New Year's Resolutions 2023

Reading

I tried to choose a mix of different articles, and include people who I feel make compelling work and whose work deserves more love and recognition. I have a very hard time putting myself out there in the community but in the past few months I've managed to push myself a bit out of my comfort zone, and so I also tried to choose people who have made that a great experience and who I've gotten insight into their worldbuilding and writing processes.

invadersforever

Theo did several character articles during worldember, and so I had a difficult time choosing between Jett, Victoria, and Teo. In all of Theo's character articles, there's a fairly comprehensive but concise understanding of the characters as people and their roles in the overarching story, and we also get little hints about their relationship progressions in the story as well, which I love. The character portraits are also done in this awesome, cartoony style (and done by Theo).

PrippyMontyPoppyCock

I've read a few articles by Prippy that are just really well-constructed in terms of the idea itself as well as the article, and also that I feel like you can tell they enjoyed writing it. This one specifically is such a specific and unique idea, but it's also weirdly concurrent with how dreams often work in the real world. This is also the kind of thing that, to me, gives a world more depth, and I'd like to include more of these kinds of smaller-scale details in my own world.

PanthersEye

This is another article where you can simply tell that the author thoroughly enjoyed creating it. It's a deep-dive on a specific tradition, but more than that, it shows the integration of different aspects of worldbuilding. Panthers put a lot of time and effort during Worldember into creating this one thing, and it's been a while since I've worked on an article in a similar fashion, but it's so rewarding, both from the readers' and author's perspective. Also, the map is super cool.

leafdrink

I love Leaf's art style (Tandel's portrait is also awesome) and also, I really like Aria's cape. But Aria themself as a character also seems super interesting, as well as the whole idea of manufactured gods. Characters becoming gods—or trying to—is a guilty pleasure trope of mine, but weirdly enough I don't have any characters in my own world with such aspiration. Aria's article also isn't finished but Leaf still does a great job, through the intro, of getting across a distinct picture of who they are as a character.

nnie

Pretty much all of Annie's articles that I've read this month have been amazing—the art for oceanids is gorgeous—but I picked her primer because in looking at plans for the year ahead, I really need a primer for my own world and I think Solaris' is done really well. It's concise, but more importantly centered around her story, and in general her worldbuilding is tightly woven around the story as well. This focus is something I struggle with, but which I'm trying to work more towards.

eccbooks

This article was just so fun to read, but I do also want to highlight two things: first, how Chris amalgamates different ideas and tropes, because he integrates various tropes and references in a way that's refreshing and new. And also the humor and voice, especially in this article. My world (and writing style) is pretty serious, and I am most comfortable using a serious tone, however I do wish their were more hints of humor occasionally interspersed throughout my worldbuilding and it's refreshing to read worlds that are more humorous than my own.

Blue Fairy 74

I really like the idea of calendar articles—I don't know why, I just think they're a really cool thing to have as an article—and Sindy's is really well-done. It integrates both the religion/mythology as well as her conlang in a way that doesn't bog down the overall context or make it difficult to understand. I have my own calendar article, but it's extremely half-assed right now, and reading hers was a good reminder (and gave me some good inspiration) for refining and expanding on my own.

TheDoctor292

This article simultaneously gives a good, straightforward overview of the organization, as well as leaves a lot of room for worldbuilding. There are several places where I think GalaxyWolf is going to put links to new articles, and there are a number of details that are simply left as mysteries. We do get quite a bit of information about the Underground Rebels, but I also come away from it knowing there's more to the story and wanting to read more, which is an awesome feeling because it makes the world seem deeper.

Amélieis

Amé is another author who uses humor a lot in her articles, often in a somewhat satirical vein, and it makes for a very entertaining read, as well as adding underlying implications to the societies she's built as a whole. The formatting is also very clear and engaging, which gives an almost textbook/brochure sense as well as retaining her distinct voice and sarcasm through the actual writing. Also, though there aren't any here, I do love her drawings (i.e. Picture Book).

drunkenpanda951

One of my favorite things in worldbuilding is seeing a classic trope utilized and turned on its side or built off of in a clever way, and drunkenpanda does exactly that with dwarves in this article. His idea is so simple and inventive, and it fits perfectly with the "classic lore" regarding dwarves. It also applies a very real-world idea to a fantasy one, which I try to do in my own worldbuilding, and the way it's explained integrates it into other aspects of the worldbuilding, much like Panthers did with the funeral pyres.

New Year's Resolutions

I really have no idea how this year is going to go so I don't want to commit to any goals that are too lofty, but I do want to do a primer/introduction at some point, as well as fill out some of those important character articles. If I have the time, I should also really do a new map as well. And even though it's not worldbuilding per se, I would like to get through revisions and editing on the draft I just finished this nanowrimo. And lastly, I would like to try and get myself out there and interact on the discord more—and on worldanvil in general.

I might come back to this section once I think about it more, but for now those are my general goals.