So, I have been playing with wordpress...

[Green1]

Well, I think I will keep the two rant articles under lids for a second.

Instead, I want to give folks a bit more practical things along with killing two birds with one stone.

There is a NPC I need to draw up. Actually 2 or three things just to have. Lady Thraxus is the matron of a medium sized city about 50 miles north of my PC's refugee village. She also happens to be a Dragonborn Priestess of Tiamat! Since her and the PCs have an alliance of sorts to take care of the vampiric Stone Giant and centaur problem in the pass between the two cities, they have an alliance of sorts and Thraxus herself has lended aid to them. But, as time goes on, the character needs to be fleshed out.

A non spoilery behind the scenes is in order as I design Lady Thraxus' sheet along with her forces, acolytes, and personality and motivations.

[Buster's Uncle]

Couple of organizational ideas about managing your writing output:

If you haven't already, make a dedicated folder for blog articles somewhere on your hard drive.  Keep the stinkers you abandoned, too, 'cause you just never know what might be useful.  Someday, you'll end up with so many used and unused files you have to do lots of subcategories to keep it organized and manageable.  This is the kind of problem you want to have.

Start an article ideas list file.  One word can do if you're sure you'll get to an idea very soon, but keep in mind that you might be looking at the list two years down the line and miss a good idea you didn't spell out enough to recall just what you'd meant when you typed "Aspies" and nothing else.  No reason not to begin that informal outline list as sub-aspects occur to you and let ideas grow while they wait. Open it frequently before you forget when you think of ideas, even while writing about something else entirely.  You're banking in ideas.  -There are no bad ideas, just some easier to do something with than others.

Somebody already talked about trying to build up an article backlog when you can that you time the releases of - I've already endorsed the idea privately, and remind you again now.  One winning tactic for dealing with writer's block and time management is to write extra when inspiration and your schedule cooperates to tide you over the lean spells.

[Buster's Uncle]

I sure hope you don't mind me throwing out ideas I think are in your wheelhouse.

-There's a thought in there about the downside of geek culture going mainstream worth talking about..

I had another earlier, but didn't make it here fast enough, and it's gone, now.

(I did concede that you Told Me So about private space in the latest science article I posted.  There's something that ought to be of interest to most of your audience, for all of being nothing to do with gaming - nurdz luvz rrrrockets-n-space, and you could go on for hours about Burt Rutan and Jerry Pournelle, and maybe even Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.)

[Buster's Uncle]

(-And, God help us all, Richard Branson.)



I meant to say this, too:  release timing is worth a lot of thought as you go and find your average output capacity and what's comfortable.  You've talked about all the demands on your time and attention as a real concern - I've said get new content out regular, and I'm not walking that back - BUT, until you've been doing this a few months and gotten a better feel for your productivity and the chaos of RL demands you have to juggle, you may or may not be wise to hold back anything you finish to a weekly release schedule and have an article queue to, again, tide you over whatever tries to interfere.

And of course you'd want to give yourself some flex, depending of the situation, and re-evaluate the schedule from time to time - never under bi-weekly, though, I should think.

-If I was doing it, I think off the top of my head that I'd personally aim for twice weekly - I'm pretty sure I could sustain daily/5 a week for a long time, with half my days left over for browsing and whatever, but I have no life, no job, no high priestess, and a mood disorder to factor into my plans.  I'd definitely have to build a backlog during my roughly three months 'on' to get me through the three 'off' when I'd be writing bummer stuff if anything at all.

...You go through spells, I've observed, of shifting interests, and that can end up amounting to the same thing, pretty much.  In an enterprise that wants to build an audience, it's still that guy you told me about posting news on his forum for over a year before his audience found him.  (Which I half-lived, subsequently - that first year here was gratifying at the beginning and end, but I was suicidally, apathetically, depressed in a very quiet forum for most of the six months in the middle, and kept up mostly in desperation.)  Find something to love in the work for itself, and be very very stubbornly persistent in the face of silence spam and trolls.  (The day a neckbeard shows up in a rage, committed to punishing you for saying neckbeard so much, may be years away, or five minutes, but it WILL happen - you can't please everyone, and some people automatically hate you just for being.)  Stay the course, man; you have a style and insights not run-of-the-mill, and very worth spreading and opening some eyes.


Once you've kept it up for a year or so, start doing hail-mary attempts to contact Important Gaming People asking for by-email blog interviews - land any, and watch your audience explode.  (Please both the audience and the subject with an interesting, informative, fair writeup, and watch More Say Yes next time - you're not actually a journalist; no need to pretend.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Facebook EVERY time you post a new article, separately.  #HashTag #ThePoop #OutOfIt #EachTime.

[Green1]

I will facebook the Lady Thraxus thing along with putting it in CharOp on ENworld. I will put her in fully realized pdf for DL, too.

[Buster's Uncle]

I hope you are taking in the thoughts you're not responding to - it's only important that you think 'em over, YMMV, but of course, we can arrive at further refinements and inspiration appropriate to you and your wants/needs/situation should you have time to discuss.  I know a lot about building an audience/community and promoting free online, but it's not like I have it arranged systematically in my head like a text book.  I've picked up stuff from the communications degree, a brief journalism career, being the one who did all the work in the chess club for years - and things sisko thought of and never explained, but I knew a good thing when I saw it.  So, a lot of it's be picked up ad-hoc.  Talking shop about that stuff is not only something I think about a lot, but never get to discuss much, but like sisko, you've clearly been around online a lot longer and have things to teach me in one of my specialties.  -Also, batting ideas around just helps me organize my thinking for my own good.

