
A QUICK NAVIGATION GUIDE TO THE STORYFEATHER SITE.
Nowadays, there’s a lot to see, read, listen to, or purchase (wink).

WHAT IS STORYFEATHER?
An endeavor that started as a challenge to write one short story every week.
WHO IS NILA?
The author of all the stories, artist for most stories, and podcast host.

🤔 WHAT IS THERE TO SEE AROUND HERE?

JUST WANT TO EXPLORE THE PODCAST?
The Storyfeather podcast is hosted on Libsyn. You can also listen most places where you can find podcasts.
Nila’s mom raves, “So boring. I don’t know who would listen to this.”
EXPLORE STORIES BY GENRE
EXPLORE STORIES BY THEME
More themes to come in future!
EXPLORE STORIES BY YEAR
Each Button BELOW Goes to A Hub Page.
The 52 stories for that year are listed with titles, taglines, and the story image.
YEAR ONE: THE CHALLENGE
The Storyfeather endeavor began when I challenged myself to write a short story every week for a year. And to keep myself accountable, I would post those stories online on my own site.
YEAR TWO: OBJECTS OF POWER
A few stories into the second year of the story-a-week challenge, I noticed I had a theme going, and that having a theme was an intriguing idea.
YEAR THREE: THE ELEMENTS
The stories are all about basic elements. The four ancient elements of fire, earth, air, and water. The five physical senses.
YEAR FOUR: CREATURES
Each story features a creature, from mythology, urban legend…the human imagination!
YEAR FIVE: S.T.E.A.M.
The stories focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, or Mathematics.
YEAR SIX: DEFINITIONS
When you subscribe to receive a word-of-the-day email, you’ll come across some quirky, delightful, magnificent, and story-inspiring words.
YEAR SEVEN: PROMPTS
Stretching the imagination and developing skill requires the exercising of that skill. This year’s stories were all developed from writing prompts and exercises.
YEAR EIGHT: REVISITATION
So many stories. So many possibilities for revisiting a character, an object, a place, or an idea. Don’t worry. No need to read the previous stories. The revisitations stand alone.
YEAR NINE: THE WHEEL OF FICTION
I put all the previous years’ themes onto a spin wheel, with a few mystery spokes that become revealed as the year goes on. Whatever the wheel lands on is the theme for a given week’s story.
YEAR TEN: FUSION
Every month’s stories will be linked by genre (or some other common factor). But random story particles will be introduced into the fiction reactor to disrupt order and see if anything exotic emerges.
IS THERE STORYFEATHER MERCH?
You know it.
Slide image descriptions
Slides 1 to 3: Screenshots in horizontal format.
Slides 4 to 15: Screenshots displaying either one item, or four items arranged in two rows of two:
Slide 1: Top of storefront with banner displaying a collage of images from past stories, and a thumbnail image of Nila’s face with a stylized filter applied. Small left column with About box, text partly obscured by an arrow. Text reads, “About Storyfeather. One fictioneer. Two illustrators. Here are some of the words, beings, and adventures that they have imagined for the Storyfeather endeavor.” Text below that reads, “Adult Apparel, T-shirts, Tank Tops, Hoodies, Crewneck Sweatshirts” Main column shows three boxes with separate designs.
Slide 2: Left column, t-shirt with a square design, four panels in two rows of two. A hand, index finger pointed up, other fingers curled, in each box. The hand is identical except for the skin color. At the tip of each index finger, clockwise from top left, is a depiction of air, a flame, a water drop, and a stone. Right column, text at top reads, “Four Hands and Four Elements t-shirt.” Beneath is description text, blurred due to size, then various options for the product: color, fit, style, and size. The sale and original prices are displayed below, $13 and $20 respectively.
Slide 3: Left column, a model seen from neck to necks in profile facing left with a tote bag hanging from the visible shoulder. The bag depicts a red-hooded figure, face invisible under the raised hood, standing behind a gray wolf seen from left side, fog all around. Right column, text at top reads “Red Riding Hood and Wolf in Fog Tote.” Beneath is description text, blurred due to size, then options for the product: style and size. The sale and original prices are displayed below, $14 and $20 respectively. Then the Add to Cart button, and a notification regarding the store’s product satisfaction guarantee.
Slide 4: Text at top reads, “Dragon T-Shirt Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a t-shirt with the “Adorable Green and Blue Baby Dragon” design on it. At bottom right, text reads “Size Chart.” At bottom, text reads “Color: Hot Pink,” which indicates the default t-shirt color. Partial view of round swatches of other t-shirt colors at bottom.
Slide 5: A clothbound notbook with a cover to cover image of a watercolor painting. Foreground, a warrior from the back, missing a hand, wielding a sword with the other hand, standing at the read in the snow. Behind, two fallen opponents partly lying in snow and a sword sticking handle up in the snow. Background, three opponents approach.
Slide 6: Text at top reads, “Woman Gazing at Phases of the Moon Pillow. Moon Phases Pillow Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a pillow, black background, bearing the design.
Slide 7: Text at top reads, “More Young Merman with Trident Products.” Displayed are images of the hoodie, sticker, kids t-shirt, and mug, with text reading the same below each.
