#NovemberWorldbuilder 13 Depends on the region and the religion. The Old Faith (which I yapped about back in August) holds sway on the Black River and a few other southern regions, and is all about enforcing order over chaos. Proper burial rituals are especially important to them. (1/3)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 12 Well, since none of my short stories really have antagonists in the direct sense, I'll just chat about the ethics of the three main faction leaders, since they're the closest thing to villains. (1/7)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 11 Bit late to this one. Since I've got multiple stories set in Karatera, I'll go over the ethics of the MCs of the stories I've posted so far. - Fayiz from A Soldier's Lot; - Chloe from Spiritbinders; and - Dumu from Clanless

No, I fear I will die before I can write them all 😭😭😭

Question for the #WritingCommunity: I'm trying to promote a series of dark fantasy short stories that I'm writing, but I'm a bit concerned that nobody's actually seeing them. Does anyone have any advice on how to expand my "reach" with my stories? Relevant hashtags or things like that?

#NovemberWorldbuilders 10 King Ergon Caspio I, who ruled some 70 years ago, was renowned for revitalising the faith of the First Eye in the desert regions and for leading expeditions into the ancient ruins that dot the Violet Sands. From those ruins, he retrieved hundreds of artifacts... (1/3)

My third short story, Clanless, is now out! Dumu, dragonkin warrior, joins the Bluebane Alliance in an effort to free the slaves of the Red Sands, but starts to doubt the motives of his superiors. Check out the link below if that sounds interesting to you!

#NovemberWorldbuilders 9 There's quite a few villains in Karatera's past, big and small. The most well known villains just so happen to be ancient kings from the Dark Ages and before. The Seven Cruel Kings are among the most notorious villains. These despots ruled the northern Coastlands... (1/6)

My third short story, Clanless, is now out! Dumu, dragonkin warrior, joins the Bluebane Alliance in an effort to free the slaves of the Red Sands, but starts to doubt the motives of his superiors. Check out the link below if that sounds interesting to you!

#NovemberWorldbuilders 8 So we're going to go into the recent past rather than the ancient past, and talk about the heroic band known as the Four Blades, who once roamed Karatera righting wrongs, slaying monsters, and occasionally causing havoc. (1/9)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 7 Onyx is a BLACK gemstone that is strongly associated with undeath. Virtually every ritual that creates such abominations requires one to place a piece of onyx in the chest of the body to be raised, often destroying the gem in the process.

My third short story, Clanless, is coming out Monday, 8AM AEST! If you enjoy stories about dragon people confronting the horrors of war, be sure to head over to my blog and have a read once it drops! #amwriting

That is a payout of one trillion, 50 billion dollars. Like to charge, repost to cast. Summon the Etsy witches!!!

#NovemberWorldbuilders 6 WHITE is the sacred colour of the Path of the First Eye, the state religion of eponymous Providence of the First Eye, which rules over Karatera. The priests of the First Eye wear white robes, their churches are made of white marble, and their religious doctrine... (1/2)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 😈☢️💀 ZERO POINT SURVIVOR UPDATE 5 URANUS: THE FINAL FRONTIER ☢️💀😈 #indie #indiegame #majorupdate #steam #zps #zpg store.steampowered.com/app/3476600/...

#NovemberWorldbuilders 5 The Violet Sands, the western region of Karatera, is named such because its sand dunes shine and sparkle with a variety of colours, predominantly in shades of PURPLE. (1/3)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 4 A cactid is a carnivorous plant that resembles a small, GREEN ball cactus. When its prey draws near, it latches on with its thorny tendrils and drains the moisture from its victim. It often grows of patches of a dozen.

It was always about the "right" politics in video games, and the silence of video game companies is defeaning. An extra episode of Unpacked is available now from @nickjcal.bsky.social.

#NovemberWorldbuilders 3 Orichalcum is a strange metal with a yellow-orange colouration, often appearing slightly corroded. Often referred to as "rusted gold", orichalcum is renowned for its ability to interfere with magical spells and phenomena. (1/3)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 2 King Gharamax is a huge blue-scaled storm dragon, and the leader of the Bluebane Alliance. Charismatic, cunning and cruel, his dragonkin forces treat him and his brood as living gods, which isn't far from the truth of it. (1/3)

#NovemberWorldbuilders 1 The desert of east Karatera, known as the Red Sands, is a vast expanse of rust-red stone and soil, dotted with ancient canyons and rocky spires. It’s said the desert's colour comes from the blood of an ancient khorgul war god.

Okay, Clanless has been edited! Didn't have time to work on the final copy last week as I was busy moving out, but I'm settled into my new place, and I think I should have time to work on it this week! Looking to post it either next week or the following one! #amwriting

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

"Clanless" is being edited as we speak! Looking to finally post it early to mid November! In the meantime, I've started working on story number 5, "Makina", and I plan to write the third draft of "A Matter of Faith" next week. #amwriting

#writinglifemonthly 26 I haven't really hit the stage yet where people are invested enough in my works to be asking questions about them. Someday, though!

