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The point of the exercise was to write a short paragraph from three starting phrases. The phrases were:
I recall...
The product recall...
I recall...
I know, the last phrase is exactly the same as the first. Here's what I wrote:
I recall a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. They were far more sophisticated than most people think. Their greatest joy in life was sitting down for afternoon tea and biscuits.
The product recall of Wooligan-Wazawams™ had everyone baffled. Most people had no idea what was wrong with them. Had they proved to be not wooly enough? Or were the wazawams out of hand? What if we're never really aware?
I recall writing a love letter. I took my time figuring out exactly what I wanted to say. Then, I carefully selected just the right words to use. I wrote it all very neatly on the nicest stationary I had. To this day, I can't recall who she was.
There you have it. Hope you enjoyed them. Have you found any writing exercises that have helped jump-start your writing?
He winked...
I blinked...
She batted her eyes...
He was always squinting...
And here's what I wrote:
He winked at me. I threw up a little in my mouth.
I blinked and nothing changed. I moved my hand in front of my face. At least, I think that's where I was moving them. There was nothing. I scrambled through the dark for the light, stubbing my tow. I flipped the switch. Nothing. I was blind. Or, the power had gone out during the night.
She batted her eyes. Was she trying to get my attention? I looked away. I heard her adjusting her pose on the sofa next to me. I found an incredibly fascinating spot on the wall to stare at. She cleared her throat. How long must I wait for my ride to be ready to leave?
He was always squinting. It was an irritating trait that made all of his students uncomfortable. I always felt he was looking a little too hard at me. It was the worst when he called on me to read in class. When I was finished I would just sink into my chair. I couldn't bare to look at him until he had diverted his attention to another student.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know. ^_^
I just saw this trailer for a video game in production called Final Fantasy Versus XIII. This game has been in production for a long time, and every time I see some new little clip from the game I get excited. It just looks so cool! Take this newest trailer, for example. I can't understand a word these characters are saying, but just the imagery makes me want to write a dark, epic, action-adventure story.
The original League presented in the comics consists of Allan Quatermain (King Solomon’s Mines), Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Dr. Jekyll (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), The Invisible Man (The Invisible Man), and Mina Murray (Dracula). The movie added the characters of Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).
So, I got to thinking about this idea and decided to assemble my own League. Here are my picks and a little information on how they would contribute to the team.
Sherlock Holmes (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
After the murder of Dr. Watson during the course of one of Holmes’ investigations, the brilliant detective falls into a deep depression and is completely overtaken by his cocaine habit. He becomes even more of a recluse, turning away all cases and calls for aid. Finally, in
The unquestioned leader of the group, Holmes would use his logic and investigation skills to identify their opponents, deduce their plans and devise effective countermeasures.
The Artful Dodger (Oliver Twist)
The most notorious thief London’s ever know, there isn’t a place or a pocket Jack Dawkins can’t get into and out of without getting caught. That is, until he tries to steal the crown jewels. He is finally arrested while attempting to escape
The Artful Dodger is the team’s sneak, using his skills for covert missions to infiltrate enemy strongholds or misappropriate enemy resources.
Frankenstein’s Monster (Frankenstein)
Following clues from the letters of Captain Robert Walton, Sherlock Holmes tracks down the monstrous creation of Dr. Victor Frankenstein deep in the
Frankenstein’s monster is the team’s muscle, using his brute strength to go head-to-head in combat with their toughest opponents.
Red-Handed Jill (Peter and Wendy)
On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Wendy Darling yearns to escape pressures of growing up. To her surprise and delight, Peter Pan appears again at her bedroom window and whisks her away to Neverland. While this is exactly the escape she was looking for, she quickly finds herself disenchanted with Peter’s immature bravado. She soon falls in with the pirates, who are have been lacking a firm leader since the death of Captain Hook. Before long, she takes up her pirate name, Red-Handed Jill, and leads the pirates in a war against the Lost Boys. Peter is heartbroken by the betrayal, and Neverland begins to wither under the pirate onslaught. As the pirates and the Lost Boys battle to a stalemate, Jill realizes the destruction she’s brought to Neverland and feels remorse. She offers a truce, and as penance, leaves Neverland with the rest of the pirates, never to return again. Back in
Red-Handed Jill has a sharp tongue and a sharp blade. She also has a crew of loyal buccaneers at her command and a rogue fairy as her companion. Her flying galleon, the Jolly Roger, provides transportation for the League.
