Saturday, April 6, 2013

Writing Night Time!


It's one of those awkward nights where I totally want to talk about something, yet there is nothing at all to talk about.  In the wake of the "Always-Online" thing (I refuse to call it "Orthgate"), there just isn't a whole bunch of other news (who would've thought, right?), so that's something I can't really fall-back on.  And while I'm sure you would all be riveted with yet another Disgaea 3 post where I talk about how disgustingly powerful I'm making Dinah (spoilers:  she has reincarnated two more times to the fifth Female Monk iteration and is already level 200-something in that), I'm not really feeling like doing that.  Mostly because I sorely doubt you would all actually be riveted with such a post.  Also because there's not a whole lot -else- to add to it except that playing with "Strongest Enemies" bill passed makes getting XP and Mana easy mode so long as you don't die.  And the not dying part is only hard for a little bit.

Anyways!  Since I have this whole writing project on the side, when I have left-over writing capability, I do stuff with that.  And since I have a lot of that tonight and nothing to use it on -but- the writing project, I'm going to do that.  Though, I suppose I can shed a little light on it instead of just being all cryptic about it whenever I talk about it.  It's not like it's a big thing, just a personal project that evolved from something that should have been relatively simple.  Over-complicating things is kind of something that I do, you see.  Though you probably know that by now!

It was over a year ago when a buddy of mine said "Hey, I'm probably going to be running this Persona-based game" (as in a table-top RPG with mechanics based on the Persona series) "at some distant point in the future and I was wondering if you'd be interested?  It's still way far off, since I've got like two games before it, but still."  And I said, "Yeah, I'd be for that." and proceeded to start dreaming up a character.  Being that I was, back then, attempting to keep my creativity and writing from stagnating, I was prepared to do something that I hadn't done previously (nor have really done a lot since this whole thing started):  I was going to make a girl character.  Taking out all the conversation on -that- particular topic (though you know you played FemShep, don't even get all up on me about RPing as a woman) I thought it would be a good exercise to just try and consider things differently and such.

Over a couple conversations, my character for the game was created - Dinah - and I started trying to think of what she was going to be like.  As you may have already extrapolated from my Disgaea 3 Dinah, the character is not at all a prissy-girl or anything like that.  To be honest, one of her big influences is Kainé, if that tells you anything.  (If not, it tells you that you should be playing Nier)  As part of a sort of character personality litmus test I run with any character I make, I posited the theory that there is something necessary in a building where the only plausible entrance is a locked window.  More cautious or careful characters might try figuring out a way to get the lock out of the equation or carefully remove the glass.  More out-of-the-box characters would insist there's another way in than the window.  Dinah?  Dinah would just remove her tie (part of a school uniform), wrap it around her hand and punch through it.  And then probably make a flourish or sardonic statement.  She's that kind of character.

Those conversations with my buddy who presented the idea and thus the means for this character and world to exist in restarted around this New Year's and, presumably in a little bit of annoyance with how much I insisted on talking about Dinah, he prompted me to just 'write a book or something, geez'.  The idea wasn't abhorrent and, as a character, she needs a backstory anyway.  So I intended to write a backstory.  A backstory turned into a short story that describes her pretty well.  And....a short story turned into something that is going to be like twenty chapters long when all is said and done after the way I've plotted it out and actually started to write it.  So I mean, it turns out I kind of am writing a book, but I'm not quite sure what sort of end product it's going to be.  I'm enjoying writing it, I think it's coming out very nicely and it's going to be friggin' long by the time I'm done with it, but it's not something I'm writing with the express purpose of making money.

When it's done?  We'll just have to see.  It's a pretty easy story to hook into - despite the Persona backdrop that she was invented in, Dinah's tale doesn't involve any magic, demons or long-nosed folks in a strange blue room.  It's just a story about a collection of her return trips home from the school overseas that she attends (that will eventually host the Persona-like events) and how they all intertwine because of the people that she's constantly leaving behind when she goes off.  As I said, it will hopefully be a good story, and I'll use some reactions of folks to get a good bead on whether or not it actually is.  Then I'll decide what's going on with it.  For now, though, it's just something that I'm doing, and tonight, it's something I'm going to write in.  Hopefully manage to get another chapter done to feel like I have made progress.

As usual, when I don't have something to write about (Except I kind of did tonight, whoops), I left you some K-Pop at the top to enjoy.  So, enjoy!

is it still K-Pop if it's sung in Japanese, I don't even

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