Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

The Meaning of NaNoWriMo

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I first heard of NaNo in October 2007, just days before that years event began. It was on The Fanlistings messageboard. I’d always loved to write but I’d become a bit of a “one day” writer. I would occasionally write some notes on a story but I would never actually start writing. NaNo has a specific quote which targets the “one day” writer, it was enough to convince me. After all, on the surface, what NaNo provides most is a deadline.

I ‘failed’ that first NaNo and at the same time I didn’t. I only wrote 20k instead of the 50k that the challenge sets but I wrote 20k, that was 20k I didn’t have before I chose to try NaNo. Even more than that the reason I only got 20k was because the story I was writing fell apart around me. I learned a lot from the ‘failure’ and so really it wasn’t a failure, as there was a lot of progress.

I won’t lie and say that it was a revelation, that failure and success could be the same. When it comes to writing I understand that but when it comes to applying that to other mishaps in life, well they just seem like total failures. However, NaNo is different, it’s special. I’ve said a few times that it is my favourite time of year and that is true. Every year after NaNo I resolve to try and keep the NaNo spirit throughout the year, so far I’ve failed but the best thing about NaNo is it comes round every year, I can always try again.

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Is Warcraft Worth It?

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The Grumpy Elf recently wrote a post where he asked the question “Is Warcraft Worth It?”. For him he said it was, as he played far more than 15 hours a month, so the ratio of dollars spent to hours played, was very favourable. He said that his price point, was that if it was $1/hour, or less, then it was worth it.

I commented on the post, and I think that I probably didn’t make much sense. Basically what I was trying to say is that on a pure numbers basis Warcraft might be worth it, but does it feel worth it? With that in mind, I thought it would make a good basis for my post today. Have to write about something after all.

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Stargate Worlds

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Note: This was written in September. I was holding the post in reserve but with the challenge I’m just posting it now.

There have been a number of attempts at making a video game based on the Stargate series. For one reason or another all of these attempts ended in failure. Part of the attraction of a game like Marvel Heroes is running around Avengers Tower, or the Shield Hellicarrier. Likewise with Swtor, the environment is very recognisable. It’s like diving into and becoming part of your favourite universe.

Don’t get me wrong the IP isn’t enough, the game has to stand on it’s own. I tried out Star Trek Online, played for half an hour and deleted the game. I didn’t like it at all, it wasn’t fun and being Star Trek based wasn’t enough.

Anyway, there was once an MMO in development based on the Stargate IP called Stargate Worlds. There’s few if any details about it, though it did get far enough along in the dev process that there were screenshots to be seen. However, this post isn’t about what Stargate Worlds was, or might have been, it’s about what I would have done, or would do if MGM rang me and said “design an MMO based on Stargate”. Much like how I’ve spent time thinking about how I’d develop/reboot the franchise, I’ve thought about how a game would work.

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NaBloPoMo – October Experiment

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I blogged more in September than I have in a while and I only wrote six posts. However, most of those fell at the end of the month so when my friend asked me “what are you doing?” and I said “writing a blog post”, it seemed like I was doing it a lot. They asked me whether writing a blog post helped me with my main goal of writing fiction. I didn’t know what the answer was. I think I said something about it at minimum being good practice for NaNo, as the typing would exercise my hands.

However, I thought about this last night, so yes this is very much a spur of the moment idea, and I wondered if maybe it would help with writing generally. It’s NaNo next month, my favourite time of year, and as I do every year I hope that I will turn a corner. I want to write, I need to make time to write, I need to make myself write even when I don’t want to. I won’t get anywhere if I don’t.

In the past I once started a fanfiction to ‘warm-up’ for NaNo, as I hadn’t written since the previous November. That fanfic got abandoned at October’s end and hasn’t been touched since which I hate, I don’t like leaving things unfinished. How about a different way to ‘warm-up’? If I make time to blog everyday then it’ll be good practice. It’ll also force my brain to actually think, something it needs help with.

I have a blogpost I was holding in reserve. As once I got a few ideas, and updated a lot, I thought that I should slow down, pace the updates a little better, so that they wouldn’t all get used up and then this blog turn into a ghost town again. However, the challenge is to “blog everyday”, not “write multiple posts in one day, save them up and post them each day”. Although admittedly the latter is usually how I approach NaNo. I get a good headstart, then I take a couple of days off, then I write some more, then I take a week off, then I have manic catchup days etc. which isn’t a good way to write. Routine would be better, a commitment every single day to making progress. So I won’t hold that blogpost in reserve. This mini-post will count as today’s entry, and the larger full entry will just get posted.

30 more days left in October, 30 posts. That will certainly give my brain something to think about, especially as half the reason this blog has been so quiet for a while is lack of post ideas. Still it’s an experiment, we’ll see how well it works.