Current Status: Noodles
Well, that's enough time for a pointless hiatus, right? Things have actually been busy lately, in that there has been a little less nothing going on. The Warhammer 40k obsession continues with unabated fire, due to another friend falling for the hobby. The Ork horde grows, and I'm discovering that there's a lot of joy to be had in just taking an hour to sit and paint a goblin. It's nice.
On a non-hobby subject (gasp, horror), I've been working on a novel. It's pretty much just the same idea that my subconscious has been kicking around for a year now, but I finally realized I could shove it all into one big pile and call it a story. It's complex, and has a lot more characters than I'm used to dealing with (i.e., more than one), but I'm actually enjoying the challenge of it. I'm not used to having a story idea that can actually fill a novel; most of my ideas barely escape the boundaries of a single scene.
Despite the excitement, it's been hard to get back into the writing mode. I spent a while just doing prep work: working out chronologies, doing character bios, that sort of thing. I don't think it was wasted time, but a lot of it was just avoiding the actual writing. I've always been a slow starter as a writer, and the empty page hasn't gotten less intimidating since college. But a friend recently advised me to start each writing session by putting down a slew of crap, and worrying about the good stuff later. The first time I sat down to write with that in mind, I felt free. I finally gave myself permission to suck, and oddly, it ended up coming out okay. Since then I've found my idle moments occasionally interrupted by a new idea that has to go into a notebook before I forget it. I finally feel like a real writer, and that's something I've wanted for a while.
Tonight I ran what may be the last game I do for one of my gaming groups, before they all head back to college. Half of it was ad-libbed, and some of the other half was jotted down in a notebook and never transferred to my session notes, so I had a heck of a time getting at what I needed. But I gave them their first real dragon fight (they won, though there were some close calls), and ended the session with some neat stuff I came up with two minutes before I said it aloud. All this after chatting with one of my players about the virtues of ad-libbing as a DM. I kind of wish I'd been better prepared, especially when I may not see these guys for another few months, but it feels good to be able to make something fun happen with nothing but a handful of dice and a few bright ideas.
So now I'm enjoying some celebratory late-night Ramen. Can there be any better sign that life is good?
-Sam
On a non-hobby subject (gasp, horror), I've been working on a novel. It's pretty much just the same idea that my subconscious has been kicking around for a year now, but I finally realized I could shove it all into one big pile and call it a story. It's complex, and has a lot more characters than I'm used to dealing with (i.e., more than one), but I'm actually enjoying the challenge of it. I'm not used to having a story idea that can actually fill a novel; most of my ideas barely escape the boundaries of a single scene.
Despite the excitement, it's been hard to get back into the writing mode. I spent a while just doing prep work: working out chronologies, doing character bios, that sort of thing. I don't think it was wasted time, but a lot of it was just avoiding the actual writing. I've always been a slow starter as a writer, and the empty page hasn't gotten less intimidating since college. But a friend recently advised me to start each writing session by putting down a slew of crap, and worrying about the good stuff later. The first time I sat down to write with that in mind, I felt free. I finally gave myself permission to suck, and oddly, it ended up coming out okay. Since then I've found my idle moments occasionally interrupted by a new idea that has to go into a notebook before I forget it. I finally feel like a real writer, and that's something I've wanted for a while.
Tonight I ran what may be the last game I do for one of my gaming groups, before they all head back to college. Half of it was ad-libbed, and some of the other half was jotted down in a notebook and never transferred to my session notes, so I had a heck of a time getting at what I needed. But I gave them their first real dragon fight (they won, though there were some close calls), and ended the session with some neat stuff I came up with two minutes before I said it aloud. All this after chatting with one of my players about the virtues of ad-libbing as a DM. I kind of wish I'd been better prepared, especially when I may not see these guys for another few months, but it feels good to be able to make something fun happen with nothing but a handful of dice and a few bright ideas.
So now I'm enjoying some celebratory late-night Ramen. Can there be any better sign that life is good?
-Sam