IF - an exciting world

I've been silent for a long time now mainly because I've been working and also trying to design a website. I've still not actually decided if I want to go ahead and build a seperate website or whether I just wish to learn Wordpress a little better. I do have people in my life who are comfortable when it comes to WP so maybe I shall see what they can do for me.

Today I wish to talk about Interactive Fiction (IF, as I shall call it from now on). If you don’t know what IF is then I am going to use a quote from another Wordpress blog to explain it.

Interactive fiction tells you the beginning of a story. Then it puts you in charge and lets you decide what your character should do. You type commands for the main character to carry out, and the story replies by telling you what happens next. Think of the rooms as your setting, and the objects you find as the props.

Part of your role is to help the main character overcome obstacles to his progress: solving problems, working out what is going on in the story, discovering ways to reach new locations and tools. That aspect of interactive fiction is like a game.

And part of your role is to help him make decisions. Interactive fiction may have multiple endings, subject to your choices. That aspect is like a story — but an open-ended one

- Emily Short

http://emshort.wordpress.com

When I was younger what captivated me was the sense of being a part of a world. I adore reading so the ability to jump into a book, take control of the character, and direct the actions was very appealing.

Today during some idle browsing of the net I stumbled on Galatea by Emily Short. The game is a little different from the normal IF in that you don’t explore a world but engage in a conversation with a statue that is alive (that’s a very crude description by me). I’ll post a link to it at the bottom of this post but needless to say it rekindled by interest in IF and I shall be examining more IF in the near future and, as an author, it’s also made me wonder about getting involved in IF in some way. There are many stories and ideas floating in my head that I’ve always thought would be good to involve the reader in some way.

I can’t promise anything will come of it, but who knows.

In the meantime I heartily recommend you play Galatea and also pay Emily Short’s blog a visit. I’m also going to include a few links at the bottom worth checking out.

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/short__galatea.html - Galatea Download
http://www.xyzzynews.com/ - Magazine for IF Enthusiasts
http://www.ifcomp.org/ - Interactive Fiction Competition

Chaos Theory

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a blog post so I think I should update you all.

A few weeks ago my computer decided it didn’t want to play anymore. In truth I knew it would die. I was having issues switching the machine on if I unplugged it and then one day I tried to play a racing game and…*poof*

So I had to buy new and buy new I did. I spent a considerable amount of money on the components for a modest upgrade. It was quite the adventure building the machine because the special cooler I bought for my CPU was tricky to fit. Then I had some problems with a virus. Then I had to get all my saved stuff back.

Anyway.

I’m back and I plan on writing a short story for the blog. I mentioned this before but I never got around to doing but I am actually fleshing out a plan. Not sure what genre yet though.

vVR

e(vil?)Bay

It all started innocently enough: I need money. I have some products to sell. I have an eBay account. 2 + 2 = 4. Right?

Not exactly.

I began by creating my listing as per usual. I spent time detailing the condition of the item, using photographs to support my claims, and creating what I believed to be a very good description. Clear, precise and very informational. It wouldn't win any awards for creativity, but no one reading the description could ever be under false pretences about the item.

The item itself was a Nintendo DS Lite + 3 Games.

I'd seen people offer the DS Lite /w games for about £80-£100. My DS Lite is in very good condition and with three games (all in excellent condition), I figured I'd make around £100+. But as usual, I started typed to start my auction at 99p and I charged a modest shipping fee. It'd been a long time since I had used eBay. So long in fact, that my feedback rating was 0% since it only counts feedback generated over 12 months (I have 39 ratings, all positive).

Click 'Next' and away we...Pardon?

Error? What? What do you mean I have to offer free shipping? Huh? PayPal only allowed? Immediately, I fired up google and did some research.

Firstly I came across eBay's own explanation. As a buyer I can completely understand that some people take the Michael when it comes to shippping. In fact, just last week I complained to a friend that I'd seen an auction that had something like £10 shipping. I can guarentee you that the item he was selling would not have cost £10 to send.

People put high shipping prices on because it's free money. When you bid and you see you've won something for £30 you then have to add on what it will cost you for shipping. This fee is also received 100% by the seller compared to the final auction price which eBay receives a cut of.

Yes, shipping does need to be controlled but by simply pointing at certain categories and saying "You must offer free shipping" is like trying to crack a nut with a sledgehammer and there are legitimate gripes about the move. Look at this way, I can't go to my post office and say "Hey, this is only a video game so don't charge me postage".

