Getting to Work
Writing Journal 80 30 Jan- 5 Feb 2023
Still breaking off the rust and trying to make myself write more often in the week. That’s where I need improvement.
But word count and the sessions I do get in are going well.
The past two weeks saw a lot of my friends in the horror writers’ community explode. While the TTRPG “community” started going back to normal. Which caused a bunch of the “anti-DnD” people to unmask and still demand that people do what THEY want.
The legend of Vox Machina cartoon has been a great escape, though it makes me think of my brother and how he would have loved to see this.
Perhaps a paragraph or two devoted to these two topics down below? We’ll see how I feel.
Words
I managed my word goal this week.
I hate to repeat, but I aim for at least 2000 words in a single session and at least 3 sessions a week. Ergo, 6000 words a week. Sometimes I spend a whole day writing and get my 6k in a single session. But as I’ve tried to move away from writing for 6+, 8+, or 10+ hours. I try to just put in a good 4-6 hours and then move on to other things.
Some of those other things are usually writing related still. For example, I’m about to move into a chapter where I have almost no outline for it. I have 3 bullet points to hit and that’s it. 1. Fight scene. 2. Intro Militant order and exchange news. 3. Muster out.
That’s all I have. Point 1 I wrote last session, but now I need to introduce some new characters and the interior of their keep, and other aspects of their Order. So, as part of my “write session” today I will spend time creating the characters, the details of the castle, I might even map out the castle, and I have a notebook filled with militant orders already. I will probably not add any new words to the novel today, but I will still be working on writing.
Speaking of writing, lets get back on topic.
Word count.
This was a good week. I managed 6,776 total words and the novel is sitting at 127,701.
I’m feeling that the novel will hit 200k easily, though I originally aimed for 180k.
Storylines
I have both storylines finally coming into the same area… well actually opposite ends of the same country. But both sets of characters are within a few hundred miles of one another and are heading to the same place.
I’m playing with telling some of the same stories from different sides. To clarify, I have the B group telling the history and past of the country but from their bias. While the A group is learning the story from someone who was in the country more recently and they have their own bias.
You kind of get a here’s the “rainbows and propaganda” story of this event/place/thing and then we shift the story to the other team and you get the seedy truth beneath the “rainbow.”
But both stories could be wrong.
I really played with this technique in my thesis novel, The Ashlands. Often, I would give information to the reader from one of the POVs. Then I would switch to the other characters and they would speculate or here a story that had different information. This would give the reader a sense that they knew more than the character, and often a little thrill.
One of my professors delighted that she had knowledge that the character didn’t, and thought it was funny when they made the wrong assumptions. I even had a pre-reader leave a comment on a paragraph, something along the lines of: “Ha, wait till they find out how wrong they are!”
One of the themes I explore in every novel is “what is the truth.” Fact and fiction and the place they meet in the middle.
I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious.
TTRPGs
I don’t know if I really want to talk about any of this. I mean I will not engage in a rank about the OGL or all the bullshit that erupted across the internet. Nor will I talk about my feelings on the “community.”
Though perhaps putting that word in quotations says something already?
I don’t feel there is a cohesive and real community among gamers. I feel there are small clans and groups and that we all have a collective feel of being under the same banner. But that same, shared, banner is not in and of itself a community. There are a lot of people I would not play games with and who I strongly dislike. While I admit I could probably talk with them or be cordial if we met, they are not my friend, nor “community.” We just have a shared experience.
Part of the problem I see is that a lot of these folks come across as if they are an authority… or a majority. They put themselves forward as someone who speaks for the rest of us. And I hate that. I hate having someone step forward and say, “I speak for the community, and this is what WE want.”
Then most of what they say is not what I want. Not what most of my friends want.
But I might be digressing. I said I would touch upon what I mentioned in my opening.
Masks
People wearing masks.
Hasbro is a shitty company. They make a lot of things I love and they piss me off while they do it. That is a rant for another day. As angry as they make me, I still buy their products and I still support what I love. It’s a weird relationship, but its one we’ve had for my entire life.
They made a huge misstep with D&D and everything blew up for several weeks. I am not going to run through all of that there are plenty of places on the internet to find that story. Suffice you know enough for the rest of this thought.
Before the OGL issues there were always people who just love to hate on D&D. They might have never played D&D, but they will spend a lot of their time telling you to play something else. Half the time the game they’re talking about is a barely known game or a completely different genre/style/feel.
Now, I play a bunch of other games and support a bunch of other games, but my main hobby is D&D.
Again, I feel I’m digressing.
The point is, when Hasbro fucked up, a bunch of people went to arms across the internet. A bunch of self-appointed “community leaders” cashed in for YouTube views, shit-takes, and bad faith arguments. And there was a huge movement to “play something else.”
So, many voices suddenly screaming every game imaginable. And everyone rushed to try other games. Move ahead to Hasbro making the right decision and fixing things. (or at least making it better).
Suddenly, many these “community leaders” were left with people going back to D&D (or like me and my group we didn’t stop at all). They’re still screaming for everyone to stay away, to keep playing other things.
All of these people were NEVER playing D&D in the first place. But of course, they’re the ones who jumped up first to attack the game and creators.
Rant Over
I deleted a couple more paragraphs and I almost deleted the above, but I wan to keep something in this blog. All of my writing and storytelling was birthed from the 10 year old me learning about D&D and gaming from then until now. Many of the places, characters, and even some of the events in my novels were taken from these adventures.
D&D is a huge part of my life… as were all the other games I’ve ever run or played in. I sure do want people to play and experience other games. Find the one YOU love. But at the same time I will never tell anyone to shit on what they love and try something else.
I might suggest.
Tell people that Call of Cthulhu 7th ed is the best version of the game… tell them that original (non-savage worlds) Deadlands was the greatest game I ever ran (though easily exploitable). The 20th Anniversary World of Darkness games are WAY better than the 5th edition version, but I’m not going to tell that to NY by Night Actual Players. (Though I wish I could find an actual play using the older rules instead).
Anyway, I find it amusing to see all of these people who were “leading the community” against the “evil corp.” are now unmasked as people who just hated D&D to begin with and they’re still trying to peddle their shit.
End rant.
TV and other Hobby
With the new office set up I’m trying to get back to painting. It’s slow going.
On the flip side I’m writing more and I’m back to listening to Bell’s Hells. And of course season 2 of Vox Machina dropped on Amazon.
I’m loving the cartoon, even if the story is cut down from the original to make it flow into a much shorter cartoon. I think it still works to convey a lot of things, but some of the changes are a little odd. Like why did they make it that Scanlon doesn’t know who Dranzel and his band are? The original story was Scanlon was a member of that group in his past and then this should be a reunion. But for some reason he’s never met them and he’s surprised that he’s “famous” enough to be known by them.
I don’t want to spoil things for those who only watch the cartoon but I’m curious if the rest of the Scanlon story (Kaylie) will have as much impact as it did in the game. Those episodes were intense and some of the best character growth for Scanlon. But I fear that they might just make it a single episode reveal, and then make more dick and fart jokes with Scanlon.
Then again, they did easter egg the traveler and lay a bunch of ground work for things in Mighty Nein, let alone the rest of Vox Machina. And the Sunken Tomb was handled very well.
I mean, I’m super happy to have it. I’m not complaining I’m just worried about how the story will be truncated. Like Vox Machina needs to go at least 3 or 4 seasons, maybe even more… and I expect MUCH better from Mighty Nein as it’s the better story with the better characters.
Ah! It can’t come fast enough.
Anyway, I feel like I ranted and then raved and this has gone fairly long.
Thank you for reading this far and let’s see what the next week brings.
