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The Writer's Path Quest

Would you be interested in specifying a genre for the writing your character does?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 12.5%

  • No

    Votes: 1 6.3%

  • Rabbit

    Votes: 13 81.3%
  • Total voters
    16
Reader mode
[X] Up and Comer
[X] Doing tabletop RPs with your friends all the time. Everyone you play with says you're the best DM but you also like taking a back seat sometimes and just creating a narrative around your crazyass character.
[X] To look for a part time job that will give you more time to focus on your writing, but provide some kind of income coming in. You'll have to wait until you find the right job, but better that than to only give part of your attention to all the important things in your life.
[X] Sign up for the next writing workshop being held in your area. It'll be a great chance to meet other people like you and to get taught by experienced professionals.
[X] Do some worldbuilding. You want to get that locked in your head before you do anything else.
 
I'm just popping my head in really quickly to say that voting will close in about an hour, give or take. I've got a meeting I need to head off to, like now, so I'll close voting when I get back.

While I'm thinking about it, is there anyone who's particularly handy with the vote tallying program? Otherwise I'll figure it out for myself when I get back. Thanks for your votes, this is going to be fun :)
 
[X] Born this Way

[X] Writing reasonably popular fanfics on online forums and fanfic sites. You get good reviews and your fans always seem keen for more.
[X] To look for a part time job that will give you more time to focus on your writing, but provide some kind of income coming in. You'll have to wait until you find the right job, but better that than to only give part of your attention to all the important things in your life.
[X] Start typing. That word count isn't going to increase on its own. You already know which of your old ideas you're going to use.
[X] Look up if any publishing companies or magazines are open to submissions that fit what you've got in mind. Then you've got something to shoot for.
 
[X] Born this Way

[X] Writing reasonably popular fanfics on online forums and fanfic sites. You get good reviews and your fans always seem keen for more.
[X] To look for a part time job that will give you more time to focus on your writing, but provide some kind of income coming in. You'll have to wait until you find the right job, but better that than to only give part of your attention to all the important things in your life.
[X] Start typing. That word count isn't going to increase on its own. You already know which of your old ideas you're going to use.
[X] Look up if any publishing companies or magazines are open to submissions that fit what you've got in mind. Then you've got something to shoot for.

Fucking hell this is a meta vote (and quest) for me.
 
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Vote Tally : Original - Modern - The Writer's Path Quest | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.4

[X] To look for a part time job that will give you more time to focus on your writing, but provide some kind of income coming in. You'll have to wait until you find the right job, but better that than to only give part of your attention to all the important things in your life.
No. of Votes: 17
Hannz
anon_user
asphaltus
Bloodalchemy
bryanfran36
Crazy Tom
Golgotha
Hykal94
Massgamer
Muer'ci
OneirosTheWriter
Random Member
Simon_Jester
StellarMonarch
Torgamous
U.N.Spacy000
Xantalos

[X] Start typing. That word count isn't going to increase on its own. You already know which of your old ideas you're going to use.
No. of Votes: 13
OneirosTheWriter
AlphaDelta
anon_user
asphaltus
Crazy Tom
Massgamer
Night_stalker
Nix
Random Member
Shard
Torgamous
U.N.Spacy000
Xantalos

[X] Born this Way
No. of Votes: 11
OneirosTheWriter
anon_user
asphaltus
Bloodalchemy
Massgamer
Nix
Random Member
Shard
Torgamous
U.N.Spacy000
Xantalos

[X] Writing reasonably popular fanfics on online forums and fanfic sites. You get good reviews and your fans always seem keen for more.
No. of Votes: 10
Hannz
AlphaDelta
anon_user
bryanfran36
Crazy Tom
Muer'ci
Night_stalker
StellarMonarch
Torgamous
Xantalos

[X] Sign up for the next writing workshop being held in your area. It'll be a great chance to meet other people like you and to get taught by experienced professionals.
No. of Votes: 9
Hannz
Bloodalchemy
bryanfran36
Golgotha
Hykal94
Muer'ci
Simon_Jester
StellarMonarch
veekie

[X] Up and Comer
No. of Votes: 8
Hannz
AlphaDelta
bryanfran36
Golgotha
Hykal94
Muer'ci
Night_stalker
StellarMonarch

[X] Look up if any publishing companies or magazines are open to submissions that fit what you've got in mind. Then you've got something to shoot for.
No. of Votes: 8
Hykal94
anon_user
Massgamer
OneirosTheWriter
Torgamous
U.N.Spacy000
veekie
Xantalos

[X] Participating in lots of write-in RPGs and even creating a few of your own. You always get complimented on your characters and ideas and your threads are very popular.
No. of Votes: 8
OneirosTheWriter
asphaltus
Bloodalchemy
Massgamer
Random Member
Shard
Simon_Jester
U.N.Spacy000

[X] Do some worldbuilding. You want to get that locked in your head before you do anything else.
No. of Votes: 7
Nix
AlphaDelta
Crazy Tom
Golgotha
Night_stalker
Random Member
Shard

