2023 Summer Camp - Reading Challenge
This article is part of the Summer Camp Reading Challenge. The goal is to read articles submitted to July's worldbuilding challenge, leave some friendly comments, and write about what we can learn from our fellow worldbuilders to improve our own articles. I'll be updating this as I read through more articles over the course of the month.
An Unequal Conflict
A conflict between two unqual powers in your world (military conflict)
This article caught my eye for how organized its layout was. Chase did a great job at breaking down the facts surrounding the conflict in a simple, accessible way. Without knowing more about the world, I understood why this conflict was happening and why it mattered.
Immediately, the Belligerents in the sidebar shows how one-sided this conflict was. Travakh's prose invited me into the world, showed the devestating aftermath and gave a glimpse of modern opinions of the conflict. More than that, it made me interested in continuing to read.
Okay, I'm cheating a little - I follow a different Rumengol world. But similar to the other two articles, I was immediately drawn to the layout and prose. The quotes and alouds break up the text, making it nicer on the eyes. This conflict reads like a myth, making it a quick favorite for me.
Lessons Learned
A lot of the gorgeous conflict articles I've seen feature heraldry and military strategy, but I feel very overwhelmed when considering to attempt that myself. Seeing these articles makes me feel more confident in alternative ways of using the template.| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Clearly and succinctly explain the relevance of the conflict. | Use Belligerents to show how the sides differ in strength. | Drive interest and provide cultural context with prose. |
A Manipulative Person
A character who excels in manipulating others (person)
Another pretty article, but that's not all it is. A summary leaves you interested in reading more, and Wendy Vlemings (Rynn19) did great with presenting the vital pieces of information under enticing headings. The links in the sidebar show how Anu relates to the rest of the world and what her role is.
Not sure how I've made it this long without following Malkora. The info Polina "Line" Arteev included on the outskirts of this article really sells it for me. The quote shows how the average person views this character, while the box at the end shows Suna's true nature behind the scenes, and the sidebar ties it together with how she does both.
Between the quote at the top and the choice of headings, Rachel Bentz really sells the kind of person this character is. Even the philanthropic endeavors serve this greater theme. The archetype comes through so clear, I finished the article certain I could hear Quincy making his pitch.
Lessons Learned
I love characters, but have struggled conveying their personalities along with life histories in character articles. I've been on the lookout for ideas on how to improve, and this was the perfect way to find several. And with only a bajillion more character articles to write, I'll have plenty of practice!| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Use headings to express personality and pique interest. | Include anecdotes or quotes to show who the character is. | Focus on the key character traits that form the character. |
A Historical Culture
A historical culture whose influence is still felt today (ethnicity)
The added context Joshua Stewart put into the sidebar gave me a lightbulb moment for improving my own ethnicity articles. Summarizing who the Founders were in the sidebar gave me the context for why I should care about the Founder's Culture. The extra blurb about breaking their Agreement grounds the culture further in the world.
I love the way hughpierre uses article blocks here. The article itself keeps each paragraph short and to-the-point, aiding reading, while being high-level enough for newcomers to the world. For topics with a lot more information, there are article blocks nearby to let you dig in deeper.
I always enjoy reading Amélie I. S. Debruyne's articles, and this was no exception. As always, the colors and boxes of key info drew me in, but the personality in the article particularly appealed to me. It tells a story of Light Society's origins through the lense of someone outside that near-ubiquitous group. This makes it much more interesting than just a list of facts, and much more enlightening.
Lessons Learned
While I'm fairly happy with the article I wrote for this prompt, it took days of slow progress to figure out how to get there. For this challenge, I wanted to find articles that had a lot to say about a culture, so I could learn from how they presented the information. I already had ideas on how to improve, and now I have even more to work toward after the 26th.| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Use supporting articles for topics with a lot of information. | Summarize pivotal info in the sidebar to aid new readers. | Create a cultural narrative and use facts to support it. |
Prompt Selection
These prompts are for templates I'd most like to get better at. While I love characters and cultures, I'm still learning way to convey such big ideas in few, engaging, and informative words. And military anything is beyond my usual realm of knowledge.World Selection
For each prompt, I've selected one article from a world I follow and one from a world I don't. I have a preference for newer, smaller, or lesser-known worlds - I want to learn from my peers, the people who, like me, are just starting their WA journey.More?
Because three articles from three prompts isn't enough, here are some others that stood out to me.Seabirth
Tradition / Ritual
| May 18, 2024
A ritual by which one can become their heart's true self.
Some really great features there, and such a nice idea to go out look for articles about topics outside one's own zone of comfort. :) Also want to give you kudos for the format - the separation between the article feedback and the reflection of each category as a whole and the ideas for improvements they gave you under 'lesson's learned' was a really good touch. And finally, thanks so much for the bonus feature! The last 8 articles (including Kyr's Hand) were all a lot more rushed, significantly shorter, and a few also in templates I'm unused to... but, it was quite a personal revelation to find that I ended up overall satisfied and happy with how they came out anyway. I'm curious though, as your article doesn't mention it: Got any goals and plans for the rest of the year?
Kyr's Hand stood out to me because it was a departure from your norm, and still turned out great :D I've a few more of yours left to read, so I arguably chose a favorite prematurely... I forgot to link it here, but I talk a little bit about future plans in my review article. Mostly: keep chugging through my excessive to-write list, but hopefully with better-quality articles. I have some non-ttrpg stuff upcoming, which I'm excited for, plus ongoing improvements in art/CSS. My personal life is going to get real busy from November through April, so I'm not setting any major writing goals for now. Glad you liked the format here! I'd love to have a "top three tips" kind of thing for every article type, but I've a long way to go before I could write something like that. Maybe someday!
Speculative-Fiction Writing
Admittedly a little embarrassed I read the review article, and forgot I had when asking here. ':) And I'm sure you'll get there, you've come some many miles already and it's so impressive! Good luck with the goals you got there and looking forward to keep reading more of your work.