Mochi's SC24 Pledge!
SUMMER CAMP RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
My goodness, I love Summer Camp. This year shall be my fourth go and I'm so excited! I feel like I've improved so much since last year, in terms of knowing myself and my abilities, knowing when to stop writing to prevent burnout, and just becoming more comfortable in what I write.
I'm planning on answering every prompt we are given. I really hope we are not given extra prompts at the very end of the event like last year - that didn't go down well for many people, me included. I didn't manage to answer all 40 prompts last year, and the extra two made me just a liiittle bit sadder that I couldn't answer those either. But aside from that, I'm really excited!
I like to spent my Pledge not just prepping for the upcoming Summer Camp, but looking back on previous years and thinking: "How can I outdo myself this time? How can I show people how much I've improved? How can I have the most fun this year?"
Camp Feral
RAAAAAAHHHH CAMP FERAL!!
Last year Polina "Line" Arteev created Camp Feral, a group for anyone who goes "feral" for Summer Camp. Me. I 100% go feral for Summer Camp.
Learn more about it here!
Week 1: Change
What isn't changing?! A great open-ended theme with a lot of options to brainstorm. My mind genuinely doesn't know where to start with this. That's a lie, it actually does.
Evolution
Species change! All the time! Evolution is a slow process in real life, but in the Yonderverse a handful of species are hyper-adaptive, which means they can evolve millions of years worth in just a couple generations, to just a couple seconds. Evolution is a fascinating topic that I've explored with, and want to explore further, my more realistic species, and my more "out there" species.
Tackling how dragons evolve, how they differ from each other, was a fun little challenge. While the article doesn't exactly fall under change, I don't think anyone really cares if I talk about it for a second. I'd love a chance to write a bit about evolution in Summer Camp.
Possibly Relevant Articles
Cultural Shifts
Culture is something that is always changing. Culture can change due to the invention or discovery of new products and materials, the introduction of new ideas from other cultures, and so many more reasons that I cannot think of at 8am while ill.
In the Yonderverse, space culture is constantly changing. The way people survive in space is changing due to technological advances, the way people live in space colonies is changing, cultures evolve and merge as people from vastly different planets come together.
Possibly Relevant Articles
Revisiting Previous Years
2021
2021 will always be a great year for Summer Camp, since it was my first ever Summer Camp and first ever big event on World Anvil. I joined in late March this year, and the Summer Camp was such an amazing time since I really fell in love with the community then. I foolishly decided to aim for Triple Diamond that year, and failing miserably. I wrote about 60 articles, which is an amazing feat, don't get me wrong, but the articles weren't the best either.
Despite my foolish goal, I had a lovely Summer Camp and it really was what kept me in this community.
2022
In 2022 I tried once again to do Triple Diamond. I failed again. I also reached about 60 articles, and I'm surprised I wrote this much considering I was on holiday at the start, and end, of the month. Once again I chose quantity over quality, and I'm still in the process of rewriting the articles to make them much better, haha.
Summer Camp 2022 was the first time I ever won a prize for my writing! I won the prompt "An organization considered cruel or monstrous by some". I wrote about a clandestine organisation that "studied" lifeforms that escaped the Horror Dimension. Even though I think the article I wrote was lacking, I am so proud of myself and my prize, the Yonderverse Header, which has been retired in favour of one I drew myself, but it remained in use for a year and a half.
2023
Summer Camp 2023 was when I really kicked it up a notch. At least, I think I did. I am still very very very very proud of all (aside from one) the articles I wrote this event. I'm not even the least bit sad that I didn't win a prompt anymore, because I walked away with so many neat articles.
The biggest reason I enjoyed this year's SC so much was because I didn't act like a six year old and try and do triple the amount of work for no reason at all. I took my time, answered as many prompts as I was comfortable with (37 iirc), and just enjoyed the company of other writers. I also took home the Most Improved badge, and not to sound braggy, I do feel like I really deserved it. Comparing my work from 2022 to 2023, you can really see I've improved. And I hope I improve in the future, too!
My Fav Articles + Badge
Setting My Goal
I'm not actually sure how much time I will have to write in July. With the end-date of my animal science course currently up in the air, I have no idea if I will finish next week or next month. And of course I work, and there is literally not a minute where I could write.
