twoflower

What with all the long discussions of romance and social skills, written in proper and formal speech.

I guess it's unavoidable. Una talks in convoluted ways, Nel is still elfy, Jesse sees herself as a high lady, and Gilbert -- the most down to earth of them -- is British to the core. Hope it doesn't get too annoying.

These scenes are (mostly) standard "two characters sit down and hash out who they are and why they are" ones, which I'm known for. It's for the best, since like sa01/fs01, we're about to nosedive into the action.

Enjoy, feedback welcome. Particularly the gambly bits. I'm not writing from firsthand knowledge, there.

All together, now!

We're back with our cast of the Forsaken Shores, as the anachronauts themselves begin the journey into the west. Time to establish the new adventuring party, and their means of transport... and get them into a bit of trouble, of course.

The bigger news, however, is I've decided how to end anachronauts.

That's good news. I was a bit concerned this would be an endless, bottomless pit of a series; good for the readers, bad for the author. I would like to write something that is not anachronauts, one day. Give it a good run, milk it for all it has, but then close it out. Fortunately as I was walking out of the shower (why do I get ALL my good ideas in and around the shower?) I figured out where it's going and why and what happens. All three uberplots, the three enemies increasing in scope and scale, and the eventual fate of the Earth. All set.

Of course, it's going to be a long ride to get there, and I've got the Second Age to let me write unrelated side stories along the path. It's a great framework and I'm glad I decided to go with it. This is gonna be fun.

Now, back to fs02. Feedback welcome, as always. Place your bets!

Okay. I think I was just coming off the high of the very well done 2nd episode of The Prisoner (Harmony) and the decently done intro (Arrival). Tonight's episodes, great? Aaaaaaanotsomuch.

First, we've got Anvil, which is basically like this:
"Okay, Six, I want you to join my super secret undercover agents who all seem to wear the same uniform and are obvious spies who sit on people's rooftops drilling holes for cameras which are always, always spotted before they see anything good. Make sure that on the same day you go undercover you approach your target and subtly interrogate him by saying 'Hey, had any illegal dreams lately?' in the middle of a public area. Oh, and despite how patently obvious this is as a trap for you you'll do it anyway even if I say it's a trap because you think you'll find something out that you can use when really you're just stepping on your own toes since obviously we'll be watching you. The themes here are pretty much plain as day of 'Golly, people are suspicious of people'. Be seeing you!"

Next we've got Darling, which basically goes like this:
"LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE lawl chemistry."

Yeah.

I still think they're taking some interesting approaches, and it has some truly brilliant moments, but the second act is really weak and poorly written compared to the first. I'll still watch the finish but unless it's spectacular I think the DVD archiving of this thing is off the table.

Anachronauts stuff later this week.

Jen, can you make this suck less?

I have no sense of scale and this is probably totally unworkable as an aerial home away from home slash exploration vehicle. Still, I like the overall layout (central room, with living quarters, kitchen, bridge, and guts spoked off from it).

So. The Prisoner. Allow me to get all Deep Geek for a moment.

I've seen nothing but fanboy bashing of AMC's remake of The Prisoner last night, and I don't quite get why. I enjoyed the hell out of what I saw, and that's coming from someone who worshiped at the altar of Number Six throughout high school, to the point of wearing Patrick McGoohan's cricket jacket on his avatar (named "Seven") in Second Life. I heart The Prisoner so damn much... and I also liked the new one.

It works fine as a standalone; you don't need to have seen the original and in many ways are better served by not seeing it first. It tells a surreal tale of mind screwing, conformity, and paranoia. It's methodically paced, so folks wanting an endless series of explosions and boobs and exploding boobs may be unhappy, but works for what it wants to accomplish.

Is it flawed? If it is, it's in the area of depth -- but in a way, the original and the remake are inversions of each other in that regard. One is flawed where the other is strong. The original was as dense as a philosophy textbook... and was mired in freewheeling silliness and bewildering nonsense, which tended to off-put people looking for the depth. The remake is pretty much what it says on the tin without a whole lot of subtext involved, but it takes things seriously and that makes it easier to swallow the weirder parts. Less gonzo, more poise, works in the remake's favor even if the story it has to tell isn't as dense or packed with metaphor.

