I've been getting in the mood to write, which is good since I only have technically 12 rooms left for Level 8 in order to wrap up all the room descriptions for the entire box set. Here's what's making this slow...
Last year when fucking Windows crashed, I had to take the computer in to get the hard-drive salvaged and transferred to a new solid state drive because some of the material was not yet backed up. I was doing regular backups but some days I don't. It crashed while I was fucking writing the rooms for Level 8!
So I took the computer to a local guy, who we shall now refer to as Jag-Off because the fucking prick never answers his phone. Anyway, Jag-Off did a decent job transferring everything but a few things got fucked up in the transfer. For example, with Level 7 I had back ups dated:
3-1-19
7-13-19
5-27-21
Note that Level 7 was completed long before 2019. It was just I had to make some changes over time. Well, the latest dated backup file (that I can find so far) - dated 5-27-21 0 opens to just one blank page. So that one is fucked. Not sure what was changed on it. Might have just been typos I found. Might have been a change in actual script from the 7-13-19 version. No idea.
Windows must have been fucking up because even the copy I had on the back up hard drive shows a blank page for that updated page.
The good news is that it looks like all the material is there. For example, I had 12 rooms left for Level 8 (I kept saying 10 but I realized it was indeed 12 - I miscounted on earlier posts). And I have 12 rooms left on the latest updated file (7-13-19). Luckily, I would date it...its like this. I would simply save a current document as Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions. Then I would save it each time I added writing. In Word I would simply hit "Save". It was also set to auto-save every 10 minutes. Eventually after weeks or months I would save it as a new file, say Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions - Updated 7-13-19. That would leave 2 files:
Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions
Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions - Updated 7-13-19
I would then do more work on Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions - Updated 7-13-19, then hit "Save". Week after week saving it with more rooms written as the same file. Eventually I would - after a random period of time, when the mood hit me - resave the Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions - Updated 7-13-19 file and update it to Level 7 - Core Room Descriptions - Updated 5-27-21. That way I knew it was the most recent writing. So when I updated it from 7-13-19 to 5-27-21, that time span is almost 2 years but it could have been the case where the material in the 5-27-21 file had maybe just a few typos changed or perhaps just a few sentences added compared to the file dates 7-13-19. In other words, I may have added material to the 7-13-19 file on 5-26-21, then simply hit "Save" and it saved as 7-13-19. Then the next day (5-27-21) I might have added a single period (.) or a sentence or made a tiny notation and then saved it as 5-27-21.
Convoluted, I know.
What I'm saying is that the difference between two dated documents could be a difference of as many as 20 rooms and dozens of pages, or as little as a fixed typo (misspelling) with no changes to content.
And I have lots of similarly named files. And I saved them to multiple files and an extra hard drive for redundancy. So now it's a matter of simply looking for and verifying the most recent material, checking to see if it adds up - i.e. my Level 8 Room Planning document says I have 12 rooms left for Level 8 (Rooms #18,19,20,21,27,35,etc.) and the writing in my Level 8 Core Rooms Description document shows everything is written and completed except those 12 rooms, then it matches and we're good.
I may forget what's in all the rooms off the top of my head but when I look at the map, or the writing, every detail I wrote comes back 100%, meaning if there is something missing, I'll realize its missing. I may not know precisely the exact words I wrote, but I will realize there is something missing.
So this week I'll be doing a new total backup and making sure everything is on track. I have to check the To Do list and the Changes Needed list and make sure everything is up to date from when I left off. This is such a hassle because it's about 300 pages of writing (counted in Word) and about 157,081 words just for all the room descriptions of the 3 levels (i.e. not counting NPC write ups, monsters, etc.).
Most authors consider a fiction book to average 280 words per page, depending on font size, border space, etc. But that's the average. If we go by that, this is a 561 page book. So far!
So over the next week or so I plan on streamlining it and creating a folder so I can sort and store only the most recent work so that I'm working off the most complete version of everything. Even so, there are a lot of details to check - links between levels, links between teleports, etc. It's truly a massive undertaking. What I'd love to do is be able to wrap up the room descriptions - the last 12 rooms - after all this sorting, in September. October is a busy month for me because of Halloween. I have to watch 2 movies a night to squeeze in all my 90 favorite horror movies, plus there are dozens of horror comics (Werewolf By Night, Tomb of Dracula, etc.) and a dozen or so monster magazines to read. This on top of managing 2 jobs (5 hrs. a day on one, the other more a pay by job set up) and workouts, training, special Halloween events, etc. So October is hard for me to do anything other than Halloween related stuff because I have so little time free. November eases up because from Nov. 1st to Thanksgiving, I have a sort of laid back nostalgia time where I look through old family pics and films, watch a handful of movies that take me back to Thanksgivings when I was a kid (The Time Machine - the original movie, literally takes me back in time!). But the pace is laid back and slow. I use that time to unwind and relax after the crazy busy Halloween season and the year in general. So I can do some writing then. Once Christmas season kicks in, it's hard to write Undermountain. I have about 24 Xmas movies I watch, so about 1 night. Plus I read tons of books about Christmas through the ages and what not. I just soak up Xmas! I also have a tradition that dates back for...let's see...8 to 10 years at least! I've been writing a final adventure for my long running Taladas campaign (even though the last player moved out of state years ago and we haven't played in 8 or so years). Its' my most fondly remembered campaign of all time. So every year at Xmas I spend time working on the latest story - where the PCs travel to Nordheim (a North Pole like continent) where it's cold and snowy and there are Vikings and rune casters and giants and all sorts of Norse dragons, etc. I add some work on it every year, picking up where I left off the year before. It's a large adventure involving Cryonax and it's become an annual Xmas tradition to work on it each year.
Whew! Wordy today, huh?
Anyway, bottom line I'll be sorting everything out and hopefully getting those last 12 rooms knocked out (they're already pre-planned and some are partially written in rough form so it shouldn't be too tough). Once I do that, the room descriptions for all 3 levels is 100% complete, the monster write ups are 100% complete, the magic items are 100% complete, the NPCs I think I have just a few left to detail (no huge amount of work), the spells are 100% complete, etc. All that will be left is to flesh out the 3 mini-adventures, of which 1 is virtually all figured out already. And I am looking forward to those, so those will go quick. Then it's just matter of converting it all to PDF, making sure Govi finishes the maps, and then one final proof reading and viola! DONE!
