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The Sims 3 released some time ago a Create a World builder tool for their game.  It’s a fun enough game, but I’ve actually been using the world builder as an outlining tool.  While plenty of things that come up in a story are based on real location and some are just flat made up, I’ve managed to find a certain utility to plotting everything in my mind.  Sure, I can have the restaurant in my mind, but where is it in relation to the main character’s house?  How is the antagonist supposed to drive by dramatically if the road is a dead end?  I’ve had a lot of fun actually plotting these things out.

The Sims franchise has taken digital story telling into a new world.  It’s built around the idea of telling stories and sharing them.  The video recordings and album photo arrangements were created with story-telling in mind.  So far the product has not always been especially high quality, but there are some genuinely stirring examples out there, like the blog Alice and Kev that I posted about a few months ago.

At current,  full made games are still more common and profitable, but the price and difficulty of designing worlds is increasingly by the year.  Already, multiple games are produced using the same platform, and games like Neverwinter Nights were almosted released primarily as tool sets that happened to include a story.  I suspect this trend will continue.  A company will produce a framework (such as Second Life), and periodically update the overall capability of the universe, but the user base, which may include secondary companies, will be responsible for content generation.  Again, Second Life is basically an example of this already, but it’s yet to take any sort of real Mainstream acceptance.

I envision a sort of hierarchy of virtual creations with an overall base partitioned by various content providers, either persons or companies, to which individuals join.  Think a cross between Steam, Second Life, and World of Warcraft.  One can navigate throughout a larger virtual multi-verse  to ‘log in’ to World of Warcraft like experiences.  Once the overall technical capability is at this level, one suspects it’ll be substantially easier to create meaningful content thus opening the userbase even more.  The economic and information sharing potential of this sort of creation, would seem to propel the world to greater levels of interactivity in an organic fashion.

I suppose this is all very ‘Snowcrash’ like, but, as small a step as it is, I’ve found a lot of utility from using one, limited tool to create a world and I’m only using it to plot out a written world.  Surely, this niche has room to grow.  If our internet access ever stops being terrible some of the ideas might actually take off…but that’s enough from me for one day.

For the last four years I have made a yearly list of 100 words. This is year #5 and I’m proud to say this is the first year where I’ve used a word starting with each letter in the alphabet. In most cases these words are nearly useless, either because they are various stages of obsolete, or because they are so obscure that no one would have an idea what you’re talking about. Nevertheless, there is a word for ‘everything’ and I like making lists of them. Don’t trust my definitions, but they are all gleaned from either dictionary.com or wiktionary.org

Previous Lists

2006
2007
2008
2009

And now, without further ado. The words of 2010. Many of these words have multiple meanings and parts of speech. I have chosen the meaning and part of speech that I find the most intriguing.

