complicating the sentence with the reality of two disparate spaces that may soon be united, the passage utilizes a novel verb to describe the activity that will make the union possible: ghosted.

#2. "On rainy nights in the late eighties, we would swan in and request a booth."

- Karen Karbo, In Search of Lost Pancake

This sentence is great because it opens up with a descriptive reference to the weather as well as the time period in which the narrative unfolds--and the author uses just seven simple words to unveil it all. This is to say nothing of the efficacy resulting from the use of the word swan in place of more prototypical verbs like walk or wander to describe the act of moving from one sphere to another.

#1. "On the sly, Cheri studied his companion's large nose, the greying hairy upper lip, and the little peasant eyes which glanced incuriously at ripe cornfields and scythed meadow."

- Colette, The Last of Cheri

It seems that there is no activity so simultaneously strange and normative as humans observing one another. In this passage, Colette does an excellent job of detailing the action that Cheri drinks in as a result of observing his companion. The description is effectively innovative, particularly the reference to cut grass with the illustrative phrase scythed meadow.

Jocelyn Crawley is a 30-year-old student who holds B.A.s in English and Religious Studies. Her work has appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Nailpolish Stories, Visceral Uterus, Dead Beats, The Idiom, Thrice Fiction, Four and Twenty, Kalyani Magazine and Haggard and Halloo. She is the author of Erudition and Droll.

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That's it for this post! Up Next: My guest post for Jocelyn's blog...

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.

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Portent IV of Awakening: a riddle in rhyme

In the novel Awakening, there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga.

Start with Portent I here.

These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

The hidden prince unveiled his plan
To take the darkened sky
But mountain met where time began
Awaiting flame to cry

With flame without the flame within
Did flee through snow and hate
To meet another shifting sin
And find A'lara's mate

The bound with binder came to flee
The builder sent to wed
Adopting long mistaken key
When mages both lay dead

At last the stolen builder deems
Escape from master right
Awakening from broken dreams
To flee unto the sight

The dragon mage emboldened fled
The builder's errant son
And master drank the growing dread
Of destiny begun.


Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World?

Share your interpretation!
Comment below with your take on this portent.

This prophesy details the events that take place in Part 1 of Awakening. Its five stanzas mirror the five chapters of Part 1, and it references each of the characters as they begin their seemingly unrelated journeys.

Can you guess who the prince or dragon mage is? (Hint: if you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can get the free sample here.)

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Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.

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Alongside every prophesy is an attribution block. This block contains a byline giving the name of the person who said the prophesy, and a dateline giving the day the prophesy was first said. Here is the attribution for this portent:

Vyedik Ndeloh Dynde XX
4:2:3:6/9, 1:3:2 IX
V 1:3:4:1/5, III:IX

The portent attributed here has been interpreted, and it references multiple events that culminate on an exact date. An additional verified dateline has been added to the attribution, noting the final date when the portent comes to pass.


That's it for this post! Up Next: Astride the rift of knowledge gained...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.

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The Khollek Mountains: a map for Awakening

This post is Part 3 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

The Khollek Mountains

Land of icy crags and broken shale.

Geography and Climate

In Chapter 1 of Awakening, the Khollek Mountains cover the western side of the small northern continent of Kholl. The rugged shale mountains are old and crumbling, pulverized by icy polar winds swirling from the northwest. The whole mountain range will someday erode into cold sand. Summers are short but the days grow long. In winter, the dark of night stretches three times as long as daylight, and the spring snowmelt fills a modest network of lakes and rivers.

This region also borders the Katei Ocean, Kondak Sea, and Heleki Desert.

Flora and Fauna

The crumbling shale of the Khollek Mountains produces a poor soil that cannot sustain much life, and only the hardiest moss and lichen have worked their way over the stone. A few rodents scratch out a living by collecting this moss. Notably, the gardener vole lines its stony nest and tunnels with young moss, tending to its food source and only appearing above ground to seek out new transplants. Seabirds roost on rocky ledges, plucking fish from the northern seas. In the high reaches of the Red Coast, a small colony of wild dragons roosts in the winter before migrating northwest across the sea to their summer breeding grounds on Dragon's Breath Isle. From these wild populations, herds of domesticated racing dragons were bred to be wingless and without magic.

