Summer Camp 2021 Imaginaerium: Day 2

Hello everyone!

Day two of summer camp! How is it going? Are you having fun? What do you think of the prompts so far? :D
For today's Imaginaerium, we'll be visiting the Valley of the Cheese of the Dead - a funeral tradition that takes your entire life.
Besides the awesome name that makes me think of undead cheese-wheels attacking, it is an interesting tradition that shows you how dietary requirements and livelihood can seep into anything and everything. What part of your setting's tradition is informed on what was once essential to life, but now more of a luxury? Has isolation, physical or otherwise, played a role?
And as a bonus, here's Sean O'Connell being funny at weight-ins. Who says fighting has to be serious all the time?

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For today's Imaginaerium, we are going to peer into the brilliant minds of the Anvilites who are taking part of Summer Camp and see what advice they have for us. One of WA's greatest assets is its amazing community, so lets get better together.
Today, we're talking to amazing published author and ferret-enthusiast, ShyRedFox!

Tell us about yourself!

*Waves to everyone* Hi! I'm Amy Winters-Voss, aka Shyredfox. This spring, thanks in much part to the WA community support and Q's Lodge I released my first book, an urban fantasy set in small town Japan, called Rise: the Liminal Chronicles. I'm a former programmer, turned stay-at-home mom who dabbled in coaching First Lego League, teaching kids basic programming and robotics, teaching nalbinding (a yarn craft older than knitting), and photography. I love textile arts. And I really want to go back to Japan after my first visit in 2017.

What world are you working on for Summer Camp?

The priority for me is to fill in any articles that correspond to my second book, Guardian, in the Liminal Chronicles series. Prompts that don't fit that will be put into Bane of the Shadow or Squirrel Wars. I plan to work toward the Bronze medal (10 prompts completed), since I'm also doing Camp NaNoWriMo to work on Guardian. If I complete the 10, I'll likely expand the goal.

What is your past experience with Summer Camp?

Summer Camp 2021 by World Anvil (TJ)

ASC_Logo_Duo - png by Timepool

This will be my third summer camp. The first one I did worked toward the bronze and last year I completed diamond. The first time, I had only been on WA for a month. I was still learning my way around. Last year was a blast. Not only did I get the articles done, but several of my friend groups worked together to support each other, one of those wonderful groups was Q's Lodge and other (started with the Lodge) became the Anvilite Streamers Corps. Our friendships deepened and several of us learned to stream. I've never been as afraid as I was that first day I hit the 'Go Live' button on Streamlabs. (My hand was shaking hard as my mouse hovered over the button.) But I can't imagine not having the streaming camaraderie. I'll keep doing Summer Camp forever!

What did you learn from the past Summer Camps?

I am obsessive about how my articles look, but I also HATE going back over them. So I make them as good as I can the day I write them. This means a quick writeup, prettifying it, and heavy editing after that. It's doable in one day for articles that aren't over 800 words.

How do you go about generating ideas for the prompts?

Cookie by Freepik

Beyond trying to lure my muse out with cookies? I have a stash of stub articles to use. If that doesn't work, I'll do something REALLY boring like folding clothes and let my brain wander and write down any ideas. Sometimes looking at Japanese mythology or pretty pictures on Tumblr will give me ideas. I try to write ideas down for the group of prompts - so that I'm not stuck any particular day. It's not always successful, but it helps.

What's your approach to this Summer Camp?

Notes by Eucalyp

I'll be setting aside an hour in the morning to tackle my prompts and writing on my book in the afternoon. This is a very short time to write on prompts. Last year I let myself have all day, since I took a break from writing for camp. I'm a bit nervous about this approach. But I have to try it to see if I can make it work, right?

What are your tricks for staying on track?

I've been using Pomotroid to do sprints for my writing and on breaks I get to peek at Discord and other distracting stuff. I'll be streaming my work on Twitch and in my Discord to help keep me accountable. Playlists of Future Garage music with its simple tunes and droning bass in the background on Youtube or Spotify really helps tone down the brain weasels that cause thought chaos.

How do you handle those bad days when we get stuck or can't seem to get writing done?

by Freepik

I usually take a fast-paced walk with some pounding music on a bad day, whether that's an emotionally bad or just difficult for writing. Sometimes I'll try to draw. My art skills are limited, but there's a beautiful peace when drawing and creating something visual. I also like to tinker with CSS. It might sound crazy, but I find it soothing. Stepping away for a little while usually helps the words flow.

Many thanks to ShyRedFox for sharing her insights with us!

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And here's some music to keep you company while you write:

The English language is an arsenal of weapons. If you are going to brandish them without checking to see whether or not they are loaded, you must expect to have them explode in your face from time to time.

— Stephen Fry