Storysmithing

An overview of what I read and wrote in 2025, lessons learned, and my goals for 2026.

I review my favorite elements of books 1, 2, and 3 of the We Hunt Monsters series as a reader, then a writer. I also share a few thoughts on areas that could be reconsidered. Overall, I would highly recommend this series for any fans of LitRPG!

We design a (99%) complete dungeon diving card game in one hour. The abbreviated, complete ruleset of "Dungeon 53" is available at the Storysmithing website .I hope you enjoy!

A conversation with Minichirops touching on his journey as a writer, the snowflake outlining method, and more.

The least interesting aspect of a combat scene should be the combat. Here, I outline how Chapter 5's combat scene should develop our characters and worldbuilding through the action.

After 60+ hours of brainstorming, the shape of the story has evolved significantly. I overview how the characters and wordbuilding have grown along with the plot now stretching to seven books.

Have you ever met a Smogback or a Lunchmeat Slabber? Me neither, but we create over 50 of these mobs that our cast of heroes will encounter at Delving High. Another 200 mobs, and we'll be all set!

We continue delving into our new brainstorm by digging into the trident of character progression: Classes, Variants, and Charisms.

We brainstorm the LitRPG/LitRoguelite novel, Delving High. The story will follow Jack Stalk and his squad's quest to survive the dangers (and other students) of Delving High. I plan to release chapters on Royal Road as time goes on. I hope this will be a nice forray into the genre!

Check out the draft of Chapter 3!

A reading of the Chapter 2 draft.

Check out the first chapter of my primary 2025 project!

I review the biggest projects and takeaways from 2025 and introduce 2025's major project: The Jester's Son novel!

An introduction and reading of BatSim High: Chapter 1, where high school students are trained for combat in the Simworld. This YA sci-fi chapter was very fun to draft, and we'll see if I return to this story in the future!

Knit the (toy) Knight must save the day while all the big knights are away!

Tired of their usual food, all the animals must band together to make soup. It takes a crew to stew!

Rody the ghoul seeks the perfect rock to give each member of his new humanamily.

Macy feeds Finny magic fish food, and strangeness ensues.

A full reading of my very best-to-date ghoul-bedtime-card-stacking-mischiefy story. This story is kid and ghoul friendly.

If you've never heard of Glip the Ghoul, that's because we invented him in this episode! Here, we outline a short bedtime story for kids (and ghouls)!

What better way to avoid beginning one novel than by brainstorming another? In this episode, we outline the starting scene to launch our band of adventurers into a new, unexplored continent.

A reflection on some things I appreciated regarding the worldbuilding, plot, prose, and characters of the Red Rising saga.

A reading of Chapter 20. I hope you enjoyed this story!

A reading of Chapter 19.

A reading of Chapter 18.