- Thank you for all your suggestions and recommendations about getting back into Warhammer 40K. I read a ton of blogs, watched a ton of videos, and determined that the Dark Imperium box set was the best place for me to start. Because I am into the story and not too concerned with tournament play, that box gives me all the rules and lore, as well as a bunch of models that I can put together than then paint according to which Space Marine chapter I want to play. I’m still leaning Blood Angels, because that’s the chapter I remember, but until I finish the book, I won’t make a final decision. I’ll share whatever janky paint job I end up doing at some point in the future. Again, thank you to many people in the 40K community for reaching out, and being kind to me. I have a TON of novels on my Kindle, now, too, so I can dive even deeper into the story and the world, if I want to.
- Progress on this novel I accidentally ended up writing has recently been a real struggle. Some days I have been getting a lot of words out, and others (like today) I just sit here and can’t put words together. I’m wondering if I painted myself into a corner yesterday, and if I have to backtrack until I get back on track. Here’s a little bit from this week’s work:
Stephen walked up to the frisbee where it had landed in the grass, and said, “Hey do you guys want to go to my house and play D&D?”
“Jerry isn’t here,” I said. One of my many skills was observing the obvious and sharing it with my friends who had already made that observation.
“It’s fine. We won’t play the campaign. You’ll just go into a dungeon and fight stuff.”
“With our regular characters?”
With exasperated, exaggerated patience, he said, “Yes. With your regular characters. We just won’t count experience and you can’t die. It’s just, like …”
“It’s like the mirror universe,” Larry said.
“Well, not exactly, Stephen said. “You’re not going to be evil … I mean, unless you really want to.”
When we played D&D, I always wanted to be a good, honorable, honest character. I was playing my idealized self. But for a moment, I imagined my Lawful Good wizard, Joral, who was sworn to stand for the safety and protection of the citizens of Flanaess, using his staff and spells to terrorize them instead, steal their gold, and reduce their villages to rubble. The opportunity to release some pent up aggression and frustration was more attractive to me than I probably would have been willing to admit.
Freed from the risks of permanent character death, Joral would charge headlong into the first group of innocents he saw, fireballs exploding from his fingertips, engulfing them in glorious flames.
I would never have admitted it out loud, but the villagers who fell in the face of Jor-al’s wrath would look a lot like Evelyn’s mother, a few of them would look like the adults in the casting office, and at least two of them would have looked like my mom and dad.
“That sounds radical,” I said. “let’s do that!”
“But if you die, you’re out. You don’t get to resurrect.”
“That’s fair,” I said.
“But we’re still alive in the campaign, right?” Larry asked.
Stephen rolled his eyes. “YES! Jeeze! Are you even listening?”
“Well I want to be sure!”
“Why would I even say that we’re playing in the mirror universe and then put you in the regular universe, without Jerry even being here?”
“Maybe it’s like a Twilight Zone thing! I don’t know! Like you make us think it’s a fake universe but it was real all the time!”
“Oh my god you are so lame,” Stephen said.
They stared each other down for a long thirty seconds or so, and I wondered if their weird (and to that point amusing) nerd fight was going to turn into a real fight.
I like this scene, because I was watching these kids play frisbee, and then I was listening to them, and then they were arguing the way kids do about nothing important, and I just transcribed the voices in my head.I’m just over 44000 words, now, and it feels like this is going to finish at around 60000 words. This is still the puke draft, where I just puke up everything I have in my head onto the page and worry about fixing it later, so there’s a good chance that this won’t end up in the final draft, but it’s at least a nice foundation to build upon later.
- The series finale of @midnight airs tonight, and I’m in it. I made some jokes, and got to share the stage with brilliant people who make me feel cooler and funnier than I am. I’m going to miss the show so much.
- Today, Bandcamp is donating 100% of its profits to support the Transgender Law Center. If you’ve been waiting to get any of my audiobooks or experimental music, today would be a great day to do that.
Okay, that’s what I want you to know today. What do you want me to know?
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I want you to know that you’re awesome and that I miss Radio Free Burrito. BUT, that I understand that I’m a beggar in this case and thus will take them when I can get them.
If you ever find yourself on the Isle of Man
I’ll first of all question your sanity for being here
Then offer you a game and a cuppa tea!
