Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 37
July 18, 2018
Characters–Now with Faces
“Torn” by quick-witted on DeviantArt.com (Click for Artist’s Profile)
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 5 Pages a week. Working on Rough Draft for the next 5 pages on Fridays/Over the Weekend.
Actual = 1/5 Pages done. The writing process went fairly smoothly and I completed the page before going to bed. It wasn’t particularly hard or easy, but just a basic drafting session. Four more to go.
For School:
Afrofuturism (by Ytasha Womack) : This book describes the academic genre of Afrofuturism (essentially African American Science Fiction that deals with social issues in culture). I just finished Chapter 3 today and I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 (this book has 10 chapters).
Here is a summary from Amazon: “In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.”
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Scrivener’s Character Sketch Feature
So, I’ve known about Scrivener’s Character Sketch Template for a while now. I’ve actually used it to great effect. I did a character sketch for Scryfe and Kelfryn years ago and it is (to date) still the only story I’ve ever sold on the first try. However, I’ve recently discovered a way that other writers are using the template that never occurred to me and I think that it is pretty useful, so I thought I’d share.
Drag and Drop Characters
Scrivener, like many pieces of Mac software, allows you to basically drag and drop images from your computer or the web into the program with just the click of the mouse (or touchpad these days). While I’ve done that and used the feature for the “Notes” section to help me visualizing places that I wanted to describe in my fiction, I’ve recently seen other writers dragging in images for their characters. They are sort of “casting” their stories much like a director/casting agent “casts” their movies. I think this is “aces” (slang for “a bloody brilliant idea”)! I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t think of that–sure, you might not find that perfect image that is a one-to-one match for the character in your mind, an image that is close would definitely help the writing process.
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
The only potential problem that I see with this is that if you get your work published, you should find someway to acknowledge the art/photo that helped get you there (if at all possible), especially if it was an artist’s sketch. That’s why, whenever I use an artist’s image in the cover image for a post, I always try to credit the artist’s name and promote their website in that blog post. I don’t promote artists as much as I probably could (i.e., use more artwork from artists) because I know what its like to produce your work, but not paid for it. I’d like to showcase it, but I’m not a gallery and don’t have the resources (aka funds) to license work for extended periods of time, which is why I do it sparingly. However, as a member of communities like Deviant Art , I can tell that there are some AMAZING artists out there that I would LOVE to work with at some point. Here is a Pinterst post to prove my point (click to see more images).
So, writers out there. If your story gets used/picked up by a publisher, how about throwing a few dollars back to the talented artists and photographers that helped to inspire your work by, perhaps, buying some of their work as well? We may not all be doing the same type of creation, but at the end of the day, we’re all creators together. Let’s help each other out, shall we?
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 17, 2018
Taking a Break: The Power of Rest
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 5 Pages a week. Working on Rough Draft for the next 5 pages on Fridays/Over the Weekend.
Actual = I didn’t get all 3 pages done last week and I managed 2 out of 3, but I did Rough Draft 5 pages last week with the hope of writing all five pages this week. If I get them all done, that should put me right at 19-20 pages (the amount that the publication wants to see before deciding on a project).
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I’m about 3/4ths of the way finished with this book–currently in the “ship combat” section. I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Afrofuturism (by Ytasha Womack) : This book describes the academic genre of Afrofuturism (essentially African American Science Fiction that deals with social issues in culture). I just finished Chapter 3 today and I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 (this book has 10 chapters).
Here is a summary from Amazon: “In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.”
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Break Time
So, considering that I missed a day of blogging, you’d think that this particular blog entry would be an explanation for “taking a break.” However, this really isn’t the case; the two aren’t really linked. I missed yesterday’s blog post because I was “dog-tired” and simply needed to rest. Today’s blog is actually covering something that I noticed on Saturday when I was gaming. When they say take a break from your project before revising–I have to admit, what I saw on Saturday, really seems to bear out this advice.
