Off Topic Generalities

Dear Wonderful People,

I would like to apologize for being rather absent in terms of productivity and creativity lately. It has been a tough couple of weeks. Not only are my classes difficult in terms of subject matter, being sciencey and therefore things I know nothing about, I have also experienced some difficulties with my social life and to top it all off, have gotten a job. A for-real job with money compensation.

Life is difficult.

But I miss you guys, and I miss roleplaying, and I wanted to know if we could imbue Clueless with some new life, or start something else that we all find easy to write, or even (I thought) try a round-robin type of story just for fun.

Any thoughts?

Also, I thought-it's never too early to start planning for NaNoWriMo. Who of you all are doing it this year? I for sure am (no school or job will stop me from writing my 50,000). I can't decide whether to try to work on an old story or start a new one. I must plan! Plans plans plans!

Love,
Areada

Sounds like stressful circumstances. I hope things start to pick up for you soon :/

Clueless has seemed to be picking up slowly over the last few weeks. I think we need a bit more momentum to really get it going. I don't know what a round robin story exactly is, but we could try it. Did you ever have a chance to look at the forum's RPG system? Also, I definitely haven't forgotten Skybound. I'm quite swamped with work too :/ And I've been having no luck finding a part-time job. Because my parents pay for my tuition, I'm not qualified for a lot of things meant to help students with financial problems.

I've never done NaNoWriMo, but I think I may try it this year. Hmm...

My ears (or uh, eyes rather) are always here if you need a place to rant

Oh my spiced toast, we should do a NaRoWriMo. National Roleplay Writing Month. Maybe not during November, but some other month! We could try to start a roleplay and get to 50,000 words. xD THAT COULD BE EPIC HILARITY.

You should definitely get on Skybound. I can channel all of my angst into the characters over there. (I FORSEE ANGST IN YOUR FUTURE, IRENE. LOTS AND LOTS)

A round-robin is basically like our one-sentence story, only everyone writes a few paragraphs at a time, and it goes in a certain order.

YES! Is there a rule about co-writing for NaNoWriMo? If not, LET'S DO THIS!

Expect a new post on Skybound within the week Once I get my gears oiled again, I'll be posting often too!

I'm so excited!

What kind of story for NaNoWriMo? Given the 50,000 recommended word length, we can't spend 20,000 words on initial character development like we usually do xD Want to do something action-packed? I want to start right in the middle of some sort of conflict.

ACTION. ACTION IS GOOD.

And should it be like four or five of us? Can we commit that much energy/writing? It does make the daily contribution from each considerably less...

And like I said, it doesn't have to be november if that's a bad month for people. But I bet I could handle both a co-written nano novel with you guys and my own novel too. I type fast.

I PROPOSE

if no one has a problem

THAT WE DO A GOOD OLD FASHIONED SWORD AND SORCERY TYPE ROLEPLAY

Scenarios? War could be interesting. Nameless evil is also good. But maybe let's avoid political machinations for the time being. Maybe we're soldiers of some sort...

I may have a bit of a hard time if I try to do a full 50,000 word novel and put a lot of energy into a RP in the same month, but I could probably do it if I put off British Lit for that month and just focus on writing and whatever easy class I will hopefully have at that point.

Old fashioned sword and sorcery sounds fun! War is good, rebellion could be fun. I shall brainstorm. :{D

Sword and Sorcery! YAY! I'm up for that! We can't play it like we do every other roleplay though. We need to have a clear direction, and we need to make it there. My vote is for the traditional "Roleplaying" recipe. We have a group of adventurers with traditional roles that go off to combat some evil force. Very cliché, but we can have fun with that cliché! Nobody should have the same 'class' either. We can have the warrior, the priest, the archer, the black mage, the thief, or whatever. Our cliché heroes should also know each other. Perhaps they're part of a cliché mercenary group?

Once our 50,000 word story is complete, I will convert it into a video game using RPG Maker, then make truckloads selling it on the Apple App Store! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Or, uh, not. We'll see.

Ooh, what if we all met up by busting out of jail?

A FLOATING JAIL.

YES! Floating Jail sounds epic. I like things that float, I just don't like being on them. :{D

A floating jail you say?

The first thing that popped into my head was "A Skybound Sidestory," but that wouldn't be fair. Why is the jail floating. Magic? Technology?

Areada says(from across the room) that this sounds like the beginning of her NaNo novel last year, but that's fine, because she's thought up a better beginning. She also says that the jail is floating because(commence her magic-plot-gesture for a few minutes, and a few spazzy hand gestures) the higher up you go there is less oxygen and it keeps the prisoners lethargic, because eagles can't get them, and because it's actually the top of the highest tower in an invisible citadel and is not actually floating.

O_O That. Is. Awesome.

Let's not save the world then. Our heroes must escape the 'floating' jail by making their way through the invisible citadel! As they make their way closer and closer to the ground floor, the horrible truth of the citadel (named the Doleful Bastion, anyone?) is slowly brought to light!

Areada would like to know how they will see anything if it's invisible and that she loves horrible truths. She will think up some awesome horrible truths for us.

I thought only the outside is invisible. Inside you can see clearly. Or perhaps, what you see is anything but clear... *oooooooooooohspooookynoises*

The Doleful Bastion isn't just a castle... the rooms defy logic. One room may appear normal... but the tables and chairs are on the ceiling, and the chandelier is on the floor! Is the room upside down, or are you?

