Oops

[koffkoffwhataboutnonbinarygenderskoffkoff]

Wow I got a real frog in my throat. Must be seasonal allergies kicking in.

I vote for a / female hag.

I'm starting to realize I may have made a mistake offering to run this. If I can't roll with the punches (and all of them) in character creation, how am I going to do with plot? I'm starting to think I've overestimated my abilities and a hubristic catastrophe will follow.

I mean, I've DM'd a D&D game or two, but perhaps this isn't the same...

Not done for the evening yet, but I'll sleep on it before deciding I should pull the plug.

If I do, I apologize to everyone. If I don't, I apologize to everyone for my inevitable inadequacies.

Don't like the hag idea? I'm fine with just a witch.

Though keep in mind, Tevish, if you do this, you'll have an input too! You don't have to just blindly go with our suggestions.

Honestly, It's probably safe to igmore me at this hour. I'm posting like I'm drunk, which is very strange since I have never been drink in my libe and certainly am not now, but I'm kinda operating like I imagine I would whil drimk, so there's that. And I'm not going to clean up my typs like I usually o, because I think that helps make my point. Of course tha point that I'm worrying about points is sort of a point towards me being not all that mentally impaired. But I just sort of thought about things and was like, Okay impulse, let's go with that.

This may have been premature or my argument premature or something, that's why I'm not going to go crazy xscourge the topiug ane declare this thing over befote I even stared until tomorrow at least, since I don't know if I'm making the best decisions riugh tho and I don't know why.

Gotcha...

...

Anyway, we're with you either way!

It is only my long exposure to the scottish language that allowed me to discern what szat was saying.

I kinda gave up on what you were saying Szat.

I suggest a non-binary illusionist
Race suggestions: Selkie, Faerie, Ouphe, Aven, Orochi

You made your poll binary though so I voted female.

To Parse, and apologize
Tevish Szat"]Honestly, It's probably safe to ignore me at this hour. I'm posting like I'm drunk, which is very strange since I have never been drunk in my life and certainly am not now, but I'm kinda operating like I imagine I would while drunk, so there's that. And I'm not going to clean up my typos like I usually do, because I think that helps make my point. Of course the point that I'm worrying about points is sort of a point towards me being not all that mentally impaired. But I just sort of thought about things and was like, Okay impulse, let's go with that.

This may have been premature or my argument premature or something, that's why I'm not going to go crazy, scourge the topic and declare this thing over before I even stared until tomorrow at least, since I don't know if I'm making the best decisions right now and I don't know why.[/quote]

Okay, so I've slept on this, and had a cup of tea. I've learned that I do absolutely need to correct my typographical errors as I go, and... I think I've learned it was a mistake to forward myself for this.

The basic conclusion is that I'm not a strong enough writer for it.

Now, looking back at what I was thinking 10-12 hours ago, I think I was overreacting, but it's that very reaction that makes me relatively sure that the mistake was blindly barreling forward on this. From a meta point of view, character creation is going to be the simplest, most straightforward part of this mess. So if I'm having doubts and misgivings about my abilities here? There's no way I'm going to be able to keep it up when the going actually gets tough. There are a lot of ways I could put this, because analyzing my own product, but the short version is that I overestimated myself by even beginning to make the offer, and continuing would be pure hubris on my part.

I'm very, very sorry if anyone was really looking forward to this, and so very glad I didn't tease it too much or anything of the sort. If you're let down, feel free to PM ME and tell me how I'm a big jerk for doing this, but I'm pulling the plug on my attempt to run a M:EM adventure. I guess the cat is out of the bag as far as the format goes, so if somebody else wants to run one they have my full support, and there are a lot of writers a lot better than myself on this forum, so I don't doubt one of them could pull it off: Keeper, Orcish, Ruwin, Raven, Barinellos, and that's just off the top of my head.

I don't want to force you into something you're not comfortable doing, Szat, but I have to wonder...

Are you sure your fears about your own abilities are... well... realistic? I mean, you've been with us a long time, you write fantasy professionally, your last character was a freaking unicorn for goodness sake... Of all of us, surely you're among the most qualified people to do something like this!

I'm just wondering if you're being too hard on yourself, basically.

I *aspire* to write fantasy professionally. I've yet to meet with success or sell anything anywhere. You'd hear about it if I had. So, in essence, I've yet to prove an ability to sustain anything longform... I think Corrosion probably has the max word count of a narrative I've written for the M:EM and it's rather short. This isn't even getting into my characters: even if some of them have one really good note, they tend to have only that one note other than the basic plot-forwarding robot behavior I need. It's a weakness in my work and something that I need to practice with: making three-dimensional characters rather the likes of my current roster, or better yet, developing the 1-dimensional characters into more dimensional ones.

Your comment does remind me that I can actually delete polls rather than having to replace them with self-deprecating humor. . Sorry if that sent the wrong signals.

Tevish, I vehemently disagree with your assessment of your own characters as being one note. You're a heck of a writer, and I hope you don't ever lose sight of that. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. But that doesn't change the quality of the work you do.

Whether or not you want to run this activity is a totally separate question. The reason to do it would be because you want to -- don't worry about what anyone else does or doesn't want. At the end of the day, if it isn't going to be fun for you, there's zero point in doing it.

Tevish, we're all just lucky to have you around. We are lucky.

Yeah, to echo Keeper and Orcish, I'm totally cool with you not doing this if you don't feel like it. But there are a couple of points I'd like to briefly touch on. For the record, I've been going pretty much nonstop for the last 19 hours, so forgive me if I'm not quite my normal self at any point.


Untrue. Moving on.


I actually really disagree with this. I think the characters are arguably the most difficult part, not the easiest. The stories come from the characters and their reactions, not the other way around. Nearly everything that's going to be presented is going to be flavored through the perceptions of the characters. Honestly, when you started this thread originally, I was surprised you put characters up to vote, because I thought you would make those yourself. And the reason I thought you would make them yourself is because that's what I would do. Because it's easier.

Believe me, I know from experience that it is a LOT easier to write your own characters than someone else's. War of the Wheel reminds me all the time. Daneera? Kahr? Denner? The Dual-Walkers? These characters are easy for me to write, because I understand their motivations, their histories, their perceptions and nuances implicitly. Huinn? Fisco? These characters are a lot harder for me to write. Starting this project by asking us to make the character wasn't starting you off on the bunny hill. It was shooting you straight to the black diamond.


No need to beat yourself up. You proposed the idea because it sounded like fun (which, believe it or not, is what we're about here!). Turns out, after you thought about it, it wasn't going to be as much fun as you thought. No big deal, really.


I'm not going to go character by character with your stuff, but in general I think I disagree with this. I think Illarion Vale is a pretty richly nuanced character that really evokes an interesting emotional response. Lourima is a great character that hits numerous notes simultaneously, though I admit it was mostly "Kinship" that showed off her real range. Morgan and Larasa are utterly fascinating, and again, are doing a lot of different and interesting things. And most of your other characters haven't had much space to show themselves off yet.

So yeah, I think you're doing good stuff. And again, don't worry about this project. The next one will be more to your liking!

This is insane.

Your reasons for tackling various projects or not being beside the point, you are my favorite writer.

Your stories seethe with charm and flavor.