Resting the mind = Increase in problem-solving
Quickly, let me lay out the scene: I had gotten stuck on two games and couldn’t progress as I couldn’t find the correct “path” or “action” to do next. I put them away and played through other games. On Saturday, happenstance occurred and I pulled both of these games and played them, and HOLY COW, I found exactly what I was supposed to do IMMEDIATELY upon loading in the game and getting started. I was shocked! It was if my brain had gone into “overdrive” and each of the problems that I’d run into were dealt with both quickly and efficiently. In one game, I’d gotten stuck because I couldn’t figure out where to go next, but when I logged on, I saw how the “path” that the designers had recessed into a grotto wall. Similarly, in the second game, I discovered the “path” that I knew had to be there, but also inferred the place where the path had to be where I couldn’t do that when I got stuck.
Tired = Inefficient
Even as I write this blog, I feel the effects of lack of sleep. I didn’t actually sleep all that well last night and got up fairly early this morning. I’ve had less than my preferred 8 hours of sleep and I can feel it even as I type these words. What I’ve come to realize is that I’m simply going to have to 1) put projects away and let my subconscious work on it and 2) stop working when I’m tired (and try to get some real rest). My brain needs both rest AND time away to be at my best.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 13, 2018
Game Mode On–Costume Quest 2
image
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 3 Pages a week. Working on Rough Drafting a Graphic Novel Page on one day and then writing the page on an alternate day.
Actual = Finished page 13 on Ship of Shadows.
I didn’t really feel like working on the rough draft for page 14. I just added in page 13 from the rough draft–expanding and clarifying the dialogue and description before calling it a night (sorry, but I was tired). Still, so far I completed 2 of the 3 pages I had as a goal for this week.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Do You Like Candy?
So this post was originally going to be something far different (a bit of a rant about oligopolies), but I decided that it would be more far more fun to talk about games–I can always do a mini-rant another day 
July 12, 2018
One Day a Week Gamer
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 3 Pages a week. Working on Rough Drafting a Graphic Novel Page on one day and then writing the page on an alternate day.
Actual = Finished page 12 on Ship of Shadows and then finished a “Rough Draft” page where I wrote out a rough draft for page 13. I actually think that I did page 12 already and sent it to the artist who agreed to work on this project with me, but I think that somehow it got lost/deleted from the Simplenote app somehow. Anyway, I did it over again and I’m working on new material. Think I might outline/rough draft a screenplay version as I go along, but haven’t yet decided if that is a good idea or not.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Six Days of Gaming Down into One
I used to game on a regular basis. All the time that I worked at the Library and as a teacher, I have taken an hour or two after work (usually after dinner or just before bed) and played a video game or two. I didn’t often game for that long, but I didn’t need to as I was only using the gaming to wind down from the day. For instance, as much as people denigrate Knack for the Playstation 4, I played it over and over during the first year of the PS4‘s lifetime because it was one of the few games out at the time, but I only played it for an hour or two after school. However, even with just that short amount of time, I was able to play it through six (!) times total and to get the Platinum Trophy for it. My point is that even with a short amount of gaming time in one day, over time (six days) it actually is an impressive amount of time in order to make progress in games. Now that I’m in school, however, I don’t actually get to game except on the weekend and it really is affecting how quickly I can get through my backlog.
Longer and Longer Games
I think part of my issue is that not only is my gaming time seriously curtailed, but also that games are getting longer. Video game publishers do not like the “used game” market, so longer, more complex open world games, while giving value to players who want these longer games, also have the consequence of taking players longer to finish and keeps the games out of the “market,” so they have a vested interest in creating longer and longer games (i.e., game extension). Now don’t get me wrong, I love single player games, I like cooperative games, and I tolerate (for the most part) multiplayer games, but long games just to claim that your game is long, doesn’t necessarily make it a good game.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
I’ve been playing this game since late February/early March and while it is a good game, it has outstayed its welcome. My goal with games is to see the credits roll, but even after all this time, I still have several territories left to “liberate” that have a 5 star difficulty (the hardest difficulty in the game). I’ve not looked at how many hours I’ve put into the game, but if Sony does a year-end summary as they did last year, I fully expect that it will be the longest game with a 100+ hours invested (so far).