1. Abluent: adj: serving to cleanse.
2. Adenoidal: adj: being characteristically pinched and nasal in tone quality: a high-pitched, adenoidal voice.
3. Adiaphorism: n: tolerance of actions or beliefs not specifically prohibited in the Scriptures; indifferentism.
4. Adjuvant: n: a person or thing that aids or helps.
5. Asseverate: v: to declare earnestly or solemnly; affirm positively; aver.
6. Asthenic: adj: (of a physical type) having a slight build or slender body
7. Beleaguer: v: forced to quit, upset
8. Billingsgate: n: coarsely or vulgarly abusive language.
9. Boeotian: adj: dull; obtuse; without cultural refinement.
10. Bombinate: v: to buzz, hum, or drone
11. Buffaloing: v: to impress or intimidate by a display of power, importance, etc.
12. Brachiate: adj: having arms
13. Cacoepy: n: incorrect pronunciation
14. Caitiff: n: a base, despicable person.
15. Canescent: adj: Turning white or grayish.
16. Chaplet: n: a wreath or garland for the head.
17. Columbarium: n.pl: a sepulchral vault or other structure with recesses in the walls to receive the ashes of the dead.
18. Compotation: n: an act or instance of drinking or tippling together.
19. Conduce: v.itr: To lead to or contribute to a particular result.
20. Copse: n: a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood.
21. Cosset: v: to treat as a pet; pamper; coddle.
22. Crepuscular: adj: of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct.
23. Daedal: adj: skillful; ingenious.
24. Decussate: v: to cross in the form of an X; intersect.
25. Defalcate: v: to steal or misuse money or property entrusted to one’s care
26. Demi-monde: n: Demimonde was a polite 19th century term that was often used the same way we use the term “mistress” today
27. Doyen: n.pl:the senior member, as in age, rank, or experience, of a group, class, profession,
28. Ecdysiast: n: a stripper
29. Ecru: adj: very light brown in color, as raw silk, unbleached linen
30. Effluvia: v.pl: a slight or invisible exhalation or vapor, esp. one that is disagreeable or noxious.
31. Eleemosynary: adj: of or pertaining to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable.
32. Esurient: adj: hungry; greedy.
33. Etesian: adj: Occurring annually. Used of the prevailing northerly summer winds of the Mediterranean
34. Etiolate: v.tr: To make weak by stunting the growth or development of.
35. Fillip: v: to strike with the nail of a finger snapped from the end of the thumb.
36. Furbelow: n: a ruffle or flounce, as on a woman’s skirt or petticoat.
37. Galumph: v: to move along heavily and clumsily.
38. Gimcrack: n: a showy, useless trifle; gewgaw.
39. Gramineous: adj: Of, relating to, or characteristic of grasses.
40. Grangerize: v: to augment the illustrative content of (a book) by inserting additional prints, drawings, engravings, etc., not included in the original volume.
41. Hispid: adj: rough with stiff hairs, bristles, or minute spines.
42. Hypocoristic: n: A name of endearment; a pet name.
43. Indurating: v: to make hard; harden, as rock, tissue, etc. or to make callous, stubborn, or unfeeling:
44. Jactancy: n: A boasting; a bragging
45. Katabasis: n.pl: a retreat, esp. a military retreat.
46. Liminal: adj: At the threshold of consciousness.
47. Longueur: n.pl: a long and boring passage in a literary work, drama, musical composition, or the like:
48. Ludic: adj: playful in an aimless way
49. Mathematicaster: n: a minor or incompetent mathematician
50. Menticide: n: the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person’s values and beliefs, as by the use of prolonged interrogation, drugs, torture, etc., and to induce radically different ideas.
51. Neuston: n: he aggregate of minute aquatic organisms that inhabit the surface of a body of water.
52. Nihilarian: n: One who subscribes to nihilism; Of or pertaining to nihilism
53. Nimiety: n.pl: excess; overabundance:
54. Newel: n: post supporting the handrail of a staircase
55. Nocuous: adj: likely to cause damage or injury; harmful; noxious.
56. Oenophilist: n: a person who enjoys wines, usually as a connoisseur.
57. Osculation: n: The act of kissing; also: a kiss.
58. Palpebral: adj: of or pertaining to the eyelids.
59. Pandiculation: n: the act of stretching oneself.
60. Pasquinade: n: a satire or lampoon, esp. one posted in a public place.
61. Peculate: v: to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one’s care); embezzle.
62. Perendinate: v: To procrastinate or put something off for a long period of time
63. Pied: adj: Having patches of two or more colors; multicolored.
64. Pilgarlic: n: a person regarded with mild or pretended contempt or pity.
65. Plangent: adj: resounding loudly, esp. with a plaintive sound, as a bell.
66. Porphyrogenite: n: child ‘born’ in the purple. The child of a reigning emperor and empress.
67. Prandial: adj: of or pertaining to a meal, esp. dinner.
68. Pretermit: v: to let pass without notice; disregard.
69. Pulchritude: n: physical beauty; comeliness.
70. Quiddity: n.pl: the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.
71. Quodlibet: n: a subtle or elaborate argument or point of debate, usually on a theological or scholastic subject.
72. Redivivus: adj: living again; revived.
73. Rictus: n.pl: the gaping or opening of the mouth.
74. Sapid: adj: having taste or flavor.
75. Saltire: n: an ordinary in the form of a cross with arms running diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base and from the sinister chief to the dexter base; St. Andrew’s cross.
76. Sedulous: adj: diligent in application or attention; persevering; assiduous.
77. Senescent: adj: growing old
78. Seriatim: adv: One after another, in a series.
79. Shilly-shally: v: to show indecision or hesitation; be irresolute; vacillate.
80. Simpatico: adj: congenial or like-minded; likable:
81. Sough: v: to make a rushing, rustling, or murmuring sound:
82. Steatopygia: n: extreme accumulation of fat on and about the buttocks, esp. of women.
83. Stegophilist: n: a person whose pastime is climbing the outside of buildings.
84. Susurrus: n: A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.
85. Syzygy:n.pl: an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and either the moon or a planet:
86. Tetchy: adj: irritable; touchy.
87. Tergiversation: v: to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
88. Tmesis: n: the interpolation of one or more words between the parts of a compound word, as be thou ware for beware.
89. Tumescent: adj: exhibiting or affected with many ideas or emotions; teeming.
90. Umbriferous: adj: casting or making shade.
91. Undulation: n: a wavy form or outline.
92. Usufruct: n: The right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something belonging to another as long as the property is not damaged or altered in any way.
93. Uxorious: adj: doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward one’s wife.
94. Vainglorious: adj: Characterized by or exhibiting excessive vanity; boastful.
95. Velleity: n: A slight wish or inclination.
96. Virgate: adj: shaped like a rod or wand; long, slender, and straight.
97. Wynd: n: a narrow street or alley.
98. Xanthous: adj: yellowish
99. Yegg: noun: safecracker
100. Zugzwang: n: a situation in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect.

