I have never done index cards. It sounds a bit intimidating!
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That reminds me video games. I always wonder how they come up with the names for all the spells, gear, classes, kits etc, particular when there are equivalents on like Light and Dark side, like in Star Wars games. So many names, lol… I hope you enjoyed the process though!
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The problem with writing historical fantasy with mentally ill characters is that nobody knows knows the difference between a curse and a mental illness, unfortunately conflating the two.
And even the brightest scientific minds can’t make heads or tails of it.
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Okay, I need to work now, but I have another chapter prepared for editing/posting.
I found a good natural break, where I will be switching from a lot of characters in the scene to my Main is alone with his lover scene for a nookie and an argument.
If I don’t succumb to extreme wordiness, I can handle their lover conflict all in one (next) chapter and send the love interest on his merry way by the end of it, with the Main promising something he would desperately try to deliver on over the Last Obstacle/Plot Conflict/Character Growth Finale (omg!) till the final snapshot… and succeed in the nick of time… and happy end!!!
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You know, I wonder that too! Naming is incredibly time consuming, but at least it’s satisfying to get everything down in the end. Though I have no idea how they name like hundreds of skills and armor pieces and dungeons. It’s probably the most time consuming part of video game building 
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It is a bit of work, especially for a complicated story like this one, but because the story is complicated, it’s difficult to wrap my mind around it. There are two benefits to this method:
- As I’m writing the cards, i notice things I didn’t before. Every time I do this, this happens. It’s like giving your work to someone else and getting their candid opinion.
- After they’re written, you free up space in your brain. You don’t have to remember each scene anymore and that frees you to get your brilliant solution.
I didn’t get far last night. I’ll try to work on it some more today if time allows.
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Or not.
For my fantasy world, I chose my naming themes and went on a research to look up words in the themes. I made nice long lists of obscure words. Then I chose rules for myself for the naming conventions.
And now, whenever I’m naming someone or something, I just look at the list to see what hasn’t been used yet. It’s one time work that later you don’t have to worry about.
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I just make notes in a file vs cards.
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That sounds like a really handy method to go about it!
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It’s really fun, too. Some names are like inside jokes or Easter eggs.
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It is. I want to try cards for my next story vs my one-file thing.
Hope everyone is well and the end of year is good for all.
I’m cleaning up my portfolio and story strategies for the new year. I’m going to be using Pixiv as my primary editor, as it’s easier for me to port into ebooks from there.
I’m not expecting my works to be discovered or read there since only a handful of users speak English. I guess I like seeing everything neatly presented, as a one-stop-shop. The place kind of brings out my motivation for some weird reason.
So, I’m going to use it as a hub for stories I’ll self publish, which is pretty much everything on my WIP list.
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Glad you found a website you like at least for publishing the stories.
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I am taking it a bit easy today. Just got an endoscopy moments ago.
Thank goodness that part is over.
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Take it easy, of course. Health first!
So, just wanted to share the difference in different genres vs ranking vs visibility.
In the past couple weeks, three of my books won ranking lottery for a half a day, but each behaved differently:
Trapped by the Mafia, contemp Mafia romance, ranked in top 5 in love and romance, got 800 individual readers
Rivals and Revels, Regency Romance, ranked 1st in historicalfiction, got 100 individual readers
She Kills Elephants and Men, a Fantasy Romance, polyam, reverse harem, ranked in top 10 romance, got 40 individual readers
I think this is a very telling audience and demographics appeal numbers. Write contemporary romance and win at life, I guess. 
there is basically 10x to 20x as many people interested in contemporary than anything else, particularly fantasy.
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Wow, that’s a massive difference there! I’m not all that surprised by it, either lol.
Doesn’t really make me any more likely to write romantic stories though. I love reading romance, but it’s not my go-to when writing and I don’t think the extra readers are worth it
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All three of my stories are romances. It is contemporary that matters the most. I tend to romance x adventure mix, so romance is what I am interested in. But I do love my speculative element!
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Thank you very much. I am feeling better now that I’ve rested up a bit.
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I’m the same. I can’t help myself.
Story might be good on its own but add a little magic to it and it’s so much more interesting.
But hey, those are nice rankings and nice readership boost. Congratulations on the little achievement.
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Just wish it represented real interest in my stories, not a little happy accident of the algorithm 
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