Summer Camp 2021 Imaginaerium: Day 24

Hello everyone!

Colors; what happens when our brains kind of approximate what they should look like? That's the deal with Magenta.
Read more about it here
To quote the article:

Magenta, because it doesn’t exist on the light spectrum, doesn’t have one. Rather, it’s something our brain creates to fill in space in a way that makes sense.

And how cool is that? :D

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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 Sloqush!! :D

Tell us about yourself!

Hello everyone I am Sloqush, 25 from Germany. I have a background in molecular biology and since the beginning of this year, I'm working in the pharmaceutical industry. I am very passionate about worldbuilding and use it as a creative outlet after work. I also recently dipped my feet into D&D which has been a lot of fun.

What world are you working on for Summer Camp?

I am working on my one and only world, the over-the-top dark fantasy setting of Cenorad. Due to just being a sandbox setting for me to play around in, I also presume that I will be using it for many more Summer Camps.

What is your past experience with Summer Camp?

So far I have participated in 2 Summer Camps (this year being the 3rd), and I would say that my experience was very positive. The first time around I managed to get 8 prompts, while last year I went all out and did all 33.
The personal highlight of the Camp are the prompts themselves as they offer a great opportunity to test my creativity and help to shine light on previously underused or not even thought of areas of my setting.
Also, it is always amazing to see the vastly different articles everyone is coming up with for the same prompt.

What did you learn from the past Summer Camps?

I learned that prompts vastly increase my world-building productivity, as they greatly help me to focus and concretize all those bizarre ideas in my head into an actual readable form...unlike my usual notes. Also summer camp is the part of the year where my notification just explode because everyone keeps creating so many awesome articles :D

How do you go about generating ideas for the prompts?

The way I do it is that I see the prompts not as a question but as a nut that I have to crack to get to the delicious article concept that is hiding inside of it. "Delicious" in this context meaning a concept that is bizarre, unexpected, or horrible...usually all three at once.
Towards this goal, I commonly take a rather “violent” approach by metaphorically hammering my head against the prompt until I either crack it by finding a non-straightforward answer to it...or until I get a headache from thinking myself against a wall...so far my skull usually came out on top :p
It is usually at the point when my first reaction to an idea is "no that is a horrible idea", that I know that I am on the right path. From there it is usually only a manner of refining and toning down the initial idea until it is readable and consistent with the rules and laws of my setting.

What's your approach to this Summer Camp?

Unlike last year, when I was still studying, I now have a full-time job, so I have significantly less time to dedicate to summer camp. Just a few hours each day, if even that, instead of like the whole day and half the night.
Additionally, this year's prompts I feel are also far more work-intensive than the ones from last year, due to their connected nature.
As due to writing a bunch of connected articles would be the intended way to answer these prompts...I won't do that and instead now have to find ways to separate them again :p Given that I also really like to polish my articles and therefore usually don't submit articles below 1,000 words, there would be no sane way for me to do all 31 prompts in time...which I feel is fine, as I much as that magpie-portion of my brain wanted to get this shiny diamond badge. So this year it's all going to be Copper and Chill for me :D

What's your tricks for staying on track?

I feel that my problem is far less with staying on track than actually getting on the track, as I first need to be in the mindset to get to cracking and writing prompts.
So far I haven't found a specific way to do that other than just relaxing, listening to music, and browsing through the internet until I find something that sparks my inspiration.
And once I managed to get the train rolling there is little stopping it.

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

When I am getting stuck in the mental mire, the best course of action for me is to simply not write.
As just like you are not supposed to train while still having a muscle ache when my "world-building muscles" are at their limit there is no point in overexerting them, so instead of trying to force myself to write through the block
I will instead do something else, such as listening to music, falling down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos about some obscure topic, or just craft another D&D character, because I haven't already made enough of those.
After this break, which might take anything from a few hours to a few days, my imagination has so far always recovered and it was back to the Anvil for me.

How to get an article pretty without using any CSS sorcery?

Firstly give your “ENTER” key a nice tap from time to time, so it doesn't feel neglected, as even just a few paragraphs greatly improve the readability of an article, even or rather especially if one is so prone to produce never-ending “word serpent” sentences like myself :D
Secondly: Quotes, quotes, and even more quotes. Did I already say quotes? I mean seriously quotes are so much fun to write and offer such a unique way to explore and convey one’s world to the reader, that I feel everyone should use them. They also help with further break up an article, so one more point for them.
Lastly, try to find a nice little header image for your article or to further break up your text.
For me personally, I have discovered Pixabay as my primary image gold mine, as there are some truly awesome pictures here if one is willing to dig for long enough. I actually wrote some articles, just to have a way to use some of the images I found after digging around for a few hours.

Thanks to Sloqush for joining us :D

And here's some music to keep you company while you write (and get you pumped up, hell yeah heavy metal)

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

— Neil Gaiman