TJ Trewin Says, "Set your boundaries!"
I talk with World Anvil Best of Award-winner, pixel-art guru, and all around jolly guy TJ Trewin to talk about managing long-term creative challenge projects.
I Sat Down on Discord with TJ the Other Day…
Haly, the Moonlight Bard
TJ Trewin... You cannot see me right now but I am absolutely flapping with fan-girl admiration that I even get to do this interview. DO NOT be fooled by my forced casualness this is a tremendous honor.
I've never told you this, but you were one of the first people I started following on World Anvil so very, very long ago. You are, in fact, the person who taught me that just sharing alllllll of the random world-building things I know is a valid model for helping the community grow stronger and more vibrant and creative. You inspired not only this publication, but the whole Rhapsody in Realms project!
Thank you for that, and thank you for this time today.
TJ
Aaaaaaaaa no way!! Aww I am beaming with joy right now - thank you so much! That's great to hear and I love to see people in the community sharing their wisdom and enthusiasm for worldbuilding!
I wanted to talk to you because we've both just completed major daily challenges: You did the annual Swordtember 2024 art challenge to draw 30 swords in 30 days. I am celebrating 100 posts in 100 days on Substack. In addition, you and I are both notoriously involved in World Anvil's huge annual marathon events, Summer Camp and WorldEmber.
What makes these long-form challenges so appealing to you as a creative person?
Ooh wow, I thought 30 days was a challenge - huge congratulations on 100 creative days!
The appeal for me for these big events is the community spirit! The enthusiasm is contagious and I love seeing everyone make their best worldbuilding and link it all together. Taking part in writing sprints and getting some fierce-but-friendly competition with my friends is something I really enjoy!
I've taken part in World Anvil's big events since the site began in 2017 and I know from experience that it's a lot more challenging to reach your goals if you're coming back from a break and going from zero to suddenly writing daily worldbuilding articles and fancy layouts and art and CSS and and- you get the idea.
So my plan for preventing burnout during the WorldEmber marathon this year is preparation.
I've built the routine and got some art ready to write about from Swordtember, I'll be building up the writing habit this month with Spooktober, gathering some rough ideas during November and then going all out once the challenge launches!
The fun part of my particular madness is that it's a year of daily posting (I honestly marvel that you amazingly creative kindreds want to read this newsletter every...single...day....) AND it's not even an official challenge, it's just the advice that keeps coming up over and over and over again in my feed. "Don't expect overnight success, do it every day for a year, an entire year, and THEN see where you are."
Every creative whose name I've actually heard of gives the same advice: do it, do it all the time, don't stop doing it, do it when it's hard, and eventually you'll start to see opportunities coming your way.
Growing up, I used to watch an American visual artist, Mark Kistler (Commander Mark, The Secret City) every day after school. He taught me a LOT about core art concepts (color, balance, perspective, etc.) but the single lesson that sticks with me the MOST is "Practice your art for 30 minutes a day, every day."
How have you seen your creativity and practical skillset grow this month, and in these competitions in general?
That's something I've been reflecting on recently! This year I decided to look back on all of my previous Summer Camp and WorldEmber events to remind myself of things that worked well, and see if I can do things differently for the things that didn't go so well.
I noticed a clear pattern that in the first few days I often create what I feel is my best work, and then there's a bit of a dip after that where the build up of excitement has worn off and I've overdone the effort at an unsustainable pace.
I was reminded of this in week 2 of making pixel art for Swordtember so I tried to cut back on the perfectionism (an active battle I'm trying to overcome) and be more content with "finished, for now".
When it comes to doing a lot of worldbuilding packed into one month, I find that my lore becomes a lot more interconnected because I'm bouncing off of articles I've made the previous day. I'm always left with plenty of ideas to explore in the following months (and plenty to edit and tidy up, too)!
For WorldEmber last year, my seasonal depression hit me hard and even though I pledged 50K, I barely scraped through with enough to land the 10K badge.
Preparation has been a big key for me this year, as well. My family and I are designing a LARP, and my husband is absolutely gaga for the Story Engine and Deck of Worlds cards. So we've been playing with those to sort of flesh out the world around this circus caravan that is the LARP. I've taken just those card pulls and put them into a World Anvil article, just so that they are there for me to develop during December.
