See, this blog has reduced over time, it has less posts, less ideas being shared, less "content" as the kid's say. That's due to a variety of reasons, but the main one is that my writing style has matured. I don't like just vomiting words out onto the screen anymore. I like having something definitive to say, I like educating, I like sharing something that I would like reading—in fact, I occasionally read my own blog because I can't quite remember all of the research and ideas I had for a particular concept or project, and reading that post will reinvigorate those ideas (and give me a chance to catch all of my spelling mistakes).
But, another reason is the Halloween Countdown. Often, posts would be postponed, or set aside, so that I could work on the Countdown, or I'd reconfigure post ideas to make them fit a Halloween theme, to the point that for the last six years, the only thing on this blog was the Halloween Countdown. That's part of the reason why it's ending... I don't regret the Halloween Countdown! It's such a fun, serendipitous happenstance,and in the future I might do something during the period between my Birthday and Halloween, but after 2025 I will endeavour not to make it a large writing project during a time of the year that I would rather spend celebrating myself and horror.
However, that does mean that once I have completed the Final Halloween Countdown this blog will be kind of empty. I thought about just leaving it dormant... but I don't like that idea. Without the Countdown, this blog will have more space to breathe, and I'd like to use that space.
But, what for? Well, that's what the title of this post is all about. I have decided.
There are several things I want to do for this blog, and so I've composed it into an internet-friendly numbered list. Who doesn't love a listicle? I know I do. So, here's what I have decided:
1. I want to finish Duke Forever
Now, some of you may well be thinking "what the hell is Duke Forever?" which is fair because not only have I not written it in ages, but I don't know how popular it was... only one of the chapters appear in my Top 20 posts of all time even though the Duke Forever Archive has been visited almost 1000 times...
[Editor's Note: At time of writing, there is a little "Duke Forever - Chapter Archive button in the top-left. I plan on changing that to a "Fiction Archive" button in the future, so that people can find every story I've written here, not just the Duke Forever ones.]
Either way, for those who don't know, Duke Forever was a "Doctor Who" fanfiction blogserial that I first hinted at in May 2013, and first started writing in June 2013. You can read it if you like... I think it's interesting, even if it has a few little flaws here and there. What you may not know—actually, it's impossible for you to know—I had big plans for Duke Forever, and I mean big plans. Dozens of volumes, inter-linking stories, a major villain with the whole "The 88" storyline thing, fun crossovers with research into historical figures and a whole lot of fun sci-fi adventure. But over time, I realized just how bad an idea it was to put so much effort into a story that I cannot fully own (and thus can never sell). And, when it comes to fanfiction, Doctor Who is the hardest to polish up.
Look, it's an open secret that E.L. James wrote Twilight fanfiction, crossed all the names out and sold it as original fiction. Whilst I hate her writing for other more problematic reasons I respect the hell out of that concept. Any good fanfiction writer could (and should) try it for their best works!
However, Twilight is just teenagers and vampires--that's an easy paint-job. But, stories about humanoid-aliens with regenerating lifespans and bodily reconfiguration who fly around in spaceships that are bigger on the inside, travel through both space and time, use sci-fi tools with ill-defined functions and whose names tend to be honorifics preceded by the definite article? Yeah, even if I tried to scrub off all the copyrighted terms and have the adventures of Dave the Alien in his magical, Time-Traveling Wheelie-Bin it would still feel like Doctor Who fanfiction.
I'm still working on finding a way to salvage all the research and story planning I did in the background into something I could call an original story (stay tuned, I'll let you know if that ever happens) but either way trying to write the whole, damn thing was insane... even though it was fun to do. So, ultimately, I ended up abandoning the project. Once I realized that it wasn't really mine, and that I could use my energy on something that actually made me some money, I left it to rot.
But that sucks! Especially because, it means the story ends on a cliff-hanger. The Duke deserved better than that.
I don't even know if Duke Forever has any fans besides me. Hell, do I have fans? I have no idea... I know I write this blog as though I might be speaking to an audience of hundreds, but I never assume that people will come back again and again. But, either way, I want to finish what I started. It's a good excuse to do more fun sci-fi writing and if nothing else it's good practice at working to an editorial mandate - "resolve an eight-year old cliff-hanger, then conclude the series in a satisfying way", that's an interesting challenge. And don't worry, rather than my 27-chapter #PLANS that I once had I only plan on writing one or two chapters, three at the absolute most. This is the only one of these that I can definitely get done before the end of 2025, but I make no promises.
2. I want to finally write the GameBlog
Also, speaking of completing things that I left unfinished (that nobody else seems to have heard of) another plan I had in mind was, of course, the GameBlog... does literally anyone else even remember that? Seriously, do I have repeat readers? Like I said, I have no idea if I have fans. But, I do know that waaaaay back, I'm talking May 2013 (eleven years ago, at time of writing) I mentioned the idea of writing a choose-your-own-adventure style story for this blog. Then, I went ahead and didn't do a goddamned thing about it.
Okay, that's not fair, I did research and stuff... but that's about it. I never wrote it, for two reasons:
Firstly, I wasn't sure exactly how to do the linking. If I created different posts I'd ruin the "post archive", but if I used pages I'd flood my blog catalogue with a whole bunch of standalone "pick option A or B" pages, which meant that the better and more varied the story was the more cluttered the blog would become.
Secondly, I had trouble coming up with a good, branching storyline. I had
different ideas about spies, or getting lost in a mansion, but they all
felt too underdeveloped.
So, if I ever came up with a good storyline I'd say "well, I don't know a good way to link it" so I'd shelve it again. And if I ever came up with a potential way to link it I'd say "oh, well I don't have a good story for it, yet". It was a vicious cycle.
