Follow along with my WorldEmber progress!

I promised you a look over my shoulder this month as I bring a vague and disjointed collection of ideas together into a cohesive piece of world-building. These resources will help you keep track of my progress through this month-long marathon challenge:

• Haly’s Official WE Progress Report — each participant gets a page that automatically collects their author information and all WE-eligible articles across all worlds into a single, shareable package.
• A WorldEmber Chronicle — follow along with a map and timeline of my progress. You’ll see locations and information develop day-by-day as I work my way through the basic elements of world-building.
• Haly’s WorldEmber on Argentii Index — an on-the-fly journal page and handy sidebar displaying only new Argentii WE-eligible articles.

Finding Out What’s Important

The overwhelming complexity of world-building can never be overstressed. I am not joking when I say that there is room for the entire universe in every fictional world. Because of this immense complexity, there will come times when you are standing in the middle of this vast ocean of ideas, looking around, helpless and lost.

Where do you go next? How do you determine what’s important?

We’ve talked this week about going through your stubs or snippet articles, looking for things you keep referencing without expanding, and the things that seem the most fun.

But Haly…what about those times when I’m in an unmotivated funk and also pressed up against a deadline, such as a professional project, a release date, or a challenge?

Good news, Creative Circle! I’ve had an absolute crap day and while I love to escape into my writing, I am not capable of structuring my thoughts into a logical process at the moment, to determine the logical next step in my worldbuilding.

Remember: I promised you successes and setbacks. So, in this newsletter, we’re going to turn a setback into a success. How, you ask?

The Magic of Freewriting

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, freewriting is when you simply sit back and let the words flow. It requires turning off your self-critic and drowning yourself in the freedom to create. It can be one of the gateways to that writing flow state or hyper-focus that so many of us strive for in order to make the most out of our precious — and often limited — creative time and energy.

I find it is often that way for me. It is especially helpful to me when I’m feeling overwhelmed and undermotivated. In short, it’s a way to force myself to keep going, instead of giving up, until I get that fresh creative wind.

Establish Your Space

Freewriting is nothing so much as a creative meditation. That is, it is a meditative process through a creative outlet. Treat it with the same respect and mindfulness that you would your yoga, meditation, manifestation, or prayers.

Make sure that you are comfortable, and unlikely to be disturbed. Allow yourself a good chunk of time, at least twenty minutes. Eliminate as many distractions as you can including phone, pets, and yes, your family.

For myself — and, don’t laugh — I do it blind-folded. I have this great sleep mask that has little Bluetooth speakers next to the ears. I connect that, throw on some Satie or Revel or Debussy, sit with the music for a little while, and then start typing. Sometimes I will have incense burning and there is always coffee at hand, though I rarely drink it until I’m done and it’s stone cold.

Finally, you have to set aside not just your self-critique, but your self-criticism. It’s not that you need to be comfortable feeling foolish, it’s that you need to embrace being the fool.

Let go and just…write.

Crossroads Island Freewriting Meditation

I am writing this with Ravel’s Bolero on repeat. I like the feeling of the lighthearted and curious melody above the marching, almost militant rhythm of the snare underneath.

Arriving at the North Port and being ushered off of a ship is very much like this. Visitors both new and seasoned are stunned by the magnificence of the goldstone. The way it shimmers in the light, any light, and seems to both sparkle and glow all at once.

From the water they are ushered off ship onto wooden docks that say underfoot slightly with the swift and turbulent currency of the Division River flowing underneath. Ever forward, ever forward, ever forward are the people encouraged. Toward the archway at the foot of the stairs.

Those magnificent stairs that sweep up along the outside of a curved tower. The North Tower itself is a gleaming cylinder composed of individual bricks of the rose-gold colored pink goldstone. As are the walls of the Old Castle, and all of the buildings within.

Yes, this includes the shell of Library Palace that was converted thousands of years ago into Library Inn. But you can’t see that from the North Dock because the North Dock Plaza. Astronomy Tower, however, is clearly visible above all of the plaza’s canopied stalls.

Almost always laid out for groups of visitors, the North Dock Plaza is filled with semi-permanent market stalls that have been converted to use as information kiosks, welcome booths, registration areas, and other infrastructure useful in greeting and processing large groups of people with efficiency.

The plaza butts up against narrow University Way, which runs past the Library Entrance of Library Inn and Astronomy Hill all the way to the entrance to the Catacombs. An adjacent and decommissioned dock has been converted into an area that serves as large group dining, with buffet tables arranged along the outer walls and benched tables filling the open space. It’s called Docker’s Dining, LOL!

Little chance is given for the eye to get bored with the pink goldstone, as many of the buildings that are not a part of the original castle proper have been constructed from other colors, much like the grand stairs outside the North Dock.

From the plaza and Docker’s, the Capitalla University of Arts and Literature is clearly visible. Once the palatial city home of the Old Nation’s council of regents, it was converted into a university not long after Shiv Moonsong established and opened the Library Inn.

Wrapping the Day

As you can see, sitting for a few minutes and just pouring out disjointed nonsense has left me with a good idea of what’s immediately important to the story that I’m telling right now. Whether you are struggling for direction or just want to get back in touch with the love and joy you feel when writing words without restriction, then give freewriting a try. You might be surprised and delighted with what happens!

As I write this, I am sitting at 8,956 new words of world-building toward my 50,000-word goal.