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For the ongoing EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4
Use this thread to talk about the writing you are or are not doing, your planning, your regrets, your life, whatever you want.

Also, share your writing music, please. I'm in the habit of locking in a single mood-fitting song throughout the entire storywriting process, and with a three month deadline, that might drive me mad.

(Here's the song I've been using for my first few pages)

I’m not a part of this contest, but I figured I would say anyways in light of the recent contest’s theme, this is my writing music. Here

This is the playlist I've been listening to for writing. I absolutely can't do lyrics when I'm trying to make/process words

As for writing, well, I've started. That's more than I could say the second day of most other contests, anyway.

Writing my first page and trying to write an idyllic chorus to start the player off right. Haven't done poetry in a while. Trying to do it in Tennyson's style.

I'm reminded why I don't do this so much lol

I try to be faithful to as much of the legends as possible. Unfortunately, I have realized that Arthurian legends contradict each other so much that it's way too difficult to tell the story I want to share without creating friction with another pre-existing tale. Deciding that the best way to honor the tradition is to put in my own contradictory tale that gives nods to the tales that I like and tries to explain the differences from certain other ones.

I do like those retellings that take the time to point out, "You may have heard this.  That guy was a drunk liar.  Here's what really happened."

Making up your own version that fits your sensibilities is based and exactly how the legend evolved. It was actually kind of unfortunate IMO that Malory's version became so popular that the French version became a "canon" and blocked out other stories that were closer to the real life battle that was the origin.

It's sort of a meme that I can't stand Arthurian legend, which isn't true necessarily, just for something that's supposed to be the origin of most modern fantasy, a lot of the takes on it I used to see felt a little sterilized and dull and like they were afraid to do anything beyond paint by numbers with the characters.

I actually researched this stuff once too for a different contest, the details about how the legends evolved and the fact that they still don't know for certain who Thomas Malory even was were in some ways more interesting to me than the content itself.

https://mythbank.com/list-of-arthurian-texts-ancient-and-modern/ - I'm sure you've seen these but for anyone else, here's a good overview of existing texts. And now I'm going to go on about this a little autistically just because I feel like it. The originals aren't even really focusing on Arthur, and the first mention of him is just a reference when talking about an unrelated character, but it's the earliest indicator of when Arthur could been established as having been a folk hero already existing in oral tales. (Hilariously one of the earlier written stories starts with "Arthur tries to rape a woman" before another character convinces him this is bad. He's definitely not considered the hero in some of these. ) There's also an attempt to connect Arthur to Greek legend by linking up his bloodline with a survivor of the Battle of Troy.

Merlin's evolution is also super interesting and goes all over the place. He was added in the 12th century based on a Celtic character:

Merlin first appears in literature in the History of the Kings of Britain by the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE) ... Geoffrey Latinized Myrddin as Merlinus because the strict Latinization of Merdinus would have associated the name with the Latin merdus (feces, dung).

The character originated in Welsh folklore featuring the wildman-in-the-woods motif, a half-savage who lived on the fringe of civilization possessing great power and wisdom.

The most famous Welsh wildman was Myrddin Wyllt (“Myrddin the Wild”), a 6th-century CE bard who was said to have gone insane after a particularly bloody battle and retreated to the woods. Geoffrey wrote a short work, The Prophecies of Merlin (c. 1130 CE), prior to his famous history but this Merlin has nothing to do with the wizard of the Arthurian Legends. After the success of his History, Geoffrey wrote another work, The Life of Merlin (c. 1150 CE), in which the main character exhibits magical and prophetic skills but this work is unconnected to the Arthurian Legends. (https://www.worldhistory.org/Merlin/)

When Geoffrey did later insert him into the Arthurian story, there's a king being advised by his wizards to use Merlin's blood (who at the time was a child of supernatural birth with no father) to sprinkle on the foundation of a tower to ensure the foundation would be sound. And then Merlin flexes by outwitting the wizards and proves them to be lying, tells the king how to fix his tower, makes some prophecies and goes on to build Stonehenge. (This might actually be a pretty neat storygame of its own.)

