Blog.
Blog.
BLOG.
Man, I hate that word.
Blog blog blog bloggity blog. It’s an awful-sounding word. At least, “tweet” is cute. But blog? Uck. I say that word, I forever envision some kind of fat-bellied toad-creature, some slick-bellied beast sitting in a pile of effluence, and sometimes the beast opens its greasy maw and crassly belches forth a noxious cloud, a cloud that smells like someone filled a balloon with diarrhea and then threw it into a campfire.
So, basically, I envision Snooki.
Still, this is irrelevant to the discussion. It is irregardless, if you care to use words that are made up.
I need blog squeezin’s.
What I’m saying is, this is a one dude operation over here at terribleminds. It’s just me here in my subterranean bunker. I’ve got my lava moat, my hungry CHUD army, my many levers and switches. But all of it is just a hollow exercise if I don’t have something to talk to you fine, fine people about.
My peeps. My tweeps. My tmeeps.
Point being, Daddy needs some topics over here. I’ve got some coming up, yes — I want to talk more about Minecraft, I have a Search Term Bingo ready to roll, I definitely want to do a few more posts about self-publishing. I’ve got the ready-steady writing advice locked and loaded, with next month talking all about the art and craft of whup-ass storytelling.
But even still — my torches, they sputter. The flames, they gutter. And so I drop my drawbridge across my lava moat (beware the lava-sharks, the magma-pus, and the volcano-gator), and I invite you into my creepy bunker to have some scones and orange pekoe tea. By which I really mean, Ritz crackers and rye whiskey.
I invite you in and I ask you:
What else do you want me to talk about here at Ye Olde Terryblemynds? Throw some topics at my head. Help me refill my blog tanks with blog juice. I can’t promise I’ll write about everything everybody wants — if you write a comment that asks me to discuss the subversive nature of the Wienerschnitzel in German history, then I got nothing. I mean, except, “Heh, wiener, or weiner, or whatever. Heh.”
But still.
Throw me a bone here.
I’m begging you. I’m just a lonely fool lurking beneath a volcano.
So, blog topics you want me to talk about? Questions you want me to answer?
Anything at all. Pitch it at my head, we’ll see if it strikes brain.
(This is, for the record, an excellent time for lurkers to delurk.)
Indiana Jim says:
I think I’ve seen you focus primarily on social media, marketing and publishing. I’d like to see more on the actual practice of writing, specifically fiction. Or maybe I’m missing something. I don’t know. But you’re always entertaining, irregardless. 🙂
January 29, 2011 — 8:53 AM
Shawn says:
You should ramble about gamer geekery. It doesn’t have to be all developer this and writer that, you can ramble about old school D&D monsters and it’ll make me super happy. I want to see some Owlbear/Gelatinous Cube slashfic up in here. What were your earliest games? Any memorable stories? Tell me about your character.
January 29, 2011 — 8:54 AM
Amanda d'Adesky says:
What do you do when you run out of ideas for original IP? How do you recharge the storytelling batteries when you feel you’ve run out of stories to tell? That would be a very interesting blog post to behold.
January 29, 2011 — 9:26 AM
Eddy Webb says:
The unique challenges of writing for transmedia.
How the whole “baby” thing is going.
How you feel about the fact that Dudes of Legend was a number one bestseller for months.
Twitter fighting. (I’ve seen you get into a few dustups.)
What have you been learning from playing video games recently?
January 29, 2011 — 9:38 AM
terribleminds says:
@Eddy:
Re, Dudes of Legend —
Holy crap, was it really?!
— c.
January 29, 2011 — 9:50 AM
Anthony says:
You’ve done a whole hell of a lot on basic storytelling, which is awesome. Perhaps some glimpses into the other kinds of writing that you do? I know you started to dip into screen writing a bit, which was cool to see. How about more of that, and the other stuff you write. Differences between tackling a collection of short stories, a novel, a screenplay, and a big honking RPG book.
Or just, ins and outs of working with other authors and getting all that creative juice going in the same direction with a minimal of drowning in the “I want this” “Yeah, fuck you, you suck, I want this” that can happen.
January 29, 2011 — 9:42 AM
David Barron says:
Your meal-ticket, sir, is to keep ‘blogging’ about writing, but add SEXY. Not enough of that, nossir.
