History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Writing Tools: Story Engine Lore Master’s Deck

| March 17, 2025

I’ve accumulated a large collection of card-based writing tools, each of which is useful to different parts of my writing process. So I’ve decided to do a series of posts about the various decks I own and how I use them in my writing. The latest card-based writing tool in my stash is the Story […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Fashion in Worldbuilding

| February 24, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! The panel on “Fashion in Worldbuilding” talked about the different ways that clothing can be used not only […]

WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Rooted in Story

| February 3, 2025

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! I watched “Rooted in Story: Cultivating the Natural World in Ink” to get some cool ideas on how […]

WriteHive Online Confererence 2024: Worldbuilding in Real World Settings

| November 4, 2024

Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here! “Worldbuilding in Real World Settings” was an interesting discussion on what parts of worldbuilding you still need to […]

Flights of Foundry 2024 Quick Recap, Day 1

| October 7, 2024

Catherine Tavares posted her recap of what she attended at Flights of Foundry immediately after the convention. I took a little longer to collect some of my thoughts and notes, but I hope you enjoy! I’m going to have to do mine in chunks by day, so this post just covers the Friday (day 1) […]

Choosing the Location for Promise Me Nothing

| September 17, 2024

When I set out to write Promise Me Nothing, I worked long and hard on finding the right location for it. I knew I wanted to have the setting in the Pacific Northwest for a somewhat mild climate. However, I also needed to find a setting that would be far from any mass population centers, because […]

Writing Tools: Before There Were Stars

| April 29, 2024

Before There Were Stars is a little different from most of the card-based writing tools I use. It’s designed to be a storytelling game rather than writing prompts, but the way the game is set up, it works well as both! In the game, you tell mythic stories about a fictional group of people, based […]

Fun for Friday: Seasons as Characters

| September 22, 2023

In connection with Monday’s post about seasons in worldbuilding, I’m thinking about seasons as characters. How would you write a character based on spring? Which elements of that season would you emphasize? You could write a character who’s all joy and rebirth and growing things, or you could write a character who’s like torrential downpours […]

WriteHive Panel: Seasons in Worldbuilding

| September 18, 2023

One of the WriteHive online conference panels I watched was Seasons in Worldbuilding, which was an interesting look at how you can use seasons as part of your writing. Even outside of the part they play in worldbuilding, seasons can be used evoke emotions related to that season. In some writing, the season and/or the […]

Interview with CD Covington

| August 14, 2023

Today, I’m talking with CD Covington, who is just about to launch her Kickstarter for A Writer’s Guide to Linguistic Worldbuilding! Keep reading for more on the Kickstarter, CD’s work, and linguistic nerdery! DV: Tell me a little about yourself and your linguistics background. CD: My name is CD Covington, and I’ve been writing as long […]