The Phantom (The Phantom of the Opera)
Searching for more extraordinary people to round out his team, Sherlock Holmes investigates the great fire at the Paris Opera House and rumors of the opera ghost that once haunted the place. Through an interview with a ballerina named Meg Giry, Holmes learns that the phantom was actually a deranged genius named Erik, and that he survived the fire and escaped
The Phantom’s cunning is almost a match for Holmes’, but his expertise lies in devising traps and ambushes for their opponents. He is also an inventor, a magician, and a ruthless combatant.
Those are my picks, along with some rough ideas about how each of them would end up joining this elite team of crime fighters. Just for fun, do you have any thoughts on this concept? What fictional characters would you choose for your own League of Extraordinary Folks?
Just as a creative diversion, I decided to try casting the main characters of my fan novel Star Wars: Aspirations. I'm still uncertain if these are the actors and actresses I would actually choose in the hypothetical situation that my story should be made into a movie, but these are the ones I'm leaning towards right now.
Emma Watson as Rani Dashel
Honestly, I've never seen her in anything, so I can't really judge her acting abilities. She has kind of the look I'd imagine for the character, though, and she's a good age for the part. With a few adjustments in makeup I think she could easily portray the very young Rani in the beginning of the story and the more adult Rani later on.
Chris Pine as Wess Nayne
In Star Trek he played James Kirk as an intelligent man with surprising depth of character. It's kind of funny, but one of the things I was looking for here was an actor who could look good with a scowl. I don't really picture Wess smiling much. Chris looks a tad young for Wess, but he's actually about the right age for the character. With a little bit of stubble I think it could work.
Kate Beckinsale as Kalina Sah
She's played tough, butt-kicking characters before. I think she would be totally cool as the strong-willed Jedi Master.
Milo Ventimiglia as Marcus Jrent
His character on Heroes is incredibly kind and sincere - not what you'd expect for Marcus. But Milo is a good actor and I think he could definitely turn on the charm to play this dashing scoundrel. Besides, there is a bit more sincerity to Marcus than it might at first seem.
Cate Blanchett as Deela Tarule
This role requires a more mature actress with beauty and class. Having played royalty on more than one occasion is indicative of the amount of class she has.
Robert Duvall as Riv'var Tal
I picture Riv being completely computer generated in a live-action movie, in order to do the alien justice. So, I was mainly looking for someone to provide his voice. It needs to be an older man with a sort of gruff voice, but he needs to have a tough, grandfatherly feel as well. The voice would then probably be slightly digitally enhanced to add even a little bit more of a growl to it. Duvall can certainly play an eccentric character, too, which further qualifies him for the role.
Corry Edwards as Tefo
Like Riv'var Tal, Tefo would probably be either completely computer generated, or perhaps a midget in a suit. Either way, I was simply looking for someone to provide a voice. Corry Edwards did the voice of Twitchy in Hoodwinked. I think if you toned down the speed and pitch of that character's voice by about half, that's roughly what I imagine Tefo would sound like.
Hugo Weaving as The Imperial Inquisitor
He doesn't show up until about two thirds of the way through the story, and even as far as Chapter 18 he hasn't been named, but aside from the characters' inner demons, the Imperial Inquisitor is the major villian of Aspirations. He embodies everything that Rani and Wess seek to oppose. Hugo Weaving can do creepy and intimidating, which is exactly what this character needs.
So, those are my choices as of now for the main cast of Aspirations. What do you think? Are there other actors or actresses that you think would fit the roles better? Let me know by posting a comment.
In early January I wrote a short story called The Most Precious Gift about a teenage girl named Dorothy whose mother died giving birth to her. The story was inspired by a conversation my sister Heather and I had spurred on by an article in Awake magazine on the subject of abortion. Shortly afterward I did a pencil sketch of the troubled protagonist. The sketch sat around for a few months, and just this evening I finally took the time to scan it and do some digital coloring for it. Here are both my original sketch and the finished product. Please feel free to leave any comments on the art and the story (if you've read it).
