Hello! It’s hard to believe the month is almost over, but here we are at the last week of May.
I know last week I mentioned my plan for this week, and I said that I would have to see what the week actually holds with regard to how well that plan actually held up… Well, now that I am looking back on the past week, I find it kind of funny how much things shifted from what I expected them to be.
All things considered, my plan for writing more went fairly decently. I did end up writing a bit more, though not as much as I would prefer. I did, however, do a good bit with regard to… world-building logistics is probably the best way to describe it. I haven’t quite pinned things down yet, but I know that for the final arc of the current series, there is some big stuff happening, and it’s leading me to figure out some of the more relatively minute details of how certain things work with regard to abilities and different races. The intricacies of how those kinds of things fit together isn’t something I had to know previously, but now that it is something that I need to figure out for the end of the series, I am once again glad that I am plotting/drafting the series before I finalize things. I know that approach doesn’t work for everything, but at least for this series, it seems like the best way for me to make sure I give it the proper treatment with regard to consistency from start to end.
As for reading, that is actually one part of the week that went in a really unexpected, but good, direction. In last week’s update, I mentioned that I was working my way through Seared, the fourth book of The Return of the Elves series by Bethany Adams. I also mentioned that I was debating buying the second boxset. Currently, I am most of the way through that second boxset. So, in the past week, I finished Seared, read Abyss and Awakening, and I am currently reading Ascent. I also discovered that there is an eighth book in the series. That one came out in April. While I am enjoying the series overall, the romance-novel bits are still something I kind of have to work around. I don’t mind the relationships, but the “will they/won’t they/should they” aspect makes things drag a bit. Especially when there is assorted family drama, political intrigue, magic, Elves, and dragons (as of book 5). It kind of feels like the focus isn’t on the most interesting elements, though I’m sure there are people who feel the opposite of my assessment. At the very least, I am enjoying the series, even if certain elements are a bit frustrating.
One other thing I’d like to mention from this week is that I came across a thing called The Story Engine Deck, which has different types of cards for people, places, adjectives, etc. and they can be used to form prompts for stories and characters. They can be used for writing, but they also have applications for tabletop role playing games. Not to mention that there is a lot of freedom to see where things go since each card has multiple cues to choose from, and it’s all open to however you interpret the given words (such as literally or figuratively). The guidebook even provides tips for locking certain elements (such as if you want to use your previously-created main character with a new prompt). The company also has a Kickstarter currently available for a world-building deck, which you can find here. The Kickstarter campaign is actually what led me to checking out the website.
So, the website for The Story Engine has a PDF demo consisting of 30 cards from the standard deck, organized on sheets to be printed and cut to use that way. However, since ink isn’t exactly cheap, and I was curious if I could use them as a digital deck, I took a bit of time to fiddle with them. After importing the PDF into GIMP (the free image manipulation program), I was able to separate the cards and arrange them into mini-decks by card type. That file combined with a random number generator I set up in Excel should function fairly well as a digital deck with a digital shuffle feature. The Excel sheet can use a few tweaks to allow for the different draws described in the guidebook for The Story Engine. And since the Kickstarter for the new deck has PDF options for the new and old decks, as well as all the assorted expansion sets, I’m thinking I might be able to convert those self-print files into a full digital deck, which should be kind of spiffy. I haven’t had much of a chance to play around with it, but I’m thinking it could be useful when I start working on projects outside my current series.
This coming week, I will probably finish the current books available in The Return of the Elves series. I’m not sure what I will pick up after that, but I’ve got a few things that are currently in-progress (and probably should be at the top of this list). Other than that, I’m planning to write a some more. I’m thinking I’m only a couple chapters away from some big things happening, so I’m looking forward to getting to those. I just need to figure out a bit about what those in-between chapters should have. (Not that I’m trying to get things perfect. I just want to have a decent foundation for when I come back through for edits.) I’m also thinking I might attend the free, virtual Balticon this coming weekend (28-31 May 2021). I will need to check a few things, including which panels are being offered when, but it might be a good time.
I think this is about all I have for this update. Thanks for reading!
~ Theresa
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