![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In Which I Get Creative
Apr. 6th, 2020 09:38 pmThe last year hasn't been a great time for writing, because so much time was taken up by preparing for the move (and the ever-ongoing sale of our house). The last three months haven't been a great time for writing, because I've been busy settling in to a new routine and a new house. And, the last month hasn't been a great time for writing because COVID-19 has settled upon us like a miasma.
That's not to say I haven't done any writing, even in the last few months when it's been the most busy and/or troubled. I've actually written three complete Advanced Designers & Dragons articles, one on 2019 and a two-part article on the '10s generally. And I wrote two more strategy articles for my beloved Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (though the new articles on Valeros and Lem haven't appeared yet), and even two Mechanics & Meeples articles (though with my old gaming groups left back in California and my actual tabletop play non-existent right now, it's probably time to put that on hiatus again, as has happened from time to time). But, that total of seven articles is pretty limited.
(Mind you, the 40 journal entries since we arrived is way over average.)
And I want to be doing more, and I want to be doing more on my most substantive projects, the books I'm working on.
And that's what last Friday was about.
See, here's my long-term plan for working in Hawaii. I'm going to be doing up to two days of blockchain-related tech writing freelance, if I can get it. Right now, Chris has asked for those days. And I've got one day for two old clients that I'm sticking with: Rebooting Web of Trust and Bitmark. If they have work for me. RWOT is of course between workshops due to COVID-19, and I think Bitmark is changing gears. So I'm unsure of how much this will be right now, but I've always figured it wouldn't take up a FULL day every week. Finally, the last two days, and whatever's left of that third day, are supposed to be for my own big projects.
I've got a lot of them:
The Designers & Dragons TSR/WotC product histories. My Michael Moorcock book. Designers & Dragons: The Lost Histories. Designers & Dragons: The '20s. Maybe a history of Bitcoin. The next cooperative books with Christopher. Maybe additional work on our comics.
But April has ended up being a transition, because I'm not quite done with Skotos yet, and so I've just given myself Friday to get started on those projects.
And, I was wrote last Friday, that was only somewhat successful, because I had the interruption of physical therapy appointments in the morning, and then I spent most of the afternoon standing in line to buy groceries and drugs. Fun.
But, it wasn't as unsuccessful as you might think. I got a good start on my next product history, on the World of Greyhawk Folio, one of the last totally unwritten articles for what should be the first product history book. And I was enthusiastic enough that I carried that work into Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday.
Oh, I also swam (on Saturday) and walked (on Sunday) and napped (whenever I could) and read. But I consistently went back to that history.
It's now drafted, at a big 'ole 2500 words. (It's an important product.)
And I've got all my notes laid out for the connecting history on the World of Greyhawk box.
Meanwhile, something even more unexpected came up. One of my German friends from Tradetalk suggested that I might want to think about my long-lost ElfBook — which I wrote for Greg Stafford for Issaries about 15 years — as a Jonstown Compendium product.
I looked at JC, and discovered it doesn't have the ownership provisions that keep me away from DM's Guild, and I agreed that it might be cool to finally get that lost manuscript out. So I ordered the RQ:G books, something I'd always planned to do after our move here. Fortunately, I'd just gotten some money for my birthday, and it was the perfect amount.
The slipcase of core books arrived on Saturday, and I posted a picture of them online and to the Glorantha FB, and said that I was thinking about a JC release. When someone said they hoped it was elves, I said yes.
But then a bit of a surprise: Chaosium might be interested in an elf book after all. They weren't when I asked them last time, about a year and a half ago, but since then RQ:G has done well.
If I produce something for them, it's not exactly going to be the lost Oak and Pine book, but I think the first several chapters will be entirely relevant, and then I'd love to put together some very playable, entirely new material for the heart of the RQ:G world: settings and adventures. So one of my goals is to read through RQ:G and write up an outline this month, for what I would love to be an official "ElfPak".
(And then after I hopefully write an official ElfPak, I can see what I still have left from the original book, and publish that to the JC as originally planned! That'll probably end up being my overview of all the elf forests in Glorantha.)
So, I guess I'm adding one or more books to what was obviously already a too-long list.
But finally, finally, finally I've got some real scheduled time for them, not just what I scavenge in the evenings and while out hiking.
And that time should increase next month, as was always planned as one of benefits of this move.
