Today I am celebrating post number 300 on the Grumpy Wizard blog. Since it is a special occasion I decided to do something different. This is an essay I sent out to my email list back in April. Some readers thought it deserved a wider distribution and so here it is. The creative impetus of …
Category: musings
Twitter and Me
Scrolling through Twitter, is an exercise in self control, managing negative emotions and patience. It is exhausting.
Railroads are Puzzling
A railroad is a puzzle presented as an interactive story. It is not a game.
The Experience or The XP?
There is a hypothesis that the reward mechanisms of a game are the primary driver of behavior in a role-playing game. I think that hypothesis is wrong.
What Do I Have To Do?
Feel free to eavesdrop while I pace, mutter and gesticulate. How do I write good stuff? However you do it. What? What kind of answer is that? I need details! Techniques! Strategy! There’s no formula. You write and you keep writing and eventually, you get good at it. Ray Bradbury never went to college. George …
Another Reason I Dislike Character Backstory
Photo by Alexander Maasch on Unsplash This is a skill science fiction and fantasy writers are keenly aware of, because they often have a great deal of information to convey that the reader has no way of knowing unless told…If the information is poured out as a lecture, barely concealed by some stupid device — …
Continue reading Another Reason I Dislike Character Backstory
How I Set Goals
After listening to Dr. P's most recent YouTube video, I reflected on the way I've come to set goals in the last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd9sTFBFmVA Previously, I set goals as destinations. The journey was necessary but not the point of the trip. A dollar amount, a job, how much weight I could pick up in the …
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