How's Lady Thraxus coming along?  Did you clear me as safe for comments, or everyone?  I just commented again.

[Green1]

Ended up having to watch the new Doctor Who and my girlfriend got a little sick. But, the game is tomorrow at 5pm, so it must be done.

In a nutshell: Dragonborn (red) Cleric 13 (Domain :Trickery)

A little background.

The party:

Lady Almitra: Siren Monk (Open Hand) 5/ Cleric of Sol (Light) 5. Has 2 henchmen: Orc Fighter (Battlemaster) 7 and Orc Fighter (Battlemaster) 6 / Cleric (Light). Has around 150 Orc Archer 6 as followers.

General Exhume: Drow Ranger 10. 1 Henchman: Goblin Fighter 2/ Rouge 4 Has 200 Goblin Fighter 2/ Rouge 2 followers.

Lady Shadeslayer: Shadar Kai Ranger 10/ Cleric of Tiamat 1. Has 1 henchman: Orc Fighter 6/ Cleric (trickery). Has around 200 commoner orc 1 brewers and masons as followers.

Evander: Half elf Sorceror (chaos) 10. Has 2 Henchmen: Human Fighter 2/ Monk 1/ Sorc 1 and Human Cleric 2/ Monk 1/ Sorc 1. Has 20 followers Human Monk 1/ Cleric 1/ Sorc 1.

Last session, Thraxus and her henchmen and the PCs and thier henchmen had to flee 20 Centuar Fighter 3 Vampires and 2 Stone Giant Vampires hoping to end once and for all the Vampire Naga who never dies. they hallowed her old temple, but she has dirt in the pass and has been turning creautures in the pass between Lady Thraxus' city and the PC's fledgeling city into vampire spawn.

[Buster's Uncle]

So what's your latest thinking about a release schedule?

(We have a Who thread, and you should report, being careful to not spoil.  I probably won't be able to get it on Daily Motion and post here before at least mid-afternoon tomorrow, if that.  They seem to have cracked down a bit.)

[Green1]

Should release 2 times a week. No set days.

[Buster's Uncle]

I found, posted here, and am watching the Who now.  -Naturally, I've availed myself of the promotional opportunity on tha' Book (Linked the post with #‎DrWho‬ ‪#‎WhoSeries9‬ ‪#‎TheMagiciansApprentice‬.)

Your own review, of course, would make a good article subject for frugaldm - especially if you get it up today.  That kind of thing is time-sensitive as far as click-bait value, and a notable exception to trying to pace yourself w/ releases...

If you do it, copy/paste here and as many forum OTs as you can stand to, of course w/ linkback - that's the same thing BBC America was doing putting the full season premier up on yootoob last night.  Bait.  Give a generous freebee, linkback, SEO and bait.  -Your review will be colorfully you, of course.  Your personality on the page is your greatest asset - and what you uniquely have to offer over the next neckbeard blogger who's gamed forever.

[Green1]

BTW, Lady Thraxus background post is up.

Unfortunately, the party came early. But, fortunately, the session was a city administration diplomatic session with no combat. Though, I admit no combat worries me, if that is what they want, I deliver. If they want export and import figures and to be involved in trials and political intrigue, fine. Smacks in the face of the hack and slash I learned.

Kind of still reeling after posting what I had, but next session Lady Thraxus WILL make an appearance. Absence makes the heart grow fonder....

NEWEST POST https://frugaldm.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/npc-creation-lady-thraxus-dragonborn-priestess-of-tiamat-part-1/

[Green1]

..and put on facebook. Now, Wordpress has buttons to make it on click, but my Facebook page is still largely personal. I have about 80 "friends" if you can call them that. I would say maybe 10 percent are gamers. I had a bit of internal "issue ethics" deal with promotion of blog on FB. But, when I really start thinking about it, others are promoting stuff on my feed as well. Some of it is usefula nd keeps me in to facebook. A lot of very libertarian and athiest themes appear along with life events from folks from an era gone. The promoters are not true "friends" but "friends" because they have viewpoints entertaining and enlightening. So, my ethical delimma solved.

But until I explore how Wordpress interferes (Wordpress control panel shows up on a lot of articles I read) , I want to post this directly with a Facebook tailored message.

Thoughts?

[Buster's Uncle]

A good start.  It's there in my timeline.  I 'liked' it to help spread the word - one of my 'friend's is a big LARPer with way too many 'friend's of his own.

I 'spose you should try all those Wordpress functions just to see what they do in practice.  You never know.  Also, #HashTags.

[Green1]

Second part is up. The third part will be spells and equipment. Notice, for a NPC, there is a lot of eyeballing. I just assign stats then I get all I need. I could run her as is, in a pinch. All you need are her modifiers, prof bonus, and HP. Then just have your PHB open to Cleric spells because with those numbers in 5e, you have her + to hit easy (MOD plus PROF BONUS plus any magic plus on weapon) and Spell DC (8 + AB MOD + PROF BONUS)

AC and spells are always the last thing, though. And the spells on a NPC sellcaster are the biggest pain. But, I have ways of making it less painful.

After this, I may use 5e DMG toolbox to make a custom race: A SMAX progenitor! DND SMAX!!! Marr as a Progenitor Barbarian. Zak as a technowizard from 5e Unearthed Arcana. Deidre as a Druid! Miriam as an evil cleric! Roze as a techno rogue! Yang as a Monk. Sounds cool to do.