The Kid Continuity Era

My plan, even though I figured it was doomed to fail, was to write three stories Friday in order to catch up to my goal of one a day for the week.  I didn't come close, of course, but by Saturday morning I had two stories fully plotted out.  Like the last one, both of these involve Grandpa's current sidekick, Kid Continuity.

I figured I could finish both and maybe even write a third, but by Sunday evening I'd only finished one, Dark Anarchy.  I'm not sure if it works -- I like the punch line ending, but the story as a whole feels too long, and I struggled with point of view problems with this story from the beginning.  Most of it should be from Kid Continuity's point of view, but a key part of it happens when she's not present.  In the end, I tried to not employ a point of view at all, but to have Kid Continuity speak all of her observations out loud.

The other story in progress is called Ruse.  I didn't have a plot for that one Friday night, but I solved that when I was half asleep Saturday morning and wrote down what I came up with so I wouldn't forget.  This is the one where Kid Continuity gets to reference past stories as if she's a comic book editor, so I needed a story with multiple characters who had been in previous stories.  I managed that too, but I'm still fleshing out the story itself.  Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow.

Anyway, these will form a sort of Kid Continuity trilogy -- and she might still get mentioned as the sidekick in An Inconvenient Airship, I'm not certain yet.  I like the character, but I think I've now explored all of the aspects of her that I need to.  Whatever story follows these will probably require a different sidekick.

Three Stories So Far...

Tuesday I finished a second Grandpa Anarchy story.  This one is called Continuity Error, and I think it's a good one.  It involves Kid Continuity and what she really does -- as an arbiter of continuity she tries to track the history of Grandpa Anarchy's life as a hero and find explanations for any perceived inconsistencies.  But I also gave her an actual related power.  The more I do with her, the more fun she seems as a character -- a sort of heroic stand-in for the story editor, or perhaps from the character's point of view an editor of reality.  It's all very meta -- a phrase that I wanted to insert somewhere in the story, but it didn't fit.

I have not decided if I want to replace Kid Continuity in An Inconvenient Airship yet.  That story still needs a bit of work anyway.

I did not manage to finish a third Grandpa Anarchy story last night, but I came pretty close.  I worked on my Patent Troll story and came up with a better name -- The Devil in the Details.  It's not finished yet, but I should be able to finish it with less than an hour of work.  At this point, I'm just figuring out what to trim, adding description details to set scenes, making sure dialogue flows well, and linking bits together.

I also started another story the other day -- not really a full story idea per se, but I had some dialogue that I didn't use in Continuity Error that I thought was funny and which I liked involving the possibility of Grandpa Anarchy becoming a gritty "Dark Grandpa" anti-hero.  I saved the extra dialogue as a file named "Dark Anarchy".  Because this revolved around Kid Continuity, I may need to write another story involving her, and one thing I didn't get to do yet is have a story in which she keeps fact-checking things and referring to past events in the way that comic book editors do.  (See issue #68!).  I'm not sure I have a punch line for that idea yet, but there's some fun stuff to be done there, and it might work in a Dark Anarchy story.  I just don't have the details worked out yet.

My plan is to finish The Devil in the Details tonight and do significant work on another story, or maybe even finish another story.  I'd still like to get one story a night finished for this week, that's my goal.

Yay, Story Written!

For better or worse, An Inconvenient Airship is finished.  I don't think it's one of my better Grandpa Anarchy stories... it feels long and with a weak ending.  But I liked the general idea of the story itself, so whatever.

I'm not entirely convinced that Kid Continuity should be the sidekick in this story.  Punk Rock Girl would work just as well, and it feels like Kid Continuity needs to be in a story where she can reference Grandpa's past exploits several times (because... Kid Continuity).  This story is already too crowded for that, though I did squeeze in one such reference.

But the point is, I managed to complete a story, the first in over a month.  This does not explain why Patent Troll isn't finished, as I have the entire plot for that one (with a much stronger ending, I think).  That should be my next goal.

I have to figure out which story Kid Continuity really should be in.  Also, I need to clean up the Baron's dialogue... and then go back to his other appearances and fix them too.  Chuck says he needs a German accent, so now he has one.  Possibly a fake one, I think, but nonetheless, he has one.