However, when thinking about stuff I wanted to do for this blog, that was one of the first that came to mind. So, I decided to use modern technology... to cheat. I asked ChatGPT. It spat out some code that could put an entire choose-your-own-adventure style story on one page, using the right scripts.
I tested it out, adjusted the settings to make it look prettier and work with my blog... and, long story short, it works. So, the only thing holding me back is writing the damn thing. I am not sure how much work that will be... hypernarrative text can become a fractal nightmare of choices, so I can't promise this before the end of 2025, but I will certainly try.
So, I have the means to put my story up, without cluttering my blog, that's awesome. And, as for the second point, I've already decided the story! I am thinking of a murder mystery that puts YOU in control of the detective. I have come up with suspects, a setting, a murder, and I plan on writing it so that you have to figure out who the killer is for yourself... It is going to be so fun! So, look forward to that. I hope it's as fun to play as it will be to write.
3. I want to play a Narrative SoloRPG
Wow, this is all about things nobody knows anything about, isn't it? Well, enough with the past, let's discuss the future... as I discussed in an earlier post, I enjoy playing Pen & Paper RPGs, and it's even helped me with my writing. Lately, I've really gotten into watching Me, Myself & Die on YouTube. For those unaware, it's a role-playing channel on YouTube, run by Trevor Duvall, a voice-actor and prolific roleplayer who plays a solitaire role-playing game. But, how is that possible? In short, through Game Master Emulation.
In long... for those who don't know, the way that a role-playing game works is that you get two or more people in a room and you pick ONE person to be the Game Master. Each other player creates a character and plays that role, and the Game Master plays... literally everyone and everything else. The purpose of the Game Master not only provides the other characters, the setting and the conflict, but they also make the game more dynamic and interesting. But, because even they can't be truly objective, we also throw in some objects (in the form of Dice, Coins or Cards) to help add that much-needed seed of randomness. For Game Master Emulation, instead of a person, you replace them with a set of rules which in solitaire role-playing communities is called the Oracle.
The Oracle is basically just a specific set of rules. Sometimes it requires using special cards, systems and dice, but in any case an Oracle works by distributing the Game Master's roles amongst the Player(s), the Cards/Dice and the rules of its system so that a game can be just as dynamic and tense and interesting and fun, but without the need for one player to play the role of "the entire world".
So, I want to do this for my blog in a new series that I'm calling Spooks & Solitaire. Fun, right? I already have all the maps, magic system and NPCs worked out already. I will be playing out a goosebumps-style horror story, set in what's basically the modern world. I'm not fond of combat, so this will likely be light on that, but I also don't know all the details - you find out as you play, that's half the fun - so I am just as in the dark as you at this point. When I get our "session zero" I'll explain all about the Oracle I'll be using, (a variation of Mythic), the system (basically GURPS Lite) and my character. But, what matters is that I will be presenting this on the blog in the form of a story. I find that the easiest way for me to role-play, since I write fiction all the time.
I've done this before in my spare time, just for fun, and it's really cool, so I want to share it with you. I don't plan on doing it super-duper long, I'm thinking around the length of a chapterbook (So, we're looking at 8-12 chapters, approximately), with each chapter being a separate post. If it goes well, there will be a sequel.
I have been creating the template for it, with shorthand so that the whole thing doesn't get bogged down in the details so that you can just focus on the story with a few hints here and there about how the system is working. And, I plan on having a little post-play discussion at the end of each chapter, just a short little commentary of how well it went, before I adjust all of the tables (since you adjust the Chaos factor, NPC List, Thread List, etcetera at the end).
But, perhaps the most important announcement... using the "Fear Factor" system of my own devising (which isn't perfect, so consider this a trial run), one of the things I discovered in my first play-through, is that I NEED to know what the monster is before I start, not mid-game, so that the plot all works together.
I can just make one up myself, rolling randomly, but if this series sounds interesting to you, feel free to make a suggestion in the comments below. This is, effectively, a Let's Play of a Solitaire RPG, so if you want to have some input, now is the time to do it, since I plan on starting this late 2025, or early 2026. You have until then to suggest input.
I hope you're as excited as I am to watch me play with myself... wait, no, definitely not that. I mean play alone in my room... no, that just sounds sad. Look, no matter how I define it, let me know what you think. I'm writing this for people to read, so why not tell me the kinds of spooky stories that you like reading?
4. More unscheduled blog posts.
Lastly, but not leastly, I plan on actually writing posts on this blog. Crazy, right? Like, that's kind of what a blog is for. I can't lie, they won't be all as often as they once were (one every three days? such is the folly of youth)... like I said at the top of this post, I just don't write (let alone think) like that anymore. But, what is a blog without the occasional blog post?
So, my aim is to post once a month... but, I call these unscheduled for a reason. I like to talk a lot about fiction ideas, I have been doing a lot of research into narratology lately, some more fun opinion pieces.
They may be low in quantity, but I guarantee they'll be so high in quality, they'll be worth the wait.
- - -
Anyway, those are my plans for the coming year. I'm excited, I hope you are. Look forward to the Halloween Countdown, I might have the Duke Forever Finale before that, a GameBlog on the way, and of course, the SoloRPG series, Spooks & Solitaire--seriously, leave a comment if there's a kind of horror monster/concept, you'd like me to cover, and I'll see what I can do to work it in!--and of course, the odd blog post here or there.
I hope you like what I've decided, because that's my decision and I'm sticking to it.
Until Next Time, I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, and even if you think I'm wrong, I'll always be writer.