People and Dress

The humans of the Khollek Mountains have browned skin and dark hair. They used to be a free people, but they were enslaved by the invading Colkh'rak three centuries ago. Though the desert men to the east were once the same people, now there is an uneasy armistice between the enslaved Kholleks and their rebel Heleki brethren. Though bound to their Colkh'rak masters, the men of the Khollek Mountains enjoy some access to the meager trade that makes its way north from the affluent Kanata. They wear mostly imported clothing of Kanatan style and eat imported produce. Most homes have a pen of domesticated wyverns to supplement their imported diet with fresh meat and dairy.

Native Magic

Khollek men are predominantly sensory mages, with excellent flavor magic to enhance their meager diets, and decent light magic as well. They have decent animal magic, much weaker than men of other areas, and their elemental skills are fair at best, though stronger than men of other regions. In general, the enslaved men of the Khollek Mountains practice little magic, aside from their natural talents with flavor magic. The Colkh'rak employ most of their human slaves as menial laborers in the northern quartz mines, but a lucky few are remanded to the kitchens for their superb culinary skills.

Check out the Magic Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Cultural Values and Traditions

After three centuries of enslavement, the men of the Khollek Mountains have mostly assimilated into the culture of their Colkh'rak overlords. They care little for the trappings of most modern societies, and instead place importance on hard work and civil obedience. Magic is generally viewed as a privilege reserved for the wealthy elite. Each settlement has its own despot appointed by the Colkh'rak authority, and these local rulers report to the central Barony. To keep their enslaved population in check, the Colkh'rak often divide families, sending children and parents to labor in separate settlements to erode family bonds.

Measuring age is not very important for the Khollek people. They gauge the passing of time by the cycle of the seasons, and they generally celebrate the new year on the spring equinox. Children have no official coming-of-age ceremonies, as they usually grow up without a family around them. At first blood, girls are sold as breeding chattel by their Colkh'rak masters, though attractive ones are usually retained for adult entertainment. Boys work into manhood, and the strongest men are used as studs to enhance the laboring population. Obedient men and loyal overseers are rewarded with wives, whose children are distributed to other settlements to prevent the formation of tight-knit communities.

Warriors and Guardians

The enslaved humans of the Khollek Mountains are forbidden from combat. They may not hunt, make or own weapons, or practice any form of martial art. However, illicit sparring rings impart some experience with hand-to-hand combat, and the men in these fighting brotherhoods often help each other fashion crude weapons out of shale fragments and sharpened wyvern claws. These sparring rings are sworn to secrecy. Not infrequently, the Colkh'rak overlords will root out an illicit group and execute all its members, so each sparring ring stays very small and rarely welcomes new recruits.

Languages

Khollic is a harsh, sibilant language derived from the tongue of the Colkh'rak overlords. Over the past three centuries, the Colkh'rak language blended with Trophek, the ancestral tongue of the mountain men of Kholl, and the Khollic language emerged. It is written in the spiky runes of the Colkh'rak, though some new runes were invented to represent sounds integrated from the human language. Speakers of Allanic, the unifying tongue of the Known World, cannot understand Khollic at all, and the spoken language has a heavy use of consonants with very few vowels. The language lacks many common gesticulations, which makes communications across the language barrier even more difficult.

Check out the Language Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Characters from The Known World

In the book Awakening, Jorn is a slave for the Barony in the heart of the mountains.

His unusual talent as a speaker allows him to communicate with the Barony's racing dragons, which produce a profound income for the Colkh'rak.

When Jorn helps a newly arrived slave named Larin hide from their masters, he embroils himself in a conflict of epic proportions.

Launched on a journey to the free lands of Allana in the west, Jorn and Larin discover they must help save their precious sanctuary before it too falls to the Colkh'rak overlords.

That's it for this post! Up Next: Eternal sands of the mystic Dua Dara...

Download the Atlas of the Known World here, or start your adventure below.

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What is Storycraft?

This post is Part 1 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find more website tag definitions in my Index Directory.

Why do so many good editors never become authors? Because a novel is not just a well-worded manuscript. All writing is the composite of two separate skillsets: the language skills that a wordsmith displays, and storycraft, the art of storytelling.

While the wordsmith hammers out an engaging manuscript, storycraft provides readers with worthwhile content. Neither will spin you a gripping novel alone, but in tandem they unlock your writing prowess.

