2024 SC Reading Challenge
My Goals for the rest of 2024
- Add important points from Summer Camp articles to the Nideon History chronicle and do a bit of general housekeeping in Nideon
- Finish writing Natural Magic (and if possible, pull the podcast off hiatus)
- Create an art world. This idea began because I wanted a better way to track my quilts, especially as more and more of them are related to my world (and now others'!). But I've also been talking with people this summer about possible lore behind my quilt maps, so I might work on that some too. I'll probably start with the article I never finished about MezzoPatricia's quilt from last year (I finished the quilt! I just never updated the article where I was tracking it!) and one for the quilt I will make the winner of the military formation prompt this year.
- Do a mini-overhaul of The Overlap. I want to finish re-writing the 12 major magic systems (which I started in June), sketch out a basic map, if only for myself, so I can place things geographically, and nail down a rough timeline, so I can place them temporily. I also want to tweak the genre a bit to give it a different feel from Nideon. The point of the worlds outside of Nideon has always been to stretch myself and play with things I don't normally play with. The Overlap was originally supposed to have a western/frontier feel to it, which has gotten a bit lost and murky, so I want to see if I can bring that back out.
- I am considering attempting a new RPG classroom this year, Around the World in 80 Days themed, but since school's already started, and there's a million other changes already underway, I may put a pin in it for now. Regardless, I might use WA to track that.
- And then it's cleaning up old articles, finishing out stubs, and maybe adding some additional articles to flesh out elements from my book.
Eye-Catching Articles from Summer Camp
This is WreckerDwarf's first Summer Camp, and it's been a lot of fun watching their articles roll in. This is one of my favorites, probably because I love languages. But it also shows how much worldbuilding can be included in a small article, as the meaning of the runes reveal a lot about dwarven culture (for example, they have separate runes for "hard stone" and "soft stone.") I also like the examples of combining runes to create new meanings.
Demongrey does a great job of striking the balance between writing an article as it might appear for a native of their world and providing enough information for someone who has been isekaied into their world for a brief period. I also love how they pepper their articles with in-world terms and language, which provides an immersive feel. I used to do this more, and reading their articles this summer I was reminded why. I wanted to highlight this article in particular because the myth is written in such a way that even for the reader, it's unclear how true it is, which is how many such myths function in the real world. I'd like to write more myths like this in the future.
I'm really impressed with Orthais's use of their sidebar. The sidebar always includes a brief summary so a reader can quickly reference the most important information in the article. Then they usually include a related story that adds a little mystery to the article as a whole (in this case, it's a possible bit of space debris with more people living on it). For somone creating a story in this setting, this means every article comes with a built-in plot hook. Nideon and The Overlap are robust enough that I don't expect to start utilizing this format in these worlds, but I definitely want to attempt one or both in a future world.
Koragath also does great formatting work. Even when there are no pictures aside from the header, they break up the article with alouds and columns to make things easy on the eye. I know Koragrath has mentioned they are particularly proud of this article, and I can see why. It is a powerful story that is well balanced between narrative and encylopedic entry. (I believe Koragath's article were the first time I really noticed the use of the drop cap. I know lots of people use it, but reading one of the their articles was the first time I saw it and thought "hey, maybe I should play around with that sometime.")
What I admire about Mochi is the way they play to their strengths. Everyone associates Mochi with species because not only do they come up with fantastic species on the regular, but they often find ways to incorporate them into non-species prompts (see: Platonic Storm, and Too Cuddly to Kill). But I especially like their species articles because they have an amazing way of including biology jargon in a way that is sensible to the layperson. Their use of taxonomy charts and terminology also makes the world feel more real. Unlike Mochi, I'm not highly knowledgable about biology, but reading their articles this summer did make me realize I should consider what I am an expert in, and how I can weave that expertise into my world to make it more alive.
I've been following this world for a little while now, and what I love about AsterVela's work is the way they weave stories through their articles. I actually did this with my article on the Joyal this summer, and it's something I would like to play around with more.
Age of Grey is one of the first worlds I ever started following on WA. I love the magic system Revyera has created using colors, and don't think I've seen anything like it before. Like AsterVela, they will weave stories through their articles, or in this case, weave articles through their stories. This year for summer camp, Revyera released several stories that were formed by linking together the responses to the various prompts. They've been a pleasure to read, and this is another form of writing I'd like to try my own hand at.
I really enjoyed reading this article by Kefkejaco because of the beauty of the place they had created. I like how this expanded the article to being more than just a response to the prompt and spoke to their world at large.
This is one of the articles that got longlisted for my 2024 SC Formation Finalists. I also include it here because Shalyn did something I don't think I've seen before: they made the header image a relevant quote from the article. I thought it was really neat and it's something I'd like to play with in the future.