I want you to know that I’m proud to be one of the characters in your novel (the Frisbee).
Why did you land there at first place?
I want you do know I just finished the Ready Player One audio book yesterday. I truly enjoyed the book and your performance. The book really hit a lot of buttons for me and it was the best thing I’ve listened too in a long time. Thank you.
I’m really happy because my publisher accepted the cover that my husband and I developed for my second novel, which should come out this fall. I’m not famous or anything, but I got the book I wanted out there. By the way, I was 58 before book #1 came out, so don’t be discouraged. You’ve already accomplished a lot and you just have to keep going. Belive me, I know how hard it is, but stuff does fall into place – after all that God-awful-then-wonderful work.
You talking about reading Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work reminded me how helpful I find those books, so I’m delving back into them hoping to spark some writing. Because my acting career has DOA for six months at this point, but screw it, I can WRITE without having to convince a group of people that I’m the BEST AND ONLY choice for the job. It’s all fan fiction right now, but I’m thinking of reworking this old NaNoWriMo universe I’ve worked in and turn it into a series of romance novels. Hallmark can make it a series, maybe. 🙂
I had lunch with Lynnette today, who I first met going to The Wil Wheaton Project tapings. There was much hugging. 🙂
More to that point, you continue to be at least three of my six degrees of separation for how I make friends. Quite a few have come from Storytime and I’m forever grateful to you for having great fans that I can turn into great friends. 🙂
At San Diego Comic Con, I found a booth selling plushie vital organs. I bought an ovary because after my ovary torsion and the surgery, I wanted to make sure I still had two ovaries, even if one is purple and pink and cuddly and a bajillion times the size of the other. And has a smiley face. 🙂 Problem is it’s a left ovary, so now I have two left ovaries to go with my two left feet. laughs more than this joke deserves
I rewatched the episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway that you were on. I laughed until I cried again, especially during the nerdy Boy Band song. You’re hilarious and I hope you get the chance to do more hilarious things soon. 🙂
I’m not kidding, earlier today I was thinking of these fragments of story ideas I’ve had bouncing around in my head for ages but have had trouble putting them together into anything even close to an actual story, and I thought about the stories that influence me the most, and I thought, “Gah, maybe I should just write fanfic for my influences, then tweak it and tweak it until it’s my own thing.”
storytime high five
storytime high five That romance book I mention? Fancast by me with my favourite actors and characters. I just need to make the nerd elements a liiiiiiiittle less blatant.
I have never, ever written fiction where I cast the characters in my head and then wrote dialogue with those actors in mind. Never. Ever. #blatantlies
Have you considered looking at the Horus Heresy range from Forgeworld? I prefer the setting to regular 40k, many of the books in the HH range are excellent, the miniatures are spectacular, and the rules are well balanced and interesting.
I just started an online course on Life Purpose and it is going over business plans. I am thinking of writing a business plan to be a writer.
My roommate also wrote a Life Purpose workbook that I am also working on. I am focusing on spirituality. I made a video on being a Native American Witch and so far has 111 views.
I want you to know that
1. I have 5 beginnings to my current WIP and only 11,000 units of word vomit (I’m also expecting around 60000) and this is my second pass at this story, but I love it so much and believe in it, so I’ll keep plugging away at it. Writing is hard.
2 my husband is also a beer snob and homebrews and got one of your concoctions the other day from Central Market.
My son battles depression and anxiety-thank you for your honesty and candidness about your experiences.
I love your bed head. It’s a character unto itself.
Has your husband ever heard of BrewToad.com?
I don’t know-but I’ll let him know about it🤗
This year I accidentally started writing for the first time since leaving high school 43 years ago.
About 100,000 words later, my main motivation is NOT liking what I write because I wrote it, but liking what the characters do and where the story goes, stinky puke draft and all. Just like any other book I read.
Honestly, I’m not really believing I wrote it, but that the characters and story found their own way out, despite my lack of experience or skill.
My main fear is that it may never happen again. It’s been a wild ride!
It’s funny how easy the whole shared fantasy can come apart. I’ve had GMs pull tricks like the one Larrywas concerned over.
…and I hope that’s a prelude to some larger uncertainty in the overall plot.
