So I did the ‘year in review’ and then forgot to come back and set out my goals. That doesn’t mean I forgot to set out my goals (I set up my progress thread on WriYe) but it’s helpful to record them here. I often add extra context (aka rambles) and that’s helpful when it comes to write the year in review – not that I want to think about the end of the year!! Honestly years disappear far faster than I am comfortable with already.
In my ‘year in review’ post I said I would come back to two topics:
– Readers
– A side project
I’m not going to address these directly but I haven’t forgotten and they will be included in this post.
Author Archives: Sam
WriYe 2024: Year in Review
So this was a quick year, huh?
Seriously how it got to be end of December is mystifying. I feel like it was just last month it was January. Anyway, it is the end of the year which means it’s time for a retrospective, time for the usual introspection. I bring up in tabs the review I did last year, and then the goals post (which I actually made this year). I quote myself and go over how it went.
How did it go?
Gear as a ‘Reward’ in Warcraft
So I don’t usually comment on stuff but SoulSoBreezy posted a YouTube video about the datamined ‘18 gilded cap’ from delves for season two. He invited comments and I had thoughts.
My first argument was basically that I don’t think there should be a cap at all.
NO delve specific cap. That’s what I think. I mean I started the season running 8x delves every week to max vault. I did that for like a month on my main and then I didn’t need to anymore. I did it sometimes on an alt but truthfully I didn’t have time. For someone that just does delves? Let them play! Equality. Fun for everyone.
I raid. My guild gets Ahead of the Curve every tier. In The War Within I switched classes (from Prot Paladin —-> Prot Warrior) and tried M+ for the first ever time. I’ll only run guild groups and we don’t have a regular M+ time slot like we do for raids, so I will go weeks in between runs. Currently sitting at about 2.2k score.
I say all this to establish my ‘bonafides’ because I feel like the argument for “cap of 18” is to somehow ‘pacify’ players that raid/M+ and that feels like absolute nonsense to me.
Continue readingTwenty Years and Player Housing
Just found this in my drafts. I forgot to finish it haha.
So player housing huh? Did anyone have that on their bingo card? Honestly no I wasn’t expecting it. I figured they’d have to have an announcement of something for the 20th anniversary but I pegged my expectations a lot lower, I was thinking a new allied race. I remember reading an interview with Ion I think and he said player housing would take so much dev time, that it would only be something they’d do if they were effectively ‘sunsetting’ the game. Like you can have player housing, or you can have new raids/dungeons. I mean that was the joke when garrisons happened. They actually put a gravestone in the garrison of ‘Ray D Tear’ or something like that.
Part of me is worried. I mean are subscription numbers dwindling so much they need to pull out the ‘big guns’ like this? On the other hand content pace seems to be increasingly massively (I can’t keep up!) so it’s not like they are slowing down on patches. I don’t get the vibe of a game sliding into retirement. Maybe it was simply that they wanted something super big to celebrate 20 years and it doesn’t get any bigger than player housing!
Lego: Horizon Adventures
So I picked up Lego Horizon Adventures yesterday because of course I did – it is Lego + Horizon!
I love the Horizon games. I have a bit more of a “love hate” feeling with the Lego games, but I always get drawn in because Lego. I think I always think I will like the game more than I actually do. I have a very fond memory of playing the first Lego Marvel Superheroes game. I still miss Marvel Heroes because there is just something soothing? I don’t know if that’s the word but I like running around places like Avengers Tower, or the X-Mansion. For Star Wars I like that I can be Hera or Sabine from Rebels because I don’t know, I feel closer to the media I love that way? It’s hard to explain.
Anyway I probably didn’t need this preamble ^^ but I just wanted to explain how I was both looking forward to the game but also expecting to be disappointed. All Lego games I have before I have dipped in and out of over long periods of time because I just feel so meh after the initial “shiny new thing” has worn off.
So what about Lego Horizon Adventures?
Continue readingCan you have a writing ‘bucket list’?
So this months WriYe blog topic is – What’s on your writing bucket list? Which one is the most achievable?
I think that’s an interesting question so first let’s define ‘bucket list’. A quick google kicks back:
“a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.”
