I’m sure there are plenty of books about it and several AIs are standing by ready to answer the question, but that’s not helpful for internalizing it. Somewhere in all these writing posts, I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I realized something years ago: All my favorite TV shows are layered. There’s a showContinue reading “What is Plot?”
Author Archives: Mark
Feeding the Dungeon
I need to toss some people into the dungeon to feed it. The dungeon doesn’t care who but our intrepid heroes do. That means I need a couple/few bad guys. There are plenty of places around to find them. An obvious possibility: People in jail (for something serious, of course). There are problems with that.Continue reading “Feeding the Dungeon”
Balance of Power
LitRPG universes generally survive due to Mutually Assured Destruction. When you’ve got people – and “not that many” is literally billions in a multiverse of any size – who can sterilize planets and blow up stars, something needs to keep them in check. The answer is usually “a coalition will gang up on you andContinue reading “Balance of Power”
Learning 2 Bake From Scratch – LXXXVII
Sweet Cherry Pie The interesting thing about this one is the crust. I used half butter and half lard. The crust is much improved. It didn’t need a chisel to be sliced. I think maybe 2/3 butter, 1/3 lard, though. It’s a bit “sandy”. The filling is just cherries with one grated apple. I haveContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake From Scratch – LXXXVII”
Agency
One of my pet peeves with humans is that they deny each other agency. The “I’m not going to tell her to protect her” trope is ridiculously common in fiction and it’s not uncommon in real life. Everyone has agency. They should be allowed to make their own decisions, even (or perhaps “especially”) if IContinue reading “Agency”
Self Sufficient – Peas
That’s a five foot (about) row of peas. I planted them on 10 May. It’s now seven weeks later. I picked about a quarter of them yesterday. It was two small servings. That means eight serving in five feet, let’s round that to four feet for an even 2 servings per foot, which could probablyContinue reading “Self Sufficient – Peas”
Warriors vs Armies
Armies tend to win, if you are not aware. This is a common LitRPG problem. There are two equally common solutions. First, is that is that groups don’t fight down-grade. If a bunch of F-grades (our werewolves’ grade) get in a fight, the faction doesn’t send in C-grades to squash them. One let’s the kidsContinue reading “Warriors vs Armies”
On the One Paw
Werewolves will make decisions differently. Instead of the human binary “on the one hand, on the other hand”, they default to four options. One per paw, obviously. This is not an immediate thing. It’s a societal impact thing. Consider humans with prehensile tails: There would have always been a third option. What decisions would haveContinue reading “On the One Paw”
Extreme Hydraulic Pressure
Today’s Fun Fact: You can make diamonds from peanut butter. Because diamonds are made entirely of carbon, scientists have successfully crushed peanut butter under extreme hydraulic pressure to strip away the oxygen and hydrogen, leaving behind pure carbon diamonds. “You” is the key word. That means “me”, not “some person, somewhere”. It doesn’t seem thatContinue reading “Extreme Hydraulic Pressure”
No Plot
I wondered if it would come up. It did. There is no plot in the first half of the book. This is not exactly by-design, but it’s not accidental, either. There is a “theme”, but that’s not the same thing. Our intrepid heroes don’t have a goal. They’re not intrepid heroes, yet. They’re just twoContinue reading “No Plot”
Marked Up 