You might ask, then, why are you still playing? Well, last year I put over 120 hours into Mass Effect Andromeda, but I didn’t do anything with it. This year, I want to write scholarship on every game that I play as I’ve pretty much decided that I’m specializing in Video Game Rhetoric and New Media as one of my two specialty areas. It would be an absolute tragedy to have spent all of this time playing the game, but without being able to use it for school too–remember, work smarter, not harder. Ah, well, I guess I’ll just have to power through until the end.
So, maybe I’ll be able to give you a Mini-Review of the game in a month or two (or three or four or five or . . .)
Well, that’s all I have time for today. Have a great day!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 11, 2018
The Independent = Project Independence (aka Space Truckers)–Finished a First Draft of the Story
[image error]
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 3 Pages a week. Working on Rough Drafting a Graphic Novel Page on one day and then writing the page on an alternate day. 250 Words a day on the Whale Song Revision–focusing on the characters this time.
Actual =
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
The Independent = Project Independence (aka Space Truckers)!
So I finished a First Draft of a story! I finished Project Skye earlier this year and I thought I was out of the wood in terms of creating new stories. However, when I tried to finished Project Poet (the First Draft), it fell apart. I think I know what happened (a fantasy story with NO magic–just lost interest in it), but the 250 words goal and the “gamification” of Scrivener’s Writing Goals, I finished the story on Friday (July 6th) and t is out to my “alpha” readers. While I intend to do an in-depth project notes (Author’s Note) posting sometime after the 3rd Draft, I feel that it was huge WIN for me to finish this story by my own “self-imposed” deadline.
250 Words a Day (Mostly)
So, I mostly wrote and stuck to the 250 Words a Day goal that I set for mysef. Actually, before school started in June and a little into the first week of June, I wrote more than 250 Words a Day. I discovered that I could write about 650 words in a writing session before I started to get “fatigued.” As I’d written so much earlier, when I finally got behind in school work and couldn’t do the full 250 words, the Scrivener goal system was only requiring about 150-175 words, which worked out just fine. I did miss a few days, but never more than 2-3 days in a row. I also discovered that I don’t write on Saturday nights or Sunday nights, just on weekday nights, but I do tend to brainstorm new ideas on Saturday afternoons/nights, so there is that. So, it looks like drafting will happen on weekdays and brainstorming/creating will happen on the weekends.
What’s Next?
I’m working on creating some sort of schedule–drafting a new story and revising old stories. Apple used to work on a “Tick-Tock” cycle. Tick = new product, while Tock = Revision. That’s sort of the methodology that I’m working with right now. This month will be a “Tock” cycle where I revise two works: Ship of Shadows Graphic Novels and Whale Song Revision (which I work-shopped last year at the University’s Writing Center and have been meaning to revise for a while). This will be a Second Draft, so I will try to apply the lessons that I learned with The Independent to finish this new draft and I will be focusing on characterization of the main characters. This is where editorial feedback was pretty consistent–the main character just didn’t resonate for most readers so I will be radically changing that character (fingers crossed).
That’s all I have for now! Have a good day.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 10, 2018
1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Drafts
“The First Draft is Just You Telling Yourself the Story”–Terry Pratchett. Image Source: The Salonniere’s Apartments
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 12
Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)
Goal = 3 Pages a week. Working on Rough Drafting a Graphic Novel Page on one day and then writing the page on an alternate day. 250 Words a day on the Whale Song Revision–focusing on the characters this time.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
1 Little Draft
I finished a First Draft on Friday for my newest story. I’m really hoping that working this way will help my stories to be more competitive in the marketplace (if I’m honest, I know it won’t–too many want people want the nihilism of a Game of Thrones/Breaking Bad/Walking Dead–but at least if, and when, the stories are rejected, I’ll at least know that I’ve truly done the best that I could with them and I was just born/came of age as a writer in the wrong time).
