As Eddie Vedder would say.
Got another secret project in the works, one I should be able to announce sometime before Christmas then release sometime after. I'm "working" for R'N'D Media now, which is basically a bunch of friends in a big garage with surprisingly versatile filming equipment. I see a lot of potential in this project, potential not just for aesthetic quality and stuff I've never been able to do before, but potential for telling an interesting story. A story with a big heart and a lot of absurd comedy.
So we'll see what I can say about that as time goes by.
Vote Saxophone.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Sunday, October 6, 2013
DJay32, a Retrospective (9): The Era of Better Stories and Secret Projects
So a while back I made some shitty retrospective blog entries going through all the stories I'd made through my childhood and pretty much glorifying the damn things. I was annoying. I probably still am. But the idea of keeping track of where I've been and how far I've come still sounds important so let's make another installment of that.
The Era of Better Stories and Secret Projects
The Start of Topography Genera, and More Goddamn Blogs
After I finished Jordan Eats, what I wanted to do next was expand upon some EAT-related ideas I had as well as find a way to explain the damn Fear in a better context. So I brainstormed a bit and came up with the idea of Topography Genera Center East, some sort of "organization documents Fears"-type shtick. But I didn't have it in me to do it alone, so I contacted a fellow Fearblogger known as alliterator to see if he'd be up for helping me out.
Yeah, I saved the damn PM. Screenshot'd the sucker, I was that happy. alliterator's a big name in the mythos.
Anyway, we set up a private space to plan the story out and, over the course of some months, decided it'd be the kind of story that had a fuckton of sideblogs. So we started Topography Genera Center North, Testing in Progress, Administry for a Cause, The Supernatural Anaesthetist, The Machine Gospels, Tale of the Lost Vikings, Hell and Earth, Hymn From Proserpine, Secret Mysteries, The Endless Obsession, Otso: Genus Unknown, and then there was HELP which was discontinued pretty quickly. We also came up with a fictional prog band called Sunsetters whose music would come up in the story at some point. There's also a lot of voice acting and some videos somewhere in the making.
Point is, this story's long and it's still ongoing, so I guess we'll say this is another one of those "Era Arc" things.
The "More Goddamn Blogs" Part
Outside of Topography Genera, I decided to write a shitton more so I wrote Where My Eyes Remain to try my hand at a slenderblog. That wound up getting pretty popular in the Slender Man Mythos, even netting me a guest part on the Slender Nation Podcast. One of the highlights of my sad life.
There was also Built For Two, some empty story with a lot of vague philosophical exercises. This got surprisingly popular, dunno why when I look back. Another story I wrote at some point was Harlequin Metropolis, which took the plot of Dream Theater's Metropolis, pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory and told it so it didn't suck. I'll admit, this is a point where I don't think I'm overglorifying myself-- Metropolis's story is pretty damn bad and not that hard to fix.
The End of Dark Chao Adventures
Around March/April of 2012, I got fed up of DCA being on hiatus and I brought it back just in time to write an EAT-focused ending. I'm still kinda happy with that. I ended DCA by putting all the characters through eternal torture. You could say it was my attempt at coping with a shitty life. That's a running theme in this retrospective.
The point is, DCA lasted eight years and eight seasons and it's done now and this Era Arc can finally end, thank fuck. Nobody reads the damn story, it was an exercise in self-indulgent futility. It was a proggasm in writing format.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING Drags On
All this time, I'm writing more of the Rapture Logs. We're in Act III here, the first half, the shitty half. I get cocky, I have no idea what to do with myself, I just write and bask in the undeserved popularity.
More Goddamn Blogs II: Trouble in Tokyo
In comes an idea to perfect the self-indulgent wankery: Let's make a big crossover between DCA, Topography Genera, and Rapture! So I make PLAN 31: CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE SOCK KIND. It actually turned out pretty okay. Had some decent jokes in it. Invented Theodore Quiet and Frank Slenderman, Ace Attorney. I'm happy with it.
Then I make Fearblog of Fear, Dreams and Sleep and Fear after a conversation with SlendySlayer. Make about eight posts of decent "Let's make fun of bad blogging conventions" humour. I let it drag on a bit with crappypasta-style adventuring before just giving up.
Oh yeah, and then there was Plush. This was an idea to make an entirely fictional Wiki about some fictional video game that was gonna have, like, Fears and shit. Didn't get far. Gave up.
Some of my creepypasta appeared in Faces, Strange and Secret: An Anthology of Stories from the Fear Mythos, so that was pretty cool.