Overall, I think this new one works. It's enjoyable and well shot and well acted and I'm down with it. Well done, all.

ObProjectStuffs: It's going to be a bit of a weird week, with Left 4 Dead 2 coming out, The Prisoner airing, and other stuff going on. I don't anticipate a lot of writing, which is fine... I need to get an outline worked up for Forsaken Shores. We're halfway through the month and while I'm at 38k/50k words, more than halfway, I want to make sure I get it all in one burst. Otherwise I may end up short.

And we're draft complete, go figure.

This one pretty much wrote itself. It's one of the more formed stories I had going into this project; a simple idea that lays itself out perfectly. The next one up, Forsaken Shores 02, is going to take a bit more work since all I have figured out to date is the finale.

Plus, while NaNoWriMo's guidelines say "Plow haphazardly into writing and edit later, focus on speed" I think I'm gonna stop and breathe and edit sa01-sa03 next. The following week is going to have a lot of great TV I want to watch, notably the remake of The Prisoner, and I'm also back at work. Lighter but critical work like editing should come first. Then, it'll be hopefully one last push to hit the 50,000 word mark.

I should warn, this is a pretty brutal story, if the intro wasn't clue enough. Not exactly TV-Y7 so proceed at your own peril.

Well, it was either that or a machete, I guess.

I'm enjoying writing. It's a lovely thing, being able to come home each day and have something to write, and the drive to go at it. NaNoWriMo may be a lock-in but it being there is enough impetus for me to plow on ahead rather than let the project sit while I ponder and fiddle about.

sa03 is again a standalone, but will feature some of the main cast, as this intro makes clear. It also gives me a chance to do something I couldn't do much in the main series -- explore the Winterlands, and the hounds that prey upon it.

"What does the scouter say?" "It's over just under... NINE THOUSAND words in two days!" "WHAT? NINE THOUSAND?!"

Yeah.

Fastest write I've managed lately. In the end I dialed back a few things, to save some plot developments for later; the game plan for the Second Age is to tell a serial story, but as standalone stories, jumping from subplot to subplot and cast member to cast member. Benny and Chloe shall return, needless to say. But not just yet.

Next up... o, Canada.

And that'd be "AAAAAAA" as in "Aaaaa, I can't believe I hammered out half a story in one night".

This is the first truly new and wild and weird story of the Second Age. We're finally stepping away from the core cast and their wacky adventures, in favor of "other things going on around the world of anachronauts."

I bashed out the outline last night, and tonight I felt inspired enough to just dive in and see how much I could get done in one shot. Turns out to be half the story. This won't be a very long one, but as you'll see in the next update... it will be absolutely critical to the ongoing plot of anachronauts.

Feedback welcome.

Queen Emily Explains It All. Well... almost all.

In the end, I wrote about 23,000 words for this chapter alone. I hadn't expected to bother with NaNoWriMo, given I have other hobbies and a day job and a move into a new house to deal with, but at this rate I may "win" by default. But I have to admit a little guilt at even pointing that out.

I've always been keen on NaNoWriMo, because the idea of writing a buncha stuff in a month and affixing a shiny banana sticker award to your work appeals to me. It's a validation of what you're doing and how much you've accomplished. But there are two aspects of it that just don't apply to me: one, I don't follow or participate or even care about the "NaNoWriMo" web community, and two, I'm not a new author desperately seeking motivation to write something.

That makes me unsure if I can ethically claim to be a NaNoWriMo winner without delivering a big 'ol backhanded slap to everybody really struggling to make it happen. Still... that banana sticker calls out to me. I may be forced to be a Chad Of Writing and accept the award because I want it even if it's not really intended for me.

Then again, maybe I'll hit a dry spell and that'll be it for the month. We'll see.

At any rate... here's sa01/fs01 in the can. Read, enjoy, respond. Not sure what I'll hit next... either a standalone short story in the Second Age series, or the next part of the serial Forsaken Shores series. I may alternate. I may paint myself blue and ride a bicycle off Big Ben. Who knows?