When you manage to find the door out of this room you may find yourself outside... and it's even gently raining! Ecstatic at your freedom, you run towards the sunset, only to bump face-first into a wall. There are living plants and animals in the room. You can even feel the mud squishing under your feet. But upon closer inspection you realize the sunset is painted on. It's such a magnificently realistic painting, you feel as if you could walk into it... but you cannot.

You make your way through the indoor rain and eventually find a hollow in a tree which leads you to the next room...

YOU'RE UNDER WATER! You instinctively struggle to hold your breath as you search for an air pocket, the tree hollow having vanished from behind you! It is futile, and your body gives in and water comes rushing into your lungs... and you're able to breathe! Your state of panic over, you look around to see a school of little fish swimming past. You reach out and are able to touch them, but your feet are planted squarely on the ground. You try to swim like the fish, but every time you jump you fall back to the ground. Neither do you notice any resistance of movement from the water around you! However, everything else seems to be affected by underwater physics, from the swimming fish to the swaying seaweed. And you are able to touch and interact with all of it... which means that the tiger shark beelining towards you will probably be able to interact with you as well...!

Eh? Eh? Intriguing?

Oh man! Yes!

So, if the evil crazy place is like some sort of puzzle/defying logic place, then it begs the question WHY DOES IT EXIST. also the question WHY ARE OUR CHARACTERS THERE. also HOW HAS ANY OF THIS HAPPENED.

You must ask questions. Plots require questions. Plots are important. We seriously need one.

Now, just to be careful and informed, I will say that most stories with this sort of gimmick end up as some sort of game or puzzle, and that is the plot twist/ending/purpose. I suggest we avoid those. I suggest we find an explanation that is far removed from any evil denizen in the basement summoning our characters to get it out, any experiments being conducted on our characters by making us work through this tower, and suchlike points and plots.

That being said, I vote for a sudden change of scene halfway through the story, when something goes terribly wrong and we realize the rooms aren't what they seem to be and there's something far worse going on than logic-defying rooms.

What IF all our characters went there on PURPOSE. I have the idea that maybe, just maybe our characters are a group of volunteers who agreed to go through these trials/etc for the good of humanity. But they don't remember that. And halfway through, perhaps they do something completely wrong because they don't remember what they're supposed to be doing. And then maybe all hell breaks loose. I don't know. I'm still working on the horrible truths.
Ohwait I have a good one. Maybe. I'm still working on it. It's only half a truth though, I need another half to make it truly terrible...

Maybe the closer they get to the ground floor, the more their memories start to come back? One of the volunteers could actually have been involved in the creation of the citadel itself?

I'm also thinking the force at play here is magic, not science?

Probably magic. It's easier to explain, probably...

*bounces* YES!!! That all sounds epic! Let's do it!!

And, magic, definitely.

And, I'm so going to do NaNoWriMo this year! I must. Or I won't believe a word I say, myself, anymore...

Maybe I'll do a NaNoWriMo myself too, in addition to our collaborative one.

Also, I've been let down I procrastinated this one assignment for two weeks (knowing it doesn't require research) leaving it until tonight. It's due at 11:59pm, and it's now 7:30pm. All I knew about the assignment is that it's an opinion essay about capital punishment.

Now, I've finally opened it up and realized it's recommended 200 words. The cap is 220 words, and you can't even go over it! That's... too tiny! I procrastinated for dramatic effect, but this 'essay' isn't even an essay! Where's my 1500 word race against the clock? THIS IS BORING!

Blah... now I have to squish my feelings about capital punishment into 220 words...

Uhh. Uhh...I don't...uhh.

You're a magical person, Nayaby. You procrastinate for dramatic effect. I, and a rather significant portion of the population procrastinate because I/we're a bunch of cotton headed ninny muggins.

I wanna chase you around an island somewhere and make you grant me wishes.

You know, we don't have to do our collaborative story the same month as NaNoWriMo. xD We can, of course, but if people would rather not, we could always do our collaborative effort in, say, January. Or even October. I could manage October. I figure, with four people working, we only have to post about 400 words a day, give or take twenty or thirty. And if someone posts something super long, yay for the rest of us.

Zip, I, too, am a cotton headed ninny muggin. Having procrastinated awfully all weekend I am now faced with the painful process of actually doing my work before midnight when it is all due. See how terrible I still am? I'm posting on here instead of answering the next question on my lab report...

What's your major Areada? Mine's legal studies. No lab reports for moi!

But yes, procrastination is bad. I only do it when I know I'll have plenty of time anyway. Also, I work well with a bit of pressure.

I vote October, but only because I have the patience of a... something with very little patience.

No major as of yet. Just silly general education that involves a bunch of science requirements.

Yeah I know I'm almost thinking October. But then I'm like 'Areada! You have a job! And school! You know your schedule will be so way less stressful in January! Why make more work now?'

Hahaha, quite true. My schedule is hectic year 'round so I'm good to go whenever. My classes next term are going to be more interesting though, or at least I think so.

I dislike my Social Problems professor. He's an incompetent buffoon. He just got his doctorate last year and think's he can teach all of a sudden. He rambles on for two and a half hours about nothing, going off on unfunny tangents, and he swears all too often for a professor. I wouldn't even go to his lectures if I wasn't compelled to have perfect attendance! Gah! I'd just read the textbook!