WorldEmber Prep 2023

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WorldEmber is (almost) here! In December you will be challenged to write 10,000 words of original worldbuilding—but first, it's time to prepare! To be ready for the challenge and get the Homework Squad badge, submit your weekly homework assignments (you'll find the option on the right while editing your article). We'll update this page every week with a new assignment!

But wait... what's WorldEmber?

WorldEmber is the largest worldbuilding event of the year. During December, we challenge you to write at least 10,000 words of original worldbuilding about any topic! Doing so will earn you a virtual badge and a chance to win prizes in the raffle. You can also aim higher for the 25k or even 50k wordcount badges! And of course, if you're feeling competitive, you can submit to special categories to be judged—if you win, you get a prize.

Weekly assignments

This section will be updated weekly to include the newest homework assignment. These are the reveal dates:

First assignment: November 3rd
Second assignment: November 10th
Third assignment: November 17th
Fourth assignment: November 24th

Want to catch the assignments first? Watch our WorldEmber Homework streams on Twitch on Fridays at 1pm Eastern, 6pm UK time! Make sure you follow the World Anvil Twitch channel to get notified when we go live.

Week 1: Pledge Your Goal

The first step when preparing for a challenge like WorldEmber is to set a goal.

1. Choose an area of focus

Look at your world and choose an area you want to write about. Keep in mind the area doesn’t have to be a geographical one! Here are some examples:

The main characters of your story and their context. Your magic system and related topics like magic items or creatures.
Part of the history of your world.
The kingdom your story takes place in.
A new region you’ve been excited to take your characters to

To choose an area, you can consider the following:

What are you excited about? If you feel excited about an area of your worldbuilding, follow your instincts! It’s easier to keep your motivation up if you write about a topic you enjoy.
If you have an ongoing or planned story (novel or campaign), pick something that will be useful for it. This will give your worldbuilding a sense of purpose, motivating you throughout the challenge. Otherwise, make a list of directions you could go in. Look at your world map, read your meta document or world primer, and find an area that seems interesting to you.
If all else fails, you can create a whole new world! Starting from scratch means you can write about basically anything, which is great for a wordcount-based challenge like WorldEmber.

Once you have chosen your area of focus, take a moment to review any related articles! This will warm up your creative muscles and give you inspiration for next month.

2. Create your pledge!

The WorldEmber pledge is a promise you make to yourself to achieve a specific goal by the end of December. Setting your goal in stone can help you better organize your time, plus achieving your goals is super satisfying! Make your pledge!

Download the form-fillable PDF above and edit it with a PDF software!

Looking for some accountability? Share your pledge on World Anvil using the global community feed, or on social media! You can use the hashtag #WorldEmberPrep to find other people's work and help people find yours. And decide if you will compete! If you want to opt in to raffle and special category prizes, make sure to enable competitor mode in your account’s feature settings.

3. Submit your homework

Follow these steps to submit your homework:

Create a generic article. You can give it a title like “WorldEmber 2023 Homework”.
Create a section for the first week’s assignment and write a paragraph about the area you have chosen, and why.
Upload your pledge document and embed it as an image.
Submit the article to the homework challenge. You will find the option on the right when editing the article (must be published and public!).

This page will be updated every Friday with a new assignment, so check back soon!

Week 2: Prepare your area of focus

Now that you’ve chosen your area of focus, it’s time to prepare it! Here’s how:

1. Create a mini-meta

Most of you are familiar with the worldbuilding meta by now. It’s a document that explains what the goals of your whole worldbuilding project are. Essentially, it’s everything about your world that isn’t part of the world—it helps you keep your setting logical and consistent. (Check out our guide to the Worldbuilding meta for more information!) A mini-meta, though, is what you’ll be preparing this week. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a reduced version of the meta you can use for specific areas of your setting. For this part of the assignment, first take a look at our guide to create a mini-meta. Then follow the three steps to add a mini-meta for your focus area to the homework article you created last week! If you already have a mini-meta for the area you’ve chosen, take a minute to review it. Metas can get outdated if the project evolves, so check yours is still up-to-date. You might also like to link relevant articles to your focus area, so you have them to hand!

2. Set up a solid category structure

Organization is a very important part of worldbuilding (and the reason you’re probably using World Anvil!), but you don’t want to spend valuable time in WorldEmber wondering how new articles should be organized. So take a look at your world’s category tree and make sure it’s well-structured and ready to take in new articles about your chosen area. There are many ways to organize your categories, and it will always depend on your kind of world and goals. But check out our tips to organize your categories for inspiration! If you’ll be creating a lot of articles very quickly, you might choose to create a staging area (a special WorldEmber 2023 category) for your world, then organize your worldbuilding later. If you plan to take that path, make sure you set up that category now!

3. Look at other worlds for inspiration

There’s no better way to be inspired than reading what other worldbuilders have done. So take advantage of the World Anvil community to read other worlds of a similar genre! This will help you get inspired and even see what’s possible on World Anvil. Here are some places you can use to find awesome worlds:

Hashtag Pages are another great way to get inspiration for your genre. Click the links below to see the latest World Anvil community posts on these topics:

Another way to get inspiration is by reading a book of a similar genre, watching a movie, or playing a video game. The more stories and worldbuilding you experience, the more inspiration sources you can pull from!

4. Submit your homework

Edit your homework article and write your mini-meta. You can also write about how you have edited your category tree and what inspiration sources you have gathered.

Week 3: Welcome your readers!

If your world is public and you want others to read it, you need to make it welcoming. The best place to do this is on your homepage.

1. Review your homepage

Go to your world’s homepage and put yourself in your reader’s (or player’s) shoes. What can you change about it to make it more intuitive and easy to get into? We wrote an entire blog post talking about the most important parts of every great homepage. Check it out to learn how to create an amazing homepage!

2. Submit your homework

Edit your homework article and write about how you reviewed the homepage. If you learned anything about your readers, add it too! The best way to remember something you’ve learned is by explaining it to someone else.

Week 4: last minute prep!

It’s the last week before WorldEmber starts! Use this week for any remaining prep you need to make sure everything is ready before December 1st. Here are some ideas:

Do writing exercises to warm up if you know this helps you.
Find a support group so you’re not alone in the challenge. You can join a chapter, use the WorldEmber channel on our Discord, or even talk to real-life friends.
Tidy up your writing space if you find it helpful. This could include your desk, but also your browser tabs, bookmarks, and desktop icons!
Find a writing schedule if you can. A regular schedule will help you be consistent—remember that WorldEmber is a marathon, not a sprint!
Stock your writing space with your favorite tea/coffee, snacks, playlists, cozy socks, or anything else you need to worldbuild with. If you can, prepare a DO NOT DISTURB sign for your door, to preserve your writing time!

Add a section to your homework article about last-minute prep, and make sure you include anything you’ll need that’s not on our list too. When you’re done, take a break to clear your head… because WorldEmber is coming!

WorldEmber Prep 2023

WorldEmber Prep 2023

But wait... what's WorldEmber?

Weekly assignments

Week 1: Pledge Your Goal

1. Choose an area of focus

2. Create your pledge!

3. Submit your homework

Week 2: Prepare your area of focus

1. Create a mini-meta

2. Set up a solid category structure

3. Look at other worlds for inspiration

4. Submit your homework

Week 3: Welcome your readers!

1. Review your homepage

2. Submit your homework

Week 4: last minute prep!

Challenge entries