EarlyWords's recent activity
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Comment on Apple, Netflix Amazon want to change how they pay Hollywood stars in ~movies
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Comment on What does “going with your gut” feel like to you? How did you learn to “trust your gut”? in ~talk
EarlyWords (edited )LinkI used to think I had no intuition of my own. I didn’t disbelieve the concept entirely, I just assumed it was a skill or gift others possessed that I did not. Then a couple decades ago I went to...I used to think I had no intuition of my own. I didn’t disbelieve the concept entirely, I just assumed it was a skill or gift others possessed that I did not.
Then a couple decades ago I went to Japan for a month and climbed mountains. I spent a huge amount of time by myself in a country where I didn’t speak the language and after about three weeks it was like I could hear a voice that I hadn’t been able to hear before.
By following this very faint impulse, I learned to choose one street over another in the dark and that’s how I found the only english-speaking sushi chef on Yakushima. Example after example convinced me that either I had found my quiet intuition or created a filter for myself that somehow allowed me to derive meaning out of chaos.
Since then, I’ve learned that what I had always thought was a kind of contrary irritability and tiredness in me is actually my intuition telling me not to do that thing. It can easily be mistaken for the inertia of habits, laziness, or fear, but once those weaknesses have been accounted for, my intuition has been telling me my whole life what I really should and should not be doing.
It’s like the most pure expression of subjectivity. Many people will just tell you that you are lazy and it hardly ever makes me popular, following these impulses. So listen to them at your peril.
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Comment on How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang in ~games.tabletop
EarlyWords Link ParentHaha that’s a great natural 1 story. Good thing it didn’t end in ruin.Haha that’s a great natural 1 story. Good thing it didn’t end in ruin.
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Comment on How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang in ~games.tabletop
EarlyWords Link ParentExcellent! You beat the meta-game of scheduling conflicts. These games can be everything to us. Parties and games and artworks and theater and church all at the same time. When players are able to...Excellent! You beat the meta-game of scheduling conflicts.
These games can be everything to us. Parties and games and artworks and theater and church all at the same time. When players are able to express themselves creatively it’s like when TV actors on a long-running series eventually become the resident expert and developmental warden for their character.
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Comment on How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang in ~games.tabletop
EarlyWords Link ParentYeah we usually enjoy playing for other reasons than getting to the end. I love improv and role-play. Another player really loves his tactics and character optimization. But trying to sustain a...Yeah we usually enjoy playing for other reasons than getting to the end. I love improv and role-play. Another player really loves his tactics and character optimization. But trying to sustain a dungeon crawl at that level is fairly preposterous. I think that most campaigns that achieve it are those that have no trouble meeting regularly and learn to transition into kingdom building and castle designing phases of the game.
Since these players show no interest in any other game system, including my homebrew ones, I’ve been getting more experimental with 5E. For example, it would be interesting to play a game where nobody leveled but they just accumulated a few more skills, artifacts, and spells.
Level advancement is always one of the high points of a game but it also puts a timer on the campaign and keeps it from being truly open-ended.
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How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang
-----UNDERMOUNTAIN SPOILERS----- -----HALASTER BLACKCLOAK SPOILERS----- I've been playing and DMing D&D since the late 70s. Most of my campaigns have been homebrew worlds with my own rulesets. But...
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I've been playing and DMing D&D since the late 70s. Most of my campaigns have been homebrew worlds with my own rulesets. But as with many of us, the pandemic became a personal golden era of online gaming with friends around the world, especially with the old classic modules and Roll20.
This campaign began simply enough. It was called Thug & Thugger, and it only had two players. I told them they were thieves who stole from other thieves, interrupting the thefts and taking what they wanted for themselves. And it worked fine for the first 7-8 levels. But then we got ambitious and I sent them on a Spelljammer ship into the Phlogiston. There, they found the protection of an elder goddess who had been imprisoned and needed them to rescue her. But in the course of their rescue, things went sideways and instead of being murdered by Nalfeshnee and Hezrou demons, the elder goddess in a last gasp to save her heroes sent them "somewhere random."
