CHOOSE RANT

Title:   Writing Day:    September 20th, 1997 Author:  Ruiner				Writing. I guess that will be the eventual title of this one. Just a random, picked up topic out of nowhere since I refuse to work on this page like I should. Face it, now should be the time I fine tune those talents. I mean, hey, I heard that Webmasters, the job in general was suppose to rise in salary some 20%. And I enjoy doing this... I think I am going to take a class or two on this. I could pick up something useful, and hey, you get a certificate out of the deal. Get that web portfolio rolling. I like the sound of this. Anyway, here goes some more gripes and plans about my creativity. Any of you who follow these (and believe it or not, there are a select few out there who do) know that I fight with myself to create and produce things, not just for the page. I enjoy the concept of writing, although I can never seem to finish anything. I used to draw and do artwork, but that got left behind a girlfriend ago... I really get a kick out of making things for others' enjoyment. And my personal edification as well. There is nothing quite like having someone look at your stuff, and them going, hey, that's really good! These days, it tends to invoke pain for me, since I rarely take the time to make things anymore. I think the web is a good thing for me. Now I can do things for others to enjoy, and let it out for a broader audience than just my close friends (who would give me a good review most of the time) or the others who don't understand my hobbies. I get feedback from people I will never meet, saying they like my stuff or found it interesting. No real criticisms, which I could use, but that's understandable. Who's gonna take the time to send mail to a page or sign a guestbook, critique the page, and make themself look like a bad guy? Even if they're trying to help... Believe me, sometimes that criticism works best on me. If nothing else, it ticks me off so I strive to work harder. Happens at my job all the time. So, what are my proposed plans? First off, more updates than the forced once-a-month deal. It's been how many months since I've done an addition to History of the Way? Eons since Travails & Travels? And I've been teasing and promising a page for the Athar forever and a day. That has had its problems to be sure. I'm trying to learn the intricacies of forms and figure out what I can do here on Geocities. I plan to have a form set up where my faithful viewers (I guess that's what you call them) can enter information about an NPC and have it sent to me so I can compile and put on the page. I want a way for others to submit things to go on my page. I'd love to give something back to my small public. I think the first new addition will be another day or two of History of the Way. It's not like I'm lacking for info, since those adventures have been backlogged for eight months or so now. We haven't even played those characters in months. My current pet is a remake of Temple of Elemental Evil, but it's normal AD&D, not Planescape. So I'm gonna force myself to translate some more of those into HTML and go from there. I want to do more Travails & Travels, but I hit the writer's block for those. I have plans on one for Elysium having to do with Sand Castles, so we'll see where that goes. I may even pull in a guest writer, some of my closer friends. Other projects... The Book. The thing I've been trying to write for well, most of my life. Once again, I am endeavoring to create a substantial piece of fiction that could stand on its own. A monstrous, perhaps foolish task. But something that I feel I must do. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be signing something at Barnes & Nobles. I've also looked at following the footsteps of some of my friends (namely Spencer Wallace and Lloyd Carroll). They have both had things published for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Spencer has had articles done in three different issues of the Warpstone fan magazine. Lloyd had an adventure he designed get played at GenCon, and some of his work can be found on the forthcoming Warhammer GM Screen (which is nice, BTW) The thought, I guess, is start small, but go with what you know. Once I get my name up in print somewhere, that's something I can carry with me. We'll just have to see. B.Mooney