I spent the afternoon at a charity book sale helping my mom get some additions to her Nancy Drew collection. I found a bunch of Alfred Hitchcock Mysteries with these really cool covers.
All day, all I want to do is write and when I finally get the chance, I’m too drained emotionally to do it. I need to stop worrying about doing it right and doing it great. I need to just do it. I think I’ll do just that.
I’ve been going through some epic levels of life stress combined with everyday anxiety. To sum up, I had a crappy week. My treatment has been helping diminish my panic attacks but it doesn’t make anxiety go away. It’s just getting a little easier. I’m still getting used to that. I know I’ll feel better and being able to remember that and keep it in mind is a real improvement.
I want you to know 3 things: 1) I think you’re a pretty awesome human being and I feel privileged to see the parts of your life you share on social media. 2) My book club is reading Ready Player One in March and then we’re all going to see the movie together. I’m really excited to listen to the audiobook version you did! 3) I had no idea that @midnight was ending!! I haven’t watched in a while because I don’t have cable anymore but I will find a way to tune in tonight because Chris is awesome and you’re awesome and the show was awesome.
I’ve been developing a script for the past three months, yesterday was the first day I actually opened up FD to put something down. Ironically, the first scene came just as I was about to move on from all that… but I guess it’s not as dead as I thought.
My own personal quater-life crisis aside, and file this under “shit you probably already know”, but give yourself timeout. Just chill and play a game or something – let the story percolate in your head. You’ll probably wake up at 3am and it’ll be sitting there, yelling to be let out.
And sidenote, since we’re on the subject of what I would like you to know:
You’re a wonderful person, and since the day I stumbled across your blog 15 years ago, you’ve always inspired me to have confidence in, and to be, myself. So, thanks for sharing with us, and consequently showing me how to fight.
Here’s to posting personal things in public! Yay I’m super uncomfortable! But here we are ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I hosted my first birthday party since being on anxiety meds and it was a new world. I wasn’t a panicky sweaty snippy mess. I was relaxed. I had no idea what it could feel like.
Today I’m having a shitty difficult day.
That is so awesome.
I was amazed at how it never occurred to me that wasn’t normal and I shouldn’t have heart racing panic because I have people in my house.
Regarding being a grouch, I went out with 7 other twin mamas tonight and my heart is full now. It was a tough day. Tomorrow will be better.
1) My depression has been pretty bad lately, like it often is during the summer, but meds and therapy and friends have helped me keep things together. At least I can recognize it for what it is and know that it will pass.
2) At my library’s monthly Tabletop Game Night this week, one of our regulars brought an advance copy of a Bob Ross board game. It’s more fun than I thought it would be and just the whole Bob Ross-iness of it made me happy.
3) I can’t think of a third or fourth thing right now.
Watched an episode of “Leverage” last night and jumped from my chair yelling, “HOLY FLUFF! It’s WIL!” Scared the cat. Made the hubby take a double take. Spilled the french fries over the keyboard… and enjoyed watching that episode again. Thank you for all you do.
Today I bought your 7 items on Bandcamp. I wanted some of your work, and I wanted to help transgender people. I AM IN HEAVEN! I’ve listened to two of the 7, and I LOVE it!!! I am a huge fan, Wil Wheaton! Take care!!!
I wanted you to know that I’m about to become a Quizmaster at my local Geeks Who Drink pub quiz. I’ve never performed or entertained before, But I’m trying to overcome my depression and loneliness buy trying something new and meet new people! If you’re ever in Sleepy Hollow NY, stop by The Tapp!
That’s so awesome!! Congratulations, and have all the fun in the world when you host!!
Thanks! That means so much. Any specific advice on how you loosen up before entertaining a crowd?
I want you to know one thing I’m very thankful that you are so open about mental health issues. You talking about your experiences with it gave me the very necessary and long over due metaphorical kick in the arse i needed to get help. I’ve had anxiety issues for as long as i can remember. I was very stubborn about not taking medication and going to therapy sessions. I thought I could fix my problems on my own. Oh how so very extremely wrong i was. I kind of became a hermit for a while. Long story short after reading your posts on depression and anxiety I finally acknowledged that I could not in fact handle it on my own and i got help. I’m doing loads better now I go outside sometimes and have a job. So just thank you.
