Just a brief post today. My friend, the author, Rachael de Vienne asked me to write a guest post on her blog. I had hesitated because I couldn't think of a worthy topic. Last night it struck me to write about her. I wrote about how I met her and how our friendship has grown.
Go to Who Said Pixies Are Rational Creatures and read my post.
Don't stop there. Read her blog and discover why I am so enamoured with her.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Let me give it one more whack.
A wonderful friend of mine is a writer, a published writer. Rachael de Vienne wrote Pixie Warrior and has co-authored a book of religious history. I have read just about everything of hers that I can find on the web. She suggested that I take part in Coyote Con, the online writers conference of speculative fiction and fantasy, and has been encouraging me to write my own stories.
I had the bug when I was younger. When I was a teenager I wrote and illustrated my own comics. My neighbor from across the street wrote comics too and we were characters in each others works. But when high school ended so did the comics. The writing didn't though. I kept producing short (very short) stories that always ran out of steam before I could reach a conclusion. My one attempt at a novel (insert polite giggle here) stopped after the title and a few vignettes of scenes. I knew how the story started, but I had no idea how it would end.
Anyhow that is all past. I have gotten that itch again. I have the need to put words on paper and try to tell a story. The most common piece of advice I have heard over the years is to write about something you know. The second most common one is to do your research.
I am trying to take those things to heart. There are two things I am concerned about right now. One is my own mental health and the other is my experiences in Second Life. My wife and my therapist would probably agree that they go hand in hand.
What if a person is depressed? He has been depressed for most of his life. He is withdrawn, with a low self esteem despite the fact that he is often very good at the things he does. He is in therapy but has hit a wall of sorts. He can't get to the root of his problems and overcome them. He reads about an experimental project, where using a newly designed digital interface a person can go into a virtual world without the necessity of a computer keyboard, monitor and headset. It is too memory intensive for most computers and requires very high bandwidth. A disturbing side effect is that the players have experienced simulations and characters in the virtual world that were not generated by other players, but by their own brains.
Our man sees the possibilities of going into a virtual world to hunt and face his inner demons. With the help of the program's developer and his therapist, who act as online chaperones, he goes into a small virtual world using the digital interface. His two companions follow along using a standard browser. At first his lets them follow along, but he discovers that he must evade them to pursue his demons.
In the end he meets and learns from an alternate personality of himself what was the cause of his insecurity from childhood and begins the journey to happiness with himself.
I've started the research and I've started sketching out the characters. The virtual world will be based on my experience on 2 different grids and I may explore others before I am done.
I had the bug when I was younger. When I was a teenager I wrote and illustrated my own comics. My neighbor from across the street wrote comics too and we were characters in each others works. But when high school ended so did the comics. The writing didn't though. I kept producing short (very short) stories that always ran out of steam before I could reach a conclusion. My one attempt at a novel (insert polite giggle here) stopped after the title and a few vignettes of scenes. I knew how the story started, but I had no idea how it would end.
Anyhow that is all past. I have gotten that itch again. I have the need to put words on paper and try to tell a story. The most common piece of advice I have heard over the years is to write about something you know. The second most common one is to do your research.
I am trying to take those things to heart. There are two things I am concerned about right now. One is my own mental health and the other is my experiences in Second Life. My wife and my therapist would probably agree that they go hand in hand.
What if a person is depressed? He has been depressed for most of his life. He is withdrawn, with a low self esteem despite the fact that he is often very good at the things he does. He is in therapy but has hit a wall of sorts. He can't get to the root of his problems and overcome them. He reads about an experimental project, where using a newly designed digital interface a person can go into a virtual world without the necessity of a computer keyboard, monitor and headset. It is too memory intensive for most computers and requires very high bandwidth. A disturbing side effect is that the players have experienced simulations and characters in the virtual world that were not generated by other players, but by their own brains.
Our man sees the possibilities of going into a virtual world to hunt and face his inner demons. With the help of the program's developer and his therapist, who act as online chaperones, he goes into a small virtual world using the digital interface. His two companions follow along using a standard browser. At first his lets them follow along, but he discovers that he must evade them to pursue his demons.
In the end he meets and learns from an alternate personality of himself what was the cause of his insecurity from childhood and begins the journey to happiness with himself.
I've started the research and I've started sketching out the characters. The virtual world will be based on my experience on 2 different grids and I may explore others before I am done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