Really, this was the part where I started college and got something resembling a life. At the same time, I got a girlfriend and lost her within months for reasons I still do not know. And I got therapy for my life only for the therapist to end up being like "Instead of helping you in particular, let me help your entire family get better!" So that happened and I'm happy it happened but still I was left without substantial help. My life hit a really strange time.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING Gets Good, Ends, Gets Better, Gets Downloadable
As I'm in college, I keep adding to Rapture until it gets to the point where Act IV suddenly becomes 168,000 words alone. I start taking it seriously and I'm really happy with how it ended up. When it was over, I went through it with SlendySlayer a few times and edited it into a final draft and released it as a free downloadable PDF. So there's a happy ending for this. Even if it often feels like the community had faked its enthusiasm for it this whole time and as soon as they revealed that they just gave up on me altogether. But I still get readers through Tumblr and stuff so that'll do for me. Happy ending!
A Bunch of Secret Projects Begin
One of the people I met through TVTropes, a Finnish woman known as Rappu, turns out to be a great friend and a great artist so we talk about stuff and start a secret project. That really picked up steam sometime after Rapture ended. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime, Rappu winds up teaching me a lot about being a decent person and not falling into the cultural obsession with romance, then she goes and teaches me all kinds of things I didn't think I'd learn for another several years. All in all, progress goes better than expected.
Then there's Bones, who was one of my best friends back in America. We keep in touch, and one day he proposes another secret project, and over the course of several months we put some substantial progress towards that. We'll see how that goes too.
A Few More Blogs For Good Measure
Around the end of my college year, I write one more blog called Benefits which was like Built For Two but with a tiny bit more actual substance. Except instead of being a philosophical exercise, this one's an emotional exercise. Reception's quiet, generally favourable.
I bring back Fearblog of Fear and make some more posts for it. It's still kinda dead, though.
One day after finishing Rapture, I brainstorm a ton for a potential sequel, and then I decide to go through with it and start writing Rapture: A Book of Names. This one will probably get an "Era Arc," but for now let's just leave it be.
Then Some Other Stuff That Happened
I write the Fear Mythos series bible and shit. I do a bunch of mediocre Let's Plays. I read a lot of books. I start my second year of college before having the biggest regression I've ever had and starting an unnecessarily long journey of self-reflection and unhappiness.
That's where we are now, as a matter of fact. I'm riding out my regression, doubting myself a ton, trying to make myself feel better, and trying in what hopefully isn't vain to sort my life out.
Thus ends the Era of Better Stories and Secret Projects. What lies in store for the future? Eh, let's hope for something big and unexpected.
The Era of Better Stories and Secret Projects
The Start of Topography Genera, and More Goddamn Blogs
After I finished Jordan Eats, what I wanted to do next was expand upon some EAT-related ideas I had as well as find a way to explain the damn Fear in a better context. So I brainstormed a bit and came up with the idea of Topography Genera Center East, some sort of "organization documents Fears"-type shtick. But I didn't have it in me to do it alone, so I contacted a fellow Fearblogger known as alliterator to see if he'd be up for helping me out.
Yeah, I saved the damn PM. Screenshot'd the sucker, I was that happy. alliterator's a big name in the mythos.
Anyway, we set up a private space to plan the story out and, over the course of some months, decided it'd be the kind of story that had a fuckton of sideblogs. So we started Topography Genera Center North, Testing in Progress, Administry for a Cause, The Supernatural Anaesthetist, The Machine Gospels, Tale of the Lost Vikings, Hell and Earth, Hymn From Proserpine, Secret Mysteries, The Endless Obsession, Otso: Genus Unknown, and then there was HELP which was discontinued pretty quickly. We also came up with a fictional prog band called Sunsetters whose music would come up in the story at some point. There's also a lot of voice acting and some videos somewhere in the making.
Point is, this story's long and it's still ongoing, so I guess we'll say this is another one of those "Era Arc" things.
The "More Goddamn Blogs" Part
Outside of Topography Genera, I decided to write a shitton more so I wrote Where My Eyes Remain to try my hand at a slenderblog. That wound up getting pretty popular in the Slender Man Mythos, even netting me a guest part on the Slender Nation Podcast. One of the highlights of my sad life.
There was also Built For Two, some empty story with a lot of vague philosophical exercises. This got surprisingly popular, dunno why when I look back. Another story I wrote at some point was Harlequin Metropolis, which took the plot of Dream Theater's Metropolis, pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory and told it so it didn't suck. I'll admit, this is a point where I don't think I'm overglorifying myself-- Metropolis's story is pretty damn bad and not that hard to fix.
The End of Dark Chao Adventures
Around March/April of 2012, I got fed up of DCA being on hiatus and I brought it back just in time to write an EAT-focused ending. I'm still kinda happy with that. I ended DCA by putting all the characters through eternal torture. You could say it was my attempt at coping with a shitty life. That's a running theme in this retrospective.