Where they landed was the seventh level of The Dungeon of the Mad Mage in Undermountain. Not only that, but the demons had been compelled to be their familiars and... once they figured out their scale issues... all of them were no more than nine inches tall. The characters discovered that they couldn't go up any floors, only down. If they were going to survive this, they would have to conquer all 23 levels of the dungeon. Now, I'm well aware that this plot sounds like it came out of the diary of a 12 year old, but ultimately what we wanted was a campaign that finally took players all the way to the end and allowed them godhood after level 20.
With all our play these last few years, the schedules of daily life had defeated nearly every campaign. That was why we only had two players. And that was why we shoe-horned our narrative arc into the only module we could find that would get the players to 20.
The first five floors or so were an absolute bloody blast. They were immensely overpowered, despite being only nine inches tall, and they went through entire hordes like a buzzsaw. After the near-death challenges of the Phlogiston it felt like a victory lap. And as the DM I was fine with it, knowing their bully ways wouldn't last. At a certain point, one of their foes banished the Nalfeshnee (which was a massive loss--those things are stupidly powerful) and they regained their former physical height.
Then it was a fight. The two characters were a warlock/bard and a ranger/monk. Both fought well in the magical dark without disadvantage. That was their main strategy: cast darkness and then wade in. It worked for most of the levels and against a wide variety of enemies, especially since the vast majority of spells require you to "see" your target. But then the monk started spamming stunning strike and they got back to running the table on me. Dungeon of the Mad Mage was written before stunning was a thing, so not a single foe had resistance or immunity to it. He would burn through the legendary saves of nearly any bad guy and still have extra ki points left over.
They leveled and leveled again. They also became clerics to appropriately worship the elder goddess. Their bag of holding filled with gear and each action or attack became as convoluted as a Disney contract. The number of saves, reactions, buffs, etc. that needed to be accounted for on every move was something I won't attempt again without an AI assistant. As they approached the final battle, I realized that I needed help.
One player had told me that another friend group of ours had tried the year before to take on Undermountain but that campaign had fallen apart. So I secretly texted the DM of that group with a proposal: Since you know this campaign so well, I need some assistance for the end. He happily agreed.
On the day of the final battle, the players were locked in combat with Halaster's most senior minions. Suddenly, the Mad Mage himself arrived. That's right. On the Zoom channel, someone new joined. Someone named Halaster. He appeared in a wizard robe and fake white beard, wielding a scepter he'd bought on Amazon, with a screen behind him generated by AI to look like Halaster's lair.
My players lost their minds. They thought I was just going to put on a corny voice and be Halaster myself. No no no. But this wasn't to be just a cameo. I told the new player to legitimately have Halaster kill them. I wasn't looking for a happy ending. And as the DM I wasn't going to be anything but the referee, adjudicating what had now become a PvP situation. Two players against the Mage. My two players finally realized what I had in store for them. This was a serious no-holds-barred fight to the death.
The Halaster player is also a legendary game designer in his own right, a video game designer turned executive who has worked on many games we all know. He called in several other legends of the industry to help him figure out his moves. I even handed him the gift of cursed gloves I'd tricked the monk into putting on several levels before, which made his stunning strikes against Halaster something he needed to roll on the wild sorcery magic table.
And they still beat him and won their freedom and the freedom of their elder goddess. But man was it a battle. They withstood his meteor storm and made saves against his most potent spells. At the end, the bard only had 3hp and nearly everyone else was dead.
But we did it! We finally finished a level 20 campaign. And now we know we never need to do that again, lol. It became so unwieldy and slow after about level 15 that it felt more like work than play.
We look forward to starting over with simple characters who do simple things. The monk will be the DM this time, leading me and the other player in the Lost Mines of Phandelver. And each of us will try playing two simultaneous classic characters this time: me a dwarven cleric and elven illusionist, he a half-orc fighter and wood elf rogue. At least we know our schedules work.
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Comment on Authors of Tildes: How well do you know your own book when you publish? in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentAs a narrator you just can’t be the editor. For a couple friends I’d do some adjustments to keep things consistent but for a few books I just had to stop trying and read only what’s on the page....As a narrator you just can’t be the editor. For a couple friends I’d do some adjustments to keep things consistent but for a few books I just had to stop trying and read only what’s on the page. But we’re the ones who often get blamed for these mistakes and that can affect your reputation. So that’s when I tell the author I can’t work with them. Most are shocked and insist their work is in better shape than it is.