I want you to know you are a breath of fresh air. Admire your integrity…more power to you Wil
I have no idea why it happens, but every time I make flatbread (like tonight), suddenly “Will Wheaton” just pops in my head. Apparently, you are my inspiration when I make flatbreads. There you have it.
the one hing I would like you to know: I know it may be stupid because what I see is only what you choose to share but, I think you and I would get along and have really fun game nights, and I wish there was a way I could make that happen.
The one thing more than any other that I want to know: how to get your own self-censoring, self-editing brain out of the way so you can get the Puke-draft.
Thanks, Wil. For just being you.
One thing I would like you to know is that I hope when you edit your writing you might reconsider the use of “lame” in your story. A few months ago some of my friends with disabilities taught me about how this is an ableist word that equates disability with stupidity or other negative connotations. While I understand time/setting may dictate use of language seen as outdated today, I think there also other word choices that are believable in the situation described. (for someone smarter than me explaining it: http://disabledfeminists.com/2009/10/12/ableist-word-profile-lame/)
Another thing I want you to know is “depression lies: has been helpful for me the last year. As was the indirect way you and Hardwick both introduced me to Critical Role, which was a just the right thing to shut off my lying brain for a few hours at a time during the worst of it all. Now I am on medication that has gotten me past the depression, the numbness, and that prickly foot asleep feeling that was my emotions returning.
Thank you for the ways you have stood up for others and have used the platform you have to champion equality, diversity, and inclusion.
I want you to know that although I cannot currently put into words all that I have overcome, and all that I am still facing, I am doing okay. I am hanging in there, and your posts here and on tumblr help so much. Thank you for reminding that depresssion lies.
i would like you to know — that someone’s death has touched me more than i think it should. –that i have experienced unexpected abandonment issues in the past day or two. and that that i made it to a milestone bday that i didn’t think i would live to see.
I know we don’t know each other at all but I wanted to make sure you’re doin’ okay and if you need someone to listen, gimme a shout, k?
I want you to know that while I don’t agree with many of your political views, I respect you, your mind, and your opinions greatly. You are someone I choose to follow to get educated about differing viewpoints, and I appreciate your passion and well thought out positions. Disagreement doesn’t have to mean disrespect, and I appreciate you and all you bring to the table. Best to you in your writing and other endeavors…you are an awesome Twitter follow, and seem to be a genuinely good person. Thank you.
I remember reading an article some time ago about George R. R. Martin sitting in on a Q&A with Stephen King, and Martin stood during audience questions and asked him “How the fraggle rock do you put out so many books so fast?” (or something to that likeness) and King told him “I write 4 hours every single day. Sometimes I put out dozens of pages of genius, sometimes I get a page or two of crap, but I write 4 hours, every day.”
I am hoping to someday soon have the ability to put that much time I to my writing, and have the commitment to stay off social media while I do it.
Good work on the 44000 words, dude! I have a lot of catching up to do.
Yesterday marked a year since the accidental overdose and subsequent death of my best friend. She had lots of problems with depression and anxiety and used prescription meds to mask that pain. I wish I had known how bad it was. I just want to say thank you for being so forthright about your mental health battle and please know it does make a difference. It gives us survivors some perspective on what else was going on that we just wouldn’t have been able to stop. It makes me feel less helpless in a way….if that makes any sense…<3
Oh no… if you want to go Space Marines choose one of the “regular” space Marines. I’ve Blood Angels myself (yeah, the vampire-blood-rage-thing is cool) but they’re treated badly by GW. None of the new cool tools except for the Primaris marines. They basically have the same units available since 2005.
Wil,
I want you to know
1) After losing Chester Bennington (whom I am mourning like a lost friend), I thought of you and prayed that you were doing ok. Every time I see a new post from you, I rejoice in knowing you are still here.
2) I love your writing and that excerpt makes me want to read the whole book :-).
3) I met you briefly at AwesomeCon and that made my heart so happy. Just to briefly interact with you was awesome (pun intended 🙂 ).
I want you to know you are loved and valued out there.
I want you to know that you have helped me ‘listen’ to my own mental state. I get bogged down, sometimes, ‘listening’ to my physical disability that I forget to take care of my mental well-being.