Now I think there are two keywords there ‘have’ or ‘accomplish’ – this isn’t pie in the sky dreaming. It’s not thinking “man I would super love to write the screenplay for the movie and have it gross a billion dollars” (to be honest I don’t think I would actually like that, but it was the most over the top thing I could think of as an example). It’s still talking about ‘hope’ but it’s more of a realistic dream, akin to a ‘to do list’.
So what is my ‘realistic’ dream?
Well obviously making a viable career as a storyteller. I’m not taking big bucks, just enough to pay my bills. That’s all I really want. Is this achievable? – That’s the rub because there’s two conflicting parts to it. 1) I control because it’s about producing a product, 2) I don’t control because it’s whether anyone likes or buys it. I can do my best to produce a quality product, I can do everything within my power marketing-wise etc. and it could just not work out. There is no guaranteed ‘win’ button when it comes to a creative career.
How about achievable then?
Basically this is everything to do with hard work and personal persistence, and nothing to do with anything external. I never wrote a list but I am trying to imagine what writers might put on it, and things like “write a novel” or “write a million words” or “write a story that cracks triple digits” or “write a novel in a month” etc. those all seem like challenges or milestones – and I have already done them.
I think the big challenge I have left is basically “write a complete series”. I have a lot of first drafts littering the place. I have written various drafts of book two’s (I even wrote some of a book three once). I have a lot of plans and notes and outlines etc. but I have never written a complete series. This is definitely my big goal moving forward.
What else?
- I think I might have written a holiday fanfic story but I want to write an actual novella/novel. I have some notes on it but I’ve just never fleshed it out and written it.
- Last year I started writing a serial and I would like to finish and develop that further, right now it doesn’t feel like I can tick ‘serial’ off the list because there’s still a lot of work to be done.
- I kinda want to write an ‘archaeological adventure’ story because I absolutely love the genre (think Nathan Drake of Uncharted or National Treasure type thing) but I have to be honest the ‘research’ requirement terrifies me. I can just imagine me getting something wrong, or using a bit too much artistic licence and getting roasted. Still I do love the genre and it’s nothing like anything I have done before, so it deserves a spot on the list.
There’s probably a LOT more stuff. Honestly I don’t imagine I will ever stop writing so hopefully I’ll have years to write dozens of stories. Anyway I’m going to leave it there for now, before I get too carried away with imagining all those potential fictional universes (remember I need to finish my current series first).
Music is Magic
October’s Blog topic for WriYe is – Your favorite writing playlist. Who’s on it?
Now I haven’t done the blog topic every month but I quite liked this one because I always have music playing. I have stopped playing music when playing video games, and instead just listening to the integrated sound track. Partly for immersion/appreciation and partly because I listened to one playlist (as it was the playlist of th moment) so much when I was doing dailies in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms (Pandaria) that I can’t hear those songs now without instantly flashing back. Which brings me to my first point!
I don’t exactly have a writing playlist
For the most part when writing I listen to the music I’m in the mood for, aka the ‘music of the moment’. The albums, artists etc. that is my focus right then. Now there are limitations to this, for instance even when I was really into the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical soundtrack, I never wrote to it because that would have been weird – it already had a strong association. Also sometimes the vibes are wrong. I can love the music but it’s just not what I need for how the book is feeling. Sometimes the music has to match my mood – do I need something high energy, something easy on the ears, an old favourite etc. – or do I need it to match the mood of the characters/scene?
BUT I do have some “writing associated” music
There is a Shinedown song “How did you love” which I will forever associate with my big novel series that I’m currently writing. I think the line “cause castles crumble, kingdoms fall and turn into sand” hit first but honestly the vibes of the whole thing match really well.
Another song which had a line that made my head snap round is “Fly on the Wall” by Thousand Foot Krutch = “the other night / I had a dream / it was a world full of kings and queens / but it was cold / dark as the night / we were the fire on the moonlit skies / we were divided / we were the same / and we were free but we all wore chains”. In fact for a long time the first book was called ‘Divided’ and the series ‘Divided Destiny’. That’s not so now but it still again fits very well.