That’s when I tell them the story of the teen spy movie I once sold to New Line. We had to do 54 page-one rewrites before they actually bought it. That number usually convinces them they haven’t done enough work.
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Comment on Authors of Tildes: How well do you know your own book when you publish? in ~creative
EarlyWords LinkAs an author, I’ve learned over the years to make the story flawless before showing it to others. But that doesn’t mean that I commit every detail to long term memory. I think it’s because of my...As an author, I’ve learned over the years to make the story flawless before showing it to others. But that doesn’t mean that I commit every detail to long term memory. I think it’s because of my actor training that I am fully taken by a project as it happens but then I don’t store my lines in perpetuity. I move on. That means when I go back to my former fixations I’m often surprised by things I’d forgotten I’d added.
What I’ve noticed as a narrator though is how very many “authors” hardly ever get past the first rewrite of their text before pushing it out the door. I’ve had to learn not to be an editor to hasty writers, and I’ve had to stop my involvement with certain audiobooks after it was clear I was more interested in the accuracy of the writing than the author. Names would change halfway through. Basic grammar and spelling mistakes would be rampant.
I couldn’t imagine presuming on someone’s time and attention with such lazy efforts. Audiences are precious and need to be treated as such.
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentI like your writing! Very kinetic. And you grab the reader pretty quickly. I also like the idea of providing accompanying music. It sets the tone and setting as well as whole paragraphs of text....I like your writing! Very kinetic. And you grab the reader pretty quickly. I also like the idea of providing accompanying music. It sets the tone and setting as well as whole paragraphs of text.
Are these pre-written stories or exercises in automatic writing? I find that when I go for the quantity over quality goals myself, I happily fill up blank pages with no idea where I’m headed.
For years I had an automatic writing project I would work on when I was between actual major projects. I knew nothing about it and let every sentence surprise me. It soon grew into a novel about a dark fantasy lord who was the personification of chaos. I’ve probably never had so much fun at the keyboard.
Daily production and posting is definitely hard unless your schedule is very stable. Good luck! Looks like you’re having fun.
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Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentFor Lisica, I decided to purchase my own website (https://dwdraff.in/) and post the weekly episodes there. I had done the same in the past with a free podcast service called Anchor but they were...For Lisica, I decided to purchase my own website (https://dwdraff.in/) and post the weekly episodes there. I had done the same in the past with a free podcast service called Anchor but they were bought by Spotify and I no longer trust that they have my long term interests at heart.
No ads, no money paywall. especially for this project, which is my description of utopia and a years-long escape from the increasing terrors of the 2020s. This project was initially conceived of as a TV series and the only path forward I’m interested in is the one that makes it an unlikely hit that comes to Hollywood’s notice.
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Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentI keep my workflow as simple as possible, with a condenser mic in a small studio and a VO-specific DAW called Twisted Wave that is perfect for longform audio tracks. There was someone on Tildes...I keep my workflow as simple as possible, with a condenser mic in a small studio and a VO-specific DAW called Twisted Wave that is perfect for longform audio tracks.
There was someone on Tildes here a couple months ago who had invented a combined text/audio process that sounds like what you describe. I’m always eager for new tech assistance because the production process is so intensive.
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Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentYeah I started a literary podcast few years ago and the convenience of it, having hundreds of hours of my stories and novels that I’ve narrated as a simple link I can send to anyone anywhere in...Yeah I started a literary podcast few years ago and the convenience of it, having hundreds of hours of my stories and novels that I’ve narrated as a simple link I can send to anyone anywhere in the world, is just a dream come true. I don’t add advertising or anything. Just the pure stories.
What I’ve learned is that the best way I navigate the entertainment industry myself is to generally keep money out of it and focus on the ideas. Every once in a while something pops and I have a hit on YouTube or I sell a script to Hollywood. But I’ve never found myself able to chase those goals for their own sake. It remains about the story.
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Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative
EarlyWords Link ParentAlthough the audiobook market has many of the same problems of self promotion and over saturation as the print market, it is a much more enthusiastic and engaged audience, which continues to grow....Although the audiobook market has many of the same problems of self promotion and over saturation as the print market, it is a much more enthusiastic and engaged audience, which continues to grow.
