This past week started out so well in the realm of writing. Sadly, illness took over and everything stopped after Thursday. Hopefully this coming week will show more promise. Either way, I’m going to go easy on myself. Scolding myself for lack of perfection in these things just gets me down, making it less likely I’ll get back up again.
At any rate, here’s the writing practice I got in since last Tuesday.
Day 4: 1200+ words. This piece is a bit of backstory and/or my attempt to explore a character concept. I like the idea of a dragonborn fighter who is currently working as a mercenary to pay bills, but is extremely unsatisfied with the kinds of jobs his recruiter obliges him to do. I feel like a good Dungeon Master could work with that to create a hook that draws my fighter into a more satisfying adventure and a life he’s more comfortable with. Of course, the DM might also ask me to change a few details here. For example, I wrote the scene as if it’s happening in the world of Fehrun and the DM might want to place their campaign in a different world. I’m actually okay with that. I just picked locations in Fehrun to make the story easier to write. I’d have no problems changing the details. Of course, I still need to work on this character. The story raises other questions like how and why did my fighter become a mercenary in the first place? Why isn’t he with the other warriors of his clan?
Day 5: 300+ words. This piece is quite short, but it’s what I wanted to write. I felt like anything I might do to try to increase the word count would have diminished what I was going for. Better to focus on Gene’s experience of playing as well as the effects of the music.
Day 6: 1000+ words. Another dialogue-intensive piece. What can I say? I love my dialogue. Originally Karbath was supposed to just wander through the bar and maybe even witness a few fights. I even considered the possibility that he would end up int he ring after all. But the challenge from the young kid just suggested what I considered a more interesting direction for the scene. I also hope that Karbath’s wish that he could be more than just some fighter shone through. In many ways, I think he hoped to steer the kid towards a life he and his circumstances denied himself.