Summer Camp 2023 Reading Challenge
Looking Back
Despite only having set a goal of Copper, July was kind of... intense. I had just started a new client/project at work, there was a bunch of minor medical things going on, my partner and I became official partners and we started searching for a new home - and all of this was on top of an already busy life. Somehow, even through all of that, I managed to reach my goal of writing 8 articles! It might sound small but it added more than 5000 words to my world. A world that I hadn't even been planning to turn into quite such an alternate Earth, but I was having too much fun to let that stop me. It was such a gift to receive - 5000 words, 8 articles and a positive stream of ideas. And that is in no small part thanks to the wonderful WA community who have been nothing but welcoming and encouraging. I truly mean it when I say I don't think I would have reached even 8 articles without that boisterous energy in the Discord. It's been years since I wrote that much straight up worldbuilding and enjoyed it and even got to share it and it meant more to me than I remembered. Thank you all!I chose two prompts I hadn't written for anything myself, since I was curious to see what people had come up with, and one that I had, hoping to learn from their ideas.
Prompt 7 - Rank - the title & responsibilities of an important person in your world
I'd heard this was a prompt that many people struggled with and they had difficulty coming up with something original. Indeed, I hadn't managed to come up with anything myself, so I went on the hunt for the articles that most tickled my fancy. Such a trove of different ideas that I found! An extinct, very fantasy but also very historically feudal rank in the dragon lords; a very politically intriguing role in the Blatian Empire that makes me think it must have been held by people with quite the abundance of personality; and a rank stemming from adventure and a practical need which examines how such roles evolve with time.Prompt 23 - settlement - an ancient city that is still inhabited today
This was the prompt that I had written an entry for myself, although the scope of that article ended up being much more modest than I had originally hoped. I am apparently strongly attracted to the idea of settlements that are so old no one even remembers when they were first founded - I blame Tolkien for this, because that is just so "eald enta geweorc" and I live for it. Settlements with a strong sense of history, or a culture of craftsmanship or centred entirely around a single, mystical purpose; these three articles really inspired me and showed me how to tell the story of a settlement.Prompt 26 - myth - a children's tale or song based on a real event
I just love children's tales and song that are creepy, just weirdly disturbing or have that haunting melancholia that you cannot possibly understand at that age and lodges itself into your heart. It would have been lovely to get around to this prompt, but I just didn't have any ideas for it myself. Hugely enjoyed myself reading other people's entries though, there were a lot of good ones out there!Looking Forward
It's difficult to predict what I might want to set as real goals for the next six months. They look to be pretty busy and there are some obstacles (picture me gently taking a spanner out of my anxiety's hands that it was considering throwing into the works). But Summer Camp has helped plant plenty of ideas. I've set up some of the current setting for my characters and there's a very real story seed in my secret document article that I'd like to pursue. Also the CSS lust has been awoken in me. Yes, I know it's not actual worldbuilding words but I am a junior web dev, damnit, I want my world to look cohesive and pretty. Part of my difficulty arises from not spending enough time with my main characters. I'm still not sure what exactly I want to do with them, they're still a little flat and don't have enough life of their own yet. Ideas will mostly likely spring forth if I get them to "play on their own", so to speak. Expanding their backstories and home environments seems like it might be a good place to start in that regard. The concept of starting with a very small scope and letting it expand naturally seems to work fairly well for me. With their diverse backgrounds it will give me lots of little starting scopes to play in.Goals
- Write short story surrounding the obtaining of the letter(s?) sent by Bastian to Abonia with the intention of starting a war
- Expand the origin settings of each of the Immortals, to give me multiple small starting scopes to expand from
- Write some global CSS or a theme or something to give my world a pretty and cohesive look
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