For Your Consideration: Why it Can be Good to Care About Awards

Haly examines the benefits of awards and exposure and her feelings on the matter. Also, a full list of her work submitted for consideration in the fifth annual World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards.

Feature Friday: For Your Consideration

I’m going to dive immediately into the deep end with an unpopular opinion on a taboo topic: It’s perfectly acceptable to want to win when you compete.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the acceptance of our peers is critical to our fulfillment as a whole person. We want to be popular or, at the very least, accepted. We crave validation and are driven to leave our own mark in the memory of everyone around us. It’s human nature: competition feels good, and winning feels better.

Should this be our driving need? No, of course not. Just like we are not only motivated by eating or only motivated by reproduction, we should not be only driven to compete. Even when we’re only competing against ourselves (the only competition that truly matters at the end of it all)!

Define “Winning” in Your Own Terms

Awards are nice. Trophies are pretty. Certificates are neat. In certain circumstances, these things can give a person authenticity or expertise. But hopefully, that’s not the true goal. Winning shouldn’t be about the trappings and the things.

It should be about improvement. It should be about growth. It should be about being better at the thing than you were when you started.

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What Winning Means to Me

Selecting and preparing my own work to submit to the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards has me questioning and wondering. Have I grown? Has my writing improved? Is the world I’m writing attractive and engaging? Are people excited about the stories I’m setting up to be told?

The answer to all of these is the same. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

Many, if not most, of the Moonbeams in this community are creative. You write, you draw, you make music, you Do the Creating. And you get it, that feeling when you lose all objectivity about your work, your process, and the idea of making art all together. You wonder why you ever started and question if all of the hours, years, decades of work have all been a waste of time.

In other words, you can’t tell your ass from a hole in the ground. Ever feel like that? Know at all what I mean? Yeah, I thought you might.

What winning isn’t…

For myself, it’s not about the trophy. And while a nomination ribbon would be nice, it’s certainly not necessary. Those things don’t give me the what I really need, the tantalizing answer all of those nagging questions and silence the doubts that drag in the pit of my heart.

What winning is, IMO…

Feedback and fans. For myself, for the competition I’m in against my own fears and doubts, winning means getting feedback from my peers and finding new fans who are eager for stories and games set in the imaginative and detailed worlds I love building.

I’m not afraid of losing. I’m afraid of going completely unnoticed. I’m afraid that all of this is just some delusion that I should give up, that everyone in my life who has ever told me I’m good at this or talented or that I ‘have the soul of a writer’ (the first thing my therapist ever said to me after reading my ‘why are you seeking a therapist’ questionnaire) has been lying to me.

I’m afraid of lying to myself.

Please Vote

Voting for the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards opens sometime on February 15th, 2025. (Tomorrow as I write this; but time zones, yanno.) It’s open to everyone on the internet. You can vote once in each category. It costs nothing, and all you need is an email address (to prevent duplicate votes, no marketing).

When you visit the items I’ve submitted for consideration, there will be a widget where you can cast your vote. Last year it was a button and a box; we all know what internet forms are.

My Submissions

For this year’s round-up of my best work, I chose pieces that represent not only what I love about my worlds and worldbuilding, but articles that also represent the directions where I am taking my work in the near future.

Yesterday, I told you about Harmony Station (Pillars of Progress Award) and School of Cat (Best Article Award). In addition to these favorites, I’ve harvested my favorite articles — new and old — from my most in-depth worldbuilding project, Argentii.

Hand Drawn Map: Argentii’s Sky

Inspired by the International Star Registry, I decided to do something similar so that fans new and old have a way to show love and support with a one-time donation! I’ve made a selection of celestial bodies available for adoption, including stars, bright stars, and constellations!

Note: The sandwich menu in the top right corner lets you toggle the visibility of each different layer.

Heart & Minds: Night of Wandering Souls

Argentii’s calendar is marked by the longest night of the year. Not only is this the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, it is also a key time in the death ritual common across all the islands and necessary to put a deceased spirit to rest.

Exploring the antics of uncured spirits is one of my goals for fiction writing in 2025.

Rise of Nations: Growing Unrest in Central Tilth

I wrote this piece in 2023 as a part of Summer Camp, and I love it deeply. There is so much here, and it’s a cornerstone of what I know and have developed within the world.

This conflict is the framework and lens for the series of solo RPG adventures I’ve been plotting and writing.

Wonderous Nature: Ghost

Argentii is a dangerous place as no one can control the wind or the waves, and both are hostile to inter-island travel. Death is ever-present, as are the ghosts of the uncured dead. When the whole world is haunted, everyone has a chilling story to tell.

I’m really excited about this collection, make sure you’re subscribed for more information as this develops.

Myths & Legends: U the Chaotic

Now creatures of legend, Dragons were once worshipped as Gods across Argentii, in the time when the land was whole. It was U who gave the knowledge and power of natural magic to the people. It was his greatest triumph, and his ultimate downfall.

In every legend, in every myth, in every fable and folk tale…there is buried a grain of truth. Some grains are larger than others.

Tomorrow:

Magical motivation with six worldbuilding and writing prompts designed to get you thinking about the magical and mysterious in the hidden corners of your world!

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Hang with me at GenCon!

Badges are ON SALE NOW at GenCon.com; get yours early because they WILL sell out! Hotel registration opens Feb. 23; event registration opens May 18.

MoonlightBard.com will have more information on my own events while we wait for the Event Catalog to drop on May 4.