The Julie Leahy Memorial Worldbuilding Event
So.
My wife passed away. It’s been more than a month since she lost her battle with cancer, and I’ve had to find my way on my own. I’ve decided that I’d like to spend a lot of my time working on something to keep her name alive. So, with the resources at my disposal, I’d like to try something.
Julie loved creating, in her honor, lets create something. Let’s make a world worth writing about.
With the rest of 2021, I’m going to run a world building event. I want to build a world that we can all play in. An open creative space where anyone can write the story they want. Where our stories can live together. Specifically, a place where no body holds the copyright either. An open source world. Somewhere you can put your RPG or write a short story or work up a whole novel.
I’m going to break the worldbuilding down into modules. Some of these I will crowd source details and aspects from all of you. Other items I will hand over to some interested parties. So here is my plan right now for the modules:
Topography - I make some maps. I’ll go over my thought processes and some simple map making rules. I’ll be using Wonderdraft along with some asset packs. We’ll pick some spots for towns and cities and pick some temporary names for things.
Magic System - Our world will be fantastic in at least one way. We are going to use CR Rowenson’s new process for making magic systems. He’s got a Kickstarter going on in August for this new system and I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview. Maybe we can even get him to personally come conjure something, but he’s very busy.
The Divine - What’s up with god? Is there more than one? Are they real? What’s this mean for the magic system? We are going to find out.
Life Finds Away - Let’s put some people into the world. We will outline what the plants and animals we have on our world. We’ll layout some sentients and figure out if our map needs more plant life or edits to accommodate what we’ve made so far.
Let’s Make a Utopia - We are going to pick one of the cities and turn it into a utopia. I feel like it’s one of the type of settings that doesn’t see a lot of work and I want at least one corner of the world to be a nice place.
Filling in the Gaps - We will give some loose details for the other named locations on our map. I’ll be accepting some of these earlier in the process and we’ll debut them in a big drop.
So, I’m sure you are thinking, “Oh wow, what a fun thing I’m happy to WATCH happen.” and you know that’s cool. And you are welcome to spectate as much or as little as you’d prefer. But there is a point to all of this. I mean what’s the point of a playground if you don’t play in it.
In the early months of 2022, I’m going to host a writing contest. Short stories set in our new world. I’m going to have prizes for the best stories. I also hope this can be a venue to engage our community of writers to do more writing and help each other out. More details to follow as we figure out how many people are likely to enter. I will at least say that there will be some money in the prize pool provided by Julie’s estate.
I hope a bunch of you decide to come along with me on this journey. I’ll be doing status posts and such on this blog, and collecting all the articles and world information using World Anvil. It’s a new tool, to me anyway, so it might take a while before things get looking good. If you have any ideas or articles you’d like to add to the world please reach out to me in the comments here or on the Writing Excuses Alumni discord. I’m Dan Eavenson, aka @SinisterInfant, and I want you to come help me make a new world.
SO! Come along with me and let’s make a world! Welcome to the World of Juno!
If you want to participate keep watching this blog and feel free to comment here and start the discussion, look for me on twitter @SinisterInfant, and get involved either in The Official Juno Discord, or join me in some discussion on the Just Keep Writing podcast Discord where I like to hang out and discuss writing and creating in general.
If you are interested in adding something to the world of Juno you can message me on Twitter or in the discord or email me at author AT danieleavenson.com