Are you up for a worldbuilding challenge? Join me in writing 10,000 words during December this year 🔥😁 This isn't a sponsored series of posts - it's just my favourite writing challenge! I often leave these kind of posts until the last minute, so this time I thought I'd share my best tips early so you can put them to good use! 💡 WorldEmber __(Worldbuilding December)__ is a challenge where you write 10,000 words of __new__ worldbuilding during December on [World Anvil](https://www.worldanvil.com/worldember?ref=tjtrewin.com). Even if you're not using World Anvil I still recommend that you take part in WorldEmber - you may not get any prizes or digital badges, but you _will_ have a lot more lore than you did before! 🥰 ## Setting your goal The baseline goal for WorldEmber is 10,000 words of new worldbuilding during the month of December, but if you're not fussed about badges or prizes you could aim for something smaller like 5,000. If 10k sounds like a walk in the park for you, many folks in the community try aiming for goals of 25k, or even 50k! ⚠️ Be mindful of setting an achievable goal so that you don't feel stressed and burn out trying to reach it! Do it for yourself, not to impress others. 🥰 The only way to make a good goal is to **make one that you can achieve**! 🙌 - and the best way I've found of doing it is to make it a **SMART** goal: - **🔍 Specific** The challenge is to write _new_ content and expand your worldbuilding and not copy/paste pre-written lore. - **📊 Measurable** This is your wordcount goal! If you don't have one, how will you know when you've reached it? - **🏅 Achievable** December is often one of the busiest months of the year - how's your calendar looking? You might need to adjust your wordcount goal to fit around your plans. Are you a speedy typist or a slow and thoughtful worldbuilder? Take this into consideration, too! - **🔗 Relevant** What area(s) of your world do you plan on developing? Are you writing in just one world, or multiple settings simultaneously? This is really important to have so that you have a direction to go in and it'll make it so much easier to connect your ideas together! - **⏳ Time-Bound** The only words that count are those written during December! 💡 ****Example:**** __(Feel free to copy this goal and adapt it!)__ "In December this year I will write 10,000 words of new worldbuilding with a focus on locations in the region of [Zendu](https://www.worldanvil.com/w/JOY/map/d2dc6aa2-3ada-4e7b-b1be-4f69ec15314f?ref=tjtrewin.com) in my world: [Journals of Yesteryear](https://www.worldanvil.com/w/JOY?ref=tjtrewin.com)." ## 🥰 Accountability is key Taking part in a writing challenge is, well, challenging! But it's a lot easier to stick to it with lots of encouragement from people around you. WorldEmber is primarily a solo challenge, but you can also team up with other worldbuilders in the community and encourage each other as you work side by side. Also let your friends & family know what you're working towards and if you're going to be busy at certain times of day so you can focus! Here are some accountability tips that have worked really well for me in this event: - **😈 Friendly rival** Find a friend who has a similar goal to you and ask if they'd be comfortable being your friendly rival - see if you can have a bit of friendly competition and keep pace with each other until you both reach your goal! - **💻 Body doubling** Hop in a call in a Discord server with some fellow writers (it doesn't matter if they're strangers!) and mute & deafen your audio. You can choose to be on video or not, but the idea is that you are _present_ and you are worldbuilding together. You can use the voice chat text to communicate without distracting each other! Alternatively, if you're a streamer - why not have a focus stream with your audience to hold you accountable? - **⏲️ Writing sprints** Set a timer for 20mins, 30mins, or 1hr and see how much you can write! No editing! Only writing! (You can edit after the time's up! 😆) Ideally do this with a friend or two, but you can also do this solo! Consider keeping a list of your results to see how well you did each time. - **🏆 Mini-challenges** Lots of people in the World Anvil community run unofficial challenges to motivate people to explore specific areas of their world with a prompt. You could also run one yourself, or simply ask a friend to pick a writing prompt or specific article type for you! ## 📊 Useful tools & resources Over the years I've made a bunch of useful tools that I use to win at WorldEmber every year, and they're all free (or pay-what-you-want)! 🥳🎉 ### 📔 Worldbuilding Planner Grab a copy of my worldbuilding planner and use it to set your goal, calculate your writing speed, and plan out days off in your schedule to figure out how many words you need to write each day to succeed! It's also got a place to plan ideas, set rewards for yourself, and has a quest board if you get stuck on what to work on next! 🥰 ### ✒️ Worldbuilding Prompts If you're struggling with a blank page, I've got you covered with 400 worldbuilding prompts, all sorted by different article types and easy to search through. You can use the checkboxes to mark prompts as complete and watch the progress bars fill up as your world develops! It also comes with a printable version. 👀 Keep an eye out in the World Anvil community for [Catoblepon](https://www.worldanvil.com/author/Catoblepon?ref=tjtrewin.com) & [Hanhula](https://www.worldanvil.com/author/Hanhula?ref=tjtrewin.com)'s community spreadsheet for taking on the challenge in teams/groups! ### 📁 Organise your worldbuilding Having a jolly good spring clean before adding 10,000 more words is a really sensible idea so that you know where to put all of your new lore. I've got a deep dive on some different ways you can approach it: ## 📚 Review of past World Anvil homework Officially, WorldEmber prep month starts in November - so if you prefer, you can bookmark this and save it all until then 😉 Homework tasks typically include: - Making a pledge article and announcing your goal to the community so you have accountability - Reflecting on your world meta ([example](https://www.worldanvil.com/w/JOY/meta?ref=tjtrewin.com)) and updating it if necessary - Planning your focus area to develop - Organising your world - Gathering inspiration Last year World Anvil set up a [specific challenge page](https://www.worldanvil.com/community/challenge/worldember-2023-homework/homepage?ref=tjtrewin.com) so you could submit your preparation homework, and they'll probably do so again this year! Why not take a look at some of the entries to see how other people made their plans? 👀