Spent the last week trying to write a short story. I don’t like that I can’t belt them out in a day, but I really should stop thinking about it and just focus on writing good stories instead of fast ones; maybe I can improve my writing since I’m moving slower.
Things started to finally flow faster on Sunday. Like cleaning out the pipes, I have to write for a while before things start to move. And usually the first couple pages are pure, black sludge that I just toss aside quickly.
Did a bit of tech support today for a family member. I tried to get their virus protection working, they fed me waffles. Very productive overall, but not nearly as much as I wanted it to be. I still need to work on a few websites, but I’m still exited that I got my main website looking a bit niftier than before.
I’m enjoying the posting for Oile, but I have the usual doubts when writing in the dark. It doesn’t quite have the feel I”m hoping to find and it is pointing out how much I need to work on world development for Fedran. Oh well, even if no one comments on it, I’m still going to enjoy the world-building.
Four more days until the end of class and I’m excited about that. I also got the notice for my petition, which was accepted after the responses. Thirty seconds later, I was on the phone with my academic adviser who got the same email only a few minutes before me. So, I’m now one class and one week from my masters and I’m very excited.
Work is relaxing a little bit this week, but I’m still not over the major hump I’m working on. I try so hard to get things done, and it is nice I get the impression that I’m appreciated and wanted. Call is self-esteem but I worry about those type of things. I also want to be the best employee I can be.
I’ve been obsessing about two things for no reason. One is a little Kingdom of Loathing script. It is turning out to be a tad more difficult than I expected; I know I can do it, I just can’t get the bits and bytes to shift the way I need them too.
I’ve also been working on world development for my steampunk world. Partially scripts, partially language. Messing around with the map and trying to figure out how much history is important to the story. I mean, I know that some of the history is important since it shows up in Flight of the Scions, but how much is enough. I think I could spend months coming up with the history, mainly because I have so much fun.
… though, I really need to get to the “do” part of those things again. Right now, I have the following on my radar:
I know there are more to consider, but those seem to be the ones I want to play with now. Well, and making a font for the lovely scripts I found. *sigh* More projects than time. And I seem to love it.
Enjoyed a pretty good day, despite being the first day back to work. The biggest thing was the start of the walking program. I didn’t really push it in the first two days, but I managed to get 12,925 steps which is about 6 miles. I also lost 0.4 kg at GenCon. I could have sworn I gained weight since I was off my feet so much, but apparently I actually kept my eating under control.
On the way back from GenCon, I got a chance to talk about Ranger Tom. He is partially why I added furries in my steampunk world, but he also had some good ideas on social and geological constructs for my world. I decided on a super-continent for the main world, mainly because I like the idea and it would force most of civilization to the edges of the continent. That also makes the center regions mostly deserts and tundra, perfect for a former slave race. We got to talk about the idea of furries being treated as “less than intelligent” and the implications of them suddenly given a homeland they don’t want but it is the only “home” they actually have.
Yeah, I like misery in characters and in settings. Besides, if you don’t have conflict, then why will people have adventures. I also don’t care for perfect worlds, unless they are being broken. Probably why I liked Villains by Necessity so much as a book.
I also realized my world is too structured. My first fantasy world was pretty much a clock, which fit my ideas at the time. 10 months, 10 day weeks, 10 “hour” days, etc. This one, I wanted a lot messier which doesn’t fit well with my need to have that regularity. However, when thinking about the cosmology of the teenagers from Flight of the Scions and with Mudd Fourier’s traits, I realized it was too rigid. I needed less structure. While the number of people who have read Muddy Reflections can be counted on one hand, it is still one of those initial novels that sets the scene for my world so I need to integrate that with Scions and the talents in that book. In a non-neat way.
These thoughts came from talking with fightertype about her fantasy world. I find it too restrictive with too many absolutes. “This can never happen.” Sooner or later, you go from “this can never happen” to “okay, this once” like when White Wolf had their werewolf/vampire crossbreeds. Also, when I get annoyed with something, I usually look inside to see why. One of my philosophies is that you don’t like what most resembles yourself. So, if you find yourself getting annoyed by other’s absolutes, look for that same thing in you.
