Jean Townsend's writing blog

July progress report

Warning: This is a long post! Here’s a preview in case you want to skip anything: 1. The universe apparently can’t stop hating me. 2. I’ve massively streamlined the Camelot battle and I think it’s going to be much better now. 3. I’m writing some Guenevere prequel stories.

1. I don’t know what deity I’ve angered, but something powerful hates me and/or my family. My respiratory problems have not let up, and I spent July sinking into real depression as I face the prospect of not being able to breathe normally for the rest of my life. I’m having my new house checked for mold, which would be insanely expensive to remove. PWLI* has not had a job for five months. We were fine on just my income for a while, but expenses are starting to pile up. To top it all off, PWLI had a bike accident and we spent our anniversary in the ER. (Fortunately there were no serious injuries, but it still sucked.) I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed and depressed that it’s amazing I got any writing done at all.

2. But I did work on writing. In a moment of clarity, I realized that I had made the Camelot battle waaaay too micromanagey, and if I kept doing what I was doing, it was literally going to take years to finish. The biggest problem was that I had let dark magic Guen choose from a very specific, and very long, menu of spells to prepare, and I also included a way for non-DM Guens to get access to some of the same spells. Then, during each round of the battle, I had options to use each specific spell on a long list of targets. Sounds fun, right? But honestly, I think it was going to be frustrating for the reader, because (as I discovered), no matter how many options I included for using, say, a fire spell, the reader was going to think of more creative ways to use it, and be frustrated that there were only X number of options. I had to remind myself, very sternly, that I am making an interactive novel and not a tabletop RPG. So I cut out a ton of micromanaging. Now DM Guen just chooses targets to cast “a spell” on, and the type/strength of the spell is automatically determined by a few different factors, including her DM stat, how much time she put into preparation, and what materials she was able to obtain. So there can still be exploding catapults, but the catapults will explode with a lot less work on my part, and maybe I’ll actually finish this thing someday.

3. Although I consider #2 a good breakthrough, I was depressed due to #1, and honestly getting tired of working on a battle simulator. I’d been kicking around some thoughts about what Guenevere’s three main NPCs were doing before they met Guen, and those thoughts began to coalesce into outlines for three prequel stories, one each for Morgana, Lancelot, and Arthur. Morgana’s story is set at Avalon when she’s eleven years old. Lancelot’s is his first quest after being knighted. Arthur’s is about a year before he marries Guen, and gives some backstory to the rebel barons. I think each of these may turn into a short novella (we’ll see), which I could theoretically put on Smashwords/Kindle. This might allow me to release some new content this year. More importantly, writing some linear fiction has been a nice change of pace and a great comfort in my depression. So I think I’m going to let myself focus on these prequels for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

*PWLI = physical-world love interest, as opposed to my many virtual LIs.