Opening the Logbook

On Craft, Obsession, and the Worlds We Build

Every story is a negotiation between creator and chaos.

You start with fragments—a character’s voice that won’t shut up, a relationship dynamic that feels inevitable, a world that demands to exist in specific, uncompromising detail. Then comes the work: the architecture of building something that can stand under its own weight, that earns its darkness, that makes readers feel the pressure of your obsessions.

My name is D.S. Black, and I build worlds with teeth.

What This Logbook Actually Is

This isn’t your standard author blog. This is workshop, portfolio, and archive rolled into one bleeding edge.

The Deadstar Logbook exists at the intersection of craft analysis and shameless self-promotion, because here’s the thing: talking about how you build something compelling is itself compelling. If you can articulate why a character works, why a bit of dialogue lands like a kill shot, why your conlang feels lived-in rather than constructed—then you’re not just creating content, you’re demonstrating mastery.

You’ll find two primary threads here:

1. The World of The Reply
My grimdark nautical novel set in the Orosian Sea of Nhera, featuring Captain Henry Somerset (the charming, dangerous “Witch-Captain” with his fingers in forces he shouldn’t touch) and Daud van Richter (the wounded cynic sent to hunt him). Think Age of Sail aesthetics meets eldritch horror, rivals circling each other like sharks, and the kind of homoerotic tension that comes from two brilliant bastards locked in a game neither can afford to lose.

Expect: character dossiers, world-building deep dives, lookbook illustrations, and “Drowned Logbook” entries—non-canonical scenes that explore the full depth of character relationships outside the main plot’s constraints.

2. Craft Breakdowns Using My Work
The technical shit. How I design character foils, build conlangs that don’t feel like homework, structure reveals, calibrate dialogue for specific psychological impacts. I use my own projects as case studies because (a) it’s what I know best, and (b) it gives you context for the techniques I’m demonstrating.

Recent example: The Architecture of an Arch-Inquisitor, where I dissect how I designed a Warhammer 40K antagonist whose primary threat is his immense, patient, ancient intelligence. The kind of character whose stillness is more terrifying than spectacle.

Why This Matters (The Mercenary Bit)

Look, I’m being transparent here: this serves multiple purposes. Yes, it’s a love letter to the worlds I’m building. But it’s also a professional platform. I’m demonstrating craft for potential publishers, building community around my work, and creating a body of public analysis that shows I know what the fuck I’m doing.

If you’re a writer yourself, you’ll find the craft posts useful. If you’re a reader who likes seeing behind the curtain, you’ll get the director’s cut experience. If you’re an agent or editor stumbling across this, you’re seeing someone who can articulate their creative decisions with precision.

Everyone wins.

What You’re Signing Up For

• Craft analysis that gets into the weeds of technique

• World-building archives for multiple projects (The Reply, my 40K work, whatever’s currently colonizing my brain)

• Character studies examining psychology, design, and the eroticism of competence

• Conlang deep dives because constructed languages should feel like they’ve been worn smooth by centuries of use

• Lookbook pages with high-res art and design work

• Process posts on the actual labor of building something that doesn’t fall apart under scrutiny

• Me being honest about the business of writing—platform building, the submission process, the weird intersection of art and hustle

I don’t do inspirational writing advice posts. I don’t do “five tips for better dialogue.” I do the granular shit, the architectural decisions, the “here’s exactly how I engineered this moment to land like a fucking hammer.”

The Baseline

If you’re here, you probably give a damn about craft. About the difference between competent and excellent. About stories that earn their darkness and characters who feel like they existed before you met them on the page.

Welcome to the crew. Subscribe if you want to watch worlds get built from the ground up, with all the technical specifications and obsessive detail that entails.

This is going to be a hell of a voyage.
—D.S. Black