World Ember 2024 Aftermath
2024's New Year's Resolutions, Reading Challenge, & Shortlist
Happy New Year to everyone! I personally am glad to see the dumpster fire that was 2024 in my rearview mirror. I look forward to the dumpster fires to come. (Not really.) But enough about that. Despite the chaos, this year I wrote 76,000 words in 100+ articles. That's an achievment that I'm proud of and it could only happen because of the existence of World Anvil and this community. So thanks to all of you who are reading this!
For this year's World Ember, I worked the most on getting my player's and my session notes turned into session reports. I've been blessed with many great groups of players and the ones I'm playing with now actually take notes and send them to me! I take their notes and my notes, mash them together, and write session reports of WILDLY varying quality! My goal is to have a repository of my old games to go through for inspiration and to possibly write up stories based in my world.
I also used WE to write up locations, characters, and a condition that have come up in game. As always, I LOVE how these competitions and challenges focus my worldbuilding. My brain definitely needs an outside force to make it look at only one thing!
New Year's Resolutions
2024 Resolution Review
I'm taking a look at my resolutions from last year and it's a really mixed bag. Here they are one-by one.
"Allocate my attention wisely"
I got SUPER distracted this year by life. I had a turbulent year at work that bled into my personal life. Hobbies had to take a back seat to IRL for a little bit. Everything turned out ok in the end, but the job is taking up more brain space for me than it has in past years.
We had TWO major hurricanes roll through my area last year that severely disrupted the second half of my year, again my writing/world building had to be put on hold.
I picked up a really fun phone game that helped me with the stress, so I need to watch how much I use it. Especially when it's eating into my creative time.
"Work on art"
I wanted to create my own art, get commissions, and replace my AI images. While this is a solid goal, it got steamrolled in the chaos. But there are actually good developments along those lines coming in the next resolution.
"Monetize my work"
I DID formally start my own RPG company last year. Did the formal paperwork and everything. Brought on two partners and contacted artists. Then work picked up unexpectedly and I lost sight of that goal.
But what that means is, I'll be getting artwork in and putting it up in my "business facing" world while leaving World of Wizard's Peak as-is for myself.
2025 Resolutions
So this year I'm going to dedicate myself to meeting that RPG goal. I want to have something, anything, ready for sale this year that I can look back on and be proud of. So without further ado, here are my resolutions for this year:
- Spend at least 15-30 minutes creating every day
- Set boundaries between work and hobbies
- Take small steps toward monetization
- Manage distractions and media consumption
Wish me luck and I'll report in next year!
Reading Challenge
Here are some articles from this year's World Ember that I particularly enjoyed.
The Dance of Dreams
As always, I am required to include an article from my worldbuilding bestie, "the other Chris". He and I have brains that run in parallel and his work is very pleasing to my personal preferences.
The concept of "dream dancing" is pretty central to his storytelling, he has a book named after it! Just unearthing some of his hidden gems that deserver more attention.
Saurigna
Mochi is one of my (and the community's!) favorite writes on World Anvil. As always, I'm amazed at their output and absolutely solid work!
They really went all out on this article about dragons, putting a scientific spin on this fantasy favorite!
Stardust
An absolutley lovely bit of prose from Rin/2nerds that deserves more love. It's about regret and mistakes and moving on. I hate all the decisions that the protagonist makes, but I understand why they make them.
Inzisana - Sunfestival
A lovely article from Blue Fairy 74 that opens with a myth and then goes into detail about the associated festival. Stories about sun/moon eaters are a particular favorite of mine and I love this take on them!
Legeri's Cup
This is a cool device from Barron that serves as a ticket to unlimited drinks AND as a safety tool! This is a fun look into the world that demonstrates the inhabitants core values! Very well done.
Ethnicity Shortlist
As usual, I'm judging one of the categories for World Ember and I've drawn the "Ethnicity" prompt again this year! Here are the articles on my shortlist. The winner will be one of them!
I had a "shortlist" of 14 that I eventually pared down to this list of 5. There were so many great choices, but I ultimately went with those that made me laugh, or think, or feel something. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Children of Syn
by Thereasonwhy
This article opens with a beautiful poetic bit of prose that reads like poetry. Then the meat of the article is about hard-science immortal fae who destroy worlds and live in the vacuum! The transition honestly surprised me. I loved the juxtaposition.
Chiyu nu Tami
by Demongrey
This article about fun fox folks opens with a bit of lore and then gets into the details of their society. I especially enjoyed the parts about their religion and cuisine. Note: The way to my shortlist is through my (virtual) stomach!
Etainen
by Hallucigenia
The immortal Etainen come from a variety of species, but are transformed through a ritual that removes them from life and death. I enjoyed how grand and larger than life the article feels.
Southwesterner
by elspeth87
These stinky bison-people dress in colorful clothing and love flowers! Lots of cool art in here and I enjoyed learning about them and their sense of fashion.
Sun Elves
by Callyxtus
This highly detailed article features beautiful custom art that really brings it to life. As the name suggests, these elves' lives are focused around the sun. Callyxtus gets into lots of details of this interesting culture. Again, there was a lot of focus on fashion/clothing that I really enjoyed.
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