Storycraft is the art of stitching a good story together. Beyond the events of your plotline, storycraft explores how you sequence your events, where you place foreshadowing, and how that foreshadowing comes to fruition. Creating a vibrant, immersive setting is part of storycraft, as is building relatable characters with realistic personalities. Good stories are crafted with precision and details threaded together to create intrigue, suspense, and satisfaction.

Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!

Storycraft also shapes your writing style. Many facets of style include both storycraft and wordsmith elements. Understanding how flow impacts a narrative is storycraft, while the wordsmith manipulates words to control flow. Manifesting your voice throughout a manuscript is the wordsmith's work, but establishing your voice as a writer is storycraft.

Your storycraft makes the difference between a well-planned tale worth remembering, and a boring ramble with no impact. What keeps readers up too late, or inspires people to share your work with friends? Storycraft separates the sleepy bedtime yarns from the enduring folktales and heroic epics studied in school. While all stories require inspiration, storycraft is what determines your ultimate impact on the reader. In my Tales of the Known World saga, you can see how I leverage various storycraft principles to create the desired impact.

On this website, I use the storycraft tag to denote posts about storytelling, an aspect of writing. Similarly, the wordsmith tag marks posts regarding the use of words as an artistic medium. In these Workshops on Writing, you'll find workshops to hone your own craft. Most writers have either the knack for storycraft or as a wordsmith, but regardless of natural talent, one skill tends to outweigh the other. Fortunately, you can develop your writing skills individually, once you understand the nature of each component.


That's it for this post! Up Next: Introducing the wordsmith...

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.

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Portent III of Awakening: a riddle in rhyme

In the novel Awakening, there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga.

Start with Portent I here.

These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

Expunging legend's earthly might
The endless creep of shadow's fold
For master primes the westward flight
To twice awaiting hold

The subtle signs of rose's blight
His silent gate is first to see
Awakening to waning light
Without the chance to plea

To close the long unfinished fight
They reign revered as Mother's call
Yet linger lost beyond the sight
Of builder's westward fall.


Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World?

Share your interpretation!
Comment below with your take on this portent.

This prophesy details the events that take place in Part 3 of Awakening. Its three stanzas mirror the three chapters of Part 3, and it deals with the flagging hopes of our heroes as they endure the hardest leg of their journey. Can you guess who the silent gate is?

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Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.

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Alongside every prophesy is an attribution block. This block contains a byline giving the name of the person who said the prophesy, and a dateline giving the day the prophesy was first said. Here is the attribution for this portent:

Jyedih Nnwadohs Dynde XIX
3:2:4:2/6, 1:2:2 IX
V 2:1:4:4/5, III:IX

The portent attributed here has been interpreted, and it references multiple events that culminate on an exact date. An additional verified dateline has been added to the attribution, noting the final date when the portent comes to pass.


That's it for this post! Up Next: From broken dreams to flee...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.

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Your Character's Tarot: a storycraft workshop

This post is part of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find more tarot-related content in my Tarot Gallery.

Whether or not you subscribe to the mystical side of tarot, it remains a fantastic characterization tool. Tarot readings provide an in-depth snapshot of a person and what their life is like, as well as the influences driving them into the future.

A normal reading comes together through a skilled interpreter and the overturning of cards in a meaningful order (positioned in what's called a tarot spread). But to do a tarot spread for your characters, all you need is to fill out this worksheet with your insights and ideas.

The exercise evolves from your character's personality, through external and internal circumstances, to their most likely future. This forces you to explore all the facets of a character before deciding where they'll end up, and creates room for inspiration to strike before you finalize the outcome.

Print out the tarot spread worksheet, or divide a blank page into the spaces shown. Fill out each space in the following order, with the details that come to you:

1. Personality (center) - Write your character's name, and fill out everything you can about their personality. Include who they consider themselves to be, the labels they use for themselves, and their current stage of personal growth.

2. Obstacles (center left) - Write down the obstacles your character faces within their stage of personal growth. Also include any habits that dominate the character's behavior or mentality.

2b. Must (center right) - Fill in what your character needs to realize, experience, or decide to do in order to overcome these obstacles.

3. Currently (top-center) - Write everything going on in your character's life right now. Include the major plot events that impact the character, as well as any specific situations the character is dealing with.

