2021 Annual Review
The Year of Challenges
General Summary
Hello and welcome, to the Sea of Starlight review of 2021. I've decided to write this review as a way to wrap up the year and maybe look ahead of what is to come in the next year. This is the first time I'll be doing this, but I hope to turn this into an annual tradition around the holidays.
It's been quite a year, and I usually do not think back of where I came from and what I've done, and more about what I still have to do or want to achieve. I can say writing about what I have done within the last 12 months really helped me appreciate how far I've come!
Statistics
Numbers
Everyone loves a bit of statistics, so here's a quick rundown of what I've written, illustrated and made during 2021.Statistics
| Type | 2021 | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Images Illustrated | 285 | 741 |
| Words Written | 165.117 | 215.633 |
| Articles Published | 1011 | 1422 |
| Items Invented | 172 | 500 |
| Potions brewed | 20 | 44 |
| Creatures conjured | 14 | 31 |
| People encountered | 23 | 28 |
| Locations uncovered | 37 | 44 |
| Places mapped | 3 | 6 |
| Random tables constructed | 18 | 36 |
Missions/Quests Completed
Starting out. Just before 2021 started, I was finishing up the scaffolding of the Sea of Starlight. Making categories and the structure to put all my content in. I uploaded all my items and potions and was now finally able to start worldbuilding. But, I started out on WorldAnvil in 2021 with my very own Magic Item Flash Challenge, where people wrote about and designed their very own magic items. I drew a couple of them as a prize and went on the WorldAnvil stream together with Janet and Dimitris. Looking back, I think this moment, specifically the community and the energy of this event and the people really lit a fire of inspiration in me.
Challenges.So with this fire inside of me, I decided to join in the next WorldAnvil challenge with GinnyD, the Costume Challenge. A perfect entry point into challenges for me, as magic items, armor and costumes are my jam. And so, the Regalia of the Pearl Guard was born. I was super proud of my entry and it was the first thing I created that felt ingrained in my world,All of a sudden I was reminded of the reason why I initially started out with creating magic items: to make my home game of DnD more interesting and come alive. And of course, this item became even more important later in the year... Building outward. I continued writing about the many little aspects of my world (in between challenges). Places my players had visited or would be visiting, characters, creatures and of course a lot of magic items which I continued to illustrate, write and share with the world. The fact that I was no longer just making items, but cultures, people, creatures and places that were tied to these objects, made the process much more fun. I let go of my previous style of doing themed months based on existing cultures, styles or tropes, (which at that point, I had grown tired of) and went on to create content specific to my own world and setting. Challenge mania. As I stated, I might have gone a bit overboard with challenges this year. One could say I'm a bit competitive. Summercamp 2021 was my first big WorldAnvil event, and I loved every minute of it. The prompts made me create aspects of my world I would have otherwise never thought of, and the community spirit and drive pushed me forward to complete all 31 prompts within the month. I came across Swordtember on twitter next, and illustrated and wrote 30 swords in the month of September. The shipwright challenge and mapvember were next with maps and descriptions of a ship and various locations, my world continued to grow. And now, in this last month of the year, I'm doing my first WorldEmber. Aiming for the 50.000 words achievement. As I'm writing this, there's less than 8000 words for me to write and I'm optimistic and hopeful I'll be able to complete it. The beauty of WorldAnvil challenges is that the contents are all public, so you can read all of them! You can check them out here:
Summercamp
Shipwright Challenge
Mapvember
WorldEmber
Best of WorldAnvil The absolute highest of highlights this year would be the nominations and awards I received in the Best of WorldAnvil 2021. I was nominated with the Sea of Starlight 4 times in the categories Best Organized World, Best Material, Best Species and Best Item. I'm super proud to have won best material with Amniteum and especially proud to have won best item with Regalia of the Pearl Guard, one of my first real worldbuilding efforts. I'd like to thank the judges for nominating me and everyone who voted on me to make this happen, I could had never imagined myself as a writer or worldbuilder and it was a huge confidence boost!
Challenges.So with this fire inside of me, I decided to join in the next WorldAnvil challenge with GinnyD, the Costume Challenge. A perfect entry point into challenges for me, as magic items, armor and costumes are my jam. And so, the Regalia of the Pearl Guard was born. I was super proud of my entry and it was the first thing I created that felt ingrained in my world,All of a sudden I was reminded of the reason why I initially started out with creating magic items: to make my home game of DnD more interesting and come alive. And of course, this item became even more important later in the year... Building outward. I continued writing about the many little aspects of my world (in between challenges). Places my players had visited or would be visiting, characters, creatures and of course a lot of magic items which I continued to illustrate, write and share with the world. The fact that I was no longer just making items, but cultures, people, creatures and places that were tied to these objects, made the process much more fun. I let go of my previous style of doing themed months based on existing cultures, styles or tropes, (which at that point, I had grown tired of) and went on to create content specific to my own world and setting. Challenge mania. As I stated, I might have gone a bit overboard with challenges this year. One could say I'm a bit competitive. Summercamp 2021 was my first big WorldAnvil event, and I loved every minute of it. The prompts made me create aspects of my world I would have otherwise never thought of, and the community spirit and drive pushed me forward to complete all 31 prompts within the month. I came across Swordtember on twitter next, and illustrated and wrote 30 swords in the month of September. The shipwright challenge and mapvember were next with maps and descriptions of a ship and various locations, my world continued to grow. And now, in this last month of the year, I'm doing my first WorldEmber. Aiming for the 50.000 words achievement. As I'm writing this, there's less than 8000 words for me to write and I'm optimistic and hopeful I'll be able to complete it. The beauty of WorldAnvil challenges is that the contents are all public, so you can read all of them! You can check them out here:
Best of WorldAnvil The absolute highest of highlights this year would be the nominations and awards I received in the Best of WorldAnvil 2021. I was nominated with the Sea of Starlight 4 times in the categories Best Organized World, Best Material, Best Species and Best Item. I'm super proud to have won best material with Amniteum and especially proud to have won best item with Regalia of the Pearl Guard, one of my first real worldbuilding efforts. I'd like to thank the judges for nominating me and everyone who voted on me to make this happen, I could had never imagined myself as a writer or worldbuilder and it was a huge confidence boost!
Notes
I want to be honest in saying that this past year has not always been great. I was given and took on more hours than I should for my part-time job as a teacher, increasing my workload to 150%. This workload affected by ability to take breaks and schedule some downtime, everything just kept coming and on top of that I took on all those challenges. These things happen, and I've learned from the experiences so I'm not mad at myself that I let it happen. For the next year though, I'll try and pace myself a bit and take more time to develop my artistic skills. I want to become a better illustrator and I have to schedule time for me to learn new things, read and study.
Finally, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has joined me and supported me on this adventure the last year. You've all made push myself to write, illustrate, do and learn more. Please know that your support is so very much appreciated! And ofcourse a final thanks to the entire crew of WorldAnvil, without you all this simply would have been impossible.
Report Date
28 Dec 2021
The Handsome Garpike
Amniteum
Brunnian Gardener's Goose
Tidal Torture
False Sphinx
Festival of the Summer Sun
Fungrum
Spiritual Determinism
I feel as though pacing yourself is a difficult lesson to learn. It's really cool to see how far you've come this year and how many articles you've written and illustrations you've done. It's so inspiring to me! :D Good luck for 2022! :D