Who cares? and what’s in it for me?...

So I recently saw the question posed, Who Cares? And who cares in deed. I suppose no one cares so why should I. Lets come at this from another angle whats in it for me, what do I get from this infrequently visited Bio Blog and what on earth did I expect to happen. Who Blogs these days so quaint and old fashioned, with the voices whispering quieter and quieter, Blog after Blog being abandoned, raging click-bait and wide spread disquiet as bloggers in there dozens debate switching off their comment sections, Trolls and Flamers running riot it is a wonder anyone wants to put their delicate selves out there all raw and bloodied on the Interweb. Me Myself and I did it but Incognito lurking behind the anonymity of The Funky Nomad and purposely not telling people who would read my ramblings that I rambled away on my own custom site. Because quite frankly I am no one in particular, I have no S.E.O strategy, no advertising no way of monetizing my grand 9 followers, and possibly I have no business cluttering up the Interweb with my ramblings. I did however come across this awesome widget, there it is in my side bar pulling my Instagram pictures into my blog. Follow that too if you like. Now I know I have been a bit invisible the last couple of months and its pretty simple writing actually writing in any spare minute to struggle towards a first draft on a Novel a first novel no less is bloody tiring a long slog and I just don’t have words spare right now ( Other than the few I am using up here, and these are not the type suitable for my Fantasy Novel anyway.) So Gibbous Tyke as mentioned in other posts  is the hero who has now made his way through  37.6% of the story he is travelling through, we sit at just north of 31,000 word and the odd one or two are pretty good if I do say so myself. But we are in the doldrums the snarly do not really want to type this middle bit but slowly we climb the hump and pretty soon will be headed down hill in the wicked race to the end. And low and behold there are both boys and...

The World of Gibbous Tyke

I know someone is going to point out that I should probably put this in the control docs or the book its-self, but having already penned 3600 words in those docs and a severe need to get on with it and as I only figured it out Boxing day I thought I would world-build right here. To give assurances to the naysayers and show it can be done.   (There is no reason it can’t appear later in the story. This is an incognito Blog after all and I have no followers, who the hell is there to read ahead.) So sitting here listening to Jethro Tull  “Broadsword and the Beast”  and well if you are going to free-form a fantasy world you need suitable music, if it takes too long I have my Led Zeppelin ready to go. (I did a map thing the other afternoon and am going to use some of my daughters colored pencils to tart it up a bit and no doubt I can post it on the blog for you all to marvel at. One time pass no erasing, what you see is what it is going to be.) Talk of the devil here it is and NO THAT’S A CAMEL (of the dromedary persuasion, I know a song about that but that’s off the point a bit.) So how far do you have to go with this world-building lark? Probably not all the way Tolkien, probably not the Earth just enough stuff to tell the story. Just in case you think I am a real moron I do have some idea what I am doing, I know how Geography, Weather, Land masses, Ecosystems, Populations, Cities, Industry Farming and many ancient and modern societies operate. I know about churches, religions, weapons, fighting systems, sword weights ( looked it up ) and I think I am shifty enough for viable work around’s for most of the pit falls so that even the most bum puckered retentive Fantasy World Watchers can toddle off and go do something more worthwhile. I have fixed the Magic there isn’t any so to speak. I have fixed the Elves and Dwarfs and Dragons, we don’t have any of these either. Language is fixed they all speak English ( or more accurately the same language but we can have some...

Ho Ho No NaNoWriMo (part 2)

If it was easy there would be no cacophony…… So when all the prevaricating and research and original thinking has been applied and the wailing and gnashing of teeth and venting of spleens has been allowed to die what path comes next. Well it turns out its pretty simple, if you want to be a writer, write. I know it’s not very helpful, of all the tasks I have undertaken it requires the hardest of things; drive from the inside. I have looked for help, for clarity what are the fundamentals that allow you to put pen to paper and write and have found some completely awesome blogs and on line help. I have followed a writer from start to finish for a fist book in the Steampunk . Thanks Literary Giant. Some very awesome no nonsense Fantasy advice from terribleminds. So here I sit typing a Fantasy novel of all things, 17 years of frothing at the mouth from pen and paper to Wordperfect to Word and on to Pages. So many first 3 chapters of really great ideas,(Probably) and thanks Chuck for brutal honesty about the writing game and Profanity Generators of truly awesome expanse I can tell you all to ****—**!!! off you dirigible **** tickling cavity marmots. So what does this fantasy world look like where every theme is a cliche and every middle aged white writers fantasy is derided for youth, ethnicity, gender, geographic relevance and RPG hate, magic systems and other  limitations. I believe you write for yourself first, hopefully you have belief enough that you have an audience and hopefully you don’t start by re-writing someone else’s Fantasy Trilogy. Not that I know anything but its a story whatever genre ( Hate that word) so it probably would not be too hard to figure out stories are character driven. So I started there, will anyone care about him. I hope so, hopefully enough to follow his journey. Gibbous Tyke, now has the responsibly to travel through the world entertaining the reader and hopefully having enough guts to stay alive to the end of a book. I am no different to everyone else who has read fantasy trilogies for ever and ever amen. Should he make it there will be an unending assault on the reader. A Trilogy in four parts no less...

Ho Ho No NaNoWriMo (part 1)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all. So what does a photo of Me and the Good Lady have to do with NaNoWriMo? Absolutely nothing, unless of course you understand we are all busy doing something else. Now this is not a literary site, my small week of subscribers are made up of friends and family who whether they wanted to or not I have persuaded to subscribe. So other than my good friends Hill and Kim you may have no idea what NaNoWriMo is and why I should even be mentioning it at all. As it happens I only came across it thanks to The Daily Post sending helpful suggestions to us aspiring writer/blogger types. ( Thank you and what the hell did you do that for?) So it goes like this, register with NaNoWriMo and on the 1st Nov you have 30 days to write 50,000 words. Sounds like a pretty good idea, daunting undoubtedly, exciting yes definitely,energizing and harmless? You would think so but you would be wrong. I actually thought well I have been trying to write a book who hasn’t I have three whole chapters, 50,000 words would certainly help. This is where I started to run into problems, not one to go off completely half cocked I decided to do a bit of research, the normal things are there rules to this? What experiences have others had and was there a bit of encouragement out there for so challenging a task. Well Yes and No. Did I register well no, should I have done? No I don’t think so. Will I next year who knows. I think it has a lot to do with where you are at the time. If you like the idea I would recommend doing no research at all and give it a go. I would certainly remember it has little to do with writing that Brilliant, Completed, Shiny automatically publishable Novel you have in your head. What it will do is something I have been unable to do,  generate up to 50,000 words you can use (Probably). Or 50,000 words you were glad you did not use in your novel. If you did want to do research I would try this from terribleminds.  ’25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo’ So what have I...