My best advice to try to get a handle on shit right now? Make something. Don't care what. Don't care if it's good. Don't care if it's just a big ass house you made in Sims 4, just lose yourself in something for an hour or so. It' s like flushing the brain toilet.

#writinglifemonthly 23 Brett's Demon Cycle is something I found with a similar world to my Karatera setting, where demons come out at night and also it's set in a desert. I think. ...I haven't actually read the books yet.

#writinglifemonthly 25 Oh god, okay. I think the first thing I ever wrote was a Halo fanfiction when I was 14. It was a parody fic, inspired heavily by watching Red vs Blue. Never finished that story. From what I recall, it wasn't much of a story at all - just a string of disconnected gags.

#writinglifemonthly 22 For Tales from Karatera, I usually listen to this. It's an ambient music mix with a "dark desert" aesthetic. Helps me get into the tone of the setting. youtu.be/Vo7n4j3OrNs?...

#writinglifemonthly 21 This is a funny one, because most of the fictional worlds I'm invested in are objectively terrible places to live. So it's a matter of figuring which one sucks the least. I suppose Discworld wouldn't be as bad, I guess? Better than living in Westeros.

Oh hey I passed 50 followers yesterday. That's sick.

#writinglifemonthly 19 This is a good question, because I don't pay munch attention to tropes. All that matters to me is that the story is told in an engaging way.

Okay I think I've finally got an editor to look at Clanless. Hopefully that should be available to read in 2-3 weeks. Beta reading of A Matter of Faith is coming along very slowly, and I intend to start working on story number 5 this week. Ball's still rolling, albeit very slowly. #amwriting

TALES FROM KARATERA An ongoing set of eight short stories set in the desert world of Karatera, where monsters, warlords and dark spirits reign supreme. This post will be updated periodically with links to each story as I post them on my main Wordpress blog.

#writinglifemonthly 18 I keep my pile on my bookshelf, just oriented in a different way to make me go "oh right I'm meant to be reading these".

#writinglifemonthly 17 I think just how much the stories change during the drafting process. Like, you start out with what you think is a pretty solid idea, and then as early as your first draft you realise that it wasn't as well-defined as you thought, forcing you to go back to the drawing board.

#writinglifemonthly 16 From the first short story I "published" on my blog: "Fayiz crawled across the cliff, his black-and-red tabard scraping against the dirt and leaving long dusty smears the colour of rust."

#writingcommunity 15 I keep hitting the "n" or "." key when I'm writing on my phone, so I keep accidentally making nonsense words or bogus site names. I'm sure I've made countless other mistakes while drafting.

#writinglifemonthly 14 Don't have one. All my stories are online and physical prints aren't really feasible for me right now.

#writinglifemonthly 13 Well, I haven't really authored anything, so I don't have much to say for this one. I do agree though that the two myths you mentioned are utter crap - writing is neither easy, and if you're investing labour into your work, you ought to be paid for ut.

#writinglifemonthly 12 This passage is from A Matter of Faith, one of my current WIPs. This particular part is describing the khenedrin desert people, who are basically desert elves. Basically I just want to know how interesting they sound by the description I've written.

This post is a brief update on where my short story project is at. TLDR, I'm trying to get Clanless edited, A Matter of Faith is being beta-read, and She-Devil is gonna be it's own thing going forward. For more of my thoughts, have a read below! #amwriting

#writinglifemonthly 11 This is generally how I edit my drafts, with a notebook filled with other people's feedback beside me for easy reference. This one is for A Matter of Faith, my fourth short story, which went through three wildly different drafts before I finally showed it to people.

#writinglifemonthly 10 Hardest part for me is working on the bloody things. It's not even that I don't have time to write, I just have trouble figuring out which specific time slot to write in. I often leave it too late, and end up too tired to do any meaningful work.

Zero Point Survivor and Zero Point Games is at #pax #indiegames #unsw #zpg

#writinglifemonthly 9 Bending the rules a bit here, but my first and main source of inspiration was the video game Dark Souls. The dark, hostile atmosphere of its worldbuilding really made me think "hey I want to make worlds like that".

store.steampowered.com/news/app/361... #indiegame #update #indiedev #devdiary #patchnotes #asrpg #zpg

#writinglifemonthly 8 I mean, not really? I guess City of the Dead from the Fallout OST kinda reminds me of Dumu from my upcoming story, but that's about it. It's not really something I think about.

#writinglifemonthly 7 My least favourite part of the process is the whole "having to prioritise your works" thing. I wish I could just work on all my projects at the same time.

#writinglifemonthly 6 Drafting, I'd say. Just the process of sitting down and writing out the story really engages me. I enjoy research too, so long as it doesn't eat into my writing time, and editing to me is just the process of getting the draft to read the way it was supposed to read.