The Results Are In...plus Gifts for You =)

I know, I know...you didn't get anything for me.

Aug 01, 2023

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Summer Camp is now officially over.

I started with such high expectations. Like every year, the excitement and anticipation of creating new material for my world holds my attention. Characters, places, magic and conflict between them all, for the good of novel writing, pulses through my veins.

Then, like thousands of other people, I make my pledge to achieve the highest rank possible…diamond. That’s completing 32 separate prompts crafted by WorldAnvil. From Species and Locations, to Military Conflicts and unknown Materials, we dig deep as writers. We stood together, waiting for the starting gun with our pledges in hand.

“On your mark,…get set…”

Wait.

The entire community took off like bullets, while I face planted.

Hard.

Life, my growing nemesis, sticks out its grotesque, hairy, varicose-veined leg and trips me. Sending me tumbling to the ground for a solid face-plant.

Ow!

This is nothing new.

There’s always something in my way that I have to wade through or navigate around, so that’s exactly what I do…and start churning out the Summer Camp Prompts.

The Law of Dominion, Beakers ‘One-Cheek-Sneak’, Bagmin’s Festival of Laughter and Freedom, but as I pick up speed, Life throw banana’s onto the track. I face-plant again, and again…to the point I can’t help but think, “Maybe I’m not supposed to do Summer Camp this year.”

The Value of Your Word

I don’t know what kind of person you are, but for me, someone’s word means something. We are all fallible, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything we can to keep our word when we give it.

At the beginning of Summer Camp, I had made a pledge to achieve the Diamond badge.

All month long I’d struggled to string ten coherent sentences together to form another article. Now here I was, less than 72 hours away from the finish line, and only eight prompts into the challenge. There was no way for me to fulfill this pledge and still keep my previous commitments to you, my readers. After all, Life of Fiction is the “most important” writing task I have on my plate.

*sigh*

So I did what any decent writer would do.

…I did it anyway.

In roughly 24 hours, I completed 25 more prompts, allowing me to slide across the finish line with 33 completed prompts…and a Diamond Badge for the win.

[insert victory dance here]

All I’m going to say is that it’s important to keep your word…especially in this world. Not for other people, though that is important…but for yourself. To trust yourself. To know and understand what you will do — and what you are not willing to do — when you are both alone and when something is hard.

I’m a staunch believer in writing through the first time. Don't worry about editing, just get all your thoughts down on paper and then evaluate, edit and massage them to life. So that’s kinda what I did. I created each article as fast as I could, not working on mechanics, or even details.

Those I would add to later.

Consider the prompts as 300+ word markers. That’s what I told myself every hour I plugged away. They were to give me the general ideas so I could come back later and make them exceptional…then add artwork and formatting.

It did the job.

What I discovered along the way, however, is what I’d like to share with you.

Because I found some worlds that I will recommend at the top of my lungs.

I Want To Give You The World (or Four)

One of the best arts of Summer Camp is making friends. The WorldAnvil Discord community is second to none, IMO. It’s where you can sit as you write and receive all the encouragement a human being can handle.

It’s awesome.

It’s also where we all share the work that we’re doing. You have link’s pop into the chat of vast new creations of fantasy and science fiction you never would have thought of. While taking breaks from your own writing, many of us click these links. We venture over into other creations, both for inspiration and to give our kudos.

There are a few of these worlds that held me.

The wiring that tickles your curiosity bone, and you can’t help but jump deeper into the rabbit hole. That’s what I want to leave with you: some worlds (and articles) you might visit.

If you like Horror, or you’re a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, I would suggest Baeleris: Victorian Age Gothic Horror.

The second recommendation is one I don’t know how to categorize, though horror might be one of them. It’s called Eivrall (Zenith Athenaeum). The writing is brilliant, the storyline chilling, yet fascinating

The third, and this is most likely my favorite world ever to be discovered through Summer Camp. As in Ever, Ever, EVVVVERRRRR. It’s called MEGACORPOLIS.

I’d say it was sci-fi humor, but that wouldn’t be accurate. I’d say it was funny as hell, but that’s a gross understatement. I’ll just say that IF you enjoy laughing, you can thank me later. It’s written by ‘Qurilion’ and he has become one of my favorite writers, right up there with Douglas Adams and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Last and certainly NOT least, I started following the winner of the 2022 ‘Most Beautiful New World’ award: Shadowfire, written by Ononomad.

Just…well, you’ll see. Take your time and enjoy.

What’s Coming Next?

August is a new event with WorldAnvil, and though I might touch on that — we have some goodies being released, specifically artwork. Looking forward to sharing that next week!

Tell me in the comments what you think of the worlds I linked for you above!