I want you to know that you are one of my favorite people in the world and not just because you’re a celebrity.
I want you to know that you deserve to be booked for more gigs and that I think it’s bullshit the industry doesn’t see that! You’re one talented actor!
And, finally, I want you to know that I’ll miss seeing you on @midnight. You were awesome every single time you were on! And, yes, I laughed a tiny bit when Chris called you “Ensign Crusher”.
Hello there.
What you’ll play depends of if you like the actual version, some people are stuck in the old version.
In my humble opinion, if i’m having fun playing, it’s the right version 😉
Another tip : Revell – Warhammer build + paint.
( link https://www.revell.de/en/products/warhammer-build-paint.html )
You can add a bunch of spacemarines that are easier to build and cheaper to get (for some boxes).
And for the paint, think “army painter” range, the same colors but nice quality and cheaper (plus they have those big cans for the paint undercoat cheaper too).
Have fun with WH40K.
GW themselves are doing an ‘eay build’ range too.
It’s basically the same models as they are in the Dark Imperium and the other starter sets for 8th edition.
I loved the scene. Imagines those guys fight about things like that and recalled my friends who used to love D&D to the extent of arguing on the characters and stuff.
I’d love you to know one thing that’s related to one of your prior posts. I recently developed a sleep issue when I can’t fall asleep until it’s completely silent and wake up because of even a slightest noise, no matter how devastatingly tired I am.
You mentioned a white noise generating device or something that helped with sleep. I decided to try an app first, and it’s fantastic. My ears sore from sleeping in headphones, but gentle white noise absorbs the slightest sounds that are usually waking me up at night. Thank you.
I want you to know, regarding the book, that you should continue forward with resolution. As a guy who’s written nine novels, I’ve learned that it isn’t all that important to put good words together in the first draft, just put down words. If you aren’t feeling the magic, you can still feel the keyboard. The thing is to write, even if the words sound lame in your head, so you can get to that all-important phrase: The End. Believe it or not, the writing, even brute force writing, will clean out the mental sewer pipes and let the creativity flow again. Likely, this problem of not getting into the words will happen more than once while pursuing a story, and the problem will break down more than once, as well. Then it’s on to the second draft, where you clean and polish what you’ve produced. This all assumes that you have an endpoint for the story in mind. If you don’t, then decide one. The end or the point of the story is a light to lead your efforts. Above all things, do not go back and start fixing stuff you’ve already done. That way lies The Loop, where you get caught in the unending cycle of fixing stuff, rewriting what comes after, going back to fix stuff, more rewriting, going back… Most authors who do this never finish their book. You’ve probably heard all this, I know, but it’s worth a mantra. Don’t stop. Move forward.
Thank you for this. It’s great advice, and I’m printing it out for my swipe file.
I need to print this out and put it somewhere I’ll see it a lot. “Just get words out” is something I’m really bad at but something I know I need to do.
I’d like you to know I had a phone call on a self-referral for mental health help this week, following a lot of anger problems at work. One of the things I talked about was your phrase “depression lies” – the person on the phone thought it was a fantastic phrase that gets to the heart of a lot of what a mental health issue is.
Also I hope you have a ton of fun with WH40K. As a Brit who grew up playing it (until I moved out and ran out of space!) I think it’s a great setting. I can’t wait to hear of the stories you tell through it.
FOR THE EMPEROR!
Will – regarding your item #2, I attended a writing seminar that focused on helping people write novels. They suggested outlining your entire book (or series). Writing out the goals and objectives of the chapter and what event would drive the characters to the next chapter. This method has helped me focus on putting together my ideas and tighten up my story. Though my novel is only being worked on part-time, it is moving better then it used to.
Hi Wil,
I’ve been interested in Warhammer for a good while, but, having absolutely no talent or patience for building models, I content myself with looking though the latest issue of White Dwarf magazine and obsessing over the pictures whenever I see it in the newsagent.
Then I found a series of animated shorts on YouTube based on the novel Helsreach. I think you would like them.
I really like the excerpt! The characters felt alive and dynamic and I loved their interactions. I was sad when it ended because I wanted to see what happened in their campaign! Keep on writing, seems like it’s going well now that you’re past that awkward sticking point!
