New Year's Resolutions 2024

I only joined World Anvil in June of 2023, after hearing about it on YouTube. A few months ago, I was just starting to learn how to make an article and struggling with it. Now, I'm starting to learn how to code using CSS to customize my world, and I've got two worlds I'm working on simultaneously with a total of over 13.4K words between them! I've always had a problem with staying motivated and writing consistently, so I'm very satisfied with getting this much written over the past few months. Out of my two worlds, only Merania is public currently, but I hope to eventually make my other world public as well once I've got a bit more work in (stay tuned for that!) It's been an amazing year for me creatively, and I've had a blast getting to know the World Anvil community. In the upcoming year, I'm hoping to meet more Anvilites and get to read about their worlds! :)

My favourite articles of 2023

As I mentioned earlier, this has been my first year using World Anvil, but I've already found so many worlds to fall in love with. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but here are a few of the articles that inspired me in 2023!

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One thing I absolutely love reading about is terrifying, unsettling magic, and this article is a perfect example of that. The ritual itself is as fascinating as it is horrifying, and the descriptions are creepy in the best possible way. I should mention that there are some descriptions of gore in the article, though, so keep that in mind.

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I have to include Morinrayne on this list, because magejosh1 has somehow managed to include an incredible amount of detail about it without making the article boring to read. Despite describing everything about the village from its demographics to its economy and trade, the writing is still engaging enough to keep you reading, which is something I struggle with in my own worldbuilding-heavy articles.

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This was the first article I read in Chrispy_0's world, though by no means the last, and I've been a fan ever since. I enjoyed reading about the history of the islands, and I especially love the way the article subtly hints at the backstory without giving too much away- just enough to get you reading more.

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I absolutely love the cozy vibe of this. Reading this article just feels like curling up in a huge library with a mug of hot chocolate and a couple of books. The descriptions of the library are also detailed without being unnecessarily long. I really look forward to reading more of this world!

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I picked this article specifically because I liked the concept of a common tongue from which all others are derived, but I'm a fan of the entire world of Lethea in general. It's hard to put into words, but it makes me Feel Things. I don't know what it is about Lethea that gets me, but it just scratches that fantasy itch in my brain.

I absolutely love the concept of a building created out of a kraken-whale carcass. The descriptions of the palace are incredibly vivid too, painting a picture of a place that's beautiful but dangerous and slightly unsettling. I'm definitely going to be reading more of this world in the coming year.

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I got chills while reading this. It was a very engaging read, and it's pretty much the perfect introductory article- it just hooks you in from the start and gets you craving more of Iastarene.

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Blue Fairy 74 is an incredibly talented storyteller. I've gone through a few of their other articles as well, and they are all very engaging and creative. Also, the art and design of their world are so, so pretty; I definitely recommend checking them out.

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Magic detectives! I feel like that's all I should need to say here, but in case that hasn't convinced you to give this article a read (how?), the details of the Widowbirds' methods and recruitment process are incredibly interesting. I especially love the explanation of why each Widowbird is unique in their skillset and methodology.

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This is one of my favorite articles of WE2023 and such a fun read! It's informative, but the annotations and side comments are funny and keep it from being too dense. I honestly followed the world of Kohtalo immediately after reading this article, without even needing to check what it's about.

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Resolutions for 2024

I've done a lot of planning and writing for Merania this year, and I'd like to keep working on the Hurani side of the continent. I do want to make sure I don't burn out, though, since I'm going to be working toward getting my Master's degree at the same time. So to keep my goals for the year realistic, I'll be focusing on just Huran and the main plot. In ascending order of importance, here are my resolutions for 2024:

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Design and navigation of Merania

This past half year, I've gone through a bit of a learning curve with figuring out how to use CSS, embed quotes and images into articles, and so on, but there's still so much more to learn! I want to make my world prettier and settle on a design for it. I've found a few good resources for learning CSS coding, alongside the WA guides, so getting started with that should hopefully be easier. I also plan on adding a few introductory articles and working on my categories to make my homepage more easily navigable.

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More art!

I haven't had time to really sit down and do a lot of art for my world yet. This year, I'd like to start drawing more portraits and maps of the major characters and locations of Huran, particularly the following places:

• The Summer Palace
• Tuolan Academy
• Asperan mansion
• Mardoram mansion

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WA events

I only got to properly paticipate in WorldEmber this past year, even though the other events did inspire me to write a lot of content which I've kept private. In 2024, I'd like to participate in some of the other events as well, particularly Summer Camp and NaNoWriMo, and interact more with the community!

Noble houses of Huran

Most of my story takes place within Huran's court, so developing the major noble houses is something I need to do pretty early on. Currently, I've only got 3 out of the 7 Hurani houses figured out, so that leaves the remaining 4 for me to work on within the coming year.

Asperan
Mardoram
Pelen
Ledis
Sentalen
Shimor
Arinset

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Major characters of the story

While I've started working on some of the characters for the story, I pretty much haven't written anything for the main characters. For that, I do need to finish up with the noble houses, so this part will hopefully come after.

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The Plot

I plan to hopefully write out (at least) the skeleton of the main murder mystery plot this year. I'm generally a 'worldbuild first, plot later' kind of writer, so this should be the very last step I take after I'm done with fleshing out the main characters and their families.