The Storygazer's Guide to the Theater

What's the Storylace Theater?

It’s not a place where you read a book. It’s a place where you augment the experience of reading a book.

We will get you inside the world of the book you’re reading through illustrations, animations, music and other interactive elements that we’ve crafted together with the books’ authors. The interactive elements give you extra lore and insight into that world. Furthermore, you can discuss the art and story with other Storygazers in the Theater.

What’s a Storygazer? That would be you. Storygazers are intrepid book readers that brave the unknown frontiers of imagination by stepping through our magic portal.

Before anything else, decide what book from our selection of Theater stories you want to read. You have to acquire the book outside of Storylace. You can buy it anywhere you want and in whichever format you want (physical, eBook or audiobook if available). Once you’ve got your copy, you’re ready to join the fun over here!

3 Possible Storygazing Strategies

Storygazing Along (Recommended)

As you make progress on your book, you’ll be reaching checkpoints from the Storygazing Map. When you reach them, check out the illustrations, music, scenarios and relics up to the point where you are in the story. Doing this will add a whole new dimension to your reading experience, making the story feel more immersive. Plus, you get bonus reading motivation to keep reaching those checkpoints!

Once you finish the book, make sure to mark it as “Read” in Storylace. By doing so, you will unlock extra hidden lore (written by the authors themselves) per relic and access the spoiler-full Conversation section of each artwork to discuss the book with other readers to your heart’s content.

Storygazing After

Another interesting approach that some readers may find appealing is to first read the entire book and only then enjoy everything in the Theater. A good approach for those who don’t want to have the artworks have any influence over their imagination until they’ve finished reading the book.

Storygazing First

In this unorthodox yet interesting approach, you basically see all the content in the Theater before reading the book and then go and read it. It is not our personal recommendation since the stories are full of amazing plot twists and surprises. But, if this calls to you, it will certainly help you read the book a lot faster since you will already have glimpses of what happens and what the characters and settings look like; then by reading the book you’ll fill in the holes.

Every artwork has a non-spoilery title that will make sense once you’ve reached that point in the story. The artwork page will always contain an illustration, animation or short video. It will often also include music that fits the scene and a Relic Scenario.

There’s also a section of Reactions where you can quickly share how a piece made you feel. And below that, there’s a Conversation section, but beware! It’s full of spoilers about the book.

The Conversation section contains book spoilers. You can think of this space as the Storygazers' book club lounge. Here you can share anything you would share with friends in a book club after you've all finished the book. We suggest keeping the conversations focused around the part of the book that the illustration represents and, of course, you may also discuss the illustration itself, the music, the scenario and the relics.

Sharing spoilers about future books in the series is not allowed. If you wish to discuss the entire series please head over to the Conversations of the last book in the series. Theorizing about future books in the series is perfectly fine, though.

Relic Scenarios are creative scenes where you’ll find yourself inside the story. These 2nd person narrations will paint you a picture of where you are, what’s happening around you and what you’re doing during a scene in the story. Every Relic Scenario presents you with a set of outcomes. Pick your favorite one, which will grant you 1 Relic. Relics are memorabilia that you acquire while accompanying the characters throughout the story.

As a Storygazer visiting a world, you have a set of magical abilities. We’ve designed the Relic Scenarios around these.

Abilities

• Scholar: Collect relics from the story's world to discover more about it.
• Illusionist: You're able to disguise yourself as anything while you follow the characters through the story or be invisible as you accompany them.
• Teleporter: You can appear in a different place and time of the story's world in an instant.
• Explorer: You have extra time to explore and interact with the world and its characters.

Limitations

• Can't Change History: The story has already been written.

Storygazer Classes

It’s true that readers can live through many lives in their single lifetime. Nevertheless, time is limited. During your Storygazing adventures, you will have to choose what philosophical ponderings you wish to pursue more deeply as you collect relics. Storygazer Classes are reader archetypes that reflect your emotional, intellectual and philosophical inclinations towards finding the answer to a variety of deep soul-searching questions. There are 11 different classes:

Arcanist

What forces shape the world?

The Arcanist perceives the energy currents that flow through every world they visit. They are scholars seeking to understand how these hidden forces can mold destinies. They are scientists of these primordial energies that other people often simply call magic. Harnessing this "magic" is a crucial step in their bid to understand what truly shapes worlds.

Every Relic you choose along the way will grant you points towards different Storygazing Classes. The relics will help you discover more lore about the book, but also offer a unique path towards self-discovery and mastery.

Your Storygazer House is essentially your base. It’s the place where you can see the relics you’ve collected throughout the different stories. You can also visit your Storygazer friends’ houses to see what relics they’ve picked themselves and what’s their Storygazer Class.

This is also the place where you can claim your special titles after you’ve finished reading one of these books.

Special Titles

Every book in the Storylace Theater comes with 33 fun unique titles that you can unlock after finishing the book. They come in bundles of 3 titles per Storygazer Class. The bundles you unlock depend on the relics that you picked throughout the story. You get the bundles of your top 2 Storygazer Classes for a total of 6 new titles for your collection.

Remember, as a Storygazer, you can display up to 6 titles in your profile instead of the default 3.

FAQ

Why do characters look slightly different from illustration to illustration?

Because we love to celebrate everyone’s unique imagination! Artists who draw our characters receive a detailed list of the unique features and key traits that make a character that character, based on the information in the book. From then on, there’s no wrong way to imagine them.

Think about any famous recognizable character from a video game, movie or book that has been drawn by thousands of different artists. Is the character always exactly the same, or is it that you always recognize them by some particular key traits? Unlike a video game, movie or TV show, where we expect characters to always look the same, you can count on Storylace to always celebrate the magic and diversity of imagination. We hope you find your favorite character depictions!

Is the content in the Storygazing Map all I can expect from that book?

No. Unlike physical printed books with illustrations, which are static, the Storylace Theater is a dynamic ever-evolving medium. We may keep adding new illustrations, music, scenarios, relics, animated illustrations, short videos, new interactive features and much more! Imagination is the limit, and as a Storygazer you will have a big say in where things go.

Why can’t I just take all the relics with me?

Because of the Storygazing Paradox! You can only take so much from a world you visit without altering the course of that universe. There are a few circumstances where you would be tempted to take all the relics with you but the result would be catastrophic. The universe you’re visiting would implode!

Your presence alone is already altering the balance of that world. Occasionally collecting items and interacting with the world is fine, but there are rules and subtleties to the art of visiting other worlds. Just like time travelers have to be careful in the past, Storygazers have to be careful too.

Why aren’t there more animations in the Theater?

The ratio of animations to static illustrations is currently very small. Increasing the number of animated illustrations and short videos per book is definitely on our roadmap!

Why aren’t there more books in the Theater?

We’re in the process of adding new books! Don’t forget to tell us about your preferences, what else you would like to see in the Theater and what are your favorite things about it. As a Storygazer, you have a strong influence on where we all go next.

What book edition are the pages on the envelopes based on?

The page number displayed on each envelope on the Storygazing Journey is based on the ebook version (at the time its Storygazing Journey was created). If you are reading a paperback edition or there have been small changes to the ebook edition, there will be a negligible offset in the page number.

Is it normal to have vivid dreams with the stories?

Yes, we’ve firsthand experienced that ourselves. Reading can evoke strong emotions, vivid imagery, and even physical sensations, like your heart racing or tears flowing. It stimulates the brain and the lines between fiction and reality become temporarily blurred. The more immersive the experience the blurrier it becomes, so don’t be surprised if your dreams become more vivid than usual when you pair reading with Storygazing, it’s normal.

How can I become a Storygazer?