I have always enjoyed using unusual words for the names of my characters. For example, two of the main characters in my novel are Dilemma, and Ocean. I have kept this list of possible names for a long time, and pick from it whenever I want something a little different. I decided to post it, because it might provide someone with some inspiration.
MALE
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FEMALE
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For a long, long time I’ve been waiting for a game that puts the story first. A game that can tell a brilliant, engaging story just like a movie, tv show or book. But lately I’m beginning to wonder if that is even possible. Maybe I’m waiting for the impossible?
The latest game I’ve been playing is Heavy Rain. It was publicized as an ‘interactive drama’. It really does put the story first, and yes its a good story. The trouble is, I think this interactivity interferes with the storytelling. If you play it just once, then walk away, then yes you got a good, engaging story. But with the way the story can branch to much, nobody will play it just once.
So you play it a second time, get a different end result, and then your first story is diminished. You realise that there is really no set path for the story to unfold. For me, it ruins the immersion and surprise when you can steer the story in whatever way you want.
Of course, I realise not all games are like this. But still, even in games with linear storylines, the quality of the writing is lacking. Resident Evil games aside, the Survival Horror genre tends to have quite good storylines in their games. I’d probably say Silent Hill is the best at story, but even that too has multiple endings.
So what else? Uncharted 1 and 2 both had interesting linear stories, but I wouldn’t want to read a book about it.
No matter how many games I play, I really can’t think of one that has satisfied me, story-wise, the way a really good book can. Perhaps I should stop looking.
So what makes up an interesting story? Well written characters for a start. Most video game characters are pale, one-dimensional and badly written. But when it’s an action game where all you care about is killing the next alien, it really doesn’t matter how bad the characters are.
Heavy Rain has the best characters so far. They felt like real people, displayed emotion, and were well rounded. But still, it failed on plot. The plot changes so much depending on how you play, and each time you realise that a branch exists, a small part of the magic dies.
The Secret World (insert link here) is a MMO in development that promises to put an emphasis on story. The only other MMO I would say that has a good story is Lord of the Rings Online, and that’s only because it’s based on a story that has already been written. TSW has already revealed a lot of back-story, and currently there is an ARG centred around the New England town of Kingsmouth. Ragnar himself has stated that he wants people to get to know the characters, which is an exciting prospect. But the game is far from release. Can it deliver on story? Who knows… Perhaps being an MMO means it fails on story automatically?
Two games that perhaps come close to having a good story are The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. The trouble is, I haven’t completed The Longest Journey and never played Dreamfall. While the story and characters are good, it’s a basic point and click adventure game, and the boring, illogical puzzles ruin the pacing of the story for me.
That’s another thing, in a story, the pacing is very important. You want the story to flow smoothly, not become too slow or boring, and not move so fast that the reader can’t keep up. But with a game, they can’t control the pacing. Perhaps you’ll get stuck in a puzzle and not advance the story for a few days? Perhaps you’ll skip a few cut scenes? I found the pacing of The Longest Journey too slow, and I got bored. So I stopped playing.
Until now, when a new game comes out the first thing I look for is a good story. I’m always disappointed. I think perhaps I need to change my priorities. Maybe one day I’ll find a game with an exciting, engaging story, but when I do, it’ll be a surprise. I’m not looking for it anymore.
A few weeks ago I started keeping track of how many words per day I write.
| WHEN | TOTAL | AVERAGE |
| Week 1 | 6226 | 3113 |
| Week 2 | 7559 | 1080 |
| Week 3 | 5656 | 808 |
| Week 4 | 7821 | 1564 |
I’ve been trying to work out a suitable goal for my writing. I don’t know whether I should make my goal X words per day, or XX words per week. I’m leaning towards a weekly goal, since then I can do more on one day, then take a break another day. I like variety in my schedule, and I don’t want to feel locked doing something every single day, even if I don’t want to.
And the fact is, I feel that if I force myself to write at times when I really don’t want to, then that writing won’t be so good, so there’s no point in doing it. It’s best to be flexible, and write when I feel like writing.
I think, if I make my goal a weekly total of 6000 words, that would be a good starting place. Then, once I achieve that goal regularly, I’ll up it to 7000.
How do you guys write? Do you set daily/weekly goals? Do you meet them?
I lost part of the second draft of my book. 
It was my own fault really. As you can see from my last blog, I wanted to put up a preview of my book. I opened up the second draft, deleted some of the chapters so it was only the Prologue, First and Second Chapter, then I must have accidentally saved over it. I intended to save it as a different name, which I did. But I didn’t realize I also saved over the top of my proper second draft until I went to do some writing the next day and half of it was missing.
So now I have to re-revise a few chapters of the book. I can vaguely remember what I did before, but it’s not going to end up the same. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing. Perhaps revising again isn’t so bad, but it’s annoying.
Now I’m using version control. Each day I do some writing, I’m going to make a copy of the file. I’m on v2.3 now, so when I do some writing later, I’ll make a v2.4. I might end up with v.2.34221 but so be it!
I said this on my fitness blog, but I’ll say it here too. Over the last week I fell back into my old, lazy self. I had been taking a break from my first draft, and writing an unrelated short story, but for about three days I didn’t do any writing at all.
