Shemer Kuznits's Blog
June 30, 2019
LitRPG vs 'normal books'
Writing is LitRPG is very different from writing a normal book. Aside from the obvious differences, writing about a game with clear rules, stats, equipment, and modifiers force me to keep track of everything.
Writing a simple sentence like “I replaced my ring with the one I looted” creates a lot of back-work for me: updating the character inventory list, his character sheet and whatever statistics that might derive from the new ring’s bonus.
Something as simple as “I summoned a new goblin lumberjack” can easily result in 10 minutes of extra work: adding the new goblin to the roster, updating daily upkeep, daily energy gain, increase log production, track his increasing skills on a daily basis, etc.
By now I have a lot of automated sheets that really help do those things quickly, but you can’t get completely around the extra leg-work.
This is a challenging experience, if I drop my writing to update my notes, I risk losing the flow of the story. If I leave it for later, I risk forgetting to update altogether or miscalculate.
I think I have a good balance of it now. I usually leave notes to myself to do the updates later, and only update the essentials immediately.
Still, it’s a demanding side chore.
When I write something along the lines of ‘I opened that char’s info and inspected his skills’ - that leads to me actually opening my notes to review those skills for real - and often the continuance of my writing will depend on what I find.
Sometimes my notes dictate whole chapters. At one time, a building construction was finished while several workers reached their Apprentice rank, so I had to visit that: describe the building, the new options it provided, then expand on the workers - which led to realize they were missing the required resources their new rank unlocked, which led to to a writing a whole part on how to get it.
I feel as this approach gives the story more credibility. It’s complicated doing it this way, but portraying an organic development makes it way more believable, fun read. IMO.
Writing a simple sentence like “I replaced my ring with the one I looted” creates a lot of back-work for me: updating the character inventory list, his character sheet and whatever statistics that might derive from the new ring’s bonus.
Something as simple as “I summoned a new goblin lumberjack” can easily result in 10 minutes of extra work: adding the new goblin to the roster, updating daily upkeep, daily energy gain, increase log production, track his increasing skills on a daily basis, etc.
By now I have a lot of automated sheets that really help do those things quickly, but you can’t get completely around the extra leg-work.
This is a challenging experience, if I drop my writing to update my notes, I risk losing the flow of the story. If I leave it for later, I risk forgetting to update altogether or miscalculate.
I think I have a good balance of it now. I usually leave notes to myself to do the updates later, and only update the essentials immediately.
Still, it’s a demanding side chore.
When I write something along the lines of ‘I opened that char’s info and inspected his skills’ - that leads to me actually opening my notes to review those skills for real - and often the continuance of my writing will depend on what I find.
Sometimes my notes dictate whole chapters. At one time, a building construction was finished while several workers reached their Apprentice rank, so I had to visit that: describe the building, the new options it provided, then expand on the workers - which led to realize they were missing the required resources their new rank unlocked, which led to to a writing a whole part on how to get it.
I feel as this approach gives the story more credibility. It’s complicated doing it this way, but portraying an organic development makes it way more believable, fun read. IMO.
March 18, 2019
Being a non-native English speaker
I love English. I’ve been reading exclusively in English since I was about 15 (over 20 years now), and I daresay I have a better-than-average vocabulary (Gelding, Fortnight, Heliotrope.)
One of the biggest challenges writing in a foreign language is not the grammar, tenses or even the vocabulary – all those can be handled during the editing phase. The real issue is finding specific, elusive words while I write.
The problem is that in order to write well, I have to keep the story pace – get the scene flowing from start to finish. But sometimes, annoying little words makes me stumble.
It’s the small stuff. I know what I want, I know the shape of the word I need, but sometimes the actual word itself eludes me.
For example, I spent 5 whole minutes yesterday trying to remember how to spell the word ‘shirk’. The damn autocorrect kept insist I use ‘shriek’ instead. Or scintillating – that one haunts my dreams (I had to google it even now).
It’s a challenge, but eventually, it only contributes to my understanding of the English language.
One of the biggest challenges writing in a foreign language is not the grammar, tenses or even the vocabulary – all those can be handled during the editing phase. The real issue is finding specific, elusive words while I write.
The problem is that in order to write well, I have to keep the story pace – get the scene flowing from start to finish. But sometimes, annoying little words makes me stumble.
It’s the small stuff. I know what I want, I know the shape of the word I need, but sometimes the actual word itself eludes me.
For example, I spent 5 whole minutes yesterday trying to remember how to spell the word ‘shirk’. The damn autocorrect kept insist I use ‘shriek’ instead. Or scintillating – that one haunts my dreams (I had to google it even now).
It’s a challenge, but eventually, it only contributes to my understanding of the English language.
February 28, 2019
First blog post
Hi everyone!
I decided to give Goodreads blog a try.
So here's my first post:
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If you were wondering where I get some of those weird-sounding names I use, get ready for the big secret…
**drum rolls**
Some names are directly ported from Hebrew.
The gremlin specifically, whom I considered a sort of comical race, all have silly-sounding names in Hebrew.
Yeshlimashu – “I have something”
Zemitpozes – “It explodes”
Anikosem – “I’m a magician!”
KusitEsh - “Smoking Hot” 😊 - she's not a gremlin, but a sucubus - which makes the names even more fitting.
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If you'd like me to post more stuff here occasionally, please made a comment about it below.
I decided to give Goodreads blog a try.
So here's my first post:
----------------------------------------
If you were wondering where I get some of those weird-sounding names I use, get ready for the big secret…
**drum rolls**
Some names are directly ported from Hebrew.
The gremlin specifically, whom I considered a sort of comical race, all have silly-sounding names in Hebrew.
Yeshlimashu – “I have something”
Zemitpozes – “It explodes”
Anikosem – “I’m a magician!”
KusitEsh - “Smoking Hot” 😊 - she's not a gremlin, but a sucubus - which makes the names even more fitting.
------------------------
If you'd like me to post more stuff here occasionally, please made a comment about it below.
