Moonlake's workpile

1. Moonlake's workpile

   #1

   I found that I really have to put down somewhere my workpile in order to get enough motivation to do work to reduce it (I always have a bunch of ideas incoming but that's another story). So here goes, in no particular order:
   
   Challenges:
   2 for Goss' spouse challenge
   1 500 word Chinse assassin
   
   Guild quests:
   Strolenati v2 5in1 sub
   
   Kalimon/Invisible Map Challenge:
   Magic System in Kalimon
   History of Kalimon
   
   Very old in-work sub:
   Ice Maiden
   
   Revision:
   30 Symbols for Various Societies or Shop Signs
   
   I'm also hoping to make Master Questor and retro-participate in 4 2 more quests. Done!
   

2. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #2

   Hmmm.... absolutely no progress since last update but did manage to kick new a new sub....

3. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #3

   I knew I had to visit this to give me the motivation to makes subs. Currently working on a sub for a past quest- What makes weapons magic? Another Chinese themed sub, don't know why but this is coming up very frequently now outside of my Dragon Empire setting (or prob. cos the setting itself is on stall and these are coming up as substitutes).

4. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #4

   So I said that I would be doing 4 more quests to make Master Questor but I'm just an overboard person when it comes to writing so as it were, I have 10+ ideas for various past quests. I don't promise to finish all of them (at least any time soon) but I'm just gonna list them all here anyway:
   What makes Weapons magic?
   Currently workig on it, inspiration purely from a weapon used by historical personage of ancient China.
   
   Fire
   might be a stub only titled a Short trestise on Nether Flame (aka Ghost Fires)
   
   Villains
   Going to cheat and write up one of the villains in my 'stalled' novel Return of the White Deer
   
   Sounds of War
   An in-the-nebulous idea really but thought I was going to do a diary entry/mind probe of a semi-diety about the motivation of the Divinity War in a setting of mine
   
   Kaiju
   2 ideas springing from my Dragon and its Nine Off-spring sub but also just in-the-nebulous
   
   20000 under the sea
   Same deal as above (sunken city)
   
   Legendary People
   Was going to be a write-up of a legendary figure in my stalled novel but well, it's stalled....
   
   Fallen Empires
   A sub. written from the perspective of someone after the Sundering of Zia (in my Dragon Empire setting), abt... not sure really but I thought a possible option is the History of the Dragon Empire?
   
   Light
   A sword called the Shadow Bearer, inspiration from a mythical Chinese sword whose blade is invisible (I thought I will say this ability is cos it interacts with light in a certain way or sth but yes, again an in-the-nebulous idea)
   
   Oceanic
   the Oceanic equivalent of the Silk Road?
   
   Organic NPCs
   A few characters lined up coming up novels I might write about one day but not sure yet, will do the villain quest first with the organic NPC setup and then see how that goes. Characters is forever my weak point so....
   
   Shards of the Storm
   A vase that can predict the onset of storms (seems pretty bland to me but well, that's all I have now)
   

5. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #5

   I vote the War thingy

6. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #6

   It is currently marked in my top 4 but the spot is sort of fluid at that point but I'm quite keen on the Divinity War thing too (in the long run).

7. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #7

   Last night in bed, an idea for the 3 min magic item quest came to me. Since that's gonna be a quickie, I'll do that as my next quest sub. It'll prob take the spot of either the Fire quest or the Sounds of War quest. Eventually, I want to catch more or less with the total number of quests there are (but for some, I'm just leaving cos not my genre at all).
   
   Other than that, I'm still on the What makes Weapons magic quest. Hopefully, I will be able to wrap it up this weekend. Otherwise, I'm getting thoroughly sick of it.

8. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #8

   Yay, finally marked one down on my list!