One of the other longlisted articles, I remember being surprised when CSor96's article was over. Another example of good balance between prose and encyclopedic entry, their writing kept me captivated until the end. But the article is not particularly long, and since I tend to be rather verbose, I aspire to write more articles in this fashion... if I can only figure out how.
Bonus!
This article was not written during Summer Camp, but I did read it during Summer Camp (as I said in my Summer Camp 2024 wrapup, July is kind of my month). But I really love the detail World Smithy included, and think this article is a good example of the reason both for including quirks when writing a character and for including some unanswered questions when writing an article. I found it highly compelling, and feel like I learned about my own writing while reading it.
This is WreckerDwarf's first Summer Camp, and it's been a lot of fun watching their articles roll in. This is one of my favorites, probably because I love languages. But it also shows how much worldbuilding can be included in a small article, as the meaning of the runes reveal a lot about dwarven culture (for example, they have separate runes for "hard stone" and "soft stone.") I also like the examples of combining runes to create new meanings.
Demongrey does a great job of striking the balance between writing an article as it might appear for a native of their world and providing enough information for someone who has been isekaied into their world for a brief period. I also love how they pepper their articles with in-world terms and language, which provides an immersive feel. I used to do this more, and reading their articles this summer I was reminded why. I wanted to highlight this article in particular because the myth is written in such a way that even for the reader, it's unclear how true it is, which is how many such myths function in the real world. I'd like to write more myths like this in the future.
I'm really impressed with Orthais's use of their sidebar. The sidebar always includes a brief summary so a reader can quickly reference the most important information in the article. Then they usually include a related story that adds a little mystery to the article as a whole (in this case, it's a possible bit of space debris with more people living on it). For somone creating a story in this setting, this means every article comes with a built-in plot hook. Nideon and The Overlap are robust enough that I don't expect to start utilizing this format in these worlds, but I definitely want to attempt one or both in a future world.
Koragath also does great formatting work. Even when there are no pictures aside from the header, they break up the article with alouds and columns to make things easy on the eye. I know Koragrath has mentioned they are particularly proud of this article, and I can see why. It is a powerful story that is well balanced between narrative and encylopedic entry. (I believe Koragath's article were the first time I really noticed the use of the drop cap. I know lots of people use it, but reading one of the their articles was the first time I saw it and thought "hey, maybe I should play around with that sometime.")
What I admire about Mochi is the way they play to their strengths. Everyone associates Mochi with species because not only do they come up with fantastic species on the regular, but they often find ways to incorporate them into non-species prompts (see: Platonic Storm, and Too Cuddly to Kill). But I especially like their species articles because they have an amazing way of including biology jargon in a way that is sensible to the layperson. Their use of taxonomy charts and terminology also makes the world feel more real. Unlike Mochi, I'm not highly knowledgable about biology, but reading their articles this summer did make me realize I should consider what I am an expert in, and how I can weave that expertise into my world to make it more alive.
I've been following this world for a little while now, and what I love about AsterVela's work is the way they weave stories through their articles. I actually did this with my article on the Joyal this summer, and it's something I would like to play around with more.
Age of Grey is one of the first worlds I ever started following on WA. I love the magic system Revyera has created using colors, and don't think I've seen anything like it before. Like AsterVela, they will weave stories through their articles, or in this case, weave articles through their stories. This year for summer camp, Revyera released several stories that were formed by linking together the responses to the various prompts. They've been a pleasure to read, and this is another form of writing I'd like to try my own hand at.
I really enjoyed reading this article by Kefkejaco because of the beauty of the place they had created. I like how this expanded the article to being more than just a response to the prompt and spoke to their world at large.
This is one of the articles that got longlisted for my 2024 SC Formation Finalists. I also include it here because Shalyn did something I don't think I've seen before: they made the header image a relevant quote from the article. I thought it was really neat and it's something I'd like to play with in the future.
One of the other longlisted articles, I remember being surprised when CSor96's article was over. Another example of good balance between prose and encyclopedic entry, their writing kept me captivated until the end. But the article is not particularly long, and since I tend to be rather verbose, I aspire to write more articles in this fashion... if I can only figure out how.
Bonus!
This article was not written during Summer Camp, but I did read it during Summer Camp (as I said in my Summer Camp 2024 wrapup, July is kind of my month). But I really love the detail World Smithy included, and think this article is a good example of the reason both for including quirks when writing a character and for including some unanswered questions when writing an article. I found it highly compelling, and feel like I learned about my own writing while reading it.
This article was not written during Summer Camp, but I did read it during Summer Camp (as I said in my Summer Camp 2024 wrapup, July is kind of my month). But I really love the detail World Smithy included, and think this article is a good example of the reason both for including quirks when writing a character and for including some unanswered questions when writing an article. I found it highly compelling, and feel like I learned about my own writing while reading it.
Thanks for including Selkie Skin Trade in your collection! I am glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for writing it! I found it really inspiring!