On Writing Longhand and Other Things

So as I mentioned, I'm writing the first draft of my newest novel, Stella Felicis (a working title, I'm not sure I'm a fan of it at the moment) in longhand. I bought a few small college-ruled notebooks (kinda like the Moleskine ones, just cheaper) in Seattle and have been working on the story with pen and paper instead of on my usual medium, which is frantic typing.

It's a very different experience. I backtrack even less than I usually do. I can write anywhere (including class -- there goes my productivity next week), and I feel somewhat more accomplished than I would writing a few pages in MS Word.

There is of course the huge downside, which is my RSI. Today my left wrist, and part of my arm, is in quite a bit of pain and tingling unpleasantness.

So yeah. Tomorrow I'll be scheduling a doctor's appointment. It's the first time I've had to get this checked out in almost three years, but its getting to the point where it's becoming necessary.

Guess that's the price I have to pay for pursuing my dream.

Not the best day I must admit. But I'm dealing with it the way any self-respecting nerd should: Sunday D&D, Mountain Dew, cookies, and eating cream cheese frosting straight from the jar.

Yeah, I'm hardcore.

School tomorrow. Hopefully I won't suffer too horribly. At least now I'm going to take advantage of my work schedule to read. :3

The gaming, the gaming

So I haven't had the opportunity to update since Thursday, and things have changed considerably since then. Like my D&D campaign not meeting because one of my players had to work later than expected and another needed to get up early Saturday morning. So I spent my Friday in the best way: playing Halo with Jim (which I sucked at, but that's because I've never played Halo before. True story), ate an awesome dinner and then spent the evening playing DDO, which went well except for the part where I kept getting disconnected. I have no idea why, but it happened, and it sucked. But I survived, and got to kill a lot of kobolds, which was excellent.

Saturday also went well; The company of heroes attempting to stop the Red Hand of Doom fought several nasty beasties and managed to survive despite lots of near-death experiences (Both Chris and Jim got pretty close to dead at various points).

And we are currently entering into I think our seventh or eighth hour of Amy's campaign. We have been playing for hours and are currently fighting a crowd of wights and a Beholder. I have class in seven and a half hours. We are nowhere near done with this fight.

I will try to blog more tomorrow, but expect to be completely and utterly incoherent and exhausted, as I have nine thirty class, three hours of work, and then two-thirty class. If exhaustion continues, I might skip latin, because I have to read a book and write a paper tomorrow. And go to a reading. And email my group with my notes.

Yeah. We should have finished this session two hours ago. We're idiots. But DAMN is playing D&D until the wee hours fun. It's absolutely fantastic. I adore this campaign, and the Torchwood / Dark Knight / Lord of the Rings soundtrack in the background is doing WONDERS for the mood.

I'm gonna go plink away at a beholder now. Wish me luck.

A D&D Filled Weekend

Another weekend been and gone, but this one's been a good one. I created a new character, Jenaskha Derris, and she has been kicking butt and taking names up and down Korthos and Stormreach with awesome cleric powers of doom. Seriously, the bonus XP weekend has been wonderful in that it only took me a day to get her up to level three. Best way to spend a relaxing weekend EVER.

But enough of my babble about MMOs. The rest of my weekend involved social time with regular old pen and paper D&D, and even though both my weekend sessions were shorter than normal due to time constraints, they both went pretty well.

Saturday afternoon was Red Hand of Doom campaign with my friend Alpha (who's given name is Thomas, but the group has two Thomas's so they go by Alpha and Beta). He's running the premade adventure for us, and so far it's going well. The party consists of five characters:

- Victoria, Aasimar Favored Soul, played by Jordan
- Victor, Aasimar Shadowcaster, played by Chris
- Arteme, Aasimar Sorcerer, played by Jim
- Janos (though he goes by multiple names), Tiefling Rogue/Marshal/Chameleon, played by Beta
- Kelda, Snow Elf Barbarian/fighter/ranger, played by me

So yeah. we're an interesting party. We didn't do much on Saturday since we were limited in time, but we managed to convince the townsfolk to run away from the goblin horde about to attack them and fight off a chimaera, not that I managed much damage. My dice were suffering from the suck that day, so I spent combat flailing around ineffectually while everyone else killed the damn thing.

Such is the life of a D&D player. Sometimes you are lucky, and other days you want to fire your dice into the sun.

Amy's campaign was far more successful. We managed to make it to Threst (finally) and even got to kill some wraiths. a successful evening in my book for sure.

So that was my weekend. I also moved a few more steps forward on the new car thing, watched a ton of Big Bang Theory, and ate a lot of frosting straight from the jar with a spoon.

I know. I'm disgusting. I'm comfortable with it.

Another week begins tomorrow. I'll probably face it the way I do most things: with sleep deprivation and daydreams.

Now I'm off to kill doods while I wait for Jim to finish the Misery's Peak quest. That we may kill even more doods. Yay! :D

Dungeons and Drama

Another Monday dawns: I've never been a fan of Mondays. If I ever succeed in my plans for world domination, I will forbid the existence of Mondays entirely I think. But until then I will continue in my quest towards another weekend.

Today's definitely a little on the busy side. I have Latin homework to poke with a stick while I'm at work as well as reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for my Gay and Lesbian lit class. After Latin I'm running home to dump my books and shower and relax a bit before heading back to campus for dinner and a study party with my friend Cori, who I haven't hung out with in forever.

After that my plan for the evening is to do a few quests in DDO, and then watch Chuck while working on my Latin drills.

Clearly I lead a thrilling life.

Last night was D&D, and while I love Amy's campaign, I think all of us players are getting a wee bit antsy and ready to advance the plot. We're currently sidequesting into the realm of Threst where there's been something of a disturbance involving undead creatures and a halfling rebellion. Isn't a bad thing necessarily, but our main quest is on the other side of the continent, so I know at least I'm wondering when we'll be back on that track. Possibly by the time Amy and I become roommates a month or two from now. That said, I'm having a blast playing Illyria, my character, and I try to do what I can to balance out the party, which tends to bicker when decisions need to be made. Is just the way of things: we've got a gnome illusionist with a legendary alcohol tolerance (James, who often has to leave early due to having morning classes in Omaha), a shifter cleric who can heal a crapton but is hesitant to put forth his opinion for fear of conflict (Adam, my quoting buddy), a halfling rogue who serves the Raven Queen with much enthusiasm (Alex, whose propensity for undead smiting makes things difficult since we have the Chosen of Vecna in our party - a thirteen year old boy who unintentionally reanimates dead things), and a half-elf paladin who tries her damndest to keep us all on track, resulting in her bouncing between being the Patron Saint of Lost Causes (as I dubbed her) and the Only Sane Man (Jim's character. Yes he's playing a chick, and yes he's heard all the jokes, so don't even start).

So yeah. Party strife. We have it.

Hopefully next weekend's session will go better. We might actually make it into Threst, finish the sidequest and be on our way back to find the pesky MacGuffin and be one step closer to attempting to save the world. Huzzah!

And I will say, for all my complaints about sidequests and party drama, I still love this campaign. The fact that I'm willing to play 4th ed for the sake of this story and playstyle is a testament to Amy's storytelling and DMing abilities. So take everything I say with a grain of salt. It is Monday, and we did have a rough ending to the session last night. Give me a couple hours and some caffeine and I'll be right as rain.

Just as soon as I get through my Latin homework that is. *sigh* Now I just need to remember how far we got in the sentences. *grumbles*