I just put 24 cookies in the oven. (Ghirardelli Coffee Dark Chocolate Chip cookies.) Cookies are generally counted in dozens, so 24 is 2 dozen + 4 aka twenty eight. For those of you who don’t deal with non-base-10 number systems, this can be confusing. The digits work the same way base-10 digits do. TheContinue reading “24 Cookies”
Category Archives: LitRPG Werewolves
Yeah, No Quests
Another book with System quests (called “tasks” here). I do not like them. They are too directly manipulative or too trivial. Our intrepid hero (from Proving Grounds: Annals of the Runeguard Book 1) is being targeted by a group of thieves. After some escalation, they kill the blacksmith (Gorman) making him armor and steal it.Continue reading “Yeah, No Quests”
My Competition 4
This one is aspirational. Wormhole Mana is good (at least book one; I just started book two). In no particular order… It’s tight third person. There are internal monologues in first person of the character monologuing. It’s all very obvious. No weird point-of-view changes. There is incremental “what’s going on?” as the magic system isContinue reading “My Competition 4”
Who’s Responsible?
I really, really like black-and-white morality in my fiction. Unfortunately, that makes for unrealistic (and often dull) stories. A reasonable current events example is Iran. One of the problems with decapitation is that when you kill those responsible, who’s left to make decisions? Iran as a state cannot surrender because there is no one whoContinue reading “Who’s Responsible?”
Impulsive Anger
I’ve finally figured out what irritates me so much about Cultivation books: The cultivators spend so much time, effort, and pain doing all sorts of complicated techniques to grow stronger, but as soon they feel insulted – legitimately or not – all that discipline flies out the window and they fly into an impulsive rage.Continue reading “Impulsive Anger”
Obstacles
A story is basically a description of how the intrepid hero overcomes the obstacles between him and his goal. I have not been explicitly writing down the obstacles. That shall change. In my OutlineThingy document, I have the cross-chapter arcs and the chapter goals. I have not written down the obstacle. I will now toContinue reading “Obstacles”
Integration
I haven’t been writing of late because I’m trying to figure out what happens in book two because it affects how book one ends – and I’m getting close. The biggest problem is that I’ve apocalpysed Earth and granted people superpowers, but governments do not go quietly. For every intrepid werewolf, there are fifty superpoweredContinue reading “Integration”
Redemption Interrupted
This is an interesting story arc: Nasty (“blinkered” might be more accurate) person moves to a new place. Causes grief. Realizes she’s nasty/blinkered/culturally out-of-step and starts to adapt. Things get better. Stops adapting. Causes even more grief. Ends badly. The usual redemption arc continues until redemption. Getting halfway there and going off the rails backContinue reading “Redemption Interrupted”
The Fenris Effect
Not the self-fulfilling prophecy part. I’m not sure if my universe will have prophecy/divination or not, yet, but I really don’t like it. Dune did a good job with it, so it is possible. I just don’t like the idea of it. It makes the future and free will weird. I’m talking about the “I’mContinue reading “The Fenris Effect”
Magic is Hard
Marcy has already noticed this. The specific problem now is momentum. I’ve made the decision that magic manifests wherever the caster wants it to (and can “reach”). This is dandy if you want to fry someone with plasma. It’s less dandy with things that need momentum. For Marcy, that would be something such as anContinue reading “Magic is Hard”