The point is, DCA lasted eight years and eight seasons and it's done now and this Era Arc can finally end, thank fuck. Nobody reads the damn story, it was an exercise in self-indulgent futility. It was a proggasm in writing format.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING Drags On
All this time, I'm writing more of the Rapture Logs. We're in Act III here, the first half, the shitty half. I get cocky, I have no idea what to do with myself, I just write and bask in the undeserved popularity.
More Goddamn Blogs II: Trouble in Tokyo
In comes an idea to perfect the self-indulgent wankery: Let's make a big crossover between DCA, Topography Genera, and Rapture! So I make PLAN 31: CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE SOCK KIND. It actually turned out pretty okay. Had some decent jokes in it. Invented Theodore Quiet and Frank Slenderman, Ace Attorney. I'm happy with it.
Then I make Fearblog of Fear, Dreams and Sleep and Fear after a conversation with SlendySlayer. Make about eight posts of decent "Let's make fun of bad blogging conventions" humour. I let it drag on a bit with crappypasta-style adventuring before just giving up.
Oh yeah, and then there was Plush. This was an idea to make an entirely fictional Wiki about some fictional video game that was gonna have, like, Fears and shit. Didn't get far. Gave up.
Some of my creepypasta appeared in Faces, Strange and Secret: An Anthology of Stories from the Fear Mythos, so that was pretty cool.
Really, this was the part where I started college and got something resembling a life. At the same time, I got a girlfriend and lost her within months for reasons I still do not know. And I got therapy for my life only for the therapist to end up being like "Instead of helping you in particular, let me help your entire family get better!" So that happened and I'm happy it happened but still I was left without substantial help. My life hit a really strange time.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING Gets Good, Ends, Gets Better, Gets Downloadable
As I'm in college, I keep adding to Rapture until it gets to the point where Act IV suddenly becomes 168,000 words alone. I start taking it seriously and I'm really happy with how it ended up. When it was over, I went through it with SlendySlayer a few times and edited it into a final draft and released it as a free downloadable PDF. So there's a happy ending for this. Even if it often feels like the community had faked its enthusiasm for it this whole time and as soon as they revealed that they just gave up on me altogether. But I still get readers through Tumblr and stuff so that'll do for me. Happy ending!
A Bunch of Secret Projects Begin
One of the people I met through TVTropes, a Finnish woman known as Rappu, turns out to be a great friend and a great artist so we talk about stuff and start a secret project. That really picked up steam sometime after Rapture ended. We'll see where that goes. In the meantime, Rappu winds up teaching me a lot about being a decent person and not falling into the cultural obsession with romance, then she goes and teaches me all kinds of things I didn't think I'd learn for another several years. All in all, progress goes better than expected.
Then there's Bones, who was one of my best friends back in America. We keep in touch, and one day he proposes another secret project, and over the course of several months we put some substantial progress towards that. We'll see how that goes too.
A Few More Blogs For Good Measure
Around the end of my college year, I write one more blog called Benefits which was like Built For Two but with a tiny bit more actual substance. Except instead of being a philosophical exercise, this one's an emotional exercise. Reception's quiet, generally favourable.
I bring back Fearblog of Fear and make some more posts for it. It's still kinda dead, though.
One day after finishing Rapture, I brainstorm a ton for a potential sequel, and then I decide to go through with it and start writing Rapture: A Book of Names. This one will probably get an "Era Arc," but for now let's just leave it be.
Then Some Other Stuff That Happened
I write the Fear Mythos series bible and shit. I do a bunch of mediocre Let's Plays. I read a lot of books. I start my second year of college before having the biggest regression I've ever had and starting an unnecessarily long journey of self-reflection and unhappiness.
That's where we are now, as a matter of fact. I'm riding out my regression, doubting myself a ton, trying to make myself feel better, and trying in what hopefully isn't vain to sort my life out.
Thus ends the Era of Better Stories and Secret Projects. What lies in store for the future? Eh, let's hope for something big and unexpected.
Friday, May 31, 2013
How Life is Going!
Oh yeah, this is my OOG blog, isn't it? Well, let me give you followers an update (how on earth did I get twelve?).
Firstly.
OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING is done and out and a downloadable 1100-page PDF! Click that link for the download location thing! SlendySlayer did a grand job helping me edit it, and she's actually the one who organized the PDF itself and just seriously check that thing out. She did well.
Over 400,000 words. At least 85 pictures by seven different artists. More art coming soon.
NOW, what about what else is happening in my life?
I'm in college, for those who don't know, getting my GCSEs. Which.. are the British equivalent of a 10th grade education, really. Easy stuff for me, I just haven't properly been to school since.. what, 2010? So now that I have the chance I want this. I'll be taking my exams next week.
Yeah, I'm not worried.
I could go on with stories of how well I did in the classes themselves. Science, I was flying through tests faster than anyone else, getting some of the highest scores on them. Math, I was one of those kids who usually knew the right answer and people deferred to. Psychology, whenever I even showed up, my teacher generally loved me. English?
