2025 Outline
Last Year's Summary
Last year, I made the 2024 Outline article. I was quite bummed after FAILING WorldEmber for the first time, but I was going to try to make the best of it and learn from my mistakes.
In that article, I made a little checklist of things to do for the year. I ended up checking off eight (and a half?) out of thirteen tasks in the Things I Need to Do category, and only two out of eight (and a half?) in the Things I Want to Do category. Keeping the checklist at front-of-mind was helpful in holding myself accountable, even though some of the goals were admittedly unrealistic due to life circumstances that I am still battling through.
Hopefully, this year, I will be able to make a more achievable set of goals and actually stay on track to completing them. Only time will tell...
My Own WorldEmber Journey
This WorldEmber, I took time for myself and tried not to feel too pressured to stream when I knew that it would disrupt my flow. I tried to be more straightforward and honest with myself and others regarding actually having time to do what I wanted and needed to do. Even though I did managed to get quite sidetracked in some streams, I pushed myself to reel it in and disable some rewards or raise their prices to help myself focus.Thankfully, as a result, I hit my WorldEmber Prep 2024 wordcount goals early on and was able to neaten up the articles for category submission before the big red button was pressed on stream to signal the official end of the challenge. Even though I only completed 19 out of the 23 articles for special categories, I was quite pleased with what I was able to accomplish. The four articles I did not get around to doing were, Technology, Language, Geography (all of which I had plans for but am alright with missing for now), and Ethnicity (which I would have headed into Wynsumheord for anyway). Overall, I think I did pretty well.
My only couple of regrets are that, somehow, my Mr. E article didn't load in the apple FontAwesome icon properly and I can't fix it until judging is over. Also, with a short name like Mr. E, I forgot to make a tag for #mre or something so I can easily reference it in articles, but it's too late to add it now. Also, I noticed that An Errand did not have a cute excerpt in the mouseover snippet, which is something I've been trying to do better about. :P Though mildly disappointing, these minor disappointments are nothing in comparison to the achievement that I actually made progress this WorldEmber.
Below, I will overview each article and what I think about it, but if you would like more behind-the-scenes info about it, Stewart will very soon be spilling all the tea to each and every one of my Subscribing Supporters regardless of monetary level. For now, the $1 per month Temporary Dependency tiers are still open, so jump in while you can if you want to take a peek at hidden deets!
Since I already covered Holiday Interns years ago, I wanted to show the other side of the tradition. Instead of focusing on those who stay around headquarters during vacations and holidays, I thought it would be fun to zoom in on those who try their best to get as far away from the office as possible whenever an opportunity presents itself. The contrast seemed like a silly and fun (yet ominous) take on things. Like most articles I published this Worldember, the entry was short, sweet, and to-the-point. I feel the quotes and images helped bring the concept to life without being too overwhelming.
I had a lot of fun working with The Petrichor Four last year. There was so much going on with Stewart and his friends. Showing more Junior Sprouts than just Stew and exploring them independent of the mentors they shadow was refreshing to me. I worked very studiously on Lin's article for Summer Camp 2024. I already had Stewart's, of course. I was happy to present Kay this time. Now, the only person left to round out the group is Ezekiel. I hope to introduce his article soon...
I like focusing on some of the more mundane roles at W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P.. Naturally, there are going to be a lot of exciting and dangerous positions, but it is a personal favorite of mine to take a little slice-of-life view of a rando in the corner. Doing this helps people to consider things they otherwise forget. At big companies like this, there are still going to be some employees with simpler jobs that have no direct experience with the espionage and intrigue aspect of the agency.
Whenever there is a document template, it seems I default to creating an inventory log of some kind. Problem is, I actually had something else that was already generically dubbed "Inventory Log" from a Summer Camp years ago. XD Seeing this prompted me to go rename it properly and to consequently give this one a fitting name as well. It's a good thing large organizations like W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P. have several logs to keep track of multiple items being stored in various locations...
Basic. A metal. This is one of the articles that an Anvilite had gone through and liked before it was done. Yes, I was intrigued and honored to receive a heart on the article, but I was a bit embarassed and disappointed that the contents were a wordwall of random thoughts and the title was litterally "Speciallized Alloy" or something. Thank you to those who read it before, but I hope that they can check it out again now that it is in somewhat decent condition.
I wanted to cover some of the scientific events and phenomenon that occur. Instead of aiming for larger-scale occurences such as Bermuda Triangle and Volcanic Islands like I had done in the past, I figured that something simple like the effect light has on people could properly fit into the category. i was able to be vague and broad enough to cover a lot of bases while still being specific enough to hone the idea for readers.
