TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE April/04 - See you in 14 [hours, days, years…?]

Writing more rpg stuff to exercise/treat my brain.

♫ I applied for a rescue dog,

But if I get you dog,

You're rescuing me ♫

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2022 -- bounce.

The Heist on Foley Lane - crime writing rpg.

Oh, I had so much fun writing this one.

You can download The Heist on Foley Lane right now!

This is my fourth creative writing /journaling rpg where you play it solo, it’s only a one page document, and the outcome is a kind of short story or journal that you’ve written for your character as you run through a situation I’ve cooked up. The prompt table gives you some excellent crime infused moments and characters to consider.

If you dig this, download it for free, if you really dig it, share the link around. These have been an awesome creative outlet when I’m stuck in my car sometimes, or between massive writing things, so they’re fun to do, and I’ve appreciated the trickle of income they also provide.

If you want to try any of my other free genre rpgs, I have a suburban horror one, a mystical kung fu one, and a small town mystery with a lighthouse [which is absolutely its own genre]. You can check them all out here!

I was at the local Geek Markets on Saturday, a cracking day with a bonanza of sales, and as I sat around between chatting through my mask to people, I fiddled around in my notebook and wrote a new one of these - it’s a fantasy one with some cool tropes, and a central mystery about a cave. Will hopefully have it out in a month.

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A big plan.

This week I finished off the page-by-page plan for this entire miniseries. Every page of every issue gets a sentence or two describing the events and the impact. It was great to map it all out.

The next step is to then go through it with editorial and whittle it down to its absolute best form. Once we know it works, I’ll script my ass off for the next few months, I guess.

I’ve enjoyed putting this together. It gives me an even better scope to see if things are set up and pay off in even balance. How characters and threads track through it all. The overall synopsis was tight, but this lets me see the real estate I can give each scene.

I also don’t feel like I’ve told the story now and the scripting is just a shore. When I script, that’s where I experience this creative flow of discovering *how* the story is told. How it uses the comic page, what magic of balance or pacing it’ll land with to really entrance the reader. The scripting, once the plan is tight, is the fun part of the puzzle. I’m excited to get this plan solid and then move into making this world really come to life.

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ASD&D.

I need to prep another session for my kid so he can have his mates around again soon. I did a boat one first, I need to consider what location/monster to do next…just gotta consider what’s the absolute most amount of fun and variety I can throw at them to leave them with an awesome time.

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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE

Jack Heath interview on Freedom - Jack goes deep into his writing process in regards to timetable and distractions and he’s dropping some really strong points. It’s also inspirational to read and made me want to get back into a doc and type some worlds up. Jack’s a good personal mate, and I can vouch for the effort and thought he puts into everything…except his D&D character’s next actions, because they’re always doing somethiong supremely dumb, which makes them awesome to adventure with.

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GRIST FOR THE MILL

MOON KNIGHT Ep 1 - okay, this was a strong start. I really enjoyed the way they handled the mental change over stuff, that was narratively very clever. They leave a lot off the table that just lures you right now, and they set up Steven Grant to be someone you really feel for. Then the ending is just a beautiful way to say - see you next week, because we will, oh yes, we will.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY - I’m trying to work out exactly what I think about this flick, and more importantly why. Thinking about it, there are elements I dig - certain shots, certain sequences. But then there’s also stuff I found…it’s hard to articulate, less fulfilling. I keep coming back to one thought: I think Bradley Cooper just couldn’t sell me on every phase of this character, and one phase was him at the very start. I just couldn’t see him completely in character, he was just Bradley Cooper in 1930’s attire. The flick has some really good moments, but overall in my heart it has felt like a ⅗, which I think might not be the most currently academic score for it.

THE TENDER BAR - have started watching this Clooney directed/Affleck starring coming-of-age story and am thoroughly enjoying it. It has a meandering pace and little in the way of actual conflict, but I find the actors casually captivating and the fact it’s about a kid who wants to be a writer no doubt holds my attention. The fact it is swerving into a newsroom story fills my heart with joy because this might be my absolute all time favourite subgenre. But the flick is about JR, and his childhood, and his formative years at Yale, and nothing ever really feels high stakes, you just occupy his world with him and I’m fine with that. I get the feeling there’ll be no huge complication/climax, it’ll just be this guy’s life, and for some reason I’m happy to just flow along with that. Again, this might just be me because watching someone grind out a little path in the written word world is something I find inspiring and fascinating. You don’t too often see it, and not in such a normal way as this, so I’m happy to ease into the screen like this is some kind of Good Will Hunting keeping it in second gear.

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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.

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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE

There shall be no newsletter next week. Taking time to switch off and be with family and recharge and walk and read and play and relax. And it’s nice to see this on the horizon and not be doing it because I’m on the edge of burning out, far from it, but just because it’s time, and the opportunity, and I am open for it.

I’ve just started reading THIS IS NOT A TEST which is this YA zombie book about kids bunkered down in their school and the first 50 pages have been alright. A little angsty, but easy reading, so I’ll take that and some comics on the iPad, and maybe one other novel.

Beyond that…I’ll see you in 14.