Oh god, English.
Is it any surprise to you guys that English is what I'm pursuing A-levels in next year, that English was the only class I did all my homework in, that English was a class I helped my teacher teach when she got too tired of our class, that English was the class where the lowest grade I got on anything was a B (and that was once and a half), and that almost everything I wrote for English class was shown to examiners and other teachers?
..but anyway. What is my plan for this summer? Well, I plan on playing much Rock Band (been slacking off on that, will get back into it when I get my copy of Green Day: Rock Band). I'll probably write stuff here and there. I'll hang out with friends. I'll see if I can get the Otso vlog running more.
Y'know, nothing big.
Oh, and I'm going back to Finland. :D For probably closer to six weeks this time. I'll talk more about this as we get closer to the date. Because goodness, I do want to talk about that. But for now, Jordanilla on päänsärky!
OKAY LET ME TALK MORE ABOUT WRITING
There's Fearblog of Fear, which is shifting into more of an actual plot with some semblance of depth.
There's Benefits, which is my way of making sense of why the hell I smoke now. Going pretty well.
There's Topography Genera, which is.. inching along as usual. Just gotta get video elements up.
Oh, and PLAN 31: RISE OF MCFEAR. My love letter to the Ace Attorney series. Writing that requires me being in a specific mood, though, so its updates will come in waves.
And then there's stories I'm not ready to post or announce yet! One of those stories is a blogpasta that's taking me an annoyingly long time to write, much trickier than other stuff I've written, but when it's ready it'll also have a bit of art to blow people's minds. Another one of those is my love letter to Omega's Mephi while doubling as a post-Rapture story, still in the brainstorming stages because it's the kind of story that I can't afford to blindly jump into. Another one of those is relaaaated to the blogpasta project but will not be ready for reveal for a long long time, a multi-person project that is unlike anything I've ever done.
And, of course, there's the usual Rapture secret project Rappu and I are working on, which is back to the forefront now that the PDF's out. That's one of the biggest reasons I go to Finland in the first place. But again, I'll talk about all this stuff later.
I've also been reading many books! There's Tolstoy's Anna Karenina which I am in love with though it seems to be talking more about horses than I really care about. What I loved-- well, one of the many things I loved-- about War and Peace was its sheer diversity of genre. It covered so many things. Anna Karenina is much more reserved, focusing on a smaller amount of things. And it's a little hit-or-miss with me in that regard.
I'm also reading Franz Kafka's The Trial, which I'm finding really interesting. It sounds vaguely metaphorical and I eat that stuff right up.
And then there's James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, which... is like an oasis I skirt along every now and then, not yet ready to dive headfirst in, but I dip my feet in every once in a while and it makes me feel giddy and in love with everything. When I've had more experience dipping into these oases, I will go deep-sea diving into the Wake.
Then I have a lot of books I will read when I'm not reading all these others. King's IT (I'm getting close to the end kinda), Tolkien's The Hobbit (ugh I do not like his prose but I keep telling people I'll read this stuff), Eliot's Middlemarch (got it on a whim, looks interesting!), Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (also looks interesting and like it will help me understand Ulysses when I eventually get to that), Homer's The Iliad (it's interesting, I just put it on hold a long time ago), Adams' Watership Down (Rappu recommended it, she usually suggests things I end up loving, will get to it), Pratchett's Guards! Guards! (a Discworld book everyone recommends, excited to read it), and Pratchett's Reaper Man (looked interesting!).
Sooo I got a lot. And as I said at some point earlier, I ordered Green Day: Rock Band, and I'm excited to play it. Been getting into Green Day recently, and I'd intended on getting the game eventually as I just plain love everything Harmonix makes.
SO YEAH
Firstly.
Over 400,000 words. At least 85 pictures by seven different artists. More art coming soon.
NOW, what about what else is happening in my life?
I'm in college, for those who don't know, getting my GCSEs. Which.. are the British equivalent of a 10th grade education, really. Easy stuff for me, I just haven't properly been to school since.. what, 2010? So now that I have the chance I want this. I'll be taking my exams next week.
Yeah, I'm not worried.
I could go on with stories of how well I did in the classes themselves. Science, I was flying through tests faster than anyone else, getting some of the highest scores on them. Math, I was one of those kids who usually knew the right answer and people deferred to. Psychology, whenever I even showed up, my teacher generally loved me. English?
Oh god, English.
Is it any surprise to you guys that English is what I'm pursuing A-levels in next year, that English was the only class I did all my homework in, that English was a class I helped my teacher teach when she got too tired of our class, that English was the class where the lowest grade I got on anything was a B (and that was once and a half), and that almost everything I wrote for English class was shown to examiners and other teachers?
