WorldEmber 2023

My focus in 2023 has been on balancing my mental health with my desire to be creating things all the time. I’ve been much more selective about what I say “yes” to; I’ve forced myself to take breaks in between big projects; and I’ve done my best to learn how to be still, to relax, and to give myself grace as I recover from the huge projects I tend to undertake. If I’m going to succeed with WorldEmber 2023, it must be more of the same. And so, I, E. Christopher Clark, pledge to write at least 10,000 words of new worldbuilding in the month of December 2023.

Yes, I’ve managed to write 25,000 words each WorldEmber for the past two years, but I don’t want to push it. If I hit a bigger number, fine. But I don’t want to be burned out come January. I want to enter the new year ready to continue my work on myself and my work-storytelling-life balance.

As in the past, this document will be my single place for gathering preparatory materials and doing my homework.

Week 1 Homework: Pledge

I’ve handled the pledge itself above, but the other thing we worldbuilders have been tasked with doing this week is choosing an area of focus.

My area of focus will be on anything I need to keep writing my current work-in-progress, a graphic novel titled The Blood of Seven Queens. This will involve locations my protagonist, Frieda Jacobs, will travel through; characters she’ll encounter along her quest to catch the Big Bad Wolf; as well as props, weapons, and magics she or her antagonists will have access to throughout the story.

Secondarily, as time allows, I will be attempting to flesh out my stubs—a popular endeavor amongst Anvilites this year that I’ve heard called stub stomping, Stubocalypse. and many other amusing names.

Week 2 Homework: Prepare

For this week’s homework, we’ve been tasked with preparing our area of focus for WorldEmber.

Scope & Goals

As I mentioned last week, I plan to limit the scope of my WorldEmber endeavors to articles that will directly impact my current work-in-progress (The Blood of Seven Queens). That’s already led me to tweaking my “One of Everything” list below, and I imagine that work will continue throughout this month. It’s not that I want to abandon “just for laughs” worldbuilding altogether, but there is so much stuff I could be building up to help me through the rewrite of Seven Queens that I might as well keep my focus laser-sharp.

My goal? I want to make huge progress on the book in 2024. I would love to finish the dang thing, if I can. And I think that’ll be easier the more worldbuilding I’ve done in advance to help me through the drafting and revision process.

Here’s Ron Carlson on that very subject, from his book Ron Carlson Writes a Story:

Our rule for now shall be: include things. …[W]e’re looking for a way to survive the writing of the story. When in doubt, include things. We may have [our character] over the sink trying to get the lid off the espresso maker while not getting water on the sleeves of her silk blouse, and we may not know her state of mind, but at least we have that small appliance, the running water, and her sleeves to help us into the next sentence.

Theme & Tone

Somewhere along the way in my teaching career—probably from Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction—I picked up the idea that, if the question “Who?” is about character and “When?” is about setting and so on, then “How?” is the question of tone and “Why?” is the question of theme.

It’s not a perfect parallel, but it almost works.

So, why am I writing about what I’m writing about? Because I like fairy tales and comic books and intertextuality. I like crossovers and remixes and mash-ups. I love the art of collage. I love how works of art can mean different things when they’re juxtaposed against one another.

I love the word juxtapose—maybe a bit too much, if I’m being honest.

And so, I write fairy tale retellings set in a post-apocalyptic world that blends mythpunk, steampunk, and cyberpunk.

But how do I tell those stories? What’s my tone? The truth is, I’m hard-pressed to tell you. Some folks will talk to you about how much my stuff makes them laugh. Some will talk about the brilliant twists and concepts. Some will mention the time I made them cry with a description of the last days of a white rabbit.

I keep wanting to classify the work that I’m doing on that mood alignment chart that goes around from time to time, but every site I find it on gives different examples for the different categories and they don’t seem to ever agree. On one site, I determined my setting was “neutralbright.” And yet, the last time I saw someone do a presentation on this stuff, the examples given for “neutralbright” were so unlike my world that they made my head spin.

All of that said, I think it’s super-important for me to answer this question for real at some point. I’m often faced with the sneaking suspicion that, while I think I’m writing one kind of story, I might in fact be writing something entirely different. And so, I ask you, constant reader, how would you describe the tone of my world?

Kitoypoy once called it “Terry Pratchett… but hornier.” Is that good enough? Should I just stop there and stick with that?