4. Was (bottom-center) - Fill out things from the character's past that shaped the events you listed in Currently. Also write down any past events that will come into play for this character as the story unfolds, and who your character was at the time of those events, if their personality has since evolved.

Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!

5. Influences (right-center) - Write down all the factors that are influencing this character. These factors can be other people and their motivations, external events shaping the plot, or the character's own suspicions, ambitions, hesitations, and desires. Include anything that shapes how the Currently events will unfold.

6. Develops (left-center) - Fill in how your character develops from their Currently stage into the future. Include their realizations, decisions, response to being influenced, and any other changes within your character as events unfold. Do not write future events here! Use internal developments only.

Now you have a basic snapshot of your character's experiences, situations, and growth. These are externally-driven, for the most part. The remaining spaces explore internal factors that shape your character's reactions to external events, and where the natural momentum of the story is carrying them.

7. Attitude (bottom-right) - Write about your character's attitude in general--are they a cheerful person, or more sour? Do they expect things to go well, or go wrong? Fill in all defining mental characteristics, and with remaining room, their attitude toward specific Currently events.

8. Others (top-right) - Write how others in the story see this character. Start with friends and family, and fill out how they judge your character and their Currently events. Then explore more distant acquaintances--who hates this character, and why? If the character's famous, how does the public feel? Include anything that comes to mind about the opinions of others.

9. Hopes and Fears (top-left) - Fill out everything your character is hoping for or afraid of. Start with general hopes and fears, then fill in their feelings on specific Currently events--are they striving to create a good outcome, or to prevent a bad one? These innermost drives focus your character's decisions and bring about the story's future events.

10. Future (bottom-left) - Write down the events that unfold for your character. Reflect on how this future fits in--does it seem like a natural progression, or unexpected and externally-driven? Readers find comfort in a logical resolution, and expect a story to continue until the characters meet a fitting end. An externally-driven future is less satisfying, but often belies a sequel.

For every book in my Tales of the Known World saga, I do one of these tarot spreads for each character, large or small. It sets the stage for the story to unfold, and allows me to bring hazy characters into clarity and precision. If I'm having trouble on a given scene, I use this exercise to pin down the exact stages of character development at that time.


That's it for this post! Check out the latest writing workshops for more.

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.

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Kholl: a map for Awakening

This post is Part 2 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

Kholl

A bleak, frigid land at the edge of the world.

Geography and Climate

In Part 1 of Awakening, Kholl is a frigid land at the northeastern edge of the Known World. Each dark, brutal winter thaws into the gray drizzle of summer daylight, but little sunshine strikes the embittered land. The crags of the Khollek Mountains in the west crumble into the cold sand dunes of the Heleki Desert in the east, and the whole continent is windswept and barren.

This region also borders the Katei Ocean, the Kondak Sea, and the Unknown East.

Flora and Fauna

The Khollic wasteland is inhospitable to most lifeforms. The cold shale mountains and crumbling sands prevent most plants from taking root, and Kholl supports little animal life. Though a few dragons dwell on the highest crags, they survive mostly on fish plucked from the sea, or on domesticated wyverns stolen from their pens. In the cold desert, the largest native animal is the arctic fox, which preys on mice, insects, and the occasional bony hare.

People and Dress

The humans of this northern land are isolated from most of the Known World. Their dark hair, tanned skin, and narrow eyes protect them from biting winds and the blinding glare of reflections off the ice. Though both the mountain and desert men share ancestors, the arrival of Colkh'rak forces three centuries ago forever split them apart. Those who stayed in the mountains became slaves of their foreign invaders, and dissenters fled into the desert, forming a watchful rebel alliance. While the mountain men can access clothing and other goods imported from Kanata, the free men of the desert make due with the small animal hides available. In hard times, the desert peoples resort to wearing fish skins and weaving clothes from the fibrous kelp dredged from surrounding seas.

Native Magic

Though all races of men access the same cocktail of magics, the men of Kholl manifest much weaker animal magic than the men of other regions. In exchange, they display exceptional sensory abilities, using flavor magics to enhance meager diets and their latent control of light to veil rebel encampments from their Colkh'rak overlords. Khollic men also enjoy greater access to elemental powers than the men of other lands, but their enhanced earth skills in turn augment their latent propensity for dark magic.