But I accomplished something, at least!

Where Am I Going? -- The Accidental Villain

Baron Climate Change was supposed to be a one-joke villain.  I had no backstory for him and no plans to ever use him again.  He appeared in the story A Simple Solution, and the joke was that Grandpa Anarchy's solution to everything, including global climate change, is to find the villain responsible and punch them in the face.  His sidekick Geothermal Jenny tries to explain why this is a ridiculous idea, when up pops Baron Climate Change:

Jenny paused.  A small plume of dark smoke had appeared in the distance.  It approached rapidly, flying over the water, leaving a thick black smoke snake coiling behind it.
“What’s that?” she asked.
The distant object resolved into a man.  He was dressed in heavy flight leathers like those of an World War I pilot, and wore matching goggles.  A contraption was strapped to his back made of brass and steel.  It belched smoke like a furnace.  It was a jet pack, Jenny realized – quite possibly the least efficient one ever made.
The stranger hovered before the saucer.  Up close they could see that his clothing was soot-filled and oil-stained.  Jenny switched on the external loudspeakers.
“Greetings, stranger,” she said.  “This is the Anarchy Saucer, with Grandpa Anarchy and his sidekick, Geothermal Jenny.  Please identify youself”
The stranger cackled like only a mad villain could.  “I am the rising of oceans and the melting of polar caps!  I am the upward shift in global temperatures and the coming global devastation!  I am Baron Climate Change!  I bring doom to the earth!”
“Look, whoever you are, we’re on a peaceful science mission to study the effects of global warming....”
“Haha, you fool!  I am global warming!  I am the sole cause!”
Grandpa stabbed a finger at the hovering villain.  “You!  You’re just the scoundrel I’ve been looking for!”
“Bring it on, Gramps!” the sooty villain yelled.

That was supposed to be that.  But much later, when I was writing Trouble Focusing, I wanted a fight in a stereotypical villain's volcano base.  What villain would need a volcano base?  Well, why not Baron Climate Change?

Grandpa Anarchy grappled with Baron Climate Change at the lip of a volcano.  Behind them, a steel platform extended back to  a warehouse-sized room, open at the end facing the volcano.  The ground shook.  Rocks crashed down.  The Baron, dressed in World War I flight leathers with thick goggles, cackled.
"Feel that, Grandpa?  My coal-fired, tar-sand oil burning nuclear supervolcano accelerator is at work!  Soon the world will be brought to its knees as volcanic gasses envelope the earth, triggering a mini ice age!"
"You fiend!" yelled Grandpa.  "Not if I stop you!"

When I read this story to my friends recently at writer's night, I got some suggestions that I couldn't fit into the story.  Baron Climate Change has invisible monsters called Soot Monsters, but someone suggested they wear zoot suits -- Zoot Suit Soot Monsters.  If I wanted to use that idea, I needed another Baron Climate Change story.  And at the same time, someone was commenting about why is it that villains always use dirigibles?  And there was a joke about adamantium-plated armored dirigibles.  Ridiculous, of course, but these are silly superhero stories after all, so why not?  You'd need a lot of engine power to keep such a vehicle afloat -- dirty engines that pollute.  That sounds like the perfect vehicle for our good Baron.

Thus I began my third Baron Climate Change story, An Inconvenient Airship.  I've managed to write parts of it over the last week.  I have almost the entire story figured out, except for an ending.  I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this one -- everything seems to be solving itself except for how to end it.  With Grandpa Anarchy stories, that's generally not the best way to go about things, but eh, I like what I have so far.