[X] Read over some of your unfinished stories. Maybe there's something in there you can pick up and re-jig.
No. of Votes: 6
Hannz
asphaltus
bryanfran36
Muer'ci
Simon_Jester
StellarMonarch

[X] To keep on with your full time job and write in your downtime. Late nights, early mornings, whatever it takes. You might lose some time with friends and family, but they'll understand if you explain it to them.
No. of Votes: 4
veekie
AlphaDelta
Night_stalker
Nix

[X] Doing tabletop RPs with your friends all the time. Everyone you play with says you're the best DM but you also like taking a back seat sometimes and just creating a narrative around your crazyass character.
No. of Votes: 3
veekie
Golgotha
Nix

[X] Life Changer
No. of Votes: 2
veekie
Simon_Jester

[X] Blogging about and reviewing books. People like your insightful analysis and will often pick up books on your recommendation alone.
No. of Votes: 1
Hykal94

[X] To quit your job so you can focus completely on this writing thing. What better way to make sure you make it than to cut off all other possible avenues? You can always pick up a part time job if your funds get low.
No. of Votes: 1
Shard

[X] Check out the blogs of your favourite authors. They'll have some good advice you can definitely make use of before you get started.
No. of Votes: 1
Bloodalchemy

[X] Late Bloomer
No. of Votes: 1
Crazy Tom

Total No. of Voters: 22
 
Macchiato said:
I'm just popping my head in really quickly to say that voting will close in about an hour, give or take. I've got a meeting I need to head off to, like now, so I'll close voting when I get back.

While I'm thinking about it, is there anyone who's particularly handy with the vote tallying program? Otherwise I'll figure it out for myself when I get back. Thanks for your votes, this is going to be fun :)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In the future, you should make use of the vote tally program's task feature and add task names to the vote template. Basically,

[ ][THIS IS A TASK] Lorem
[ ][ANOTHER TASK] Ipsum
[ ][ANOTHER TASK] Another vote for the task "Another Task".
[ ][ETC] Etc.


2. Writing Votes · Kinematics/NetTally Wiki · GitHub


So, it looks like we are a writer with part-time employment, born as a natural writer, that is writing a popular fanfic, and currently starting to increase word count, and headed to a nearby writer's workshop.

And background:

Background: Ever since you can remember, you've loved stories and from a very early age, you remember wanting to tell stories, too. You were an imaginative kid and your family likes to tell embarrassing anecdotes about the things you used to make up as a small child. You wrote your first story, cringeworthy stuff when you look back on it now, when you were still in middle school and never looked back. This was always what you wanted to do and what you were good at, but reality intruded. You had to be practical, after all, so you got yourself a job. Just for a little while, just to pay the bills, you told yourself. But you went full time last year and what have you really managed to accomplish?

Ambition: To tell your stories to as wide of an audience as you can.

Focus: ++
Writing ability: +++
Social interaction/Networking: +
Income:
Reputation:
 
Thanks @Muer'ci and @AlphaDelta! I'll have a closer look at the NetTally info you've provided as well.

Goes without saying, but voting's now closed. I'll put something up in the next ~12 hours but feel free to discuss/speculate in the meantime.

Income and Reputation will also start to be relevant from this point going forward as well. Those will be a bit different than your three primary stats. With the primary stats, those will affect dice rolls (2 6-sided dice, nothing too complicated) as we go, whereas Income and Reputation are simply measured by units and will go up and down as your fortunes rise and fall (and as your actions might dictate).
 
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Was That the Plan?
  • Threadmarks
    • Born This Way

    Up until now, you'd been…
    [X] Writing reasonably popular fanfics on online forums and fanfic sites. You get good reviews and your fans always seem keen for more.

    You decide…
    [X] To look for a part time job that will give you more time to focus on your writing, but provide some kind of income coming in. You'll have to wait until you find the right job, but better that than to only give part of your attention to all the important things in your life.

    You sit down in front of your computer and…
    [X] Sign up for the next writing workshop being held in your area. It'll be a great chance to meet other people like you and to get taught by experienced professionals.
    [X] Start typing. That word count isn't going to increase on its own. You already know which of your old ideas you're going to use.

    ---

    With your mind made up, you get down to the unpleasant business of figuring out how your finances will work. When you switch to part-time, your income will decrease to 5 Income a week and once you take out regular living expenses like food and rent, you'll have 2 Income a week to work with. You've also got some savings, which add up to 100 Income. Okay, so you're going to have to be pretty careful with your finances but it's still workable if you don't get carried away with anything.

    The fluorescent lighting you're sitting under is really starting to get to you today. It feels like there's a flicker… but every time you look up to see where it is, you don't see anything. You definitely won't miss this impersonal office environment. But there's a niggling worm of doubt. True, you haven't ever loved your job but you're good at what you do and you enjoyed it enough to go full time last year, which has to be worth something, right? And hey, some of the people you work with are pretty okay, they're part of what's kept you sane and getting out of bed in the morning. Still, you're worried you're going to get trapped if you let yourself stay for much longer. Security and stability are such seductive siren songs.

