Coronavirus SIP, Day 41
Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Yesterday I started up Planescape: Torment because I don't have enough things to do during this quarantine, frankly. R. highly recommended it and I've heard rumors of it being quite highly regarded critically. It's a really old game, so it takes a little bit of getting used to as a point-and-click adventure. Also, Frith help me, it uses a modified version of D&D 2E as its base system, so that's a blast from the past. My character, the Nameless One, has an actual THAC0!
He's basically woken up on a mortuary slab, where members of this order called Dustmen take in the dead, cut them open, and eventually raise them to do menial tasks. However, the Nameless One has apparently done this before. By walking around and checking things out, I've learned a few things: he was brought to the Mortuary in a cart by some joker named Pharod, a Collector who steals liberally from the bodies he collects; the Nameless One is unable to die, and has been there a number of times -- often with followers from his travels; and that he apparently loved a woman who has since died and been interred there; he's hidden something in a zombie designated '42'.
The Dustmen are suspicious of anyone who isn't in their robes, so if you walk up and ask them things they'll eventually try to detain you. I tripped the alarm once and got all of the zombies mad at me, but if they kill you then the alarm is over and you keep your stuff! So I killed one of the Dustmen (what, the Nameless One is neutral!), kept their robes, and used the cover to explore the Mortuary at length. I left the game once I got outside the Mortuary and into the city, so we'll see what happens next.
I'm a bit stuck with this episode of "Crushing The Competition", mostly because there's a lot that needs to happen wihtin the story for me to stay on track. In the outline, the main character has a pair of conversations with his best friend and his parents about his decision to take the very unusual offer he's been given. But I'm...about a third of the way through and I'm just starting the conversation between Ralph and Sam. I want to establish their relationship and what's being lost, but also set up the sadness of their parting as a foil against the much more contentious relationship with his father. I'm not sure I'll be able to do all of that in the space of 2000 words, and I don't know if I should 'force' it down or expand it out for proper breath.
I guess it depends on how much the conversations reverberate throughout the rest of the story. I'm thinking that Sam's conversation reminds Ralph of the things he'd be giving up to move through the plot, but also shows the traits he overlooks in relationships. The conversation with his father shows us *why* he has such a chip on his shoulder, why he feels the need to pursue respect above all else, and why he has such conflicted feelings about being small. If I were a more efficient writer, I think I could get this down to a single conversation -- but it'll take more time than I've got.
This is another situation where the more I think about what I'm trying to do, the more I discover the potholes on the path I've set for myself. Part of being a writer is discovering those things that are harder to do than they look, which is fine! Usually, when this happens I freak out and abandon the project, so the fact that I'm not immediately setting things down and walking away is progress for me. XD The good thing about this project is that I don't have a lot of time to dither at all. I just have to try something and accept whether or not it works, and take what I've learned forward.
In a small way, it's exciting knowing that I'm heading into this exercise expecting to fail. The point is not to thread the needle; it's to listen to my instincts on this, find out where my current ability falls short, and think of how to get better moving forward.
But this is something I've almost never done with my writing, so it's hard. But the whole idea of having a consistent practice is to recognize these difficulties and move forward anyway.
He's basically woken up on a mortuary slab, where members of this order called Dustmen take in the dead, cut them open, and eventually raise them to do menial tasks. However, the Nameless One has apparently done this before. By walking around and checking things out, I've learned a few things: he was brought to the Mortuary in a cart by some joker named Pharod, a Collector who steals liberally from the bodies he collects; the Nameless One is unable to die, and has been there a number of times -- often with followers from his travels; and that he apparently loved a woman who has since died and been interred there; he's hidden something in a zombie designated '42'.
The Dustmen are suspicious of anyone who isn't in their robes, so if you walk up and ask them things they'll eventually try to detain you. I tripped the alarm once and got all of the zombies mad at me, but if they kill you then the alarm is over and you keep your stuff! So I killed one of the Dustmen (what, the Nameless One is neutral!), kept their robes, and used the cover to explore the Mortuary at length. I left the game once I got outside the Mortuary and into the city, so we'll see what happens next.
I'm a bit stuck with this episode of "Crushing The Competition", mostly because there's a lot that needs to happen wihtin the story for me to stay on track. In the outline, the main character has a pair of conversations with his best friend and his parents about his decision to take the very unusual offer he's been given. But I'm...about a third of the way through and I'm just starting the conversation between Ralph and Sam. I want to establish their relationship and what's being lost, but also set up the sadness of their parting as a foil against the much more contentious relationship with his father. I'm not sure I'll be able to do all of that in the space of 2000 words, and I don't know if I should 'force' it down or expand it out for proper breath.
I guess it depends on how much the conversations reverberate throughout the rest of the story. I'm thinking that Sam's conversation reminds Ralph of the things he'd be giving up to move through the plot, but also shows the traits he overlooks in relationships. The conversation with his father shows us *why* he has such a chip on his shoulder, why he feels the need to pursue respect above all else, and why he has such conflicted feelings about being small. If I were a more efficient writer, I think I could get this down to a single conversation -- but it'll take more time than I've got.
This is another situation where the more I think about what I'm trying to do, the more I discover the potholes on the path I've set for myself. Part of being a writer is discovering those things that are harder to do than they look, which is fine! Usually, when this happens I freak out and abandon the project, so the fact that I'm not immediately setting things down and walking away is progress for me. XD The good thing about this project is that I don't have a lot of time to dither at all. I just have to try something and accept whether or not it works, and take what I've learned forward.
In a small way, it's exciting knowing that I'm heading into this exercise expecting to fail. The point is not to thread the needle; it's to listen to my instincts on this, find out where my current ability falls short, and think of how to get better moving forward.
But this is something I've almost never done with my writing, so it's hard. But the whole idea of having a consistent practice is to recognize these difficulties and move forward anyway.
