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World-Building Inspiration: Macro Nature Photography
She didn’t know how she got small enough to use a mushroom as a house. The answer sat on the edge of her memory but no matter how hard she concentrated, it wouldn’t move within reach. It has been years, maybe centuries. She watched the tall people grow up and grow old. She never changed. She screamed for their attention but her small voice never touched them. She climbed a tree but something stopped them from hearing her cries for help. But, that was years ago. It wasn’t supposed to matter anymore. Maybe the stories were true. Maybe the people underground did make you remember unpleasant things. She was close…
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7 Places to Find Inspiration for Your Magic System (Infographic)
If only magic was real. It’s not but I can give my characters the powers I want. You can make a fantasy world without magic but I find it more fun to include it. Usually, I go into a story already knowing what kind of powers I want to give my characters. I’ll add some extra stuff to make it more interesting. Then, I’ll sit back and work on making it believable. My paranormal investigator series is presenting a little problem, though. By the time I started The Unburned Island, I’d published about 12 books. All of them had characters with powers, which meant I was running dry on ideas.…
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Fantasy Artwork: Bringing a Fictional Landscape to Life
No animals greeted Hayan as he strolled. Tree branches didn’t bend to welcome him. Everything was still as if his forest died standing up. Leaves on a nearby tree glowed purple but it was a pale shade. The tree across from him was dark. Withered, dull-colored leaves rained down on him each time the wind blew. He pressed his hand to the dead tree. E’Sully was crying. “You’re not a prison are you,” he said. The glowing tree shuddered. Times like these, when he was connected to the land, Haylan couldn’t see it as a monster determined to punish them for some unknown crime. (From Eaters of Darkness) The energy…
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Behind the Design: Fantasy Map Making
Before the world ended, Cayden was the center of technological advancement. Now, it’s a paradise for only a select few. It’s a story parents tell their children to distract them from the living nightmares. For my Merging Worlds series, Books 1-3 take place entirely on Jael. Characters mention other provinces but they don’t visit them in the story. But in Book 4, a few characters start in Jael, another group is in Annissa. Some will travel through Sorin. Then, Cayden has a special story in Book 4. Since characters are traveling to different lands, I’ve started updating my maps, adding more textured and details. They’re all be added to Book…
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Author’s Guide to Creating Infographics (And Fantasy Power Inspiration)
Why would authors even care about infographics? They look complicated to make and most of the information isn’t book related. Why would you bother? For a couple of reasons. Book Promotions It would be nice if I could hire a designer to create character and land artwork. But, I can’t. I don’t have the funds for it. The next best thing would be an infographic. I created this to introduce some of my characters. I was actually surprised how popular this was. You could use infographics to describe characters, interesting facts about your world, some history…any information you think readers would want to know. Repurpose Content Naming Your Fantasy World…
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Creating Unique Magical Fantasy Races
I like elves, fairies and dwarfs but I’ll sometimes roll my eyes when they show up in a story. It’s more interesting when an author creates their own race, calling it something new. My story, The Marked Hosts, has dragon shifters but they’re called Sencial. The Del’Praeli in my Merging Worlds series were inspired by vampires. How can you create unique, humanoid fantasy races that leave readers enthralled? Read Inhale stories that feature different kinds of fantasy beings. If you only read books with traditional elves, that’s what you’re going write. It doesn’t have to be novels. Comic books and manga have some creative non-human/magical characters. I read more manga than novels…
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World Building: Creating Fantasy Creatures and Animals
Darkness has taken. Its power torments people. Animals and plants slowly evolve to thrive in this dangerous world. In Book 1 of my Merging World series, you learned about glowing plants. You discovered mutated animals in Book 3. By Book 4, new species of plants and animals appear all the time. I talked about plants in the post Creating Fantasy Plants. Now, let talk about creating fantasy animals. Real Life Animals I don’t plan on reinventing the wheel. I’m mostly talking animals that exist in our world and tweaking them. For instance, I’ll take a wolf and turn it blue. “The wolf pulled its large ears back and snarled. Silver liquid…