Actually, I think I used that title before for an update. Oh well.

Major update to the draft tonight, with plenty of romance and bloodshed. I've also polished up some of the Jesse bits... nothing drastically different, just re-clarifying her position.

Share, enjoy, and seriously, feedback welcome. I'm curious how folks will react to the various newcomers.

Or at the least, less opera.

So, another day, another scene. I'm kind of enjoying doing these little bursts of updates instead of mega-ones.

Today we get relationship foo and yet more transitional notes on how things have shifted in two years time. Plus, a return appearance by two mysterious characters, and an explanation for a plot hook I deliberately left unresolved. Enjoy. Feedback welcome.

And not an exploding pen to be found.

I'm pacing myself here -- a scene here and there. Trying to avoid marathons, tiring myself out and eating up my whole evening. This is a great hobby and I want it to fit in with my other hobbies. Definitely no NaNiWriMo for me; that way lies madness.

Feedback welcome.

(Oh, and context for the post title up there.)

Two of my big November game drops hit last night, Dragon Age and Lego Rock Band. Let's make with the impressions.

Lego Rock Band I was greatly anticipating, and it both pleases and disappoints. It provides AMAZING levels of character design, letting you not only redesign your entire band but also your manager, your roadies, your stylist, your music video director, etc, etc... but it doesn't let you change the skin tone baked into the clothing you buy, 80% of the good stuff is Yellow Skin, but there are no female Yellow Skin heads to go with it. It has a much more compelling World Tour mode, featuring tighter focused gigs and a better navigation system and new event types like recording an album... but the music is dodgy, with plenty of songs I've never heard before or outright loathe.

In general I'm quite happy with the game, but the spotty soundtrack and occasional glaring usability problem do ding the experience. I'll definitely keep it around, for family-friendly Rock Banding and for the auto-kick feature on the drums (I plan to get a new drumset after I move into my new house).

Dragon Age I wasn't anticipating much at all. The toolkit seemed like a massively complicated pro-level tool, not the sort of thing for a game writer hobbyist to make use of, and I'm not that into Ye Generic Western Fantasy RPGs With Lots Of Little Numerical Bits To Concern Yourself With. However, playing through the origin story for my character, it wasn't all that difficult to play and was quite enjoyable. Having a video card juuust capable of running it well certainly helped.

One nice thing is that it doesn't seem to be that obsessed with feeding you Good or Evil karma points. You can be nice, neutral, or an asshat, but the game doesn't care; it's all just flavor and maybe influences if people you chat with like you or shoot you in the face. Do what you want, without any in-game bonuses being critically tied to how often you say Good Morning to people. This may change as the game goes on, but I'm finding it relieving so far.

Overall I'm happy with both games. They have their downsides but there's a lot of fun to be found here. I'd recommend them both, if you have the cash and free time and interest.

In which I basically run down the complete concept for The Explorers.

The rest of this week is likely going to be fiction-free. Lego Rock Band hits tomorrow, as well as Dragon Age. I intend to be singin' a bunch tomorrow, and plugging orcalikes with dozens of arrows later in the week. I call it November Pain for a reason... so many things hitting at once that I want to do. On top of that, moving to a new house.

There's not much more Nel/Una/Brell stuff in this update, but I'm getting closer to finding Jesse's voice, as she plays the 'newcomer' role which lets the reader get an in-road on some of the things that the main cast take for granted.

Three points to whoever identifies Mr. Orange. Other feedback welcome too, of course. And yes, the story of Scout's 'great effort' will be a Second Age story. I think it's sa03, in fact. I'll eventually hotlink his line of dialogue to the story itself. ZOMG SAILOR NOTHING-ESQUE HYPERTEXT FICTION EXPERIMENTZ

Welcome to the Second Age. Enjoy your stay.

I stopped there because I ran out of outline. I'm trying to keep this 'season' fast and loose, flowing and improvisational -- but there is a method to the madness. Here's the game plan.

We'll be following two different runs. "The Second Age" consists of short stories within the universe of anachronauts, which may or may not involve members of the core cast. New friends and enemies will abound, new places to visit. We'll see how the world is developing as Queen Emily makes the push for peace with her neighbors.