January 29, 2011 — 9:46 AM
Dave Turner says:
I’m with Shawn. You don’t do much game blogging these days. Dust off some stories of your favorite sessions, favorite characters, etc.. War stories from supplements you wrote, that sort of thing.
January 29, 2011 — 9:46 AM
terribleminds says:
@Dave, Shawn —
Yeah, I don’t do much game blogging. In part because I’m doing so little game writing, and I’m doing approximately zero game playing.
That last part is the real stickler.
— c.
January 29, 2011 — 9:49 AM
Tim says:
Surely you have a pile of 3.5″ or 5.25″ floppies in a shoebox somewhere, marked “Lord Chuckles”, simply loaded with topics from your BBS days.
January 29, 2011 — 9:55 AM
Lisa Kilian says:
I WANT KNOW SCREENWRITING. Please tell us about your forays into TV or anything of that nature.
But really, I’m particularly interested in how you, specifically, handle a freelance writing business.
Tell me your practices. 🙂
Lisa
January 29, 2011 — 10:02 AM
Sparky says:
You cover the ins and outs of the mechanics of writings quite effectively, as well as why we (the tmeeps) should/should not seek the writing career path. Why not cover what inspires or influences your writing and storytelling? Surely a mind so twisted and split as yours must have some outside influence, even if it is just the dread whispers of ancient evil in the darkness between the stars.
Also I now request you make your little fort in minecraft. Complete with lava moat.
Further, a while back you asked what makes a good story. Personally I am curious as to what in a story grabs you by the short hairs and demands that you keep reading.
January 29, 2011 — 10:02 AM
Tim Dedopulos says:
How about unconvering who the most famous person in the world is? Or a piece about Manos: The Hands of Fate? Or, um, lobscouse and hardtack? Or the Rose Ninja?
January 29, 2011 — 10:43 AM
Remy van Ruiten says:
I might be alone in this, but I’d like to see a post on your photography. Perhaps with some thought of how you make these pictures, how you get inspiration for them. Maybe a story related to some of the pictures you’ve created or two.
Again, it’s likely I’m alone on that one.
January 29, 2011 — 11:47 AM
chacha1 says:
You’re not alone. 🙂 There have been some great, evocative photos here and I’d particularly enjoy a Chuckertation on how photography relates to (or IF it relates to) his other forms of storytelling.
April 21, 2022 — 7:12 PM
Kate Haggard says:
Genre-bending/blending. You’ve got a great fantasy meets horror meets crime thing going (if Irregular Creatures and the projects you take on are any indication). The pros, the cons, the giggle-snorts of it.
Also, the invisible demon punching munchkin. It might just be me (and that damn clock tick ticking away), but I want to hear about babby.
January 29, 2011 — 12:05 PM
Sarah B says:
More on writing transmedia stuff would be super-excellent. It sounds really cool and I’d love to do something like that someday, but wouldn’t really know where to begin.
January 29, 2011 — 1:21 PM
Miss Ash says:
How’s the self publishing versus publisher publishing thing going?
I care nothing about gaming.
January 29, 2011 — 2:26 PM
Jack says:
How’s about how you handle inspiration, with and without tools to capture it. I’m sure that you’ve had the muse kick in, while walking the hounds, or soaking in the tub (please let that image be purged from my mind). How do you capture that without notepad or similar to catch it?
Also, when capturing ideas, do you use one notebook per story, the that keeps all the notes, drawings, names, etc?
Sorry if you’ve answered these before, but I really am that lazy. 🙂
January 29, 2011 — 2:50 PM
Vee says:
You could blog about a battle between your two favorite supervillians or aliens. Like Predator and the Roadrunner. I imagine an anvil falling on the Predator’s head, “BONG” knocking all 7 feet of big bad alien into the dirt. Roadrunner comes up to “Beep-beep” in his masked face…and a beam of energy blasts Roadrunner into an explosion of blue and purple feathers. Two skinny orange legs impale bystanders.
“Annoying Roadrunner Terminated. Wile E Coyote Rejoices.” News at 10.
Or something like that 🙂
Vee
January 29, 2011 — 3:31 PM
Louise Curtis says:
*spewing forth random words*
steampunk. length of publisher replies to MSs. your favourite colour. agents from overseas. how to get fabulously wealthy via writing skills. sanity versus creativity. beards. cats. writing tips gleaned from movies. guest blogs from elsewhere. pork.
