I Don't Want No Seven Stone Weakling

[dotinthesky]

After years and years of participating in NaNoWriMo[1] it looks like I'm finally on the homerun and ready to succeed in it!

Reasons why I think this year was easy:

1) I had no plan (i.e. I wasn't precious about what I was writing.)
2) I didnt' worry about coherence. I picked a random photo from Flickr each day and used that as inspiration. Slowly, reoccuring characters appeared and something David Lynchesque took form. No coherence though. No quality either. But, hey, it's just a rough draft.
3) I'm not reading back. I keep going forward, automatic writing. Keeping myself as close as possible to 1667 words a day. Not worrying about someone's blue eyes in one chapter suddenly going brown in the next.

Last night, sushidog came over for dinner and X Factor. I baked some spinach and feta burek, served alongside a simple salad with tomatoes. Sushidog provided the white wine and the delicious cookies for dessert.

Everytime I watch the X Factor I feel like playing videogames. It's because of the way each contestant is introduced: they stand at the end of a dark tunnel, badass face expression, while Tom Baker announces their name as if they are about to enter Mad Max's Thunderdome. We came up yesterday with the perfect X Factor videogame, which, if it existed, would surely sell hundreds of thousands of copies this Christmas and cause more demand and despair than the Wii a few years ago.

You choose which contestant you want to play. You then have to fight your way through different scenarios (Louis' mansion in Ireland, Cheryl's footballer palace, Dannii's Australian outback, etc) and defeat a boss at the end of each stage. It goes without saying that Simon is the final boss and it will take a lot of button pressing and power upping to kill him. However, if you manage to find Sinitta along the way, you can grab her by the legs and hit Simon on the head (she squeals "So Macho" with every strike) until he collapses. Contestants come with unique abilities and weaknessess. Rachel Hylton, for example, knows some great fighting skills from her time in jail, but has low charm skills and would struggle in the stage where you have to defeat Brian Friedman, the choreographer, in the Dance Studio. If you really want to power up with a Mega Scream that will knock out lots of baddies on rollerblades, as you are also dodging Dermot O'Leary and his Microphone of Doom, you are better off using Laura White or Ruth Lorenzo. If you want to play with your friends, you can all be JLS and kick butt just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There are lots of stages to unlock (what Sushidog calls "the Easter Egg levels"), including one with Sharon Osbourne (and if you are REALLy good, you just might find Ozzy in there somewhere too.) Does anyone know people in the videogames industry?



[1] This abbreviation really annoys me now. I use it, but with gritted teeth.

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Yes, it makes sense to have it on phones since the public votes by calling! Maybe songs could be found along the game which can be downloaded to the phone? And people can also include phone photos into the game (on banners, characters' T-shirts, etc). Hester and I clearly need to call Simon Cowell and have a chat with him. :-)

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Well done on the writing! Great work. I hope it emerges from the editing process with considerable distinction!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Even if just one short story comes out of it, I'll be happy.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Wow, great news on the NaNo project. I like your technique actually - that sounds like it could be a lot of fun to write. Maybe I'll rip you off for next year. ;)

Seriously though, well done on getting this far and good luck for the rest. I knew you'd get there eventually!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cheers! Hopefully something can be made of it all after I've given it a rest.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

I really like the way you write too - and its memorable (eg the 'I am the grass....' post last year)
*±§ best of luck §±*

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you. xoxo