Plans evolve and change at an almost daily rate sometimes, and that holds especially true with my goals here. Work and home life seem to take up more and more time, even as I make efforts to try and cut back on my other hobbies to focus on this site. My weekends literally evaporate before I can get anything done. I honestly don’t know where the Saturday before last went, and this three day weekend wound up being a blink and you’ll miss it kind of thing. Whether it’s just basic kinds of errands or little chores around the house, I get up around eight or nine in the morning, and by the time those little things are done, it’s nearly evening.
To that end, I’m going to have to impose something of a schedule on myself, and then try my damnedest to stick to it.
But that’s not the only thing that’s delayed me. Just as large a reason is my own mind, and it’s seeming inability to stay focused where I want it to.
See, the whole reason I called this place the “Urbanverse” is because I have a whole bunch of different settings that I want to develop, but can’t seem to keep focus on any one for very long. I’ll try to focus on one particular area, and the next thing I know my mind is wandering off to another one. It’s pretty annoying, and I’m sure modern technology is to blame somehow with all of it’s instant gratification and constant notifications, and I’ve got to counter that crap and get my ability to focus back to what it used to be, or at least as close to it as I can manage.
The Verses
So far, I have the following “universes”, even though most of them are technically in the same universe. I suppose that the better way to put these are settings and time periods and genres.
- Fantasy Setting / Oldest Time Period – This is the “kerryn” verse, the world and fantasy setting in which most of my kerryn stories take place. There are two main time periods here, one taking place before the Kerryns were enslaved, and the other set a long time in the future, after they’ve been enslaved for several generations.
- Sci-Fi Setting / Much Further Down the Road – This is the space-faring setting, and the far future of the fantasy setting.
- Western Setting – This is something of a side story setting, taking place on an Old West style world, which is part of the larger Sci Fi setting, but mostly self contained.
- Superhero Setting – This is the setting that’s off to itself, though it’s likely that there could be some crossover with the other settings. It may be a parallel universe that developed differently, or it may be entirely it’s own thing.
- Horror Setting – This is a setting that I’m slowly delving into as I explore more into Call of Cthulhu at the weekly tabletop RPG. I’ve had some ideas brewing for a while, and I’m thinking that I may just develop a horror setting that’s entirely it’s own entity.
And there you have it…my massive series of worlds and universes that I hope to develop much more fully. But…there’s so much there that they’re all kind of bouncing around in my head, and proving difficult to sort out on screen/on paper.
I suppose the best option would be to spend a week at a time in each setting, developing some characters, world details, stories, and whatever else comes to mind, and rotate out on a weekly basis between settings. And I’m thinking I’ll have to setup some deadlines and plans for what I’m going to start developing during those weeks. Maybe one day dedicated to characters, one to technology or magic, and another to the world building. May even have something dedicated to some fiction set in whatever setting I’m currently developing.
I definitely want to have some kind of goal for weekly production; the trick will be sticking to it. I have had a notoriously difficult time of late keeping track of my time outside the office. Part of this is health related, as I’ve been trying to get a handle on my high blood sugar (which is almost as eternal a struggle as getting my writing in order), and due to various factors I always seem to be extremely tired in the evenings, to the point where I’m basically useless for at least an hour, if not more, and then struggling to stay awake just to reach bed time. Pretty sure a lot of it is mental stress from work, too, but I just need to fight to get over it.
The Campaign Creation Series
This series, as I originally intended to follow along with, may not have been what I was looking for. The original description made it seem like more focus on world building, but as the weeks have gone by, it’s proven to be definitely more geared to campaign development. This isn’t a bad thing, and I can use it, but it’s just not what I’m needing to do. I may go back on occasion and do another entry in the series as it shifts to world building for the week, but the last few entries have definitely been more for a tabletop campaign. It’s not dead, just not following the YouTube series to the letter.
Tentative Schedule Idea
I’m tentatively going with something like this for the monthly goal:
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |
| Week 1 – Fantasy | — | Character Profile Entry | — | Location / Magic / Technology Entry | — | Fiction Entry | — |
| Week 2 – Sci-Fi / Western | — | Character Profile Entry | — | Location / Magic / Technology Entry | — | Fiction Entry | — |
| Week 3 – Superhero | — | Character Profile Entry | — | Location / Magic / Technology Entry | — | Fiction Entry | — |
| Week 4 – Horror | — | Character Profile Entry | — | Location / Magic / Technology Entry | — | Fiction Entry | — |
I might tweak this plan, but for now it’s a start.
Character Profile Entries – The idea is to detail a character to some degree, working on some background details, some history on them, basic rundown on their abilities, that kind of thing.
Location / Magic / Technology Entries – These entries will focus on building up the world either by detailing a location (city, nation, single building, landmark, etc), something relating to magic (spells, special abilities, magic items, etc), or technology (weapons, armor, vehicles, etc).
Fiction Entries – Short works of fiction relating to the entries earlier in the week, likely involving the character detailed and tying in the middle of the week entry.
I want to work in more fiction as well, so there may be a longer running story or something more spicy in the works. Time will tell.
Until next time, Sniper out!
