Hero’s Tale VYA

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Before I post the first part to my VYA, I thought I’d tell you what I’m trying with it. First off, VYA stands for Vote Your Adventure. If you have ever read any of the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 80’s and early 90’s then you already have the right idea. The twist in this being that you aren’t just choosing the next path by yourself. You, the readers, will vote to decide the next part of the story! And yes, I changed the acronym slightly from VYOA to VYA. It makes more sense this way.

So how is this going to work? Easy, I post the story, and you vote by posting your comments to the blog post. You can also use the hashtag #herostale or send one to the user @HerosTale on Twitter.

I am also going to try to run this a bit like a game. I’m giving you an inventory, and I’ll keep track of your health and injuries that occur. I am also going to give you more than two options to pick from where I am able. I am also going to listen to your comments on what should happen. So when I give you options of attacking or fleeing an enemy, and some of you tell me that we should throw the dagger and run, I’ll take things like that into consideration. Disclaimer: I do reserve the right to remove those features if things get too crazy or unwieldy.

Lastly, I welcome feedback. If you think I’m doing good, let me know. If you think my writing stinks, let me know. Even though I’m running things by people to make sure things make sense, that doesn’t mean things don’t get missed or I wrote something terribly.

Right now, I’m planning on the first part getting posted Friday, January 13. And as I’m typing the date out, I’m thinking about reconsidering… Na, bad luck my foot. Provided I think the story is ready, it’s getting posted.

I’m really excited to do this, and will fun. And one last request. Try not to screw up the story I’m telling too bad.

ROW80 1/8 Check-in

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I’m getting this post out late, but it’s still Sunday!

How am I doing on my goals? Not too bad. I have that blog entry almost ready to go. I would have had it yesterday, but I ended up playing with kids and Zelda: Skyward Sword too much yesterday. But, Z:SS is blog material. It will be the subject of the next blog entry I work on.

My VYA piece is coming along well. I revised it and got it sent off to some more people. Still waiting on things, but that’s ok. I decided to post those on Thursdays or Fridays so I will have the week to write, instead of over the weekend when I struggle to write. I’m excited about it, though.

I am going to finish up that blog entry tonight, and post that tomorrow. If I have time, then I will start reading through the comments I have. I’ll be working through those for the next few days.

That’s it for this check-in. Here are the others who have checked-in. Go see how they are doing!

ROW80 1/4 Check-in

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For my ROW80 Check-ins, I’m just updating ROW80 stuff, not my personal goals, FYI. I’m also going to try to keep it in a simple format.

VYOA – Two days of work since ROW80 started, and I’ve gotten some work done. I got my first draft out to a few people to look at, and I’m hoping to send it out to others after some edits later in the week.

Blogging – Right now, just keeping up with ROW80 stuff. I want to have one other blog post done before my VYOA is up and running.

Web serial – No work done yet.

Socializing – I’ve been somewhat active on Twitter mainly. I’ve posted on the #ROW80 hashtag. I have replied to every comment so far, and have commented on a few other ROW80 blogs. Not doing to bad, and it’s fun to see how others are doing as well. I attempting to comment on more as things go along.

I’ve also gotten in some reading of a draft for someone else, and did some thoughts on that for them. Although, that wasn’t one of my goals, I’ll include it anyway.

Here are the other blogs checking in:

ROW80 & 2012 Goals

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I’m a big fan of NaNoWriMo, if nothing else, because it helps keep me on a schedule of writing. That’s why I’m going to try something called A Round of Words in 80 Days, or ROW80. It’s like NaNo, but you set your own goals. You can find more info here. Round 1 runs from January 2, till March 22. So if you wanted, you can sign-up here and join in. All the general information is there.

So, while I was making some goals for ROW80, I figured I’d post some of my general 2012 goals as well.

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NaNoWriMo 2011: Final Thoughts

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So, what have I gleaned from this month? First, I missed writing. I hadn’t done anything for a while before NaNo. I finished a second draft early in the year, and since then it was just plotting. Well, some minor writing, but not much. It was fun to dive into a story again and see where it would take me.

The other main thing that I learned is that I just need to write. It’s amazing to see how quickly words add up. Heck, in just one day, you can go from being behind to being more than caught up.

The last that I’ll mention. Just write. NaNoWriMo isn’t about quality, it’s about quantity. It doesn’t matter that those 1,000 words you wrote are worthless. It matters that you wrote them. November is for creating, not editing to make it publishable. That’s what editing and rewrites are for. NaNo is about the first draft.

Ok, I lied. One more: Let the story flow. You might know where the story should go, but sometimes the most interesting and unexpected things happen when you just let your fingers fly across the keyboard and be a conduit for your creativity, instead of thinking about what you’re writing. I know that makes no sense to a lot of people, in the same way that the story and characters are alive and will do their own thing sometimes. But, when you understand the concept, it will make sense and fun things will happen in your story.

So, what am I going to do post-NaNo? I’ve got a few things that I’m working on now. I have an online character sheet for the Destiny Quest gamebook. I haven’t worked on it for a while, and I’m getting back to it. It’s quite an undertaking and will take a while. But it is a lot of fun.

I also have a Vote Your Own Adventure idea that I want to work on. I’ve got a bit written for that, but it will take more time.

My last project is why this site was created, a serial story. It’s in the plotting stages of the next rewrite.

So, at some point, I’ll find time to do all of this. And finish my NaNo novel. After all, I’m only half way done.