..but anyway. What is my plan for this summer? Well, I plan on playing much Rock Band (been slacking off on that, will get back into it when I get my copy of Green Day: Rock Band). I'll probably write stuff here and there. I'll hang out with friends. I'll see if I can get the Otso vlog running more.
Y'know, nothing big.
Oh, and I'm going back to Finland. :D For probably closer to six weeks this time. I'll talk more about this as we get closer to the date. Because goodness, I do want to talk about that. But for now, Jordanilla on päänsärky!
OKAY LET ME TALK MORE ABOUT WRITING
There's Fearblog of Fear, which is shifting into more of an actual plot with some semblance of depth.
There's Benefits, which is my way of making sense of why the hell I smoke now. Going pretty well.
There's Topography Genera, which is.. inching along as usual. Just gotta get video elements up.
Oh, and PLAN 31: RISE OF MCFEAR. My love letter to the Ace Attorney series. Writing that requires me being in a specific mood, though, so its updates will come in waves.
And then there's stories I'm not ready to post or announce yet! One of those stories is a blogpasta that's taking me an annoyingly long time to write, much trickier than other stuff I've written, but when it's ready it'll also have a bit of art to blow people's minds. Another one of those is my love letter to Omega's Mephi while doubling as a post-Rapture story, still in the brainstorming stages because it's the kind of story that I can't afford to blindly jump into. Another one of those is relaaaated to the blogpasta project but will not be ready for reveal for a long long time, a multi-person project that is unlike anything I've ever done.
And, of course, there's the usual Rapture secret project Rappu and I are working on, which is back to the forefront now that the PDF's out. That's one of the biggest reasons I go to Finland in the first place. But again, I'll talk about all this stuff later.
I've also been reading many books! There's Tolstoy's Anna Karenina which I am in love with though it seems to be talking more about horses than I really care about. What I loved-- well, one of the many things I loved-- about War and Peace was its sheer diversity of genre. It covered so many things. Anna Karenina is much more reserved, focusing on a smaller amount of things. And it's a little hit-or-miss with me in that regard.
I'm also reading Franz Kafka's The Trial, which I'm finding really interesting. It sounds vaguely metaphorical and I eat that stuff right up.
And then there's James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, which... is like an oasis I skirt along every now and then, not yet ready to dive headfirst in, but I dip my feet in every once in a while and it makes me feel giddy and in love with everything. When I've had more experience dipping into these oases, I will go deep-sea diving into the Wake.
Then I have a lot of books I will read when I'm not reading all these others. King's IT (I'm getting close to the end kinda), Tolkien's The Hobbit (ugh I do not like his prose but I keep telling people I'll read this stuff), Eliot's Middlemarch (got it on a whim, looks interesting!), Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (also looks interesting and like it will help me understand Ulysses when I eventually get to that), Homer's The Iliad (it's interesting, I just put it on hold a long time ago), Adams' Watership Down (Rappu recommended it, she usually suggests things I end up loving, will get to it), Pratchett's Guards! Guards! (a Discworld book everyone recommends, excited to read it), and Pratchett's Reaper Man (looked interesting!).
Sooo I got a lot. And as I said at some point earlier, I ordered Green Day: Rock Band, and I'm excited to play it. Been getting into Green Day recently, and I'd intended on getting the game eventually as I just plain love everything Harmonix makes.
SO YEAH
Thursday, April 4, 2013
On Blog Classifications
For no reason besides organization, I have done my best to come up with a classification system for blogs by their lengths.
Blogpastas
These are those blogs that are extremely short while still being a self-contained story. Usually around 1-20 posts, a blogpasta is basically a creepypasta in the blog medium. Y'know, a short story. Doesn't even have to be horror; none of these classifications do.
Examples: alliterator's The Ripeness is All or And When the Sky Was Opened, The Visitor's Terrific, or my Harlequin Metropolis.
Blogellas
Like a blog novella, these are usually bigger than blogpasta and usually smaller than "proper" blogs. As a result, this is a pretty damn loose term, but according to my classification system, they can range between around 15-100 posts and offer more conflicts than a blogpasta but fewer than a "proper" blog. Yeah, apparently the difference between a novel and a novella is more than just length, and I like the idea of the blog equivalents being similar.
Now obviously, due to the nature of the blog medium, it's very common for a blog to be what this system would call a blogella. A novella has more focus on mood and a few complex characters rather than a complex plot like a novel, and since blogs lend themselves to a more personal first-person narrative, these are common! But as the Fear Mythos evolves, I think we're seeing a lot more experimentation in plot. But the point is that a blogella is the kind of short-ish blog that focuses more on the development of one or a few characters.
Examples: alliterator's Snowball in Hell or Ontological, TheSomnambulist's Urban Malefic, or my Testing in Progress or Built For Two.