Nevertheless, my goal is to write all 40 articles. I know myself, and despite my writing speed slowing down this past year, I trust that I can answer all 40 prompts. If we get two more at the very end of the event, like we did last year, I will scream, throw my laptop in the river, and go off the grid. So let's hope that doesn't happen!
Goal: 40 articles (Diamond )
It is also important to talk about which worlds I plan on writing in! While my main priority will always be the Yonderverse, I would like to give some attention to a couple sorely neglected worlds I have. The A to Zoo is a little passion project of mine, a chance for me to live my childhood dreams of owning a zoo, while spreading awareness about the natural world and conservation. I also want to work on Ava Admira, a bubbly and bright world designed as a breath of fresh air, when I feel overwhelmed working on other things. Neither worlds get much love compared to the Yonderverse, and I've categorised them as more "event worlds", now, where I work on them mostly during events like Summer Camp and WorldEmber.
If you've not seen these worlds I would love for you to check them out! They're vastly different to the Yonderverse in terms of theme and style, but I dearly love them.
Categories and Tags
I'm not going to change anything about my categories and tags, because I'm very happy with the systems I already have! My world codex is organised by location; every planet category (under a solar system category) contains an atlas and encyclopedia, which diverges into further categories.
Major Category Examples
Osao TOC
Space TOC
Updating the Meta
I can hear the collective groan from here. Honestly, the meta isn't so bad, but I don't personally find myself returning to mine for inspiration or for reassurance. That being said, I do want to work on it. My meta is currently private as I rework it, and hopefully I will have it public before Summer Camp begins!
Week 2: Refuge
A key point of the Yonderverse is that there is a place for everyone. A home, a refuge for everyone. It is important for me that readers will be able to resonate with some aspect, some location of my world. Not everybody is into sci-fi, science fantasy, and all that, so I have tried to curate different themes and different vibes in different parts of the Yonderverse.
Finding life in unlikely places
There are refuges everywhere in the Yonderverse, in a way. Even in the most unsuitable places for life, it finds a way and it perseveres. Some theoretically uninhabitable planets like Hell or Norrab are beacons of life, a refuge for those animals accustomed to those environments. I don't even know if that counts as a "refuge" but I say so.
Accountabuddies
I've made a lot of friends on World Anvil and thankfully, they will bully me (in the most loving way possible) to help me keep writing. From my friends referenced in the Cheem System article, to the Storyteller's Circle, to everybody in the World Anvil Discord server, there's so many people around to help.
I'm very thankful this community is so supportive. There is always someone with the advice you need to hear at any point, someone to offer feedback when you need it, and everybody cheering everyone else on is so uplifting.
Yonderverse Discord
I also have a discord server! I'll be in there talking about the prompts, my plans for articles I write during Summer Camp, and I'd love to see you there too!
World Styling & CSS
Not to toot my own horn, but I think my world is styled quite nicely. I genuinely believe it as well, which is a nice change of pace. I'm pretty comfortable with how my world is styled for now, and I don't think I will give my world a major overhaul any time soon. That being said, I definitely have some big plans for the far future.
I did a ton of CSS in preparation for the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards. I CSSed all the little cracks and crevices in my world, where the base theme was still visible. I'm so glad I went through and did this, however there are still little bits and pieces left for me to work on and tidy up, which I will do in preparation for Summer Camp.
My world has a pink/purple/blue base theme, with additional subthemes on top. I pick some planets to get these subthemes, for that extra immersion to make you really feel like you are on that planet. You can still tell you're reading a Yonderverse article, but you know it's somewhere unique. It's the same reason I have specialised cover images.
Below are all my current subthemes.
Some need more work than others, but I am really proud of the fact my world is large enough for me to be able to create so many subthemes, and still have my main world theme recognisable. There are several more in the works, too! If you have a planet you'd love to see get a shiny subtheme, let me know!
A to Zoo Rehaul
So um... I know the pledge told older worlds to look at upgrading CSS - I certainly did that! My second world, the A to Zoo, has just been completely redesigned. I scrapped all of my old CSS, started fresh, and boy am I glad I did that.
I've been struggling with all motivation to work on the A to Zoo in these past few months, and even looking at the world just made me sad and angry. I knew it was because I wasn't happy with the world styling, but for some reason I never thought to... update it? I've always wanted the world to look like a proper, real life zoo's website, and this second CSS rehaul has finally given me that satisfaction. I am now in the process of updating all my old articles, as I have changed how I approach the formatting and need to revamp everything. Hope people like it!
