Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 184
June 17, 2013
The key word was "try"
All right, so I wasn't exactly as prompt with updates as I assumed I would be when I ended my last post. Maybe I'll be a little better about it from here on out.
Since my last post, I've officially graduated from college with a Bachelor's of Arts in English and a minor in Creative Writing. In about a week's time, I'll be off to Seton Hill University to enter the Writing Popular Fiction graduate program, which should be an interesting time indeed.
Once we hit July, exciting things will begin to happen! First, Wizards of the West will begin its line of promotional stories, promoting each week's new sale while also showing the events when the Guardians were last awake...and the rise of a certain dark power. Next, July will finally take you to the small town of Dernier, whose secrets yet lay buried...
I expect to be writing quite a bit over the next few months. I'll be working on my new novel for Seton Hill, it'll come time to start working on the Wizards stories for August, and somewhere in there I'll be trying to find time to write the fanfiction I've been promising my readers for a few years now.
Fortunately, I've finally finished playing Xenoblade! Once it's placed safely in its box, it can no longer drain away hours of my time with sidequests and enchanting plots. Of course, it won't be long before I start a different game, but still--my point still stands! Sort of.
In the meantime, remember The Accidental Zombie? Have you read it yet? No? Bah! Well, you're in luck. Instead of calling down Lovecraftian horrors upon you, I am giving you a chance to get it for free! It's very simple. Just tell me what you would do if you accidentally created a zombie...
Since my last post, I've officially graduated from college with a Bachelor's of Arts in English and a minor in Creative Writing. In about a week's time, I'll be off to Seton Hill University to enter the Writing Popular Fiction graduate program, which should be an interesting time indeed.
Once we hit July, exciting things will begin to happen! First, Wizards of the West will begin its line of promotional stories, promoting each week's new sale while also showing the events when the Guardians were last awake...and the rise of a certain dark power. Next, July will finally take you to the small town of Dernier, whose secrets yet lay buried...
I expect to be writing quite a bit over the next few months. I'll be working on my new novel for Seton Hill, it'll come time to start working on the Wizards stories for August, and somewhere in there I'll be trying to find time to write the fanfiction I've been promising my readers for a few years now.
Fortunately, I've finally finished playing Xenoblade! Once it's placed safely in its box, it can no longer drain away hours of my time with sidequests and enchanting plots. Of course, it won't be long before I start a different game, but still--my point still stands! Sort of.
In the meantime, remember The Accidental Zombie? Have you read it yet? No? Bah! Well, you're in luck. Instead of calling down Lovecraftian horrors upon you, I am giving you a chance to get it for free! It's very simple. Just tell me what you would do if you accidentally created a zombie...
March 18, 2013
I live!
It's been a while.
Quite a lot has happened since the last time I wrote, so much that I found myself not having time to visit my blog, even though I really knew I should. So let us try to cover as much as we can.
First, I'm not sure what happened to the review of Sacreya's Legacy. As far as I can tell, it has yet to appear, although it may just be a delay. However, review or no review, Sacreya's Legacy is always available for you to read and enjoy!
Next, I have begun freelance writing of a very interesting sort. I've been contracted to write product descriptions for a fashion company, but these descriptions are all a part of an interconnected universe featuring wizards, spies, and an assortment of other crazy characters who come together to tell the story of Wizards of the West.
I'm not done yet. I now have an author page with a specific publishing company!
For Christmas, Kellan Publishing released a short romance story of mine called "A Special Present." It is about two of Santa's elves who have been best friends all their lives, and when Christmas draws near, they realize just how much they care about one another... It's a short, sweet little tale that can be found in the collaborative Love Under the Mistletoe.
Kellan Publishing also released my horror/comedy novella, The Accidental Zombie. No one accidentally creates a zombie, right? Well, when two scientists do just that, they find themselves on a desperate quest to stop their creation before it is too late.
