J.H. Powell

27Nov 2020 by dvadmin No Comments

Good Intentions

Good intentions are very mortal and perishable things. Like very mellow and choice fruit, they are difficult to keep. Charles Simmons Before we dig down into my good intentions and how they ran astray, I wanted to first sort out exactly where the above quote was from. I looked around for a good quote for this blog post and while that one nails it, I'm unable to actually source it. There are several Charles Simmons authors, at least one politician, and a singer - I'm unsure which of those people this quote is attributed to. If anyone knows for sure, I would love to know so I can properly accredit it. I had every intention of using Nanowrimo to make good progress and hopefully finish my book, but it just…

02Nov 2020 by dvadmin No Comments

Nanowrimo

I have a love / hate relationship with this time of year. I love the cooler weather, and those first few brisk mornings full of dry Fall air are amazing. On the other hand, we fall back and it gets dark at 5 PM. We typically have beautiful weather in October / November, but ragweed and golden rods are blooming and double-teaming my seasonal allergies. And to top things off this year, we keep getting hit by back-to-back hurricanes so it's been less leaves falling and more like limbs and branches falling. With November upon us, that means it is time for Nanowrimo. I've taken part in Nanowrimo once before, but it was for a book that never got off the ground as I was just never happy with the story…

22Oct 2020 by dvadmin No Comments

Reworking a Section

Outlining, Rework

I'm currently at a crossroads. I got roughly 3400 words into a scene and realized it just doesn't work at all. It's not believable for the characters I've created, and it doesn't even hold up to outside scrutiny - when I read back over, it felt rushed, completely out of character, and like I was just trying to cram through a section of the book (I'm REALLY excited for the next part, because it's the climax of the book and I've been playing that fight scene over in my head for nearly a year). But I can't just gloss over it so I can get to the next section. This section is critical for setting up the political environment and action going into the next book. It is crucial I…

20Oct 2020 by dvadmin No Comments

A Programmer’s View on Worldbuilding

Coding, Programming, Worldbuilding

I come from a very technical background - my brain is wired for math and logic. I've been programming for nearly twenty years now, and I tend to approach most problems in the same way I would when trying to design a system to solve a business need. What are the major actors/things? How do the actors/things need to interact to solve the problem? What traits do the actors/things need to be able to perform their specific tasks? Are there any special requirements for specific actors/things to consider? Obviously, that's a simplified list, but when you're looking at Object Oriented Programming, that's a good initial list to start getting down high level details. I use the same approach when I'm worldbuilding, though the questions look a little different depending on…

19Oct 2020 by dvadmin No Comments

Introductions are in Order

Architecture

Welcome! Thanks for visiting my new (and very first) blog. I'm going to use this as a working space to discuss my writing progress, character concepts and designs, and how I tackle worldbuilding. But before we get too much into all of that, I'd like to take a few paragraphs to introduce myself so you at least have an idea where I am coming from. My day job is as an IT Director at a regional transportation and logistics company, supporting over 40 locations spread-out over the southeast United States. I've also worked as a Senior Software Consultant in a disparate set of industries and a software developer writing programs for a Department of Defense contractor. Programming languages are my jam - being able to come up with unique solutions…