Revenge of the Gamer

It’s been one hell of a week!  The article over at www.gamegrene.com has done extremely well.  Every other article on the main page averages under 1,000 reads, but after just a week mine has garnered nearly 8,000 views.  That’s definitely rewarding as it shows that I’m putting out quality articles.

In other news my campaign is in full swing.  Last Saturday I had all three players come over, and I ran them through some scenes from their character’s past.  We also completed the introduction story that gets them up to the point where the party meets. 

The players really seemed to like the website which you can check out here if you’re curious: http://unconqueredsun.wordpress.com

They also seem to like the NPC handouts, which I pioneered in my last Exalted game.  They show a picture of the NPC along with some basic information that would be apparent to someone who met them.  The handouts serve to fix the NPC in the party’s minds by giving them a visual reference.

The novel is still going well, though I’m starting to run out of steam.  I’ve worked on nothing else for nearly six months, and have finally backed off a bit.  Looking back I realize I’ve belted out 300 pages, which works out to about 50 pages a month.  Given my previous record that’s nothing short of amazing, especially considering that I’m working on projects like my campaign as well.

Over the last two weeks I’ve belted out 40 pages of new material which will serve as the intro to the book.  I have three more scenes to write, after which I go back to page one and give the whole thing one last edit.  I’m excited about finally being done.

I’ve put more work into this project than any other, and it shows.  I feel confident that the story is interesting, and I’m hoping people in the Exalted community will enjoy reading it. 

At this point I’ve given up on having White Wolf publish it.  A cursory look at their product schedule doesn’t show any novels for any of their game lines.  I’m guessing they just don’t sell well enough to justify the effort they’d have to put into them, which is why their letting their fiction lines die off.

I never expected to submit it anyway so I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything.  I’ve decided to just go with the original plan instead.  I’ll make the slickest PDF I can, and then distribute the novel for free online.  If its good people will read it, and it will get me at least a little attention.

If nothing else writing the Exalted novel has taught me more lessons than I can even begin to articulate.  Up until now I’ve always looked at writing a novel as a very linear process.  You sit down and belt out chapters until you’re done.

Now I realize that you need a much better roadmap.  You write some chapters, sit back and reflect on the characters and story, and then write some more chapters.  You meander in different directions, and ultimately discard some of what you’ve written.  It’s been an interesting journey, and one I wouldn’t trade for anything.

It’s also got me thinking about the next novel.  I have some really good ideas for the Faelands book, and can start on it at any time.  The thing is now I’m questioning if its the next project I want to work on.

I spent some time today looking around the web, and I found over a dozen publications looking for short stories.  All of them pay at least $.05 a word which works out to $50-100 per story depending on the word count.  That’s not going to get me rich, but it does mean I could get my name in print while making a small profit.

I’ve decided to write at least one story each week, and the excess time will be spent editing the Exalted novel until its completed.  While doing that I’ll keep fleshing out the chapter outline for the Faelands novel.  That way when the Exalted novel is finished I can start on it in earnest.  I still want to finish the rough draft by January first, and if I get started by September I should be able to do that.

I’m still amazed by how many words I belt out a day now.  For so long I struggled.  I’d set goals of 1,000 words a day and I’d just fail miserably after about three days.  Every single time.  Now, I belt out 2-5k words every day like its nothing, and I’ve been doing it for over five months.

In a way that terrifies me, because I worry about slipping back into old habits.  What if one day I wake up and stop writing again?  I’m hoping to avoid that.  Since I’m very goal oriented I figure the best way to keep at it is to get more things published.  If I make a little money and see my name in print that will help me keep my momentum.

The current short story is for Rifts: Chaos Earth, which is published by Palladium Books.  It’s an old story I wrote several years ago, but I’m re-tooling it and finally submitting it.  The last piece I submitted was accepted, and it wasn’t nearly as good as this will be.

Anyway, this is one massive post.  Guess I hada lot to say!

-Chris Aka Arkelias