Going Forward
Journal 55 20-26 July 2022
I’ve been thinking that perhaps I need to get back on topic.
Specifically, that I need to bring back talking about a topic in each of these posts. For the last few months, hell for the last two years, most of these posts have been little more than a personal journal with some writing complaints, concerns, and a bunch of numbers.
Now, I believe that posting my numbers works, as a matter of fact one of my friends has proven that it works. For the last two week, on Facebook, the great James A Moore has been putting up his progress on a new novel. Not only has it inspired me to post my numbers but he has scores of people talking about their current novels (and shorts) under each of these posts.
It works.
The Writing
The writing has been suffering this month, and though that is understandable under the circumstances, it still hurts to see minimal progress. Yes, I have a list of excuses, including having to go into work for an extra half day, organizing comics and cleaning out a room, etc etc.
This week I only managed a single day of writing, but progress is progress.
I typed 2698 words into the new chapter 8 and I’m about halfway thru it. The manuscript now sits at 41,220 I’ve been working on a long conversation between three people. Hold on, let me set this up better.
The last half of the chapter is through the pov of a spy coming up and listening in on a conversation. I never map out conversations in advance. All of my dialogue is on the spot and often flows into odd directions and needs to be wrangled back on topic. I have literally “gone off script” due to the improv nature of all of my dialogue. It can be a major problem, but at the same time I’ve been told that a lot of my exchanges feel “real” because of the way the conversations flit back and forth and dance around the topics. They tangent off and have to be reeled back in, they reference things only the people talking understand, and sometimes they drive me nuts because I forgot to mention the important part of the scene. Then I have to go back and try to add in a line that gets back on topic and to me that line always sticks. It’s like in a movie when they very poorly dub in an extra line over the character speaking. Worse they used a different actor to speak that line.
The point is, the rest of the chapter is this spy listening in on a conversation. I need to write this whole conversation out… worse I need to write some of the things that were said BEFORE the spy arrived just so I know what was going on. In other words, I need to map out this conversation and that is not something I normally do.
On Topic
This is a funny progression, as I did not intend to talk about dialogue and mapping out the scene. My topic was going to be about Beta-Readers and how impossible it is to find people who will give feedback. I mean if I had a little money I would hire readers, but I’m poor so usually I just exchange work. I’ll read and critique people and hope that they return the favor. But finding a person, or better a group, that is willing to constantly give feedback on chapters or whole novels is just the hardest thing.
I mean, I get volunteers. I have friends who raise a hand and wave at you and say, PICK ME. But invariably they lose energy and peter out. Now, I will admit that sending anyone an entire novel at a time is daunting, but I have even tried to do the chapter a week thing, and even that doesn’t last. You get people who are willing to read the first few chapters and then they just stop.
It’s one of the things I lack, that makes me worry that I will fail as a writer if I can’t get more feedback. Brandon Sanderson talks about how he formed a group in college of 6 writers who weekly met and workshopped 1 chapter from 1 member of the group. They would cycle through every week. Of those 6 people in his college group, 5 became published authors with decent careers, one left writing entirely but still managed to publish their college thesis novel. Half of his group is still part of his current process.
Besides getting all of the feedback, the drive to produce a full chapter by your deadline in the group keeps you working. You have motivation to produce words, you have multiple feedback on a given chapter, and you have the interaction with other writers discussing work and the lifestyle.
What do you think? How important are beta-readers and feedback to your own progress?
Hobby, Gaming, Etc
Well, the last two weeks so the dissolution of one of my weekly D&D games. Well…not the game itself, but the campaign ground to a halt and now we’re working on something new. With the passing of my brother, we managed to fight the midboss of the campaign and come to what could be a satisfactory conclusion and one of the other players walked away from the table at that point. Called it a good stopping point.
Down to only 2 players in that game we stumbled for a week and decided to call that campaign a close and start fresh and try to bring in new players. In this case we are pulling back an old player, bringing a player over from the other weekly gaming and I invited two newbies into the fold. (Though as I type this I’m under the impression that my newbie is very enthusiastic but also a bit of a flake and I fear that he won’t actually make the game at all—more on that in the next few weeks).