And finally, one quick update--The Book at Dernier was delayed, and will be released this July. Keep an eye out for it! I'll try to provide more frequent updates in the future, I assure you.
Quite a lot has happened since the last time I wrote, so much that I found myself not having time to visit my blog, even though I really knew I should. So let us try to cover as much as we can.
First, I'm not sure what happened to the review of Sacreya's Legacy. As far as I can tell, it has yet to appear, although it may just be a delay. However, review or no review, Sacreya's Legacy is always available for you to read and enjoy!
Next, I have begun freelance writing of a very interesting sort. I've been contracted to write product descriptions for a fashion company, but these descriptions are all a part of an interconnected universe featuring wizards, spies, and an assortment of other crazy characters who come together to tell the story of Wizards of the West.
I'm not done yet. I now have an author page with a specific publishing company!
For Christmas, Kellan Publishing released a short romance story of mine called "A Special Present." It is about two of Santa's elves who have been best friends all their lives, and when Christmas draws near, they realize just how much they care about one another... It's a short, sweet little tale that can be found in the collaborative Love Under the Mistletoe.
Kellan Publishing also released my horror/comedy novella, The Accidental Zombie. No one accidentally creates a zombie, right? Well, when two scientists do just that, they find themselves on a desperate quest to stop their creation before it is too late.
And finally, one quick update--The Book at Dernier was delayed, and will be released this July. Keep an eye out for it! I'll try to provide more frequent updates in the future, I assure you.
August 31, 2012
Edits, more edits, and reviews
There's definitely been an editing trend in my writing life lately. As my previous entry would indicate, I have been writing new material as well--mainly side projects, fanfiction, and other such things. But when it comes to my major works, I've been doing a lot of editing. Proofreading, going over things with beta readers, planning out new scenes and deciding how to implement them...it's a very important process, and when done well, a very rewarding one, as well. One plot contradiction was caught almost by chance, found because my beta reader figured out a plot twist too far in advance, and one of the scenes that betrayed the secret actually didn't fit my timeline.
In other news, Sacreya's Legacy should be seeing a review some time soon. If you're interested in seeing that, or if you're just interested in zombies in general, check out Zombie Fiction. It should prove a handy resource for any fan of the undead.
In other news, Sacreya's Legacy should be seeing a review some time soon. If you're interested in seeing that, or if you're just interested in zombies in general, check out Zombie Fiction. It should prove a handy resource for any fan of the undead.
August 17, 2012
Now THAT'S a good day's writing...
Every now and then, you have those days.
The majority of the time when you're writing--or at least, when I'm writing--you find yourself struggling to get even a few lines written. I have days where I have a plan in mind, yet find myself looking at that blank page for quite a long time. Sometimes I manage a paragraph or two and call it quits, telling myself that at least I wrote something. NaNoWriMo is a challenge because of that goal of getting somewhere between 1600-2000 words per day in order to make it on time. With an early enough start, maybe I can do it.
But like I said, every now and then, you have one of those days where the words just keep flying onto the page. Yesterday morning, I had a plan in mind--I'd had a brainstorm the night before and knew exactly what I wanted to do with the chapter I was on, and I intended to finish that chapter. By afternoon, I still hadn't started. By late afternoon, I'd gotten the beginnings of my planned events typed out. By evening, I felt satsified with the amount I had written; I hadn't finished the chapter and didn't think I could in time, but any day you write 3,000 words is a good day.
By night, I was writing the last word of the chapter, bringing my word count for the day up to around 5,600.
5,600 words in a single day? That makes that the second-best writing day I've ever had. The best was a day when I managed to get around 8,000 words written in a day, and that was a section that I had planned out in detail and was quite excited to write.
Now if only I could call upon that sort of writing energy at will... ;)
The majority of the time when you're writing--or at least, when I'm writing--you find yourself struggling to get even a few lines written. I have days where I have a plan in mind, yet find myself looking at that blank page for quite a long time. Sometimes I manage a paragraph or two and call it quits, telling myself that at least I wrote something. NaNoWriMo is a challenge because of that goal of getting somewhere between 1600-2000 words per day in order to make it on time. With an early enough start, maybe I can do it.
