Star Spun Souls

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more linguistic content in my Language Directory . A lot of invented worlds feature a common tongue, sometimes referred to as a lingua franca , that unifies the various peoples of that world. A standard world language can be useful, steamlining your storytelling and allowing you to avoid pesky language barriers when working on dialogue. However, defining a standard language for your world also raises some rather tricky worldbuilding questions. Unifying languages start out as regional languages and gain prestige over time. Like all languages, they take their names from the people and places where they were first spoken. They have history, and they bring cultural baggage with them wherever they spread. ...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. The best and latest worldbuilding workshops are gathered here at www.DNFrost.com/worldbuilding . Find more content navigation in my Resource Directory . Also check out my worldbuilding for the TotKW Saga at www.DNFrost.com/codex . And for worldbuilding from other authors, see the style analysis series at www.DNFrost.com/workshops . Define Your Standard: NEW POST! A standard world language can be useful, but unifying languages start out as regional languages and gain prestige over time. They have history, and they bring cultural baggage with them wherever they spread. Read more of this post here... What is Worldbuilding? On this website, the worldbuilding tag refers to ideas about deve...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more linguistic content in my Language Directory . Inventing a language for your novel adds depth and nuance (and it's fun), but is also a big pain. That's because language is not a static thing. Languages, like cultures, grow and change over time. Some languages are young and limited in terms of vocabulary. Some languages are old and steeped in rich history and tradition. But most languages seem to go through the same cycles over and over again: Stage 1: The writing system develops (or is modified) to match modern speech. Whatever your language, at this stage the written language seems to perfectly represent the oral language. Words are written phonetically, and speakers have no difficulty ...

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. This post is also Part 4 of a series about The Once and Future Nerd . Start with Part 1 here . I first connected with Madera and Glass in Part 1 of this guest series , and in Part 3 of this guest series , I provide the actual podcast review! The long-form style analysis below goes into much greater detail, diving into many aspects of storycraft, worldbuilding, and wordsmith techniques. The Once and Future Nerd is an epic fantasy podcast written by Christian Madera and Zachary Glass, recorded by professional voice actors, and empowered by its own original score. This report pertains to the episodes in Book One of the podcast. ★★★★★ The Once and Future Nerd podca...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more linguistic content in my Language Directory . Many worldbuilders choose to invent languages for their worlds. But whether or not you invent a language for your world, you need to decide how the people of your world create place-names. Place-names in English are often made by appending a syllable like -ville or -ton or -berg to a landscape feature or town founder. Some places have names with no translation, but people also name places by describing their location, color, climate, vegetation, or wildlife. If you have an invented language, decide how place-names are formed in your language. Pick out some common affixes, determine whether your culture prefers long or short names, and outl...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more content navigation in my Resource Directory . Hello, there! Thanks for your interest in my worldbuilding techniques. My name is D.N.Frost, and I'm a fantasy author, fictional cartographer, and extensive worldbuilder. After designing myriad cultures, constructing multiple languages, and producing numerous maps for my Tales of the Known World saga, I've developed a realistic approach to building a complex world. How exactly do you build a fictional world? I realized that a world's cultures, languages, and geography are connected, and that they influence each other through the course of history. To build more realism into your invented worlds, please enjoy this collection of short worldbuilding ti...