Worldember Prep 2024

Introduction

I can't believe it's WorldEmber already! I've always joked that my day job is both a blessing and a curse; that is more true now than ever, as recent events have led to me needing to take significant time off to recover from stress and burnout. The blessing is that by taking time to recover, I can use the time for writing in this challenge, because writing is one of my main coping strategies as it provides an escape into my own world, but also helps me work through tough issues by guiding my characters through them.   Last years' challenge got completely derailed due to a family situation. I still managed to do most of the things I pledged to do throughout the year and can really feel Belerion starting to take shape, so with all this in mind - let's get ready for WorldEmber 2024!    

Week 1: Pledge

Last year, I wanted to write 50,000 words. I still want to know what that feels like, what that looks like, and what that would mean for Belerion, so my pledge this year remains to write 50,000 words, with fewer distractions and more time, this should be infinitely more achievable than last year. Furthermore, the challenges I've completed since then have given me such an abundance of opportunities to explore Belerion, that there is no shortage of areas to write about, no shortage of stub articles desperate for expansion and completion. Last year I focused on building the Scrolls and Compendium that contain all the knowledge of Belerion in the The Great Library of Tewledandar. This year, I'll spend my wordcount filling some of those scrolls. I'll be exploring the dwarven mines of the Bellever Mountains, wading through the Ponsagwlan Bog, and soaring over the dunes of the Bodmany Desert among other places, as I record the flora, fauna and factions that dwell in the biomes of Belerion.    

Week 2: Preparation

I think I last updated the Belerion homepage in the WE23 prep, but only to tweak the wording to reflect some changes and developments to the world. This year I want to completely overhaul the homepage; now that Belerion is really starting to take shape in my mind, I think I can better communicate what the world is like - what the terrain looks like and the creatures that inhabit it, who the peoples are and what their cultures are like. I'll also write a primer article (for the first time!) that the homepage links to for a more detailed overview, with some further links to key articles to lead readers down all the many wonderful rabbit holes that Belerion has to offer.   I'll also be developing the formula for my articles a bit more; themed header images to better indicate the location that the article is linked with, better use of the article tagging system with preset strings for certain articles to make finding them easier as I build out more and more of the world.    

Week 3: Inspiration

While I've been off, if I've not been writing, I've been watching movies with our creatures of darkness (our tuxedo cat, and black lab cross), so have enjoyed revisiting some of old favourites that have inspired much of the Belerion; this means all of the harry potter franchise (but not yet the fantastic beasts ones! Although I disagree strongly with Rowlings political views, her works have had an undeniable impact on contemporary literature. In my view, her works serve as the 'wikipedia' of fantasy writing - a good proving ground for ideas before further researching with the benefit of hindsight and greater knowledge of problematic tropes). I also include the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons movies - they are not so much direct inspirations in terms of providing ingredients for Belerion, but the soundtracks and screenplay (not to mention I'll never not watch a Tom Hanks movie) always scratch whatever itch my brain has. I'll no doubt do a Hobbit and LoTR marathon at some point too, possibly saving these for during December, and of course the Avatar movies (Pandora, not ATLA - although ATLA will undoubtedly feed into Belerion in some way too).   Elsewhere, I draw inspiration from the gaming world: Assassins Creed, Civilization, Solium Infernum and Heroes of Might and Magic; the world-building of each of these franchises is truly awe-inspiring, and elements of each of them have either been directly borrowed, and have partially inspired, much of the world of Belerion. I also draw inspiration from Pokémon, FairyTail and CardCaptor Sakura.   Books that I draw inspiration from include Paolini's Inheritence Cycle (but not the Eragon movie!), Andersons' Terra Incognita series, Pullman's His Dark Materials, Martins' Game of Thrones,   To keep me in the mood while writing, I'll be sticking to some tried and tested playlists on Spotify comprising some of the greatest movie and game soundtracks ever written; featuring all my favourite composers: Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Howard Shore, James Horner, Michael Giacchino, Jesper Kyd, Alan Menken and Brian Tyler. I've started building my own playlist with my favourites of all of these great artists, but there is a really good 17h 46m playlist called "Epic Soundtrack from Movies & Games" by 'Dizzy' that works really well on shuffle (I've also added it to this article).  

Week 4: Motivation

I'm not a very sociable person, so I'm unlikely to adopt a 'buddy' or enter into that style of accountability; instead I'll be providing updates via my blog (which will be a nice natural way to link my blog to my writing work, thereby joining up another two aspects of my drag persona), and communicating these updates via social media. I'll also be following #WEPrep and the #WorldEmber24 on BlueSky, and conversations on the WA Discord channel (and interacting where I can!) to remain as fully immersed in a writing headspace as possible.   My partner will be at work during the day, so I can use this time to really get a lot done - taking regular breaks to go and hang out with the pets, do housework, wrap christmas presents etc. but also being ok with those days where I'm all authored out and just need to refill my cup by not doing any writing.  

Conclusion

I genuinely feel really excited about this challenge; not just because its another badge that I can proudly display on my profile, but because of how much I get to explore Belerion, and what that means for how much richer the world will be at the end of the challenge. As long as I have the safeguards in place that I've discussed here, such as logical tagging and visual cues built into the header, I should be able to build a significant part of Belerion and be able to refer to it in future without getting lost in my own world!