But like I said, every now and then, you have one of those days where the words just keep flying onto the page. Yesterday morning, I had a plan in mind--I'd had a brainstorm the night before and knew exactly what I wanted to do with the chapter I was on, and I intended to finish that chapter. By afternoon, I still hadn't started. By late afternoon, I'd gotten the beginnings of my planned events typed out. By evening, I felt satsified with the amount I had written; I hadn't finished the chapter and didn't think I could in time, but any day you write 3,000 words is a good day.
By night, I was writing the last word of the chapter, bringing my word count for the day up to around 5,600.
5,600 words in a single day? That makes that the second-best writing day I've ever had. The best was a day when I managed to get around 8,000 words written in a day, and that was a section that I had planned out in detail and was quite excited to write.
Now if only I could call upon that sort of writing energy at will... ;)
July 18, 2012
Editing Project--Morning Star
At last, I'm almost done editing the novella I called "Morning Star," and it was a painful process. I wrote it about five years ago, in response to a prompt I found on the Internet. I was convinced the resulting story was one of the best things I had ever written. I tried to get it published, and when that failed, I set it aside with the intent of editing it again sometime in the future.
Now, five years later, I went back to it warily, knowing there were many things about it that had to be worked on. I can say one thing in its favor--thanks to "Morning Star," there is no doubt left in my mind that my writing skills have improved.
You can fall into a trap of thinking of editing as a calm procedure during which you re-live your story, fix some typos, and maybe catch an embarrassing plot hole that hadn't occurred to you before. This was not that sort of editing. Oh, there were traces of it, and it's not like the entire story needed to be scrapped. On the other hand, every paragraph needed something done to it. Some just had awkward phrasing. Some were written in such a juvenile fashion that I cringed. Some had to be rewritten entirely, because the existing section was just a bad plot element.
The good news is that that story is now one step closer to being publishable. Editing it wasn't fun, but it was necessary.
Now, five years later, I went back to it warily, knowing there were many things about it that had to be worked on. I can say one thing in its favor--thanks to "Morning Star," there is no doubt left in my mind that my writing skills have improved.
You can fall into a trap of thinking of editing as a calm procedure during which you re-live your story, fix some typos, and maybe catch an embarrassing plot hole that hadn't occurred to you before. This was not that sort of editing. Oh, there were traces of it, and it's not like the entire story needed to be scrapped. On the other hand, every paragraph needed something done to it. Some just had awkward phrasing. Some were written in such a juvenile fashion that I cringed. Some had to be rewritten entirely, because the existing section was just a bad plot element.
The good news is that that story is now one step closer to being publishable. Editing it wasn't fun, but it was necessary.
July 3, 2012
RE: Revelations Demo Revisited
Today I was looking at my 3DS, and I saw the demo for Resident Evil: Revelations. As you know, Revelations was marketed as a return to the series roots, and if you've read my thoughts on the state of survival horror in the Resident Evil series, you know that Revelations was decidedly not survival horror. However, when I first played the demo, I was delighted with it! I was convinced that if the majority of the game played like that, I would be content. (Ironically, I felt the part of the game that the demo came from was actually stronger in the main game; the two didn't play exactly the same.) So I decided to replay the demo and see what it had that the game itself lacked.
Starting the demo, I find myself controlling Jill. She is alone, having woken up in a strange room aboard the Queen Zenobia. Contacting her partner, they make a plan to meet up. From there I can investigate the room. There are several things to look at, with Jill silently commenting on the various objects I inspect. The room itself is beautiful, letting you study other things that can't be interacted with--many of which spawned theories and speculation that in the end meant absolutely nothing.