Go to acx.com and look at the side of the site for rights holders. This is the pipeline that Amazon, Audible, and Apple put together. You will notice that there are opportunities to work with narrators with no money upfront under a royalty share agreement.
Most of the narrators who work for those rates are just starting out or not having much success. But I don’t mind, if I believe in the project.
One of the best parts of having a narrator record your work is that nobody will ever know that book, almost as well as you. They will find the ideas and themes that are most important to the author and bring those elements to life. It can be a really wonderful collaboration.
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Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative
EarlyWords LinkI’ve been self publishing for 20 years now, before there were even platforms to do so. I’ve made very little money and found only small audiences, but I’m quite happy with it. I really only need a...I’ve been self publishing for 20 years now, before there were even platforms to do so. I’ve made very little money and found only small audiences, but I’m quite happy with it. I really only need a handful of people to be touched or moved or changed by each of my projects. Anything else is an abstraction.
My latest project is a series of four books. I am releasing them one chapter at a time every week in both text and audio formats. I am as much an actor and narrator as I am a writer so the audio version is an essential component for me. Last week, on chapter 17, I got five new subscribers for the first time. What others have said about consistency is exactly right in regards to building a community.
If you would like an audiobook version of your work, let’s talk. I can help you figure out if that is a good move for you next and if I’m the right person for the job or not. Good luck!
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Comment on Startups want to geoengineer a cooler planet. With few rules, experts see big risks. in ~enviro
EarlyWords LinkI am not in favor of a wild west approach to geoengineering. I don't think anyone but startup founders are. But one project that I think is really important is Project Vesta, which is designed to...I am not in favor of a wild west approach to geoengineering. I don't think anyone but startup founders are. But one project that I think is really important is Project Vesta, which is designed to not only capture marine carbon dioxide in olivine rock, but to use tidal forces to keep the olivine from sealing itself with an oxidized rind, which means it can absorb and process CO2 in perpetuity. According to their calculations, only 2% of global (mostly tropical) beaches would need to be turned green (olivine is green) for the current excess amount of CO2 in the world's oceans to be treated.
Geoengineering is definitely scary, but there are a number of processes like this that can be implemented incrementally. For too many people, they believe it's a single giant engineering initiative like a million square kilometer sun shield in space. We don't need to do that. We can slowly add albedo to cloud cover and ice fields in small amounts and continually study the interactions of the larger systems. Yes, we will certainly make mistakes, but as we are currently sprinting toward hell in a handbasket, I believe many more geoengineering strategies will be crucial to the continued livability of the planet.
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Comment on Where are you on the spectrum of vacation planning? Detailed to the hour or floating like a leaf in the wind? in ~travel
EarlyWords LinkI was always the freest of spirits on my travels, throwing myself at the world to see what would happen. But since the pandemic, I’ve found that is far less possible. The people who used to kindly...I was always the freest of spirits on my travels, throwing myself at the world to see what would happen. But since the pandemic, I’ve found that is far less possible. The people who used to kindly help me on my way are much less patient and welcoming now. And there is much less play in the system, with airlines and transportation infrastructure one of the least dependable systems now. On a flight last month from SFO to San Antonio we were rescheduled for the next day and then we spent five hours in the Dallas airport and then three hours on the tarmac and suddenly our vacation was nearly over before it began.
Also, I travel now to get footage of ancient history and archaeology sites and these trips require far more planning and the prioritizing of video capture instead of relaxation or exploration.
The exception to all that is that I can still hike out my front door in San Francisco and walk for several days into nature without any kind of plan. No reservations needed.
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Comment on Strategies for coping with writers block in ~creative
EarlyWords LinkI have found for myself that my writing doesn’t get blocked as much as the well sometimes runs dry. Either I am in input or output mode, and if I have been in output mode too long then I run out...I have found for myself that my writing doesn’t get blocked as much as the well sometimes runs dry. Either I am in input or output mode, and if I have been in output mode too long then I run out of things to say. That’s when I force myself to switch to input mode.
I believe that many writers don’t live fully enough to continually produce writing worth reading. They have their handful of things they like to say and a limited number of ways of saying it. And after a while they run out of ways to combine those few things.
