Six months ago, I started this experiment of writing. For two months, I took a (not entirely voluntary) 20% break from work and dedicated that time to writing. It was an amazing run, and over two months, I got a LOT of writing done.
Now, suddenly, I find myself with a lot of paid work and, having recently taken a two-month pay cut, I can’t really turn it down. So, my new challenge is to keep a writing habit despite being very, very busy.
As a result, I’ve had to cut back on my writing time. Two hours, or even one, is not a viable goal most days. So, I’ve had to take an hour here and there when I can get it. I’m still following my practice though. When I do have the time and energy to write, I try to set aside the time and focus on what I’m doing.
Cleaning out the coffee cups
And how much work have I managed to do? Here’s the latest iteration of the Coffee Diagram I introduced way back in Regular Coffee #5.
We can see that I’ve completed 9 cups worth of work—that’s 9 writing sessions worth in the last 6 weeks. My writing goal for that period of time (at 3-4 sessions per week) would be 18-24 cups of work. I did take a week off to go camping, so call it 15-20 cups. Still, I’m doing closer to half of my preferred output right now. That’s a bummer, but I’m not going to sweat it. This is a game of adjustment.
Given that I have a heavy workload for the next 2 months, I’m going to revise down my estimate and try for three sessions a week. I’m also going to slow down the pace of my Substack posts to one post every two weeks. I love posting here, but I also need to make sure my other work has room to breathe.
So, what did I work on?
First off, I made four Substack posts, including a complete adventure location for Isotope The Henderson Ruin. It’s a pretty good adventure; go check it out.
There are three cups now in the “Other Isotope” column. Often when work is very busy, I get a lot more idea than I have time to write down. I’ve been putting these into some of the other locations for Isotope. I worked on three different locations and made good progress on each, including:
Rules for gigantic monsters and megabeast
The economy of Anthropocene, the junkyard mountain of the ancients
A good number of beasts and denizens scattered across Anthropocene, the Crater Wastes, and Spire.
But, when I look at this chart, the most glaring thing is what’s missing. I haven’t filled in any cups in the “Publish” column. Why? I’m still reviewing my publishing plans for Isotope. There are a lot of things to consider, including artwork, layout, print runs (maybe), and possible publishing partners to get those things done. So, I’m holding off on publishing decisions for at least a few weeks.
What’s next?
I’m still plugging away at the Suburbia sourcebook. Where many of the sites and encounters in Farm are self-contained, the adventures in Suburbia are more tightly bound together. That’s because where Farm is focused on exploring an environment, Suburbia is more about community. The various factions and denizens in Suburbia are more interconnected, and adventures there are more like to involve navigating that community.
Adventures in Suburbia have two basic branches. One is exploring the various communities in Suburbia and their intersecting agendas. The other is exploring an environment where every single house is a potential dungeon crawl! To help with this, I’m including several tables and resources for the GM.
For example, this 3d20 table can be used to call up details for any given house quickly:
Three rolls give you a style for the house, one obvious feature, and one other feature that may or may not be obvious.
Here’s a house I rolled in a playtest this week:
60’s futuristic: The house is a swept-roofed house made of aluminum and steel with round windows and 50’s styling.
Car crashed through wall: A 60’s style finned SUV is crashed through the large picture window!
Deranged appliances: Inside, several robotic appliances carry out deranged versions of their last task, kept in working order by a paranoid robo-butler that’s just intelligent enough to hate its fate, but not intelligent enough to break out of its programming.
The crashed SUV gave the Rangers easy entrance to the house, which proved useful when they wanted to evade a patrol. Inside, the mad Roomba gave them warning that the house had electronic inhabitants. The group’s Human was able to connive the house AI to give him maintenance access and shut down the robots (including the potentially deadly robot lawn mower).
So, in keeping with my temporary schedule, I’ll plan to be back in two weeks. Let me know in the comments what you’re playing right now, or what you’re excited to play soon.