Summer Camp 2023 reading challenge

Reading challenge

This month I decided to focus on articles that used an original way to write their worldbuilding articles beyond a classic encyclopedic style, as it's really my favourite to read and to write. In addition, I've also added at the end a series of articles with concepts or presentation that really stood out to me :D
Note:Those are all articles I mostly read during the first half of SC. I also read a lot during the first half of August but I did that on my phone and wasn't able to save links and so I can't share all the awesome articles I saw at that time :(
Author mentioned: Hanhula, EmilyArmstrong, Mochimanoban, Nnie, Alishar/Elizabread, Drunkenpanda951, Rynn19, Emperordrako, Rumengol, Nimsy, Dreamcartographer, Qurilion, Stormbril, Vazdimet/Morgan, Revyera, Catoblepon, Thedumbowl, Emy/serukis, Illumiinae, Ademal, Naelin, JacobW, Melissaplaysrpgs, Koragath, Autumnkitsune, Sh4d0wph03n1x, Ecl1psed, Kitopoy.

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Conflicts

Hanhula's conflict was a long bit of storytellling showing the different steps of a conclift between reporters and a bunch of sentient pages inhabiting a magical library. This was incredibly fun to read, and I loved the strategy used and the backstabbing and everything, and how in the end this is all very silly XD

Another fun article is a conflict between ketchup and mustard in EmilyArmstrong's Culinarypunk (ketshup is obviously the best :p). Not only is this world and article full of humour and terrible pun, but Emily also always has an amazing formatting that makes everything clear and visually appealing. I also love how the articles explains everything about the side, the timeline and the events while still managing to stay succinct.

I love how Mochimanoban's write the A to Zoo entirely from a zookeeper's POV and how everything is framed as being official communication from the zoo or zookeepers' statements. For their conflict, they wrote about terrible customers, which is a very fun twist XD

And finally a more serious conflict! I love nnie's space opera world, and this article show a fundamental event that created the world as we know it: the betrayal of the sun and how its angel-turned scourched attacked and lay waste to Mercury.
While nnie write all of her articles from an in-world perspective, she also always play with formatting and container to make them more visually appealing and nice and easy to go through, and she's been a great inspiration from the write and format my articles in my Dark Lord Seducation Plan world. Her article about the alliance of nation was also great on that aspect, with little snippets, anecdotes, storytelling, character presentation, charts, small containers...

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Species

From Alishar/Elizabread, a super fun article written from an in-world POV about terrible frog. This is a kind of flyer informing people about how terrible those frogs are and how they should all be squished XD This is exactly the kind of POV and format that I love using and they can make any subject interesting and fun when done well like here :D

Rumengol's deep sea Oblogga world is one of my favourite on WA, I always love how they're written from the POV of his marine creatures and how peculiar this makes everything. Here this article talk about a terrible and supposedly extinct parasitic species...

Great article from Hanhula's about terrible deep sea creatures. I always love any concept around Eldritch Horror that you better not mention or even think about xD Hanhula also made a great use of css and formating to make their image creepily appears in the article, and I also always like the little quotes she uses. Another article of her that I love made great use of quotes to show how sentient bread terrorised a country XD

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Characters

Nimsy's world was new to me before SC, but this was one of my great discovery this month! I practicularly love a series or articles about a terrible parasithic species that hunt people and hide among them, with the presentation of the species, a myth about them, and an individual of the species. The character was my favourite for the way the article is written as an investigation. I always love to see a mystery slowly get unveiled and to be able to speculate as I read along. This also ended on a perfect ominous note.

As a scientist I'm always a big fan of evil scientists XD This article by Dreamcartographer was perfect in that regard and extremely fun. It's also an investigation, this time into the secret evil experiment made by someone. It was a lot of fun to read and also ended on a perfect note :D

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Specific authors

Qurillion

Qurilion is always great at writing from an in-world persepctive with a lot of humor and satire, while sliding in a lot of worldbuilding details along the way. I'm always having fun while reading his article, if I'm not outright laughing.

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One of my favourite Q's article from SC with an original presntation was an amazing festival about capitalised version of faith and a ton of in-world posters advertising events taking place during it :D Those posters are really funny and a great way to present different aspects of the events and world.

I also loved:

• My actual favourite article from Q's this month, a terribly oppressed ethnicity, interns!


• The presentation of the company organising the festival, a terrible megacorp that hopes to sell you the perfect faith, an article written with an in-world POV and with a deliciously ironic tone.


• A fun document with a trillionnaire's letter to santa claus and the military operation done to deliver.


• A super funny song extauling the virtue of the perfect employee.


• An unsual material: time! I love how Q presents it from the mgeacorp's POV.

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Stormbril

Storbril has a fantastic world, and this SC he presented a lot of his articles by using in world-prose which really gave it another dimension! I love how we uncover more and more of Cathedris' secrets with each articles, get attached to the character and start to have speculations about what's secretely going on. I'm really invested in how everything is going to turn out - especially as one of the evil scientist responsible for the plot has been named after me XD
And of course, Stormbril always does an amazing job at illustrating and formating his articles and using css to best highlight the concepts and stories he's writing!

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My favourite this month was the article presenting Dr Anabelle Evingston, the mastermind behind most of the evils taking place in Cathedris, and all the stories showing different aspect of her life. Stormbril also has 2 other stories showing how Anabelle got her hands on a dangerous artefact and the consequences for the people around her.
I really love how he's managed to show the evolution of Anabelle's mindset and how it all makes sense from her POV and that she doesn't consider herself evil - as much as evil characters without moral are fun, I also love to see how some can twist everything to justify their actions to themselves.

