And It Happened Again…

Yes, I have once again managed to abandon this blog as real life got in the way. I don’t really have an excuse, other than terminal busy-ness – a dissertation to write, a handful of other essays, seminars and presentations, keeping up with fiction writing and reading and even occasionally getting some time to myself. Still, I’m starting to miss having somewhere to splurge my thoughts on writing, so this blog needs to be officially resurrected. As such, an update:

• The novel I’m working on passed 60k words just a couple of days ago. I’m thrilled that I’m finally creeping towards the end, but worried about finishing because the editing process is going to be huge. A lack of planning meant that I changed my mind numerous times about what was going on in the book as I was writing it, so the whole thing is going to have to be ripped apart. Several bits will need completely rewriting, others will need extensive editing and I think I need to add in a whole new sub-plot to draw everything together. It’s going to be hard work, but it’s practice at editing that I really need at the moment.
• In other writing news, I have two new novel ideas floating around in my head (and in the process of being better planned than the one I’m currently writing) alongside a half-finished short story and another short that is waiting to be written.
• In terms of photography, nothing much has happened recently, which is a shame because we’re having a pretty gorgeous autumn. I’m having a short break in York at the start of November though, which should be a chance to get some photos taken.
• The only game I’m really playing at the moment is my beloved Guild Wars, but I’m trying to restrict my gaming time as I’ve got so much other stuff to do.

And that’s it for now.

Sword of the New World: The Best Free MMORPG?

As I’ve made clear in the past, I’ve tried an awful lot of MMORPGs, both free and subscriber only (Perfect World, Rappelz, Tales of Pirates, Rohan, Dofus, World of Warcraft, Cabal and probably some others I can’t remember). In most cases though, the free to play ones don’t stay on my computer very long, sometimes even for less time than it took me to download the installer. So, it was with a degree of trepidation that I spent somewhere in the region of twelve hours downloading, installing and patching an MMO called Sword of the New World.

I have to admit though, despite the long wait, I’m pleasantly surprised. SotNW definitely stands up with the best of free to play MMOs and perhaps even some of the pay to play ones too. Here’s a more detailed look at what I thought of the game.

1. System specs: My laptop is two years old now and wasn’t top of the range when it was new, so whether games will actually run is a big issue for me. To my surprise though, Sword of the New World runs beautifully and not even on the lowest graphics settings. So far it’s been smooth and lag free, which is definitely a bonus.
2. The look of the game: I’ll be the first to admit that I have a real fixation with pretty things. To this end, I love games that look good. SotNW really stands up here. It looks gorgeous, from the detailed landscapes and textures to the brilliantly OTT character costumes. Despite the fictitious world, the game as a whole has a ‘baroque’, historical feel to it, rather than the fantasy setting of many online games.
3. Playability: This is one area where Sword of the New World is slightly let down. On the plus side, it has the interesting feature of being able to play up to three characters at once. Unfortunately, managing these three characters in areas so heavy with monsters that you can quickly became swamped is not always easy. There are also so many keyboard shortcuts that it’s almost easier not to bother learning them at all. Add to that the ‘not entirely obvious how it works’ systems of stances and skills and the game can be a bit overwhelming for the new player. I’m still not convinced I’ve got the hang of everything yet, but I’m getting there. Overall, it’s a complicated but likely rewarding system, particularly at higher levels.
4. Other observations: One thing the game does have going for it is the more-or-less perfect English in character dialogue boxes. There are a few typos (particularly in NPC names) but overall the dialogue is readable and gives a sense that the game might actually have a bit of a story to it (this is a far cry from a lot of free MMOs I’ve played, in which the text has been translated into English, often from Korean, but very poorly).

So, overall impressions: Sword of the New World is an interesting and very good-looking MMORPG, offering a different set of attractions from many of its competitors, particularly in the ability to play more than one character at once. I’ve yet to see much of the social side of the game, as the starting areas seem to be fairly quiet. However, I’m likely to keep playing and try to get to some of the busier areas, as the game runs beautifully, looks fantastic and has so far proved to be pretty enjoyable.

Does Sword of the New World have the potential to be an alternative to other MMORPGs, even ones which require a subscription? Probably not, as the playing style it offers is somewhat different to traditional games of this type. However, if you’re fed up of badly-translated, bland-looking and boring to play MMOs, Sword of the New World might be one to try.

Back To Work On The Novel

After a few days off to re-evaluate where my latest novel was going, I’ve managed to come up with some answers. I’m now a lot clearer about some important character motivations and world rules, so it’s time to press on with racking up the word count.

Admittedly, if I’d planned ahead with this novel, as I usually do, I wouldn’t have had this problem. Still, it’s been nice to just let the story lead me where it will for once, without any existing ideas about what I wanted to include (except for the final two or three scenes).

