Gaming Fever
Update 51 23-29 May 2022
Well, the writing is continuing at a good pace. Though I’m no longer writing a whole chapter in a single sitting any more. Both chapter 5 and 6 were done in two sessions each. Partially as I’m laying in a ton of world building up front and also just because I tend to do longish chapters.
This blog is getting written for the Memorial Day weekend so I feel like traffic will be low to the site, and that’s ok. While I wish I had more interaction here (like any at all) I’m fine with lower views. This site isn’t meant for that. I’d keep writing these posts for no one at all because they serve their own purpose. They make me accountable. By forcing myself to publicly post my numbers and what I’m working on I’m holding myself accountable to make my goals.
The fact that no one calls me out on a missed post or a low word count or anything doesn’t matter. It is the discipline and the writing that matters.
This Week
This week wasn’t bad, we started with high temps last weekend and then rolled into a week that was really nice with a few thunderstorms to end it. My allergies have been hell and I haven’t breathed easily for over two weeks now, but the temperature is nice.
The month of May has seen a LOT of canceled games for me, and that has led to the title of this blog, Gaming Fever. But I’ll talk about that further down in the blog.
You might not have noticed it but I updated the tab titled Draklon. That’s the tab that talks about the world I write in and my books. I changed it up to reflect the projected series, my current WIP and an alternate take on a synopsis of the previous novels. There might some clues and previews in there for those interested in more of the storyline.
But let’s talk about the writing this week.
Words
I mentioned in the intro that I did chapter’s 5 and 6. Five was started last week but I needed to go back and finish it with another 1k or so words.
The whole rest of the week was devoted to a single chapter. Now I did not go crazy and the word count is not as high as the previous week, but I feel like I’m getting into the story now. I got the characters introduced, I got the situation laid out, and I have both groups (story is told in two narratives that will meet up later) moving forward.
The next few chapters will still be world/story/history building, but with more action and tension. I’m past establishing everything. I’ve seeded in the details of what started everything in the last two books. Just enough to get the reader up to speed, but not a full rehash of anything. I’ve front loaded a lot of conjecture and guesses about the “villains” (the invaders… might not be the villains per se) and in the next chapters I will show them off. They’ll finally take the front stage and introduce even more mysteries! HA ha!
I will admit I have a problem… I love mysterious and dropping clues, but at the same time I love telling people the details and what’s behind the clues. So, I really need to stop my self from screaming, “Ta Da! Look at what I’ve done! Let me tell you ALL about it.” I think its part of being a long time DM is you craft all these interesting elements to your world and story and then players don’t always get them or find them… so you really need to get it off your chest and tell someone all about it.
Storytelling thoughts, to do or not to do?
In my original version of the previous novel, I had four more POVs planned, including POVs from the invaders before they came to the world. These extra POVs were excised from the manuscript, though I do have that material still.
I’m wondering if I introduce one of those characters into this section of the book. As Errick and Desi (survivors of the Ashlands and the current leads of the main story) are being sent along with a team to establish communications with the invaders, I can bring back that character.
I mean I had her in the story for a reason, and I still feel like I should have included those chapters, but again it would have added a third narrative to the book and pushed me closer to 300k and not the 200k I’m already sitting at.
Book Length, and conflicting advice
That’s another thing to talk about. I’m fairly sure I’ve mentioned in plenty of these journals. My classes and every writer I know (mostly horror and thriller people) are always talking about 80-100k novels, and first-time debut novels never being long. “You won’t get an agent or sell a book that’s too long.” But then I also get the advice to write a novel to your genre’s standards. And we all know that fantasy novels are LONG. I could have had the Ashlands hit 300k easy… and it was originally designed to do so. It was also meant to be a book that was written after two shorter 100k books. So, you get your short adventures, a duology of bite-size books, then a big 300k book that launches the Invasion series I’m writing now.
But I scrapped those first 2 books (one of them is done, check the page I linked for info about that). I feel like perhaps I’m cutting things out and damaging the story, and yet at the same time I realize it’s a little easier to read the novels with only double narratives. I just feel like some sections of the book are sped up and reduced.
But I digress.
Gaming Fever
Nearly a thousand words here and I haven’t even gotten around to the title.
In the last four or five weeks I have talked about gaming a LOT. But the thing is I have not BEEN gaming a lot. Games were put on hold for holidays in April, games were called for sickness, planning, events, etc. I know I’m spoiled as a guy who games twice a week, every week. Normally when one game gets cancelled, I don’t really care because I know I have another one. But when all games get cancelled, I’ve been sad.
Add on top of that in the last 5 weeks I have watched a TON of actual plays. I’m watching three different streamed games, and listening to a dozen podcasts of other games. My mind is on fire with gaming ideas. I have been creating characters, thinking of plot lines and one-shot ideas, and creepy things to drop into games. I have been thinking of role playing more and rolling dice less.
To DM or not DM?
It got to the point where I thought about coming back to the DM side of the screen (I haven’t run a D&D game since the end of 3rd edition). I just want to play games. So, I started writing a new gazetteer working my novel world back into a D&D world. It has been a lot of fun. But I think at some point I have to knock the dust off and start running again.
Of course, I need to work it into writing and work time, as well as my other games. And I kind of need to get my life in order a bit more. But I have been writing a bunch of fluff and starting to look at writing mechanics for my world. I technically never updated my world to 5e D&D and my oldest notes just started to work in 4E changes before I quit DMing.
I also don’t write my novels using the D&D magic system (though astute readers will notice some of the things I stole/borrowed from the old D&D settings I used to create my world—Again I recommend following the link and reading about that)—Such as Aether being really similar to the weave of Faerun. (On a side note, I ran the original Invasion story in Faerun in 2nd edition before I placed all of my games into my own world for 3rd edition, and ran it again).
Outro
Besides wanting to gamify my novels back into D&D I have also been bitten by the Spelljammer bug and just really want to do wacky crazy shit with gaming again.
Last night I got to get one of my games in, and crawling back into the skin of my shovel wielding gravedigger paladin of vengeance was quite nice… though I forgot how he talked and acted and kind of created a new set of mannerisms. I’m going to work on that one.
I’m going to work on a LOT of things.
Thank you again for reading this far, I appreciate the handful of you that return every week.
