Published by CBS News
Well, kinda-sorta. But, what the hell, it's still my writing, quoted by a major US media source.
Well, kinda-sorta. But, what the hell, it's still my writing, quoted by a major US media source.
A lot of what I've done over the last year that passes for writing has been on the boards for the Alliance of Champions, the City of Heroes group my characters hang out with.
For the record, links to their journals:
And on the villainous side:
A few character stubs -- descriptions of folks I don't play any more:
Nothing fabulous here -- lots of hinted-at stories and stuff that never really got carried to completion (or isn't likely to, in other cases). Still, for the record ...
I've managed to get the "Writing & Language" category from my main blog over here, and the broken out to the various categories (further revised). Done a fair amount of clean-up. Tweaked some templates and the stylesheet. Sadly observed the bit rot of the past four and a half years.
Felt noodged by the Muse to get the frelling lead out and finish Catspaw.
Things left to do:
... I think I've finally gotten the Parish Profile and its Appendix completed, signed, sealed, delivered, approved, vetted, reviewed, second-guessed, word-smithed, argued over, tweaked, polished, revised, saved, PDFed, and ready for posting on our parish website.
Actually, in some ways novel-writing is a lot easier. Or at least less complicated.
And, in some ways, less fraught with peril, be it from parishioners who think you've slighted some favorite group of theirs, or misrepresented them the parish, or whatever, or from what you've written wrongly playing a direct role in getting the wrong person into the rector's role.
Eep!
I'll post the URL (for those as are interested) once I've confirmation that it's available. I'm sort of proud of the final effort, though there are things I would have done a lot differently, had I had free rein to do so. But I knew this job was dangerous when I took it ...
Anyway, now you understand the relative dearth of postage around here today ... or, looking at the clock, I guess yesterday is more accurate.
And now to bed, and the sleep of the relatively contented.
Cool post in 20x20 Room about Lexicons and how they are, and aren't, like games. And I don't just say that because he cites one of my own favorite Lost 500 Years entries.
And it really reminds me that I need to do a print-out of the items I contributed to that effort.
The Nobilis Lexicon of the Lost 500 Years is pretty much wrapped up. I had a fabulous time making various contributions as the amazing Augustine "A.C." Casey, Chronicler of Marvels and authorized teller of the tales of tough-as-nails Jim Dunsmuir. Victorian aetherships, fairy armies, and vortex blasters -- who could ask for anything more?
The whole Lexicon concept is a great idea for setting up game worlds (particularly ones that the folks know something about). I keep trying to think of other applications for it ... (At the very least, I seriously need to keep dabbling with Wiki.)
Though the day started off with Kitten getting up too early, and with a phone call that my Spycraft game on Sunday had to be postponed because of Justin's football season-ender dinner thang (Go, Moose!), there were plenty of little successes in it. Two in particular:
1. I think this is the quickest I have returned the garage into two-car-edness after a visit from Jim and Ginger. The remains of the project have sat there for multiple months at a time (usually, but not always, because there's more project for me to do).
What made this time faster than previous was that (a) I didn't want my new car sitting out on the driveway, and (b) Margie seriously didn't want to be getting in and out of the van on the driveway.
2. When hit up by Katherine for a story for our trip to Home Depot, I hit upon the perfect story: "The Story of Shishiko, the Little Cat Girl, and How She Met Prince Menho." This is the "origin tale" of my Oriental Adventures character, and it was just perfect, as was the sequel, "The Story of Shishiko and the Mean Guard." I'm actually thinking of writing them up as real bed-time books for her, maybe even with illustrations.
Hey, didn't Tolkien get started that way?
I've actually been getting some writing done recently. Not a lot -- not all that I'd like -- but at least some.
I do the daily Oneword (as you've all suffered through). That's an interesting exercise to keep the juices flowing.
I've been trying to keep up with Catspaw, too, with the not-so-subtle flogging encouragement of certain friends. I've not been doing as much as I could, but I'm trying to keep up via a modified Zelazny Method:
I try to write every day. I used to try to write four times a day, minimum of three sentences each time. It doesn't sound like much but it's kinda like the hare and the tortoise. If you try that several times a day you're going to do more than three sentences, one of them is going to catch on. You're going to say "Oh boy!" and then you just write. You fill up the page and the next page But you have a certain minimum so that at the end of the day, you can say "Hey I wrote four times today, three sentences, a dozen sentences. Each sentence is maybe twenty word long. That's 240 words which is a page of copy, so at least I didn't goof off completely today. I got a page for my efforts and tomorrow it might be easier because I've moved as far as I have.
I have an alarm set twice a day during weekdays (9 and 2, to be exact) to write something in Catspaw. If it rings, and I say, "I'm too busy," then I try to respond, "What, to write three whole sentences?" If I say, "I'm too uninspired," then I try to respond, "What, to write three whole sentences?"
If I hit the snooze on the alarms, though, I'm doomed. You can monitor my successes by watching the Catspaw button on the blogroll bob up (or not) each day.
Through that method, at least, Catspaw has been progressing by a few hundred words or so a day. Which feels nowhere near as exciting as it should be, but there you go.
The last writing I've been doing to any length have been Sian's game journals for Doyce's Nobilis try-out short game campaign, Chrysalis. It's not great literature (as if anything else I do is), but it's been entertaining and even a bit fulfilling (in an exploring-the-character way) to me. The most recent effort went up last night.
I suppose, as long as I keep banging on the keyboard for something other than memos and e-mail, I should be satisfied ...
My latest Nobilis log is up. Woo-hoo. Not that it's any great shakes, but, hey, when I actually have the discipline to do one of the things, it's worth crowing about.