The Year in Review (2022)
I’ve started, stopped, and restarted this post at least three times over the past month. I know it's helpful to share updates, particularly in terms of my writing. Blogging keeps me accountable to actually keep working on my projects, and it's encouraging to see things progress. (I also hope it’s interesting for you to see development too.)
I haven't shared as many updates as I hoped, so let's treat this as a 2022 wrap-up. I'll be more intentional about updates in 2023, because really that’s the most I can offer right now: Optimism for what’s to come, fueled purely by the fact that life seems to be improving across the board.
A painful look back at 2022
Make no mistake, 2022 has been absolutely brutal for us. I wrote a bit about the first half of the year back in July, so I won’t drudge all of that back up. But I will say there’s been a gradual snowball with more and worse misfortunes ever since.
I got laid off from my job in August. Graham picked up some weird skin infection at daycare. We broke our lease to move into a brand new (and so much nicer) apartment because of maintenance issues and legitimate health/sanitation concerns. One of my oldest friends passed away suddenly last month.
Honestly, it’s been a tough time. And as much I’ve wanted to get back into writing and blogging, I haven’t been able to build any momentum.
But that’s going to change.
We’re in a beautiful (And did I mention brand new?) apartment in an incredible location. I got a job with NerdWallet, which not only doubled my income but is providing tons of benefits for us. They also seem to genuinely value and appreciate my work as a writer, which is a nice change. And while Graham and I had the flu for Thanksgiving, and he got an extra respiratory virus the week after that, I’m clinging to the hope that all these illnesses are just helping our immune systems bulk up to fight off anything 2023 throws at us.
Point is, this isn’t just me trying to speak good things into existence. This is me taking an optimistic approach that we’ll turn the page on this miserable year and fall into a glorious and rewarding 2023.
Quarterly writing update
I didn’t write a lot this fall, or even this past summer. But I’m still on track to meet my goal of 25,000 words for the year. (For what it’s worth, I did sit down last week with a random idea to write a scene between two characters without using names/attribution. I’m proud of it, but there’s not much that’s worth sharing.
My plan is to start a new novel next week and write it throughout 2023. Obviously that will detract from worldbuilding, but it means I'll be spending time actually in the world of Varheim. I know from personal experience that embedding myself into a setting (especially the minds of people living there) helps me see things differently. I'm hoping to draw inspiration from that, and maybe even discover new stuff, whether that’s minor locations or cultural traditions or historical events.
I’m not going to give myself any word count or page count goals, because there’s no way to predict how this story idea will evolve. And while I’ll share some details (And sample pages!) once I begin writing, I’m ready to talk about the idea just yet. It’s not going to be something I expect to publish — think of it more as a project to start rebuilding my writing muscles and settle into a new-but-consistent routine. Things should pick up after that.
What about Varheim?
So, you may be wondering where the mapmaking and worldbuilding are at.
Things have progressed…slowly. I’ve workshopped a lot of cool ideas together and added more layers to it. Pieces are falling into place, and I’ve actually spent hours crafting a few maps that I’ll share below. None of the drafts are completed, let alone finalized, but I’m proud of how my style has improved and how the ideas are coming together.
I will admit that the wider scale of the world means there’s a lot to do, even beyond my original plans. And the maps — while very cool to look at — still need hours upon hours of work. I’ve got multiple continents to build, and then a bunch of regional maps that include more detail on specific areas I’m going to focus on with my writing.
Again, it’s a lot. And I haven’t dedicated nearly as much time or energy to it as I wanted. But in the same way that I’m optimistic and excited about 2023, I honestly believe my writing and creativity are going to blossom as the other pieces of my life settle down.
With any luck, at this time next year I’ll have a finished novel (Heck, maybe even two!) and a dozen beautiful and detailed maps of Varheim, with hundreds of pages of notes to share. But for now, I’ll wrap this up with my most updated maps.
Okay, a little bit of context for these:
The first map is the main “overworld” view of Varheim. You’ll see the north and south poles on the edge of the map — these are mainly to tease that this is the extent of the world, but I also didn’t want to have to worry about creating those territories.
The second map is the continent of Beriand, although that name is pending and probably won’t stick. This is the oldest site of civilization in Varheim, and also where my first story will take place. So I put most of my effort into this map as a starting point.
The third map is Teragon, and the name is also pending. This is a seriously evolved variant of the land for some of my very first novels. It was fun to think of ways to let the continent “grow up” and be incorporated into this project. And I started some details but I think there’s a lot to do, and I imagine a bunch will continue to change.
The fourth map is Myden…and yes, the name is a placeholder. This is a world I started thinking about a decade ago, but never really wrote in or explored. I’m treating this as an opportunity to add some depth to that and take advantage of my pre-existing ideas.
Overall, the goal is to recycle ideas (and definitely recycle work) from the past 20 years and make it better. So far, it’s coming together, and just looking at these maps inspires me to do more work on it…which I might go do right now, actually.