So very many of us have had our creative calendars upended this year, with our usual November plans being chucked right out the window. To pick up the slack in the community, World Anvil is hosting ANOTHER month-long challenge: Novelember. 50K in prose, 30 days.
TJ. Are you planning to participate?
I am.
Hard pass!! xD
I gave the 50k novel challenge a go a few years ago and despite completing the wordcount goal, it really wasn't for me. I went in blind having never written a story before and whilst the planning bit was fun, the writing bit wasn't my jam - I much prefer things on the smaller scale and jumping here there and everywhere rather than the confines of a plot.
Besides, November is an important prep month for WorldEmber in my calendar!
I haven't decided if I'm going to try for an entire novel, or just write a series of short stories, but I am certainly going to give it a good go.
One of the additional hurdles many of us have to consider is simply where to make room to add these sorts of challenges into our already tight schedules. I'm going to be going into this in more detail as we move through October, November, and December, but what are three things you've found helpful to make time for these extended challenges?
That's a great question and one I wish I had learnt the answer to sooner!
It's going to be different for each person, but also different each year depending on what things life is passing your way at any given moment. That's one of the main reasons I made a worldbuilding planner tool in Google Sheets to help figure out a good pace in order to reach my goal AND account for a number of days off for rest, busy dates, and unplanned wildcards!
It's important to set aside time to enjoy these challenges like figuring out what time of day works best for you and your busy life, and to minimize the chance of interruptions I always recommend that you excitedly tell people around you about your plans for the challenge and updates on how it's going! Let people know that you're busy at certain times of day, or that you need accountability on reaching a certain wordcount each day - they'll respect your time and end up encouraging and cheering you on! As for three actionable steps that you can try out this year:
Set a SMART goal that you can realistically achieve given your current schedule (because you can't make more time if your goal is too big).
Practice for a few days beforehand to find your pace, writing speed, and best time-of-day.
Set your boundaries, block off time slots in your calendar, and tell the people around you - get that motivation through accountability!
Perfectly bite-sized advice!
Crafting a new habit often begins with making one tiny change and then building on that success.
Now, we're coming close to the end but before we wrap up... Part of the fun of having a platform like this is opening up the stage to my friends, and giving them room to shine. Of course you have your world-building blog and newsletter at tjtrewin.com, but what else is going on creatively for you, at the moment?! TJ Trewin, the spotlight is on you, what do you want the people to know??
Well, with WorldEmber on the horizon (62 days to go at the time of this interview!!) I'd love to share my Worldbuilding Planner with you, along with 400 Worldbuilding Prompts all sorted by the article templates on World Anvil - so there's no worry of running out of ideas! I made them all in Google Sheets, so they're easy to access and make fresh copies of as and when you need them.
I've also just finished up on a series of blog posts all about WorldEmber, including how to avoid burnout, all of the things you can prepare in advance (without cheating), plus some strategic advice for folks with a fiery competitive streak!
This year I'll be writing lore behind some of the swords I drew, along with plenty more pixel art in my bright fantasy world, Journals of Yesteryear (JOY).
You heard it here first but I'm exploring the possibility of doing small pixel art commissions soooon(?)
Holy cats this is all so exciting! Thank you for sharing, and for helping to shape the world-building community into something where everyone can feel free to explore their creativity. I've had so much fun, and I really appreciate your time today, and all of the inspiration that you bring to everyone around you.
Aww thank you, I've had fun too!! Thank you so much for inviting me to chat about marathon challenges, and congratulations again on your 100 posts! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you make next :D
Coming This Week:
Friday: Fiction Friday: I’ll be sharing the stories I’ve written so far for World Anvil’s Spooktober Challenge.
Saturday: Quick Six: Entertainers and Entertainments; NEW THIS WEEK: Spooky Saturday! Join me in the Discord Chat-Lounge for some spooky movie fun. Check the server for full event details!
Sunday: New Week, New Theme!
Monday: Manic Monday: The Theme in Action
Tuesday: Twisted Tuesday: Subverting the Theme
Wednesday: World-building Wednesday and a new edition of Ask the Bard! Don’t forget to join me LIVE on Discord around 4:30 pm Eastern (1:30 Pacific, 9:30 UK).
Thursday: World Anvil’s Spooktober Challenge check-in!
