Worldbuilding and Story Writing
Build a World, write a story
Our popular summer camp becomes a full-day experience! This versatile theme and format opens to an enormous range of genres, elements, and ideas. We welcome all writers!
World-building is essential to so many setting-specific genres, such as fantasy, adventure, science fiction, and more. It also happens to be one of the most creative, interesting, and FUN parts of the writing process! In our camp, we'll work to develop a new world with details about its inhabitants, its topography, its history, and its conflicts. Through extensive map-making and scene-building, we'll create visual and written representations of our imagined worlds and their elements so that we have a solid understanding of how they function. Then we'll imagine the stories that could happen in these worlds and write to share them!
What do we do in camp?
- Inspiration: Learn the elements of the genre and see how other authors create exceptional work.
- Development: Create elements such as character and theme.
- Worldbuilding: Visualize a unique world for your story and develop it with its own unique history, inhabitants, etc.
- Planning: Define the structure.
- Drafting: Write!
- Revising and editing: Use feedback from teachers and peers to grow your writing.
- Sharing: Present your work to your supportive and enthusiastic YWI classmates.
- Lessons on the writers craft: Learn and practice the skills of authorship.
- Games: Think critically, move fast, and have fun with word games and puzzles.
- Art: Illustrate your work and design visual elements like maps and book covers (if desired).
- Peer connection: Write with the support of other young creatives.
A big question: Will we be writing the entire time? No! Our main project is worldbuilding and story writing, but we will also have plenty of time for movement, art, games, and even walking field trips!
Grades 3-6
Camp runs Monday-Friday, 8:30am-4:00pm.
Choose your camp week below.
Epic Quests
Epic quests
Every story is a journey - for both the characters and the author. We welcome all writers!
Quests have been a part of the human narrative since we first began telling stories, and they remain just as captivating and thrilling today as they were thousands of years ago. Characters are driven by a need or a desire to seek, to find, to experience, and to discover, and they will stop at nothing to reach their goals! In our camp, we’ll first define an object of the quest, then create an adventurous character that rises to the challenge. Then we’ll send them on their journeys where they’ll face seemingly insurmountable obstacles and watch how they use their strength, wit, and charm to complete their quests.
What do we do in camp?
- Inspiration: Learn the elements of the genre and see how other authors create exceptional work.
- Development: Create elements such as character and theme.
- Worldbuilding: Visualize a unique world for your story and develop it with its own unique history, inhabitants, etc.
- Planning: Define the structure.
- Drafting: Write!
- Revising and editing: Use feedback from teachers and peers to grow your writing.
- Sharing: Present your work to your supportive and enthusiastic YWI classmates.
- Lessons on the writers craft: Learn and practice the skills of authorship.
- Games: Think critically, move fast, and have fun with word games and puzzles.
- Art: Illustrate your work and design visual elements like maps and book covers (if desired).
- Peer connection: Write with the support of other young creatives.
A big question: Will we be writing the entire time? No! Our main project is worldbuilding and story writing, but we will also have plenty of time for movement, art, games, and even walking field trips!
Grades 5-8
Camp runs Monday-Friday, 8:30am-4:00pm.
Choose your camp week below.