So, back to work on the novel and less time for blogging, which is the way I like it. If I’m writing less here, it usually means I’m writing more fiction and that’s always a good thing.

When Questioning Your Writing Can Be A Good Thing

If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you’ll probably have read some mention of the latest novel I’m working on. Without giving too much away, it features magic and mythical creatures and I’m coming up to the halfway point. Halfway is a pretty important milestone. In theory, I should know my characters, world and plot pretty well by now. In theory.

I’ve realised over the last couple of days that the reason I’m struggling to motivate myself to write is because I’m uncertain about where the story is going next. Part of this is down to a lack of planning in the early stages of the writing process, but I’ll admit that I’ve rather enjoyed letting the story take me where it will, instead of studiously plotting the whole thing out before I began. Additionally, I’ve read a couple of interesting articles recently, both of which have covered topics I’m writing about and both of which have made me question how I want my created world to function.

So, I’m left with a great deal of uncertainty and I’m not writing much as a consequence. It sounds terrible, but I’ve come to the conclusion that this indecision may save the book. Finally, I’ve been made to sit back and really think about the dynamics of my story and world. It’s something I’ve been putting off, but it’s also something I really need to do in order to improve the novel. Whilst I could leave this until the editing stage, I’m finding that stopping to look at what I’ve done so far and to really think about how events in the story are going to pan out – and about how the mechanics of my fantasy world affect this – is actually giving me much more confidence in my ability to finish the book.

Sometimes, it seems, questioning where you’re going with a novel or story can actually make you stop, take a look around and work out how to make the remainder of that story as good as it can possibly be.

Dofus 2.0

It’s been a while since I’ve really talked about my love of gaming, so I thought it was time to slot in a post about my MMORPGing activities. (On a side note, I realise that many of the people who read this blog do so because of my musings on writing, which is what I mainly blog about. I do have other passions though, which is why I sometimes like to write about them too. If you’re not interested in gaming, that’s fair enough: just skip this post.)

Recently I’ve started playing a MMORPG called Dofus again. It’s been a while since I’ve played, but the low system requirements, low subscription cost (or even option not to subscribe at all) and relaxing gameplay style keep me coming back. Dofus is a cartoony, Flash-based game with instanced, turn-based combat. It also incorporates the more traditional elements of MMORPGs, having a number of different classes to choose from, a massive world map, both PvE and PvP, loads of different armours to collect and mounts (which I think are newly introduced).

I’ve chosen today to blog about Dofus because I recently came across something interesting on their website: the introduction of Dofus 2.0, coming soon. I’ve played a number of online games that have been through similar upgrades, but this one has me intrigued, as it’s occurring on a game I really enjoy. The upgrades seem to involve rebuilding the game from the ground up, improving the graphics and performance, whilst retaining the original gameplay and, most importantly, players’ characters.

Will this upgrade be a success? That’s difficult to say. Most MMORPGs have so many slightly-obsessive fans that even the most minute change to the game can upset them. Personally though, I think this is going to turn out to be a great improvement to an already enjoyable game and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Playing To Your Writing Strengths

If, like me, you write with the ultimate aim of getting published one day, you may have heard a piece of advice that runs thus: To break into the market, it’s best to get some short stories in print first, then use your publishing credits to your advantage when you try to get a novel published. It sounds like good advice and indeed, for some people, that may well be the way to go about breaking into the publishing world. Lately I’ve realised something though: that strategy is unlikely to work for me.

Put simply, I’m not terribly good at writing short stories. Sure, I can write them and I’ve even had one accepted to an online magazine. Generally though, I really struggle to write anything shorter than 30,000 words. My brain just doesn’t work that way. Whenever I have an idea, I immediately start adding it into a novel, be that one I’m working on or one I might work on in the future. For me, writing novels is far easier than writing short stories, which sounds strange, but that seems to be the way my brain works. I’d even go so far as to say that I don’t particularly enjoy reading short stories, whereas picking up a novel seems like the most natural thing in the world.

This realisation has led me to give up with short stories, for the moment and concentrate on finishing my latest novel. That’s not to say that I won’t try again with short fiction in months or years to come – I believe in challenging myself in my writing as much as possible – but, for now, that’s not where my emphasis is going to lie.

I suppose my advice is this: sometimes it’s best to play towards your writing strengths. Right now, I feel that struggling with short stories that I’m not going to enjoy writing would be a waste of my time. That lack of enthusiam will doubtless show in any story I write, which will likely lead to rejection. It may be going against perceived wisdom, particularly in the field of SF and fantasy, but for me it’s got to be novels all the way.

Still Alive… More or Less

I realised today that it’s almost two months since I last updated this blog. *slaps wrist* Luckily, I now finally have time to start posting again, so proper posts will be coming in the next few days. For now though, here’s a quick update.

