Digital Home of Sleepless Flame and other Extraordinary Cyberpunk and SciFi Tales
This week I picked myself back up on my workout wagon, and I am in excruciating pain. I am having difficulty raising my arms after five days of walking trails, gymming it up, and HEMA practice, so please forgive me for any errors in this post. Or don’t. Whatever floats yer goat.
So the final chapter of 15 is starting to become the bane of my existence. I have a starting point. I have an end point. Here is what the middle looks like:
It’s starting to feel a bit surreal in the writing cave as the winds of creativity begin to saturate my ear holes.
This week, I managed to not only finish off Chapter 13, but 14 as well – a week ahead of schedule. 13 had two intense combat scenes, and after the initial wave of smashing my keyboard, I was surprised to find that I didn’t hate the result.
14, on the other hand, needs a bit more polish. There is a lot of exposition that needs to be smoothed out, but for now it is good enough to progress with everything else. Continue reading Progress! Odin is Feeling it Now Mr. Krabs
I would like to preface this by stating that while this is how *I* personally use the pronoun “They” in reference to my Nonbinary characters, it is by no means the one and only absolute *RIGHT* way of doing it. The purpose of this article is to give a starting point to authors who are a bit uncertain about the usage within the gender spectrum. Continue reading Writing With The Singular “They” and Nonbinary Characters
This game….where do I even *begin* with THIS GAME? I mean it’s not like I have a *problem* or anything-
….ok maybe a little bit of one….
That last achievement though, I stg…I know *EXACTLY* what I am missing >:[
SO! The game of discussion today is the indie dev studio Monomi Park’s Slime Rancher. The premise is you have acquired a quaint little ranch out in Far Far Away, and you must obliterate your competition and take your place in the cutthroat empire of crystallized shit. I am only exaggerating a little bit, but I will have you guess about which part.
There’s nothing like waking up to the sound of a grown ass man bursting through your bedroom door screaming “ODIN! HELP! HERMES CAUGHT A MOUSE!!!”
…So how was your day? (The mouse is fine btw.)
So I guess in an attempt to warm up my brain, I will update you on the progress of 13, or something like that.
Firstly, I love math coincidences, and this is what my word count looked like last night:
I was *doubly* amused by the page count DOHOHOHO. Continue reading Update and Rude Awakenings
Progress! Sweet delicious progress. This week I have finished the Beta version of Chapter 12, then did an appropriate amount of dicking around ranching some slimes.
FYI, SLIME RANCHER IS AN AMAZING GAME AND I WILL PROBABLY RANT ABOUT IT SOMETIME SOON.
Though, I thought I have done already since I bought it early access, but I guess my brain has slipped or something. Fuck if I know.
MOVING ON! Continue reading UPDATE THING 8/26
The panels reverberated violently to the rhythmic thuds of bass. What had started with simple head bobbing evolved gradually into foot tapping. Keystrokes were pressed in harmonic patterns. His fingers fluttered until the silky sound captured his limbs, his arms stirring the air in smooth undulations. Malik was overtaken, his torso swayed as his mind was taken prisoner by the melody, snatched away from the outside world. He glided over to the environmental controls, sliding the light down to a more appropriate darkness.
The slow tempo smoothly transitioned, elevating to a mighty crescendo. Malik slammed into the pilot seat, swiveling the cushion around in circles as he continued to make waves with his arms and shoulders. As the bass shuddered through his skull, a surge of energy coursed through his muscles, causing his movements to grow jagged, violent. The beats repeated, commanding his every move like an auditory puppeteer.
But as the climax descended, the noise relinquished its control of his body. The rhythm slowed to a small series of heartbeats. Malik eased his breath as he gently coaxed the flight settings, pressing buttons and picking at switches in time with each remaining thud. Silence returned, and he reclined in the chair, a self-satisfied smile stretched across his lips.
“I really wish you wouldn’t listen to that garbage while inside me,” Niner-3 piped in.
Continue reading I’d Ship It
Here are some random tidbits of narration that have nothing to do with anything whatsoever. Some of these pieces are also very old and frankly I am ashamed to put them online, but there ya go.
Your characters have just finished sizing each other up, and inevitably, you need to figure out how they will go about beating the ever-living tar out of each other. Below I have illustrated my thought process on how I construct these scenes.
I do have examples of my combat scenes here for your examination.
I begin with two timeline points: the start (X and Y are standing in front of each other), then the result (X has Y in a headlock). In between is a multitude of points that bring the scene together, like frames in a zoetrope. The next step would be to draft a play-by-play of how the conflict takes place.
There is an underlying flow inside every combat engagement, and decoding that flow is key to effectively communicating a scene to your readers through narration. Not every graphic detail needs to be drawn out either, just enough to create a chain of action-reaction-action steps until you have reached your result point. Continue reading Regarding Combat
Here you will find pieces of brain vomit that describes the messy slop of Odin’s writing process, which other authors may or may not find useful. These tidbits are in no particular order, and if you are looking for something specific for me to cover, let me know.
