Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

Read Scars, I don't think I finished it last time, but I audio'd the whole thing this time. It was a nice little story. Good job.

Curious how much oversight you had for it, like since it was for a pre-existing property, was there any guideline you had to follow, or were you given basically full freedom? Was Danica a character already existing in the canon of IronClaw, or was she an original?

Glad you enjoyed it! Scars was a fun little write.

So...let's see.

The whole thing started with this contest, online, for short stories for this game company. Someone I knew had the game, and I read their books. The game books gave me an idea for a short story, and I ran with it. Basically, one of the supplements had a solid starting adventure for characters that I felt could have been taken in different directions for a far more interesting story.

So I borrowed some of the characters named in the game for the background (Fabrizio, the other Rinaldi, Umberto, Recondrite, and the Anasthasian, all with my own spin on their not-fleshed-out personalities), made up a bunch more as my central group (Danica, the raccoons, Malik, Mo-gei), and ran with it (note - it does not follow the adventure, really, it goes in a completely different direction; the entire premise was 'what if there were no players?'). The setting, obviously, was the game company's - Triskellion, even the Three Spears Inn (though I'm now credited with coming up with the full description for that Inn, because there wasn't one before), the various factions, the Don and the situation with the Don, etc. But the story, the central characters, all of that stuff, that was mine.

The guy behind the contest liked it so much he basically said 'Forget the contest, do you want to make this into a book?' I tell you, taking a ~30K story and more than doubling the length, that's not easy. ^_^

Soooo...I kind of had full oversight because I was writing it for a contest, first, and then they let me run with it afterward. I did, however, use a fair chunk of things from the game, though Danica and her merry band of idiots were all mine.

Black Iron, they basically let me do whatever in a similar fashion.

[Sharkerbob]

Glad you enjoyed it! Scars was a fun little write.

So...let's see.

The whole thing started with this contest, online, for short stories for this game company. Someone I knew had the game, and I read their books. The game books gave me an idea for a short story, and I ran with it. Basically, one of the supplements had a solid starting adventure for characters that I felt could have been taken in different directions for a far more interesting story.

So I borrowed some of the characters named in the game for the background (Fabrizio, the other Rinaldi, Umberto, Recondrite, and the Anasthasian, all with my own spin on their not-fleshed-out personalities), made up a bunch more as my central group (Danica, the raccoons, Malik, Mo-gei), and ran with it (note - it does not follow the adventure, really, it goes in a completely different direction; the entire premise was 'what if there were no players?'). The setting, obviously, was the game company's - Triskellion, even the Three Spears Inn (though I'm now credited with coming up with the full description for that Inn, because there wasn't one before), the various factions, the Don and the situation with the Don, etc. But the story, the central characters, all of that stuff, that was mine.

The guy behind the contest liked it so much he basically said 'Forget the contest, do you want to make this into a book?' I tell you, taking a ~30K story and more than doubling the length, that's not easy. ^_^

Soooo...I kind of had full oversight because I was writing it for a contest, first, and then they let me run with it afterward. I did, however, use a fair chunk of things from the game, though Danica and her merry band of idiots were all mine.

Black Iron, they basically let me do whatever in a similar fashion.

Very interesting. Thanks. That's cool they were so impressed they just decided to publish! Although, yeah, I can imagine trying to double the length was difficult, I struggle a lot with longform writing myself. Still, it didn't feel like it was forced or anything, so I think you managed it well.

[Sharpandpointies]

Very interesting. Thanks. That's cool they were so impressed they just decided to publish! Although, yeah, I can imagine trying to double the length was difficult, I struggle a lot with longform writing myself. Still, it didn't feel like it was forced or anything, so I think you managed it well.

REALLY glad it didn't feel forced. Obviously would have been impossible to pad to double the length (if I had, ugh, it would be a reading nightmare). Added a bucketload of short scenes - I think the whole Malik sub-plot was added, Umberto was added, some scenes with Tucker were added. And I stretched out some of the other scenes with more description, some small alterations, character interaction, etc.

Went from somewhere around 30K to just under 70K, as I recall.

These days, I really struggle with shorter stuff. :( There's an art to writing a short story, in keeping it tight, having a point to make and making that point with good, solid characters and writing, done. I do not have that art. :( My shortest couple of Christmas stories were novelettes, the rest are all basically novellas. My longer stuff that I'm still trying to get published ranges from 120K (a good length) to 210+K (NOT a good length, sigh, and that's for each book). I honestly wish I could write a solid short story - it would make writing my Christmas stories SO MUCH EASIER.

[Len Ikari145]

[Nik Hasta]

forced myself to work on the short comic project I originally conceived of so I could finish a comic and prove to myself that it can be done.

did six pages of retooling and touch up.

a mere 21 pages to go. ;_;

[Dark Soul # 7]

So that's where she's hanging out instead of doing her thing in Strive.

[Guy1]

Oh hey look what I found.

[Guy1]

Fem! Cobra!

[Laevatein]

Some video essays from over the weekend:

[Laevatein]

[Laevatein]

[Nik Hasta]

forced myself to work on the short comic project I originally conceived of so I could finish a comic and prove to myself that it can be done.

did six pages of retooling and touch up.

a mere 21 pages to go. ;_;

I am in the debt of past Nik who actually did a better job on some of the later pages than I remembered so less work.

But still more work to do.

[Iron_Twister]

Fem! Cobra!

...And now wondering what the rest of the SWORD leaders would look like as women.

[Postmania]

Never seen this happen before, but I guess it makes sense in some fights

https://twitter.com/itselzee/status/...145843718?s=20

[Sharpandpointies]

forced myself to work on the short comic project I originally conceived of so I could finish a comic and prove to myself that it can be done.

did six pages of retooling and touch up.

a mere 21 pages to go. ;_;

I am in the debt of past Nik who actually did a better job on some of the later pages than I remembered so less work.

But still more work to do.

Ah, the joy of art and working on it... ^_^ Can't wait to see it, man.

Fem! Cobra!

Pretty good, though Cobra wouldn't use a bat.

...And now wondering what the rest of the SWORD leaders would look like as women.

Have you seen the E-Girls H&L music video? ^_^