I started off trying to use this article to go over the Electro Bo Staff weapon but later decided it would probably be easier to get the blaster idea down into something interesting and readable in the short amount of time I had. The Bo Staff article was not at all coherent and kepw wandering into blaster territory anyway. This is why I wanted to do the Technology template on Electro Tech, but I figured it could wait until another time.
I've had Sasayaki's article stub up since publishing Lin in back this year in Summer Camp 2024. I had commissioned the images for the motorcycle and ended up not using them very much, so I figured this would be the perfect time to reset the creation date and showcase Sasayaki in all its mysterious glory. To be honest, there are still some things that even I don't know about Sasayaki. It is a very quiet vehicle, and I honestly can't say I am certain how its voice sounds (though I may have a vague idea). Sasayaki, similar to Lin, doesn't talk very much.
I wasn't sure if I should use this or An Errand for the plot, but I ended up just throwing them wherever they landed. This one, in particular, is a very mysterious first-person account, though it is not specified exactly who the first-person is. I presented this as a snippet for Paid Supporters a bit ago and actually revealed some of it live on Twitch stream due to a chat member pressing the Big Red Button and making me reveal a secret draft.
For the species prompt, I really didn't feel like publishing another animal article at this time. I decided to go with this mysterious plant species that has an undisclosed use. Many things this WorldEmber tended to lean into the secrecy of W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P. because I didn't want to include too many spoilers. It's nice to be able to create an article and simply not tell too much information while keeping things interesting.
The House of Spies Movie Premiere is still scheduled for this year in May. I feel like it will be here quicker than it seems! Due to this, I wanted to make sure to keep some of the focus on Fallington Stacks and his organization, as these things are good to be front-of-mind for the followers and supporters to help hype up the upcoming event. There's also a related card game and zine project that is currently in the works, so stay tuned...
When I looked back at this one, I almost thought it was made under the Technology template. But, similar to Erasure (which is categorized as a Condition), this Cloning article is considered a Myth. W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P. explicitly denies any accusations that claim cloning practices of any kind are being performed at the organization, but there are operatives and employees who suspect that it is happening...
Focusing so much on Stew and friends, Albitrunca came up a lot. When better to mention the guards who patrol the large facility? The Boscia Albitrunca tree is one of the plants that tend to have the deepest growing roots on earth. Like its namesake, no one is certain exactly how extensive the underground complex is. There are so many sections! Plus, I knew I wanted to cover Maze Craze and these two articles clearly go hand in hand.
Once again, I wanted to keep House of Spies at the forefront, so I decided to highlight one of the features of Penthouse39 without sharing too many details. This article still is quite revealing, but I like to give my followers, regardless of being free or paid, some cool tidbits, secrets, and sneak peeks into the mysteriously wonderful world of W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P. (along with other other related organizations in the universe).
On the same note, I pivoted to a more (seemingly) mundane aspect of Fallington Stacks' life. I wanted to go into more detail, but I feel that this one already went into quite a large amount of lore. Commander wasn't present to talk about most of the things that have to do with Fallington, but that's because I just didn't feel him saying anything about it, which makes sense. He doesn't know too much about that operation.
Directly affecting Algenates (but also known to have an impact on others), Maze Craze was another article I was quite pleased with. Though I kept feeling like I was forgetting to add something, I knew I shouldn't include too many details. If you want to know more, Paid Supporters are provided a bit more context. ;) Still, there is no shortage of intriguing content in this article. It was fun (and scary) to explore...
For the Prose category, I debated whether to go with this or Awakened in a Strange Room. I ended up just letting either one fall where it fell. I found this one to be a cute, charming little anecdote that once again highlighted our precious Intern. I thought I shared this story a while back but, apparently, I never got around to it. What better way to introduce it than through WorldEmber? Annoyingly, I didn't remember to make the mouseover snippet, but I think it's fine otherwise.
I had so much more that I wanted to add to this article, but I ultimately ran out of time. My main priority was to neaten it up to the best of my ability, which I did. I unfortunately wasn't able to include any images, neither was I able to continue with the the story of what happened next through the log entries. Still, it seems to fit seemlessly into the mysteriously wondeful world of W.I.L.L.O.W.I.S.P.. Paid Supporters will likely soon have access to some of the things I couldn't include.
I've been wanting to add the titles of Mr. E and Miss Terry into the world for some time now. They are even mentioned in the primer. I was debating on whether to make a Profession article for it, but I believe Tiitle makes much more sense. Like Commander and General, it's not just a position to be held, but a form of address. As mentioned earlier, I am annoyed that the FontAwesome icon didn't show and that I forgot to create a tag for it but, otherwise, I think this article is good enough.
