Mother: I've nothing to say.
Me (in my snarky tone of voice): Well, I've things to say, whether you find any of them interesting or not...
Mother cackles with laughter.
***
Thoughts on Writing
I've managed to slice away over 200 pages from the novel that I'm revising. It was 890 pages, it is now 670 pages. It's actually not as hard as I expected.
Meanwhile, I've decided to write a prelude novel to the science-fiction novel that I was working on prior to the pandemic. The hardest bit about writing science fiction and fantasy (for me, your mileage may vary on this) is the world-building. Too much, you turn folks off, too little, you turn folks off, don't get it right, you turn folks off. Science fiction and fantasy fans are unfortunately insanely detail oriented, so that's the other problem.
Some people love world-building. They actually prefer it to developing character, story, plot, or anything else. Which is a problem with a lot of sci-fantasy novels - there's no real plot or character development, and you kind of get bogged down in the world building.
Anyhow, we'll see where it goes. Since I'm writing it in first person - I may be able to handwave a few things.
***
Thoughts on Dungeons and Dragons and role playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game that was originally created by American game designers Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson and published by by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR) in 1974. Before D&D was the game as we know it, it grew out of a medieval war game called Chainmail.
Book Riot - when was dungeons and dragons invented
Interesting, I thought it was much later than that? I didn't see it until the 1980s. But I was also only eight in 1974, and we weren't really playing board games like that back then. We did play adventure and role playing games - but not with costumes as such, and usually made them up ourselves. There was no book. No rules. It was spontaneous. ( Read more... )
I doubt I'd have enjoyed D&D that much:
( Read more... )
I do like solo games - like Redecor and Wordl. I also loved Tetris. Dominoes. Anything with matching of patterns or matching colors, words, pictures, tiles. I'd probably be good at Mai-john. I also like strategy games, such as chess or backgammon or Clue.
But anything with an embarrassment or humiliation quotient - no.
***
Shen Yun
They've been advertising the heck out of Shen Yun. I considered going once, but a friend explained to me that it was cult. Stepping into the Uncanny Unsettling World of Shen-Yun.
But you do get inundated with the advertising in New York City around January through April. It's on subways, shopkeepers doors, and on television ads. They certainly know how to market themselves - which alone gives me pause.
***
Thoughts on Books
I'm reading "Magic Tides" by Ilona Andrews - which is told in two points of view for a change, Curran's and Kate's. It's a sequel to the previous series.
The good news? It sparked my own imagination and story - the post-apocalyptic science fiction I was writing pre-pandemic. So I may continue.
Anything that sparks the creative juices.
The Magic Series by Andrews isn't for everyone. If militaristic post-apocalyptic fiction doesn't work for you - best to skip. I like the world-building, and how the writer does it without going into too much detail, but enough to make it feel real and interesting. Also how she manages to skirt around issues like linguistics, and utilizes lesser known mythologies like the Babylonian, Asian, Egyptian and Russian. Too many fantasy novels fall into Judeo-Christian mythos or Grecian, this goes in a different direction. But the protagonist is snarky, and married to a lion shape-shifter. There's no yearning. No angst. They are married - so no, oh, I want him but can I? I like the exploration of a marriage for a change. It's a nice change of pace and kind of innovative. No will they or won't they, and less emphasis on sex. I like their banter, but both are super-powerful, so? Not for everyone. Then again, is anything?
Bride by Alix Harrow - isn't working for me. ( Read more... )
Yellowface by RF. Kuang - I'm kind of bored? ( Read more... )
X-men by Gerry Dugan - I think the difficulty I have with this writer's take on the series and the other current ones is a lack of focus? In some respects, I like it. But in others - a twenty page comic is not a lot of space for multiple stories and action. It feels a bit scattered. Also far too many characters.
Thoughts on the boat-load of articles on Narcissism via Internet Web Browsers
There a lot of articles on narcissism online. Microsoft Edge, my workplace internet browser, keeps throwing them at me. I must be doing something that is making it pull those? That and lists of horror films. There are at least three films coming out that focus on spiders. ( Unrelated sub-tangent on spider films - note no pictures of spiders, I'm terrified of them, you won't see any photos of spiders in this journal ever, just in case you were worried about that for any reason. )
But the "narcissism" (I struggle spelling that word. Can one be a narcissist if they can't spell narcissism? It's the number of s's that throws me off. I either want to add another s or subtract one) articles are annoying (note they aren't journal studies or the medical articles, but cheap journalistic ones thrown at me by a work web browser). ( rant about narcissist articles )
Me (in my snarky tone of voice): Well, I've things to say, whether you find any of them interesting or not...
