Adrian Faulkner's Blog, page 34
October 27, 2020
Starting On The Outline Skeleton For My NaNoWriMo Novel – The Climb #612
I wouldn’t say this novel I’m planning is a paint-by-numbers but I’m imposing a lot of structure on it. I want to see just how far I can take structure.
The plan is to make this my NaNoWriMo novel, but that leaves me only a few days to really outline it. And given this experiment, I can’t just say I’ll pants parts of it.
So that means character sheets – although I’m not sure of the characters just yet – and an outline – where I currently have just a first chapter and a...
October 25, 2020
The Unexpected Pokemon Go Day – The Climb #611
Today ended up being a big Pokemon day, even though I hadn’t planned it to be.
Warcraft is a little frustrating at the moment as I’m currently trying to level another character through Pandaria. However, for some reason, that expansion is really laggy and as a result, I’m really not enjoying the leveling experience.
I had tried to level a Death Knight through Wrath of the Lich king, except I’d forgotten I’d done a little of that before the level squish and as a result I...
October 24, 2020
Thinking Of Plots Like HTML – The Climb #610
I have a working idea that I’m keen to try out. It relates to plots and subplots.
I read something about this back at the start of summer and whilst I’ve forgotten where I read it, the idea obviously stayed with me as it has percolated in my back brain until now.
The idea is that plots and subplots are like nested HTML tags. With HTML you have opening and closing tags, and the rule is that you have to close the tags in the reverse order that you opened them. IE: I...
October 23, 2020
Is It Time To Start Using Character Sheets? – The Climb #609
I’ve never been someone who has done character sheets. Rare amongst Fantasy authors, I was never into RPGs as a kid and so filling out a one-sheeter for a DnD game or the like, was something that never happened.
But I’m trying for more structure in projects. I’m playing around with new concepts as a result, and one that’s been suggested is the writing of character sheets.
For me characters are very visual. About half have an actor mentally assigned. That character’s ...
October 22, 2020
State Of Warcraft – The Climb #608
As I’ve said, I’ve been playing a load of Warcraft in the last week. With the release of the pre-patch and the associated level squish now was a great time to start leveling alts.
This is all investment.
I have enough characters to be able to actually play. Heck, you don’t really need more than one character.
I even have enough for one of every class and profession. I suspect that if I wanted to achieve everything possible in the game, I already have enough characte...
October 21, 2020
Is Now The Time To Experiment With Writing Structures? – The Climb #607
The only truism in writing is that there are no truisms in writing.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in all my years of writing, it’s that any rules you think that might exist in writing, have been broken by many commercially and critically successful novels.
And yet, I believe structures exist. It’s not that I believe there’s some magic formula out there, yet discovered, that turns any story into a masterpiece. But I believe, our brains react to stories in specific...
October 20, 2020
Generating Ideas By Playing Games – The Climb #606
There’s a little side effect from me playing so much Warcraft. It’s called Fill the Mana Bar.
I find disappearing to Azeroth for a few hours each day, a bit of a meditative state. I get so involved in the game that I forget about my own worries for a few hours.
I’ve heard stories about people who’ve got addicted to Warcraft and can well believe them. But I’ve also heard stories about those with traumas who’ve used the game to heal. The ability to turn off real life ...
October 19, 2020
Building An Army In Azeroth – The Climb #605
I’m playing a load of Warcraft at the moment.
There are several reasons for this. First is that it is the ultimate de-stress tool for me. I can disappear into Azeroth for a couple of hours each day and just forget the current world. Secondly, with pre-patch going live last week, all the levels have been squished… which means it’s now easier to level alts.
I always go into expansions unprepared. As a result, I always feel like I’m playing catch up. I want to have one...
October 18, 2020
Pokemon Go Tournament Day – The Climb #604
Today was the latest in the monthly Pokemon Go PvP tournaments myself and a friend host.
I’m not big into PvP in games, Fortnite is probably the exception. But even in games like Warcraft I prefer the PvE rather than PvP. As a result I don’t even do the Battle Leagues in Pokemon Go.
So when our tournaments loom I do find myself asking why I’m bothering to participate. Even when, like this month, I have a team together, I still end up burning through a load of stardust...
October 17, 2020
Pokemon Go Charmander Community Day – The Climb #603
I’m having a bit of a Pokemon Go weekend this weekend. We’ve got our local PvP tournament tomorrow which whilst it is all remote conducted over discord, is a way for a bunch of local players to virtually meet up. And then today was Charmander community day.
This is the second time Charmander has been featured in a community day. I got a load of shinies from the first one. The exclusive move is a bit crap as well. So we decided to do something a bit different. We ...
