Haly's WorldEmber Index

Thinking back to my first WorldEmber in 2022, I was too new and too unfamiliar with the community and the platform to participate. In 2023, I set a 50K goal and struggled through my deep winter depression to manage just over 10K.

This year, with just a few hours and a few hundred words, I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on how it feels to have achieved (by the time I finish this) my 50K goal.

Running two worldbuilding projects in conjunction with a daily newsletter is quite possibly the most challenging thing I've ever taken on. Doing so during one of the most difficult seasons of the year for me, personally, adds an even deeper level of complexity. The good news is that the stability of my work schedule this year has made it possible for me to devote regular time every day to my writing.

The most encouraging part of this whole experience is how much more comfortable I am in Argentii. Taking some time off to let it percolate and develop in the back of my brain was a good idea.

Something else that has me excited is how my little community of Moonbeams has grown! I turned my newsletter entirely over to following my progress through the challenge. The average views on each post went down noticeably, but I can't tell if that's because of what I was writing, or simply because people were too busy with their own holiday plans and celebrations to keep up.

I hope that it's just because they know that the newsletters will be there for them to read when they have the time. I know that sometimes other newsletters will sit in my inbox for a day or two until I get around to them. And, if I'm being completely honest, there are a couple emails in my box from, like...early July 2024, just so I don't lose them or forget about them when I'm ready to read them.

...I should point out, these are emails for things I've purchased to read and cannot add to my bedside table TBR pile. They're not just...random emails I'm ignoring. After all, the authors already have my money, it dosn't matter when I finish reading their writing. (And yes, it's cool if you feel the same way about me.)

On the other hand, my WorldAnvil inbox is back up over 600 and I've also got a category to judge (which I'm super looking forward to).

January is a reading month, but it's also a polish month to get things ready for the WAWAs. I'm particularly excited about this because there are a number of articles that I'm really sort of proud of, and I've also got an idea for a killer map submission. I am also planning to polish up and fill out some more of Argentii's timeline. All-in-all, I think that January is going to be another exciting and busy month.

I just published this month's interview with via my Substack publication, and I've made some adjustments to the weekly column plans (Throwback Thursday, Feature Friday, and the Sunday Digest). I'm especially hoping that Sunday's digest will give me a little extra free time during the weekend to work on worldbuilding and making more connections in the writing and RPG communities on Bluesky and Substack.

I've finally decided on a direction for my worldbuilding class at GenCon, thanks to the work I've done during WorldEmber and the lessons I've learned from my own stumbling blocks. I'm leaning into making worldbuilding accessable for those who are new to the concept. For those who are experienced, I'm adding value through collaborations and interviews, as well as just refreshing them on things that they might not have considered in a while and inspiring them with my Twisted Tuesday subversions and Saturday Quick Six worldbuilding prompts.

Final Thoughts

While I wanted to get through all 50K before the start of the New Year, I'm pleased with and proud of my performance. I showed up to my writing every day, I made time for myself and my family during the holidays, and I didn't go batshit crazy with depression. (Both the writing and the Vitamin D suppliment that I've begun taking in winter have helped tremendously with all of this!) I worked with my feelings, and even let them guide me through several of my newsletters and worldbuilding articles.

On top of everything, including the incredible achievement of writing 50K words in a very limited amount of time (five short weeks), I'm going to be recieving a physical certificate commemorating my first ever 50K WorldEmber win! I got in on buying mine when they launched on stream at the beginning of WorldEmber, and I'm so looking forward to getting mine in the mail!

Finally, I'm looking forward to finally diving into the CSS for Argentii. It's time to make my pages look as good as the ideas that I've written out on them! These are, of course, loose plans. I will lay more out in detail when I put together my New Year's Resolution and Reading Challenge. (Expect a lot of notes and article blocks about CSS tricks I want to learn and apply.)