October 29, 2024: The Votes Are In
Anyone who has read many of these blog posts will have noted that I often say I'm going to do things that I don't actually end up doing. At least not within the time frames I say I'm going to do them in. The reason for this, of course, is not because I am intentionally lying. It is because I keep overestimating my intelligence and industry and forgetting how stupid and lazy I am. And/or possibly executive dysfunction might have something to do with it, but it might not; as I've mentioned before, I strongly suspect that I have ADHD, but I've never actually been tested for it so I don't know for sure.
Anyway, another item has been added to the list. The list of things I said I was going to do that I didn't end up doing. Which, like my to-do list I've repeatedly referenced, is not an actual list written down anywhere. I'd said in a previous blog post that while the poll to choose a location for the novel I would write in November was running, I was going to try to come up with ideas for novels set on all eight of the worlds in the poll, so I'd have a bit of a headstart and wouldn't have to wait until the poll was over to start planning my novel.
Well, I... didn't do that. At all. Or at least, not much; I do maybe have a vague germ of an idea for a novel set on one world. But I didn't spend much time trying to come up with ideas for all eight worlds. Why not? Well, primarily because of the aforementioned stupidity and laziness. But also because I instead spent much of my free time on Spooktober, which I've posted about before, and later on a coöperative worldbuilding project that I haven't posted about but may (or may not) in the future. Also on an online game design classes that I'm taking for no particularly good reason. But anyway, it's not like I haven't been doing anything during the last few days. I just, unfortunately, haven't been doing that.
And, as of the time I'm writing this paragraph (which is almost certainly many hours before this blog entry will actually be posted, though I'll try not to let a full day pass), the poll ended about seven hours ago and I do not have ideas for novels set in any of those worlds except for the vague germ of an idea mentioned above. Nor have I yet checked to see which world won the poll. Okay, I'm going to do that right now.
So it looks like I'll be writing a novel set in...
The Dreamsea.
Which, as it happens, was the world that I had the vague germ of an idea for, so... I guess that's convenient. This isn't entirely a coincidence; I had reason to believe that the Dreamsea might be likely to win. That reason being that someone on a Discord channel where I posted about the poll mentioned after they voted that the Dreamsea was currently ahead. That didn't necessarily mean it was going to win, of course, since the poll hadn't closed yet and other people might still vote, but it did at least make its victory more likely than that of the others.
The vote was surprisingly close, though; the Dreamsea narrowly won, but B'gor, Jhembaz, and Varra were all only one vote behind, and Curcalen and Kadis were only one vote behind those. (Not much love for Dadauar, alas, which only got one vote, although that's by far the most developed of those eight worlds and the one it would have been easiest to write a novel set on. Well, no matter; I do have plans for other projects set on Dadauar.) Of course, due to the fact that I still have not succeeded in bringing much attention to the Wongery, there weren't all that many votes, although frankly more than I expected—forty-four votes, to be exact, if you're curious, which you probably weren't, and I mean even if you were you could easily have clicked over to the poll and seen for yourself.
So I guess I'll be writing a novel set on the Dreamsea.
And I guess I have about three days to come up with a plot and characters if I want to start writing at the beginning of November.
Regardless, I am determined that my November novel will not be yet another item added to the list of things that I said I would do but did not actually get done.