Enjoyed the vlog ... I am writing my first novel ... I go to a local coffee shop to write ... I write better away from the house ... I am considering a weekend writing retreat, so your vlog was helpful

The first manuscript I wrote, I think I changed the opening chapter 3 times. That's always one of the hardest parts for me - I know where the story is going, obviously, so I always second guess whether the intro and the curiosity seeds are intriguing enough. I wish I could erase the story from my brain temporarily to read like an outsider lol

My big issue is pacing and writing too much in first drafts. I can *see* the scenes play out and I write it all and leave it for future me to fix. 😄

Programming a conlang? Interesting

Congrats on 6k subs. I missed the live version: it was just too late here in Europe; I caught myself throwing suggestions, pronouncing the words. Pity I couldn't participate. Your "s" can morph to "sh", simililar with "z" -> "zh";

congrats for 6k subs

Finally!!! My biggest pet peeve in most fantasy worlds I see is when no matter the technological or societal progress of the society they somehow have invented modern nation states and have super defined borders.

Very cool and concise guide thanks a lot!

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Keeping ❤

As someone soon venturing into serious revisions, this was fascinating. Also, I kinda just want to see the finished board! 😄

I appreciate the work and effort you've put into this. It's so exciting for me to realize how much the knowledge builds on itself as I work through this process. Each new segment helps me understand the previous ones so much better and already I'm looking back and thinking about how I can make my maps better. Thank you so much!

Loving your trackers!

“If you haven’t seen my rock video…” What an absolutely ICONIC sentence starter. Good luck in 2025!! Love the goal tracker you set up for yourself!

This is a strange question, but when you get to the Arid section, how do you assign areas that are semi-arid year round??? It’s honestly the only hurdle I’ve come across with this process. It’s otherwise been really really amazing!! Edit: Follow up question. How do you get cold deserts? Because it says that deserts are arid year round, but back in aridity it was stated that if it was Cold or colder, even if it was completely dry it would still be semi-arid. This has also been a sleight issue I’ve run into if anyone has any good advice!

Will you promise to do a vid in 360 days as a follow-up? 😄 I start well, but often my organizational systems kinda...fall apart over time. I also am following the HB90 system, I committed to at least Jan, but ideally all of Q1. We'll see. It's a work in progress.

Love to hear about your planning process - you get into it so intentionally and are so organised with your trackers and goals!! Very inspirational 🙌

Your doing great. Balancing work, family, creativity, KZbin channel. In Scotland we use the expression, Just keep chipping away at your projects. Over time it will snowball into a finished project. Try to continue making good habits. Dedicate time to writing, map making ect and enjoy life. You got this. ❤

Tanith Lee wrote in Sword & Sorcery. She was and is one of the influences on my short story writing.

isn't high pressure bigger in the summer?

Ahh I completely empathize with the sickness thing...I had a lot of food poisoning this year that changed plans - and it definitely cuts any writing off 😬So exciting to see all your growth this year, I'm always blown away by the detail and care depth of your videos!! Wishing you an amazing 2025!

You mentioned that you like to measure distance so you know how long travel time is. Do you use a program or how do you measure that, aside from creating a map scale?

Oh gee losing plans because of sickness sucks, my sibling decided to give the entire house covid & I've had to cancel at least half a dozen plans so im experiencing that right now 😅

Another very good worldbuilding focused channel is Just In Time Worlds. I discovered her through her underseas worldbuilding videos. Her eras worldbuilding series is also very good and inspiring!

❤

I'm forcing myself to focus on one big goal that I need to start from zero, and that's working out. My 2024 was also very messy and kind of disappointing in the number of things I failed, for me I think it was just that I tried to spread my willpower and intentions too thin.

As a Kofi supporter, I will continue my support, and move to Patron when it arrives. I feel that I do get value, so don't worry about that.

Could you describe your program for conlanging a little bit more? Is it a step-by-step like your worldbuilding series?

Okay but I'm LAUGHING at breaking even on money earned vs money spent to maintain the channel because SAME 😅 I hope 2025 is a great year for you!

Traguna mekoides trecorum satis dee!

The video has too much static noise, probably due to bad microphone settings or sound editing, which degrades the listening experience. In terms of facts and knowledge, the video is great.

I like you. *subscribes*

These streams were really fun to watch! I liked the various topics like altitude sickness and "who would even ask those questions?" like "who cares about fictional glaciers?", I had a moment where I was trying to figure out why some wallcreepers have yellow spots and most don't, when it says there's just one species of wallcreeper, and I didn't think anyone else would care but I asked the bird nerds anyway, and one sent me a research article that basically said "we examined the spots, they're just a weird fluke, it's still one species" and it reminded me of how glad I am that I found like minded people! And now I'll give some thought to where to put cities and how to plan them!

what kind of laptop-tablet do you have?

i felt this on a deep level... i have so many documents with notes in them... i have a ten book novel series i'm working on... so the notes are very extensive... now i'm trying to organize them into three different places... because i'm working with seven major monarchs i have thematic information that carries over and corresponds between the books... so the first place i have to copy and paste the notes is the saga synopsis... the second is for each of the ten individual book's notes section... and the third is for the original note like weapons, birthdays, court nobility, holidays, etc... i'm slowly getting there... i started out with a concept of a story with barely any plot points filled in that has over the last two years been turning into a more fleshed out understood idea of what is happening between the good and bad side... which thankfully has allowed me to fill in more of my plotlines and have a better understanding of where the story is going... so happy you were able to clean up your notes and make more sense of things... it really does help...

Your board 🤩

Great watch, ty!

I feel like your approach to world-building is fantastic; however, I think this much planning of an actual story hinders the ability for the story to go where it wants to. I have to say my best stories have veered wildly from my outlines and plans. However, that being said, I think I would finish a lot more stories if I wrote this way.

A Godsend just before Christmas, Thank you Madeline!

"Feasonable" is my new favorite word 😝

Hi Madeline I’d love to know how this has evolved. If you have a recent video, please link me. As an alumni (2 yrs with HB90) I’m still finding tweaks that fit me but wouldn’t be here without Sarra’s bootcamp and instruction. Happy Writing!

This is such a massive resource, exactly what I was looking for! 😁

THIS IS SO GOOD

Hey did you do this course yet? What did you think of it? Id like to talk to you about it.

Thats very good! Awesome!

I'm basically live reacting to this video in my worldbuilding friend's DMs and writing down various ideas and thought processes (like my instinctual inclination that my winged people would tend towards being nomadic and democratic while my humans would tend toward sedentarianism and statehood, which ended up being justified in this video), like how human states could further extend their power by using winged people as faster messengers than humans would be; hiring one, or many, would be a luxury a smaller state wouldn't be able to afford but might be necessary for a large state or empire to enforce its power and prevent disorder. Heck, if a democracy had the cooperation of winged people, they could conduct democracy over a distance through writing, authentication like seals, and offices. Going to continue watching now!

I finally watched Artifexian's video on rocks, then came back to give your two parter another shot but I didn't see this new one!! I'm so excited!!! I will consume this promptly.

If anyone's curious, you can convert oval projections to equirectangular in GIMP with a slightly different method: after you superimpose the lines on the map, use the Handle Deform tool, separately on each cell of the map, to deform and re-project the map.