In late 2002 a very unique show aired on television called Firefly. This sci-fi show featured strong western motifs as it followed the lives of a crew of renegades operating a mercenary ship on the fringes of space. The stories were well told, the characters had depth, and the dialog was tightly written. Unfortunately, the show was short lived at only fourteen episodes. A movie sequel called Serenity was released in 2005, and the story has also been expanded through two graphic novels. Even with the relatively small extent of this franchise, its creators have been able to depict a setting rich in flavor and texture. They've provided just enough for a creative fan to build on and imagine their own stories set in the 'verse of Firefly and Serenity.
That's why it was very cool that they released the Serenity Role Playing Game. As a fan of the setting, and of roleplaying, a couple of years ago I got some of my siblings and friends together to play. We created our own characters to crew our own Firefly-class starship and had some pretty cool adventures together. A few months ago, I got to thinking that it could be very fun and interresting to turn our adventures into a series of short stories, and even expand on them. I'm calling this new "spin-off" series Flyin'. This title is taken from an exchange of dialog between two characters in the pilot episode of the original show.
Simon: Are you always this sentimental?
Mal: I had a good day.
Simon: You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages... half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded including yourself, and you're harboring known fugitives.
Mal: We're still flying.
Simon: That's not much.
Mal: It's enough.
To me, that exchange summerizes pretty well the main theme of the show. It's about people living rugged, dangerous lives, and barely scraping by. For many of them, if they're still flying that's good enough.
So, as I set out to begin writing these stories, I found that I was having some difficulty getting a handle on four of the characters I would be writing about, since they were invented by my siblings and friends while we played the roleplaying game, rather than being my own creations. I got the idea to draw illustrations of each of the seven main characters, and I've found that in doing so I've been able to get a better grasp on the characters. So, here below I'm sharing what might be considered an ad of sorts diplaying the main cast of my stories along with the title of the series (click for full view).
I find that I often find inspiration for writing in songs. For example, I once wrote a short story called “The Old Man’s Bar” inspired by the song “Broadway” from The Goo Goo Dolls.
A while ago I started writing a short story inspired by the song “The World at Large” by Modest Mouse. I haven’t finished the story yet, because I got stuck on an important detail, but hopefully I’ll be able to complete it soon.
Recently, I was listening to the song “Dust Bowl Dance” by Mumford & Sons and thought there was a really powerful story in that song. Actually, I could see it as the seed of a great scenario for the role-playing game Dogs in the Vineyard.
Do you ever find inspiration for writing in music? Which songs have inspired you?
I was recently reading Motor City Gamewerks, a blog by Jason Marker. Jason Marker is a freelance writer who writes for role-playing games. He published two articles on his blog recently about where he gets his ideas and inspirations. While he talks specifically about writing for games, the principles he discusses apply equally to writing fiction for any medium. I enjoyed them emmensely, and found them very insightful, so I thought I would share links to them here. (Disclaimer: These articles may contain a little bit of very mild profanity.)
Catching Fireflies: The Place Where Ideas Come From
The Place Where I Come From is a Small Town: or Everything is Interesting if You Look Hard Enough
Every once in a while, I wish that I could experience a normal day. I imagine everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a “normal day”, but for me it would go something like this:
On a normal day, I would wake up when my alarm clock goes off and I would get right out of bed. I wouldn’t roll over and try to pick up my dream again. I wouldn’t stay in bed, distracted by a million ideas, until I absolutely had to get out of bed and rush around in order to get where I was supposed to be five minutes late. I would be on time to work, or service, or wherever I had to be, and my mind would be on the task at hand.
I wouldn’t pause to take a picture of an empty cup holder. I wouldn’t overhear half a second of a cell phone conversation and start imagining the entire context. I wouldn’t spend twenty minutes mulling over the story implications of attaching a time-warping quantum singularity on a mundane alarm clock. I wouldn’t once see a grain of rice on the floor and be inspired to design a card game. When I listened to the lyrics of my favorite song I would just enjoy them as a song, not as the seeds of a sprawling epic adventure saga.