Judging Your Articles!
This year, I sponsored the Vehicle Special Category and it only received 54 entries (49, I believe, with Competitor Mode enabled, one of those being myself lol). I successfully read all the articles on my own time, offering in a comment to read them again live on stream if anyone would like. As a special bonus, if I read your article on stream, I will leave a sticker on it! Check my schedule below and drop in to ask me to read your articles. :)Below are a few entries that caught my eye due to their subject matters, layouts, designs, writing styles, or overall composition, but I won't reveal the winner until after the Awards Ceremony!
UPDATE:
The winner has officially been selected! I will be sure to post the top three after the Award Ceremony! It's a shame I couldn't choose more than one winner. So many amazing Anvilite beans created intriguing vehicles!
2024 New Year's Reading Challenge!
For this challenge, I searched the community to find things that seemed interesting to me. I also included a couple of articles that people had me read on stream. Authors could suggest any of their articles, even if they were not created during or for WorldEmber 2024! I'm grateful that, this time, the WorldAnvil beans decided articles being part of WorldEmber wasn't a necessity! I appreciate the reading pool being expanded. I know I've already finished my 10 necessary articles but the door is always open to read your work on my streams! Feel free to drop by during any of the listed times or DM me to ask for a custom time and I will try my best to go over your article while I'm live!What I learned, loved, and plan to doThis article, like all of Escritora Novatas articles, was very intriguing! Escritora Novata loves to join my livestreams and ask me to read work. She was uncertain whether I read it or not already, but shared it anyways. This has encouraged me to be more open about sharing my work to showcase channels in the Discord and on fellow Anvilite streams. I might even read my own work on my own streams more as well. Surprisingly, that's not something I often do.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doHarpesichorde shared this very short and sweet article of quite a sad occurrence: the main character doesn't seem to remember who or where they are or how they got there. The story was beautifully written and, though very simple and brief, carried a lot of emotion and lore across that made me super curious about the character and world. In fact, this reminds me of one of the plotlines I've been exploring in my work. (I actually submitted a similar piece to the Plot category, mentioning earlier that I was uncertain whether it should go in Plot or Prose. Anyways, back to this lovely article by Harpesichorde: the melancholy was brilliantly captured and conveyed. Every word had me waiting to see what would happen next, even though not a lot of information was told. This article helped remind me that it's okay to give tidbits that tell a lot without telling much of anything. I feel like I do that a lot but I fear that it could be unsatisfying to readers. This, however, was not unsatisfying in the least, which encouraged me to continue in making things mysteriously tantalizing where information is just out of reach.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doThis was a very intriguing concept. I like the opening line. It's so cryptic and brief but does a lot for the article. I could tell it wasn't quite finished, however, but Asmo posted it anyway. This has helped me learn why others might like my incomplete articles sometimes (it happened a bit this WorldEmber XP). Even when things aren't perfect, there can still enough there to intrigue people and make them interested in your work. This was also a unique take on the Ethnicity article template, which I hardly ever use. Perhaps I'll try my hand at it more this year.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doThis story by DesdemonaRosewas a very charming and intriguing little slice-of-life that still had a lot of secrets within it, making me more curious about the characters and world. This helped remind me that it's okay to post serial things out of order, and seasonal things out of season. One of the reasons I clicked on this article in the first place was the word HALLOWEEN in the title. It was amusing to think about but I still enjoyed reading through it though we're now at the end of January.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doI absolutely love the design of the world! I think Those2Nerds have updated CSS since last time I checked. Nice article, too. Neat layout and fun little information. It gave some cool tidbits that helped me to learn more about the characters and world. I like all the little tabs and places to explore. Things to interact with make it really fun. This article helped remind me to try to make my world more interesting by adding more interactive elements. Also, I should finally get around to making the custom CSS I wanted to do because I imagine my world looking SOOOOOO much different than the half-rigged sloppily edited theme I have now. XP I know updated CSS was on last year's plans, but I haven't yet gotten around to it, sadly. Here's hoping this year will be different.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doMardrena always has such deep lore and detailed stories. In addition to making bold, colorful, and captivating art, Mardrena also formats articles in a neat and tidy way. The tales, too, are intriguing, showing the reader many different angles at which it has been interpreted and percieved over the years and in different regions. One of the things I notice about Mardrena's articles is that the heading images are very standard. Slim and not too tall. Every article's header is uniformed. I think that I should try to do the same with my world, to make things more consistent. I thought about it in the past, but this article has reminded me to take it into consideration again. Overall, it makes things neater and easier for readers to get to the content without being bombarded with a large image at the top.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doMake lore, not war shared this cute little tale that was beautifully written. I like the design and layout of the article. This helped remind me to find the time to participate in more Unofficial Challenges. Things became quite difficult for me as of late, but I want to try to join back in by hosting and taking part in contests run by others in the community.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doThis is a very interesting take on a Natural Law. It makes me super curious about Noah_Oowada's characters and world. It helped remind me not to think too hard about Natural Laws so that I can use the template more.
