I have not updated here in so long that I had to remind myself where my blog even was. That is fine. Things have been moving creatively and that is what matters.
On the writing front, I have been working on three exciting endeavours.
The first, was a D&D short. I wanted to make an exciting game of political intrigue and magic that both served as an introduction to D&D for new players (thus including elements like fights, stealth, puzzles, and plenty of ability checks). I also wanted to make it a bit different from the linear “you do this, fight these, get this, get rewarded” kind of game, so I stirred a great many plot twists into the story.
I asked the players extra questions before game start that would fit their characters into the world and make it feel like they had inhabited it for far longer than the moments the game had been running. Overall, it was a lot of fun and one piece of feedback I got was: “Even after the big bad had been revealed, I still wondered whether maybe we had made the wrong choice and there would be another plot twist.”
Mission accomplished.
The second thing I have been working on is writing a LARP. Not my short evening event as anticipated (the uncertainty of lockdown was too… uncertain for that), but instead a full campaign. That might seem odd as surely a full campaign must include even more uncertainty than an evening game. Right? Not quite…
The main difference is that there are other people also working on it and my main role as a GM is to be part of the writing team and do drawings for props, rather than the logistics.
Although Game 1 has already been postponed until next year due to the currently ongoing lockdown, I am very excited to be part of this project and have already learned so much.
My third writing project is, of course, my novel. Before this current lockdown started in August, I was spending an hour during lunchtime two or three days a week to write. It was going so well, even though an hour is not quite enough time to get deep into the writing headspace.
This November, I decided to do NaNoWriMo again – but a slightly modified version. The 50,000 word goal is more of an indication than a target. The main goal is to write something for at least 30mins each day. I then mark how many words I write, and at the end of the month I will see exactly how much closer I am towards finishing my writing goals.
I made this choice for the sake of quality. Sometimes it is better to produce less in a day for writing that directly contributes to the intent of the chapter.
With all the other things going on, I also wanted to mitigate the stress of feeling like I should be doing more, when I entered NaNoWriMo knowing my capacity was well below 1667 words a day – largely due to working full time and making sure my son is learning during lockdown.
Finally, I mentioned the idea of writing many interconnected shorts. However, the mental workload of creating and maintaining an entire new plot and making it make sense with every new installment seemed like more than I was willing to take on at this present moment. Instead, I have been writing one-off shorts, which both allow me to practice specific areas of writing as well as committing some of the shorter stories that bounce around in my head to paper. I am thinking that this blog may be a good place to share the one-two page works.
That will be all for now.
Stay well and stay safe.
Creative Adventures 