WorldEmber 2024 Pledge
How many more years can you pour 10k words into a single world?
As many as you can live in a single life I'd say.
It has been a good while since I really talked on here, but might as well break the silence with this article. Another year is coming to an end, and with that my obligation to at least get 10k more words on this site through the one event I will always do: WorldEmber.
The last few months have just not been kind for my worldbuilding focus, either due to fixating on other projects/work, or because the internet decided to implode in every imaginable way.
But lets not focus on that, now it's time to focus on what I'm going to be doing here.
Week 1: Pledge a Goal
The Goal
The goal is as simple as ever: 10.000 words more or less, just to ensure I got that badge on my account this year like the previous ones. Not going to force myself to write more than I can, just so that I don't have more trouble cleaning it up after WorldEmber is done.
Areas of Focus
Over the years my stuff has been a bit too fixated on the larger scale stuff of the Cosmic Hourglass, from its gods to major cosmic laws and powers. I feel this year I should try something else, narrow it down to the actual focus: The continent of Sichelan.
I might actually try to map out some stuff about factions, history, locations, people and traditions you may find in the present day. Seed some conflicts here, place some landmarks there, just ensure that the region is populated with fun lore and neat places to visit.
Meta
Yeah I don't really much touch my meta much these days. While I understand its usefulness for others, it is not as beneficial for myself. Either too focused for what I'm writing or too loose to give a solid answer. I might update it some day but for now I'll let it be as is.
Week 2: New Readers
Homepage Review
Like a lot of other stuff on here, I think my homepage needs some rework as well. The front cover uses my old artstyle, I need to change some of the blurb and maybe see what my setting changed into.
I might sketch a new cover someday in the future, but for now I may focus instead on rewriting the blurb for the setting to be more in line with what it is nowadays. Maybe I can still do it this week!
CSS Wizardry
Yeah, I think the one thing I really need to reconsider is just my quotes and sidebars. The rest of my CSS is great but I have no clue how to really improve upon it without causing older articles to break or become a bigger mess to navigate. Not to mention that I tend to use article-specific CSS for offworld places, so I'm not touching anything out of fear of fixing fifteen other articles in the progress.
You might seem some minor changes, but don't expect anything too drastic of a change to how the Fabulae Anthology is presented.
Introduction Review
I'm going to be simple, what I wrote beforehand wasn't good. It was outdated, poorly built and did not hold up to my current standards. So instead, I'm going to try and rebuild it from the ground up. Maybe this month, maybe after WorldEmber, who knows!
In the meantime, have this placeholder for the new article.
Week 3: Hunt for Inspiration
Okay, this week might not be much for me with how scatterbrained my writing progress can be.
Read and/or Watch
The last few months I don't really have much time or interest to watch things, let alone even read anything at all. At best I just open up YouTube and watch some essays while working on something, rather than sit own to watch a movie or read a comic.
However, it does not stop me from getting inspired by what I do see, either by concept or theme, and using it for my worldbuilding. Not sure what my recent experiences could be used for this year, but I can see what I come up with this year!
Playlist
I'm not someone to really listen to a lot of things because I'm too easily distracted when multi-tasking, but I might as well try to set up a playlist for songs I could use for upcoming articles. So have a playlist with some of my favourites, or that I just enjoy listening to!
Moodboard
Another one of those things I don't really do, at least not in the way intended. I do sometimes get inspired by music or certain pieces of art, but rarely do I make a collage of media to set a mood. I could maybe try to draw something tho, get some inspiration from sketching a page full of doodles and see what I can develop into a proper idea. Though that will depend also if I got the time and motivation to make some doodles.
Week 4: The Power of Friendship
Writing Community
Right now I haven't been much active in worldbuilding communities, but I do try to somewhat stick around in some areas here and there. One of them is the chapter I'm part of, the so-called Seven Tomes. Highly recommend you all the follow the amazing people there!
Writing Schedule
Trying to keep up a writing schedule is going to be a mess, what with NaNoWriMo apparently being in some controversy and there not being a good alternative. Pacemaker seems the most viable, but if anything I might just stick to NaNoWriMo because it's the most convenient.
Excited to see what lore you dive into during WorldEmber! I hope it's a fun month of writing!!
Seek a new dawn, in Malkora!
Craft a bright new world, in Ayun Sovos!