SO I’m got the one plot line read. There are a handful of tweaks and I’m not one hundred percent happy with the last chapter, but otherwise it’s solid. A few artifacts seem out of place so I’m having those moved around. In general everything seemed to come together. It’s the shortest of the plotlines, really just a bookcase for the other larger one, but I felt entertained reading it. I explore some of the larger cultural issues of the world, which isn’t strictly necessary for the plot, but I feel like it opens the world up in a way that is useful as well as interesting.

Next up: the main plot. It’s the longest and so probably the most time-consuming. I expect another week or two. I have Veteran’s Day off so that’ll give me good time to work, but….I also purchased Dragon Age: Origins (review forthcoming), which is always in my mind begging me to play. Overall schedule is still to finish this whole damn thing this month. I feel like I’m going to miss it by a week.

A recent study showed English is the hardest language to read.  I can believe it.  Have you looked at my words of the year list?  Those things are crazy…

I read through my story once, fixing up the grammar, filling out the continuity, rewriting a few sections that obviously needed it.  From there I wrote up some ‘artifacts’, basically small out-of-story vignettes that flesh out the story a bit without being part of the strict narrative.  Because I have three plot lines I broke the story in three and read each plotline from beginning to end.  Within that edit I polished the chapters and tried to make them each exciting, worth reading, well-written etc.

Now I’m on to my final beginning-to-end, nothing skipped, edit.  This is, hopefully, the edit where I sit back and enjoy the story.  I’m not sure it’ll quite work out like that, but it’s coming together.  Once I finish that I’ll have a few friends read it and then…

Well, we’ll see.  One thing at a time, eh?

Until next time, Adieu!

I’m finishing up the last of the ‘artifacts’ in my story.  Basically, I’m stuffing fictional primary sources between my chapters.  They’re meant to pull the reader in and give them the sort of background information that a person in my world would already know.  I don’t need to have a character write out how the local government works because that’s something every character in the world should already know.  The question becomes, how can I tell the reader things without dumbing my characters down?

My solution has been artifacts.  I’ve got one for each chapter so far, but we’ll see how many make it into the final draft.  I like the idea, but my worry is that they will become burdensome.  Not every reader wants to know everything about the world and if its not strictly pertinent to the story would it be better to leave it out?  Brevity is always desirable, but there’s a different between redundant wordage and ancillary knowledge.  The first is like wading though mud, the second is a short scenic detour.

So far I’ve been happy with the artifacts because they’ve given me an opportunity to play with a number of different styles.  I have a court transcript, journal entries, advertisements, a travel itinerary.  I’ve been able to write a poem, a few scripts, and even a short homage to hard-boiled noir fiction.

While I have enjoyed writing the artifacts, the same thing that makes them enjoyable is potentially a downside.  By changing the voice and tone so dramatically, I threaten to dilute the ‘brand’ so to speak.  My artifacts are relatively short, but in total they come to around 25,000 words.  That’s a good fifth of the novel.  Editing will cut that down some, but not enough if they aren’t any good.

I’ve yet to make a final decision.  That’ll be a decision for a later article.  THis weekend I’ll be starting the final edit so I’ll have a few things to say there I’m sure.

