Skip to main content

Work verses Effort

Writing wise, I'm running into an issue more often than not these days.

On the one hand, there is the "Work" of writing: Putting those words down on paper, editing them, organizing them in an entertaining way, plotting, research, and all of that.

On the other hand, there is the "Effort" of writing: Doing the social media thing (such as this blog, or my Facebook page, etc). I use these marketing tools as a means of recording what my work is doing, where it is going, and just as a kind of journal du jour. That's where the Effort presides.

The heart of the matter is that I am a relatively introverted fellow. I'll occasionally pop my head out of my warren, happily hang out with like-minded folks, quickly exhaust my social reserves, then scamper back to the safety zone (while hyper-analyzing every conversation, pointing out where I screwed something up).

However; I like people (most of 'em anyway).

Anyhew, here's this weeks journal from the Greenshore game design front:

Aug 29:
Entering day 3 of basement cleaning, stressed about… everything. Completed the physical combat portion yesterday, which unlocked a few concepts about the other facets of combat (Mystical and Chi / Psychic). Looking forward to moving on / bouncing back and forth between combat and character development. Been thinking about skills a lot lately and have to jot a few things down…
Aug 30:
Insurance guy and clean up crew show up today for the basement. Looking forward to loosing myself in the writing this morning! Deep in the chi/psychic stuff. Slowly expanding the character sheet as well. The book series focus is on magic, with the chi/psychic stuff serving as a toolkit for a few antagonists. Trying to keep the character sheet a 2-pager; front page being the combat / skill crunch, second page being the finesse mechanics and Powers lists…
Aug 31:
Psychic mechanics clean up day and then tweaking the Chi. Each of these areas have a buy-it-keep-it aspect to them and are much more rigid than the mystic stuff. I feel like I’m short-stacking this side of the game and might put notes together for a Psy-Chi book someday...
Sept 2:
Yah, I wrote yesterday. Never did any notes ‘cause I was too into designing Powers and concepts for the Chi abilities. Wrote a LOT as I waited for the tear-out crew to nuke the drywall in the basement. Only lost a central wall area and a couple of pillars. Today’s focus is going to be all about magic. I’m transferring the magic notes I have from the book’s wiki and formatting them into the game rules…
Sept 3:
Trxf of notes a success! Now I’m massaging them into the ruleset…
Sept 4:

Family bike hike yesterday. Achy shoulders, but a nice time! Still massaging those rules / spells into the ruleset…

Write on, everyone!
-Dave

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Well... It's got "Green" in the title...

Hi all. Well, today I shot out another book to a contest Blockgarten: Gaam's Green Valley This little ditty is a very weird fiction work. It was kicked off back in 2015 during a particularly nasty oil change. Yah, you read that correctly. Okay, story time: It was early Spring, after the thaws. Probably around the month of March. It was overcast, cold, wet, and my sinuses were closed for business. It was early and there had been very little coffee (like, NONE) in my life at that time, due to fasting for a blood draw. I had settled into a nasty mood for a nasty day. So I'm sitting in the waiting room with my iPad in hand. To further embrace the moment, I decided to go full-on gloom and doom: I began browsing through Lovecraft works. The browsing took me into the history of the Lovecraft properties (apparently there are three broad definitions of them: those works that H.P. wanted to give to the world to inspire other authors via family, later works own...

Things Happening in the In-between

Good day, all! Soooooo, I'm working on this second book in the Greenshore Series. Being an RPG gamer who enjoys sagas over one-shots, I'm used to the tandem thinking that goes into a personal development arc within a larger story arc. Unlike RPGs, there is no threat of player characters going rogue and taking off with the plot (or worse, leaving the game story arc behind and deciding to make the game something else). However, it's ALL on the writer. When an RPG saga is 'working' and the player characters are into it, a wonderful synergy occurs that breathes life into the story and the meta-elements of the team. Unique ideas, unexpected sub-plots, each character with its own voice, and the rest of the laundry list of traits each player brings to the table. I have a deeply rooted fear that my characters either (1) all sound the same, or (2) are simple caricatures of the personality I am attempting to convey. The best fix for this fear ...

Kicking off the Writing Season!

Greenshore is coming back online after the Summer break. We have a new NaNoWriMo coming up in a couple of months. I'm happy to report that book 1 has been submitted to DAW and that book 4 is under development for November's NaNoWriMo writing burst. This past Spring and Summer has been a busy one at my end. With the new position of Head of Circulation down at the WJN and the learning curve of being a part of 33 interconnected libraries spread across four counties, things have been busy! I'm happy to report that work-life balance has been restored! My writing group is starting up Sept 9th. My tabletop group is also starting up on Sept 21st. I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new folks! -Dave