My Summer Camp 2021 Worldbuilding Pledge Document

Homework 1: The Pledge

Howdy all! It's that flaming-hot time of year again here in Manifold Sky Headquarters, and that means it's time for World Anvil Summer Camp 2021. In this pledge document, I will outline my plans for SC 2021, the expected scope and scale of my work, and the means by which I intend to complete this herculean writing task set before me. You can find more information about why this article is being created here. Without any further ado, let's dive in!

Question 1: Which project are your worldbuilding efforts tied to?

As with Summer Camp 2020, the bulk of my work for Summer Camp 2021 will take place within my Manifold Sky world. More specifically, as outlined in my 2021 Manifold Sky Roadmap, I will try as much as possible to hew to articles which will prove useful in the construction of a novel for NaNoWriMo, a story featuring The Garbage Man's mad quest to destroy the Manifold Sky and the efforts of a multinational crew of misfits to stop him.

Question 2: Which world are you working on?

As stated above, most of my efforts will be focussed on the Manifold Sky. However, if inspiration strikes me - or, of another setting would make things work out easier for a particular prompt - Twelve Sides and Kit's Crater may make guest appearances.

Question 3: Which area of the world(s) are you working on?

Thankfully, one of the primary motifs of the Manifold Sky setting is confinement, so 'mission creep' is unlikely with regards to this challenge. Still, I will try to keep as many prompt responses as possible related to The Garbage Man's story arc.

Question 4: How much are you aiming to complete?

Barring disfavor from the ever-watchful Gods of Irony, I intend to complete every challenge and achieve a Diamond Badge. You can follow my progress on this goal over on my official Summer Camp 2021 Progress Report.

Question 5: When will you write?

From past experiences, I typically seek to finish off as many prompt articles as possible as soon as possible after they are released. I typically find time to write during breaks at work or, more likely, immediately after coming home from work; I mull over what I want to write during any slow moments at the desk, then come home full of the required inspiration. Weekends will likely be 'crunch' days, depending on how much I am able to get done during the week.
More specifically, there will be around an hour after 7PM on some days and 10PM on others where I will dedicate myself to work. My desired pace is at least 500 words per article and at least one article per day of the challenge (unless I finish early).

Question 6: Who is your support network?

I will be including my real-life friends and family in my creative journey. SpaceSuitIan, in addition to belonging to that category and being an editor for Manifold Sky, is expecting to also particiate in Summer Camp 2021 and, therefore, will be my accountability partner for this project. Of course, many of us can be found over in the Manifold Sky Discord server, and I'm hoping that my participation will help liven up the place a bit. Seriously, guys, come over and poke me if I look like I'm slowing down!

Closing Thoughts

While it doesn't fall under the classification of a personal support network per se, one difference between this year and the previous one - other than a certain globe-spanning pandemic, of course - is that this will mark the first year in which I and Manifold Sky will have a social media presence. I may post updates and showcase my favorite works on Twitter and the World Anvil Discord to get the word out, and to do that, I have to have work done I'm proud to show the world. I feel that this will provide a strong motivator to push quality work out at a reasonable pace, and I hope to see you all pushing out your own best work beside me.
Come on, let's make magic happen in 2021!

Grandmaster SpaceSuitIan

Homework 2: Organizing My Worldbuilding

Navigation and Category Organization

The Manifold Sky's overarching aesthetic underwent a series of redesigns over the 2021 Q2, with many of the categories fleshed out with explanatory content, converted to book covers, and given FontAwesome logos based on their contents. As you can see below, this rearrangment (hopefully) makes the home page more visually appealing and the content bars less cluttered overall:

by BCGR_Wurth

by BCGR_Wurth

In-Article Organization

I've created an article detailing a few of my standard in-article layout elements. You can find this meta article in the block link here.
In truth, even though they've always been an option for me as a Grandmaster, I haven't taken the time to play with custom article templates yet. Even with the Manifold Sky being as surreal as it is, WorldAnvil's existing articles generally cover all the bases well enough. Still, if do make one for this homework, you'll see a screenshot of it here.

If I were to put together a set of custom article templates right now, I'd probably create templates for individual cubes and use them to discuss the local geography - including linking dependent location articles - in more spatially specific terms. A similar bit of work could be done with the existing Tesseract articles, but this would break a lot of refferences - over 377,000 words is a lot to comb over for broken links!

Summer Camp 2021 Inspiration Images

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Logo of WVXL Radio Voxelia, a Vozendi-language radio station based in Silkenvault.

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The Manifold At A Glance

Open full size

This is a generalized map of the Manifold Sky, with cubes and tesseracts shown based on their relative connections to one another. Tesseract labels are based on Navigator's Guild nomenclature. Cube topology and geopolitical boundaries are excluded. Additional layers show various points of interest and the comfortable habitatats of the various sentient species within the Manifold. Note that the compass rose shows the progression of day and night through the tesseracts, as well as the relative position of magnetic north (green arrow).

Homework 3: Article Release Plan

Per Article

Typically, I endeavor to do a number of edit passes both before and after I publish an article. I usually try to take reader feedback into account when doing post-publishing edits, and this is also usually the time in which I fine-tune the look of the article as well to best suit the Manifold Sky's overall aesthetic. This latter part may change now that I have a placeholder image (see above in Homework 2). Lastly, unless an article contains spoilers or is somehow more 'spicy' than others, I usually push a notification to my followers on WorldAnvil and Discord at the time of publication.
I don't generally have a consistent release schedule for articles outside of the fact that many of them are done in response to ongoing prompts and challenges. I have a full-time job that has the potential for overtime and special event hours, so regularity with regards to creative output is not always an option. For Summer Camp, however, I will endeavor to post articles at least weekly, with most content falling early in each prompt block's release period and with decreasing frequency toward the end of the period. If I get the wild desire to write articles beyond those required for the prompts, I will also release those and, if they relate to Summer Camp or summer time in general (see the sidebar Summer Camp 2020 for an example) I will add a list of them to the 2021 progress report.

Social Media Releases

As usual, followers of the Manifold Sky, BCGR_Wurth, and the Manifold Sky Discord will see my articles posted in real time, with occasional updates when an article recieves a major edit pass.
For followers of my WorldAnvil and Twitter accounts, omnibus updates (i.e. the State of the Manifold journal posts) drop monthly or in response to special events (i.e. the challenges like this one). I do have a Facebook, but I prefer to keep a degree of separation between my persona as an author and my persona as a private person, so updates there will be rather limited in scope.

Grandmaster BCGR_Wurth

     

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