It’s finally here! First envisioned by ten-year-old me and set into motion four years ago, my ongoing, monthly series, Arcane, is finally here! If you like Lovecraftian horror, Saga of the Swamp Thing, and Young Adult media, check it out!
Fourteen year-old Hogan Serrano accidentally touched the Oculus and gained the memories of the hundreds who bore that ancient artifact before him. Now, every wannabe cultist, esoteric magician, and maniac would kill for the secrets in Hogan’s brain to help them control reality and beyond.
A physical copy can be purchased here from the publisher, Cosmic Lion.
If you’d like to get a digital version, please click on the link to Gumroad below for a 20% discount off of the cover price. A Comixology version is soon to come!
I consult with a lot of brands, studios, and indie creators about their story worlds. Many of them have the same basic questions, and others want an easier guide to building out the details of their world. Well, look no further! In these episodes of Building a Better Story World, I give you a series of exercises and prompts to help you craft better and more intricately constructed elements of your narrative universe!
How To Create Better Openings – Using the works of Hayao Miyazaki, I showcase how you can create better first impressions for your characters, plot, theme, and more!
Secondary Character Creation – With the world of the Simpsons as an example, you can delve into how to create more compelling (and agented) secondary characters, as well as more memorable tertiary characters with room for growth!
Creating Interesting Locales – Locales have archetypes as well as characters, so if you’re struggling with ways to create realms that spark your audiences’ imaginations, take a trip with me (and the cast of Deep Space Nine) as we explore the six major kinds of locations in your story world!
Building out the Chronology of Narrative Universes – Your universe existed before your main characters got there and will persist long after they shuffle off their mortal coil, so you better build self-contained eras in your chronology in order for audiences to understand them. Just ask Marty and Doc Brown!
Building Your Mythology – The big magilla: how to create your own story world mythology! Using all the elements we’ve detailed, this is a handy-dandy guide for one way to create a document that houses all of your story universe’s various rules, characters, and more!
The holidays have been crazy, as has my professional life! There will be some exciting news items coming down the track, but for now, I wanted to make sure all of my links to the most recent episodes of Building a Better Story World are here!
First up: I cover how to find out what your fans will love about your story world via the “fun” that engages them, time after time, episode after episode. Join me here as I examine three dishes to re-engage excitement and novelty into your world, regardless of platform. Plus, there’s a whole lotta analysis of Psych for all of you Shawn and Gus fans out there!
Next up is an archetypal two-parter! Worried about how your story world may connect with audiences? Consider how classic storytelling figures can help create a bridge between you and fans by showcasing traditional structures that excite all sorts of people. Listen in as I take you through twelve particular characters that appear throughout human narratives, across time and culture, so that you can follow in their footsteps, bend the rules, or forge your own path successfully! The first entry can be found here and second here, but you can listen in any order!
Lastly, we have the rules! Some people focus on magic, science, languages, or politics when building out the foundational guidepost of their story universes, but there’s so much more to the building blocks your world than that! With the aid of a younger Clark Kent, I’ll show how you can build out numerous elements that anchor narrative universes for fans and collaborators while also allowing them to expand!
Happy new year, everyone, and be sure to download, subscribe, rate, and review BABSW on any fine podcatcher!
The basics of your story worlds have been covered, so now we’re into the deeper design elements! In this episode, I talk about the key differentiators between your story world and our real one! Using superheroes, friends in New York, and podcasts, we showcase how specifying this content makes for strong narrative universes. It’s the first part of our advanced class, so click here or go to any fine podcatcher, but make sure you’ve got a helmet on!
This is a special one: all the previous prompts in one place! Ever wanted to create a story world and had no idea where to begin? Well, here it is! I walk you through the basics of story world creation! Give it a shot here, and let me know what you come up with!
A comic I wrote is now on Kickstarter! For only A$10 (or 7.15), you can get a 48-page comedy featuring a worker’s revolt at the North Pole! Intrigue abounds, so if you are especially keen, for A$16 (or 11.50), you can get the physical product, too! Click here to help make this a reality!
And now I’m finally caught up! Better late than never!
Listen in this, our latest episode of story world design intrigue, as I wrap up our five-part series on story world creation basics, fittingly enough, with an episode on resolutions! Click on this link to hear how a famous British secret agent with a license to kill epitomizes how creators can craft satisfying conclusions for their stories in scenes, entries, arcs, and entire narrative universes.
Until then, listen in as I take you on a tour of choices, or those pieces of action that propel characters on their journeys through narratives. Using a popular chef and entertainment icon, yours truly will detail how to better reach your audience by making willful determinations that reflect the universe you’re creating. Check it out here!
I’ve fallen behind on my postings! Don’t do what Johnny Don’t Does!
While you rightly take me to task for my indolence, give a listen to this episode of Building a Better Story World! Good obstacles make for good stories! That’s why this episode is going to delve into what makes a good antagonist, how they can be themed to dramatic struggles in your work, and the basic challenges that characters face in their journeys! Join me as I chart this course with the help of a familiar, bullwhip-wielding adventurer. Give it a listen here, or on Spotify, iTunes, or most podcatchers!
I have a new episode of Building A Better Story World out. This time, I’m dealing with your protagonists’ goals. The stronger you make them, the greater your narrative universe will be! To help me with this, I’ve enlisted Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte to showcase what this means for your work! Give it a listen here, or on Spotify, iTunes, or most podcatchers!
Steele Filipek 