Focus, goals and bingo

by Tone Hognestad

Without fail, the end of January brings a notable uptick in my overall mood, energy, and creativity. I've had enough time to digest the holidays, fallen back into the groove of the day-to-day, and accepted that the past year is actually over. While it could be the constant barrage of "new year, new you" that has gotten to me, I think it's a deep generational joy for the sun turning that we have here in the north. Just take a look at Old-Ivar (pictured right), greeting the sun with open arms. After months with only a few hours of daylight a day, I'm desperate to burn my retinas while sunbathing in every ray that hits my face. This is when I start to wake up after my hibernation.

Even if worldbuilding has been a hobby for over half my life, I'm completely new to WorldAnvil and sharing my world with strangers who also worldbuild. It is nothing short of terrifying. I've also been blocked creatively for a while now. Typical for winter, but it's been particularly bad when it comes to Domātājs. Over the holidays something shifted and the topics I've struggled with the most fell into place. Magic of the sun-turn, I tell ya. But before I take off, I'm also ADHD—I can't be let loose without any guardrails. So, how to harness this solar-powered burst of creative energy and honor Old-Ivar? Some goals!

I'm greeting the sun (and this new community) with open arms.

Focus

My main focus for 2024 is to get to know the World Anvil community and learn about the site. There is so much talent within these online walls and if I can surround myself to a fraction of it I'll be happy. For the site itself, I know that the better I know my tools the more creative I can be with the application. I've also been looking for a personal project to help me re-learn some lost CSS knowledge so it's a win-win.

Goals

Instead of setting a word count goal, or a goal for the amount of articles, I'm picking three larger goals unrelated to writing. I know myself well enough that I need other things to do related to the project when my motivation tapers off or I get stuck in a rut. That doesn't mean I don't have a massive list of specific articles I want to finish though, see below (...which are kind of bunch of goals about writing. Uh, let's move on ✨).

Monthly logs

1. Familiarize myself with WorldAnvil and get to know the community
2. Create a cohesive and immersive page with practical tools
3. Finish two WA challenges

While the third one is pretty straight forward and easy to know when to mark a success, the other two are vaguer. So to help myself figure out what I need to feel accomplished, I'm splitting them into some smaller, simpler, and measurable tasks that I'll add onto as the year progress.

Site

Create a reference document for WA knowledge
Read CSS and BBCode articles
Find examples of BBCode posibilities¹
Find some basic CSS course (it's been a while)
Check out the Learn articles
Reference doc for my own BBCode

Community

Check out all the WorldEmber 2023 winners
Read 30 articles
Find 5 active worlds to deep-dive into and follow along throughout the year (2/5)
Orient myself in the discord
Check third-party tools for WA (e.g., Brigid's Anvil)
Find some inspiring usage of BBCodes and CSS in the community¹

Design

Design manual
Re-make all continent sigils
Look into the different themes and their variables
Code full theme
Design and write the homepage
Experiment with BBCodes (mini timelines, trackers, bingo card)

¹ Sort of the same one, but second is limited to WA.

Articles

Locations

Map out Dasav (neighborhoods, important locations, people)
Add Dendarlon map to WA + pins
Minimum 5 Tszliri factions/groups/orgs
Bio for the former royal family of Tszli
Intros to the realms of Dendarlon

History

Overview of Dendarlon's history
Timeline of world eras
Dendarlonian War
Battle of the Srebeni gates
Early Dasav history
Era defining events

Encyclopedia

Time keeping and different calendars
Dendarlonian Train project
Other planets in the system
Astrology
No-go zone

Pantheon

Structure of the pantheon (family trees babyyyy)
The Circles
Creation myth
The worshipped gods
Primordial quadruplets and first duality

Magic

Birth of Arcana
The Weave and it's effects on magic
Types of magic and their sources
Vocal magic
Limitations of healing during the disconnect

Bingo

Nothing makes my dopamine starved brain than a ✨fun lil' bingo card✨, so I had to make myself a bingo challenge for the year. I've added prompts that I don't have solid ideas for yet to help spark something new when I need it.

Trees	Group recognized on sight	Very local customs	International contest	Language
Ancient civilization	Unusual application of magic	Trade routes	World renowned piece of art	Weapon
Love customs	Mythical creature		A dish using an unusual ingridient	Military force
Highest mountain	A sport that don't exist in our world	Public transport	Musical subculture	Special export
Well known artist/band	Old wives tale	International day	Settlement with >100 pop.	Death ceremony

Finished goals

Five worlds to deep-dive into