Intro

Down deep in an underground city nestled in a vast cave system, Inno struggles within her own culture of the harsh laws spun by the religious elite. It's the unlikely discovery of an ancient lost piece of technology which allows her to transmit text-based messages that becomes her vice. With it, she comes into contact with Kex, a man living somewhere on the surface. Almost immediately they begin obsessively messaging, finding comfort and solace within each other from their otherwise stressful lives. They fall suddenly, and insanely in love. Inno and Kex vow to find each other in person, and to be together despite everything, but it isn't something so simple.
Inno and Kex live a world apart, both culturally and ecologically, each living a life unfathomably alien to the other. Is it even possible for them to overcome all the insurmountable barriers between them? And if they do, will they even like each other in person? Because making life sacrifices for someone you've never met is their ultimate gamble.

(*Inno and Kex are just working names for these characters and they will likely change.)

Current Stage: Outlining

Outline completion: ~45%

Current outline word count: 2,500 words

Current world building word count: 30,000 words

Current & Upcoming WA events: Summercamp

This section serves as my pledge & focus for Summercamp 2023. While I want to say my goal is to achieve a gold, more importantly my goal is to use this Summercamp to exclusively world build around things relevant for my outline of Nevermet. I don't want to get distracted by building in a separate setting or making pieces of the Morticene that will most likely be totally irrelevant to the scope of my book just for the sake of a better badge. That said; I hope my creativity of deep diving into the tight restrictions of relevant world building will allow me to achieve at least a silver. Mostly though, I'm in CAMP CHILL, aiming to make non-stressful but good progress on Nevermet!

Summercamp Prep Homework

Week 1 theme: Power
In Nevermet, both POV characters have to deal with overcoming complex power dynamics in their lives. Where Inno lives in Cobalt, power of society exists solely within the hands of the religious elite who control every aspect of the average citizens lives (including Inno's). This organization is coldly scientific, running society strictly off maximizing outputs based on data, and because of this creating all artwork is illegal due to what is perceived to be a waste of resources. This is how Inno discovers the power of rebellion through embracing one's personal creativity to become a voice of defiance. Meanwhile in Kex's world, power becomes something more concrete -- the power of a beast or a monster to end lives with its unpredictable will, and the fragile nature of the actual electrical power which keeps a city running when it's dependent on social politics.
Possible article subjects for the Power theme:

• Exploring deeper into the religious organization that rules Cobalt

• Inno's art style, and the details of her story arc related to it

• Details of the rebel group Inno gets tangled into

• An important character (or a small cast) in the religious elite

• An important character (or a small cast) in the rebel group

• Detailed article about the Meidesum antagonist character

• An article exploring the relationship between Cobalt/Raelocke and how the rebellion effects the electrical power

Week 2 theme: Frontier
For the theme of Frontier, it would be most useful for me to focus more intensely on geographic locations because their development is mostly lacking in the setting so far. I want to flesh out the few ecosystems and locations that have been brainstormed so far, but I'd like to also create some brand new locations. I need to design biomes/locations that flow nicely with and between the relevant settlements to create both a sense of wonder and more opportunity for raising the stakes and tension in the story. More flora and fauna, more geographic hardscapes, more weather anomalies, etc. Create ecosystems that align with the Foundational Concepts of The Morticene to emphasize the mood and goals of the setting while underlining the story itself.
Possible articles for the Frontier theme:

• Deep analysis of the Taeniit cave system, creating different chambers and microhabitats within

• Flesh out the 'fungal wastelands'

• Flesh out the 'acid marshlands'

• Bring back the megafauna

• Deep design the river that runs through Raelocke

• Flesh out the 'braided mountains'

• Brainstorm new transitional ecosystems, and new fantasy species

• Think about the 'frontier' of research Kex is involved with, and design fantasy creatures for his little collection

Week 3 theme: Relics
Relics are a very important aspect to this story as well as this setting. As a post-post apocalyptic setting, ancient relics are often the only clues left of long-lost technologies and cultures which are no longer understood. The most important relic in the story are the linked communication devices that Kex and Inno find, allowing them to communicate with each other through what are basically text messages -- but nowhere else in this setting does that technology exist. That creates tension as the characters need to hide and keep secret these devices they've found if they want to remain in contact.
Another important relic from the past in the setting is the cryogenically frozen man, which forms the basis of the oppressive religion in Inno's world, who is himself a relic of the long-forgotten past and he eventually awakens in an important aspect of the plot. The Taeniit as a people have a pulse of ancient relics running through their society by means of their religion that worships ancient technology, their own knowledge of technological relics lost to all other cultures, and even their own biology which carries only relics of their evolutionary past as humans. Relics play an important role in Kex's story as well, as a he is a researcher trying to decode secrets of the past by studying clues found in both archeological and evolutionary remnants in the landscape.
Possible articles for the Relics theme:

• The communication devices, including how they work/origins, how they are found

• Frozen man character design

• More tech relics used exclusively by the Taeniit

• Technology or culture relics exclusive to the Rhylic

• Archeological relics relevant to Kex's story line

• Biological relics displayed in species to showcase natural history

• 'The Scavengers Outpost'

Week 4 theme: Communication
A foundation of the story itself hinges on communication, as Inno and Kex are the only people in the setting who rediscovered instant long-distance communication and the rest of the known world still relies on letters and post. Inno's race, the Taeniit, also have a unique and different language structure which should be reexamined in a way that would make it more accessible while writing a character within that culture. There is a lot as well regarding people who know various secrets (cryos and rebels), and those who are being manipulated by those people. I think an important part to build with this theme is important side characters and their relationship arcs to the main characters, as so much of those stories are about communication. Such as, Inno hiding her relationship with Kex from her family but eventually having to come clean and tell them she intends to leave and find him. And also Kex with his best friend/research partner whom he eventually needs to admit things to and inspire to help him.
Possible articles for the Communication theme:

• Kex and Inno character profiles

• Re-examine Taenic language

• Inno family character designs

• Kex best friend character design

• Kex's school/research organization

Summercamp Submissions

Prompt 1: The Thawless
Prompt 4: Mycosynth

This page chronicles the progress I'm making on my novel called Nevermet. The story takes place in the Morticene setting and the world building for that will remain private, except for articles released during WorldAnvil challenges like Summercamp. Those articles will be linked at the bottom of this page while they are public.

~Victoria Stone

by Rin Garnett

MY SECRETS: After outline is 100%, a progress bar for % done of first draft will display. Current wc of manuscript and world building will display, but the % on the progress bar is based on the ratio of the outline bullet points completed.