A cautionary title

A year or more back, I wrote a Gamebook and it didn't end well, and here's the story of why.

Nearly done

I'm finally reaching the end of the work associated with my game book. This has been an ongoing project for most of the year. I've only be working on it in fits and starts. Indeed it was mostly written during my lunchtimes at work, just a few paragraphs a day. Then I left it sitting for a while before starting on the editing.

I did two full editing passes, again during lunchtimes covering just a few entries per day, then let it sit again.

Then I sent it out to a few beta readers, only one of whom sent me feedback. I applied the fixes he suggested and let it rest again.

So here I am now doing the final proof-read-aloud. That's reading the whole book aloud. I'm so glad I opted to give this try. Even after all those passes once I read it aloud I found even more problems to fix!  This is process I'll definitely use in future.

With luck by the end of the weekend I'll have this book done and uploaded to LuLu as a POD book and I'll order a proof copy. If that comes through without issue I'll be foisting this on the whole world!

A winner!

I've just come third in a short story competition, a feat of which I am immensely proud. An odd little competition where the competitors were asked to write a short story of no more than 3000 words set in the world of any specific Roleplaying Game the writer wished.

Writing to a short word count proved a challenge. My outline rapidly ballooned and translating it into prose went way past the limit.

Cutting it back was painful. I lost a scenes, flashbacks and entire conversations. These cuts explained character motivations and help the story make sense. They were painful cuts. Then, once they were gone I had to re work other conversations to fill in the gaps.

After that I was still too long! It became a case of working each sentence, looking for a way to rephrase so that it could be reduced. It took three passes of this before I hit the word count limit.

It was a real challenge, hard effort. Seems to have paid off in the end :)

Here's a link to the Entries and Entrants. You may need to log into the RPGGeek site to download the stories .

A pulp story

So with my game book's first draft complete, and sitting to fester for a few weeks, I started looking around for a small project to fill the gap.

Looking through by browser's bookmarks I spotted the Lester Dent pulp plan and decided to give it a go. I'm not writing a noir detective, but have opted instead for a post-apocalyptic story. Like Solomon Kane my hero uses a sword and carries a pistol, but instead of a fantasy background I'm plunging forwards into the sci fi genre.

I wrote the first quarter of the story, which was supposed to be 1500 words, but ended up with 2100. So I've just done a hatchet job on it, but only managed to get it down to 1587. I can't bear to cut any more!

I've started the next segment and will just have to write it using 87 less words...but I'm already running a bit long, considering how much I want to stuff in there.

Hmmm....too wordy, I'm too wordy. Less words, more action.

It's an interesting challenge, having to write less. It's exercising my brain in some new ways and despite the pain of cutting, cutting, cutting; it's a fun thing to do. If you haven't tried it, add it onto your to-do list.

Writing a game book

I've started writing a game book in the style of "choose your own adventure" or more accurately "fighting fantasy".  I have collaborated on one in the past  but this is the first time I've done one on my own.

I have a total of 400 paragraphs to write and have just passed the 250 mark.

Having recently changed jobs I've found my schedules at home have got quite mixed up. The time I used to use for writing is gone.  So I've had to adjust. I've now started using the lunch break at work as my writing time. It has worked out rather well.  I've been getting in the region of 5-8 paragraphs written each working day.

I'm actually quite happy with this arrangement. The office is quite quiet during the lunch hours allowing me to concentrate on the writing. At home I would be disturbed by "Mr Mankey" our cat, trying to take ownership of my lap during writing time!

I nibble my lunch and tap tap tap on the keyboard. It still feels like a break as I'm working on something I find fun!

What Not To Do, Part 1 of n

I often read hints and suggestion in articles about writing and I realised I'd never made a list of them! To me a list is a good way of making sure I do things the right way.  I do it before setting out on a trip, going shopping, working out what chores to do and so on, but I've never done it for my creative writing.

So here is where I start.

1. Remove Copulas

Remove as many instances of "to be" and "was" and make the sentences more dynamic.

2. Don't use ", then"

'Cos it's lame!

Passing 40k

Haven't made a post here in a while, so I thought I'd just recap what I've been up to since April.

I've written and released an Micro RPG (Role Playing Game).  It's a background, game rules, and scenario that prints onto a single side of A4 and folds into a little booklet.  The game is called "Shikishima Heroes" and is set in an alternate 1902.  Follow the link to read more.

It was a fun experience trying to write an entire game in what is actual fact, eight tiny tiny pages. You have to pare back your use of words and get the most meaning out of every sentence. Game rules are terribly difficult to write at the best of times, but squeezing it into just those few pages is especially interesting. Some might try flash fiction or even the odd Drabble as an exercise, but rules writing is a strong challenge!

Writing that game was so much fun, I decided to write another.  The next one is called "Acrobats vs Mobsters"  I think the title gives away what the game is about. It was actually easier to write the second one having had the experience of the first. I knew what to put in and what sort of thing to leave out.

So with those out of the way... I wrote a third called "Trench Full of Heroes". That's not out yet. It's a role playing game set during the First World War, my hope is that I've teased the setting so that players will not limit their play to the mud and blood of the trenches.

All three of the games have different rule systems, and that has been half the fun.  Letting my half sleepy alpha brain search for mechanics and fit them together.

I've also written a "scenario" for Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition) which I'll talk about in a future post.

Finally to cap this little list, I've also been adding the odd word or two to my novel. Tonight I broke the 40k barrier during a forty minute splurge. HUZZAR!