The original Welsh wildman Myrddin I also should mention is believed to be a possible evolution of the Welsh god Gwydion (name means "Born of Trees) some of whose adventures with his nephew Lleu might be parallels to Merlin and Arthur's relation. Gwydion is a magician, trickster, and bard. (Of interest to some, might be that when I was collecting this stuff back up again, I found a pretty lengthy article connecting him to the god Pan. Haven't read it all yet so I won't go into it here.)

Gwydion's backstory is also kind of hilarious. The first paragraph of the wiki entry:

Gilfaethwy, nephew to the Venedotian king, Math fab Mathonwy, becomes obsessed with his uncle's virgin foot-holder, Goewin. His brother Gwydion conspires to start a war between the north and the south. To this end, Gwydion employs his magic powers to steal a number of otherworldly pigs from the Demetian king, Pryderi, who retaliates by marching on Gwynedd. During the war, while Math is distracted, the brothers return home and Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin.

And more detail here: https://mythopedia.com/topics/gwydion

Upon discovering Gilfaethwy’s rape of Goewin, Math punished Gilfaethwy and Gwydion by turning them into mating animals. In turn, the two brothers were transformed into elk, cows, and wolves. During the course of each transformation, Gilfaethwy was forced to bear a child.

So you see, the moral is that Arthurian legend CAN be interesting, you just need to add bestality and gay incest! ^_^

Oh, and there's also this 6th century bard Taliesin who has had his various legends tied to Merlin or other parts of Arthurian legend, that's kind of interesting too but I've rambled enough, you guys can use Google on your own.

I've read at least four versions of the Arthurian legends (Malory, Pyle, Tennyson and one other that I can't remember). I guess Mark Twain's rendition also counts in some way lol

Hope this doesn't disappoint too much, but I will be using Le Morte d'Arthur as a main reference point. Most of my frustration in tying things together has to be tracking the main twelve knights at a certain event because Malory doesn't always keep good track of things. Also, who's actually ruling Cornwall can be weird, or even if it's referred to as Cornwall or Dumnonia. There's a particular Knight of the Round Table who I'm very confused by regarding a timeline (try to guess who I'm talking about) who's related to Dumnonia and becomes a king, appears in Mallory's story but isn't consistently in it despite the fact that Mallory insists at certain points that "all the knights were there" despite the fact that he might have died at some point, or it was a different guy who shared the same name. Really it's because he was trying to tie in a lot of different stories that don't make a whole lot of sense being put together, but I give him credit for trying.

I never really liked the Mark Twain one, it was too cynical and smug. Damn Yankees

Maybe that was the point of it though.

It was, but I understand not liking it.

Honestly, this little hang up isn't that critical to the story. I just have this particular autistic fixation on "getting everything right" in the setting before I proceed to the actual story.

Whatever you do, don't do the really gay thing of gender swapping the characters.

I think you already know whether or not I'd do that based on our interactions lol

I can't write and listen to anything at the same time, it's too distracting for me. Whatever it is that lets people blare TVs in the background when they sleep has always eluded me too so maybr that's related. Overnight stays with cousins as a kid were always distracted-to-exhaustion sleepless misery. :(

Working on planning. I am writing a historical storygame, so I'm trying to learn some more about the time period. I picked up a 170 page history book on the topic(it's pretty short for history books!) and I'm going to read it, hopefully finishing it before classes start. If I do 10-15 pages a day, that'll be fine. From there, I'll do a lot of my writing on the weekends, but if I can get a good chunk of the historical background and planning done before classes start, things become easier. I am starting now since I finished reading/rating all the stories for the gaybellion contest(they were pretty good across the board). I'm planning on writing reviews for the final 2 stories on the weekend.