Check out the Magic Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Cultural Values and Traditions

The enslaved men of Kholl have mostly assimilated into the Colkh'rak culture, but Kholl's free men keep their ancient traditions alive. They place great emphasis on liberty and independence, virtues they find worth fighting and dying for. They live in large family clans, and each village self-governs with a council of the senior members of resident clans. While magic is part of everyday life, those born without strong magic skills are seen as destined for true greatness. Desert men push their non-magic clan members to excel at crucial tasks such as fishing, combat, and weapons-making. No matter their rank or ability, all men are considered equal, and it is a grave offense to issue orders to a fellow man. This impugns a man's liberty and demeans his independence before the clan, especially if the orders are given in public.

The desert men measure their age in years, with the new year beginning on the summer solstice. Coming-of-age is celebrated within each clan, and though ceremonies differ, it always involves a demonstration of the youth's mastery of a vital skill or virtue, followed by a clan-wide feast. Some clans require youths to prove their bravery or cunning, while others expect the youth to venture into the wilderness and return with a trophy of sorts. Certain clans stage an indoor battle for the youth to engage in, and the subsequent celebration is delayed, often for weeks on end, until the youth emerges victorious. As adults, desert men and women must contribute to the survival of the clan, particularly by providing for and training the clan's children.

Warriors and Guardians

The men and women of the desert all fight, though the residents of Olyagen are considered the most skillful in combat. This rebel encampment is closest to Kholl's western mountains, where the Colkh'rak overlords reign supreme. Since freedom is paramount to the desert clans, all adults are expected to prove worthwhile in battle, which is their first and often only line of defense against tyranny. Though skirmishes are commonplace, the free men of Kholl stand united under one banner, and there is no warring amongst clans or villages. Combat skills are imparted from a young age, and a man's prowess in combat is linked to his ability to retain freedom at all costs. The most sought-after women are highly-trained warriors, and a husband is considered greatly blessed if his wife can defeat him in combat.

Languages

Kholl is a land of two languages. The free men of the desert speak their ancestral tongue, Heleki, a rather lyrical language descended from the ancient tongue of men. The enslaved denizens of the mountains speak Khollic, a harsh and sibilant language derived from the blending of their ancestral tongue, Trophek, into the language of their Colkh'rak overlords. Though neither Khollic nor Heleki is intelligible to the speakers of Allanic in the rest of the Known World, the Heleki tongue sounds somewhat related, and many Heleki words share similar roots. Khollic, however, sounds completely alien to both Allanic and Heleki speakers alike, and is often described as severely lacking in discernible vowels.

Check out the Language Codex of the Known World to learn more.

Characters from The Known World

In the book Awakening, Jorn is a stablehand enslaved in the Khollek Mountains by dark masters.

Though he cannot remember his family, Jorn made a home for himself amongst the racing dragons he attends.

But his world turns upside-down one night when a new slave named Larin escapes the master's keep and hides in Jorn's stable.

When he finds her beneath the straw in a dragon's stall, Jorn decides to help her and unwittingly launches them on a journey that changes the course of history.

That's it for this post! Up Next: Land of icy crags and broken shale...

Download the Atlas of the Known World here, or start your adventure below.

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Are You Ready?

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Control Your Flow: a wordsmith workshop

This post is Part 2 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find my world workshops in the Worldbuilding Directory.

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the storycraft aspects of flow - what flow is, why it should fluctuate, and where to adjust it for best effect. Now, we get down to the nitty gritty of how to use language to control your flow.

First, the basics! Each scene of your tale has its own natural flow, determined by content and the way you tell the story. Action, plot events, excitement, and suspense naturally flow fast, while introspection, description, and other exposition slow down your natural flow. Certain scenes require a slower flow, and provided you've structured your story to build good momentum, you can use action and exposition to regulate your pace.

However, a faster flow is crucial for battles, escapes, and other plot-driven scenes. Too much exposition makes your story clumsy, but no exposition at all confuses readers. This balance is especially delicate in your opening scene, where you want to engage readers with action and excitement. How can you deliver a fast-paced flow without surrendering all your explanations?

The answer is to avoid devoting full sentences to exposition. Instead, parse your descriptions into a few words or key phrase, and attach those words to exciting sentences. Break up exposition into bite-sized chunks that don't impede the natural flow of the action.

Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!

This preserves the momentum of the story, instead of causing your scene to stumble. The following example sentences from my Tales of the Known World saga demonstrate this principle in action:

Example 1: Head and shoulders above the dark-haired crowd, [Haisrir] made a fist to bid again, his handsome features contorting into a crazed smirk when he noticed Larin's scrutiny.

- excerpt from Chapter 1 of Awakening

In this sentence, the important actions are a) Haisrir places another bid, and b) he catches Larin studying him. But by attaching extra words to these events, I sneak in some description without bogging down the scene. With little effort, you absorb that the crowd is dark-haired, and that Haisrir is tall and handsome. You also encounter his crazed smirk, which characterizes him better than a whole sentence about how manic and cruel he seems.

Some descriptions can't be parsed without losing important connotations. You can streamline a lone sentence of exposition by using active verbs instead of descriptive verbs.

Example 2: Polished silver capped the sharp points of his backswept ears, and his pale yellow horsetail shone white in the overcast glare of midmorning.

- excerpt from Chapter 1 of Awakening

There is no event in this whole sentence, but it delivers description in the guise of action. The silver capped his ears, and his hair shone white--both inert objects seem more interesting as the subjects of active verbs. This creates a faster flow than a sentence like, "His pointed ears were capped with silver, and his hair was so blond it looked almost white."

Streamlined sentences bear extra description better than traditional counterparts. Compare Example 2 to a similar description: "He had backswept ears with sharp points, which were capped in polished silver, and his yellow horsetail was so pale it looked almost white in the overcast glare of midmorning." Though it imparts the same details, this construction lacks the punch of Example 2, and impedes the natural flow of the action.

Everyone's wordsmith style is different, but you can start by targeting is/are/was/were sentences in your story. By eliminating these words, you'll weave your exposition in new ways, either by affixing details to action sentences (as in Example 1), or by wording your descriptive sentences with active verbs (as in Example 2). How and when you decide to break from this guideline is a matter of style, but you'll develop your own sense of what scenes require these techniques.


That's it for this series! Check out the latest writing workshops for more.

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.

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Are You Ready?

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Portent II of Awakening: a riddle in rhyme

In the novel Awakening, there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga.

Start with Portent I here.

These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

Through razor's edge of knowledge bought
Of timeless time congealed
With cold deceit the master culled
His destiny long concealed

To piercing realm of shadows fell
In terror burden reaps
With lover's spark ignites the dark
A pawn as the legend weeps

Surrendered gate the golden word
To portent's deathly creed
Awakening the tide of grief
And forfeiting soul to bleed.


Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World?

Share your interpretation!
Comment below with your take on this portent.

This portent appears at the start of Part 4 of Awakening, and it foretells the ending of the first book in the TotKW saga. Its three stanzas mirror the three chapters of Part 4, and it deals with the deathly betrayals surrounding the ultimate unbinding of A'lara City. Can you guess what destiny the master culled?

---

Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.

---

Alongside every prophesy is an attribution block. This block contains a byline giving the name of the person who said the prophesy, and a dateline giving the day the prophesy was first said. Here is the attribution for this portent:

Dohsyn Viryahni Dynde XX
2:2:2:1/3, 1:1:2 IX
V 2:2:2:2/5, III:IX

The portent attributed here has been interpreted, and it references multiple events that culminate on an exact date. An additional verified dateline has been added to the attribution, noting the final date when the portent comes to pass.


That's it for this post! Up Next: To waning light without the chance...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.

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Life is an adventure.
Are You Ready?

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Adjust Your Flow: a storycraft workshop

This post is Part 1 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find my world workshops in the Worldbuilding Directory.

One of your most vital tools in storytelling, flow can be difficult to master, especially in works of fiction. But what is flow? This stylistic device may seem complex and elusive, but only because the term flow refers to three concepts: pace, pulse, and momentum.

Pace refers to the speed of your unfolding events, and it gauges the effort needed to follow events as they unfold. A faster pace requires readers to pay more attention, and it creates a sense of immersion in the story.

If your pace is too slow, your story is dead and won't engage readers. However, if your pace is too fast, your events will blur together and important moments will be lost. Nothing will make a lasting impression on your readers, and the need for increased focus can tire them over time.

