Breaking for a moment…

I really threw myself into writing today. It’s fun when you can see the end in sight, and know everything is coming together. I woke up fairly early, and managed 4600 words before lunchtime. Then I took a break.

I’m at 5450 on the day right now, and decided I needed another break. I’m going to see if my game is televised in about an hour, and if it is, I’m likely done. If not, I’ll probably keep going. I don’t get this kind of opportunity every weekend.

Serang and her master broke off from the caravan. They avoided a conflict with a huge baboon troop over the water hole, by riding around them. Have you seen the teeth on those guys, and the muscles. A few flintlock muskets wouldn’t be enough to stave off an entire troop of them. Since it’s fantasy, I can ramp up their abilities a little without concern.

They spent an extra day at the next waterhole, but the caravan is long gone now. Finally they went looking for an ancient trail that her master said was used by “wild men.” He’s referring to ancient people before civilization took hold.

They found bits and pieces of it, and something I never planned for happened. This is called an inukshuk.

The trail may be long gone, but the ancient markers are mostly still there. It gave the desert crossing a bit of a treasure hunt feel, and I really like it. I even played with shadows and light to reveal some of them and it turned out cool.

I saw inukshuk when I was in arctic Canada many years ago. The Inuit told me people made them because they were lonely, and that way they had a friend. Sounds like BS to me, but that’s what they said. The Basque sheepherders made rock monuments to mark the path they moved the sheep on every summer where I grew up. Eh, I stole a little from both of them.

I kept my monuments pretty primitive, and used desert sandstone to make them instead of glacial rubble.

Just before this post, they finally spotted the Temple of Wind in the distance. I’m excited for this part too, and don’t have any real plans for what happens as they pass through. I’m excited to see what happens myself. As a storyboarder, my index cards only hit the high points. The Temple of Wind is on an index card, but how I deal with this will be revealed as I write.

I should probably keep going, but if the game is on, I’m watching it. We’re dropping the Extra Innings package this year. I watched nearly every game last year, but it’s too damned expensive to keep up with. I’ll catch what few games I can, and check scores in the morning. We’re even talking about going with Hulu and getting rid of the whole satellite system entirely.

Maybe there’s something more to the statement about being a starving artist. Sometimes the only entertainment you can afford is your art. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to mine this weekend, and intend to spend more.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend whatever you’re doing.

A mild writing day.

I allowed myself to sleep in a little. My wife has to work all three days that I’m off, so there is some writing time available.

Today, I took up Serang and moved her story ahead. This one involved her helping out the thieves to pay for the medical care her master needs. She deviated from the thieve’s plan and wound up killing a bunch of soldiers. She’s Serang, so that’s kind of expected of her.

Some camels died too, but she didn’t do it. These are Bactrian camels, the two-humpers. This is a fantasy world, but I want some similarities to Asia, so this desert is high and cold.

What Serang doesn’t realize, is that she is doing things she’s frowned upon previously. With her master on the mend, he’s going to call her out for this. She’s going to justify it in her mind, because they are soldiers. Doesn’t mean she’s right, but young people tend to find justification for their actions. It makes sense that she would too.

I’m at another transition point in the story, and those slow me down. I know what the next events are, but I have to get the characters in the right place and set the stage for it all to happen.

They’re going to join a caravan, travel with them for a while, then deviate for their own quest. While I think about this, I should probably come up with another fantastic creature of some kind too. This world doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of fantasy beasts, but there are some and it’s about time again.

I can’t just miraculously heal Yong, her master. This kind of thing takes time, but maybe he can hold himself in the saddle so they can move on.

I got all my critique samples back for the other story. This is the one with no name yet, and involves a bunch of my previous characters in a team-up kind of story. I need to work through them, then will probably take this one up again.

I might have gotten more done today, but bulldogs were involved. Frankie is more aloof than Otto and rarely wants lovins. Today she did. She wanted cuddled and scratched, and rubbed. How could I resist?

Of course, Otto was up here most of the morning, but he just hangs out and lets me write most of the time. Frankie insists on direct attention when she gets in the mood.

The writing wound up being nearly a chapter. Not a great day, but I can’t complain about it either.

Otto, just hanging out with Dad.