WorldEmber Day 18: Ask the Bard #19
This week, questions about when (or if) it's OK to lie to your audience and the design of world-building project websites.
Follow along with my WorldEmber progress!
These resources will help you keep track of my progress through this month-long marathon challenge:
Haly’s Official WE Progress Report — each participant gets a page that automatically collects their author information and all WE-eligible articles across all worlds into a single, shareable package.
Haly’s WorldEmber on Argentii Index — an on-the-fly journal page and handy sidebar displaying only new Argentii WE-eligible articles.
Y’all aren’t the only ones with Questions for me!
A few weeks ago, I sat down with
for an interview. Well, she posted that interview this morning!! It’s audio, about 37:00 long, and according to what people have been saying, thoroughly entertaining and informative!!And even if you don’t like me, then go and support Nat; she’s a fantastic writer, a busy mum, and a smashing lovely human person!
Q: If you’re not swamped…Did you wanna speak to design of website homepage and main sections for world building of “artisan” sites (a little or a lot)?
TL;DR: Steal what you like from other homepages.
A: OBVI not their content, duh, no one is saying be that dick.
But.
Look at how other people, people you read, people who have both similar genre to you and wildly different. See how they’re presenting their information. And when something strikes you and feels good AND AUTHENTIC to you and your work, then do the same thing.
Alright, now, before we go any further, let me just say: though I have some education and experience in design, I am not a professional designer. And I am certainly not a marketing…type…person. But I will certainly share a nickel’s worth of free advice. Take it for what it is.
When it comes to presenting your work — whether on tumblr, Reddit, WorldAnvil, GDocs, or even your own .com — the most important part is what’s most important right now.
“Come on, Haly, what does that even mean??”
If y’all haven’t caught on, this newsletter is only half the story. I demonstrate a lot of my techniques (and just fun) over on my Rhapsody in Realms WorldAnvil. When you view my landing page on a typical landscape layout (such as your desktop), then this is the first thing you see.
And it says very clearly what is important to me right now: WorldEmber. So start there. What is the very first thing that you want people to know about your world? What do you want or need them to see as soon as possible?
From there, decide what is the story that you want to tell them with your homepage? EVERYTHING is a story, and if it’s not, then make it one. Stories are the only way information sticks with us, we are hardwired for stories.
This is the very next thing when you scroll down. Clearly. WorldEmber. Is. My. Focus. We have my WE Pledge, and a link to my pledge article. Then we have a list of all of my world-building newsletters. (Because if you think I’m not counting all of these words toward my goal, then what the fuck are we even doing here?!)
Now, why did I choose to beat a dead horse and re-emphasize the importance I am placing on my WE participation? Because it’s not only important, but also urgent. It’s RTFN, we’re in the middle of it, and I have suspended most of my normal operations in order to accommodate it.
It is important, so it is up top. It is urgent, so it is repeated.
After that we get a bit about this publication and a signup form, then all of the personal and copyright information, blah, blah, blah.
Now. That’s the right way to showcase this particular project, at this particular time. And it will change completely when Jan 4th hits, and we roll into WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Awards season.
Is that the right way to showcase every project? No. Different projects have different goals and different needs.
This is the homepage for Argentii. Obvi. Now, I am actively building this world through WorldEmber! This is the other half of this month’s project, filling in a lot of the core details that I’ve just let live in my head.
What I’ve done here is give a brief note about why things might be messy from article to article (the Announcement block), and then immediately given new readers a place to start: The Shit Everyone Across Argentii Knows.
This is the foundation of my primer for the world; how the calendar’s laid out, a link to the master timeline, I’ll have the map in there eventually, too. All of the things that are just common, assumed knowledge among all the people across the continent.
When you scroll down, you get to current events, and then, blammo: World Codex, Recent Articles, Maps. All things that will be extremely useful to helping people get around, whether they’re new or not.
Notice again how WE gets just the one brief mention. I’m not shining the same spotlight on the challenge here. I don’t need to, I have RiR for that! Here, I’m showcasing what I want the reader to know: how Argentii is different from the real world.
