The 5 decrees of the comment section 🪄
What happens at Fantasy Camp stays at Fantasy Camp
At our rival camp, Realistic Ridge, (*boooooooo*) they have a tradition called ‘unsolicited feedback’. Maybe you’ve heard of it. They’re known for Substack comments like “I’ve seen this done better by other writers,” and “You’re trying too hard,” and “Not for me, but maybe for someone?”
At Fantasy Camp, we do things differently. We love first drafts! We love first-time fantasy writers! We love to share and read the musings of your imagination and lines of strange, unpolished prose that seem to be going nowhere. More than anything, we love when a camper is brave enough to share a work-in-progress.
Keep reading for the 5 official decrees of Fantasy Camp…
In the coming weeks and months, I invite you all to share your 20-minute freewrites in the comment sections of any post, at any time, ideally the one corresponding to the prompt. All levels and styles are welcome. Overtime, you may feel a new sense of accomplishment, exhilaration, and pride at having blasted your musings into the ether.
This is good! Your inner creative is associating your freewriting practice with positive feelings. You are a shelled hatchling, beckoned by the sea!
The 5 decrees of the Fantasy Camp comment section:
If you write, you are a writer (and a wizard). Simple as that.
To share your writing is a happy choice, never an obligation.
Leaving a comment on someone’s work is for affirmation, curiosity, and delight only.
This is not a space for feedback or critique, this is a space for play!
Hate speech, harassment, and highly explicit content is not welcome here. Duh.
What happens at Fantasy Camp stays at Fantasy Camp — do not take, share, or reproduce another camper’s ideas.
I cannot wait to read your words. And I cannot wait to share my own! What a rare and sacred opportunity to cheer each other on and sink into 10,000 new, fantastical lands.
Madeleine,
writer, camp counselor, squid keeper