It's that time again, READING CHALLENGE! I mean it's not really a challenge, right. It's all about exploring each other's works and finding out how you can get better. Some might even say it's a form of
product research.
Shh. Don't tell.
This time around I really wanted to find articles that struck my fancy visually, so I looked up each article on my ipad so I could preview them without opening them up fully. Yay weird iPad features! (Come on Window's step up your game.) I did choose categories that I enjoyed instead of ones that I need to work on templates for still. Hey slow progress is still progress, small changes add up okay.
Regardless, let the review commence:
a seat of power (of any kind!)
Oh settlements, one of my absolute favorite things to write about. I love seeing how other people format and describe locations like this too.
One of my favorite things about this article is the formatting. Making sure to have enough imagry within each article is something that I've been focusing on in an attempt to break up the large blocks of text.
There's just not enough to be said about an article by Stormbril. I love the flow of their articles and enjoy disecting them to find ways to make my own articles flow better.
I love the simplicity of the map for this particular settlement. But I have to admit that what I love the most are the beliefts that they have at the bottom of the article. Those rumors are absolutely amazing and add so much character to the article and the world. And if I'm being honest I just can't get enough.
an item of great cultural or religious significance to a people in your world
The use of the containers and how the different containers and colors mean different things. It makes me think how I could better use containers here in Aegimius. Right now I basically have them broken down for the main organizations (Anvil, CEIE) and then Hirta's 3 families (Chalice, Heist, and Fordave) which make up the Heist Clan. Otherwise it's standard, light, and quotes which I don't use nearly as much as I should.
While I love using the containers to help visually break up the data, I also love the simplcity and the minimal use of containers here. A great reminder that I don't need to use alot of them to have an article that flows well.
I love that the sidebar infromation appears under the first header and not in the entire article. I frequently forget that I can add sidebars elsewhere in my articles and don't have to use it as it's set up to help make things more asthetically pleasing.
The fact that the images are placed to create a diagonal line was amazing way to break up the blocks of information and keep things together. I will admit that the reason I enjoyed this article so much though was it's topic, paper.
Paper is such an important thing for us in our daily lives, even for those of us trying to go paperless, so to see an article about it in a fantasy world was delightlful.
a character who excels in manipulating others
The dropdowns with the stories in it between each section were absolutely beautiful. I need to learn that particular CSS skill.
I chose this article because I actually need to rewrite Asmodeus for Aegimius this year and I was curious on Cobalt Sky's take on this character.
I almost missed this article, and would have if I didn't go back through the characters and start previewing the articles from the top.
My favorite thing about this article, is the opinions of other citizens of the world, in this case the characters children, about her. I love how the article opened up with what sounds almost like a quest hook.
an organization for which recruiting or proselytizing is important
The use of size images to help break up this article is such a great idea. While I don't generally write super long articles like this, making use of this technique could change up some of my articles and keep things like my cities from seeming monotonous. Also the use of the term "Mission Statement." I could alternate between "Mission Statement" and "Agenda" in the articles, a synynom that I hadn't though of.
The first thing I love about this article is the header, and the repeat of the ogranization's logo, both in the header and in the article itself.
I love that the articles in this world are all in world. The recruitment style of this article is amazing. I've worked to add more inmersion into my own articles buy using stories and quotes from people because of other work by AmélieIS.
Creative New Year Goals
One of my biggest goals, and that I'm carrying over from 2022 is to continue to put my self out there a bit more. It's something I've always struggled with, and I know a lot of people do as well, so I try to be actively aware of when I'm letting fear get into the way of something. Entering competitions and being active in the World Anvil community are simple ways to stay on top of this goal, and sharing the work that I'm creating.
I've found I really enjoy building cities and shops so I think In want to focus more on that this year. Maybe even work on drawing interiors instead of using the various mapping software I have. I don't know how feasible this is time wise though.
I have a lot of pins on my map, and not a lot of those cities built, so we'll be building out the cities, if nothing else then the summaries will be done by December. This means that the interactive map will be fully operational, giving ideas of what each place is like, if not a complete overview of the city so I only have to build the shops.
Goals Checklist
Set up formatting templates 15/25
Continue putting myself out there
Redo Gods/Major Entities 5/23
Clear out the stubs 282/672
More Article art
Fully Interactive map
New Aegimius header
Holy cow were my New Year's Goals ambitious. Like wowzers. Given my current workload, I think I can be much more realistic about some of my goals, especially with Q4 prep that needs to get done. So instead of coming up with brand new goals for the second half of 2023 I'm just going to revise my current goals.
Revised Goals Checklist
Set up formatting templates 15/25
Continue putting myself out there
Have 10 Gods rewritten 5/23
Reduce Stubs to 250 (282/672)
More Article art
Fully Interactive map
New Aegimius header
Between January and now I've made a massive change in my life and as a result have really gotten a chance to learn online marketing. Which has helped me realize a couple of ways to make it easier to put myself and my work out there without all of the emotions I normally attach with it. I'm going to be slowly implementing alot of this as the year goes on. Doing more research on social media tags and working on increasing my presense. This is going to require a slight change in my routine and require me to do more research.
I had to take a step back during the earlier part of this year as I uncovered a mushroom gang that turned into my very own elven shoes. And even though I love them, and they add character to the Menait Dynasty, they're not important to the story being told at the moment. So instead of trying to focus on achieving each of my goals I'm going to focus on the goals that pertain to my current campaign, and what we're currently encountering in Aegimius. This mean's not worrying about cities or locations outside of the Menait Dynasty. I can write some of the places in Delesia that we've visited and not filled in from our previous campaign, but otherwise I'm not going to stress to much.
As articles come up in categories that I don't have a template built out for I'll build it out, like I did for Illicit Organizations and Items this time around. Building them out with the BBC code in another program has really helped me see what I enjoy having in the articles and what I don't want. For example I've found I really enjoy including myths and oral stories in articles relating to plants, items, and natural materials.
I absolutely love the goal of getting yourself out there more -- interacting with people and sharing your work is such a great thing to do! And also, thank you so much for the inclusion of my work here, and for the incredible things you said about it! <3 It really means a lot :D