To be succinct, my First Drafts are to tell MYSELF the story. Yes, I do Outline and Rough Draft, but those are mainly dealing with plot. I’m more interested in the “story map” in those two stages than I am in anything else. The First Draft is my 1st attempt to put all those ideas into a tangible story. And usually, I edit this draft and start submitting it.
2 Little Drafts
So, I’m not going to submit my First Drafts anymore. Well, what am I going to do? I’m going to work on revising other works while my “alpha” readers read the story and give me feedback on it. Once I receive the feedback, I’m going to take those notes and try to incorporate them into a new draft that deals with characterization. Characters are the most important part of the story and I’ve not really been focusing on them. I’ve been making them to reflect my personal character which is fairly reserved where they need to be a little “larger than life.” While I do intend to focus on other aspects, my primary focus on this draft will be characterization and character backstory and ways to show my characters in the best light.
3 Little Drafts
So, I’ll submit it after this draft, right? Not planning on it. I’d like to do one more draft that deals primarily with setting. In the stories that I’ve published, my setting feels like a definable place where the setting in my unpublished stories feels generic and unoriginal. I’m using this draft to make sure that I really punch up my worlds and make them something special.
Anyway, I hope to exemplify the writing process for my students and hey, if it makes my stories better at the same, well, I’m all for that as well.
Have a great day!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 9, 2018
Finished Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Mini-Review)
[image error]
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)
Project Independence Word Count: 6,000 words (+1,200 words)–1st Draft Finished (7/6/18)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12
Goal = 5000 words by July 7.
Actual = 6,000 Words finished on July 6. I wrote 1,200 words Friday night while I waited to go home. I didn’t have a great couple of days, so I just wrote. I only had 178 words for the 5,000 word goal, but when I got there, I wasn’t finished, so I just kept writing until the story was done. I’ve given it to my alpha readers and then will do another draft whenever I get the feedback back from them. I’ll probably work on a revision/revisions for the month of July before delving back into a new project in August. Watch this space for future developments.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)
For Fun:
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
Traveller RPG: I started this a while ago as a book that I was reading just before bedtime, but I didn’t really make much headway. I restarted it and I’ve just finished the introductory character generation section and I’m now moving on to the skills section and will be soon moving into the “lore” section. This is a revamp (rules 2.0) of an old school British RPG from the 1980s. Updated for modern times, this fairly short book still gives a great set of rules, game system, and lore that I hope will serve as inspiration for new sci-fi works in my own writing life.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Finished Oathbringer Last Week
So, I finished Oathbringer last week. I wasn’t intending to finishing it, but I can’t say that my week was the greatest due to the amount of schoolwork that I had this week and the fact that I didn’t do as well on my presentations that I would have liked. So, as normal, I retreated into my books, specifically Oathbringer and finished off approximately 250-300 pages this week. The book clocks in at over 1,200 pages (!) and I had been reading 2-3 chapters per day, until the last couple of weeks. For those who don’t know, Oathbringer is book 3 in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series.
Dalinar’s Story
Each book in the series, so far, has a focus on one or two major characters while other characters are present, but are in the background. In each of the two previous, we find out about the background of our “focus” character throughout the course of the novel. Book 1, The Way of Kings was Kaladin Stormblessed’s story, while Book 2, Words of Radiance was Shallan’s story. Even though Jasnah Kholin is on the cover, it is actually her father, Dalinar, who is the “focus” of this novel. We get to see his history and his motivations as to how he became “Blackthorne,” a figure to be feared and why he moved away from that persona. Sanderson masterfully weaves the reasons into the story and by the end of the book, we see Dalinar journey on an arc that leaves Dalinar (and the readers) with an understanding of why Dalinar deliberately learned to restrain his battle lust.
Moving the Story Forward
What I like most about this Fantasy series is that it actually moves the story forward. If there’s one thing Sanderson is good at, it is actually progressing the story. For instance, the “Big Bad,” Odium, has been teased for two books, but this book, not only do we get to see him, we also get to interact with him and see what makes him the “big bad” in this story. In other words, he gets Darth Vader it up. Other contemporary fantasy writers (I won’t name names) tend to stay mired in the potential of the threat, rather than actually getting to the threat itself. I really liked this book. While it isn’t my favorite novel in the series–that honor still goes to Book 1, The Way of Kings–I still thought that it was a great novel that really engages the reader while moving the story forward.