Now…notice how I keep saying things like for now and this will change? That’s a key here. Understand that this will be a fluid and ever-evolving process. Much like developing your own writing voice, you will develop a style for how you present important and urgent information to your audience.
Adding to the laundry list of ‘general rules of thumb’ you also don’t want to change too often. I change the background and the header of the main page about once a month, to either match the month or match the current WA challenge. (Such as the current WE-specific theme.)
Finally, don’t forget that information presentation is best with text and graphics, so even if you’re using stock images, or building asset collages in a program like Canva, try to put some eye candy in there to help fix information in your readers’ brains!
Rhapsody by Moonlight is built on a ‘pay what you want’ model.
Please consider showing your support by buying me a coffee!
Q: When should you as the author lie to the reader, or have your MC lie to the reader? As part of the story, I mean, not with subpar writing
TL;DR: …again?
A: Ask the Bard #3, Ask the Bard #10, and November 26, the day before AtB #16.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s super cool that I’ve been doing this long enough to be able to pull from my own body of work. At the same time, I’m starting to suspect that this is less about unreliable narrators, and more about self-confidence.
Just. A. Guess. Because it’s something that I struggle with, constantly. A huge part of the reason why I occasionally mention how great I am at world-building is entirely a fake it ‘til you make it strategy.
But here’s the thing, and I want you to pay close attention to this because it’s one of the keys to my outlook on life.
‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ is just another way of saying ‘practice makes perfect.’
Chris Purchase, aka PapaGlitch
Stop. Go back. Read it again.
Stop, go back, and read it a third time. Internalize that concept, because we’re going to break it down a little bit.
When I say ‘fake it’ I am in no way encouraging a lack of authenticity. That is not the goal, we are not trying to beat the bots at their own game. We live our lives as our authentic selves, in celebration of who we are. ‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ is about self-confidence. It’s the implied bit before your daily affirmation.
“Fake it ‘til I make it, I am growing at my own pace!”
“Fake it ‘til I make it, I am where I should be in my journey.”
‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ is another way of saying ‘practice makes perfect.’ It’s another way of saying ‘ignore your self doubt.’ It’s another way of saying ‘do it scared.’
And, if I’m wrong, and this really, honestly, truly just is about providing a killer twist…then just make sure that you’ve laid the groundwork, as early as possible, so that they have time to forget that it was there all along. And when in doubt, get a beta reader. (Not me, I’m too cruel; college lit professor without any credentials cruel.)
Wrapping the Day
FRIENDS! CREATIVES! RADICALS! Send me your woes!!
Next Wednesday is Christmas, and the Wednesday after that is hangover day New Year’s Day. Yes, they will still be World-building Wednesdays. However, I would like to write those posts ahead of time and schedule them to be there for you while I spend time with my family.
Please, please, start sending me those questions now!
I’ll keep putting little reminders down here for you, but the sooner the better. As always, your help is deeply appreciated!!
As I write this, I am sitting at 27,068 new words of world-building toward my 50,000-word goal. ALMOST HALFWAY THERE, BAY-BEE!!!
Algos suck. That’s why I need your help!
Please, restack this with a note about what you liked, or forward this email to a friend in your creative circle.
This is really good! And super helpful. Certainly agree with the above comment, too. Thank you so much, Haly! ❤️🙏❄️☃️🖖🕵️♀️
That's a top tier nickel's worth of good advice. Thank you once more.
In this particular case, the question did not spawn from my own writing (not that I am immune in any way from certain insecurities), but instead from the writings of one Ms. Agatha Christie.
Since becoming a writer myself, I have pondered books I've read and wondered at the thinking of the author. The book I'm referring to in this case is And The There Were None.
I enjoyed the book immensely right up til the end. I won't spoil how it goes but Christie did not write the book in such a way that the reader could solve the mystery on their own.
In essence, she lied. This isn't necessarily a untrustworthy narrator as it is in third person omniscient, but a clear case of the author lying to the reader. I didn't like it (I have been so disgusted I haven't read it since) but I thought there may be a place for such untrustworthyness so I thought I'd come to the expert and bug you.