My current novel project is very much turning out to be a winner. I’m aware that it’s going to need a significant amount of editing when I get to the end, but for now I’m just focussing on getting the first draft done. Here’s my progress:

As you can see, I’m doing reasonably well at the moment, hitting somewhere between 1000 and 1500 words a day. My plan is to reach the 80k by the end of September, but we’ll see how it goes.

Other than writing, I’ve been focussing on research and pulling together ideas for my dissertation, the plan for which will have to be complete sometime in October.  The topic? The Roman cult of Mithraism.

And then there are all the other little things I’ve been doing to amuse myself – playing copious amounts of Guild Wars, catching up on my reading and experimenting with some new recipes. After all, I am supposed to be on holiday.

A Quick Link and I’ll Be Back Next Week

I mentioned yesterday that I’m going to be without internet access next week. Clearly, this means no blog posts or replies to messages. I’ll be back – temporarily – on the 12th, which is a Saturday.

I do want to quickly give a link to Jeff VanderMeer’s blog, Ecstatic Days though. It’s one of my favourites and today’s post in particular felt relevant to me, with what I was saying yesterday about the distraction of the internet and my need to get away from it for a while in order to get some writing done. The whole post is, I think, one that more writers should read, particularly those who spend more time blogging about writing fiction than actually writing the fiction itself.

So, there’s something interesting for you to read. I’ll be back next week, hopefully refreshed and with a progress report.

Going On A Writing Retreat

I read a lot of blogs by fiction authors and I’ve noticed recently that a lot of them have been taking what they refer to as ‘writing retreats’. Basically, this is taking a holiday, usually travelling away from home, with the express purpose of getting some quality writing time. This is, incidentally, something that I’m more-or-less going to be doing next week. More, because I’ll be getting loads of writing done, but less because that wasn’t initially why I planned to go away.

Clearly, the idea of taking a week off, with no distractions (read: no internet) isn’t going to be something that everyone can do, or even wants to do, but it must have its positives. Even now, I get slightly misty-eyed over the thought of just spending five days typing away. Soaring word-counts, time to just think about the story with no other distractions and the feeling that, just for a few days, I’m a real writer. It sounds like absolute bliss.

Well, maybe. The problem is that I, like many writers, have spent so long developing a writing schedule that fits around all my other daily activities, that I once I’m left just writing, I fear I might get a bit bored. I’ll have no cooking, housework, gardening or general errands to do. I’ll have no internet for procrastination. There’ll be just me and my laptop and the little blinking cursor, goading me to write something.

Thankfully, I believe there’s a happy compromise to be found. You see, my ‘writing retreat’ is actually a visit to my parents, who have just moved house and have no internet connection yet. So, fewer distractions. But, at the same time, there’ll be socialising to be done, old friends to meet up with and relatives to visit. I’ll be able to lounge around watching TV and not feel guilty. I’ll even be able to catch up with some reading. At the same time though, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to write, should I choose to take them.

So, maybe that’s the answer to having a successful writing holiday. Take a trip to see someone: maybe family, maybe writer friends. Just wherever you go, make sure you’ll have at least some time to write, as well as one or two distractions for when the words aren’t coming.

What I’ve Been Playing/Reading/Writing etc. etc.

Over the last couple of days, I haven’t found time to blog properly, so tonight I’m just going to provide a general update of what I’ve been up to and hopefully get back to something more interesting over the weekend.

• What I’ve been playing: Pokemon Pearl, which arrived in the post around lunchtime, so I’ve been glued to my Nintendo DS for much of the afternoon. So far it’s pretty much as I expected, which is just fine, as it’s nostalgia for playing Pokemon Yellow that spurred me to buy this new one. I’ll hopefully get a few more thoughts up when I’ve got further into the game.
• What I’ve been reading: Currently Neuromancer by William Gibson, which I’ve been told is an SF classic. I’ve read less classic SF than I have fantasy, but I’m really enjoying it so far. The prose is very taut and it seems as if every unnecessary word has been chopped out. There’s a lesson that more writers should take note of.
• What I’ve been writing: All I’ll say is that it’s a secret project and that I’m 7500 words into an estimated 80,000. Unusually for me, I haven’t planned much for this one so I’m pretty much just taking it scene by scene. To be honest, I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out, but I’ll keep you posted!
• Other things I’ve been doing: Having picnics in the park, enjoying the sun, cooking, organising, starting to see the point in both FaceBook and Twitter.

And final thoughts… Well, it’s my 21st birthday on Thursday, so I’m probably not going to be around much over the next week. (Exacerbated by the fact that I’m going to visit my parents next week, who have no internet because they’ve just moved house – I’m using the trip as a ‘writing retreat’, which I’ll talk more about tomorrow.)

To all those who celebrate the 4th July, hope you’re having a great day. And even for those of us who don’t, here in the UK, the weather’s been fantastic today and that’s reason enough to celebrate!