Blogs
This is the equivalent of a novel, you could say. They're actually fairly rare, considering their size and effort required. They can range from around, like.. well, they can have as little or as many posts as you like. But they have to have a focus on plot or-- okay I don't even claim to know. But I think the common consensus is that they have to be longer and greater in scale than blogpastas and blogellas, with a considerable amount of conflicts or arcs. I guess it'd also make sense for, say, multiple companion blogellas to thematically join together to make a single "proper" blog "suite" "story" thing. Am I making sense? <:D
Examples: TheSomnambulist's The World Through These Eyeholes, collaboration blog A Realm of Emptiness, Shayde's Not To Touch The Earth, or my Jordan Eats Normally Now.
Epics
If you want to get technical, you could classify these as Blogs, as they tend to follow all the same classifications. But an epic is generally even longer, with even more conflicts or arcs. If you want to go to the real-world equivalent of epics in terms of the novel and film genre, an epic has a large scale (usually worldwide or larger) with far-reaching consequences that are often given much focus or impact. They're also sometimes called sagas and legacies, and they can either feature many protagonists or one hero whose exploits are detailed in (close to) full.
And above all else, an epic is almost always long. The blogosphere has some of these. You can probably see the examples coming from a mile away.
Examples: Omega's Mephi, TheSomnambulist's Amalgam Saga, CuteWithoutThe's collective Dying Man saga, alliterator and I's Topography Genera, and my OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING.
Do note that, in the end, you can call all of these "blogs." That's an appropriate blanket term.
As for how to refer to the "blog" classification, I generally say either "feature-length blog" or "proper blog." Though I suppose maybe capital-B Blog might work.
Thank you for your time!
Blogpastas
These are those blogs that are extremely short while still being a self-contained story. Usually around 1-20 posts, a blogpasta is basically a creepypasta in the blog medium. Y'know, a short story. Doesn't even have to be horror; none of these classifications do.
Examples: alliterator's The Ripeness is All or And When the Sky Was Opened, The Visitor's Terrific, or my Harlequin Metropolis.
Blogellas
Like a blog novella, these are usually bigger than blogpasta and usually smaller than "proper" blogs. As a result, this is a pretty damn loose term, but according to my classification system, they can range between around 15-100 posts and offer more conflicts than a blogpasta but fewer than a "proper" blog. Yeah, apparently the difference between a novel and a novella is more than just length, and I like the idea of the blog equivalents being similar.
Now obviously, due to the nature of the blog medium, it's very common for a blog to be what this system would call a blogella. A novella has more focus on mood and a few complex characters rather than a complex plot like a novel, and since blogs lend themselves to a more personal first-person narrative, these are common! But as the Fear Mythos evolves, I think we're seeing a lot more experimentation in plot. But the point is that a blogella is the kind of short-ish blog that focuses more on the development of one or a few characters.
Examples: alliterator's Snowball in Hell or Ontological, TheSomnambulist's Urban Malefic, or my Testing in Progress or Built For Two.
Blogs
This is the equivalent of a novel, you could say. They're actually fairly rare, considering their size and effort required. They can range from around, like.. well, they can have as little or as many posts as you like. But they have to have a focus on plot or-- okay I don't even claim to know. But I think the common consensus is that they have to be longer and greater in scale than blogpastas and blogellas, with a considerable amount of conflicts or arcs. I guess it'd also make sense for, say, multiple companion blogellas to thematically join together to make a single "proper" blog "suite" "story" thing. Am I making sense? <:D
Examples: TheSomnambulist's The World Through These Eyeholes, collaboration blog A Realm of Emptiness, Shayde's Not To Touch The Earth, or my Jordan Eats Normally Now.
Epics
If you want to get technical, you could classify these as Blogs, as they tend to follow all the same classifications. But an epic is generally even longer, with even more conflicts or arcs. If you want to go to the real-world equivalent of epics in terms of the novel and film genre, an epic has a large scale (usually worldwide or larger) with far-reaching consequences that are often given much focus or impact. They're also sometimes called sagas and legacies, and they can either feature many protagonists or one hero whose exploits are detailed in (close to) full.
And above all else, an epic is almost always long. The blogosphere has some of these. You can probably see the examples coming from a mile away.
Examples: Omega's Mephi, TheSomnambulist's Amalgam Saga, CuteWithoutThe's collective Dying Man saga, alliterator and I's Topography Genera, and my OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING.
Do note that, in the end, you can call all of these "blogs." That's an appropriate blanket term.
As for how to refer to the "blog" classification, I generally say either "feature-length blog" or "proper blog." Though I suppose maybe capital-B Blog might work.
Thank you for your time!