The guys from Beasts of War have an interview with one of the designers for the 40k codexes :
http://www.beastsofwar.com/the-weekender/40k-codex-chat-jes-bickham/
I want you to know how much I love you and your work.
I also want you to know that you should look into Elite: Dangerous! It’s a wonderfully massive sci-fi game filled with lore that I think you’d really like.
Cheers!
How about a blog post about your (almost) daily writing routine?
I wanted you to know that just maybe there might be a McElroy brother who might just need some advice on moving past friends who weren’t what they seemed to be, and that you and that brother might be able to support each other in that. I don’t pretend to know the parties involved, I just see parallels and thought that you could provide some helpful Wheatonisms on the situation over there at Polygon. Thanks!
Here’s what I want you to know. I’m a historian. My latest project was inspired by the horror that sits in our White House now. I decided to write a history of the so-called “Alt-Right.” Inspired partly by your example of “writing in public,” I started a blog to share some of my ideas while I develop them:
https://altrightorigins.com/
So, thank you for starting your blog back in the previous century or so!
Hi Wil my,unasked for, advice is. Don’t go back and re write. Keep moving forward. Looking back is editing and you don’t want to do that yet. The stories not finished and if you start back tracking you’ll never stop. Anyway thats my twenty pence worth ( im from Scotland and I dunno the exchange rate for two cents) now I’ve over explained the joke. Its awkward. Moving on!
Pretty interesting phrase you came up with for describing your first draft. Will have to remember to use that phrase going forward. On a personal note, I think what the President tweeted was extremely stupid at the bare minimum and relatively cruel at the maximum. However, there are a lot of other residual issues involve besides having transgenders serve in the military. Some will need time to be resolved, some will never be resolved.
Just remember to keep one salient point in mind: You cannot simply force a particular viewpoint (or in this case a person) without some kind of bad blowback. If you want people to accept and move on, you have to give them time to get used to it. Kindness and civility will take you farther than legislative brutality/morality designed to enhance the rights of a minority and trample the rights of a majority.
I want you to know that I absolutely want to read more about these kids playing D&D. I also want you to know that I am starting my own blog today because of you and the way you inspire me! Excelsior!
Visual and emotion… that is pretty much what it’s all about, isn’t it? Just up to us how we react.
Thanks, Wil!
i want you to know that
you are an amazing guy and everyone here is extremely lucky to have you as a companion, guide, for support and entertainment and as a makes-you-feel-you-are-not-alone-with-this-crap-guy.
i am very happy and proud to say that i have taken a major (MAJOR) step towards a free life despite anxiety. i am currently spending a wonderful vacation in barcelona with my wife, got here by a train ride that was supposed to be 20 hrs (which wouldve been enough already) and ended up being 27 hrs due to railway complications. at one point we were not sure if we were getting there at all or if we would have to stay at an intermediate stop for two days… luckily it worked out.
any way, this is by far the longest and farthest i have been away from home ever – and the first travel to a foreign country since my anxiety issues started 15 yrs ago. i didnt have a single breakdown on the trip and only took minimal additional meds.
to everyone who needs hope for getting out of their personal hole: if i could do it, so can you. look at me (i am mr. meseeks).
@wil You seem to be the type of person who likes games… 😀 But seriously, have you thought about trying to gamify your writing when you’re stuck? I’m reminded of the ‘Fate’ episode you did on Tabletop, where John Rogers talks about using some of the rules to help build episodes of The Librarian.
You could try turning your stuck writing into a game, almost building a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure” (CYOA), with a really simple ruleset created for moving the story along at the expense of mechanics. In ‘solo RPG gameplay’, we use these types of rulesets to make a lack of a GM “no big deal”. Try looking up info on ‘Miso RPG’ on Google, or join the solo RPG members for a chat in the Lone Wolf Roleplaying group on Google+!
You may find that using a gaming ruleset to help you write past your stuck-points will create all new avenues for your story, as well! But whatever you do, keep writing. You’re brilliant, interesting and friendly, and there are far too few people in the world who match that description.
I love this idea! I’ve pondered doing things like that, since I naturally drift to RPG books and game prep.