SummerCamp 2022 Pledge

I've gotten on top of setting goals for myself lately, and I just hope I can carry that with me through this year's SummerCamp. A successful run this year is a goal within a goal, within a goal!

— Me, setting even more goals as we speak

Is it really SummerCamp season already? That means it's time to kick things into gear! Before all that, though, let's reflect on last year's SummerCamp. I did a ton of prepwork last year, and went into the event brimming with hype! I had some wonderful goals, and I was so certain I'd be able to pull another flawless Diamond event.
But! I'm sure I'm not alone when I say "life had other plans" last year, and I found it very difficult to work through the prompts in time. I even skipped all of WorldEmber 2021, and I've not done that once in the years I've been on WorldAnvil! But I'll give myself credit and cheer myself on for still managing Silver, despite my circumstances. Go me!
That said, I'd like to take the goals I had set for myself last year, and adapt them to this year, hopefully now paired with some more stability, which might just let me pull through to that delightful Diamond badge!

Pinning My Goals & Motivation

Community Involvement

I adore participating in SummerCamp for all the opportunities it gives me to connect with other worldbuilders in different stages of their writing journeys. Sharing my work with others, hearing their thoughts, and knowing there are people out there who want to read about my world is so delightful!

I always struggled to meet new people, but I've been making moves here and there to remedy that. Last year I joined a chapter, Seven Tomes, and this year I'm attending my first SummerCamp meetup! New friends and new inspirations are huge motivators for me to keep writing.

The Creative Process

Life is just so much better when I can make the time to create something new. Even if that something new is just me writing down years-old thoughts and publishing them as a brand-new article.
Seeing my passions slowly building up over time in the form of articles and artwork makes me so eager to make more and more to fully flesh out this world I'm creating.

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Creative Goals

My current goal, which I plan to take with me into WorldEmber, is to close the gaps in my content where possible.
I don't aim to render these gaps watertight, but bridge them enough to allow the flow of my world to not be cut off by missing information and floating articles lost to the aether!
I hope to identify the biggest missing pieces, and fill in those gaps first, and let the small things follow.

Challenge Goals

My hard-set goal for this year is Gold, but of course I will be shooting for Diamond!
I'd be thrilled to complete every prompt this year. It all depends on how busy life gets for me, and if my freelance work picks up again!
I hope to take this challenge seriously and work hard to the finish, while giving myself plenty of room to enjoy the process and have fun writing.
No burnout for me, if I can help it!

Life's full of magic when you have goals within goals within goals!

My Pledge

I pledge to make the most of this SummerCamp, and to give it my all! I will strive to create and bring my vision of Malkora to life piece by piece, without shaming myself if I fall behind. I pledge to always remember that any progress is a victory in a busy life!

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Last Year!

Iskani Concepts by Polina Arteev (strixxline)

A very special shoutout to the Iskani who inspired me through my adventures in SummerCamp 2021 | Elemental Malkora!

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2022 Themes and Ideas

Looking at these themes, I feel pretty energized! I could see all of these themes fitting beautifully with the goals I set for myself with this SummerCamp / year going forward.

Copper Theme: Expanse

Expanse is a beautiful start for this year's SummerCamp, as I interpret my world to be this massive expanse of unexplored concepts and ideas, places and things. When I think of Expanse, my first thought is of the regions of my world I wrote about during last year's SummerCamp: Everbright and its neighbor, Bolkan. While the former got its own article last year, the latter never saw its own, though the Bolkhyn people residing within, along with several other smaller details did get articles and mentions.

Silver Theme: Leadership

This theme I fear I may struggle with the most, purely on the basis that I already have so many leaders written for my world, and not enough of their organizations fleshed out to match or expand upon them. With that said, I think my goal with Leadership will be to find the missing links in my world which can allow for relevant leaders to pop up, and use their presence to further inform the state of the world around them.

Gold Theme: Exploration

Exploration will be the theme, I feel, that will really help me run with my overarching goal of the year. There is so much of my world unexplored, and filling those gaps will be a major part of my process. There are new lands which I have not yet conceptualized and written, and there are so many possibilities to be found within each one. I hope to expand my understanding of the continent on which The Hearthwood, Terramarre, and Uris Braena sit, to further inform how these existing regions and nations interact with those surrounding them.

Diamond Theme: Monstrous

It may not show quite yet, but I see my world as being one with potential to be a very dark setting, if given the opportunity. If I were to stage stories or games in this setting, I would want the option to go grimdark if the mood strikes, and have content which may back that up. When I think Monstrous, in the context of my world, I think of the Deadmurk pantheon of "gods," which represent the very worst that the human heart could have to offer. I touched on this theme throughout the years, in Pokorid, the Taskmaster and one of the cults which follow him. Most will go their entire lives without being touched by these entities' influence, but those who do are never the same again.

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Points of Inspiration

I'm not typically one to find inspiration in assembling playlists and image galleries, but I take tons of inspiration from other artists and writers, and from the games I play!

The Art Book Hoard

We all have our collections as nerds, and mine happens to be artbooks. Filled to the brim with images, descriptions, and all manner of great reference and information, I simply adore looking through them. They give a lot of great examples for the types of information people may want to read about in different worlds, and the depth of description I should aim for.
My collection of art books has and will continue to be sources of inspiration for me, especially as I gear up to make (another) one of my own! That's a spoiler for a future project...

Beloved Games

As my main goal is to develop more of the regions and lands within my world, I find myself looking to some of my favorite games for inspiration. Seeing how they lay out their maps, how they design their regions, and how they deal with the balance between fantasy and realism are all very helpful for me in my own process.
I often think to the world of Azeroth for how I'd like to create my regions. Each new zone has its own little fantasy, its own themes and stories, and varying amounts of magic and deeper lore.

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Keeping Myself Accountable

Making Time

With a full-time job and various freelance projects, I know I won't have all the time in the world to work on writing in big chunks, so I know I'll have to break things down into smaller, more manageable bits. I'd like to dedicate at least a few hours during each week for some writing sessions. I might work on a few sprints after work, maybe even take some time during my lunch breaks to brainstorm ideas for prompts as they're released.

Finding Support

This year, I hope to be a more active member of my chapter, and maybe make some more friends in the WA community! I'm very eager to share my work. I'm hoping that some great feedback might come of it, that can really push me to make content that I'm proud of once it's all polished up.

Tracking My Progress

I'll be keeping track of my articles for this year's event over on this page: SummerCamp 2022 | Bridging the Gap!