Overall Grade: B+
A very good addition to the series. Maybe not the best one so far, but it definitely slacked my thirst for new content in that universe. Now that I’ve finished it, however, I’m consigned to wait another 2 to 2 ½ years for Brandon Sanderson to release another.
Sigh.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 6, 2018
Game Mode On: Artificial Game Extension
Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Wildlands Tier 1 Mode. Image Source: Gamespot
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated Daily (mostly)
Project Independence Word Count: @4000 words (+203 words)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12
Goal = 121 words (5000 words by July 1). Currently at approximately, 4800 words
Actual = 500 words Monday & Wednesday morning/. So, Monday night I managed to hit my
Scrivener
goal of 127 words, but didn’t make my
250
word goal. I was too tired to work on this Tuesday night, but did work on it 4th of July (morning) and got about
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Daily (mostly)
For Fun:
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3)
Finished this last night. I’ll write up my impressions of this title and post it for a blog entry next week. Look out for it.
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
Lingua Fractal: A Rhetoric book that details the convergence of Rhetoric and Technology and how they interact in today’s world. Finished a Book Review for it on Friday for class.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Reading two or three chapters in Oathbringer every day. I really shouldn’t be, but it is so good, that I generally read it while eating dinner (and then I go back out to the library to do reading for school). Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Games Played on June 30th
Hello, and welcome to my inaugural weekly post on the games that I’m playing on the weekend (really Saturdays as I don’t really have time in graduate school to devote the entire weekend to gaming). I’m going to try to position this as a “bonus” post that goes up on a Saturdays in order to fill out my goal of posting six (6) days a week. This post will 1) highlight some of the games I’m (currently) working my way through (i.e., playing), 2) offer criticisms and trends that I see based on the actual gameplay and 3) highlight avenues of scholarship that I’m currently pursuing as a rhetoric scholar in video games. Yes, I know the last one if fairly “nerdy,” but it may spark other rhetoricians to cover games that I’m not going to cover (for instance, while I might get a Switch and cover Nintendo games at some point, I don’t intend to ever own a Microsoft console and will not be covering/featuring Microsoft games (not until they completely overhaul their corporate culture, at any rate, something that I don’t see happening in the near or far future, but I digress). Most of the games I will be focusing on will be Sony exclusive games or 3rd party games that are on the PlayStation format.
So let’s get started, shall we?
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
So, this one is vexing to me. I like this game, but I feel that it has gone on waaaaayyyy too long. It is an open world game and it has this conceit that you have to take down Sicarios in the open world to get to the main villain. However, what it does to extend gameplay is that it has a rating of up to 5 levels for each region and each region is rated 1 to 5. I’ve worked by way through the game and I’m currently in the last of the ⅘ difficulty regions, and will be moving on to the 5/5 regions soon. The problem is that not only does the difficulty spike, but the game adds in an external Tier system that forces the game’s difficulty even higher if you want to move up to the highest “level” so not only do the regions become harder, but so too does the game itself. This slows down progress immensely and makes it difficult to progress through the game. I’ve been playing this one since February and it has delayed me from getting back to Horizon Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3, and into another Ubisoft game, Watch Dogs 2. I don’t mind a “meaty” game, but this trend towards extending gameplay just to keep players from playing other games is annoying a best.
Until Dawn
So, let’s establish something right from the outset: I don’t really like horror. I like tension, I like action, I like drama, but I don’t really like horror. Yes, I will sometimes dabble in that genre, but usually it has to be fairly mild, the original TV version of Stephen King’s It, and of James Herbert’s novels, some of Dan Simmons novels (specifically the “horror” ones) among others are somethings that I enjoy. Right now, I’m playing Until Dawn by Supermassive Games for the Playstation 4 (PS4 Exclusive), and it is seriously creeping me out. It uses ALL of the horror movie “tropes” to try to elicit “jump scares” from the player (and with me it is succeeding big time!). Stingers, dark environments, limited viewpoints, etc., they’re all there. If horror is your thing, then you have to try this game.
