Summer Camp Prep 2025

A note from the author...

  I know I've been absent from a lot of creative events this year. I've had lots going on in my personal life, including starting a new job, which has made scheduling regular writing time a challenge. SC2025, though, presents a perfect opportunity to set new writing routines and check-in with World Anvil's worldbuilding community.   So without further ado, let's get to it!     *Click here for the World Anvil Summer Camp 2025 Prep page

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Summer Camp Preparation

 

"He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

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Week 1: Nourishment

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Assignment 1

Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?

  This will be an interesting theme which will hopefully enable me to emphasise the 'grimlight' nature of my world.   I will be fleshing out the continent at the centre of the Astaerian region, Elvara and in particular The Empire of Malvarron which is the setting for my WIP trilogy of novels.   Like our world, many people in Elvara suffer through a competition for resources, political oppression and violent conflict.   The empire is a tyrannical regime, meaning for some, their very existence is a matter of life or death. That survival instinct for the successful often involves some form of selfishness, but that isn't to say that flawed characters can't still do good things!   Though conflict and crises showcase the very worst of us, they can also show us the very best in people. Generosity, heroism and, for some, a willingness to stand against injustice whatever is evident throughout human history. Elvara is no different.   Nourishment, then, can be something personal (a good pint of ale at the local tavern), something practical shared amongst the few (e.g. a charitable temple which feeds the poor and sick) or something which enforces societal change for the better such as a resistance movement successfully challenging a cruel regime.  

Assignment 2

Download the pledge document and fill it out with your goal for Summer Camp!

  I said I wanted a challenge and this year I'm going to up my game!   In previous years, I've gone for bronze and achieved it. This year I'm going to see if I can go one better.    

Assignment 3

If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.

  Luckily, I'm fairly on top of this. I completed my personal meta during last years SC prep, and it's really helped me to stick to the key themes of my world and focus my worldbuilding.   One thing SC revealed to me last year was that my world definitely needed a primer or introductory article. Something that sets out the key info of Elvara in an easy and accessible way. I've been working on this mammoth task for a while, and I finally finished it yesterday (just in the nick of time!). During this process, I've had to update many older articles and create several new key ones.   On the plus side, it made me realise just how far I've come since I joined World Anvil in 2021!  

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Week 2: Roots

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Assignment 1

Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.

  I like to think that my Astaerian timeline is pretty decent at present. I keep it updated as I like to provide historical context for most of the things I write about.   Social attitudes in Elvara have formed through centuries of conflict, propaganda and political influence. Prejudice and alliances are rooted in past events. I touched on this in my primer, especially when writing about the different species, ethnicities and languages of Elvara. As a result, I have a lot of articles on my to-do list with the potential to expand the scope of some of these concepts.   The latest significant events in my world are The Vanguard Revolution and the assassination of Malvaron's first Emperor—General Augustas. I've written a decent amount on the first but the latter is mostly in my head still at this point. It would be great to get some of it out of there if the prompts allow me to expand upon the relationship between magic and the Empire.  

Assignment 2

Go to your world’s homepage and imagine you’re a new reader discovering the setting for the first time. What should you change to make the experience more engaging?

  I've changed my homepage banner to reflect the dark, yet hopeful nature of my forest-y setting and adapted the introductory section, making it shorter and snappier. I've also updated the article block list so that my primer shows at the top with core article about the empire and the Malvarri Military.  

Find your earliest worldbuilding project. What mistakes did you make that you want to avoid? What good ideas from those early days can you integrate into your current project? Remember to take a moment to be proud of how far you've come!