I also loved:

• The research program of the evil organisation and the story of how their terrible experiments came to light.


• The takeover of a political entity, written in the form of miiltary report/communication.


• A worm injected in the eyes with a needle to enhance short-distance vision. I love this concept so much! and it even have little story showing someone getting the surgery, and you end up almost convince you should do too XD


• The lab where all evil experiments are taking place.

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Other articles I noticed because they had cool ideas

Material

• I love how Morgan/Vazdimet has conceived and presented a material in a way that reflects her engineering background and how it influences the rest of her world.


• During SC I discovered another world of Revyera, and I really like how this world functions (it's a pre-, during-, and post-apocalyptical world) and the concept of lords, evil entity that represents concepts and gain power from them. I liked reading more about these concepts and about specifc lords like the Lord of Glamor.

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Settlement

A few cities that stood out to me!

• I like how Catoblepon presented this city.
• A fun interpresentation of the expression "seat of power" from thedumbowl XD
• Also from Thedumbowl, another fun story aboutan evil dark lord's model village
• From Mochimanoban, I loved reading about his intelligent slimes species during SC and how they are oppressed :( Here is a presnetation of one of their city.
• A very sad story from Emy (Serukis) about what happened to a group of astronauts in a space after history and the world's technological level were reset :(

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Tradition

• Not a SC article, but a very cool article from Illumiinae about a game (chess here) into mini duels and ways to show off mages' skills. I've done something like that before and love the concept so I was very happy to see someone else give us their interpretation of it :D


• Also not a SC articles, but I love how Ademal from Ethnis presents different calendars by contrasting what event they're using as year 0. This immediately conveys a lot about their society and also makes simple calendar presentation more interesting.

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Natural law

• A fun article from Naelin about how a cleaning lady is perceived in a world of toys. I always love how this world can present normal things through a specific persepctive (here toys) and how this unusual perspective can make everyday things stand out.


• I always love Jacob's world and how he intertwines real facts about boats & pirates, with stories about his pirates. Here, I was fascinated by the explanation about maelstrom and the story snippets of his pirates encounter with one.


• Another article by Ademal that made a great use of changing images to illustrate the nightmare it's talking about and make everything super creepy

Languages

A few silent languages with different mechanisms that made me think or are similar to concept I'm using in my novels:

• Melissaplaysrpgs' sign language used expressesly for communication through magical mirror! I love this concept and how mirror don't convey sound. I haven't thought about it before, but it's logical that means of communication would first only convey image or sound before evolving to do both at the same time, and I like that contrary to us with the radio for example, in this world they got image first.


• Koragath's symbols to identify houses are something I'm using a lot in my novels, and I loved to see another interpretation of it. I was especially intersting to see how this is not a normal coat of arms but that little details about the placement of specifc elements likes little stars can be interpreted to mean different things and tha tthis makes it more interesting than just playing with a simple symbol and its colour.


• An article by Autumnkitsune about the usual classic flower language but with a twist, with a lot of details about how even the types of ribbons have specific signification and how the entire bouquet can communicate several sentences. A great way to make it original and fun :D

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Ethnicity

• I like a group of dwarves that Sh4d0wph03n1x wrote in her articles several times during SC and their special link with dragons' magic and how they've been affected by the fall of dragon.



• Another group of dwarves that stood out to me was from Ecl1psed. I perticularly like their naming tradition and how the parents use part of their children's name to reflect what they think should be their aspiration's in life.

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Document

An article by kitopoy showing the relationship between someone and their friend who is now possessed by a god and how they are trying to free them. I like their relationship and that in the meantime, the only way to join them is to pray to them XD I also always love how kit uses little quotes to show different chararcter's sometimes diverging opinions about what's going on.

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Condition

Also from Illumiinae, a condition that lets some peple see magic in the form of threads inside over people. I always love when some people are able to see or sense magic and this appears to them, and I really like how this works here, with what people can see and what this allows them to deduce :D

Species

• Sentient quills from Drunkenpanda951! I love how they work like terrible printers XD


• Stinky fish by Morgan/Vadizmet - the fish have a very interesting hunting tactic, and I love how this has impacted people's culture, and all those dares to get closer to the streams despite the risks XD


• A fun and cute concept, supply cats by Rynn19!


• A very cute ball-shaped but very vengenful animal by Emperordrako, with nice prose snippet to show a traveller's experience with them.

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My section

My own Summer camp

My own summer camp articles are listed here.
My favourite have been: terrible devastating runaway ritual magic and the children song made about it, an ad about the wonderful old neighborhood of Esteille (the capital), the Dark Lord's evil lair, a symbolic animal to represent the Dark Lord (terror bird) and the ridiculous chicken the Dark mages choose to represent the Light Lords as a revenge, a gossip rag presentation of Miss Royenne, an ad about the fantastic semaphore network.

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Future plans

September/October

3 things in priority order.

Prepare for Nanowrimo by finish the background wroldbuilding and plot planning for Dark Lord Seduction Plan.

Stop procrastinating and finish cutting word in my Courtship novel so ythat I can finally do the next round of agent querying.

Plan for WE (see below).

November

Write the first draft of Dark Lord Sedution Plan.
This time I should not focus on writing the full 120k words novel in one month but try to slow down, reread my plot notes every day before writing, and try to get a better first draft that will requires less editing since I always procrastinate so much on that.

December

Depending on how tired I am after Nano

Easy mode: I'll go back to some of my previous words and try to finish the last articles I need to do there.

Hard mode: go to my Challenges of Magical University Life world and write short stories with small extra worldbuilding sectionsc- but I will also need to find the time to plan that beforehand.