Inspiration

Pulling from my meta for my work in general, I plan to be listen to lots of Halsey and Nine Inch Nails this December (along with a heaping helping of whatever naughty pop music I’m digging on a given day). I plan to dig deep into my back issues of the comic book series Saga, Dawn, and Fables. And I plan to watch some stuff, but I’m not sure what yet. As I look at my list of movie inspirations, I’m realizing a lot of them are more geared towards future projects than this current one.

I also plan to take inspiration from some of my favorite worlds here on World Anvil: Cathedris, Culinarypunk, The World of Wizard’s Peak, and Etrea, among many, many others. The joy of these big community events here on World Anvil is working alongside so many other talented creators. See what they/you come up with is as much an inspiration as anything else.

Week 3 Homework: Welcome

It’s been a rough week here in Clarksville. I was laid off from my day job on Wednesday and I’m still recovering from that. And so, in that regard, the fact that this week’s WorldEmber homework is simply to “go to your world’s homepage and put yourself in your reader’s (or player’s) shoes”—a part of my world that I’m already very happy with—is great. And yet, because I’m feeling even more vulnerable and insecure, I face the challenge of this assignment with more than a little consternation.

See, included with the homework assignment was a blog post detailing examples of amazing homepages on World Anvil, but my homepage was not one of those listed. And while my rational, adult brain understands that there are probably hundreds of examples they could have chosen to highlight, the scared younger self inside of me who is afraid that everyone hates him—that part of myself that is super active right now, in the days following my university letting me go—he is convinced that the fact my homepage isn’t listed amongst the examples of “amazing” ones is reason enough for me to throw all of my other wants and desires aside and redesign my page from the ground-up.

When I try to tell him that I’m proud of the page and I don’t think it’s that bad, he points out that I have no sense of taste and am therefore not to be trusted. After all, Younger Me says, you don’t even like some of the examples they gave, so who are you to judge what’s good and bad you hack?! You phony! You liar, you cheat!

heavy sigh

And here I was about to try and write something positive to wrap up, but Younger Me decided he needs to tell you that the reason can’t put myself into my readers’ shoes is that I don’t have readers, that the only reason anybody consumes anything I make is because they feel sorry for me, and that I should go find the red button and delete my World Anvil page right now—along with every other thing I’ve ever put online.

So, I think I’m going to leave my homepage alone for now. And I’m going to consider the fact that I didn’t immediately go delete my page as accomplishment enough for this week.

Week 4 Homework: Gird

An old boss of mine used to be fond of the phrase “gird your loins.” He’d say it in advance of our annual conferences, just before an important but potentially difficult meeting with our board, or even just because it was a fun phrase to say. “Gird your loins.” Imagining him saying it to me is just as effective today as it was then, just as effective as the other phrase I remember fondly from back in those days: “just keep swimming” (a reference to the film Finding Nemo, if you’re not familiar).

This week’s WorldEmber homework is all about “last-minute prep” and to that end, I‘m going to address the points they raised in a quick, bullet-point format.

• Do writing exercises. I was on-stream with Janet from World Anvil when this homework was announced, but I’ll reiterate here: I love writing exercises, and I will definitely keep my plethora of books and writing games handy in case I (or anyone visiting my streams during December) get stuck.
• Find a support group. I wish I had the bravery to overcome my social anxiety and ask for admission to a chapter on the WA Discord, but I don’t. Instead, my support group will be the folks who stop by my Twitch stream Monday through Thursday each week; my friend Lissa, who I write with once a month; and my brother, once he comes home for the holidays.
• Tidy up your writing space. I do plan on dusting my desk this week, now that there’s one fewer laptop taking up room (I was laid off from my day job recently, in case you weren’t aware). Other than that, I’ll probably keep things as they are—if only so that I don’t get so distracted by tidying up that I forget why I’m doing it in the first place.
• Find a writing schedule. I plan to write from 8 am through 12 noon each day, allowing myself a brief lunch break before diving into writing with my Twitch community each weekday at 1 pm eastern. More writing may happen at other points in the day, given that I’m jobless at the moment, but we’ll see.
• Stock your writing space. If there’s one thing our house is not lacking during the holidays, it’s snacks. My coffee and soda supply is also all taken care of. The thing I’m working on right now is stocking my writing space with art. I am whipping up all sorts of fun pieces to share with you throughout the month, stuff to go along with my “One of Everything” articles (see below).

And that’s that. Time to get back to creating that artwork. And oh my god, it’s going to be so good. I’m having so much fun, and I can’t wait to share with you some of these ideas I’ve been cooking up behind the scenes.