Mother cackles with laughter.
***
Thoughts on Writing
I've managed to slice away over 200 pages from the novel that I'm revising. It was 890 pages, it is now 670 pages. It's actually not as hard as I expected.
Meanwhile, I've decided to write a prelude novel to the science-fiction novel that I was working on prior to the pandemic. The hardest bit about writing science fiction and fantasy (for me, your mileage may vary on this) is the world-building. Too much, you turn folks off, too little, you turn folks off, don't get it right, you turn folks off. Science fiction and fantasy fans are unfortunately insanely detail oriented, so that's the other problem.
Some people love world-building. They actually prefer it to developing character, story, plot, or anything else. Which is a problem with a lot of sci-fantasy novels - there's no real plot or character development, and you kind of get bogged down in the world building.
Anyhow, we'll see where it goes. Since I'm writing it in first person - I may be able to handwave a few things.
***
Thoughts on Dungeons and Dragons and role playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game that was originally created by American game designers Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson and published by by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR) in 1974. Before D&D was the game as we know it, it grew out of a medieval war game called Chainmail.
Book Riot - when was dungeons and dragons invented
Interesting, I thought it was much later than that? I didn't see it until the 1980s. But I was also only eight in 1974, and we weren't really playing board games like that back then. We did play adventure and role playing games - but not with costumes as such, and usually made them up ourselves. There was no book. No rules. It was spontaneous. ( Read more... )
I doubt I'd have enjoyed D&D that much:
( Read more... )
I do like solo games - like Redecor and Wordl. I also loved Tetris. Dominoes. Anything with matching of patterns or matching colors, words, pictures, tiles. I'd probably be good at Mai-john. I also like strategy games, such as chess or backgammon or Clue.
But anything with an embarrassment or humiliation quotient - no.
***
Shen Yun
They've been advertising the heck out of Shen Yun. I considered going once, but a friend explained to me that it was cult. Stepping into the Uncanny Unsettling World of Shen-Yun.
But you do get inundated with the advertising in New York City around January through April. It's on subways, shopkeepers doors, and on television ads. They certainly know how to market themselves - which alone gives me pause.
***
Thoughts on Books
I'm reading "Magic Tides" by Ilona Andrews - which is told in two points of view for a change, Curran's and Kate's. It's a sequel to the previous series.
The good news? It sparked my own imagination and story - the post-apocalyptic science fiction I was writing pre-pandemic. So I may continue.
Anything that sparks the creative juices.
The Magic Series by Andrews isn't for everyone. If militaristic post-apocalyptic fiction doesn't work for you - best to skip. I like the world-building, and how the writer does it without going into too much detail, but enough to make it feel real and interesting. Also how she manages to skirt around issues like linguistics, and utilizes lesser known mythologies like the Babylonian, Asian, Egyptian and Russian. Too many fantasy novels fall into Judeo-Christian mythos or Grecian, this goes in a different direction. But the protagonist is snarky, and married to a lion shape-shifter. There's no yearning. No angst. They are married - so no, oh, I want him but can I? I like the exploration of a marriage for a change. It's a nice change of pace and kind of innovative. No will they or won't they, and less emphasis on sex. I like their banter, but both are super-powerful, so? Not for everyone. Then again, is anything?
Bride by Alix Harrow - isn't working for me. ( Read more... )
Yellowface by RF. Kuang - I'm kind of bored? ( Read more... )
X-men by Gerry Dugan - I think the difficulty I have with this writer's take on the series and the other current ones is a lack of focus? In some respects, I like it. But in others - a twenty page comic is not a lot of space for multiple stories and action. It feels a bit scattered. Also far too many characters.
Thoughts on the boat-load of articles on Narcissism via Internet Web Browsers
There a lot of articles on narcissism online. Microsoft Edge, my workplace internet browser, keeps throwing them at me. I must be doing something that is making it pull those? That and lists of horror films. There are at least three films coming out that focus on spiders. ( Unrelated sub-tangent on spider films - note no pictures of spiders, I'm terrified of them, you won't see any photos of spiders in this journal ever, just in case you were worried about that for any reason. )
But the "narcissism" (I struggle spelling that word. Can one be a narcissist if they can't spell narcissism? It's the number of s's that throws me off. I either want to add another s or subtract one) articles are annoying (note they aren't journal studies or the medical articles, but cheap journalistic ones thrown at me by a work web browser). ( rant about narcissist articles )