2024 - Reading & Review

2024 Retrospective

Last year, I'd set a goal to switch from wiki-style articles to ones that told a story. Instead of stating facts and history about a Thing That Exists, I'm telling you the story of a facet of the setting. Every article has a core conflict, supports the broader themes of the setting, and contributes to the larger story.   I prefer writing stories over writing worldbuilding, and in my opinion, the end result is much more interesting to read. However, it also takes a lot more time and energy. I need to know the purpose of an article and make sure everything supports it - from the writing, to the structure, to the presentation. I'm writing slower, publishing fewer articles, and participating in fewer challenges.   As 2024 went on, I found greater freedom in saying no to things that didn't excite me. It's how I was able to make progress on everything in my Development Timeline. I put what I'd learned in 2023 to the test, with bolder decisions, more focused articles, and more intentional styling choices.   The year was further proof of what I already knew: I am not a worldbuilder, I'm a storyteller. I only worldbuild to tell a better story. I might as well make the worldbuilding a story, too.  

Statistics

Expand the spoiler for stats for my two creative worlds: wow that's a lot of stars and . Where possible, I also listed the numbers from last year to see how things changed over 2024.   I moved challenge-related articles from talos to this world halfway through the year. These are often a world's most-liked and most-commented articles. Numbers aren't the best way to track progress and quality, but it's still satisfying to know these new numbers are based entirely on my creative work.   Show the Numbers!  

Events

• Nominated for Most Beautiful World in the 2024 World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards.
• Won Magic March and Spring Improvement community challenges.
• Earned a bronze badge in Summer Camp.
• Particpated in other challenges as listed in One-Time Events.

Creations

• Created this overworld with a custom theme and custom art.
• Finished talos v2.0 and worked on sub-themes for different projects in YAHN.
• Wrote two short stories, one for Adventure April and one for WorldEmber (technically published in 2025 but I'm counting it for 2024).
• Ran a mini-campaign, Inter-Seller, and began documenting that on WA.
• Started documenting another novel, whose protagonist got a WA feature.

2025 Goals

  For the next year, I want to continue improving my storytelling skills. I want to practice getting to the core conflict sooner, developing more personal stakes, and building confidence as a writer. A lot of this work takes place off World Anvil, whether among other writers or simply working on things that aren't meant to be published.   This, among other factors like health and politics, will likely mean I'll be sending fewer follower notifications in 2025 compared to 2024.