Basically, the story revolves around these teens who reunite after a tragedy occurred one year ago. Like an 80’s horror movie, you’re tasked with controlling one or two of the teens and trying to make story decisions that will keep them alive. Well, I’m not doing so great. The character that I have just got surprised by a wolf/large dog after having to have his fingers amputated to get out a trap. I’ve lost at least two teens so far (and if the wolf is any indication, its about to be three!). The graphics are very well done–while there are times when “uncanny valley” does affect the character models, but only slightly and not enough to take me out of the game (just enough to notice it).
I’d really like to put this game in conversation with Scream. While older, the Scream series has many of the same tropes, but Scream is self-aware in a way that Until Dawn isn’t, even though UD is a newer game. I’d really like to examine both how those tropes play out in the two works and why the game’s developer, Supermassive chose to minimize/ignore some of the newer, self-awareness of the conventions of the horror genre. Right now, horror as a genre, is making a resurgence, and I might even (if I have the courage) to add in more and newer examples in the horror genre (It, Get Out, and even A Quiet Place–as much as I’ve railed against it) to examine the rhetorical nature of UD.
Costume Quest 2
This a smaller title and it is a one that is based on monsters taking over halloween. It features simplified combat and a fun art style. The story is also pretty good as well. It doesn’t look like it will be a very long game, but it does look like it will be a quality game. I’m trying to get through some of the “free” games that I’ve acquired through Playstation Plus. I’ve got about 30 smaller games that I’ve downloaded over the past three years and I’ve not really played them, so this is my attempt to try to eliminate my backlog of games. I’m about halfway through (as best I can tell) and I’m having fun with it even though it is starting to get challenging. Looking forward to seeing how it ends.
Well, that’s all for this week–have a good weekend!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 5, 2018
E3 and Me, 2018 Edition: Ghost of Tsushima (Playstation 4 Exclusive)
Ghosts of Tsushima Cover Image. Image Source: Gamespot
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated Daily (mostly)
Project Independence Word Count: @4000 words (+203 words)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12
Goal = 121 words (5000 words by July 1). Currently at approximately, 4800 words
Actual = 500 words Monday & Wednesday morning/. So, Monday night I managed to hit my
Scrivener
goal of 127 words, but didn’t make my
250
word goal. I was too tired to work on this Tuesday night, but did work on it 4th of July (morning) and got about
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Daily (mostly)
For Fun:
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3)
Finished this last night. I’ll write up my impressions of this title and post it for a blog entry next week. Look out for it.
Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf
Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
Lingua Fractal: A Rhetoric book that details the convergence of Rhetoric and Technology and how they interact in today’s world. Finished a Book Review for it on Friday for class.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Reading two or three chapters in Oathbringer every day. I really shouldn’t be, but it is so good, that I generally read it while eating dinner (and then I go back out to the library to do reading for school). Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
A Ghost in the Machine
So, Ghost of Tsushima debuted at another Sony event about 6-8 months ago, but all that we knew about it was that it was in the form of a trailer, the title of the game, and the studio making it, Sucker Punch, who was known previously as the developers on InFamous, an open world original superhero game (that incidentally taught me how to play open world games–Main Quests and Side Quests and how those two progressions affect the gameplay loop). Well, they’re back with a new game and GoT (not be confused with Game of Thrones) is an open world game, but features the mongol invasion of Japan. One samurai fights to save his homeland and you play as that samurai.
Stabby, Stabby Action
One thing that has impressed me about the game was the attention to detail. I’m just a little bit of a martial arts fan (a huge understatement), so I really like the way that Suckerpunch pulled out all the stops to get their vision of what a martial arts game should be. I really like the way the world and the system were envisioned in this game. It is based on a real-world event and there is no magic, no science fiction, no genre elements to this game at all, but what it does do is shows how one person can try to make a difference in the world based on their beliefs and their skill set. Again, for me this game is an aberration as it has none of the escapism elements that are usually associated with the games that I like to play. What it does have is great 1) characterization – I feel like I know and understand the character and his motivations for why he is doing what he is doing in the game, 2) the game world – even though based on a real place and a real historical period, it feels fresh and different and new, and crucially, it feels realistic, like some place that had I lived at that time, would have been a place that I could have visited.