Instead, I would take a walk through a park and just enjoy the breeze. I’d play with a child, and my heart would glow when I saw them smile or heard them laugh. I’d spend an hour in the company of someone I cared for and my mind would be on nothing but her. I would go to bed satisfied, instead of anxious for the next day to come. I would fall asleep quietly, instead of in the midst of tired conversation with an imaginary friend.
To me, that would be a “normal day”. I wouldn’t want to live every day that way, mind you, but just for once it would be a nice change of pace.
Ever feel like you can't experience a normal day? What would constitute a "normal day" to you?
Star Trek is a 2009 film that offers a new take on the classic series. The film features time-traveling Romulans from the future causing events that create an alternate timeline. This allows the movie to go back and explore the early adventures of the original show’s characters without facing continuity restraints. The film focuses primarily on Kirk and Spock, showing bits of their early lives and how each of them ended up joining Starfleet. Things quickly escalate when Starfleet is called on to aid the planet Vulcan – a mission that goes sour quickly, leaving many Starfleet vessels destroyed and the enterprise without a captain. The fledgling crew of the enterprise, most of whom are still cadets, must pull together to overcome the Romulan threat.
This film was very well written. It captured a sense of epic adventure and heroism that Star Trek often seems to lack. They also did a good job writing and casting the characters. I felt like I could be watching younger versions of the original cast. This film actually made me like Kirk. I didn’t much care for him in the original series and movies. It also gave a new perspective on Spock, my favorite character from the original show, which only made him more intriguing. I like how they made Spock’s repressed emotions an actual plot point, rather than just a minor background element.
This film definitely revived the franchise for me. I’m looking forward to a sequel.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Star Trek.
Space Exploration Adventures: This movie got me excited for the idea of playing an RPG about space exploration adventures. I’ve been working on an RPG of my own for a while now that would essentially be Star Trek with the branding removed. Some of the things I like about Star Trek that could make for interesting roleplaying are the galactic politics, the alien cultures, and the random encounters made while exploring new regions of space.
Character Driven Plot: To a large extent, the plot of Star Trek is tied very closely to the characters involved. I think the film did a great job of making the characters matter to the overall story. This could/should be done in any RPG, but this film made me a little more alert to strive for that kind of character involvement in RPGs.
A day late but not a dollar short! Here’s this week’s weekly world.
Here are the setting elements:
Setting: Space Colony
Tone: Swashbuckling
Things: Advanced Intelligence, Grudge
Tech Level: Low Magic
Place: River
And here are the plot elements:
Opposition: Warlord
Plot Action: Convince (Malignant) Advanced Intelligence
Plot Action: Duel (Healthy) Heist
Again, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements.
My Weekly World: Contact Station
In the distant future, an Earth space colony orbits the planet Jai’ju’bal where humans have discovered their first intergalactic neighbors. The Jai’juls are a primitive people. Their civilization is ancient, but a history of frequent warfare and natural disasters has prevented them from progressing beyond the iron age. Human scientists and diplomats prepare for first contact, having observed the Jai’buls for some time from a distance.
However, their plans for a peaceful introduction might be derailed when a xenoarcheologist decides to make an unapproved landing mission to Jai’ju’bal. His goal is to infiltrate an ancient temple built at the mouth of Jai’ju’bal’s largest river and steal valuable artifacts. Earth Force commanders discover the plot shortly after he leaves the space colony, and they dispatch a squad of daring space marines to intercept him before he can do any damage.
Things go awry when the presence of the humans in the ancient temple awakens an immortal alien warlord who had been imprisoned there. Lord Darkrul, a highly evolved Jai’jul mutant, possesses superior mental powers that the superstitious natives attribute to magic. Lord Darkrul begins again his campaign for world domination, seething with anger for the years he’s been imprisoned.
In an attempt to right their mistake, the human xenoarcheologist and space marines devise a plan to defeat the Jai’jul warlord. After evacuating the space colony, they convince Lord Darkul that a being of his power shouldn’t be content to rule from a terrestrial throne, but should rule from the heavens. They lure him to their space colony and then blow it up, destroying Darkul once and for all, and barely escaping in the process.