  I think one of the problems with my earlier worldbuilding was a lack of insight into World Anvil's features or the different ways to showcase information in a clean and sophisticated way.   When I look back on some of my earlier articles, it's clear I wasn't writing with an intended audience in mind. I was using the platform as a cool way to organise my thoughts for myself, so I wasn't so totally lost when I was writing. If I'm being truly honest, I don't think I ever thought back then that anyone would go to the trouble of reading them!   As a result, my earlier articles are a little word-vomit-y with a lack of organisation and focus.   Although, I'm more confident in using World Anvil's features now, it's still a steep learning curve for me, and I still haven't got to grips with CSS... (damn it!)   Nevertheless, the good thing about SC is having to accept my own imperfection. The freedom to not worry too much about creating large, sprawling articles about historical lore and instead learning to express cool ideas in a brief, succint way. This new attitude will hopefully get me to that silver badge and give me time to engage with comments and other campers' awesome worldbuilding efforts.  

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Week 3: Metamorphosis

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Assignment 1

What transformations and adaptations have the people in your world gone through? What changes are going on right now… and who is trying to stop them?

  Since the huge transformation forced on Elvara by the Vanguard Revolution, day-to-day life for many Elvarans has changed to varying degrees. There are some who like this change and agree with the new regime, and others who do not. Some with more freedom and prosperity now, some who have been subjugated and discriminated against.   The illegality of magic is a significant aspect of my world, as is the restriction of political freedoms such as free speech, freedom of assembly and the right to private life. Desire for change in Malvarron has been there for centuries, but now been forced underground due to the Empire's fear of a counter-revolution. Engagement in politics has been so severely limited though it has caused the empire's opposition to change their methods of expression. Desperation calls for desperate actions.   The last event published on my Elvaran-centric, The History of Astaeria timeline is the abduction of Empero Lucianno's only living daughter, Princess Lucia. This sets the context for the first book in my WIP trilogy which explores the resistance movement known as 'the Wardens of Ethera'. I would love to expand on the history of the resistance group as well as the short-term changes in the aftermath of this event and its effect on the Elvaran population.     Because I've left my WA homework until the last minute, I've decided to search the word 'random' on Spotify (other music streaming services are available), and choose the first available playlist to listen to whilst I complete my prep. I'm going to revisit this at the end of my prep session...  

Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.

  I'm a firm believer that there's something to be learned from everyone, so I'm going to let the dice of random worldbuilding awesomeness choose these two articles for me...     I've read two fabulous articles and posted my comments accordingly. These are The Poor by Demongrey and Summer Camp Prep 2025 by Adventures_of_Isle.  

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Week 4:Tomorrow

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Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?

  These are the prompts I need to be a little cautious with in terms of where my worldbuilding history and novel overlap. I don't want to create any spoilers for my trilogy, so it's all about finding the balance between worldbuilding and preserving the integrity of my novels.   I think if I do embark upon completing any of these prompts, it will to ensure a thread of hope runs through my world. My genre is more 'grimlight' than grimdark, so I do still want there to be some small nod to the idea that characters can still make positive changes despite the harsh and brutal nature of the world...  

Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!

  I work weird shifts, so I'm not even sure how I would go about making a schedule for myself. With that said, I would love to create a habit of writing every day—even if it's only for 5-10 minutes at the end of a busy day.   I have a landing page, ready to make public when the first prompts are out so followers can easily access my SC2025 articles, now and in the future.   Also, I guess it's time to finally clean the mountain of sticky notes off my desk...  

Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?

  I'm hoping to touch base with a few of my worldbuilding pals. It's been a while, but I've always found WA to have the sweetest, most supportive community.   Also, I think I'm just going to just have fun with it. Let the perfectionism go for a change and just share my ideas in the most efficient and engaging way I can with a limited timescale.   Twitter is still my go-to social media platform, but I have Blue Sky, Facebook and Instagram as well, which all need some love. So I'm going to make a conscious effort to let all my social media beans in on my Summer Camp 2025 journey.     So the random Spotify playlist was a mixed success. I think I cheated though because there were some absolute 'bangers' on that playlist as well as some really terrible songs.   Overall, I know the genres I enjoy, and I was reminded about how important it is to know your audience...   I guess creatively it helps if you can kill those two birds with the same proverbial stone.  

Best of luck to everyone taking part in Summer Camp 2025!