    You shake your head, didn't you just say you were going to get serious about the writing thing? You pull up a browser window and start searching for workshops in your area to emphasise the point. You're surprised at what you find; the selection provides a pretty reasonable variety and covers all the commitment levels writers trying to improve themselves probably go through.

    Pick One
    [ ] No Place Like Home
    There's an online workshop that looks interesting. You participate on a weekly basis at a set time, and the classes go for a couple hours each. They're covering genre fiction right now, which is really the area you think suits storytelling best. The whole workshop lasts for about two months, total. That means you could work it around whatever else might be happening in your life. (5 Income)
    [ ] Back to School
    Your local university has a couple of units for the upcoming semester that cover good topics like creating memorable characters, plotting, general introduction to writing, and they're at night. You'd be able to meet people face to face, have a professor to illustrate ideas for you in person, and the times are fine for your work schedule. But it seems pretty generic; you're not sure it'd be genre-focused enough. (7 Income)
    [ ] One More Time
    There's apparently a writer's centre near you, which is definitely news to you. At any rate, they offer one-day workshops that seem to target specific areas of writing so you could focus what you learn about and you can have your pick of doing it online or attending the workshop in person. You'd have to prioritise which areas are most important to you, though. (2 Income each - Specify how many courses)
    [ ] Have Me Committed
    There's a genre writer's workshop that's being held in the area. They seem to tour around the country and their next stop is your city, next month. It's a full-time commitment for two full weeks, but you'd be around other like-minded people while you learn and write. (15 Income)

    Now that you've decided which workshop you want, you open up a blank document and are tooling around with your story idea when your manager stops by your desk.

    "Can I see you for a sec?" she asks. You jump, afraid you've been caught, but she doesn't say anything about what you're doing.

    "Sure." You follow her to her office. At this point, you're just trying to keep a tight hold on your nerves because you're pretty sure you haven't done anything questionable lately. Then again, your manager's always been cool. You even bonded over a Star Trek thing when you were just starting.

    "You've been working for us for almost two years now." She doesn't wait until you sit down before she begins, is she in a rush? "And we've been really happy with your progress. But…"

    Your stomach twists.

    "But you know the industry's been bad lately and the company's making cuts." Her face is so serious, are you getting fired? You give a brief nod.

    She sighs and runs an unhappy hand through her hair, "Look, there's no easy way to say this. I know we made you full-time last year, but with everything going on, we need to cut your hours and we'd rather that than lose you entirely. Is this something you'd be interested in?"

    You're not sure surprise adequately describes how you're feeling and you try to cobble together a coherent response.

    Pick One
    [ ] "Yes, definitely!"
    You're totally honest about what you've been thinking about and your plans and how well this arrangement fits in.
    [ ] "Ummm…"
    Maybe now's the best time to get out? I mean the part-time pay here was good, but it wasn't *that* good and you might be able to find better. But you'd need to go home and crunch some numbers. You haven't even begun to scope out what other jobs might be available.
    [ ] "Not really."
    You'll get a payout and this frees you up to find another job that works better for your schedule. Maybe this was how it was always meant to be.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Back to School

    [X] "Not really."

    Get the writing basics down, meet new people. And screw this soul-sucking job :/ Flickering lights are the worst, anyway.
     
    Last edited:
    [X] No Place Like Home

    [X] "Ummm…"

    I just wanna point out that because "We" were good fanfiction writers and had good reviews, we should be totally full of ourselves and get angry when people disagree with us.

    You know, the Dunning Kruger effect.
     
    [X] Back to School

    [X] "Ummm…"

    Wonder if we can't set up something like a patreon in quest.
     
    Our networking is probably a bit too low to get something meaningful out of patreon, but every little bit counts!
     
    Muer'ci said:
    Our networking is probably a bit too low to get something meaningful out of patreon, but every little bit counts!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Just need to write more good fanfiction that attracts people, post it on multiple sites not only to increase view ship but also hear more get more overall ideas/constructive criticize, and maybe even get a minor internet fanbase.

    Seen some real successful fanfics in RL after all.
     
    [X] No Place Like Home
    [X] "Yes, definitely!"

    Have me committed sounds good, especially for networking, but a bit too time-consuming. I don't think we'd have time to work if we did it, even part-time. And we need money.
     
    @Macchiato would it be possible to branch out into different writing styles in the future? Still kinda set on doing at least some stuff on online RPG/Quests so to increase our ability to let muse guide us, expand on background stuff most novel writers don't, etc.
     
    Hmm.

    [X] No Place Like Home

    Because who needs to go outside? Sunlight isn't necessary for survival :V

    I'm uncertain on the job vote, though. I do wanna get the fuck out of it, but I'm uncertain how well we can get a better one, and more importantly how quickly. @Macchiato, what does the 'Ummm...' path have us do? I'm slightly uncertain from the description.

    Another thing that would be potentially very rewarding is to quit the job and go to the full-time conference. That's clearly the best one, it's just time constraining, and it seems to be time-limited unlike some of the other options. Besides, we might meet some people.
     
    The conference is a full-time commitment tho. How are people going to stack it with part-time hours?

    Are we taking a vacation for two weeks?
     
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