Annie's Worldember Prep

More about Worldember

It's wild how time flies by, huh?
Last Worldember the plan was to get the world ready for the World Anvil Awards in the following year. Not only was I nominated, I won Most Beautiful New World. I think it'll be hard for me to top that this year, so instead my goal is to have fun, share my work, and indulge in all the other awesome worlds here on World Anvil.
I had some more specific goals last year, when Dimitris Havlidis threw some chaos into the mix. He challenged me to write about the locations of Solaris. So far I've written about the Airship of Theseus, Albino Palace and Labyrinthe, and I hope to complete at least one more this year.
I also had lots of fun drawing last year, and I put together all the art I did in the Worldember 2022 Art Gallery.
I wasn't planning on doing anything special this year, but the lovely Challenge-Discussion channel on Discord got me inspired. I want to spread the cheer of that channel here to the site itself, so this year I'm inviting you all to join me in Comment Caroling. All that really entails is trying to leave more comments, because nothing makes a creator feel as fuzzy as comments do.

Other Ways I'm Preparing for Worldember

Stubs: Writing micro articles so I'll have a starting point come december.

Illustration: Drawing art for articles I know I want to write

Blank Slate: Making a couple of empty generic articles in case I'm tempted to do some non-worldbuilding writing. That way it won't interfere with my word count in december

Also: Figuring out new ways to rest!

Area of Focus: People

by Annie Stein

Last year we wrote about the planets of Solaris, this year I want to write about the people! That means character articles, but also species, ethnicities, and the organizations they belong to. A world comes alive through the people in it, and it's time to get some more perspectives into Solaris.
I find character articles pretty difficult, but earlier this year I was able to write about Sofi Casabella and Fritz Fram for the Alliance of Nations. That's motivated me to keep trying. When something intimidates me, I want to do it even more.
What I'm most hyped for is the species though! As part of my preparation, I hope to get lots of drawings done of all the different sorts of humanoids I've got planned for Solaris, from the moth-like Mori to the ethereal Sirenes, to the tough Minos. By the end of December, I want everyone to have an idea of what kind of alien they'd want to be in Solaris. Personally I'd like to be Fei.
I won't just be writing about people though. I'm very much of the philosophy that the best thing you can do during a challenge is to follow your heart. When I write the things my heart is singing for, I've learned I'll end up with something I'm happy with even when it wasn't what I set out to make.

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People of Solaris Mini-Meta

People of Penumbra | Character
Who else is at Penumbra? What is their role, how are they perceived, and how do they adapt to a migratory life?
Nomads of Mercury | Ethnicity
Mercury's nomadic people are some of the few who remain on the planet. I want to write about the ways they've adapted to a new, harsher life, and the ways they haven't.
Project Ikarus | Organisation
Project Ikarus utilizes smaller squads or even lone ace fighters against solar invasions. These teams and individuals are highly capable and are given free rein to use their powers as they see fit against the enemies.
Humanoids of Solaris | Species
The different kinds of aliens, developing their distinctive features, notable traits, and thinking about various cultures for each.

Scope

This desember I'd like to focus on the people of Solaris. Who they are, what they are, and how they relate to eachother. What is their perspective?

Themes
Identity Expression Trauma and Grief Public vs Personal Perception

Inspirations

Blue Planet: War in Heaven

Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

W.I.T.C.H.

Other Potential Articles

World Leaders, Keystones, and celebrities

The Community

Outside of Solaris, I'm beyond excited to see what other people are going to write this year. Nothing is as inspiring as following others in their process. There's a couple changes to the way worldember will work this year around, with the new competitor mode in particular, but also the new hashtags on the global feed. I'm very interested to see how they'll change the landscape of this WE.
I have a kind of stupid goal for this worldember, which isn't one that I actually expect to achieve. I want to try and get a thousand likes in one month. I'm setting this goal because both worldembers prior, I hit a point where I got in my head about sharing my work. I felt like I'd done well enough and that it was greedy to keep sharing my work. It slowly drained my motivation to write too, because I wasn't letting myself be excited about the things I'd made anymore.
That wasn't a very nice mindset to have, and I don't want anyone to think that way. So I'm setting a stupidly high goal so that I'll keep working towards it and don't get in my mind about how i 'hit' my goal already and I shouldn't want or try for anything more.
I think a lot of us could learn to put our work out there more often. I think seeing eachother sharing and celebrating our own and eachothers works is motivating. I want to see everyone taking joy in their creations and sharing them. I want to see a vibrant global feed and a vibrant showcase! I'm sure we will, if it was anything like last year.

Comment Caroling

This worldember I invite you to go Comment Caroling with me. The goal is to help cheer people on as they write. It's as easy as trying to leave a little comment when you like an article! It doesn't need to be fancy.
An important tenet among us comment carolers is to take care of yourself too! If you're not feeling like commenting, don't! This is for fun, and forcing it isn't fun.

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by Bill Melendez Productions