What do you think? Be sure to post your own take on the elements in the comments if you haven't already.
Here's the next Weekly World. This technically makes two in the same week. Last week's world was late and didn't get posted until Monday, but I wanted to go ahead and post again today rather than getting behind. Once again, string these randomly generated elements together into a workable setting and plot. See previous Weekly Worlds here.
Here are the setting elements:
Setting: Medieval
Tone: Pulp
Things: Disaster, Mechanic
Tech Level: Post-Apocalyptic
Place: Hospital
And here are the plot elements:
Opposition: Tragic Villain
Plot Action: Convince (Strong) Pollution
Plot Action: Win (Religious) Launch
Again, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements.
My Weekly World: Cult of the God Seekers
After nuclear war brings an end to civilization as we know it and leaves the Earth a burning wasteland, the surviving remnants of mankind struggle for survival. Lacking access to advanced technology, a new dark age begins. Men pile up the ruble from devastated cities to construct castles and fortresses. The strongest warriors set boundaries and establish themselves as new kings and barons. Times are difficult, and often the line between life and death rests on the edge of a sword.
Only a scant few individuals retain any knowledge of advanced technology. These mechanics are revered as wizards, and are considered both an asset and a threat by the common people. A group of mechanics has established a religious order called the Cult of the God Seekers. They preach that god abandoned the world when the cataclysm occurred, and that he no longer believes mankind wants his aid. They claim that the only way to reach god and ask for his aid is to launch a rocket into space.
The heroes, a band of traveling warriors and scholars seeking knowledge of the old world, discover that the God Seekers will cause a terrible tragedy if they succeed in launching their rocket. The launch will release very strong pollutants that will quickly destroy the already unstable atmosphere and bring an ultimate end to all life on Earth. What’s worse is that Bishop Krow, the leader of the cult, knows this will happen. Years ago, Krow’s family was brutally murdered at the command of a local king, when Krow refused to build a mechanical army for the king. Now he seeks to end his own life and take vengeance in one fell swoop. The heroes must hurry to convince the local populace of the imminent danger, and rouse them to action to prevent the launch, while they take on Krow in his mechanical fortress.
What do you think? Be sure to post your own take on the elements in the comments if you haven't already.
Ack! This article is a few days late!
Here's the next Weekly World. String these randomly generated elements together into a workable setting and plot. See previous Weekly Worlds here.
Here are the setting elements:
Setting: Stone Age
Tone: Conspiracy
Things: Mass Transit, Child
Tech Level: Domesticated Animals
Place: Beach
And here are the plot elements:
Opposition: Doppelganger
Plot Action: Blackmail (Classy) Computers
Plot Action: Clean (Sci-Fi) Disguise
Again, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements.
My Weekly World: The Secrets in Stone
The stone age world is ruled by the gods themselves, who issue commands through their chosen priests. While man has yet to learn the means for metal working, their numbers have multiplied greatly forcing them to spread out over a large region along the coast. In order to maintain control, the gods sent instructions from their temple describing how to build a stone railway upon which teams of mammoths could pull long trains of stone-wheeled carts. This rail system allowed priests to travel the land, keeping tabs on the goings-on in even far-flung villages both to the North and the South. By this means also, supplies and materials are transported to the capitol and redistributed as needed.
The heroes are a group of priests who travel the rail system investigating the affairs of different towns and acting on behalf of the gods. Problems soon arise when accusations of treachery are leveled against them one after the other. It soon becomes apparent that someone is engaging in underhanded dealings while perfectly mimicking their appearance. The heroes must pursue this doppelganger in order to clear their names and foil his nefarious plot.
Eventually they discover that their foe is actually a man from times more ancient than their own. Long ago, humans built an incredibly advanced civilization. When man was teetering on the brink of self-destruction they turned the care of their civilization over to a group of networked supercomputers that would determine the best course for mankind and dictate their every action. The computers decided that man was not ready for the level of technology they had achieved and so gradually guided them into a new stone age. Eventually all memory of their past glory was lost, and the computers had come to be regarded as gods. Now a man kept in stasis for all this time has reemerged into the new stone age, but knows the truth about the past and the nature of the gods. Using a high-tech holoshroud device that was buried with him, he’s been mimicking the appearances of various priests in order to get close to the gods. Now he gathered enough evidence of the gods’ true nature to completely undo all of their hard work. His goal, however, is not to act on this plan, but to merely use it as blackmail against the computers. He’ll keep their secret safe in exchange for the wealth and power that comes with the position of high priest.