Week 3: Belief
A very tricky thing for me to brainstorm. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of "belief" is of course, religion. I have barely explored any kinds of religions in the Yonderverse - it's not something I know a lot about, I am not religious myself, and I have little confidence in exploring it in my world. Yes, I am interested in religion and how it effects cultures, and people's beliefs, but I really struggle to write about it.
That is why I am very excited to see what prompts we get for this theme. I think if the prompts work well with my world, I could write some seriously good articles that touch on aspects of my world is rarely write about.
As the Summer Camp Homework page mentions, belief does not just mean religion. Even then, I struggle to flesh out the "people" side of my world, and trying to worldbuild people's views and beliefs is difficult for me. So again, I am excited to see where this goes! Maybe I can build up my confidence using these prompts, who knows!
IRL Inspirations
Music
Music is always inspiring me. I love having some soothing background noise, white noise, or some funky sci-fi music while I write, to get me into the spirit of writing.Media
Any time I watch a new TV show or a film, I guarantee you I will end up writing an article or two inspired by some aspect of it. I can't help but get inspired by other fantastical worlds in media.Nature
This is a bit of a given for me. I love the natural world, and I love being immersed in nature. Walking through an overgrown field at sunset, hearing the buzz of insects, the calls of birds, it is everything to me, and I will never not be inspired by the wonders of nature.These are generally the main things that inspire me. I have my own personal playlists that I listen to when writing, I have pinterest moodboards for different planets - with their contrasting themes and vibes, I need tons upon tons of different moodboards.
I don't really need to review my inspirations, either, so I shall skip that part of this week's homework. New music and new media is always being created, therefore I will always have new stuff to be inspired by, and I will never not be inspired by nature.
AAAAAART
I draw art! Lately I've been stuffing so much more art into my articles than I normally do, and I think it has drastically improved my article quality. Obviously, you do not need art for your articles, but they specifically enhance my articles quite a lot, I think. I've been drawing a lot more recently, and I've been improving a lot!
Enjoy a selection of art I've drawn recently, below. If you'd like to see more of my art, check out my Ko-Fi gallery!
MAPS!
Drawing maps has really grown on me recently. I've always been nervous to draw maps for my world, and my first ever map was made with Paint. It is still in a dusty corner of the Yonderverse, if anyone can possibly find it. But recently I've drawn a couple of maps, and it ignited a spark in me, that's kept me wanting to draw more and more maps. Check out those two recent maps below!
Week 4: Decay
My favourite theme! Decay is an important part of ecosystems, and as we all know, that is my favourite thing to worldbuild. This theme will surely contain some really interesting prompts and I cannot wait for them to be revealed.
Of course ecology is the first thing I think of when it comes to decay, but there is also moral decay (as mentioned in the Prep Homepage). How organisations crumble and fall is a form of decay, and one that is always interesting to see in a world. Love this theme!
P.S. If there are no mushroom prompts, I'm writing about mushrooms anyways
Optimising My Environment
This is somewhat difficult considering I write just about anywhere. I can't sit in one place for long, so I am constantly dragging my laptop and notebook around my house, to sit in different areas. To optimise my environment, I have to focus on the one consistent variable. My laptop!
I have different mood playlists for different areas of my world, which help me focus and really get into the spirit of worldbuilding. I normally drink tea while I write as well, so I must supply myself with gallons of nice warm tea, even on the hottest days of the year.
Homepage!
I'm pretty happy with my homepage, but there's always room for improvements! Over the next few days I will have a good ol look at my homepage and try and figure out ways of making it just that tiny bit better. My homepage isn't perfect, but throughout its many iterations I've really struggled to capture the essence of my world in just one page. To those who have amazing homepages, you are all awesome!
Updating Intro and Author Page
I've not really looked at my Author Page information in a looooong while, so that definitely deserves a glow up! That said, I'm not unhappy with my introduction article. I am a little unsatisfied with it, like I am my homepage, but I feel it is good for now.
Knowing me, I will completely rewrite it just before Summer Camp starts - I've already redesigned one world entirely, what's the harm in writing a little introduction? Check out my Yonderverse introduction below :D
That's a goal, I wish you a lot of luck and happy writing - I'm looking forward of your articles.
Thank you so much! <3