Louise Curtis
January 29, 2011 — 4:51 PM
Andrew Jack says:
I’m definitely keen for more on your screenwiriting, and especially the ways that differs from story telling through novels.
I would not say no to more beard related posts.
January 29, 2011 — 9:27 PM
Helmsman says:
Coffee and Whiskey. Discuss how your wife manages to compete with them for your affections.
Firefly fan fiction. Really bad stuff. Any Fan Fiction really. Make Mary Sue suck it!
January 29, 2011 — 10:11 PM
Josh says:
I feel your pain. Blue Ink Alchemy’s a one-man op as well. Coming up with topics for every day of every week is a real chore sometimes. At least the D&D posts and ICFN help give it something resembling structure.
For a topic? Transmedia. What is and is not transmedia. What’s a transmedia game, and what’s just a new storytelling experiment? How much audience participation is expected? Is there ever such a thing as too much? Can people picking up a hashtag or bit of copy from an ARG and running with it ‘ruin’ the experiment, or are the people just superfluous, meaningless eyeballs, earholes and brainpan into which the transmedia person/persons dump their new ideas?
Sorry. That started to ramble. Feeling a bit like poo.
January 29, 2011 — 10:38 PM
Miriam Forster says:
Sorry, I can’t think of anything. I just got here and I’m too busy laughing at your back posts. *snicker*
January 30, 2011 — 2:08 AM
Time Wilson says:
You haven’t talked about crime fiction (whether it’s in book or movie form) in a while. For example, how to write a story where the main characters are likable sociopaths. This angle also works in the monster hunter genre as well.
January 30, 2011 — 12:43 PM
Kate Mance says:
This de-lurked lurker wants more food porn and reviews. Un-lurked? Dis-lurked?
Another fun fact: lurkers love puppies.
January 30, 2011 — 3:24 PM
Michelle Bodamer says:
Remy van Ruiten is not alone! I would also like to see more of your photography, from one artist to another! 😉 With writing that accompanies the photography if you are so inclined.
Give us a feast for our eyes!!!
~M~
January 31, 2011 — 11:44 AM
Alys Sterling says:
De-lurks to ask: perhaps when you’re researching stuff for your books, you come across interesting tidbits that don’t make it into the book? You could feed those to us here…
February 16, 2022 — 9:12 AM
Spofforth says:
Have you ever made a Doom mod? If so, where is it? If not, why not?
Desert Island Books. You can only take one novel or series. What would it be?
Your favourite band is….?
Do you have conversations with Miriam in your dreams?
Are you going to buy a Steam Deck?
Half-Life(s) or Portal(s)?
February 16, 2022 — 7:30 PM
Hali says:
Your outdoor spaces: Your wild yard? The tame woods? The awkward space between the sidewalk and the road? I would be full in on reading your words on such places.
February 16, 2022 — 10:30 PM
Bia says:
You used to do random posts of writing prompts. They were always entertaining and I imagine not too outrageously difficult for you to make up.
February 18, 2022 — 4:12 PM
Formerly just Craig says:
Why do you need juice without gin? The freaking Republicans are burning down the house and trying to turn America into something else. They are not only trying to turn laws against their neighbors, they are fighting a war of their own creation, furled by their own B.S. I got a letter today that said it was from the Congressional District I live in. It also claimed to be an official document that should not be destroyed.
It was, actually, a survey from the RNC. You can guess the questions, but you would fail badly on how horrid they are.
February 21, 2022 — 12:24 AM
Pancho says:
How about a good old-fashioned awkward author photo contest?
February 22, 2022 — 11:05 PM
Amy LB says:
Have you ever traveled alone? I haven’t, but I’m thinking of doing it, mostly because friends and family rarely have breaks / vacation time when I do. I’m hesitant, though. Will it be awkward? Will I find enough to do?
March 9, 2022 — 9:05 AM
Elly says:
I second anything naturey. Think of us poor souls who live in fume clouded, concrete hell holes… Help take us away from all that. Just a walk down a wooded path or the smell of your garden after the rain. Take me with you Chuck.
May 26, 2022 — 8:22 PM
Tara May says:
You know how there’s thing thing called Christmas in July? I’m not really into it, but what I AM into is summer horror. Call it Halloween in July, if you want a direct correlation. I feel like you might have something to say about that—perhaps even a summer horror novel/movie suggestion to impart?
June 19, 2022 — 2:10 PM