What do you think? Be sure to post your own take on the elements in the comments if you haven't already.
Here's round two of my newest ongoing series of articles: Weekly World. The object of this series is an exercise in creative setting and plot building. The goal is to string the randomly generated setting and plot elements listed below into a workable premise for a story.
Here are the setting elements:
Setting: Mystical Orient
Tone: Campy
Things: Blood, Farm
Tech Level: Virtual Reality
Place: Lair
And here are the plot elements:
Opposition: Movie Monsters
Plot Action: Cover Up (Awkward) Animal
Plot Action: Destroy (Funky) Noble
Again, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements. If you haven't seen last week's Weekly World you can check it out here for ideas.
My Weekly World: Squatting Tiger, Bashful Dragon: In Virtual Land!
In the future, everyone spends their lives blissfully exploring Virtual Land, the persistent multi-user virtual reality game, while robots dutifully care for the more mundane matters of civilization. Virtual Land is a vast landscape divided into multiple regions, each hosted on separate servers and designed along different themes. In Mystical Orient, players can become powerful kung-fu warriors and test their skill against one another.
Recently though, a tragedy has occurred in Virtual Land. A player has hacked the Mystical Orient server! This results in a band of traveling kung-fu warriors returning to their home village to discover that all of the NPC farmers have been slaughtered by rampaging movie monsters. The heroes immediately set out to avenge the blood of their virtual friends. Their investigations lead them quickly to one of their own friends, a young boy who plays a kung-fu monkey with atomic fart attacks. In real life this kid is a crack hacker. When put under pressure, he admits to doing the hacking, but explains that he was blackmailed by another more sinister player. The heroes decide to save their friend from account termination by covering up his involvement while they search for the lair of the real perpetrator, a snooty kid who plays a nobleman with a funky hat that resembles a Chinese takeout box, so that they can destroy him before he causes more havoc.
What do you think? Be sure to post your own take on the elements in the comments if you haven't already.
This idea just came to me the other day, but I thought I would mention it here and see if anyone else was interested. I was thinking that it would be fun and interesting to get a few people to collaborate on a fictional universe. The idea is that each contributor would write their own separate stories, but that they would all take place in the same fictional universe. This could work in much the same way that Marvel and DC comics have their own universes home to dozens of authors writing their own stories about hundreds of different characters. The same can be said of the Star Wars and Star Trek universes, as well as a plethora of other fictional universes. I envision multiple people writing separate stories, but borrowing places, characters, and events from each other to create a level of connectedness across the whole project.
I was thinking that one possible vehicle for carrying such a project would be a magazine. I’m picturing about 10-20 pages of short stories and serialized story arcs published as a downloadable PDF file every other month. It seems like that would be a good way to collect different authors’ works and make them available together. Having a goal of publishing 10-20 pages every two months creates a generous schedule that will hopefully act as a motivator to actually do some writing, but not be an unrealistic expectation for a group of people who are no doubt already leading busy lives.
As far as the nature of this fictional universe goes, I’m open to ideas, though I was thinking something with science fiction and/or superheroes might be good as it would give authors plenty of room to work in, with lots of options and ideas to explore.
If you enjoy creative writing, and would be interested in exploring this idea further, please comment below. I’d like to open a dialog with anyone else who might want to collaborate on a project like this so that we can start working out the details.
Today I’m starting a new series of articles I would like to continue to publish on a weekly basis. The object of this series is an exercise in creative setting and plot building. I got the idea from a role-playing game product called Instant Game, by Animalball Partners, which is available as a free PDF download here. One of the things Instant Game provides is a system for rolling on a series of charts to randomly select setting and plot elements. The GM and the players are then supposed to connect the dots and turn these elements into a playable game. I thought doing this would be a good way to get the creative juices flowing.