Slide 8: Text at top reads, “Bubblegum Pink and Blue Hippocampus T-Shirt. Horse T-Shirt Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a t-shirt with the “Bubblegum Pink and Blue Hippocampus” design on it. At bottom right, text reads “Size Chart.” At bottom, text reads “Color: Teal,” which indicates the default t-shirt color. Partial view of round swatches of other t-shirt colors at bottom.
Slide 9: Text at top reads, “Smiling Turtle with Purple Flowers Tote. Turtle Tote Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a light blue tote bag bearing the design.
Slide 10: Text at top reads, “More Part Woman Part Zebra Products.” Displayed are images of the hoodie, sticker, kids t-shirt, and mug, with text reading the same below each.
Slide 11: Text at top reads, “More Part Pterosaur Part Parrot Products.” Displayed are images of the hoodie, sticker, kids t-shirt, and mug, with text reading the same below the hoodie and sticker.
Slide 12: Text at top reads, “Warrior Woman With Butterfly Axe Sticker. Warrior Sticker Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” A watermarked image of the die-cut sticker at center.
Slide 13: Text at top reads, “More Humanoid Butterfly With Crown in Chrysalis Products.” Displayed are images of the hoodie, sticker, kids t-shirt, and mug, with text reading the same below each. Text at bottom reads, “Adult Apparel, Tank Top, Crewneck Sweatshirt” and “Cases & Stickers, Phone Case, Laptop Case”
Slide 14: Text at top reads, “Turtle T-Shirt Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a t-shirt with the “Smiling Turtle with Purple Flowers” design on it. At bottom right, text reads “Size Chart.” At bottom, text reads “Color: Light Blue,” which indicates the default t-shirt color. Partial view of round swatches of other t-shirt colors at bottom.
Slide 15: Text at top reads, “Adorable Leaping Narwhal T-Shirt. Narwhal T-Shirt Designed and Sold by Storyfeather.” At center is a t-shirt with the “Adorable Leaping Narwhal” design on it. At bottom right, text reads “Size Chart.” At bottom, text reads “Color: Light Blue,” which indicates the default t-shirt color. Partial view of round swatches of other t-shirt colors at bottom.
The merch design names are descriptive. More detailed descriptions can be found on the product pages for each design. Note: When viewing the store pages on a phone, the full description may only be visible in the horizontal orientation.
PRESS BUTTON BELOW TO VISIT THE STORE ⬇
By pressing the button, you’ll be leaving the Storyfeather site and going to the Teepublic site.
WANT TO LEARN HOW TO WRITE A SHORT STORY? FROM ME?
It can be so.
Here’s a preview. It’s the recap from my lecture on what to do if you get Stuck, Blocked, or Bored with the story you’re trying to write.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION
Video description: Preview from Nila’s online course. Text in bold appears onscreen as spoken, then fades. Transcript reads as follows: So to recap, if you’re stuck, or blocked, or bored with your story, use any or all of these potential solutions.
Stop and ask “Why?” Why are you bored? Why are you blocked? And if the final answer is “I don’t know,” remind yourself that you’re a storyteller and come up with a fictional answer. I’m only half joking. Doing that exercise might help kick your imagination back into gear. Maybe it’ll just help because you’ll be working on something fun that doesn’t matter.
Skip around. Who says you need to write the story in sequence? Remember the outline? It’ll help put things in sequence later.
Walk away, if that’s an option. But to keep your break from turning into procrastination, put some kind of condition on the walking away based on how you work best. Also, this probably goes without saying, but don’t walk away if you haven’t tried doing anything yet.
Use a different tool or strategy. Journal to brainstorm a solution to the current problem. Do the “what if?” exercise again. Set a deadline or timeline.
Make a decision. Many times, blocks in life are caused by the struggle to come to a decision. One decision is to write through the block or the boredom. Let it be bad until it gets good. Or write something else to get warmed up. An email. Your shopping list. This proves your ability to write is not blocked. Something else is going. If it’s not your writing ability that’s blocked, what’s going on? Maybe the scene isn’t working. If you made the wrong decision, now you know, and you can make a different decision going forward. You can rewrite the scene or the part that wasn’t working.
Zoom out and then zoom back in. The outline and maybe even the brainstorm can help with this, with showing you the big picture. If you’re still excited by the story, but not by the part of it you’re writing, zooming out may help you see why that part is not working.
Track your progress. Delete sections of the outline as you write and re-save your document. Track a metric like your word count or page count, or time spent writing, so you know how much work you’re really doing.
So if you’re stuck, or blocked, or bored, I hope these tips can help you get unstuck, unblocked, and unbored. Or excited—re-excited—that’s better.
By pressing the button, you’ll be leaving the Storyfeather site and going to the Teachable site.
WANT TO CHECK OUT A SAMPLE ISSUE FIRST?
A Note for WordPress users: I lost my follow button when I made changes to my site. But you can still follow Storyfeather through the Reader. Go to Reader-> Click on Followed sites-> Click All-> Type “storyfeather.com” into the search bar at the top. The follow button should be just underneath.