WorldEmber 2023 Homework

WorldEmber progress

10181/10 000 words

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Homework progress

4/4

'Tis the season to put on that writing cap and start worldbuilding!

— Sunlance

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! It's been a while since I took part in a WA challenge, but what better way to get back into the swing of things than join in the WorldEmber fun? I'm still working through my other worlds and clearing up Summer Camp articles from years past, so this year I'll be focusing on Amalgia. A relatively new world (you can probably tell by the lack of articles) with a lot of potential.

If you want to know a little bit more about Amalgia before we dive into the WorldEmber homework, you can read the introductory article here!

Otherwise, read on fellow worldbuilders!

Week 1: Pledge Your Goal

There's plenty of things in Amalgia that I could cover, but after a bit of mulling over the choices, I've opted to focus on the 5 main factions:

• The Materian Alliance
• The Threedan Order
• Honourhold
• Liberty
• The Warriors of the Rift

At first glance it might not look like much. But these factions are the big ones, so when it comes to expanding on them, there's going to be plenty to write about.

Now in the past when I've done WorldEmber, I've tended to give myself a bit of a wider focus - sometimes that's better, sometimes it's not, really it just depends on the worldbuilding mood that I'm in. This year I want to really define that focus area and stick to it, so that I don't get lost down the rabbit hole of unfinished WIPs!

I'll see you back here for homework week 2! In the meantime, good luck to everyone else participitaing in WorldEmber - I'm looking forward to reading all those awesome articles you guys are going to create!

Week 2: Prepare your area of focus

• WorldEmber Mini-meta
  Scope
  What impact will these factions have on the world? The short answer is a lot. The more refined answer is dependent on how these factions interact with each other and the world around them. Most will be at odds with one another, but are there any looking for peace as the world falls apart? Are they so focussed on fighting the perceived enemy that they refuse to try and mend the world around them?
• WorldEmber Mini-meta
  Themes and mood
  The themes and mood of Amalgia have been talked about a little bit in the Two Worlds, Colliding primer article. Taking from that, the major focus themes for this WorldEmber will be conflict and hope.
• WorldEmber Mini-meta
  Goals
  To flesh out the main factions. Hopefully, by the time WorldEmber is over, I'll have refined each of the factions purposes, their goals and how they hope to achieve them, how they interact with the other factions (or just the Materians / Dyrus of Amalgia in general), and how they interact with the world around. Of course, I'll also be expanding on some of the key characters in each faction, which will give me a basis to further expand Amalgia's lore.
• WorldEmber Mini-meta
  Inspiration
  If you've read the primer article, you might already be aware that Amalgia is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. For the latter, I've taken some inspiration from a variety mythological creatures and different legends. For the former, at the moment I've not really got anything specific in mind, save for just taking inspiration from the current sci-fi genre (as massive as that is!). Regardless, I'm hoping to put my own unique spin on each.

What could possibly go wrong, mixing a little bit of magic with a little bit of technology?

— Sunlance

Ironically, I was actually already tweaking the category structure for Amalgia! So that's made this week's homework a little bit easier (although it helps that Amalgia is a fairly new world with very few articles in it). Honestly, I'll probably tweak it again in the future - because I'm never happy with these things! - but for now, the factions articles I write for WorldEmber can happilly sit under the Factions category.

As for getting inspired by other worldbuilders... it's so hard to narrow down! There's so many amazing worlds out there that have so much love poured into them, I really wish I could shout them all out! Here are some in particular that I really enjoy and that have inspired me so much, not just with Amalgia, but my other worlds as well.

Week 3: Welcome your readers!

Of all my worlds, Amalgia's homepage is the one that's probably had the most thought put into it. It makes sense; Almagia's my newest world, so I've been able to apply a lot of things I've learned on my worldbuilding journey, and one of those is making a welcoming homepage! (At least, I'd like to think I've done a good job with it!)

I have made some slight tweaks, as prompted by this weeks homework. Injected a bit of colour, a couple of images, just to help break up the text a little bit more. Here's a little breakdown of my thought process for each part of the homepage (because why not!):

• Homepage breakdown
  An In-universe Snippet
  Personally, I love it when people lead with an in-universe snippet. I think it's often a great way to give a bit of insight into the state of the world, or what kind of themes to expect, whilst also giving things a little bit of flair.
• Homepage breakdown
  The Intro Guide
  What better way to help people explore your world? Especially when you've got a lot of content (although that isn't the case for Amalgia - yet!). It's a great starting point for any new readers, or even to help your current readers to jump back in and give themselves a refresher.
• Homepage breakdown
  The Main Theme
  Next up, I've included a little section on what the main theme of the world is. Sometimes I'll put multiple themes (if I feel like they're equally as important), but for Amalgia, that theme is Conflict. And here's where those little tweaks came in - a couple of images & a dash of colour, rather than just text. They were links to a category originally, but I've removed those for now because the content just wasn't there / ready.
• Homepage breakdown
  End on a Quote
  Quotes are a really helpful way of getting insight into the world, but from the lens of a specific character or POV. You'll see a lot of these dotted around Amalgia.

Week 4: last minute prep!

Writing Schedule

Throughout WorldEmber, I'll try and stick to the following schedule:

• 1 day break / rest
• 2 days of worldbuilding

Cheekily, that first 1 day of rest will land on December 1st, mainly because I've got a work Christmas party that day so I won't be getting any writing done anyway, but also because it leads into two good days of writing over the weekend. It also means that Christmas day itself is scheduled in as a rest day.

Milestones

I've got the overall goals of what I want to write listed under week one, but the question is when do I want these to be written by? For this, I'm setting myself some deadlines throughout December for me to reach a certain % of that 10k word count.

20% by the 6th

40% by the 12th

60% by the 18th

80% by the 24th

100% by the 30th

Writing Space

Desk cleaned and and clutter removed

Ideas notebook and coloured pens at the ready

Music playlists ready

Rewards

Rewards are a great motivator - I did this for a previous WE and they worked really well, so I'll be doing it again this year. Check out my personal rewards below:

• Every x500 words (e.g. 500, 1500 etc.) - treat myself to a fancy hot chocolate. There's a couple of different brands that I really love, and what better way to warm up this chilly December than to treat yourself to a good ol' hot chocolate?
• Every x000 words (e.g. 1000, 2000 etc.) - take a break and treat myself to some video game downtime. I can't write 24/7 and, although I won't be swearing off playing video games throughout December, it gives me something fun to look forward to once the writing is out of the way

Table of Contents

WorldEmber Articles

Check back in December to see how things are progressing!