In my case the reason for the free postage was because I had chosen to list my item in the secondary cateogies of Video Games - Nintendo DS. As soon as I removed this, I was allowed to add up to £14. This wasn't a big deal actually. I wasn't prepared to offer free postage so I just contented myself with the one category.

The second issue though, that I had to use PayPal (and only PayPal), was a much bigger problem for me. I thought it must be a technical glitch, but a bit of research uncovered that eBay tried this trick with Australia though they failed, but nothing I found suggested they were doing it on eBay UK. As a test, I changed my auction category to another cateogry and sure enough I could use all payment methods but with video game consoles and perhaps other categories too, there seems to be a demand that only PayPal can be used. The error message did state it was because of there being a lot of complaints in this cateogory along with my seller history meaning it was PayPal or the highway.

Now, PayPal has its fair share of haters, like all companies do to be fair, but I've never fully trusted it and closed my account because of this lack of trust. I don't like being forced to do things and judging by a petition group set up on ebay UK, neither do others.

I was wavering. Not entirely sure whether to go through with the auction or not until...

Boom!

So let me get this straight...

You tell me I have to offer free shipping based on some categories. You also tell me I have to accept and can only accept PayPal because of I have a quiet history and the items being sold are in one of the most disputed categories, and now you tell me that the buyer might send me the money via PayPal, but I would not receive it until after a specific amount of time.

Yes, buyers need protection, but the general consensus is that sellers aren't cared for. I'm not sure I agree with this. eBay needs sellers, just like it needs buyers. I am not an experienced eBay user, but I've found it very off-putting to try and earn a bit of money by selling something I no longer want, only to be bullied into doing what others want. It's made the experience very unpleasant and I don't think I'll be selling anything on eBay for the foreseeable future.

There are bad buyers (another issues is sellers can't give buyers negative feedback) and while it's fairly simple for buyers to find out what protects them, what kind of seller protection do I get? If the buyer initiates a refund or complains, what can I do? PayPal has a seller protection policy but that means syncing it with my bank account and there's no way I am trusting those people with my bank details.

cold spaghetti at 5am - the lows and lows of authorhood

One of the popular misconceptions is that writing a novel is essentially a get rich quick! scheme.

In fact, this misconception is so widespread that many within the litature industry always go on the defensive the moment someone walks up and says "I'd like to be a writer".

I wish it was a method to money. Really. No one writes for money (unless they're already famous, but then they probably don't need the cash) but equally I can't think of many authors who wouldn't want to be called JK Rowling or Stephen King. Let's face it, they're at the top--the very top--of their craft and they have rightly earned the right to have their bank manager make a home visit with a smile, instead of with baliffs.

But for us, at the other end of the spectrum, things aren't quite so sweet-smelling. Allow me to give you a good example:

It was 5:00am on Sunday morning when I started this. I'd spent Saturday on a long journey around town. My body needed that. After weeks of being couped up in my cell (aka: my study), I'd gotten to see real people and looked at items more than a monitor screen's distance away.

When I got home it was late and I was tired. I had a nice bath to relax my muscles (although my feet ache now) and cooked some spaghetti. I went to bed thinking I'd get a nice sleep, wake up refreshed and have another day at work.

Except it's not quite worked out that way.

First, I couldn't sleep. Why, I do not know. But I couldn't. To make maters worse I began thinking about things...things to do with money. Then I began to worry and wonder:

Could I really publish this novel?
Can I really get people to buy it? (I'm not counting you, dear reader, because I know you will buy it!)
If it doesn't work out, then what?

It's true I've invesgted a lot into this dream, too much in fact. I left school without much in the way of qualifications so now I am not earning much money (no money!). I'm a 27 year old man and I have no life because I mustn't be away from my work for too long because if I am not working then I am not getting closer to earning money.

So I got up and am composing this blog post. I'm too sleepy to work but too awake to sleep. So I am writing this hoping I can trick my body and mind into thinking I've worked my fill and can sleep. I'm also eating left over spaghetti because there is no food in the house.

Now about writing being a get rich quick scheme...

Go, go gadget wordpress

I finally setup a wordpress blog.

I know, it's absurd. I barely update this one and yet here I am setting up another blog. But still, I need the exposure and I also think it'll help me in a bizarre way. Two blogs = more responsibility and more likelyhood that this thing will get updated (even though I have no idea what to say half the time).

Point your browsers to: http://blood2ink.wordpress.com (and yes, I'm changing the picture and the banner on here).

All Nighter Part 1

5:48am.

