Category: 02 Novel

[Novel 02] Cloning Diorama Parking

Through limitations, there is creativity. Minecraft is not great in terms of level design. To do anything effective at the scale I want to do, where I recreate setpieces I imagine in “The Story,” I have to learn to juggle 9 algebraic variables in my head. The need for this arose after I finished writing Novel 01 and assessed it critically. Building the screenshotted parking lot and outdoor waiting area below proved helpful before I write Novel 02. [130]

Spoilers?: Minor [environmental storytelling thoughts]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW, IF YOU’RE WILLING TO BE PATIENT WITH A PROCESS, YOU CAN DO SOME COOL THINGS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Introducing Evillian Zeal

My 13th entry of this Minecraft building series was fairly lucky – pun intended. With my health on the mend, finally, I spent over four hours rambling about “The Story,” specifically what I learned while writing Novel 01 to write Novel 02. As I do when I write anything, I meandered through some related and unrelated topics, brainstormed some things, and solved a few logistical problems that were impeding my progress toward writing what I’m thematically code-naming “Novella 1.5.”

Spoilers?: Minor [long-term fiction-writing plans]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW SPENDING THE TIME TO INTRODUCE PEOPLE TO YOUR IDEAS CAN LEAD TO NOVEL NEW CREATIONS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Clone Clone Clear

I don’t often like pointing to specific things to say ‘this is where everything changed.’ I can’t specifically say when the idea of writing “The Story” prevented me from living a normal life. I can’t point to the moment, while writing Novel 01, where I accepted that I couldn’t be perfect at writing it and appreciated it flaws included. Perhaps, though, this 12th video of building Eville in Minecraft for Novel 02 could lead to something special…

Spoilers?: Minor [long-term recording plans]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW CHANGES THAT SEEM REVELATORY COULD BE ANYWHERE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Eville Medical Campus?

Between a hypothetical plot I’ve been jamming on to process the increasingly intolerable pain I was facing on a daily basis and the influx of new medical treatment locations I was visiting, I have more locations to inform “The Story.” With my Novel 02 Minecraft builds, I’ve been using the popular videogame as a 3D paint program to layout architecture and keep geography narratively consistent, which is helping me brainstorm in-novel locations, while taking real-world inspiration.

Spoilers?: Minor [fact inspiring fiction]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW SHORT-TERM REFERENCE PLANS DON’T MATTER UNLESS YOU’RE MAKING LONG-TERM PLANS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Guestbooks, Balconies, Cloning?

I’ve had less and less energy to do anything major within Minecraft for building setpieces for “The Story,” but I still gave it a good try. After writing Novel 01, I realized I needed to have the details in order. In this session to help with Novel 02, I mainly finished off some details that had been lingering in my mind, then attempted some practice to help me build bigger setpieces faster. I’m reaching a dead-end, honestly…

Spoilers?: Minor [how much building?]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW SOMETIMES BEING A FORERUNNER ISN’T BECAUSE THE IDEA IS GOOD BUT BECAUSE THE IDEA IS BAD? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Furniture, Closets, Balconies

During my 10th livestream session of building setpieces in Minecraft to help me tell “The Story,” based on my experiences writing Novel 01, I realized that talking the whole time is quite exhausting. Writing is easier. I’m not deterred, but I’ll need to adapt how I livestream these builds for Novel 02 and beyond. I imagine there will be sessions where I may turn the mic off, silence the audio, and may even record but not stream.

Spoilers?: Minor [building means rebuilding]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW BUILDING AND REBUILDING IN MINECRAFT IS SIMILAR TO WRITING AND EDITING IN FICTION? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] MRI Informing MRI

While I was in the MRI lobby, waiting for the scans to see what’s been going so wrong with my lower back, my mind went to “The Story.” I prefer thinking about my ambitious long-form narrative project to pessimism or other wastes of time because it’s often more productive. I first thought about something specific to my Minecraft building series for Novel 02, then perhaps a scene or concept I could later use for “The Story.”

Spoilers?: Minor [place for thoughts]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW WAITING IN A LOBBY COULD INSPIRE A SCENE ABOUT WAITING IN A LOBBY? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Podcast, Redoing, Cleaning

My 9th session of building setpieces in Minecraft for “The Story” solidified my hunch that this can be a good tool; if used correctly. Every Minecraft livestreamers I’ve watched so far could best be summarized as silly people shouting obscene jibberish for the entertainment of their chatroom. I don’t want any of that. So once I hooked up the mic and started talking about Novel 01 and Novel 02, the process felt natural, and ideas are flowing.

Spoilers?: Minor [structure builds structure]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW BUILDING IS A SERIES OF BUILDING AND THEN REBUILDING ON IDEAS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Learning Cloning Basics

After this eighth building session, wherein I relayed during a livestream what I had built in Minecraft to replicate buildings and other possibly imaginary, possibly real structures in that mysterious other-dimensionality space where fiction resides, for setpieces within “The Story,” taking the lessons I learned while writing Novel 01 to build Novel 02 in a manner where I could then write 03 and on easily, I thought deeply. I learned what I must do. It involves Zealie here.

Spoilers?: Minor [plans fictional, realistic]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW JUST WANTING TO HAVE A CUTE IN-GAME PET SPWANED A SORT OF SPRAWLING THOUGHT PROCESS MANY LAYERS DEEP? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Novel 02] Building Downscaled Model

This seventh session building setpieces that will appear in “The Story,” as lessons from writing Novel 01 to help me write Novel 02, helped me realize that Minecraft, used responsibly, can help me tell stories. I doubt I’ll be using Minecraft as a video storytelling medium. I far prefer writing to anything involving video production or editing, as I had to deal with, in uploading this video, but there are elements that can help me write better.

Spoilers?: Minor [putting together puzzles]
WANNA CONSIDER HOW, SOMETIMES, IT’S EASY TO BUILD SOMETHING IN A SMALL SCALE BEFORE BUILDING IT IN A LARGER SCALE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!