Last year, I wrote about my writing setup. It involved a few different apps, and while I had a comprehensive process laid out, I just didn’t get myself to follow it consistently. I stopped using Ulysses, and went back to writing on whatever text editor happened to be available, or typing a quick post directly into my blog CMS. It was rather chaotic, so I’m looking to compromise this year.
Continue reading “Fall 2021 Writing Setup”I Love Limericks
Something so pure and so true
As a limerick spun out of the blue,
Will always leave me
Feeling ever so free
That I can’t help but share it with you.
A Brief Encounter
I watch my shot glide to the basket on hole 18. It’s a short hole to finish the course, but treacherous. The basket is perched in front of a large boulder, and anywhere off a straight line to the basket is a precipitous drop-off.
My shot lands a little short, to the left, but on the flattest line down to the basket. It’s my typical safe shot. I hop off the tee pad and collect my things. As I begin walking down the path, a little tuft of fuzz catches my eye. It’s quite still overall, but the bits of fur at the end wiggle in the light breeze.
They’re mostly black, with a clear white stripe down the middle.
Continue reading “A Brief Encounter”Mechanical White Noise
I recently discovered that typing on a mechanical keyboard does an excellent job of maintaining my desire to write.
Typically I use a Microsoft Sculpt ergonomic keyboard when I’m working at my desktop. I bought one only a few months after moving to San Diego to use at work. Once my hands got used to it, going back to a standard keyboard at home didn’t feel quite right. So, I now have two of these split ergonomic keyboards.1
Despite how lovely my arms and wrists feel when typing on them, the keys have little travel and are awfully quiet. That is great for an office environment, and physically beneficial since work takes up most of my computer term. However, this is not nearly as fun in casual use. So, I’ve broken out one of my several mechanical keyboards for use after-hours.
In addition to being more amusing, I’ve found it to be mentally helpful as well. The clicking and clacking of the mechanical switches creates a white noise to my brain, allowing me to focus in on what I’m writing. While I’m sure having the separation of tools between work and hobbies is part of the effect, I know I respond well to white noise. Having it self-generated is more desirable and satisfying than relying on my phone, for example. I’m sure once I move in with my fiance it won’t be a sustainable choice, but we shall see.
FOOTNOTES
- Working from home has made this duplicate purchase situation less great. ↩
New Writing Workflow
Over four years ago I wrote a post about my off-the-cuff writing style. It was a flash-bang approach with only minor edits along the way. However, since writing stories for NaNoWriMo last year I’ve been rethinking my broader aims for this blog, and what processes can help me achieve them. Writing a post each week is a fine goal, but if they aren’t each in service of something larger it’s hard for them be anything but a pleasant chore. Subconsciously, that far-away target was establishing a writing routine with the hope it would improve my abilities. I think it has, but it took a concerted effort in editing a short story (and a few other projects before) for me to recognize that growth. It’s time for a change in approach and a new target.
Continue reading “New Writing Workflow”They Come Again (NaNoWriMo 2020 Story 2)
Here’s the second story, a little late, but I think much better because of the time I took to actually revise it. Again the basic idea came from /r/WritingPrompts, but I fleshed it out more. This has been a fun experience, and I look forward to doing a bit more in-depth editing and revising of my own work on longer pieces in the future.
Continue reading “They Come Again (NaNoWriMo 2020 Story 2)”Perfect Shot (NaNoWriMo 2020 Story 1)
Although I’m not doing a complete take of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, I still wanted to put in some concerted effort writing some pieces that weren’t blog posts or text adventures. So, I’ve committed to writing at least 2 short stories this month, a medium I find beautiful and incredibly tricky to nail down.
This first one is particularly short, only about 3 pages if printed, and the idea comes from a post on /r/WritingPrompts.
Continue reading “Perfect Shot (NaNoWriMo 2020 Story 1)”Text Adventures Part 3: The Mechanics
Text adventures are, almost by necessity, designed to railroad the player into doing something without it being obvious or annoying. Any mechanics introduced should be a natural extension to the world the player discovers, provide sufficient freedom so they don’t feel like a funnel, yet guide the player in the correct direction. In the text adventures I’ve listen to played on the Cortex/Upgrade crossover episodes, I’ve noticed that mechanics often act as hints. They are like bumpers on a wall (which may kill you, but you can make a different decision the next time.)
All these realizations have come after thinking carefully through the mechanics and puzzles I wrote which were clearly bad (and the few which were actually good), and trying to figure out what precisely caused them to have the effect on the players they did. It’s often me not paying attention to my good sense and the feedback of testers. More frequently it’s me trying to subdue the text adventure genre until it allows me to try and tell a story, rather than building a story that works within a framework.
Directly, most of my text adventure failures have come from a single mechanic undermining any positive decisions I made.
Continue reading “Text Adventures Part 3: The Mechanics”