2026 - Seas the Day

Table of Contents

Preparation

Setting

Hopscotch

Goals Article Overview

Stats

Superlatives

Article List Comments

It's June! Which not only means time for my annual Pride Month Challenge, but also time for Summer Camp Prep! If you're not familiar with Summer Camp, it's World Anvil's annual prompt-based worldbuilding event that happens in July every year. This article details my plans for the event, and will get periodic updates until the event closes and Summer Camp begins.
If you're not familiar with me, I'm the creator of the 2026 Best World wow that's a lot of stars . You can check out my author page for more info on what I'm up to.

Preparation

I'm going to do something weird.

— Surprising no one

Setting

It took me two Summer Camps to decide I don't like applying prompts to existing projects, and one to decide I love using them with a new setting designed for that purpose. Where last year I did acoustic worldbuilding (h/t to Keon Croucher for that phrase), this year I'm doing epistolary worldbuilding.

In The World is Dead, a cynical protagonist explains the world through journal entries as they travel and slowly begin to appreciate the life they have. There will be three ways for readers to explore:

1. Topically. Same as normal: pick an article, read from start to finish, and maybe read another after.
2. Chronologically. Follow links to read entries in the order they were written, sometimes skipping topics or returning later.
3. Geographically. Browse a Chronicle to see where the protagonist was when they wrote different entries.

Hopscotch

Altscotch

This year's prep hopscotch is adorable, but the tasks didn't grab my interest. So I've created alternative tasks anyone can borrow if they would like. Each theme has a big task, an offline task, and guided questions to get you thinking about how the theme relates to you and your setting. I give you: the altscotch.
Skip to: Love Growth Loss Family

Love

Submit your SC prep article!
Common things to include are:

• Description of your World(s)
• Badge goal and/or a completed certificate
• Your camps (join the WA Discord for info on these)

Update this article throughout June and check out what others have written!

1. Show yourself some love this month!
Go for a walk or get some exercise. Partake in community, both online and off. Do something nice for yourself and someone you care about.

2a. How have acts of love changed your life?
This could be a passion that became a career, moving cross-country to be with a loved one, support that gave you new opportunities, etc.
2b. What stories of love have influenced you most?
Be broad in your definition of love. In addition to romance, there's love of family, friends, pets, places, activities... and not all love is healthy.

3. What do you love most about your World?
Share your favorite articles or talk about your favorite formatting tricks. Maybe you have anecdotes from your players or other community moments.

4a. What existing articles fit the theme of love?
What kind of love do these articles show, and what impact does it have? These can be your own articles or ones from others' Worlds.
4b. How could love change parts of your setting?
Love can drive all kinds of stories, and not all of them end well. Where might it throw a wrench into something you've established?

Growth

Review your foundations!
Common foundations include:

• Homepage
• Intro/primer article(s)
• World Meta

The goals are to make sure your World is welcoming to new readers and to refresh your memory on your foundations.

1. Try something new this month!
Go to a new restaurant or try a new cuisine. Read a genre you never have before. Try out a new craft. Have fun!

2a. How have you grown as a creator?
Whether on WA or off, how have you developed your craft since you started? Or your approach to creating?
2b. What skills do you want to develop?
We're never done learning. What creative skills do you want to continue developing, whether on or off WA?

3. What areas of your World do you want to expand upon?
Does any area feel underdeveloped? Or is there anything that you're excited to explore further?

4a. What areas are in a state of growth?
Such as empires expanding their territory, characters taking action, up-and-coming places, new technologies and sciences, etc.
4b. How might that growth affect other areas?
What could an empire's expansion mean for neighboring territories, or how might a scientific breakthrough affect society.

Loss

Get inspired!
Partake in things that inspire you:

• Read articles from your favorite Worlds
• Go back to what inspired your current setting
• Put together a writing playlist
• Review stubs for prompt fodder

1. Revisit something you haven't in a while!
Flip through an old sketchbook, read your old writing, revive an old hobby, revisit a childhood favorite film or book.

2a. What are you happy to have lost?
Loss can be a good thing. We can leave behind causes of stress or anxiety, or cut ties with people or places that are bad for us.
2b. What losses have motivated you?
The hurt from a loss can motivate us to do better and train harder, or perhaps to get revenge or vindication.

3. What has been lost in your World?
This can be a physical loss, such as an artefact or person, or metaphorical with a conflict, culture, or history.

4a. What's lost but at risk of being found?
Could be something nice, like reviving a lost language, or worse, like finding something that should have remained lost.
4b. What's at risk of being lost?
Ancient traditions, royal bloodlines, ongoing conflicts, and more. What impact would its disappearance have?