Bonus Homework: One of Everything, Year Three

For the past two WorldEmbers, I’ve embarked upon a little mini-quest of my own to write at least one article per article type available on World Anvil. It’s been a lot of fun, and I am so looking forward to doing it this year that I started jotting down ideas in August.

And so, here’s the ever-evolving plan:

• Building:  
  • Camelot—the castle in the city of Covenant where Frieda’s distant cousin Claudia reigns as Queen of Promiseland at the start of The Blood of Seven Queens
• Character:  
  • Headless Horseman/Huntsman
• Country:  
  • The Kingdom of Motherland, which was absorbed into Wonderland eventually but which is where our hero, Frieda Jacobs, grew up
• God/Deity:  
  • Todd
• Geography:
  • Island of Pirates
• Item:  
  • The Spaniard’s Katana
• Organization:  
  • Maeve Murphy’s Posse, who go on to form the trade union known as the Sisterhood of Sex Workers
• Religion:  
  • Mountain Worship (religion of the seven dwarves)
• Settlement:  
  • Sleepy Hollow—a village in the easternmost portion of Nalké, and which sits on the borders of Nunya in the north and east and The Highlands in the south
• Species:  
  • Sleepwalkers (see: Bonnie McKee song)—parasitic species which feeds on the hopes and dreams of humanoid creatures, rendering them impervious to pain but slowly killing their souls in the process; causes people to sleepwalk their way through life and only detectable by someone who is close to succumbing to a sleepwalker themself
• Vehicle:  
  • Emerald City Tram (since I put it in the gosh-darned comic just before midnight on Friday, October 27)
• Condition:  
  • Troll Disease—thanks to Melissa Brennan, who, during our monthly call on Saturday, November 18, 2023, uttered aloud the phrase “this is how you become a troll” and inspired this idea
• Conflict:  
  • The Battle With The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up
• Document:  
  • The Lost Triad comic book (opportunity to test out new comic-making techniques on a small scale)—and maybe the angle here is that Frieda used to read this as a kid
• Ethnicity:  
  • Egregore (the ethnicity of amici imaginarium who we call gods)—one of whom is directly responsible for the events leading to Queen Daisy Rampion’s birth and traumatic early life
• Language:  
  • Edenian Slang and Vernacular (all arrivals can mysteriously speak English because that was the goddesses’ first language)
• Material:  
  • Toad Sweat
• Military Unit:  
  • Threat Response Team (umbrella term for superhero teams)—with tie-ins to a medieval or industrial-revolution-themed team that Frieda encounters during her chase of the wolf
• Myth/Legend:  
  • The Prophecy of the Seven Swords
• Natural Law:  
  • Rabbit Holes
• Plot:  
  • A Friends-like sitcom that is popular during Frieda's time. You can watch it on the EdenNet everywhere except the South. Down there, you have to see the cast perform the episodes live on tour. This might lead Frieda to open up technology restrictions once she unites the kingdoms.
    • The show is called “Bards” so that Frieda can ask the bard she meets “do you like bards?” And he can say, “no they’re awful” and she can explain “no, I meant the show.” It’s about bards hanging out at a tavern (like Central Perk) waiting to join an adventuring group
• Profession:  
  • Dragon Watcher—which may be an opportunity to give nuance to the bard from the first draft of Seven Queens; maybe Frieda encounters him near the slopes of Dükuhüo Aüki where he’s watching for dragons to make ends meet until his “songwriting career takes off”
• Prose:  
  • “Something Between a Conversation and Death” — the World Anvil stream on October 7 inspired this and the request to write it came from SecondhandSamurai, CassieStoryweaver, and Janet Forbes
• Title:  
  • Butter Knight—which maybe could be the rank of the Munchkin spy who slays Roway: The Crowned Jester
• Spell:  
  • Dream Manipulation—which doesn’t really tie into any current plans, but which is something I want to write about as a follow-up to Nightmare: The Plot (and maybe it’s OK for me to write a few articles that don’t tie into the current W.I.P.)
• Technology:  
  • Artificial Life—but try to think of an angle that ties into the current W.I.P., or how it might help get you through the muddy middle of the plot in some way
• Tradition:  
  • The Arrival of Refugees in Eden—but maybe expand it to cover the whole of what the Start of an Age is like, so I can explain (to myself, first and foremost) what the rules are about technology level and such—beginning with the First Age and going forward

An additional two notes about that last one from a brainstorming session on Sunday, November 12, 2023:

1. When a Calamity happens, it obliterates everything from that point forward, so nothing survives.
2. What arrives in Eden is only that which was in existence at the point in space-time when the Calamity struck.