I’m almost done editing my story or rather, I’m almost done editing it for the first time.  I only have a few chapters left before I can say that all of it has been looked at, at least once.  Whew!

I think editing might be more time-consuming and exhausting than the writing itself.  Writing is, by and large, quite fun.  I get to translate a few disparate ideas into a cohensive story.  Toss in some dialog, describe something cool I saw on television, conjure up some funny names.  Stories practically write themselves on the best days.

Editing, however, what a plodding, boring, experience!  Each chapter is apprixmately two thousand words.  I spend a good twenty minutes just making sure the grammar falls in line with ‘standard written english’.  From there I read over the thing, change out words, add specifics, straighten out any continuity problems, and tidy the language up.  Step three normally involves picking the whole thing apart, sentence by sentence, trying to find ambiguity, remove wordiness, and get a picture of what makes this chapter important.  The last step, or what should be the last step, is a matter of propping up the style, making it fun to read.  Sadly, that last step takes me hours on hours on hours.  I’ve yet to get through a chapter in less than three hours and a few have put me out at least five.

And once I finish, I start the whole thing again.  I have to say, I’m getting bored with my characters.  They keep running through the same plot over and over and over again.  Just another few weeks though, or maybe a few months, and than I can put the whole thing down, nicely arranged, and say, “My novel is done.”

I cannot wait!

Favorite Living Author George RR Martin has been announcing the new casting in the HBO series A Game of Thrones.  This week has had some great casting.  Instead of trying to hijack his words, let me just point you to the relevant posts on his blog:

Ian Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Tamzin Merchant as  Daenerys Targaryen (Great Great Casting!)

Richard Maddenas Robb Stark

Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as Ayra and Sansa Stark

Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister

This new folks join Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark, and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.

Good Stuff!

IO9 made a list of favorite last lines from science fiction stories.  It came out about a month ago, but, as always, I’m running on a back log.  I’m still trying to hammer out the last line on my own story and my current inspiration du jour probably comes from Gibson’s Neuromancer.

” So what’s the score?  How are things different?  You running the world now?  You God?”

“Things aren’t different.  Things are things.”

Somewhere, very close, the laughter that wasn’t laughter.

He never saw Molly again.

I like how the ending wraps together very nicely and completely but with enough amibiguity to keep it interesting.  It’s more than just a ‘leave room for a sequel ambiguity’ but an actual confusion on the part of the world of what might come next.  I find it very realistic and intriguing.

The lines Io9 chose are pretty good too…

Adieu!

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is T.W Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) notes and autobiographical memoir of his time served as a liason officer during the Arab Revolt.  Way way back in the day I reviewed a book called Eastern Approaches, the story of Fitzroy MacLean, one of the first SAS officers and an english member of diplomatic core that explored Soviet Central Asia.  I mention both of these books because they’re similar: heroic individuals who explored the harshest parts of the world during war time and then wrote about their story with singular humility and deference.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is not a general history of world war 2 or even specifically the Arab Revolt that ended Turkish dominance in the middle east.  There are enough blanks in the narrative to greatly encourage further study.  Presumably Lawrence was writing for his contemporaries who already knew the political details of the causes and aftermath, but after almost a hundred years there’s a lot lacking.

What it lacks from the air, it makes up for on the ground.  Lawrence nearly maps the entire desert for the benefit of his readers, remarking on the snakes, the various wells visited, the character of the various people and towns.  He follows the revolt from the Arab position and in that capacity is near flawless.

As a story, the best part is Lawrence’s own transition.  He begins as a rather reluctant staff officer who nevertheless is eager to help the Arab cause.  As the revolt progresses he becomes increasingly disillusioned by his own place in what is likely a fraud.  England’s support for the Arab revolt is hardly an act of generosity with Turkey a German ally.  As the tolls of war grow Lawrence finds himself the near leader of a revolt he’s lost his own position in.

It’s a rather terrible story, but it’s phenomenal reading.  The writing is rather archaic and Lawrence does spend a great deal on details, the texture of the land for example, that most readers would probably rather do without, but as a complete work it’s a rousing adventure story of the finest calibre.

A note worth mentioning, there are a handful of different versions of the tale.  Lawrence himself repeatedly revised his work, mostly to edit down it’s original length.  I read a version stored for free here.  (The book is out of copyright.)

Final note:  I’m still editing.  It’s going tolerably well, if only very slowly.  I’m hopeful that I get it all together this year.