9. Re: Moonlake's workpile

   #9

   Okay, it's time for me to do some organisation work for my workpile given my new dedication to retro complete all quest except for Steampunk and To the Stars. I've grouped past quests into roughly 4 groups in order of how likely a submission would be to emerge for it:
   
   Outgoing Next (6)
   Quest - Villains: a character from an abandoned novel that hasn't been posted anywhere
   Quest - The Shards of the Storm: a vase that can predict the onset of storm taking inspiration from one of my Chinese mythical lifeform entries, a drum made from the hide of a single-footed cow creature who had swallowed a shard and so this drum can make a sound like thunder....
   Quest - Into the Dungeon: Tangrams (Seven Piece puzzles of Chinese origin)
   Quest - Tattoos: A female mage-spy whose tattoo changes colour and where different colour tones correspond to different musical notes that serve as codes
   Quest - NPCs- will merge this with one of the sub. for the Spouse Challenge
   Quest- Zombies (the apocalyptic kind): A class of high level zombies who has awakened one powerful primitive emotional instincts besides feeding (different types)
   
   Emerging from the nebulous (6) (i.e. either substantial work but underlying idea complete or one aspect stuck and rest ready to go)
   Quest - Sounds of War: diary entry/mind probe of a semi-diety about the motivation of the Divinity War
   Quest - Fire: A treatise on Nether Flames (aka Ghost Fires): different colour of flames and association with different types of ghosts
   Quest - Monstrous Monsters: A monster who can take host within an item/lifeform. Consequently, the host can have two forms, one normal and one 'changed' by the monster (a bit stuck on the fear aspect)
   Quest - Let there be Light: A sword called the Shadow Bearer, inspiration from a mythical Chinese sword whose blade is invisible (I thought I will say this ability is cos it interacts with light in a certain way or sth)
   Quest- Summer Doldrum: Strolenati Guild v2 5in1
   Quest- Art quest: A stone elemental from another plane (who was mistaken as a demon) and his adventures when he materialised in front of a church
   
   In the nebulous (6)
   Quest - Legendary People: The First Sister for the Crunalan society, legendary figure for my stalled novel 
   Quest - 20,000 feet under the Sea: A sunken city in the Dragon Empire (link up with Xie Tse of the 9 off-spring sub)
   Quest - Kaiju and Giant Monsters (from the 9-offspring sub):
   • Mountainous continent made up of the dead bodies of two Kaijus
   • Sunken continent that is the domain of a Kaiju
   Quest - Oceanic: the Oceanic equivalent of the Silk Road? Another option is to write about the Sea now separating the Sundered continents that was originally part of Zia for my Dragon Empire setting
   Quest- Winter: The Everwinter Realm with sub-locales reflecting different characteristics of Winter (came about due to mad ice wizard)
   Quest - Fallen Empires: A sub. written from the perspective of someone after the Sundering of Zia (in my Dragon Empire setting), abt... the History of the Dragon Empire?
   
   No ideas yet (4)
   Quest - Unspeakable Horrors
   Quest - The Character
   Quest - Five in One
   Quest - Five Room Dungeon
   
   Nearly forgot to mention: my goal now is to do 1 quest sub per month on avg. I did 2 quest subs this month so I might slack off for July. I've got a backload of writing projects on the clean-out plus I now want to start another bunch of Chinese articles that are just straight translations like the Chinese lifeforms codex....

10. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #10

    Great stuff Moonlake!

11. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #11

    Thanks for dropping by this thread, Val, and thanks for the votes on my recent retro quest subs.

12. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #12

    Started working on the Villain quest on the train today, and it looks like I have to post another society stub to go with it.... *sigh* more work, will also do Legendary Chinese strings this weekend and then release the Chinese Lore codex.

13. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #13

    After releasing the Legendary Chinese Broadswords sub (hopefully tmr or coming Mon latest), I think I might put a hold to it temporarily and work full time on the Villains quest. The manual translation is getting tiring and sapping strength from me.

14. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #14

    OOOOO, looking forward to COOL names on that one!

15. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #15

    There are several good ones but in general, I think the names of legendary Chinese broadswords aren't so grand-sounding as legendary Chinese bows. Not sure why but that's how it is. But we have very detailed and cool lore for two of them for compensation.

16. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #16

    The new gameplan is to first finish up the Villain quest sub, then the Strolenati 5in1 (hear hear Strolen, tis for you!), then (tentative) the Shard of Storm quest (master questor badge, yay!), one of the Spouse Challenge and then unknown. Chinese translations would be side dishes (right, changed my mind again, I think it's really the weekly release of a Chinese sub that's driving me crazy rather than the translation per se).

17. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #17

    Going to add monthly progress log to this thread now so I can keep tabs on how I 'deviate' from planned activities. I'm gonna retro add the June 2015 log as the first one:
    Actual released work (6 in total):
    
    The Chinese lore Codex incl. bows, strings and broadswords (x4)
    2 retro quest subs
    
    Planned work but stalled (2 in total):
    
    Official Ranking system in The Qing (Manchurian) dynasty- more than half way done but disenchanted with it atm due to organisation and need to cross-check Chinese ref
    
    101 Distinguishing Features of a Culture (with Illustrative Examples)- okay, this seems like an insane project to me now but the original reason for taking this on is that I love world building and I was gonna use this project as an excuse to compile a list that I could re-use for world building projects in the future
    
    Overall assessment of progress:
    
    1 ahead in terms of retro quests
    total released subs very good considering past posting frequencies
    stagnant work- actual sub conversion being 0
    2 new stagnant work coming into being
    

18. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #18

    Almost half a year past and I've almost gotten rid of half of the work I promised at the start of this thread, not bad.

19. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #19

    I don't know what the exact gameplan is now but top two priority is now 1st short story ripped out from my stalled novel to go towards fiction commerical epub and the Strolenati 5in1. On the side is another to go into my Chinese Codex- Legendary Horses, will prob. take me a while to have that out since I will take it by really incremental steps. All other projects I'm putting on hold for the moment besides my personal blog.

20. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #20

    July 2015 progress log:
    Actual released work (2):
    
    2 retro quest subs: Villains quest and Into the Dungeon quest
    
    
    Overall assessment of progress:
    
    Now 2 ahead in terms of retro quests in an accumulative sense
    stagnant work conversion remains at 0 but at least no more incoming
    starting to work on a short story for the epub and went through a couple false starts
    

21. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #21

    I'm planning to have the epub short story done by the week after next week. However, the enterprise is proving more work than I had first foreseen (or the enterprise's giving me more leeway for me to procrastinate across various aspects). I don't feel like the Strolenati 5in1 would be a good follow-up to it, I need a quickie to wind up so I'll probably turn to my Chinese Lore codex. btw, I ended up putting aside all for this short story- both Codex and blog. The upside from this short story enterprise is giving me more material for my blog when I return to it.
    
    But really, I don't think I'm really cut out for short stories. Not saying that I will abandon the Strolenati epub group, just that I have to be a participant on alternate months else it will tire me out for creative writing altogether.

22. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #22

    I wouldn't worry too much about making a monthly contribution.  The epub may indeed be that tree house we all talked about building back when we were 12 years old.  Long discussions over whether to have rope ladder or wooden ladder, discussions over what type of activities might go on in said tree house and overall lots of discussions of what do with the tree house once we have built it.  But in the end more planning than building.
    
    All we can do is write.

23. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #23

    That was exactly what I thought back when Scras first posted his thread. Remember how at one point I was basically arguing that we do it with existing content rather than new content the way we're doing it now? Oh well, mostly I think I tend to exert pressure on myself when it comes to this epub. Anyhow, I do have a 2nd story on the back-burner and who knows, I even have an idea that might resurrect the Nergei story.

24. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #24

    Sept 2015 progress log:
    
    I spent the interim period between the last log and this one on the short story for the Strolenati epub and have done nothing else. This is probably going to be the status quo until I get it which is a date that I stop speculating/planning for.
    

25. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #25

    Nov 2015 progress log:
    Short story and then procrastination. I found a webpage with the full translation of the Chinese ancient text for my Chinese lifeform codex but haven't gotten around to updating the relevant subs. These two months have been all around procrastination basically. In between I had a whole month of back to FT work but still...
    
    Managed to squeeze out 1 sub- my Chinese Legendary Horses

26. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #26

    Recap for 2015:
    Stagnant work are still stagnant for the most part and I'm ahead on some areas such as Retro quest and pushing out the Chinese lore Codex  but behind on others (Guild quest and challenges).
    
    Pushed out sth for the pulp fic epub after being stalled for a long time on a single story and that was a promising development. Overall, not a bad year.

27. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #27

    2016 Goals:
    Challenges:
    2 for Goss' spouse challenge
    
    Guild quests:
    Strolenati v2 5in1 sub
    
    Pulp fiction Epub:
    Wrap up Empress and Thread
    6 more short stories incl. collabs. 
    
    Retro quests:
    6 more

28. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #28

    Revised Retro-quest plan
    Outgoing Next (6)
    Quest - Five Room Dungeon: Chinese dungeon based on lifeforms Codex
    Quest - The Shards of the Storm: taking inspiration from one of my Chinese mythical lifeform entries, a drum made from the hide of a single-footed cow creature who had swallowed a shard and so this drum can make a sound like thunder....
    Quest - Legendary People: The First Sister for the Crunalan society, legendary figure for my stalled novel that now gets expanded a bit after my failed short story attempt
    Quest - Tattoos: A female mage-spy whose tattoo changes colour and where different colour tones correspond to different musical notes that serve as codes
    Quest - NPCs- will merge this with one of the sub. for the Spouse Challenge
    Quest- Zombies (the apocalyptic kind): A class of high level zombies who has awakened one powerful primitive emotional instincts besides feeding (different types)
    
    Emerging from the nebulous (6) (i.e. either substantial work but underlying idea complete or one aspect stuck and rest ready to go)
    Quest - Sounds of War: diary entry/mind probe of a semi-diety about the motivation of the Divinity War
    Quest - Fire: A treatise on Nether Flames (aka Ghost Fires): different colour of flames and association with different types of ghosts
    Quest - Monstrous Monsters: A monster who can take host within an item/lifeform. Consequently, the host can have two forms, one normal and one 'changed' by the monster (a bit stuck on the fear aspect)
    Quest - Let there be Light: A sword called the Shadow Bearer, inspiration from a mythical Chinese sword whose blade is invisible (I thought I will say this ability is cos it interacts with light in a certain way or sth)
    Quest- Summer Doldrum: Strolenati Guild v2 5in1
    Quest- Art quest: A stone elemental from another plane (who was mistaken as a demon) and his adventures when he materialised in front of a church
    
    In the nebulous (6)
    Quest - 20,000 feet under the Sea: A sunken city in the Dragon Empire (link up with Xie Tse of the 9 off-spring sub)
    Quest - Kaiju and Giant Monsters (from the 9-offspring sub):
    •  Mountainous continent made up of the dead bodies of two Kaijus
    •  Sunken continent that is the domain of a Kaiju
    Quest - Oceanic: the Oceanic equivalent of the Silk Road? Another option is to write about the Sea now separating the Sundered continents that was originally part of Zia for my Dragon Empire setting
    Quest- Winter: The Everwinter Realm with sub-locales reflecting different characteristics of Winter (came about due to mad ice wizard)
    Quest - Fallen Empires: A sub. written from the perspective of someone after the Sundering of Zia (in my Dragon Empire setting), abt... the History of the Dragon Empire?
    Quest - The Character: peaceful adventurer on quest to free pacifist sentient sword in pain by 'un-making' it. I'm writing them up as characters of course.
    
    No ideas yet (2)
    Quest - Unspeakable Horrors
    Quest - Five in One
    
    New plan is to release one every 2 months on average for this year.

29. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #29

    Jan 2016 progress log:
    Spent all of the time on the epub. Wrapped up Empress and finished Thread but Thread still needs revising so isn't wrapped up yet.
    

30. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #30

    Feb 2016 progress log:
    Mainly on epub biz again but managed to complete 1 of the 6 retro quest sub planned for this year.

31. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #31

    March 2016 progress log:
    Spent a very unproductive March on epub promotion and Easter leisure. Thought of a 2nd solo story for Wizards, abandoned it, thought of another for same purpose. Got down the basic plot and got the protagonist grid half way done.

32. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #32

    Amended 2016 Goals:
    Challenges:
    2 for Goss' spouse challenge
    
    Guild quests:
    Strolenati v2 5in1 sub
    
    Pulp fiction Epub:
    At least 1 story for each issue
    
    Retro quests:
    3 more

33. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #33

    May 2016 progress long:
    Spent the majority of the last two months on revision of Thread 2 to go toward issue 2 of the epub with the majority of time spent on wrestling the plot into shape based on feedback that prompts me to add additional scenes.

34. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #34

    Amended 2016 Goals:
    
    Pulp fiction Epub:
    At least 1 story for each issue up to issue 3
    
    Retro quests:
    3 more

35. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #35

    June 2016 progress log and plans ahead:
    Epub biz again that will likely drag into July and beyond. Thread will drag into issue 3 for its grande finale (with Maxxx coming on as a collaborator) and then I will be taking a break from the epub to do retro quests. After that I will effectively split off on my own as a writer. Will stay as commenter and proof-reader though.

36. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #36

    Aug 2016 progress log and plans ahead:
    Epub
    Officially out from it as contributing author after finishing with my part in issue 2.
    
    Retro quests
    Finished one in time before end of this month! Woohoo!
    
    Plans ahead
    Still looking to finish Thread 3, 2 more retro quests and then novel writing with Maxxx. 2 trilogies planned- we are thinking big!

37. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #37

    Revised Retro-quest plan
    Outgoing Next (5)
    Quest - Legendary People: The First Sister for the Crunalan society, legendary figure for my stalled novel that now gets expanded a bit after my failed short story attempt, outgoing as 4 sentence challenge
    Quest - The Character: peaceful adventurer on quest to free pacifist sentient sword in pain by 'un-making' it. I'm writing them up as characters of course.
    Quest - Five Room Dungeon: Chinese dungeon based on lifeforms Codex
    Quest - NPCs- will merge this with one of the sub. for the Spouse Challenge
    Quest- Zombies (the apocalyptic kind): A class of high level zombies who has awakened one powerful primitive emotional instincts besides feeding (different types)
    
    Emerging from the nebulous (7) (i.e. either substantial work but underlying idea complete or one aspect stuck and rest ready to go)
    Quest - Sounds of War: diary entry/mind probe of a semi-diety about the motivation of the Divinity War
    Quest - Fire: A treatise on Nether Flames (aka Ghost Fires): different colour of flames and association with different types of ghosts
    Quest - Monstrous Monsters: A monster who can take host within an item/lifeform. Consequently, the host can have two forms, one normal and one 'changed' by the monster (a bit stuck on the fear aspect)
    Quest - Let there be Light: A sword called the Shadow Bearer, inspiration from a mythical Chinese sword whose blade is invisible (I thought I will say this ability is cos it interacts with light in a certain way or sth)
    Quest - Tattoos: A female mage-spy whose tattoo changes colour and where different colour tones correspond to different musical notes that serve as codes
    Quest- Art quest: A stone elemental from another plane (who was mistaken as a demon) and his adventures when he materialised in front of a church
    Quest- Summer Doldrum: Strolenati Guild v2 5in1 (actually all that's holding me up on this is essentially heavy procrastination, worrying about the amt of work involved and getting a bout of insecurity about doing a plot sub when I'm a semi-gamer)
    
    In the nebulous (6)
    Quest - 20,000 feet under the Sea: A sunken city in the Dragon Empire (link up with Xie Tse of the 9 off-spring sub)
    Quest - Kaiju and Giant Monsters (from the 9-offspring sub):
    •  Mountainous continent made up of the dead bodies of two Kaijus
    •  Sunken continent that is the domain of a Kaiju
    Quest - Oceanic: the Oceanic equivalent of the Silk Road? Another option is to write about the Sea now separating the Sundered continents that was originally part of Zia for my Dragon Empire setting
    Quest- Winter: The Everwinter Realm with sub-locales reflecting different characteristics of Winter (came about due to mad ice wizard)
    Quest - Fallen Empires: A sub. written from the perspective of someone after the Sundering of Zia (in my Dragon Empire setting), abt... the History of the Dragon Empire?
    
    No ideas yet (2)
    Quest - Unspeakable Horrors
    Quest - Five in One
    

38. Re: Moonlake's workpile

    #38

    Decided to try my hand at another novel series so probably no more forthcoming Citadel subs from me for this year and next year, at least.

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