I made a little progress on Chapter 18 of Tico4, but most of the day’s writing was done on CeleKing2. It’s perhaps fitting that my great interest in this story matches the sort of focused effort I devoted to Junker Jorg last year, seeing as how both are dream-inspired stories. Those seem to have a particular appeal to me. Anyway, I’d like to at least get a chapter or two more of Tico4 wrapped up before I switch back over to TTWC2. Stay tuned.

I did some writing on KniTwi, but most of the day’s work was done in the peripheral materials. I got an outline sketched out for KniTwi and also solidified the one for The Boy King’s Madness. A lot of work on the military ranking structure for the Celestial Kingdom duology, which involved adapting the New Earth Empire’s ranks to Chinese. Also worked on the patrician families of Gladius, working out some of the details of the various family branches and their history. It all may sound boring to you, but I love getting elbow-deep in all this worldbuilding stuff. I might have teasers for the Celestial Kingdom books up in the next couple days. Stay tuned.

I’ve found myself hooked on this Cross Arc story I’m developing. I’m tentatively calling it The Celestial Kingdom, but this is subject to change. I decided to tie it into an earlier story idea to at least make a two-parter, though I may look to expand it into a trilogy. Said earlier idea was inspired by a Western I watched years ago where the Chinese were referred to as “Celestials” and that got me thinking of a world split between two societies: the Celestials and the Infernals. Particularly, I imagined a Celestial woman being sold into slavery on the surface and our hero’s rescue of her. I decided to tie this in as the backstory of the more recent idea, which got its start in a dream I had a few nights ago. I’ve since been doing a lot of worldbuilding and such. I’ve decided to make the Celestials headed by a pretender to the throne of Earth, combining some of the qualities of the society of the Fifth Empire with aspects of the Han Dynasty. Doing lots of research. Fun stuff. Anyway, I’ll probably be at this another day or two before I start paying attention to anything else. Once details are solidified more, I’ll probably be adding teasers to the Cross Arc page. Stay tuned.

I did some more writing on Ex Inferis, just jotting down bits of dialog that came to me. The structure of the overall story remains very vague at this point. Some other projects are occupying my time as well, but hopefully all that will be resolved in the next couple days. What’s next? Stay tuned.

I pretty well finished up Ionathas’ epilogue and made good progress on Gamaliel’s Chapter 2. I even jotted down some dialog for Ex Inferis after stumbling on the original premise in my notes. Not half bad for a day’s work, I’d say. I don’t know where I’ll go after this. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

I had one of my flights of fancy and decided to jot down some of the early dialog for Candidate 03. I also played around in the peripheral materials some to detail some of the changes to the social order as part of the formation of the Fifth Empire. A big part of it was just flipping the numerical order, but there was more to it than just that. Maybe when we actually get into the Aether War I’ll provide further insight into Imperial society. Stay tuned.

I made a little progress on Daphne’s Chapter 4. The main thing is that I envisioned the end game for the chapter, so I just need to focus and push through.

I also continued to build up the cast list for Candidate 03 and continued on my little mental exercise of spinning a story out of a Dragon Force campaign. It really does add to the addictive quality of the early stages of the game.

I’ve been doing more preproduction work on those stories I mentioned last time, especially Candidate 03.

I’ve also embarked on a fun little exercise. You see, playing Dragon Force, I’ve found that I’ve been inventing narratives to fill in the substantial gaps in the game’s rather sparse story and characterization. Well, I decided to take it a step further. Starting up a new campaign, I’ve been writing my own little story as I go. Yes, it’s basically just Dragon Force with the serial numbers filed off, so I don’t plan on ever publishing it to the site, but the main thing for me is the element of unpredictability. I’m very much a control freak as a writer, as evidenced by my abundant peripheral materials. I do try to leave the door open to serendipity, but that only goes so far.

I saw a documentary about Philip K Dick and how he would create branching options for his stories and let the luck of the draw (as it were) decide. Closer to what I’m doing here, I think of the narrative LP for X-COM by GuavaMoment and how the highly unpredictable battle scenes would have a major influence on the story. Like I said, this is just a way to play with my means of storycrafting. If I like it, I may try similar techniques in the future.