Download or read book Fantasy World Building written by Mark Nelson and published by Dover Publications. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When artists and designers explore or create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories. Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology. All visual creatives who work with imaginative material — illustrators, comic artists, and writers — will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical knowledge. "In sixteen breezy-yet-surprisingly-concise chapters he covers everything from visual problem solving to spirituality to warfare to transportation, not with the idea of giving the reader lessons to copy by rote but rather as prompts to develop their own original concepts. If I were suggesting three books every budding artist should have at their fingertips they would be Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis, Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney, and, most definitely, Mark's Fantasy World-Building." — Muddy Colors

Download or read book Creating a Fictional World The Beginner s Guide to World Building written by Alex Lyn and published by Knight and Starlight Publishing. This book was released on 2024-08-05 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you want to be the master of worlds? Have you been dreaming of creating a fictional world, but don't know where to start? The Beginner's Guide to World-Building covers everything you need to know about the basics of world-building - from designing the setting of your story to the characters, plot, magic systems and so much more. If you've ever wondered how your favorite authors, producers, or game developers create immersive worlds that feel as real as ours, the answer is world-building. World-building is everywhere - in your favorite books and TV shows, your favorite video games, and even your favorite art pieces. The process of creating a fictional world is intertwined with every storytelling medium and nearly every fictional genre, not just science fiction and fantasy. This guide aims to make the world-building process easy to understand for anyone interested in telling a tale and help storytellers bring their work to life!

Download or read book The Wildsea RPG written by Felix Isaacs and published by . This book was released on 2022-08-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A POST-FALL FANTASY TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME SET IN A RAMPANT OCEAN OF VERDANT GREEN. Some three hundred years ago the empires of the world were toppled by a wave of fast growing greenery, a tide of rampant growth spilling from the West known as the Verdancy. Now chainsaw-driven ships cut their way across dense treetop waves, their engines powered by oilfruit, rope-golems, honey and pride.You play a wildsailor, part of a motley crew consisting of humanity's weathered descendants, cactoid gunslingers, centipedal fungi, silk-clothed spiderfolk, and other, stranger things. With your fellow crewmembers, you'll journey across the lingin' tide discovering charts, pursuing drives, and avoiding mires of the deep.The Wildsea hungers and grows, roots sinking deep into the forest floor as the waves above ripple with life. What will you discover in its depths?The Wildsea is a tabletop roleplaying game from Quillhound Studios for 2-6 players inspired by stories like Sunless Sea, Bastion, and the Bas-Lag Trilogy. The Wildsea uses a narrative, fiction-first d6 dicepool system that draws inspiration from games like Belly of the Beast, Blades in the Dark, and 13th Age.

Download or read book How to Write a Short Story written by N A Turner and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-28 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You always wanted to write short stories but you have no idea where to begin.Do you want to become better at writing fiction?Perhaps you find it hard to come up with ideas for a story or to devise a plot. Maybe you have difficulty developing your own style or is your dialogue rusty.N.A. Turner is here to help you navigate the land of short story writing from outlining your story to attracting readers. Every aspiring writer dreams of people reading his or her work. Short story writing is a way of both developing your writing style and to introduce your talent to potential readers. At the start of their career, the likes of Stephen King and Charles Bukowski made a name for themselves by writing and publishing short stories.Learn more about N.A. Turner's writing tips based on his experience and research.This guide teaches you: - How to write well-structured short stories- How to determine your theme- How to plot your story- How to create engaging, interesting characters- How to build a fictional world- How to write scenes and clear dialogue- How to get to that first draft and edit your story- How to publish your short stories in the current market- And much moreThis guidebook will show you a step-by-step process to successfully write and publish short stories. From developing an idea to attracting readers online. This comprehensive, step-by-step guide is all you need to get started.

