Summer Camp 2023
I can barely believe that July is almost here! I'm NOT ready for Camp NaNoWriMo, Summer Camp, and the month in general! But that's not reason to be any less excited about it. I just need to take advantage of Summer Camp Prep & Homework and any inspiration source I can find in the next weeks.
I've been waiting for this to start a new project, and with the Wild Card Prompts I feel that there is less pressure to make them fit. That way it'll be more fun! For the same reason, I'm aiming for Diamond but I don't make any promises beyond Copper. I'll just enjoy the Camp and let my self be creative in any way I feel in the moment.
The plan is to fully focus in this almost new setting, and I always feel more comfortable when things seem to be cohesive, but I know that my mind never really leaves the Known Universe and I won't have the heart to ignore the coincidence if one of the prompts aligns with the very specific needs I have for Obliviously Evil's worldbuilding.
I don't have a clear idea about this world in general.
In this setting, there is the "regular" world, more or less the one we know and have a toxic relationship with, and the world born from the Shards. Some worldbuilding aspects will be more relevant in one of those places, and I won't explore much of the realistic one.
Because I don't know much about the setting (and I don't really have a lot about the plot either), I will just see where each prompt leads me, and there may be a lot of surprises with the themes, but I'll take the chance of using the homework as to build a sort of tentative structure to start with.
Oh, no.
I'm sure that there is only one kind of sort-of-physical—but actually magical—frontier in Shard's setting, unless I count the contrast between the different rooms and look for explanation in what's different between them. There are metaphorical borders, but mostly in the limits that characters are willing, or strong enough, to cross. Is there something in the magic that could be considered a frontier between what's been done and could be done? Maybe.
Depending on the prompts, I will end up focusing in the metaphors, the contrasts between the different areas in The Company premises, or some world from the Known Universe (organizing that is... a challenge, but at least I have a tag system). Maybe I will mix it all.
I know that some secret communications have to occur in the story, and the main characters will most likely have a hard time figuring out some messages; maybe some of the prompts will inspire an interesting method for that. Having characters from different backgrounds should give me a lot of room for different means of communication. I decided, at some point of writing the meta, that I won't have a particular language for the main setting, and other cultures will have theirs but I don't expect to describe them, at least not for now.
The big question here is: will I resist the temptation of giving them immediate communication means because "magic"? Hopefully I won't have to.
Summer Camp 2023 Pledge by World Anvil
Theme Preparation
Power
I don't expect to need much information about the power dynamics in the kind-of-real world. As for the Shards world, power there is all tied to a single magical? force. I only have a very general idea: everything is ruled by an organization—a company, I guess—with a quite vertical structure and directed by the person who controls that force. I think I can keep it simple (plots aside) when it comes to that. What I don't know yet, is what kind of role will the shards play in any possible story, since they are power in more than one sense, but not many know that. WIll that be something to discover? A plot twist? Should I keep them as "currency" as they originally were? I guess I'm rambling now, and maybe it's not really a question for the worldbuilding process.Frontiers
Relics
Well, depending on how old is old, I either have plenty of relics for this world, or only one. I do have the feeling that it's the latter, but I guess something can be found by exploring the nature and history of the Company's premises and magic, or even by exploring some family trees. What I do know, is that there isn't much understanding of the past in Shards' world, and the few people remembered is not remembered as they really were. After all, the current Granter doesn't like to remember, and that means nobody else's should. But they do. Most employees have their own personal things to remember. Only those that are important to the world in general had been buried.Communications
Where
This almost-new world comes from an idea that I had left behind for a while because I didn't have the time to design a world for it (and without rules I couldn't make sense of it). Depending on how this works, I could work in that story again, or maybe take the challenge of making some kind of game with it. Will see. This time I'll start by exploring the world.If the inspiration demands it, I will not hesitate to jump to other worlds:
Camp Feral Badge by Strixxline
Hype is contagious!
Progress
Prep and HomeworkWeek One(Reading about Diplomacy Webs for the first time)Week Two(Should I do a "first draft" of the map? Just until I have actually "visited" the place?)Week Three(Timelines and chronicles will come later, I hope. I'm still hunting some inspiring images.)Week Four(Wondering if I will be conflicted.)Set the new worldWriting!Copper PromptsSilver PromptsGold PromptsDIamond PromptsWild Card Prompts
Spooky Shenanigans by Haly, the Moonlight Bard
This got spooky!
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Half the characters are technically ghosts, and I couldn't stay away of the haunted houses.
The process
| July 1st |
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| Power themed prompts are promising. The wildcards should be enough to stay in a Shards, but I may not want to.
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| July, 8 |
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| I barely completed some of the prompts of the first week and decided to wait until I was done with those I had in plans before seeing the silver prompts. |
| July, 15 |
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| On the bright side, I finished the copper articles just in time to explore silver and gold prompts together. On the not so bright side, I'm a week late. |
| July, 17 |
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| A week and two days late. Aiming for gold, I suppose. |
| July 29 |
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| Seems like I reached gold... It also seems that I won't get to diamond. But gold felt impossible this morning. |
| July 30 |
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| Really, I'm not saying that every little thing in Shards is somehow rational and/or sentient. Is just a coincidence that everything I have described so far has a personality! |
| July 31 |
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| I think that's it. I still have prompts to consider, and a lot to edit, but I'll do that calmly when the technical issues in my life decide to give me a break. |
Personally, I really enjoy this "I don't know where this is going, I'm just along for whatever ride my creative mind takes me on," energy that you're bringing to Summer Camp! I've been in a similar place myself, recently, as I've been world-building to pave the plot holes in my novel, The Haunting of Library Inn. (I will die before I let go of that as the title, LOL!) It has certainly led to a lot of "Huh, well, I guess that's why THAT is the way it is" moments that I'm rather enjoying. I sincerely hope that you have the same fun on your creative adventure that I've been having on mine!
Haly, the Moonlight Bard
Thanks! I really think it will. I'm familiar with that feeling when you find out what things are how they are and I hope to have a lot of that this camp :) Have fun, too!