Today is the fourth of July, a wonderful holiday because it gave us the country I love so much. It is one of those holidays so divorced from all the pain and sorrow that came up to it, all those years ago, but still meaningful for me. I just don’t really get into the celebrations as much (for anything actually). We have some friends coming over for board games and grilling, but nothing else really.
My dentist visit went fairly well. He said the weird feeling in my tongue should be gone in a few weeks, if it goes more than a month, then get another appointment. Otherwise, things seem to be going pretty well and I’m on the way to recovery. I suspect in two weeks, most of my discomfort should be completely gone.
Got some interesting idea to work with Fedran, my steam punk world. I’ve been slowly creating the languages for the world as I went, but struggled a bit with the writing systems. While wandering through the Unicode charts, I saw a couple really pretty script languages already in the charts, so I’m thinking about using them for my writing systems. The desert folk pretty much already use Katakana and Hiragana for the word constructions, so why not just use that for the writing system also? For the more common language, I considered Canadian Syllabics or Ethiopic. Yes, they aren’t really “fantasy” scripts, but to a purely English reader, they are exotic enough to get the feel of the language and I’m already planning on coming up with the grammar myself. I’d also use Tengwar, if I could, but it isn’t in the Unicode planes yet and I’m not entirely sure about the copyright of the scripts; the Tolkien estate seems very… rabid about legal threats but if it gets in Unicode, that pretty much says the symbols isn’t limited (and maybe that is why it isn’t there yet).
I think languages are a wonderful thing in fantasy worlds. I love playing with them, but it really seems to direct how they respond. Obviously, I’m not that experienced in creating custom languages but that is part of the fun.
Other writing news: I’m still working on chapters 1-3 of DG. I just finished the rewrite of chapter 1 and I’m a lot happier with it. It cleans up a lot of the passive voice in the original and ramps up the interesting bits a lot. It also went from six thousand words down to four. If any history is to judge, the first ten chapters are going to be the hard part. After that, I’ll start editing less on the individual chapters. My goal is to be finished with this edit by GenCon this year.
This was the response of a little writing hook from Merry Sisters. Not really sure if it fits with the theme, but it was the story that came to mind. I also ended up writing it on Sunday night, after spending of the entire weekend doing honey-do lists.
In other news, lost another 0.3 kg which is promising. In the right direction at least, so I can’t argue.
But, back to the story. Here is my little contest:
Duty Bound
Sharista sighed unhappily as she dropped her backpack on the water’s edge. Groaning, she unbuckled and drew off her belt, feeling the torn leather tugging on the loops of her trousers before she could free it. Tossing it into the air, she turned away before it hit the water. Not even looking, she could hear the faint sounds of her broken sword slipping from the sheath and clinking against stones. By the time she turned back around, only a plume of sand revealed the burial of her no-longer trusty weapon.
“Auntie Shar, can I go play?”
Sharista fought back the glare of annoyance as she stared at the young girl tugging on her blood-stained shirt. Bright eyes innocently looked back, not even aware that their home burned brightly a few hours to the east. With a snap, she yanked the sleeve from the girl’s hands.
Rough night, mainly because I kept thinking too much. Stupid little things that keep you up. I call it my monkey, a little chattering thing that won’t shut up so I can go to sleep. Fortunately, not everything was negative, just… loud.
I didn’t celebrate Easter. Actually, it’s pretty safe to say I don’t celebrate any holiday. This includes the holidays of my chosen religion despite the fact I consider myself at least reasonably dedicated to the faith. Yet, I don’t care about the days.
According to the recently revealed poll, I won second place in a short, *punk story writing contest with my story, A Simple Cog. Its a short story, just under a thousand words but still… I’m happy.
Well, voting closed on the TIG contest. Hopefully, the masses of my readership downloaded the game, played it, and decided it was the best game of the entire contest.
…
…
*cough*
But, surprisingly, it actually got three votes. And none of them were mine, since I won’t vote on my own stuff. So, that means 3 major features update rounds and polishing before I sit back from it and see if it should be continued. After the writing, of course. Flight of the Scions must be written. I need to get the damn story out of my head and see if these new ideas take off.