binderoftheunboundbook

So I'm over a week into Alternating Currents and despite only adding 2000-odd words to the text since my last post, I still feel pretty good about this project (these are the hard yards BTW, the details of what happens when and what the impact and responses are to investigators actions).

However, while the project continues at a decent pace (I have a day job obviously, and the last weekend saw me away on family matters), one thing that really struck me is the fact I really am working in a vacuum here. By that I mean that I don't really have anyone to 'feed off of' while I write, you know the person who keeps up one’s interest up by asking questions, reviewing progress and helping sort out those little plot or timing issues you discover when you’re focused on the details. Sure, I've asked a couple of friends, gamer friends who are familiar with Call of Cthulhu to provide feedback, but - and I'm guilty of this myself – while they’ve agreed they really haven’t provided any comments at all (Hey, this isn't an attack on them at all, as I said I'm just as guilty of agreeing to help others in their projects and not coming up with the goods - I'm sure Bret K will be nodding at that insight!). It is all too easy to not be able to help a project like this, if a) your head is somewhere else and b) you're dealing with someone like me who has a bazillion ideas, yet few that see the light of day.

So what to do? How do I keep one’s own enthusiasm up, especially when the writing is slowing down (as I said due to the fact I'm into the hard stuff here)? Sure, I've tried using strangers (with Monophobia James King stood up and was a great help), but often my own personal desire to only show people a 'finished draft' means that such ‘good will’ that comes with such offers is often used up rather quickly. Instead I have to look to motivate myself. You know I'm pretty familiar with the way my motivations, emotions and analytical self works, and I'm one of those types of people who is struck with a seemingly unlimited enthusiasm that consumes everything it can on a topic before very quickly becoming bored. The key then is to ensure that I stimulate myself just enough so I remain interested, but in a way that there is always some more I can go on with...

Hence this blog - in simply writing these few hundred words my brain has sparked a few new ideas for the adventure and my creative 'juices' are flowing once more. And so that it likely what the blog entries I leave here will end up being - little jolts of self praise or rhetorical questionings that kick-starts my interest in the scenario again...

That's not to say I want you, the reader, to feel you have to respond to my inane chatter I post here (although if you are interested, and you want to chat, rest assured it is welcomed), but rather know that by simply seeing these post you can be assured that progress continues on Alternating Currents!