The door leading to the hall is locked, controlled by panel to the side that is screwed shut. Fortunately, there is another door, leading to a new room to explore. Inspecting that area leads you to a tub that must be drained, with a screwdriver concealed inside. That triggers the first monster attack, as leaving the area puts you in contact with an Ooze that must be killed so that you can escape the room. If you play the way I do (badly) this uses a lot of bullets, of which you only have ten, but there are five more lying nearby.
So far, other than the forced battle, nothing has happened that points against it being survival horror. Now you have to solve a puzzle to open the door, an interesting little thing that makes use of the touchscreen. It's not bad for a first puzzle--they didn't tell me that virtually every puzzle in the game would be a variation on the exact same thing. Instead, this suggested unique ways to employ the touchscreen in RE puzzles.
Out in the hall, you find a room with a shotgun--a bit early to find a better weapon, but you only have two bullets for it--and your first green herb. Depending on how that Ooze battle went earlier, you may have to use it and be down to no green herbs again already. The same room also contains the chest that will be used to upgrade weapons, but you can't use it in the demo. But better yet, the hallway contains two more doors! One is locked--an excellent sign for later exploration, and the other leads to the next area.
The next two rooms contain an easily avoidable enemy, a little ammo, an herb, and several things that look out of place--like they might be puzzle items later on. I believe one or two might have actually been files in the main game. None were puzzle items.
Next we find a hallway with one locked door--clearly different from the last one, as it requires a keycard--some ammo, and a jump scare. The Ooze can be avoided, if you want to go to the next room instead of fighting. This leads to a beautiful room with a few doors (four, to be precise: the one you came from, one locked door, and two up the stairs), a couple items, and the general feeling of a hub area akin to the main hall of Spencer's mansion. One door leads to a room where you get the scanner, one of the game's best features.
The ability to scan for items and handprints--and by items, I mean ammo and herbs; it's not like the game has any puzzle items for you to find--increases the desire to explore, and scanning enemies will get you percentages towards a new herb. Unfortunately, backtracking with the scanner gets you nothing, unless you want to scan the Ooze you dodged.
Another enemy appears in the room once you have the scanner, although it's still fairly easy to dodge. Using your scanner instead of hurrying ahead nets you some more items; you may be full on handgun ammo by now. The ammo limit could be taken one of two ways--either you'll always have enough, so you don't have to worry about stockpiling it, or it will purposely reduce your ability to fight. In my playthrough on Normal, it leaned towards the former. Here you also find a grenade.
In the next room, you find a regular Ooze that can be easily avoided, an exploding Ooze that always gets me, and another grenade (hidden, so you have to use the scanner). That is a strength that carries over to the game--using the scanner can help you find more items, but it makes you slow down and therefore puts you in more danger from enemies.
In the next hallway, there is a hidden item and a dangerous Ooze. By this point, I had accumulated enough shotgun ammo that I could take care of it, but not without taking damage myself. I then went to the elevator. The elevator reunites me with Parker, but my AI partner takes off without me to reach the bridge. In the next room, there are lockers to investigate and find some ammo in, but not much else. Finally making it to the bridge, we find a locked door and the plot point that ends the demo.
So in the end...what was it? The combat was fairly consistent with how Revelations actually was; I think it was mainly what even the start of Revelations did as well that got me--hinting at survival horror elements. The locked doors--suggesting greater exploration than what you ever got. The screwdriver and door puzzle--suggesting puzzles like in the games of old. Overall, the demo never lied about anything. It just presented things in such a way that if you were hoping the game would be classic survival horror, you could convince yourself that the elements were there.
The game took it even further, teasing the various keys that would be needed and having an item you couldn't get without a medallion. The depressing thing is that it was all window dressing. Revelations never made the jump to survival horror, but it used superficial shout-outs to the classic games to pretend that's what it was.
Starting the demo, I find myself controlling Jill. She is alone, having woken up in a strange room aboard the Queen Zenobia. Contacting her partner, they make a plan to meet up. From there I can investigate the room. There are several things to look at, with Jill silently commenting on the various objects I inspect. The room itself is beautiful, letting you study other things that can't be interacted with--many of which spawned theories and speculation that in the end meant absolutely nothing.