As much as I loved my character in the game that just ended (and I might find space for him in one of my novels) I am super excited to create a new character.
Characters
Character Creation has been my driving love with games since the beginning. When I first started running games, I was always the guy running and not the player. But I also moved around a lot and didn’t get to see my friends and so I would spend a lot of time creating characters in every game system I bought.
There was a three-year period where I made up hundreds of characters in scores of games without ever getting to play, like 14–17-year-old me. This is when I started writing more and creating maps and whole worlds. Because I didn’t have players at the time.
My Tuesday DM has a habit of creating worlds with odd rules to character creation. Every game has its own restrictions that somehow tie into the mystery of the world. For example, there are no Dark Elves or Aasimar (angelic) people allowed at character creation. Why? There are aasimar heroes mentioned in the brief on the recent history of the world, but we can’t play one, and the dark elves are taking a different bent then the one presented in standard D&D. Mystery.
Besides restrictions or complete omissions of classes, races, backgrounds, etc… he often institutes odd homebrew rules. Some of these might be a non-standard array of stats, or a free feat, or everyone has a cantrip. For this game (and in the last) we are experimenting with a dual subclass rule that can give low level characters a slight boost in power, but mostly just makes very interesting combos and creates a wider variation in characters. You could have three players playing the exact same class, and while normal D&D would allow them to feel different with their subclasses, the combo effect makes them stand out even more.
Ideas
Since our Sessions Zero is two weeks away, I haven’t committed to anything yet. I like to come to the table with ideas at the ready, but I also like to tailor what I’m doing based on the people at the table. I would hate to be the guy who brings a grim and serious character to the table and everyone else is sitting on cute and happy characters.
That said, since I was called into work for a half day and it interfered with my writing this week, I spent that time thinking up broadstrokes concepts for three characters. And I am in love with the first one. The setup for the game is a 180 from normal for us. Usually, we play in shitty worlds heading toward a big bad—apocalypse, war, the villain about to win. But in this game, the good guys won decades ago. The war is over; the bad guys were driven back into their own lands, the warring kingdoms united in peace, and everything is going well.
Our characters have lived in relatively peaceful kingdom for two decades. There are bandits, squabbles, and the occasional border skirmish. But still peaceful in the heart of the kingdoms. The fact that the ‘heroes’ who ended the wars were part of a Cult that worshipped an evil god who “fore-saw the end-times” and decided to stop it will surely not be a problem? Nothing sinister here? And the fact that our characters are part of this cabal trying to keep the world a happy safe place is not bad? We’re doing good after all.
My first concept is a character who can literally talk his way into or out of any situation. This is a talent I have employed in D&D for decades. So much so that I have sometimes been banned from ending encounters by merely talking. But this time I’m going to do it with a character that can “mechanically control events.” Whereas normally I—as a player—have talked my way through things, now my character would be able to say absurd things and make people believe it as the absolute truth with the dice rolls.
I really hope I can play him. If not, my backups include a magical swordsman who doesn’t get hit and counter-spells a LOT. And the third is a master detective who I haven’t actually fleshed out in any way yet.
In any case, the session zero is two weeks away, so you won’t see much about these guys for a while.
Other Hobby
Not so much hobby, but I’ve been organizing comics for over a week now, and it really takes a lot of effort to not try to fold all of them into my own collection. But needs must, the comics are getting sorted into various piles (and yes there is a small pile that are keepers just because I can’t say good bye to all of them).
I have been powering my way through various actual plays on Youtube. Vox Machina is in the 70s now (Chroma Concord is almost all dead), I’m almost caught up to current on Balck Dice Society, I’m halfway through Beyond Heroes, I started Silver and Steel, I’m actively watching GlassCannon’s Masks playthrough, and Legends of the Multiverse. I have slowed, practically stopped, in my various podcasts though.
Plus, painting work on the side as well. Things have been overly busy of late.
Anyway, this has gone on long enough. Here is where we part.
Thank you for reading.