Download or read book United States of Japan written by Peter Tieryas and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “interesting and excited to read” spiritual sequel to The Man in The High Castle focuses on the New Japanese Empire—from an acclaimed author and essayist (io9) Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons—a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura’s job is to censor video games, and he’s tasked with getting to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura’s hiding something . . . He’s slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame’s origins are even more controversial and dangerous than the censors originally suspected. Part detective story, part brutal alternate history, United States of Japan is a stunning successor to Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. File under: Science Fiction [ Gamechanger | Area #11 | Robot Wars | Strike Back the Empire ]

Download or read book 100 Days of Sunlight written by Abbie Emmons and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile...and no legs. Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition -- no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can't see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it's the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again. Tessa spurns Weston's "obnoxious optimism", convinced that he has no idea what she's going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him -- and Weston can't imagine life without her. But he still hasn't told her the truth, and when Tessa's sight returns he'll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa's world...or overcome his fear of being seen. 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by author Abbie Emmons. If you like sweet contemporary romance and strong family themes then you'll love this touching story of hope, healing, and getting back up when life knocks you down.

Download or read book How to Write Science Fiction Fantasy written by Orson Scott Card and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-09-15 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to write science fiction and fantasy from a master You've always dreamed of writing science fiction and fantasy tales that pull readers into extraordinary new worlds and fantastic conflicts. Best-selling author Orson Scott Card shows you how it's done, distilling years of writing experience and publishing success into concise, no-nonsense advice. You'll learn how to: • utilize story elements that define the science fiction and fantasy genres • build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore • develop the "rules" of time, space and magic that affect your world and its inhabitants • construct a compelling story by developing ideas, characters, and events that keep readers turning pages • find the markets for speculative fiction, reach them, and get published • submit queries, write cover letters, find an agent, and live the life of a writer The boundaries of your imagination are infinite. Explore them with Orson Scott Card and create fiction that casts a spell over agents, publishers, and readers from every world.

Download or read book The Story Grid written by Shawn Coyne and published by Black Irish Entertainment LLC. This book was released on 2015-05-02 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult). The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story ?works? or ?doesn't work. 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story'the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.

Download or read book World building written by Stephen Lee Gillett and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writer's guide to constructing star systems and life-supporting planets for fiction that's out of this world.

Download or read book Three Californias written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the internationally bestselling author of the Mars Trilogy and New York 2140 Before Kim Stanley Robinson terraformed Mars, he wrote three science fiction novels set in Orange County, California, where he grew up. These alternate futures—one a post-apocalypse, one an if-this-goes-on future reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, and one an ecological utopia—form a whole that illuminates, enchants, and inspires--collected here as Three Californias. What if... there was a limited nuclear war that left the United States blockaded, fragmented, the few survivors living in the ruins of a once-great nation? What if... this goes on, and technology continues to accelerate, and power continues to be consolidated into corporate culture, a developer’s dream world gone mad: an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls, and designer drugs? What if... a revolution happens, and the US addresses climate change in a responsible way. Is a future green Utopia all that great when you’re young and in love? This Tor Essentials edition of Three Californias includes an introduction by Francis Spufford, bestselling author of Golden Hill and Red Plenty. “[Robinson] invites us to share his characters’ intensely personal, intensely local attachment to what they have. The result may shame you into entertaining new hope for the future.” —The New York Times on Pacific Edge At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Fantasy Map Making written by Jesper Schmidt and published by Fantasy Publishing. This book was released on with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever struggled with map making? Spent countless hours trying to make it comply with the laws of nature? This book is a step-by-step guidebook that will teach you how to create an authentic fantasy map. You will gain all the knowledge necessary to complete a map which your audience will believe, no matter if they are readers, viewing a movie, video game players, or role-playing gamers. It contains the exact process I use when creating maps for my fantasy fiction. I have spent countless hours researching and learning about the topography of Earth and how to apply it to a fantasy map so that you do not have to. I have translated it all into 14 easy steps which allow you to construct an entire fantasy map from start to finish. Step One: What you need to consider before starting your map. Step Two: The different options for creating the map: from hand-drawn over software to hiring a professional. Step Three: An overview of what is to come. Step Four: Sketch your map and make sure to get size of the world just right. Step Five: Adding continents by understanding how tectonic plates work. Step Six: Terraforming your world. Step Seven: Incorporating islands and lakes. Step Eight: Making sure that rivers are realistic. Step Nine: Adding forests. Step Ten: Borders and understanding how the lands will affect the people who live on them, and vice versa. Step Eleven: It’s then time for roads. Step Twelve: Optional fantasy elements. Step Thirteen: The final touches. Step Fourteen: The Map Master. As a companion to this book, you will be able to download a free worksheet. This is not a book to teach you how to draw. It’s about designing.