Weirdly enough, when you're in a contest that has yet to be judged but you joined another one, it feels like you're sort of in limbo. It's difficult to fully detach myself from the gaybellion, because mentally I'm still in that headspace, waiting for the results and placements to be announced. I know cat said something similar to that effect, but I'm still really excited for my story for end master's contest, because of how much energy there is(seeing so many people join is really exciting, it feels like the starting line to a marathon where music is playing and 500 people line up at the starting line, waiting for the gun to be fired, ready to go!). I also like my idea a lot so far, hope that doesn't change as I keep writing and the months go by. I've been wanting to write this story for a while now, but was occupied with different projects and IRL stuff, so it's only remained an idea in my head(and a short description blurb in my notes so I don't forget it!), but Endmaster's contest seems like the perfect place to full realize this dream project idea. I read last year's prompt contest writing thread, and saw some interesting(and slightly foreboding!) posts on "writing tastelessness" by Mystic and Peng. I hope that doesn't happen to me.

I can't write and listen to music. I just enjoy the music too much and then forget to write. I tend to write best when it's a little quieter.

I'm also outlining this time. My past 3 stories, I wrote them as I went along, being more of a gardener than an architect. But I feel like for this one, that won't really work. I'm not much of a planner, I tend to discover the story as I go along and get to know the characters as I'm writing them, but for this one, I want to shift my strategy. I strongly suspect I'll remain a pantser(writing by the seat of my pants), but who knows, maybe this little experiment in outlining and planning will really work out for me.

I've come up with most of my species, the stats, the general layout, flavor and flow of the space station and the general framework of contest.  Need to work out exactly how many species I'm letting  the player pick from to play and how I want the judging to work.

I typically don't listen to music, but do a fair amount of writing to Dimension 20 actual plays.  Currently listening through Starstruck Odyssey again as it was very thematically appropriate to my prompt.  My biggest challenge is making my work similar but not a direct fanfic.  I have had to do a fair amount of digging already on things like "Is RecStation a unique term to that setting in this usage" and such

 

So I've been playing around with the number of alien species in my story. I have basically 13 major species.  I have already decided to limit the species the reader can choose from to six of those, so that the randomly selected judges will likely be species that none of the contestants are a direct match to.  My question is - Would it be a worthwhile feature to randomize the six species that the reader has to choose from at the start?  Should you write a storygame with the expectation that it will be read more than once from the very beginning?

 

My advice is not to, because I feel like story comes before all else. Randomizing the species so you get a new one each time might be a cool feature, but I feel like that's more bells and whistles. I honestly don't think people will really remember this as much as they would all the cool story and plot aspects. But I could be biased, since all my story games have been story and choices alone, the most basic type.

I think being able to choose from 6 alien species on its own is pretty cool, you don't have to randomize it, that's my thought at least.

Someone more experienced might have a different take, but I think that being able to choose from 6 alien species is awesome on its own. If you could do it easily then I guess you should do it, but if it's a feature that is challenging or time consuming to implement, then I would stick to just everyone having to choose from the same 6.

I second that advice. 

Your first priority should be to get the main story lines on paper. Customization such as choosing from Alien races is rather an afterthought. Remember that you only have three months, so keeping your imagined end product small is the way to go.

If you have time left, then you can add extra features.

Edit: I see that you participated in some contests already. The Little Princess of the Forest is kind of the scope that is very doable in three months. Aim for that, finish your story, and expand on it later :).

I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone of fantasy and magic settings. That's why I used a random number generator to decide what prompt I was getting.

I've got some John Wick inspired story ideas rattling around but nothing concrete yet. I really want to finish the story game I've been working on before starting something new though.

P.S. If anyone knows any good assassin protagonist stories, please feel free to recommend them. I'd love to have some sources for inspiration.

If you're willing to sit down for a longer read, Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of Glass series is an assassin, and also the protagonist. It starts off with a kind of contest for assassins iirc. The plot kinda derails off that path once you get past the first book, though.

Interesting! I'll give it a look. Thanks!

If you want an example of assassin choose-your-own-adventure books, the Way of the Tiger series is pretty decent. It involves ninjas and a lot of fantasy, too, so if you feel too much out of your comfort zone with modern-era assassins you could try writing in that setting instead.

Yeah, fantasy is really quite broad. It doesn't even need a reliance on magic. I actually prefer settings where magic is rare to encounter and something special when it happens.

Ooh, ninjas! That could also be a cool direction to take this.

