Why "Pledge-ish"?
This year's Summer Camp, like with the
Cabinet of Curiosities challenge, my goal is only to attempt to do a bit. I have a lot on my plate this summer so can't predict how much--or little--that might be.
Also like with Cabinet of Curiosities, I will be working in my "Miscellaneous" world, which I created to showcase challenge entries that were written for private worlds (or don't yet have a home).
Note that my life circumstances and the location of my work means some of the homework assignments don't really apply; I have skipped appropriately to save repeats of "not applicable".
How I Plan to Prep
So, for many months now I've been interested in learning to write via dictation, but problems with tech and distractions from other stuff in my life led me to procrastinate really getting to grips with it. However a recent health issue that's affecting my ability to type has given me cause to revisit it, and this time see it through to mastery.
How close to that goal I can get before Camp starts who knows, but I plan to make it a priority this month. How well that goes will be a major factor in how much writing I'll be able to do.
Assignments
Week 1
Assignment 1
The Five Realms in my
my practise novel has a huge apocalyptic-type event in its history (and the threat of it happening again). I'd like to explore the before and after of the past event on a societal level in more detail, but how it was experienced on an individual level as well. The potential coming of this catastrophe is currently a major plot point so I want to dig deep into this in order to better build the fear of it happening again.
Assignment 2
As I explained above, my goal is "who knows". I'm thinking I might focus on writing one good article rather than the multiple stubs I created for the Cabinet of Curiosities. We'll see how things work out.
Assignment 3
I'm happy with my categories and tags as they are right now. I'll eventually be moving or copying these articles to a different world at some point, so as long as I remember to put them in the right category and tag them for this event, I'm good. Usually I make a central challenge document to introduce and link to all my entries for a specific challenge, which is organisation enough for me for now.
Week 2
Assignment 1
Refuge is an interesting theme for Five Realms as an entire realm became a refuge during the aforementioned apocalyptic event. On a smaller scale, I have locations that could be considered places of refuge/sanctuary, including one of the main locations whose history I want to delve into more.
Week 3
Assignment 1
An important theme for Five Realms is how beliefs can be twisted by unscrupulous people for personal gain--the most powerful character became so by convincing (through lies and propaganda) his people that the gods appointed him as the rightful ruler of all the realms. The religion in question is really lacking in detail in my worldbuilding, and influenced many other religions in the other realms, so definitely an area I need to work on.
Assignment 3
I find physically drawing maps much easier than using computer software--that said, I tend to draw on my Remarkable. On it I've got multiple maps sketched out, including two detailed city maps, a map of a city district, a couple of world maps for two of the realms, and--on physical paper--a detailed layout of a four-storey building.
On my computer I also have saved images such as architecture and fashion styles that I draw inspiration from. (Not included because I don't have permission to share them.)
Week 4
Assignment 1
Coming back to the apocalyptic event with this one. I hadn't mentioned the name until this point, because I'm still working out how it actually works, but now seems an appropriate point to say it's called the Withering. On a much smaller scale, there's also a disease called the Rot. The latter doesn't need much in the way of worldbuilding, but the connection between them (besides the theme of decay) lies in the magic of a particular realm, one whose magical rules I'm still working out. Definitely a lot of room for worldbuilding there.
Assignment 2
Dictation practise hasn't really got off the ground yet. I've done a little here and there but it still feels unnatural with clunky results. However I've only done that with prose so far; I'm hoping dictating worldbuilding articles will flow a bit better.
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