I got my cup of coffee, my windows open and my word processor up. It's going to be an all nighter. I plan on being awake all night (yes, my night is your day) and working. Let me tell you, it's going to be a gruelling day and any of you who think writing is easy and full of glitz and glamour, pay close attention. This is what it's like in the trenches. This is what you sometimes have to do.

Your eyes, body and mind get sacrificed for the written word. Sometimes it has to be like this.

I'm on Chapter 32 of 43. I want 32, 33 and 34 finished today.

Anyone know any high energy food?

She's coming

Letting her go will be the hardest thing I ever do. For so many years she's lived inside me and channeled my creative thought. Everyone who reads her, likes her but until I get a professional opinion, I'll never be able to shake the notion that people are just being nice.

I'm not ashamed to admit, I'm a little afraid, but I still believe.

---

One problem I have been having lately is with the Prologue. There's only one prologue to every story but for mine I have about two or three written and I just need to figure out which one I want to go with.

I want the Prologue to contain something that isn't found anywhere else in the book, but is referenced too indirectly. To give you a basic example:

If I were writing a book about a convict and a police officer was trying to work out what happened during a robbery. In the Prologue the reader would see the robbery first hand, but after the Prologue he would only hear about it.

That's not actually a very good example come to think of it, but it's the best I can do in my sleep deprived state.

Being healthy

One of the drawbacks about doing what I do is that you tend to stay at home a lot, cramped up in a small room (or at least my room is small) and staring at a computer screen for aaaaaaaages. As a result your eyes look funny, your back hurts and God only knows what your internal organs and arteries think of you.

So, today, I went a bit healthy. I went into town for a nice stroll.

It rained and I had no umbrella. It was also f**king freezing.

But I did enjoy myself. It was nice seeing people, traffic and all those kind of things. But on a serious note the lack of movement I've been doing meant that my legs got tired really quickly. I had planned to stay out till about 3pm onwards but I had to come home at 11am because my hips were hurting. I plan on going back outside tomorrow though and I am going to try and make a regular habit of it. At a bare minimum I want to work away from home on two days a week.

While at home though I have been trying to be healthy. Lots of juice, water and healthy foods. I still splurge on cola zero and the odd bacon sarnie now and again but, hey, life is for living!!

I have been trying Yoga too. Yes, the charms of the internet gave me the idea to try a few simple yoga exercises. Unfortunately, the one problem about the net is it's hard to work out what is a good source of information and what is crap. One website told me that the "wheel pose" was a fabulous way for the beginner to start his yoga session. It looked easy enough. Let me see if I can find you a picture of it. Ah yes, here we go. Oh, and this wasn't the website that I used initially which told me it was a beginner pose:























As you can see it looks rather easy. I nearly broke my neck trying it!

I've used the image without the author's permission, I hope they don't mind. I am of course happy to give them a shoutout. It's from the quite excellent: http://www.juliesyoga.com/index.html

Again, this wasn't the website which misled me.

Return!

Alas I have abandoned you my friends.

A poor show, one cannot deny. In truth I've been working my little cotton socks off. I'd be lying if I said my book self-editing was going smoothly, it isn't. But it is going now, at least. I picked up the quite fabulous Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King and have since been applying the lessons carefully to my manuscript. I really need an editor because it's hard reading one's own work without your eyes glazing over or without the temptation to just...make...one...more...edit or without the feeling that you're going to miss something.

So what else is new?

I've been contemplating self-publication. It's a bold step and certainly not one that should be taken lightly but it could reap dividends. And by that I don't mean financial dividends.

Also I have been tapping away at screenwriting. I have three ideas in my head that are solid enough to start going onto paper but the Trilogy must be completed first.

Yes, I know, I know...

I'm slacking.

I'm under the weather at the moment and dealing with some, uh, issues so I'll be away for a few more days and then I'll update properly.

Happy New Year

Yessiree. 2009 is here and I for one am glad.

There's going to be a lot of changes in my life in 2009. Some changes I hope will happen, but some I will force. The process to a new life begins now with a culling of some old contacts. I tied up all loose ends in 2008 and I can wipe the slate clean. They don't need me, and I don't need them. It's an amicable break.

Literature wise 2009 will see the submission of my novel. I am, at this moment, prepping it into manuscript format. I fully believe this novel will sell, but then I would believe that. The minute it is submitted I am going to work on a second book (and finish my screenplay). Like I said, some changes I'll force.

Have a good one and I hope you all achieve whatever dreams you have. If 2008 sucked for you, like it did for me, then let's make 2009 ours.