I will happily admit that I don’t understand how towns and modern warfare work together. From what I’ve read, it seems ridiculous, which means that I’m certainly missing something. Thankfully, that problem doesn’t matter, here. The “biker gang attacks town” idea has encountered the agency problem. Our good townsfolk are not going to be willingContinue reading “Town Defense”
Tag Archives: books
What is Plot?
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?”
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”
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”
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”
Axis Orientation
I’ve found it useful to envision human behavior as set of rotated normal curves. Pick some attribute and incorrectly assume a normal distribution of it. Now spin that curve around its peak. You get a normal “mound”. Each individual attribute is its own curve. The mound is all of them together. We’re each a pointContinue reading “Axis Orientation”
Chapter 18 Shall Submit
That’s the weekend goal. It need four scenes. Updated with what actually happened. And some back-edits to put in things I forgot. I’m tired of being stuck on this chapter. 19, 20, and 21 are done. 22 is getting there. 23 is building up. 18 shall fall before me! Why, yes, this post is entirelyContinue reading “Chapter 18 Shall Submit”
Evening Narrator Hunting
The narrator can be difficult to spot in the crepuscular gloaming. There is a point to this, two actually: To list the one’s that I’ve caught and to justify what I leave behind. I’m not necessarily “right”, but I will have a reason. …let’s get back to the lodge, eat something, then we can figureContinue reading “Evening Narrator Hunting”
LitRPG and Omniscient Narrator
Research time! My narrator talks. I _think_ this is genre standard, but I need to do some checking on when and where. The fight scenes are all 3rd person. One does not see the fights from our intrepid hero’s perspective. The narrator speaks during fights. This is standard. Bloody but unbowed, our intrepid hero doveContinue reading “LitRPG and Omniscient Narrator”
AI Slop and Buggy Whips
This one is my introspection, not my characters. The great and powerful YouTube algorithm presented LughDJ to me. I’m not a huge fan of club music, but it’s high energy. I like having the fake shirtless men dancing on the side of my screen when I look away from the text I’m writing. This isContinue reading “AI Slop and Buggy Whips”
Marked Up 