Family

Finishing steps!
Time for finishing touches and final prep:

• Update your WA author page & signature
• Tell family and friends how they can support you
• Tidy your space and plan your writing schedule
• Get any final items like pens, journals, and snacks

1. Plan your post-SC celebration!
Anything you write month will be worth celebrating. Set a date in August to relax, be proud of yourself, and enjoy the company of whoever you define as family.

2a. What are you glad to have inherited?
From heirlooms to traits to behaviors, what are you happy to carry forward from past generations? Think of your parents, but also teachers, mentors, older siblings, etc.
2b. What would you like to pass on?
We don't always choose our legacies, but what would you like to live past you? This can be passed to anyone you know or even don't, not just to any kids you might have.

3. What are important "families" in your World?
There's the human side with royal and criminal families, but also taxonomic branches, star clusters, related technologies, or anything else you can categorize together.

4a. What are the most divided families?
Feuding families, species spread across the galaxy, continents drifting apart, religions facing a schism, anything putting a rift in preexisting connections.
4b. What are the most united families?
Tight-knit cultural groups, hiveminds, homogenous landscapes, quantum-entangled particles, anything that draws connections even tighter.

Done!

Congratulations! You finished the altscotch and hopefully feel a bit more prepared to face whatever prompts we get next month.

Frankenscotch

As far as answering the hopscotch goes, I opted to stitch them all together into one big hopscotch, which I've called the frankenscotch. I'm also not bothering with dice rolls, and instead answering what appeals to me to answer. Click the circles in the map below to read my responses. I'll be adding more doodles and answers until Summer Camp begins.

2026 Summer Camp Hopscotch

Open full size

Goals

Discover

Learn to discover the story through writing, rather than my usual of planning and plotting ahead of time.

Explore

This is a great opportunity to explore a variety of little ideas that don't fit into other projects.

Have Fun

With no badge goals or expectations, I just want to have fun trying something new and seeing what happens.

Article Overview

This will have some stats and other facts about my SC articles once the event is over.

Stats

Here will be numbers!

Theme	Words (WA/Real)	Articles	Average (WA/Real)
Love	0 / 0	0	0 / 0
Growth	0 / 0	0	0 / 0
Loss	0 / 0	0	0 / 0
Family	0 / 0	0	0 / 0
Wildcard	0 / 0	0	0 / 0
Totals	0 / 0	0	0 / 0

Superlatives

Longest

TBD

Shortest

TBD

Fan Favorite

TBD

Rin Favorite

TBD

Progress

3 prompts

Want to make your own progress bar?

Camp Chill

Summer Camp Camp Chill Badge

Camp Chill (ID 4574878) by Rin Garnett

Nnie's Camp Chill Guidelines

• Remember the prompts are suggestions, not requirements.
• Write what you're passionate about, leave what you aren't.
• Relax when you feel tired.
• Fight off any pesky brain-squitos trying to make you doubt your work.
• Don't abandon your non-summercamp goals! Write that article you're itching to write, even if it doesn't fit any prompts.

Shared with permission from Annie Stein. Read her thoughts on 'Camp Chill' on her Author Page.

If you'd like to repost this badge, use [imgblock:4574878] to include the guidelines or [img:4574878] for only the badge. Amy Winters-Voss made a block version you can use by adding [block:1050823] to your article.

Discovery

I'm a compulsive planner. When it comes to storytelling, I always figure out the main shape of the story before I get to writing. What's the start, the end, how do we get between them, etc. This applies to novels, short stories, scenes, and even worldbuilding articles.
The World is Dead will be an exercise in letting go of at least some of that to write more through discovery. My articles will likely still be meticulously planned, but less so the bigger picture they contribute to.
I expect I'll need to do more after-publication editing than usual, as I figure out later what should have happened earlier. But I'm hoping it will be a fun break from needing everything planned, especially for an event like Summer Camp.

Advice for First-Timers

Inspired by Blue Fairy 74 (see her tips here), I thought I'd share a few bits of advice for anyone coming to Summer Camp for the first time:

• Your articles are only judged if you have competitor mode on. Learn more
• Share your articles, and include a sentence or two about them when you do. Learn more
• Add excerpts so they show on article blocks during August's reading challenge.
• Don't stress about reading everything. There's no time limit and no shame in deleting the notif.
• You're not graded based on how closely articles fit their prompts.
• Ignore any advice that doesn't work for you.
• Have fun! Change anything that isn't working for you, no matter what your pledge says.

Article List

Once SC is over, I'll fill in the table below with all articles I wrote for it. You'll then be able to use the Roll button to open a random one in a new tab.