01.10: Cataloguing a universe with Archivos founder David Robison

Building the Oracle - with Jay Swanson

What's the best way for an author to keep track of a sprawling and evolving fictional universe? And how can we take of all these wonderful little worldbuilding details to help readers explore and discover our universe beyond the pages of a book?

We discussed these questions, and much more, with Dave Robison, the founder of Archivos, a visual story-mapping tool that weaves characters, events, and places into relationship webs, live maps, and interwoven timelines.

Dave is also a podcaster, voice actor, and storyteller with multiple ongoing stories that you can jump in on right now, including the Shattered Worlds series. You can discover more about Dave's many projects on his website, wonderthingstudios.com, or by following him on Twitter @DaveRobisonTN.

Extra Tidbits:
For an awesome discussion on how puppetry (or any performance art) can make you a better author, check out Writing Excuses 3.14 with Mary Robinette Kowal.

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CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
Building the Oracle posts on the 1st and 15th of every month. It is hosted by Jay Swanson and Richard Bilkey. You can tweet at us on @jayonaboat and @rich_bilkey, find us on Instagram at @jayswanson and @rich_bilkey and follow Jay on YouTube.

Our Super Patrons at the time of recording were Kevin, Karin Bates, Mystery Man, Susan French, Dixie Rose, David Guy, figures.seven.three, Steve, Jane Baker, Founder Timeless Capital, Mr & Mrs DJ Poseur and Jody Ferguson. When the demon apocalypse comes upon us, and we are forced to retreat to our mountain fortress, these are the people we want fighting beside us.

This episode was produced by Zach Egan.
Our theme music is "Glory" and our ad music is "Light," both by David Cutter.
We record everything on a Rode Procaster and mix in Adobe Audition and/or Audacity depending on how out of our workflow we've fallen.
The show's art is from Jay's book Into the Nanten, illustrated by Nimit Malavia.
Gustave the dog sleepily protects us every week as we record.

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