I have a confession to make: the new school I’ve been building—the one I’ve poured hours of work, love, and creativity into—isn’t quite working out the way I hoped. And by “not working out,” I mean students keep getting eaten by dragons.

Not the fun, magical kind.

No, these are the metaphorical dragons that lurk behind error pages, scaring off eager learners and disrupting the flow.

What went wrong:

If you’ve been part of this adventure, you might have seen those dragons yourself—an error page that pops up with a dragon whenever you navigate to a page without having logged in first. That dragon is just a part of World Anvil. I thought the dragon was kind of cute, in an endearing, “oops” sort of way. But when the dragons keep showing up, they become less cute and more like obstacles blocking the path to learning.

My students—ever patient and supportive—have expressed that navigating the current school setup is more of an adventure than they signed up for. The twists and turns of the platform have become a barrier instead of a gateway, and I never wanted that. When people first went to the page each day, they needed to log in, but after logging in, they needed to go BACK to the school and that was an issue.

My goal has always been to make learning joyful and seamless, and the back and forth was causing people to get lost. When I realized this platform wasn’t working, my heart broke. I wanted all of the flash and pretty! I love World Anvil. You can write and create stories there, even build immersive writer websites! But the tools were distracting and confusing when people just wanted to get into their classroom and learn.

It doesn’t matter how much I love a platform if it isn’t working for my students. My students and teachers are the most important part of this school!

Next steps:

So, here we are. I’m pivoting.

I’m moving to a more traditional platform. One that’s easier for everyone to navigate, without the dragons. We’re moving from a feature-rich but complex setup to something that is intuitive, with fewer distractions and a focus purely on learning. One that looks like a traditional online classroom including a straightforward interface just for our school and a clear dashboard not shared with a universe of overwhelming and wonderful writing tools.

Guess what? All classes are moving, all students will still be in their classes. No lost content. No lost momentum. Just a smoother journey ahead.

Okay, maybe they aren’t as pretty as they were in World Anvil, but the content is all there.

If you read my articles over on Writers in the Storm—the one about surviving technological change and the other about the singularity of technological change—you know I’ve been through my share of tech challenges. I know what it’s like to have to make a change when the change feels like a mountain. Initially, I thought I’d just quietly make these changes behind the scenes, and everything would settle into place.

Change is inevitable.

But then I thought: why not use this as a teaching moment? A chance to show, in real-time, how to pivot in the face of tech obstacles. How to decide when it’s time to make a shift, even if it’s uncomfortable. This pivot isn’t about giving up; it’s about growing, about listening, and about finding the best way forward.

Change is always coming, whether or not we want it. And the trick isn’t just to avoid the dragons—it’s taming them, riding them, or sometimes even convincing them to show you a shortcut. And when that doesn’t work, it’s about finding the hidden path through the forest that avoids the dragon’s lair entirely.

I hope you’ll continue this journey with me. I’m grateful for every one of you who has stuck it out through the difficulties. Here’s to smoother roads and fewer dragons ahead. You’ll have to tell me what you think after the new space is open in the next few days and weeks.

With the many rapid changes in technology these days, have you needed to pivot? I’d love to hear your stories about pivoting in the comments!

Featured image by Deleyna using MidJourney.