Summer Camp 2025 - awakened at last
Who dares disturb my slumber? Wait its almost SC again? shit, shit, shit, shit....
Hey friends! I wake for my biannual reemergence! Since last time i wrote one of these, not much has changed so I shall keep this brief: Im still hella busy with my PhD, which takes up so much of my damn time, that I am in a somewhat involuntary creative hiatus. That being said, I do have two events that I wouldnt miss for the world. Its the two big ones, SC and WE. They hold a special place in my heart and so I wanna at least try to participate in these even now. So! This year I wanna focus on a shared world I am making with the lovely, wonderful amazing Jada T. It does not have a name yet, but we have zeroed in on the following three core tenets:- Close to Nature
- Real Seasons
- Crystal Caverns
Week 1: Nourishment
Assignment 1-1: Nature vs Nourishment??
Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?TBD
Assignment 1-2: Taking it slow with high hopes
Download the pledge document and fill it out with your goal for Summer Camp!Last time, I shot for the stars and went for another diamond badge. While I was successful, it did put on some pressure that didnt really help me all that much. Because of this, I am only shooting for Copper this time around, with the secret ambition to go for higher badges as much as I can allow myself to do so. Basically, I am aiming for copper but if I achieve that easily, I will keep going and see where the journey takes me :)
Assignment 1-3: Revisiting the world
If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.Fortunately, given that this is an entirely new world, I have no outdated or even dated articles to work on. I suppose there are upsides to being so god damn busy all the time ^^.
As for the meta, I am (hopefully) meeting up with my co-conspirator later today and we can fully discuss this then.
Week 2: Roots
Assignment 2-1: Roots of the Trees
Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.TBD
Assignment 2-2: Landing Page!
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?As with the meta above, this is not something I can do on my own/by my own ideas. In the upcoming meeting with ThatMomFriend, I am hoping we can also update the world page and discuss a bit of css and such. A primer will have to come much later, once we have felt out the core aspects of this world we wish to highlight.
Assignment 2-3: Ancient Ideas
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!
If we aren't counting haphazard fanfiction of Tolkiens legendarium or homebrewing an alternate universe of the TTRPG Midgard called Niðgard, then my first real worldbuilding project can be found right here no worldanvil. Im not sure if there is much to be gained from it for this project though, except for maybe the emphasis orcs of Focis place on nature
Week 3: Metamorphosis
Assignment 3-1: Crawling through Caverns
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?TBD
Assignment 3-2: Inspiration
Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.This new world has a bit of a cozier feel to me than my usual creations. At the same time, I feel that the choice to not have humans or the classical humanoid fantasy species very much vibes with this idea of a woodland realm full of (anthropomorphic?) animals. I had a cursory glance at some other sites and found these amazing images which I think fit the vibe of this fantasy setting: Images will go here!
Assignment 3-3: Tomies
Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.TBD
Week 4: Tomorrow
Assignment 4-1: Youth versus Age
Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?TBD
Assignment 4-2: Optimal gameplan
Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!For the writing schedule I am once again reviving TJs wonderful google sheet! I will link it here when I get back home later tonight, as I can only recommend it. I am going to aim for a short article at least every other day, which should mean I should hit my goal of Copper (8 articles) with no problem. If I am feeling inspired I'll do more. To achieve this I think I will do a rough writeout/word vomit on day one, in which I figure out all that I can think of about the topic of the article. Then on day 2 I will refine that article, expanding obvious gaps in the information presented, crosslinking to stubs of stuff that will be related and so on. This will mean that there is also a healthy range of options to choose from for the next article as well.
Assignment 4-3: Tomies 2.0
Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?My main help and motivation is probably going to be my lovely cocreator Jada, and I think just talking to them about what Ill write about next will naturally spawn a lot of good ideas, that I can then reinvest into the articles. For consistency I can also once again count on my lovely Tomies (see above at chp. 3.3). I may revive a minor version of the accountabullies™ where we check in each day and discuss what we are doing about Summer Camp. I definitely was part of Camp Feral the last couple goes around, but I will see how much it reinfects me this year.
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