📝 Major Manuscripts update
Manuscripts had a major UI design update, along with a few new features:
- Corkboards: View your chapters and scenes like sticky notes on a corkboard. Move them around to reorganize them and visually plot your novel from within Manuscripts.
- Notifications update: Notifications are no longer sent out automatically when you publish a Manuscript. Instead, you can choose when you send a notification to your followers and customize its content.
- Wordcount tracker: You can now set a wordcount goal (with a deadline), both for the entire Manuscript or individual chapters, and track your daily progress.
- Other improvements: There are other minor improvements, such as creating custom labels and resizing the side panels.
Check the guide to Manuscripts for details!
📖 Better dictionaries
For all of you language worldbuilders out there, Dictionaries are now part of the new UI! This makes them easier and faster to use straight from your Language articles. Simply edit a Language article and click on the Dictionary icon in the bottom toolbar to get started. Check the guide to dictionaries for details.
🎨 Style your world without CSS
The World Styling Menu has been rebuilt from the ground up to support deep styling options without ever writing a single line of CSS! To get started, view your world and click the art palette icon at the right edge of your screen. There you can not only select one of the premade themes, but also select individual elements and style them as you desire. And for those of you who want even deeper customization, CSS is still available as always. Check the guide to styling your world without CSS for details.
🔗 “Referenced in” panel rebuilt
Want to know which articles link to a given article (also known as backlinks)? That’s what the Referenced In panel is for, and it’s also been recently moved to the new UI! Go to article settings and click the new “Referenced in” button to see the list. Check the guide for details.
🎲 New character sheet: Nimble
Thanks to the amazing Tillerz, you can now create your Nimble characters on World Anvil! Check an example character to see what it will look like and the Learn guide to create RPG characters.
🎨 New premade themes for your world
There are three new visual themes for your world now available to all Guild members: Blackwake, Mourning Bell, and Solspire. Here’s a preview of the Solspire theme:
🎨 Header sections moved to Styling
We recently moved the old article header fields (subtitle, pronunciation, etc) to the Styling menu. So if you were wondering where these sections went, click on the art palette icon in the bottom toolbar of the article editor to open Styling settings. Check the guide to editing articles for details.
⚙️ Other changes
As usual, we also implemented a few minor quality-of-life improvements, including:
- Private content by default: If you’re working in a private world, articles, categories, timelines, and historical events will now be created as private by default as well. See more information about private content.
- Access RPG characters from articles: If you have connected an RPG character to a Character article, there’s a new button in the Character article editing screen to take you to the RPG character profile. Check the guide to the Character template.
- Community stream design: You may have noticed small design changes to the community stream—if so, you have a good eye! But don’t worry, it works exactly the same as it did before. Check the guide to the global community posts.
- World dashboard design: The world dashboard—the page you see when you load worldanvil.com—got a minor redesign. No functionality has changed though, so you can continue to enjoy your world and your widgets as always! Check out the guide to the world dashboard.
Check the changelog for the full list of changes and a look into the future!
🗓️ October events
Here’s everything going on this month!
- 👻 Spooktober: This month, we challenge you to answer up to 21 spooky prompts! They’re all single-word prompts, and you can answer them with any art form. Check the challenge page for details!
- 🎓 Sage Seminar: Fantastic Firearms with Tyler ‘Barron’ Lawton: This October 17th at 5pm UK/9am Pacific we’re inviting the amazing Barron to share his knowledge about firearms and apply it in your fictional worlds! Find the link in the Professional Portal.
- ☕ Inner Sanctum Coffee: If you’re a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee on October 17th, at 4pm UK/8am Pacific! Dimitris and Janet will be discussing recent updates, gathering your feedback, and sharing secret new projects! The link will be shared on the Discord channel on the day.
🔜 Upcoming Events on World Anvil!
Here’s a list of our upcoming challenges and community events, to help you get ready:
- November: We’ll have two events in November!
- We challenge you to write 50k words of prose or more for your next novel in NovelEmber.
- And with just one month to go before WorldEmber, it will be time for WorldEmber Prep! WorldEmber is our yearly event where we challenge you to write 10k words of worldbuilding. It’s a big challenge, so November is your chance to get ready.
- December: We’ll end the year with WorldEmber, the yearly event in which we challenge you to write 10k words of worldbuilding.
All our challenges launch first on community livestreams, so follow us on Twitch to get the news first!
💡 Did you know…?
You can combine a transparent map layer with a marker group to create cool effects or overlay additional information on your maps! Check the Learn guide for more information.
📹 YouTube video round-up
Need a little push to improve your worldbuilding? Or want some advice from a professional worldbuilder? Here are our latest YouTube videos:
- The Dungeon Crawler Carl Method: smushing show don’t tell: Dungeon Crawler Carl absolutely demolishes the “Show Don’t Tell” rule, throwing stat blocks, loot descriptions, system messages, and game mechanics at the reader constantly. Is the rule wrong, or is author Matt Dinniman simply a mad genius? Here are 3 techniques to master the art of lore-dumping in your own works!
- How to write Gothic: Gothic stories have returned from the grave to haunt movie theatres, Netflix, and the best-seller list. Let’s unpack why gothic exists, what makes it tick, and help you craft a gothic setting that works… in any genre.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
🤩 We have a new published author on World Anvil!
We wanted to take a minute to congratulate AmaraShailene, who secured a publishing deal with Archway Publishing! Their upcoming book, Canticle of Stillness, is currently being edited and we can’t wait to see it published. In the meantime, check out their World Anvil profile and their world.
🌟 Community highlight: Sun Elves
This month’s highlighted work is Sun Elves, the winner of the Rise of Nations category in the 6th Worldbuilding Awards! Check out this beautiful article by Callyxtus:
Here’s what Callyxtus, the author, had to say about this:
Sun Elves are perhaps one of the most exotic races or ethnic groups in Yeia. Ever since I wrote about the Desert Elves, I knew my next goal was to discuss their “sedentary cousins.” As I often aim to do, I wanted this group to feel like something living—something that evolves over time—and fortunately, I found inspiration in India and ancient Egypt, as well as in various medieval Near Eastern states, such as the Abbasid Caliphate and the Mamluk Sultanate.Of course, I also wanted to tweak the article’s organization and layout to try something new, and I couldn’t be prouder of the result. I am equally proud of the support the article has received and how well it has been liked.I believe one of World Anvil’s greatest strengths is its community, and the mutual feedback and support among users, both in the website properly, in the comments, or in the different channels in the Discord server; certainly, my friends, followers, and fellow community members with whom I regularly interact played a key role in the article’s success through the ideas and positive feedback they’ve shared with me. So a large part of the success of this article is thanks to them.So, again, thank you so much to you all and thank you World Anvil for allowing me to create and share this peculiar fantasy world that is Yeia
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