The Reading Challenge of 2023

Worldbuilding Summer Camp

So, let me tell you a little story. At the end of June I had been using World Anvil for a little while to collect my thoughts and ideas into a cohesive world. I have always had ideas and always loved the idea of a connected universe of stories and characters but never found a good way of writing it down. Then comes along World Anvil which I think is a really useful tool to get inspiration and get your thoughts out into the world. it helps organise ideas and even expand current creations further by asking constant questions. I really like World Anvil.
But in June I had found myself with a lot of draft and place holder articles with little or no information inside them at all. That is until the Summer Camp challenge popped up. And I thought, you know what, let's give it a go. For two reasons mainly, one being that I like achievements and the idea of a badge or medal gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. And two, this seemed like a really good way of expanding my ideas and actually pushing myself to write some information inside the articles and publish them. So, I set myself the challenge of trying to submit 8 articles and get at least the bronze badge.
About two weeks in and I smash this goal, so I try for the next badge and I manage to get this as well. Then I stopped cause full time work and real life got in the way. Plus coming up with ideas for each of the prompts stumped me a little bit. Particularly prompts to do with organizations and civilizations cause I have no really thought too hard about that within my world setting. Instead I leaned towards the monsters, animals and plantlife in the lands and getting to write some descriptions (and attempt to draw some) was a fun experience. I enjoyed the process of trying to think and expand on what I already established in the world.
Overall I think the challenge went really well, I managed to get 16 articles completed and submitted and seeing people actually like and comment on the articles as well was really awesome. That gave me a really good dose of 'aww people actually like this stuff' kind of confidence which is nice. What I think the challenge did well was try and make me think outside the box more than I normally do and give way more detail than I have done in the past. Helps to make the world of Violem come alive in my own head. Plus it has given me motivation to do more challenges in the future. Speaking of which...

The Reading Challenge

Well, August is here and I have attempted yet another challenge. Good job I like reading cause this is all about words and stuff. Anyway, I like the challenge a lot. Definetely gives me a break from thinking about my world to see how everyone in the community thinks and expands their own worlds or universes or realms. Like seriously there is some crazy good ideas out there. And I don't usually go out my way to read other people's work so this challenge was a good excuse to do so.
I'm glad I did cause I got to see what other people were doing and how they approached different prompts. So I picked my prompts and read some articles, links in the side column (hopefully if I remember). Now I chose the 3 prompts for a good reason. Two I struggled coming up ideas for and the other that I submitted in to see how others went about it. And I have to say, they were some good reads. I loved the ones that went outside of the box or strayed from the more common themes (The Miner's Sucession). But the ones with a ton of detail just really blew my mind like Barriesaxxy making up their own language! Whaaa?!! Awesome stuff. Definetely has some inspiration about how to add other people's ideas and meld them into my world. Makes me want to hop on the computer and write all day. Sadly real life exists and I need to things like shop for food and work 5 days a week (*sad noises). But that won't stop me, just slow me down.

The Future

Ah yes, the future of Violem. Goals and achievements to, well achieve by the end of 2023. Looking back at these summer camp challenges I feel like a few things have popped up that need improving.
The first is lack of characters and intelligent people in the world, yes there is a map and monsters and trees and what not. But not many people, with history and relationships and adventures. So I would like to improve that.
The second is that, I simply don't add enough detail to articles that I currently have which I want to include more of. Not just for my own sake but for people coming to the page of Violem and exploring the world, the articles. Giving them something for readers to be interested in reading.
And finally, pictures. Words are great but articles with at least some visual element helping them just seem more appealing to me. I am a simple creature with four eyes, it is what it is. And seeing as I do a lot of drawing in my spare time it just makes sense. So more photos and pictures would go nicely to compliment the world I make.
So let's get these pointers into 3 definable goals.
1. Add 1 character to the world of Violem each month until 2024 (5 if you include August) and give them looks, history and details about how they fit into the world.
2. Each week (17 from 04/09/23), look through current articles and add more details to at least 1 of them. Using similar rules like the summer camp of 300 words minimum.
3. Add 1 image to the world of Violem every week until 2024 (17 in total) to add visual elements to the world.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this article, I hope it was as fun to read as it was to write. And shout out to all the articles I read for the challenge you people are awesome and I genuinely enjoyed reading them all, good job you creative eggs :)

A DESTRUCTIVE NATURAL OR SUPERNATURAL EVENT
The Red Mists - Barron
Snow Mist - Nutmeg95
Magical Decay - Amarukrosis

A CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO UNEQUAL POWERS IN YOUR WORLD
Those2Nerds - Battle for Talmar
Kospades - Wolfsbane’s Drowning Under a Tide of Green
The Miner’s Secession War - Locklear

A CHILDREN'S TALE OR SONG BASED ON A REAL EVENT
The Devil’s hand Myth - Ayra926
Irvin the Miner - Auzin92
Oath of the Forest - Barriesaxxy