Sunday, March 10, 2013
More Fun With Word Counters
Rapture's finale (original): 27,000 words
Rapture's finale (revised): 29,000 words
Rapture's finale plus credits: 31,000 words
The complete Rapture Logs, third draft: 411,000 words
LOOK AT THAT
LOOK AT THAT NUMBER
LET IT SINK IN
Rapture's finale (revised): 29,000 words
Rapture's finale plus credits: 31,000 words
The complete Rapture Logs, third draft: 411,000 words
LOOK AT THAT
LOOK AT THAT NUMBER
LET IT SINK IN
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
DCA website and stuff
The DCA site hasn't worked for, like, a whole year now. Finally figured out FTP on this Mac and it's fixed now.
The DCA site can be found at http://www.doolinx.com/dca
Now that I've got FTP again, I might see what else I can do with it.
The DCA site can be found at http://www.doolinx.com/dca
Now that I've got FTP again, I might see what else I can do with it.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Note to Self
Write one creepypasta for every Rapture Fear. EAT and The Plague Doctor have already been done with "The Ballerinas of Versiansa" and "Death's Beacon," respectively. Write more.
- THE ARCHANGEL
- THE BLACK DOG
- THE BLIND MAN
- THE BRUTE AND THE BURNING BRIDE
- THE CHOIR
- THE COLD BOY
- THE CONVOCATION
- THE DYING MAN
EAT- THE EMPTY CITY
- THE EYE
- THE GROTESQUE
- THE INTRUSION
- THE MANUFACTURED NEWBORN
- THE MOTHER OF SNAKES
- THE NIGHTLANDERS
THE PLAGUE DOCTOR- THE QUIET
- THE RAKE
- THE RED CAP
- THE SLENDER MAN
- THE SMILING MAN
- THE UNNAMED CHILD
- THE WOODEN GIRL
- The Adrift (The Unnamed Child)
- The Speculum (The Mother of Snakes)
- The Rapturous (The Smiling Man)
- Asclepius (The Bleeding Tree)
- The Reverie (The Grotesque)
- The Kingdom (The Intrusion)
- The Pacific (The Quiet)
- Tuonetar (The Red Cap)
- Hestia (The Burning Bride)
- The Iemaker (The Brute)
- Tytar Tuuri (The House of Fortune)
- Lerna (The Unbounded Face)
- The Vane (The Woman in the Wind)
- The Catechist (The King in the Mountain)
- Eris (The Glitch)
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Rapture Condensed Credits, version 3
When OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING is finished, I'm going to go through each and every log and assemble a complete list of credits for each and every thing I need to give credit to. And that's gonna be a lot of work. But in the meantime, I've assembled a short version! And revised! And revised one more time.
Antagonists based off creatures from The Fear Mythos
The Slender Man is copyrighted to Victor Surge.
"Big Ones" homage to SCP-093
This particular story's portrayal of The Empty City homage to secretcity
Dogscape taken from the creepypasta of the same name
Various puzzles from Ciphers and Beacons homage to video games I grew up with
Some characters loosely based off or using visage of my friends, including but not limited to:
Daniel Finnegan, Eric Taylor, Catie DeBiaso, Thomas Minor, Michael Brown, Paul Botsford, Tropers/BobbyG, "alliterator," "CuteWithoutThe," "The Visitor," "LizardBite," "ExorcistGamer," "MesserTod," "LoveHopeRainbows," "Allanbag," "Foolamancer," "RedRockingHood," "Cadet," "Rappu," "TheSomnambulist," "Omega," "queenofinsanity6"
Any characters portraying real people do not even begin to represent the person's actual views, opinions, choices, personalities, or anything. I stress this.
Any locations portraying real places do not represent the location's actual state of being, landscape, map, political standpoint, or anything.
The thousands of songs and albums and bands portrayed in this story are completely copyrighted by their own labels and producers and writers. I do not claim ownership on a single thing here.
Promotional art by "Cadet," Catie "Fentzy" DeBiaso, "shapedlikeitself," "Rappu," and "The Visitor"
Promotional videos by Jordan "DJay32" Dooling and Eric "Bones" Taylor
Leitmotifs in promotional videos by Bound by the Moon
Written by Jordan "DJay32" Dooling
"August 14th, 2011," "August 15th, 2011," and "August 27th, 2011" have excerpts written by Catie "Fentzy" DeBiaso.
I give full permission for the story OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING to be used in any way, shape, or form the Fearbloggers see fit
TheFearMythos11/TheFearMythos12/TheFearMythos13
Antagonists based off creatures from The Fear Mythos
The Slender Man is copyrighted to Victor Surge.