So, here are the setting elements I rolled today:
Setting: Institution/Institutionalized
Tone: Swashbuckling
Things: Mecha, Crash Site
Tech Level: Artificial Intelligence
Place: Ruins
And here are the plot elements I rolled:
Opposition: Political Group
Plot Action: Infiltrate (Illusory) Blood
Plot Action: Rescue (Ancient) Child
Alright, before you read further, I challenge you to take 10-20 minutes to develop these elements into a workable fictional setting and plot, and post your results in the comments below. After you’re done, you can come back and read my interpretation of these elements.
My Weekly World: Musketeers 2201
Civilization as we know it ended in 2101, when Earth was struck by a rain of meteors. This left much of the world devastated and in ruins. Out of the ashes of this disaster civilization arose anew. Today much of the surviving humans are united under one king. The king’s most loyal retainers are brave and gallant soldiers who pilot giant, gun-wielding mecha called Muskets. These Musketeers receive expert training at the renowned Musketeers Academy, built at the crash site of the largest meteor, where they spar with both steel and wits.
The most accomplished recent graduates of the academy receive a special mission. Rumor has it that a secret society of noblemen, calling themselves the High Bloods, is hatching a plot against the king. No one has been able to identify any of the members of this group as of yet. The Musketeers are to pose as political dissenters and attempt to infiltrate the High Bloods. Following clues around the world, most of their leads end up as dead ends. However, while exploring some dangerous ruins rumored to be the hideout of a High Bloods cell, they discover a young child who has been in stasis since before the disaster. As the child gradually shares knowledge of the old world, the Musketeers begin to suspect that the High Bloods do not exist at all, but are in fact a lie propagated by androids who survived the meteor shower in secret. The High Blood conspiracy was a ploy to misdirect the attention of the king and his Musketeers while the androids prepared to launch a massive offensive against the kingdom.
Yeah, it’s a bit convoluted, but what do you think?
Back in November, I said that my weekly time log posts would become monthly time log posts, and I haven't posted about my time log project since. Well, I've still been logging how I use my time, and I thought I'd post an update regarding the month of February.
Last month I spent 130 hours on theocratic activities. That includes 94 hours working with the RBC #10 in Oviedo. I'm really happy that my time spent on theocratic activities has moved to first place (after sleep that is).
Next I spent 76.5 hours on secular work. With the holiday season well behind us my work as dropped to part time hours, which I'm fine with for now. I had been hoping to gain full-time employment this year, but I've changed my attitude somewhat and am planning on putting off working full-time in favor of trying to regular pioneer.
I spent 34 hours reading. That isn't entirely accurate. Because a lot of my "work" with the RBC involves waiting around for materials to be delivered, I actually spent quite a few hours reading while I was there. These 34 hours represent time devoted solely to reading.
Creative pastimes, such as working on this blog and my wiki, creative writing, art, game design, and RPG prep, received 47 hours of my time. I'm pretty happy with that. I don't feel like that's an exorbitant amount of time, and I think I've accomplished a fair amount on my various projects.
Entertainment took up another 47 hours. This includes watching movies and shows, playing card games, board games, role-playing games, and sports.
Lastly, I spent 5.5 hours on housework, errands, and shopping.
Overall, I'm very happy with how I spent my time last month. I'm actually very happy with my life in general. Not that everything is going perfectly, but for the first time in a long time I feel like I'm right where I need to be in life, doing what I need to be doing. And that makes the bumps in the road a lot easier to put up with.
I was just reviewing my posts on this blog up to this point. I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t written very many new articles lately. I wanted to try to post at least once a week, but it’s been a lot more hit-and-miss than that. I’d like to write about, and post some pictures of, the Kingdom Hall building site in Oviedo. I’d also like to write some more “Words to Live By” articles. I just haven’t taken the time to do either yet.
Well, in case anyone is wondering, I’ve been very busy with a lot of exciting stuff; I simply haven’t blogged about any of it. I’m doing good to keep up with writing my reviews! I’d like to share some recent experiences with people here, and there’s some other projects, etc. I’d like to write about. I’ll try to get back into regular blogging as soon as possible. ^_^
In the meantime, is there anything YOU would like to see me write about?