This is a game that, while a Sony PS4 exclusive, is a game that really shows what can be done if you “grow” your studios and trust your developers (aka Sony) vs trying to go out and “buy” your way to success (aka Microsoft) and their purchasing of Halo/Gears of War (and now those series have petered out and are also-rans) where this game is an amazing new IP with many stories to tell in its universe if Sony continues to believe in the “narrative” game.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
July 2, 2018
Project Independence–One Week To Go
Artwork by Glenn Clovis via Artstation.com (Click for more Information)
Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated Daily (mostly)
Project Independence Word Count: @4000 words (+203 words)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12
Goal = 167 words (5000 words by July 1). Currently at approximately, 4100 words
Actual = 0 words Thursday/Friday night. I wasn’t able to write Thursday night due to fatigue. Friday night I came home, but was stuck in traffic, meaning that instead of getting home in enough time to write, I was very late getting home and by that time fatigue had set in.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Daily (mostly)
For Fun:
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3) (somewhere in 1000s in terms of page count–nearly at the end of the book.
For School:
Ancient Rhetorics, Digital Networks : A book that combines New Media (digital rhetorics) and combines them with ideas and theories of the Ancient Rhetorics.
Lingua Fractal: A Rhetoric book that details the convergence of Rhetoric and Technology and how they interact in today’s world. Finished a Book Review for it on Friday for class.
For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
Reading two or three chapters in Oathbringer every day. I really shouldn’t be, but it is so good, that I generally read it while eating dinner (and then I go back out to the library to do reading for school). Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
One Week to Go
So, I have one week to go on my (self-imposed) deadline for finishing the First Draft for Project Independence. I have a several former co-workers at the Chattanooga Public Library who serve as my “Alpha Readers” and who give me reactions about the story. When I worked at the CPL, my supervisor tried to make sure that everyone in the department got at least one weekend off every month. Mine was the first Saturday of the month. Since I’ve left the library, I’ve lost that as a “driving force,” and that’s why I’m working so hard to try finish the story by this date. I know this works, and like I’ve said before, I really try to find something that works, I try to replicate it as best as I can–“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Would Like to Finish 1st Draft on Independence Day
It would be really cool to finish the story on Independence Day. This year, Independence Day is on Wednesday. The symmetry of finishing the project on Independence Day would be awesome, but I don’t think that I can realistically make it based on all of the school assignments that I still have left to do this week. As this is the last week of school, I believe that I will be working quite diligently to finish all of the material due before the week is over.
1st Draft–Telling Yourself the Story
So, Project Independence is the first project where I’m really concerned with drafting (i.e., going through multiple drafts) until the story comes out like I envision it. Usually when I finish a story, I edit it and then begin submitting it unless there’s something truly wrong with it or it doesn’t come close to matching my original vision for the story. Now I’m committed to going through at least three drafts, focusing on different aspects each draft to see if I can improve my writing (& selling) of my work. Right now, the first draft is me just telling myself the story. There is a quote that I found online that (I believe) is attributed to Neil Gaiman that (paraphrased) says that the 1st Draft is you telling yourself the story. The implication is that it really doesn’t matter how good (or bad) that draft is because you’re just trying to get the fundamental elements of the story down on the page. You can go back and strengthen, revise, and reshape the draft later–just get the story down on page. This is what Project Independence represents for me. Just getting it down on the page. However, this is where I usually edit it and start submitting and this time I don’t intend to to that.
I’ll have a blog post later in the week that talks more about my drafting process, but suffice to say, Wednesday, July the 4th would be an ideal deadline, but Saturday, July 7 is my absolute deadline that I’m working towards. Wish me luck!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