"Big Ones" homage to SCP-093
This particular story's portrayal of The Empty City homage to secretcity
Dogscape taken from the creepypasta of the same name
Various puzzles from Ciphers and Beacons homage to video games I grew up with
Some characters loosely based off or using visage of my friends, including but not limited to:
Daniel Finnegan, Eric Taylor, Catie DeBiaso, Thomas Minor, Michael Brown, Paul Botsford, Tropers/BobbyG, "alliterator," "CuteWithoutThe," "The Visitor," "LizardBite," "ExorcistGamer," "MesserTod," "LoveHopeRainbows," "Allanbag," "Foolamancer," "RedRockingHood," "Cadet," "Rappu," "TheSomnambulist," "Omega," "queenofinsanity6"
Any characters portraying real people do not even begin to represent the person's actual views, opinions, choices, personalities, or anything. I stress this.
Any locations portraying real places do not represent the location's actual state of being, landscape, map, political standpoint, or anything.
The thousands of songs and albums and bands portrayed in this story are completely copyrighted by their own labels and producers and writers. I do not claim ownership on a single thing here.
Promotional art by "Cadet," Catie "Fentzy" DeBiaso, "shapedlikeitself," "Rappu," and "The Visitor"
Promotional videos by Jordan "DJay32" Dooling and Eric "Bones" Taylor
Leitmotifs in promotional videos by Bound by the Moon
Written by Jordan "DJay32" Dooling
"August 14th, 2011," "August 15th, 2011," and "August 27th, 2011" have excerpts written by Catie "Fentzy" DeBiaso.
I give full permission for the story OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING to be used in any way, shape, or form the Fearbloggers see fit
TheFearMythos11/TheFearMythos12/TheFearMythos13
Saturday, January 19, 2013
This is a post
Hello, Blogger. So glad to see you, my friend. It's been a while.
I think I prefer Tumblr. But it's been far too long since I last made a personal post here, and I suppose I've been needing one.
I.. dunno.
I've been withdrawing lately. Becoming less social. I have a lot of reasons, but I can share very few. But let's not think about reasons just yet; for now, let's take a look at the effects. The 'whats' rather than the 'whys.'
I'm not talking much. To anyone. And I'm liking it. I'm feeling more and more empty as the days go by. I used to think this emptiness was a lack of emotion, but no, there's a definite emotion there. An emotion I've always internally associated with EAT. It's a sort of cold and logical one, empty and with only a passion for accuracy. But still a passion.
I've been writing in my journal a lot lately, whether inspired by Rapture or Rapture being based on writing in journals in the first place. And the main thing I write in it is some variation of or elaboration on "I am The Camper."
'Cause that's essentially true. EAT didn't come out of nowhere; I made her based on a complex series of emotions and fears I had and still have.
I am The Camper. I watch, I learn, I listen, I analyze, I wander, I 'eat,' but I will always feel an insatiable hunger.
That hunger is this emptiness I'm feeling. I don't know what I need, though I think passion is it. Which is why, in Rapture, Salmacis is opposed by The Colour of Blood, who (along with Hestia and The Iemaker) represents passion and its many facets. Though Salmacis, of course, is passionate during the course of the apocalypse-- precisely because of the apocalypse-- which is why that spoilery event happens at the end of September.
But now I'm rambling.
I don't really have anything important to say.
I have a lot of Rapture-related stuff I want to say, though most of it's just being excited for where things will go and I don't want to talk about that.
Just... hello! This is a post.
I think I prefer Tumblr. But it's been far too long since I last made a personal post here, and I suppose I've been needing one.
I.. dunno.
I've been withdrawing lately. Becoming less social. I have a lot of reasons, but I can share very few. But let's not think about reasons just yet; for now, let's take a look at the effects. The 'whats' rather than the 'whys.'
I'm not talking much. To anyone. And I'm liking it. I'm feeling more and more empty as the days go by. I used to think this emptiness was a lack of emotion, but no, there's a definite emotion there. An emotion I've always internally associated with EAT. It's a sort of cold and logical one, empty and with only a passion for accuracy. But still a passion.
I've been writing in my journal a lot lately, whether inspired by Rapture or Rapture being based on writing in journals in the first place. And the main thing I write in it is some variation of or elaboration on "I am The Camper."
'Cause that's essentially true. EAT didn't come out of nowhere; I made her based on a complex series of emotions and fears I had and still have.
I am The Camper. I watch, I learn, I listen, I analyze, I wander, I 'eat,' but I will always feel an insatiable hunger.
That hunger is this emptiness I'm feeling. I don't know what I need, though I think passion is it. Which is why, in Rapture, Salmacis is opposed by The Colour of Blood, who (along with Hestia and The Iemaker) represents passion and its many facets. Though Salmacis, of course, is passionate during the course of the apocalypse-- precisely because of the apocalypse-- which is why that spoilery event happens at the end of September.
But now I'm rambling.
I don't really have anything important to say.
I have a lot of Rapture-related stuff I want to say, though most of it's just being excited for where things will go and I don't want to talk about that.
Just... hello! This is a post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)