Planning for Success in Summer Camp!

Posted by Janet Forbes | Jun 23, 2022 | Events | 98

It’s week 4 of the Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2022 homework club, and we’re talking about the logistics of success! To recap:

In week 1, we set our goals for Summer Camp 2022
In week 2, we decided how the themes would help us achieve those goals
In week 3, we talked about inspiration, playlists, and mini-metas!
This week, we’re talking about planning to achieve our goals!

Preparing yourself to write towards your goals

It’s the last week before Summer Camp begins, so it’s time to get your last-minute prep done! Think about when and where you’ll write, and make sure these times and spaces are ready for your creativity:

If your life schedule allows, set regular writing times and set them up in your calendar so you don’t miss them. If you don’t have time for regular time sprints, think ahead and plan your writing sessions.
Will you write at your desk? On the couch? Make sure your writing space is neat and tidy to avoid getting distracted!
Organize your world. Is your world meta complete? Do you need to improve the category tree of the world? A well-organized world will help you easily reference your worldbuilding while writing!
If you need a special coffee or tea when you write, now’s the time to bulk buy it! If you always write with a playlist (and you didn’t make it last week) make sure it’s ready and downloaded on your phone.

How Writing Communities help you succeed!

Writer’s Block and Impostor Syndrome are realities we all deal with—which is why finding a writing community for your current project is so important! Fortunately for you, for Summer Camp our amazing community comes together to support each other and share tips and inspiration!

During the entire month, we’ll go live on Sundays on our Twitch channel with a virtual write-in, where you’ll be able to get inspiration with the rest of the community and take part in live writing sprints! You can join the stream every Sunday at 7pm UK time/11am Pacific time.

We also have a writing sprints channel on our Discord server, so you can organize and join writing sprints all day long! Simply join our Discord server, make sure your Discord and World Anvil accounts are synced (you can do that from your account settings on World Anvil), and you’ll see a #word-sprints channel under the Ongoing Events category!

Summer Camp 2022 Homework Assignment 4

At this point, if you’ve been following along with the homework, you should have

Now, it’s time to plan for success!

Make a date with yourself: whether it’s a regular daily slot, or you’re carving out a couple of writing sessions a week, make a date with yourself to sit down and complete the prompts. You’re more likely to succeed if you plan that if you leave it to chance! Make a note of these sessions in your diary and your Summer Camp pledge.
Support: Summer Camp is a marathon and you’ll need support, people to chat with for inspiration, and even just other worldbuilders to cheerlead you on! Whether it’s the Facebook Group, the summercamp-2022 channel on the Discord or the Reddit, get some accountability by sharing your project and meeting some like-minded Summer Campers! Add your chosen community to your Summer Camp pledge, then go and share your Summer Camp goals there for accountability!
Submit your Summer Camp pledge article in the comments of this blog one final time to submit your homework!

Are you part of the Homework Club?

Looking for time to get it all done? Come join the Homework Club! The Homework Club livestreams happen every Sunday in June and July on our Twitch channel at 7pm UK/11am Pacific. They’re a great chance to get help, ask questions about the event, and get inspired by others…. AS WELL as get those precious words down during live writing springs.

And if you want to show off your participation to Summer Camp, we have some graphics you can use in your World Anvil world or in social media:

Download all participation graphics and the community streaming pack! You’ll find logos, stickers, banners—anything your heart desires!

Big shout out to our amazing sponsors, GACUCon, Norse Foundry, and Kobold Press! They make it possible to offer so many prizes to celebrate your awesome creativity! Check them out and give them some love!

About The Author

Janet Forbes

Janet Forbes (she/her) is a game developer, fantasy author, and (secretly) velociraptor, and has rolled dice since she was knee-high to an orc. In 2017 she co-founded World Anvil (https://www.worldanvil.com), the worldbuilding, writing and tabletop RPG platform which boasts a community of 1.5 million users. Janet was the primary author of The Dark Crystal RPG (2021) with the Henson Company and River Horse Games, and has also written for Kobold Press, Infinite Black and Tidebreaker. As a D&D performer she has played professionally for the likes of Wizards of the Coast, Modiphius and Wyrd Games, as well as being invited to moderate and speak on panels for GaryCon, TraCon, GenCon, Dragonmeet and more. Janet is also a fantasy author, and has published short fiction in several collections. You can shoot her a message @Janet_DB_Forbes on Twitter, and she’ll probably reply with rainbows and dinosaur emojis.