The door leading to the hall is locked, controlled by panel to the side that is screwed shut. Fortunately, there is another door, leading to a new room to explore. Inspecting that area leads you to a tub that must be drained, with a screwdriver concealed inside. That triggers the first monster attack, as leaving the area puts you in contact with an Ooze that must be killed so that you can escape the room. If you play the way I do (badly) this uses a lot of bullets, of which you only have ten, but there are five more lying nearby.
So far, other than the forced battle, nothing has happened that points against it being survival horror. Now you have to solve a puzzle to open the door, an interesting little thing that makes use of the touchscreen. It's not bad for a first puzzle--they didn't tell me that virtually every puzzle in the game would be a variation on the exact same thing. Instead, this suggested unique ways to employ the touchscreen in RE puzzles.
Out in the hall, you find a room with a shotgun--a bit early to find a better weapon, but you only have two bullets for it--and your first green herb. Depending on how that Ooze battle went earlier, you may have to use it and be down to no green herbs again already. The same room also contains the chest that will be used to upgrade weapons, but you can't use it in the demo. But better yet, the hallway contains two more doors! One is locked--an excellent sign for later exploration, and the other leads to the next area.
The next two rooms contain an easily avoidable enemy, a little ammo, an herb, and several things that look out of place--like they might be puzzle items later on. I believe one or two might have actually been files in the main game. None were puzzle items.
Next we find a hallway with one locked door--clearly different from the last one, as it requires a keycard--some ammo, and a jump scare. The Ooze can be avoided, if you want to go to the next room instead of fighting. This leads to a beautiful room with a few doors (four, to be precise: the one you came from, one locked door, and two up the stairs), a couple items, and the general feeling of a hub area akin to the main hall of Spencer's mansion. One door leads to a room where you get the scanner, one of the game's best features.
The ability to scan for items and handprints--and by items, I mean ammo and herbs; it's not like the game has any puzzle items for you to find--increases the desire to explore, and scanning enemies will get you percentages towards a new herb. Unfortunately, backtracking with the scanner gets you nothing, unless you want to scan the Ooze you dodged.
Another enemy appears in the room once you have the scanner, although it's still fairly easy to dodge. Using your scanner instead of hurrying ahead nets you some more items; you may be full on handgun ammo by now. The ammo limit could be taken one of two ways--either you'll always have enough, so you don't have to worry about stockpiling it, or it will purposely reduce your ability to fight. In my playthrough on Normal, it leaned towards the former. Here you also find a grenade.
In the next room, you find a regular Ooze that can be easily avoided, an exploding Ooze that always gets me, and another grenade (hidden, so you have to use the scanner). That is a strength that carries over to the game--using the scanner can help you find more items, but it makes you slow down and therefore puts you in more danger from enemies.
In the next hallway, there is a hidden item and a dangerous Ooze. By this point, I had accumulated enough shotgun ammo that I could take care of it, but not without taking damage myself. I then went to the elevator. The elevator reunites me with Parker, but my AI partner takes off without me to reach the bridge. In the next room, there are lockers to investigate and find some ammo in, but not much else. Finally making it to the bridge, we find a locked door and the plot point that ends the demo.
So in the end...what was it? The combat was fairly consistent with how Revelations actually was; I think it was mainly what even the start of Revelations did as well that got me--hinting at survival horror elements. The locked doors--suggesting greater exploration than what you ever got. The screwdriver and door puzzle--suggesting puzzles like in the games of old. Overall, the demo never lied about anything. It just presented things in such a way that if you were hoping the game would be classic survival horror, you could convince yourself that the elements were there.
The game took it even further, teasing the various keys that would be needed and having an item you couldn't get without a medallion. The depressing thing is that it was all window dressing. Revelations never made the jump to survival horror, but it used superficial shout-outs to the classic games to pretend that's what it was.
