2023 Worldbuilding Review

Reflecting on my worldbuilding from last year and taking stock of inspiration for the year ahead!

This is an out of universe article for World Anvil's reading challenge of January 2023!

I've decided that I want to use these bi-annual reading challenges as an opportunity for personal reflection, kinda like a "worldbuilding review" that I get to do after the major events of the year in the World Anvil community.

Last Year's Reflections

Things that went well:

• Burnout reduction - I did a lot better with managing my burnout this year and saying "no" to things I didn't want to do. When I got flu & covid back-to-back in December I was still able to just about finish my 10k words because I dropped my perfectionism in my final article and did a literal brain-dump for my Magic article and it was just a big, unformatted list. I felt happy with it! It's still worldbuilding, and I can polish it later.
• Core concepts - I changed the way I worked on things and tackled the important articles first like Folks before expanding into individual ones.
• Feedback - I got some really useful group feedback from my worldbuilding friends that has helped me to see areas of improvement I can work on.

Things to improve on:

• Art production - Compared to the previous year, I didn't create so many art pieces or designed assets and it's something I really enjoy being able to showcase. I still made some great work, like my map of Anvil and my quick sketches for Gauntlet, the card game that I made during WorldEmber.
• Focus areas - I have a big world map and I want to know the overviews of what goes on in each country. I wanna do all the thiiiiiiiiiiiiings! But also I really want to connect all of my existing worldbuilding more cohesively.
• Liveliness - I would like my world to feel more lively and talk more about the folks and characters and how they interact with each other in the world. I want to populate the world with more species, too!

New Year's Resolutions

My new year's worldbuilding resolutions for 2023 are:

1. Get tidy - I will tidy, polish, and expand upon my existing articles and make sure that their lore is lively and interconnected with the rest of the world.
2. Get shiny - I will make art, designs, concepts and shiny worldbuilding as I continue to find new and exciting ways of doing things.
3. Get out there - I want to share my work more! I really love inpsiring others and showing people the methods I use to make things. I'll be sharing lots in my social spaces but also sharing my not-so-top-secret plans, tips and techniques on my blog!

Reading Inspirations

1

Irates

World: Symbols of Power | Author: Naelin

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Embedded maps with clickable parts are amazing for storytelling
2. Isolated island images give great visual context when talking about regions
3. Large and small maps help to get a sense of scale and location in the world

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2

Entering the Shattered

World: Shattered | Author: Catoblepon

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Colour coding can make it easier to identify recurring concepts
2. Cato's art is amazing even with using one colour and in blocked out shapes
3. Coloured text is great for emphasizing key words and drawing attention to things

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3

Simple Cybernetics

World: Luridity | Author: Dani

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. You can always include puns and easter eggs AND make them a unique part of your worldbuilding
2. Consider how the people in your world see themselves (positively and/or negatively) and what they desire because of this
3. Think about what conditions and symptoms the inhabitants of your world have to live with and how they manage their daily life

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4

The Logbooks

World: Hislariya | Author: Simo

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Journal snippets can tell you a lot about characters AND the world they live in
2. Inventory lists provide an excellent slice-of-life depth to the world
3. Documenting the passing of time makes the world feel lived in

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5

Ghostbuster

World: Shedim | Author: Qurilion

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Quotes are a great way of formatting articles and introducing dialogue or other perspectives
2. Explaining different planes of existence in context to a profession is a great way of introducing or reaffirming broad concepts
3. Professions provide a great slice-of-life for how different people interact with each other

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6

The Qualic Scriptorium

World: Istralar | Author: Han

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Quotes are an excellent way of voicing questions and opinions about the world
2. Big and mystical concepts don't have to be explained in every detail to be understood
3. Think about what common questions people would ask about your article and address them in advance

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7

Fei

World: Solaris | Author: Annie Stein

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Leading art and a short description with some facts tells me instantly what the article is about
2. Including different quirks about a species and how they interact with others can make them more memorable
3. Articles can be short and interesting that keeps your attention and makes you want to read more

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8

Xiuthan

World: Cathedris | Author: Stormbril

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Describing how a character's clothing evolved tells so much about their personality and history
2. Explaining the history of a character can evoke great empathy
3. Unexplained things left to the imagination turn horrors into unforgettable nightmares

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9

Blue Syndrome

World: Dark Lord Seduction Plan | Author: Amélie I. S. Debruyne

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Using a newspaper format creates an immersive slice-of-life experience
2. Icons really add to the visual storytelling in the article
3. Explaining how the condition affects people and how it can be treated makes the world feel alive and real

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10

Voidclaimed

World: Vazdimet | Author:

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Here's what you can learn from this article:

1. Starting with a dialogue quote creates instant immersion to the world
2. Articles don't have to be lengthy to be interesting, and further reading in connected articles makes me want to read more
3. Ending on an impactful sentence can leave you thinking deeply on the topic of the article

Upcoming Events 2023

Here's a list of upcoming events on World Anvil this year - if you want more info you can read my full blog post on what all of the events are and their estimated release dates! I've also included how to prepare for each event, plus reminders of what the challenges were the last two years to give you an idea of what to expect! :D

Get the full details!

Jan:	Reading challenge Unannounced competition WorldEmber awards ceremony
Feb:	Unannounced flash challenge
Mar:	Unannounced competition WorldbuildingCon World Anvil's Worldbuilding Awards (WAWA)
Apr:	Adventure april
May:	Unannounced competition
Jun:	Summer Camp prep month
Jul:	Summer Camp
Aug:	Reading challenge Flash challenge Summer Camp Awards Ceremony
Sep:	Unannounced competition
Oct:	Spooktober World Anvil Birthday Stream
Nov:	WorldEmber prep month Mapvember
Dec:	WorldEmber

(These are my predictions based on previous schedules and should not be treated as official information!)