Pulse is the fluctuation in pace through your tale, creating a heartbeat by alternating between fast-paced and slower scenes. Action and plot events naturally flow faster than characterization and exposition, which tend to drag your story down.

Sudden transitions make your pulse thrilling, but readers can get lost and leave your story unfinished. If your pace is too predictable, your story flatlines and readers grow bored. Like a river, your story needs exciting rapids and gentle eddies of explanation and clarity.

Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!

Momentum is the result of a well-planned pulse, building your reader's excitement scene upon scene. An effective chain of events compels readers from beginning to end. Adjust your pace to create pulse, and you achieve momentum. This momentum surges through the fast scenes, and sustains interest during the slower scenes. In my Tales of the Known World saga, I leverage the natural pace of each scene using this principle.

Once you grasp these dynamics, you can manipulate flow for desired effects. The key to good flow is knowing when to speed or slow your pace, and how quickly to transition. You'll develop your own style as you decide how to construct your story's pulse.


That's it for this post! Up Next: How to control your scene's pace...

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.

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Are You Ready?

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My First Live Performance: inspiration & spark

This post is part of a series to augment the Author's Manifesto available for free download.

This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore.

Find my published stories and guides in the Books Directory.

Last Friday, I read from Awakening live for the Streetcar Series, a creative expo in the Detroit area. As a former singer and drama student, I was no stranger to performing in front of an audience. But as an author, I've spent a long time alone with my words, and I had to switch into extrovert-mode to climb onstage and bring those words to life.

The proposition both enthused and terrified me. But I am a storyteller first, and an author second. Writers may be reclusive, but the storytelling tradition is grounded in performance art. With a 20-minute set to fill, I opted to read Chapter Two for the audience. Not only is Chapter One posted free on my website, but Chapter Two introduces a new set of characters, and offers more scene breaks as potential stopping points.

After a jittery day of check-listing and meditating, I embarked on the 90-minute drive to the neighborhood of Hamtramck. The long transit steeled my nerves, and the venue's atmosphere reminisced of my hometown Austin, Texas. Soaking in the cool Cafe 1923, I admired walls lined with art and laden bookshelves.

My set came after an open mic segment, so I set up shop in a corner and focused on staying calm until my turn on stage. Amidst the whirl of poetry slams and karaoke came the sweet tone of an ocarina, keening a tune from Majora's Mask. Then came a low dirge from the Lord of the Rings, and a medley of Zelda songs woven across the theme from Star Wars. I realized my target audience of gamers, Ren Faire goers, and fantasy fans extraordinaire had turned out in force to hear what I'd come to share.

Check out this Author's Manifesto for more of my inspirations!

Projecting my voice over the cafe's exhaust fan, I rattled through my opening remarks and relaxed into the story. My revision process hinges on reading text aloud, so I found the flow of words natural and familiar. Within minutes, the persistent chatter that had plagued open mic died away, and I wove my story for a spellbound audience.

Twenty minutes later, the enthralled room quivered back to life and burst into applause! As the crowd surged into discussion, my closing remarks fell on deaf ears, and I headed back to my booth with mixed feelings. But the shop owner ran up for a signed paperback, and unleashed a merry tide of piqued imaginations. I signed books for new fans and took subscribers to my monthly newsletter until the cafe locked its doors.

Then came the after-party, where I talked with my kindred nerds about fan-fiction, gaming, and world-building. I unveiled my vision of encouraging fan-fiction where most authors reject it, and of sharing the Known World with my fellow gamers, who are just as capable of grand storytelling but have more fun with a ready backdrop. Fans met these dreams with overwhelming delight, encouraging me to build a community where they could gather to celebrate their own adventures in the Known World.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who came out to see me, I had a great time at my live reading. I really connected with my target audience, found new fans, and made new friends. Before I left for the evening, they invited me back for Shire Day, where the seven meals of Tolkien's hobbits rule the related LotR festivities. On the long drive home, I reveled in their joy at my story, and their motivating extolments of my dream to open the Tales of the Known World saga to fans. Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, I can help unleash the storyteller inside us all.


That's it for this post! Check out my latest inspirations for more.

Download the Author's Manifesto here, or start your adventure below.

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Life is an adventure.
Are You Ready?

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