That’s bad. I like writing, and I intended to do it every day. It’s just that for some reason, I relapsed, and couldn’t be bothered doing anything. Anyway, I’m back to normal now. I’ve started to revise my first draft, and shape it into an even better second draft. It’s going well.
I experimented with different methods of revising. One said that you should read your book and make notes, but don’t change anything until you finish. Then, go through with your notes, and write the second draft. I tried this for a while, but reading my book without making any changes just felt like a waste of time.
So I’m using my own method. I open up two windows in Word, have the first draft in one, and the second draft in another. Then I read the first draft, and copy it into the second draft, making changes as I need to.
I’m happy now that I’ve started revising. I really did need the break. I know it was only a week, but now I can look at my novel with a fresh eye.
Well, after about four-five months of solid writing, I finished the first draft. Of course, this was a rewrite of the last book I wrote (and discarded), so I guess you could say this is the third draft.
The first version was called ‘Dilemma of the Hour’ and I discarded it because it didn’t really end. The new version is called ‘The Spiral Dilemma’ and is much much better. I took out a character I didn’t really need, moved her to the second book. I also added a bunch of scenes after the original ending, to give it a proper full blown finale. I love it, it’s actually the best thing I’ve ever written.
Now, the next step is to edit, and come up with a second draft. I know there are few scenes which I rushed, and I’ll have to add more detail to those parts. Other bits just didn’t feel right, but that’s what editing is for.
It’s all down hill from here.
Now, where did I leave my fine-toothed come?
Using some tutorials I found on Cartographer’s Guild I have designed, in Photoshop, a map of my fantasy world. Moure is where my novel is set.
I think it turned out pretty well. This first book mainly takes place in and around Tavia, in the lands south-west, but I plan for later books to travel around further.
I plan on updating the map as I write, and filling in more detail as the characters visit those places. In the middle of the map, the Tangled Sea will become very important to my future novels. Technically it isn’t excatly a sea, but you will find that out when I get to it.
What is my book about?
Well the theme of the book is Sorcery vs Necromancy, and this is a metaphor for a lot of the great debates of the real world, such as Religion vs Atheism, or Creation vs Evolution.
Both Sorcery and Necromancy are forms of magic. Sorcery is the art of manipulating magic through speaking the language of the Gods, called Arcana. Necromancy is the art of manipulating magic through the power of your own blood, which usually involves self-mutilation.
The two are diametrically opposed, as the Sorcerers believe that magic was a gift from the Gods, and that by using Sorcery they can be closer to the Gods.
Conversly, the Necromancers reject the Gods. They still believe in them, but they do not worship them and want nothing to do with them. They believe Magic comes from inside you, and to use Magic is to harness the power of your own blood.
As well as all of this, its also a good old-fashioned fantasy adventure. Dilemma, a Sorcerer in training, is attacked by Daemons, and hunts down teh Necromancer who was controlling them. It is a self contained novel, however I do have a series planned. But if I change my mind and decide never to write any follow-up books, this story could sit on its own quite well.
You can read an except from ‘Time and other Dilemmas’ here:
http://craigsplace.info/writing/time-and-other-dilemmas-chapter-two/
Before all this stuff happened in my life, I had made the decision not to give up writing, but to postpone it. I just couldn’t see how I could write while working full-time at a stressful job.
Now things have changed. 
Since I’m taking care of Dad full-time, I actually have much more time to devote to my writing, so I’m throwing myself back into it.
Technically I’ve written three novels, all of which I don’t consider good enough to be published. What I am doing now is re-writing my third novel. Previously it was called “Dilemma of the Hour”. The title now, for this new version, is “Time and other Dilemmas”.
Its a fantasy novel about a young woman who is studying Magic at college when her town is invaded by demons. She discovers the demons are being controlled by a mysterious Necromancer, and together with her best friend Keldis, the renown heroine Ocean, and her Sorcery mentor Woodrill Rivers, they track down the Necromancer – to discover why he is attacking innocent downs and stop him.
As a teaser, I have uploaded the chapter two of my novel here. It is a good introduction to the world, and to the character of Dilemma.
I’ve found myself getting into writing again. I’m trying not to put too much importance on it, because that was my mistake last time. My hopes were way too high, and when I didn’t meet them I gave up. Now, I don’t really have any hopes. I’m writing because its fun.
About Dilemma, I don’t know how many of you actually read my book. Probably not many. Again, I had grand ambitions. I wanted to write a trilogy of books, and I had planned out everything that would happen in each book. The trouble was that when I finished writing ‘Dilemma of the Hour’, (the first book) and self-published it, I found it very hard to write the second book. I got tired of the characters and story, and I began to doubt whether I could write an entire trilogy of books. So I removed it from publication.
Now I’m rethinking things. I think my mistake was planning too much. I will rewrite Dilemma of the Hour, and this time it will be a self-contained novel. The old Dilemma didn’t even have a proper ending (another of my mistakes). So what I need to do now is remove some plot elements from the first book, and add in some from the planned second and third books, so it forms a nice, cohesive plot.
So some of the characters will need to disappear… which brings me to the question of this post.
What is more intreguing to read about?
- a heroic figure who is revealed to have major flaws. A ‘fall from grace’ so to speak… or
- an anti-hero, who is disliked at first, but who ends up as the good guy.
Thoughts are welcomed, please!
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