Download or read book Beginner s Guide to Fantasy Drawing written by 3dtotal Publishing and published by 3dtotal Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invaluable tutorials and insightful tips make Beginner's Guide to Fantasy Drawing a perfect start to a fantasy art journey.

Download or read book The A Zs of Worldbuilding written by Rebekah Loper and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worldbuilding is the ultimate act of creation for speculative fiction writers, but how exactly do you worldbuild? You ask 'what if' and use each answer as a springboard to more questions and answers about your fictional world. In The A-Zs of Worldbuilding, that 'what if' process is broken down into 26 themed chapters, covering topics ranging from architecture to zoology. Each chapter includes a corresponding set of guided exercises to help you find the 'what if' questions relevant to your story's world. Fair warning, though: worldbuilding is addictive. Once you get started, you might never put your pen down again.

Download or read book The Broken Earth Trilogy written by N. K. Jemisin and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collectable boxed set edition includes all three books in N. K. Jemisin's incredible NYT bestselling and three-time Hugo award-winning Broken Earth Trilogy. This complete collection would be a great gift for any occasion and includes The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. This is the way the world ends for the last time... A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. The Broken Earth trilogyThe Fifth SeasonThe Obelisk GateThe Stone Sky

Download or read book The Elysian Prophecy written by Vivien Reis and published by Copper Hound Press LLC. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enchanted island. An evil resurrected. A society determined to gain power. When a violent attack leaves their father in the hospital, Abigail and Benjamin Cole discover there's more to their family history than mental illness. But after fifteen-year-old Abi is abducted, she learns the attack wasn't random. Thrust into an exotic and beautiful world part of a multi-millennial feud, she must decide who to trust in a society built on secrets. Questioning everything she's ever known, she enlists the help of a boy connected to her in impossible ways and uncovers a dangerous secret stretching generations. Seventeen-year-old Ben desperately searches for both his sister and his mother, but his hold on reality is fading. Something dark has latched onto him. In a race against his own failing mind, where violent hallucinations and paranoia force him to believe he's next in line for the family curse, he learns he's the only one that can save his family. When darkness is coming, who do you trust? Magic. Deceit. War. Perfect for fans of Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, and Leigh Bardugo.

Download or read book On Writing and Worldbuilding written by Timothy Hickson and published by . This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Impyrium written by Henry H. Neff and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2018 TEXAS LONE STAR READING LIST PICK! "A rare jewel. A new classic in the fantasy genre." —Eoin Colfer, author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl series Henry H. Neff’s new high-stakes middle grade fantasy follows two unlikely allies as they confront a conspiracy that will shake the world of Impyrium to its core. For over three thousand years, the Faeregine dynasty has ruled Impyrium. But the family’s magic has been fading, and with it their power over the empire. Whether it’s treachery from a rival house, the demon Lirlanders, or rebel forces, many believe the Faeregines are ripe to fall. Hazel, the youngest member of the royal family, is happy to leave ruling to her sisters so that she can study her magic. But the empress has other plans for her granddaughter, dark and dangerous plans to exploit Hazel’s talents and rekindle the Faeregine mystique. Hob, a commoner from the remote provinces, has been sent to the city to serve the Faeregines—and to spy on them. One wants to protect the dynasty. The other wants to destroy it. But when Hazel and Hob form an improbable friendship, their bond may save the realm as they know it…or end it for good.