Finally there was an attempt at a ‘writing music’ playlist to try and condition my mind. If that music was playing = it was time to get to work. I picked Apocalpytica because instrumental is supposed to be better for that kind of thing. The result? Well I certainly associate it with the novel I was writing at the time (a crime/time travel thing) but otherwise that experiment didn’t last.
Anyway I love music. My headphones are among my most valued possessions (I’d never survive the grocery store without them). I definitely like to have it playing when writing but just not often anything in particular.
Animation > Live Action
So I finally finished watching Star Trek: Prodigy last weekend. Don’t worry I binged it on Netflix the day it dropped (I just didn’t watch it as it streamed). I wanted to savour it because it might be all we get and that is damn sad.
Anyway! As good as Star Trek: Prodigy was (seriously watch it, you won’t regret it) this ramble is only tangentially related to it.
Right or wrong nostalgia is riding high in media right now. Some hits, some awful misses. We also need new stuff and shouldn’t just recycle existing IPs but that’s a whole other post. To keep it zoomed out, I think there is an element of human nature that likes more stories in worlds we already love. I’ve seen posts explaining why people love fanfic vs. reading new original novels for this reason. They already love the characters, they are invested. There is a warmth and certainty to it. When this is done in media it can go horribly wrong. If something is revisited and done badly there is like a taint… I’m getting off topic.
Continue readingMotivation – Myth or Muse?
August’s WriYe blog topic is well-timed because I’m really struggling right now.
I have never liked questioning motivation when I’m not doing things. I get upset and say “it’s not that I don’t want to because I really do!!!” as to me motivation means desire and actually that’s not exactly right.
Motivation isn’t bribery either. That’s another thing. It’s saying “I have to do X and if I do it, then I can have a little treat”. It’s not punishment – “I have to do X and if I don’t do it, then Y bad thing happens”. These are external pressures that can aid motivation but it’s not motivation itself.
Once upon a time I think I would have talked about “pulling the rabbit out of the hat” here. Because I used to push it sometimes, and then that external ‘motivation’ pressure meant I then got the task done – until I didn’t. Until that pressure wasn’t enough, and I failed. The thing did not get done and I had to face the consequences (punishment). This is why I don’t think bribery/punishment is much of a factor for motivation. It can be like the ‘cherry on top’ but the task was likely to happen anyway. It’s like the 5%, maybe occasionally it tips the scale and makes a difference but isn’t a big thing.
So what am I saying?
Continue readingsarcasticsciencefictionwriter asked:
Hello! For the elemental writer’s game:
Water, Fire, Air, Shadows, and Space! 😊
Oh wow so many! Thank you so much!!!!
Water: How did you start writing?
I don’t remember.
That is the honest answer because I have been writing for the entire of my living memory. I don’t have anything I wrote when I was like 6 or something. I do have some scribbles from when I was 9 I think? I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys books, and Diagnosis Murder TV show at the time. These were more ideas than complete stories. The first complete stories were fanfic for The Royal/Heartbeat which was an odd fandom for me to accidentally fall into, and it was nothing to do with being obsessed and everything to do with wanting to make a friend IRL. This girl at school was obsessed and I found her trying to make a fansite and I knew how to code so helped, she then asked me to beta read her fanfic, and being story-minded, I then dove into writing my own. It was a good gateway I guess because while I didn’t care all that much about that show, it led me into fan spaces online and I found fandoms that I did really love.
Anyway, it’s been 23 years since I posted my first fanfic on the internet, and I’ve been writing for longer than that so yeah, I don’t recall precisely how I first picked up the pen. I had stories I wanted to tell and that’s just how it’s always been.
Side note: I think this is a “how I was raised” thing because mum is more about words, and if the topic of ‘art’ comes up, always states very firmly that she can’t draw. It’s a point of frustration for me now in trying to teach myself how to draw, that the years when I could have comfortably been shit at it (when I was a child) were decades ago and I missed them because I didn’t even contemplate drawing until I was an adult. I think if I’d grown up in a more artistic environment then I would have had an outlet other than words for crafting stories, but instead words were all I had.
Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write?
As I don’t write fanfic anymore, and trying to describe a scene from my novel would be missing so much context, I’ll instead pick an art piece I hope to make in the next couple of months 🙂
Janeway and Amelia Earhart from Star Trek: Voyager for AU August. I think it could fit under Day 1 (canon divergence) or 18 (space travel) but I want Amelia on Voyager dammit! It’s been years since I watched “The 37s” episode and it has never left me. The injustice. Amelia Earhart should have joined the crew, become a pilot, hooked up with Janeway. Ahem.
Obviously I want to make everything on my list (and hopefully will one day) but when I ran my eyes down the list, this is the one that jumped out. So cross fingers I can make it happen.
Air: What’s the easiest part of writing for you?
Can I say the ideas? Planning. I love it when pieces just click into place and then everything unfolds. It’s just like magic.
Buuuuut as I said when I answered the question about the hardest part, that is probably not what is meant? It’s probably more about the words. In which case… I guess dialogue? I mean I said description was the hard part as setting the scene can be clunky and I need to fix that in revision. And if something isn’t description then it’s dialogue. I mean there’s a lot in between too like whether something is scene setting, action beats, thoughts etc. though that kinda all falls under the heading ‘description’. I think I’m overthinking this.
Shadows: What’s the darkest theme you’ve ever written about?
I don’t know. I’m not really given to dark themes because I always like a happy ending. Sometimes characters go through some shit but only so they can have revelations and become happier/more at peace with themselves. There was the apocalypse in Life Without Purpose. I did do a time loop character death fic The Beauty and the Tragedy but I wound up writing an alternate happy ending as while structurally it was beautiful (one of those that I look at and I’m like I wrote that?? as it’s so not my usual style), it was too sad. Painting Layers of Love had agoraphobia and that’s why it’s abandoned because I have that, and put too much of myself into it and then couldn’t fix it.
I guess in a lot of ways I don’t think I’ve really written dark ‘themes’ because while bad stuff happens, it’s never the end. There is always hope. I don’t like unrelenting misery in my entertainment – there’s enough of that in real life. That doesn’t mean characters don’t go on journeys, or grapple with darker issues. Like my current novel thematically is a battle about losing hope. Some characters give up and surrender to despair, others make unwise choices out of fear, there is the constant question of do they persevere? I don’t just write fluff, I just like to make it right in the end.
Space: Where’s your favorite place to write?
Answered here. So have an extra 🙂
Spring: Have you ever scrapped (a huge chunk of) a story to start over? Why did the change come about?
Bwahahahaha – I laugh so I do not cry.
I have scrapped hundreds of thousands of words over the years I’m sure. Maybe even a million I don’t know. There was an espionage novel which was a NaNo project on… at least 4 occasions (possibly more), and I kept doing complete rewrites because when I went to revise it was never the story that I had hoped to tell. My current novel series I am writing a rebooted version. So essentially complete rewrites. Very little of the original books remain, so just off those I have tossed probably getting on for 200k. I also have a complete rewrite in the works for my sci-fi thriller novel (another 80k or so tossed). Eventually I will reboot my Camelot retelling and that will be another 50k out the window as I turn it from the wreck of a rushed, sloppy novella into an actual series. I haven’t looked at my Steampunk since I took a break from it, but I’m pretty sure that’ll need an almost complete rewrite as well (another 60k tossed).
Why do I scrap and start over? Because past!Me thought I had done a good job and hadn’t basically. When idea met reality on the page, that’s when all the flaws are revealed. Plus I have read a metric ton of craft books in the past year and learned loads. I know I can do it better now – this is the TLDR of it all. Basically I want the story to fulfil it’s potential – I want it to be good! – and to get the story to where I want it requires sacrifice and hard work.
Now if the question is “have I ever scrapped a huge chunk of fanfic” then the answer to that is no (aside from the unfinished messes on my HD anyway). I have very little filter when it comes to fanfic. Sometimes I rework things a little bit, go back and add in extra scenes or something, but otherwise the fanfics are just driven by pure love and obsession. What you see is what you get with them.