WAC: Getting Ready
Joining a challenge is easy, but if you get ready for it, you'll make it easier.
Joining an event is as simple as reading the requirements and writing something. But you will reward yourself and avoid burnout if you give yourself time to prepare.
This is the third article of my “Worldbuilding & Challenges” series, where I will talk about worldbuilding events and why you should take part in them, and some tips and pointers.
Reading time: 6 minutes.
Table of contents
Preparing or not
There are different people with different worldbuilding methods, and sometimes, they already know what works best for them while others are still struggling to find the right approach.
Some people choose not to prepare while others overprepare — what works best for you is something only you can find out. That means everything I will discuss should be considered carefully and might not work for you.
If you work better by not prepping and instead going with the flow, this article might not be as useful. If you aren’t sure …
Brainstorming
Brainstorming — getting the idea — is the first step in preparation to write an article. Most challenges have a theme to follow, which can be as specific as a prompt or as general as a word, and following this theme can make picking something to write a bit harder than intended.
If you have no idea what to write, there are different methods that you could follow to get one.
Look at your existing content. Do you have any concept, character, creature, location, etc. that could benefit from having information written about it/them that fits the theme?
You can use tools to help find ideas. Some common ones include online generators or physical objects like the Deck of Worlds.
Playing games is another way! Specifically games that make your imagination run wild. Many RPG games (solo or in group) help you create a place, location, people, animals, etc.
Talking with other worldbuilders can be a great inspirational source too! But don’t steal ideas from other people. Some worldbuilders will even share how they brainstorm prompts! TJ Trewin wrote two great articles about it: “How to Answer any Worldbuilding Prompt” and “How to Twist a Prompt to Suit Your Worldbuilding”.
Planning
Once you know what you want to write about, you can think about planning out what you need to do to write and finish your new piece of content!
Same as with preparation, some people prefer planning or going with the flow; structure or chaos; word vomiting or carefully picking each word for the paragraph. Whatever you enjoy more, make sure to remember that you don’t need to pick full planning or full chaos; you can pick something in between — whatever works best for you. So, let’s talk about what you can plan when participating in an event.
Planning can be as easy as thinking (and answering) the question “What do you need to do for this content piece?” This can vary from questions you will answer, to art pieces and other media you might add, to formatting your content.
Right after brainstorming, it’s a good to take a few minutes to write down all you think you might need, and maybe even mark which needs more priority than others in case you're running short on time (life is notorious for causing things that will eat your time).
Also, some events will share a prompt before they start; others may be simply a free writing event. You might feel like you are cheating if you start brainstorming or writing down your thoughts and plans early. If you think this way, TJ Trewin (again) has a great article on “Things you can prepare in advance” (and, while it’s focused on WorldEmber— a World Anvil annual challenge— I think it’s useful for other challenges too).
Pacing
After planning what you want to prepare (or didn’t plan and want to write), it’s time to think about pace.
I see many people publishing their challenge entries during either the first or last days of the challenge— rushing to finish the content and submit it for different reasons. People often publish early in the challenge because the longer an article is published, the more time it has to grow in popularity and gather engagement. On the other hand, people often publish late in the challenge as they procrastinate or “work best under stress”.
Neither of them is good —for your content or your health. Both options often mean rushed (and sometimes short) articles that will make you feel like they are not good enough. And, while submitting your entry early means it's possible to improve, you already got people to see your content and (possibly) think it’s not worth engaging further with it.
Adding time to your planning to consider pacing is a great idea. Check your calendar during the event runs, and pick some time to work on your content —always leaving a few days of margin in case something happens OR life interferes— and take rest days for your health. Don’t leave it all for the end, and don’t cram it at the very start.
You are the person who knows yourself best. Be honest with yourself and be realistic with your scheduling. Put some soft and hard deadlines on yourself, and have that text ready for X day, and the art for Y days later. Do so with all the steps you have planned.
Goals
Another thing to think about while planning is goals. There are a few things to consider when thinking about goals, and a few differ depending on if you create for fun or an end goal (like writing a book or a TTRPG setting).
One thing everyone should consider is fitting the challenge into your world. Will you twist the event prompts to fit your world and goals? Will you force the event prompts into your world? Make sure that you stay within your world’s bases and rules, though!
If you are writing for fun, I have nothing more to tell you. If you are specifically worldbuilding for a novel or TTRPG and don’t intend to write anything that can’t be used for these: does your idea fit your content? Will you use this? Is this based on a small detail that barely anyone would have realized? Are you worldbuilding things you don’t need?
Make sure to constantly keep your goals and the basis of your world in mind. These might change over time; if you change them to be able to submit content to an event, maybe you shouldn’t join that event.
Tell me
Do you prefer preparing or going with the flow? What method helps you best? Let me know in the comments!
Keep reading the series
Reading others (to be published)
Burning out (to be published)
I’m much more go with the flow than planning. I think it’s because I’m trying to write every day, and I don’t treat the challenge articles as much different than my other work; I pick an idea, let it sit in my head for a day or two, then write somewhere between 700 and 1500 words about it. My next step for any particular article is crap for competitions; I wait six months and come back to the article for a revision. It might be a minor thing I change; sometimes it’s a full rewrite. But I need that space between the initial draft and the next to clear my head and come at the idea fresh.