This is a bit on the nose, but how about "Assassin's Apprentice" by Robin Hobb? The farseer trilogy is really good, and if you like it, you can check out the "realm of the elderlings" books too.

I'll give it a looksie. Thanks. :]

If my planning is correct, this story will be about 100k with much more a chapter like structure. I finally have some free time to just tinker away at it. The outline was already planned out in advance, but I never came down to writing it properly. 

1/1	1000
1/2	1000
1/3	1005
1/4	1050

 

Writing to a song on repeat? That's some real serial killer stuff. I run 1-2 albums on repeat, start to finish, for each story. It's a good way to track time time too since each is roughly an hour.

Heavenspire used two Staind albums:

1. Break the Cycle
2. Staind

Alter Bridge is the other band I'll primarily listen to for fantasy writing, rotating between 1-2 albums, start to finish. Blackbird may or may not have been the inspiration for the cleverly-titled Blackbirds storygame.

Sterling and the other degenerate storygames (Rockstar, Degenerate, True Life, etc.) used redneck rock. Music that's basically propaganda for Budweiser and Marlboros and no-ass blondes. Perfect to set the mood.

To be honest, I once studied for eight hours straight while listening the entire time to Bolero.

You're a psycho.

Ninja are you entering this year's contest?

We'll see.

That sounds really ominous.

I spent the entire month+ writing Fey Light listening to this song exclusively every minute I wrote: Fey Light song. It got me 2nd in that contest, and currently a 6.26 rating, which isn't bad, and I think this creepy song was 100% of that.

Also in that story you (spoilers) kind of kill your entire family, so I guess I'm a psycho.

You mentioned somewhere that you use a flowcharting method for planning.  What tools/programs do you use for that?

Just whatever is free and at the top of Google when I search 'flowchart tool' at the time of writing.

Would you be willing to share what one of your flowcharts looks like?

I've been using whimsical. It's a website that allows you to make flowcharts.

Oh writing music's a fun one, though like music in its entirety extremely personalized. Personally I like music a lot, during studying and working, so also when writing. Usually I got a playlist or multiple albums rather than a single song, though.

For brimstone for example I had these to set a proper mood:
- Much like the written work, the start is the best. Then it gradually becomes background noise people forget exists, before ending strong again.
- Not music per sé, but Corin Redgrave really manages to make the old text come alive. Listening just a few minutes of this jumpstarts that process everybody is familiar with, where you open and stare at an empty white page before actually starting.
- If everything else is too present, something like dark ambient sets a proper mood while easily slipping into the background.

And then for avarga there could be only:
- Dozens of hours of this.

I like themed playlists when I run out of inspiration. However, I write in silence most of the time. Music sometimes distracts me or makes me feel that a scene is more emotional than it actually is, which becomes a problem when the words alone don't create the same effect.

(And here I am pretending that I've actually written words since last year, lol). 

Yesterday I scrapped everything I had and I am writing a new intro tonight.
Is normal in contest.

I have a vague outline. I want to make my protagonist deep dive into some major trauma. But at this point I've bitten off more than I can chew and feel as hopeless as I intend for my protagonist to be.

Since my story is probably going to be desert theme, I've been listening to these types of songs (and these old Middle Eastern instruments are incredible, as an aside):

Progress is being made.

Not great progress but any progress at all before March 30th is impressive okay.

Hear, hear. I usually need about two months of doing nothing before I can write anything. Then I invariably take a big nap the day the story is due and then scramble and ruin it in the last forty-five minutes.

What would be great would be to have a way of getting my thoughts directly onto my laptop. Not speech to text; though to text. Because in my head, everything sounds so much better than it does when I write it down.

Anyway, this project is a bit more ambitious than my other two...and I'm hoping that it will be better. But we'll see.

The experience you're describing is actually the norm. There was a study on the brain activity of a group of humans eating ice cream showing that they realeased more dopamine in the anticipation of the ice cream than the actual tasting of it itself. It's not that our thoughts are actually better, we just become less emotionally heightened to the experience of them once they've been written down. 

I would imagine clarifying thoughts more narrowly also takes away some of the magic, as the idea becomes less of a vague emotion filled with potential and more of a concrete disappointment.