I was a young Hollywood writer. I’d only staged three of my own plays when CAA found me and started my career as a screenwriter. But I was filled with misgivings at 26. It was too easy. The privileged position I’d been given was too important for me to waste it on merely clever or facile stories.
So I stepped back for a few years, convinced that I needed to live before I could offer writing that was worth reading or seeing onscreen. In short, I had no wisdom and nothing worth saying.
Now in my 50s, the experiences and losses I’ve lived through give me far more fuel for my fires and I haven’t had writers block in like 20 years.
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Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk
EarlyWords LinkMy wife and I met 30 years ago and part of the reason we fell in love was because of our activism and anger at the ways of the world. Together we have tried endless ways of joining the fight...My wife and I met 30 years ago and part of the reason we fell in love was because of our activism and anger at the ways of the world. Together we have tried endless ways of joining the fight against ignorance and self interest and all the ways they manifest.
What we realized is that protests and standard forms of activism have long ago been solved by the powers that be. So we just kept doing more and more to try to reach people more deeply. She became a teacher, trying to reach younger and younger kids, knowing that the earlier she could communicate certain values to them, the more strongly they would hold them. I’m a writer. I try to show people new ways of looking at things and get them excited about aspects of a better world, while warning them about the dangers and pitfalls of the one we live in.
Then this global information war happened and now we find ourselves again on this kind of abstract nebulous front line, fighting against the demons of social media and the forces trying to destroy the institution of education.
I don’t like fighting and confrontation but just trying to live a decent life somehow gets me in trouble again and again.
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Comment on Help me re-learn how to write, understand the nuances of writing, be a good writer in ~creative
EarlyWords (edited )Link ParentI’d like to chime in on how writing provides meaning and helps order one’s thoughts. Very often I will learn a subject by writing about it or use the process to help me decide how I feel about a...I’d like to chime in on how writing provides meaning and helps order one’s thoughts. Very often I will learn a subject by writing about it or use the process to help me decide how I feel about a divisive subject.
As a playwright I will often have characters embody opposing viewpoints about which I haven’t resolved my own opinions and then I will have them hash it out on stage in front of an audience. For example, I was always unsure whether I believed the path forward for humanity was through an Apollonian or Dionysian approach. So, in a hospital drama that is otherwise about childhood leukemia, I had two patients in the ward not only arguing these positions but acting out their beliefs and seeing what the consequences of those actions were.
It was only in that way I learned that as much as I admire the discipline and self-restraint of Apollonian disciplines, I remain at heart an emotional biological follower of Dionysis.
I do the same with essays, screenplays, poetry, and novels. Each medium is appropriate for different ideas. When our daughter was little we wrote children’s books together as well, using the narrative structure to learn life lessons and do some early homeschooling.
This is why I am not worried about AI doing all the writing in the future. Only a small fraction of it is for a wider audience.
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Comment on Is climate change driving the global rise in populism? If so ... how? If not ... what is? in ~enviro
EarlyWords Link ParentIndeed. It was in 2010 on a holiday in Switzerland that I met one of the leading Russian oligarchs. His stepson was an old friend who had escaped to the States in the 90s to kick a drug habit. The...Indeed. It was in 2010 on a holiday in Switzerland that I met one of the leading Russian oligarchs. His stepson was an old friend who had escaped to the States in the 90s to kick a drug habit.
The family was always indebted to us for how we had taken care of their son. In Geneva, they invited us to their mansion for a day and our daughter got to play in their pool. The stepfather was a Putin confidant and one of the top commodities traders in the world. He warned me then Russia was preparing to attack the west. He said we had lost our way and grown too soft with peace and the wolves of the steppe were coming for us.
I wholeheartedly believed him. And in the years since, I have certainly seen his prediction play itself out.
Horrible proposal. I would be shocked if this didn’t lead to another entertainment industry strike. These half-baked ideas would not only upend every economic process in Hollywood but it would also make every contract that much more of an obstacle to a practical career in the field.
The bias in this article toward the owners and investors paints a dramatically incomplete picture. “As media companies strive to increase profits…“ No fucking shit. As if studio executives and those who finance them haven’t been trying to make Los Angeles as welcome to workers as a 19th century coal mining town over the years.