Something else of note: after the weekend, I felt pulled out of the funk I'd been in over the uncertainty of the future. Part of that was surely that the sun has come out, but part of it is also the refreshed creativity, and making use of it.
That's not to say I haven't done any writing, even in the last few months when it's been the most busy and/or troubled. I've actually written three complete Advanced Designers & Dragons articles, one on 2019 and a two-part article on the '10s generally. And I wrote two more strategy articles for my beloved Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (though the new articles on Valeros and Lem haven't appeared yet), and even two Mechanics & Meeples articles (though with my old gaming groups left back in California and my actual tabletop play non-existent right now, it's probably time to put that on hiatus again, as has happened from time to time). But, that total of seven articles is pretty limited.
(Mind you, the 40 journal entries since we arrived is way over average.)
And I want to be doing more, and I want to be doing more on my most substantive projects, the books I'm working on.
And that's what last Friday was about.
See, here's my long-term plan for working in Hawaii. I'm going to be doing up to two days of blockchain-related tech writing freelance, if I can get it. Right now, Chris has asked for those days. And I've got one day for two old clients that I'm sticking with: Rebooting Web of Trust and Bitmark. If they have work for me. RWOT is of course between workshops due to COVID-19, and I think Bitmark is changing gears. So I'm unsure of how much this will be right now, but I've always figured it wouldn't take up a FULL day every week. Finally, the last two days, and whatever's left of that third day, are supposed to be for my own big projects.
I've got a lot of them:
The Designers & Dragons TSR/WotC product histories. My Michael Moorcock book. Designers & Dragons: The Lost Histories. Designers & Dragons: The '20s. Maybe a history of Bitcoin. The next cooperative books with Christopher. Maybe additional work on our comics.
But April has ended up being a transition, because I'm not quite done with Skotos yet, and so I've just given myself Friday to get started on those projects.
And, I was wrote last Friday, that was only somewhat successful, because I had the interruption of physical therapy appointments in the morning, and then I spent most of the afternoon standing in line to buy groceries and drugs. Fun.
But, it wasn't as unsuccessful as you might think. I got a good start on my next product history, on the World of Greyhawk Folio, one of the last totally unwritten articles for what should be the first product history book. And I was enthusiastic enough that I carried that work into Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday.
Oh, I also swam (on Saturday) and walked (on Sunday) and napped (whenever I could) and read. But I consistently went back to that history.
It's now drafted, at a big 'ole 2500 words. (It's an important product.)
And I've got all my notes laid out for the connecting history on the World of Greyhawk box.
Meanwhile, something even more unexpected came up. One of my German friends from Tradetalk suggested that I might want to think about my long-lost ElfBook — which I wrote for Greg Stafford for Issaries about 15 years — as a Jonstown Compendium product.
I looked at JC, and discovered it doesn't have the ownership provisions that keep me away from DM's Guild, and I agreed that it might be cool to finally get that lost manuscript out. So I ordered the RQ:G books, something I'd always planned to do after our move here. Fortunately, I'd just gotten some money for my birthday, and it was the perfect amount.
The slipcase of core books arrived on Saturday, and I posted a picture of them online and to the Glorantha FB, and said that I was thinking about a JC release. When someone said they hoped it was elves, I said yes.
But then a bit of a surprise: Chaosium might be interested in an elf book after all. They weren't when I asked them last time, about a year and a half ago, but since then RQ:G has done well.
If I produce something for them, it's not exactly going to be the lost Oak and Pine book, but I think the first several chapters will be entirely relevant, and then I'd love to put together some very playable, entirely new material for the heart of the RQ:G world: settings and adventures. So one of my goals is to read through RQ:G and write up an outline this month, for what I would love to be an official "ElfPak".
(And then after I hopefully write an official ElfPak, I can see what I still have left from the original book, and publish that to the JC as originally planned! That'll probably end up being my overview of all the elf forests in Glorantha.)
So, I guess I'm adding one or more books to what was obviously already a too-long list.
But finally, finally, finally I've got some real scheduled time for them, not just what I scavenge in the evenings and while out hiking.
And that time should increase next month, as was always planned as one of benefits of this move.
Something else of note: after the weekend, I felt pulled out of the funk I'd been in over the uncertainty of the future. Part of that was surely that the sun has come out, but part of it is also the refreshed creativity, and making use of it.