What I learned, loved, and plan to doThis article shows us that cursive can be its own language lol. I was talking a while back with some others that English has like four alphabets (both uppercase and lowercase versions of both manuscript and cursive) but I didn't think of it as its own language until now, which is fun. I like how the story was told, along with the uses of the language in the modern day. It's also nice how Kveldulfr83 also made a little picture of it. Looks so neat! Kveldulfr83 helped remind me that it's not too late to make the Language article I wanted to make, though I ran out of time during WorldEmber this year. I can still do it!
What I learned, loved, and plan to doDue to the word-wall of sorts, I started to click away from the article. But, the title was interesting and, once I started reading, everything was so intriguing that I felt compelled to complete it all! The concept that ClaySalvage laid out here was mystical, curious, and a bit disturbing. I definitely did not expect this fantastical article to be put into the Technology template, but I get where Clay was going. Thanks to this, I am reminded to think outside the box with the Tech template and just put the concept on the page.
Plans Going Forward
One of my biggest plans is to launch the House of Spies Movie Premiere and other related hype events, such as the Rock Paper Scissors Spy Kickstarter. I really need these boosts to help myself financially. I need to figure something out. In addition to this, I also want to enter some articles into the WaWas.
February
ZineQuest Kickstarter LaunchUnofficial Challenge Starts
March
My WorldAnvil WorldBuilding Award Entries
World Categories
Best World 2025 Most Beautiful World 2025 Artist's Most Beautiful World 2025 I might skip these. Not only do I feel unqualified to enter, doing so will prohibit me from editing my world’s CSS and homepage for the entire judging period.
User Categories
Best Newcomer I cannot enter this category as I do not qualify.
Article categories
Best Worldbuilding Article 2025 For the best article overall, regardless of topic.?Heart & Minds Award 2025 Intellectual, sociological, spiritual, or cultural accomplishments and traditions of a people in your world.?Rise of Nations Award 2025 The history of civilizations and peoples of your world and their legacies.?Wondrous Nature Award 2025 Your natural world in all its glory; anything from species to locations, to natural and supernatural events, and bizarre naturally-occurring materials.?Strength & Honor Award 2025 The interactions of the people of your world; diplomacy, war, trade and collaboration, and the people who drive and engineer them.?Pillars of Progress Award 2025 A technological or scientific (including metaphysical) accomplishment, or celebrating creations developed by the people of your world.?Myths & Legends Award 2025 An aspect of your worldbuilding that's mythical or fictional within the construct of your world, even if it's based on true events.?Non-article categories
Time and Space Award 2025 For the best Chronicle created on World Anvil.Unless I shape up the Someone Elsewood Chronicle or complete the WILLOWISP one I started, I might not enter this category. But I need to submit to all categories, so I will have to turn in something.History Award 2025 For the best Timeline created on World Anvil.This will be the Full Story Timeline because it is the main timeline on the world that links to all the audio dramas and such.Cartography Award 2025 For the best Interactive Map created on World Anvil.I think that the Virtual Venue will make sense to submit for this one.Artist's Cartography Award 2025 For the best Interactive Map drawn manually or digitally by you (or your team).This one is not something that I have done. If I am able to make a map, I can do it, but as of now, I do not qualify for this category besides something like Bunker 421 which is atrocious and should not be submitted. Still, I guess I will have to submit it just to make sure that I put something in the category. I want to submit to as many categories as possible.
God bless and much success to you all with your own New Year's plans! Sending prayers, love, and heal hugs your way always.
No matter what's going on in your life, or how you feel about the year that just passed, know that I wish you a happy, healthy, safe, and successful 2025. Feel free to comment down below if you would like me to check out something of yours.
I'm glad you enjoyed Little Tow! Interactive features can be a lot of fun for both the author to make and the reader to play with. If you're thoughtful and deliberate with them, they can do a lot to liven up a page. However, they also often make the page less accessible. A tradeoff to keep in mind while creating. Sounds like you have big plans for 2025! Looking forward to seeing what you submit to WAWA. Best of luck with the Kickstarter, too ❤
Speculative-Fiction Writing
yep. I want to keep my world accessible for everyone and all viewing experiences, so there is quite the challenge in getting a good balance. Thanks again for your comment and well wishes.
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