The first "sa" (second age) story also kicks off "The Explorers," which is in the traditional novel/chapter format, telling one complete story. Technically, sa01 is the first chapter of The Explorers as well, or rather, its prologue... the series will have our anachronauts splitting away from the court of Queen Emily, to explore the world, starting with the mysterious sealed lands of Westusa.

Now, as I noted in an earlier LJ post, my November is gonna be PACKED with activity. I don't know how much writing I'll get done. But I have plans, I have passion, and we are in for a wild ride no matter how fast or slow I get it done. Stay tuned.

Feedback on sa01 welcome, of course! Even if it's just "YAY!". I'll never turn aside a good yay. (Even if I do like more, generally.)

Wow. I hadn't realized exactly how much stuff is going on in November before. Lemme catalog, for my use more than anyone else's.

* HOBBY: 7Seas. Gotta finish the code tweaks and release fish.
* HOBBY: City of Heroes MA. Finished an arc; gotta finalize it, write one more, probably.
* HOBBY: anachronauts. Gotta start in on the Second Age -- plot out the actual stories, write them.
* GAME: Lego Rock Band. Coming next week. Play through career, get the export code.
* GAME: Left 4 Dead 2. Coming in three weeks. Should be fun without taking a lot of time.
* GAME: Dragon Age (playing). Probably will have to turn down difficulty since I generally suck at RPGs, but.
* GAME: DJ Hero. Gonna put this off to the holidays since I lack time. Also making it my One Xmas Gift Worth Note, since I tend to buy everything else I want for myself.
* GAME: Misc. Games. Casual/smaller scale stuff I wanna play at some point; the Monkey Island episodes, Mechanarium, etc.
* HOBBY?: Dragon Age (modding)? I don't know if I have time to one-man-show it. Maybe join a group? Or just wait until I have some actual free time?

And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. It's for the best that things like Bioshock 2 got pushed off to next year, so I don't need to mix them in with this stuff.

So. 2009 Mission Architect awards. I won Best Villain Arc.

I honestly wasn't expecting that. I delayed entering because I didn't think I had anything really worth submitting; my arcs are largely jokey, and the serious ones didn't have many votes. But there was one odd man out... An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge, a serious villain arc I wrote which has some actual character and spirit to it. Granted, it's a simple arc, not many bells and whistles compared to some of the gymnastics other arcs put you through, but I figured since it's maintained a 5 star average it may be worth submitting. Took some screenshots, packaged the files, sent it in, moved on.

Then it made the nomination list. Okay, fine, they threw a guy who had a DC arc a bone due to name recognition, but c'mon. ...then it won. Which I was thrilled about even if part of me was perplexed as to why. But, I'm never the best judge of my own work, so I'll accept it with grace and pride and just assume I done good.

I get a new video card (although it's not as hot as my 9800GT; I'm gonna donate it to my dad, who wants a new card), also some headphones (ugh, behind the ears... but I'm so sick of the tinny headphones I have now I'm willing to give it a shot), a mouse (looks good!), and a mouse pad (I haven't used one in years. Maybe I should, my current mouse is unhappy being used on the table alone.)

Since I've been more and more involved in CoH in the last few weeks, ever since Issue 16 -- which introduced some sort of magic which apparently really works for me, despite my initial dismissal of the importance of recoloring powers -- this is icing on the cake. I'm gonna see if I have a few more arc ideas in me. Maybe I can top the one that won an award. We'll see.

ObOtherNews: Fishing code's basically done except for feature creep, anachronauts planning is going well, I had an incredibly horrible day in many respects today aside from contest foo, and I want the world to leave me alone this week so I can rest. After that I'll be fine; Lego Rock band and Dragon Age next week will help.

I wrote this up as a brainstorming / inspirational tool to help me get a picture of the various options I had for populating the rest of the world, and it was too neat not to share. Any guesses as to which quote is assigned to what group..?

Full list after the jump. Note: Actual shape of things to come may change. I haven't finalized a lot of these 'factions'.

( Welcome to the 15 Layer Cake )