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Words on zee nets is that someone is thinking about a Firefly video game, a massively-multiplayer online deal. This is dumb. You want to make something good? Here’s how you do it:

#1: The base ingredients. What do we know about the Firefly universe? Interstellar travel, psychics, cannibals, and legalized prostitution.

#2: The spices. Q1: What does Firefly feel like? A: Old West. Q2: What’s fun about Firefly? A: The language, sharp-shooting, wild stunts with spaceships, Kaylee.

#3: Mix until smooth. So, what we want here is a workable plot line which fits in the ‘verse but doesn’t feature any of the main characters. E.g. — playing as Luke Skywalker is lame, but playing as Kyle Katarn is awesome. We’ll set this in the post-unification, pre-Serenity timeframe.

You play as a newly-recruited Alliance agent who is sent undercover to gather up a young woman from a far-flung dirthole planet. You book a seat on a civilian transport (NOT the Serenity) and head out. You have some adventures on the way there and get to know the crew.

Once you get to Dirtonia, you discover that the woman you have been sent to bring in is a Companion, and a psychic one at that — which makes her wicked good at her job. The Alliance wants her for the River experiment. You, being a good guy, decide to go rogue.

The overall plot pits you against an Alliance bigwig who is oppressing a dusty planet known for harboring Browncoats during the war. You and your ragtag band of misfits (you end up Captain, due to some serendipity) free the locals from his reign, cleaning up the single-horsed town.

Gameplay switches back and forth between rpg-action and flight-sim (reavers are out there). You meet up with various lesser characters in your travels (e.g. the Serenity’s original engine guy — you know, blonde tattoo dude? — is on your crew.) and hit some of the locations from the show. Lots of shooting, quipping, and Blue Sun cola.

Joss? Call me.

Now over a week into the post-nanowrimo stupor, I find myself with few thoughts on the event, setting aside the following: I can now say “I have this first draft of a novel” instead of “I’ve been working on a novel”, and this makes me more credible to myself. The revision stage will be long and repetitive, but now I know who the characters are and what they want, how the world works, etc. which makes the first round of re-write just consistency-checking. Still haven’t reached the part where I worry too much about the prose being, you know, good, but when it comes I feel I will be better equipped.

All in all, I recommend the experience. Just being a participant — having a website to go to and flashy wordcount trackers — pushed me to complete draft uno of my magnum space opus, something I’ve been doing little more than putter around with for some time. I’m all for it.

How about this: A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen styled Christmas special.

One of Santa’s elves: renegade wood sprite, out to end Santa’s slavery.

Caspar: Powerful wizard from the Orient, perpetually searching for ways to extend his lifespan.

The Little Drummer Boy: soldier-spirit which reincarnates in a new body every generation, fighting in every war in the last 2000 years.

Frosty: The magic hat found its way on to a snow sculpture made in the shape of a giant polar bear.

Dasher: the man on the inside, flying beast and architect of the fabled ‘reindeer games’ combat simulation.

Jacob Marley: troubled ghost, looking for revenge on Xmas in general. He helped an old friend redeem himself one Christmas Eve, yet received none of God’s forgiveness.

Woo hoo!

Thirty days hath November. Thirty div 2 is fifteen. Today is the fifteenth.

50K words in Nanowrimo. I have 25K.

Some thoughts on the progress thus far: Actually writing the story takes you places you didn’t expect, reveals things about the created world which you didn’t fully realize, and shows you just how long it takes to move from plot point A to plot point B. Good times. Aside from an errant scene and my general dissatisfaction with the quality of the prose itself, I’m relatively satisfied with the book, especially looking at it as a first draft.

The issue is that I haven’t really gotten to the cool stuff yet. Everything has been set-up so far. I have a feeling that if I want this to end up as a viable book, 25,000 will be a lot more like the one-third mark than the one-half. This makes sense; 50K is barely novel length.

See you in a few weeks.

What the heck? Lehm. We all know where to go to get the quality stuff.

What the heck? Lehm. We all know where to go to get the quality stuff.

National Novel Writing Month has begun. Typety-typety.