The afternoon sun glanced off snow-capped peaks, and skittered across a silvery lake.  High overhead a metal airship hung in the sky like a steel pinata.  Massive jet engines powered the dirigible.  Behind it flew a jet-propelled air bike with sidecar in hot pursuit.  Kid Continuity piloted the Anarchy Airbike, with Grandpa Anarchy seated behind her.  Dog Is My Copilot sat in the sidecar, goggles down, scarf snapping behind her in the wind.
"Seriously, what is it with villains and dirigibles?" Kid Continuity yelled over the roar of the engines.  "It's like every villain has to have one.  What's the fascination?  They're big, they're slow, they're hard to maneuver..."
"Nobody ever accused Baron Climate Change of being practical," Grandpa yelled.  Dog Is My Copilot growled softly.
"Kidnapping delegates is really going to focus worldwide attention on the Geneva Summit on Climate Change.  I thought Baron Climate Change was against the world solving pollution problems?"
"I repeat, nobody ever accused Baron Climate Change of being practical..." yelled Grandpa.  "Now, if you can just get me onto that steel behemoth..."
"Do you see that platform at the back?"
There was a boom and a flash from the rear of the dirigible.  A harpoon sailed overhead, trailing rope.
"The one with the Baron and the harpoon gun?" Grandpa replied.  "Yeah, I see it."

Grandpa pulled a gun from beneath his jacket and fired.  The bullet pinged off steel.
"Careful, Grandpa!" yelled Kid Continuity from the bike overhead.  "What if he's using hydrogen?"
"Haha, you fools!" yelled the Baron.  "My Super-Polluter Doom Zeppelin SPDZ-04 is armor plated with adamantium!  Mere bullets can not penetrate it!"
"Good gravy," said Grandpa.  "How does it fly?"
"Like a feather on the wind," the Baron replied.  "Mind you, zat is a feather zat veighs vun-thousand tons.  I haff a dozen Rolls Royce engines to keep it airborne.  Ze only problem is getting it to turn."

My Friends Are Clever

My friends are far too clever.  Saturday night, writer's night, no one had anything new to read, but I have a large trove of Grandpa Anarchy stories that I have not yet read so I read two of them.  The first, "Trouble Focusing", involves a rematch with Baron Climate Change and a sidekick named Punk Rock Girl.  It was pointed out that Punk Rock Girl needed a stronger Brit slang, which I fixed based on helpful suggestions, and Chuck thought that Baron Climate Change needs a fake German accent, which I haven't fixed yet but I can see that this would work.  But mostly it was the two invisible smog monsters that they improved upon.  Matt (I think it was) said that there should be 3 of them, so that I could have a three piece soot.  Chuck suggested that they should be wearing zoot suits.  I liked both ideas, but can only really use the first one in this story... which probably means Baron Climate Change will have to appear again in a third story.  And he was kind of a silly throwaway character to start with, too.  ^_^

My second story was Dead Again, based on an idea from C.D.  Gene pointed out that I hadn't actually used the ending line that C.D. provided, so I fixed that, and adjusted the ending also to satisfy two other comments.  The main characters in the story are a new male sidekick named Rainbow Raider and a former sidekick named Dog Is My Copilot (a female with fur and the head of a dog, who only talks in barks and growls).  People (Dave and Sheryl I think) asked if Dog Is My Copilot had aviator's goggles, or a scarf, and said she should have two licenses around her neck -- pilot's license and dog's license.  Well, OBVIOUSLY.  Why hadn't I thought of any of that?  I have to go back and change at least two other stories now.

Meanwhile Chuck pointed out that Rainbow Raider was a name already in use, and while we mused on what other name I could use, Sheryl's friend suggested a female named Broad Spectrum.  Dang.  That was too good not to use as well, so the story's been rewritten now.

Sunday I actually worked on one of my unfinished stories, I got about 1/2 of Patent Troll finished.  I also created three new story files this weekend:

June 15  The Ferver and Furor of the Führer
June 15  Retirement
June 17  An Inconvenient Airship


So just for the sake of doing it, here's my entire list of unfinished Grandpa Anarchy stories/story ideas:



Dark Lord of Midnight
Lights Out
Lucky
Performance Review
Stepping Out
Dec 11  Troubador  Grandpa Anarchy faces a singing villain
Dec 12  Love, Grandma  Grandpa Anarchy vs. Grandma Chaos
Jan 15  Grandpa Anarchy and the Fiendishly Foul Fetid Frog
Jan 26  Toolbar Wizard
Jan 30  Thunderbird Blues
Jan 31  Hackernaut
Feb 03  Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Feb 09  Gutbucket Magic
Feb 12  Brothers and Sisters
Feb 13  Stronger
Feb 16  Mister Buffalo
Feb 17  Pandora's Closet
Feb 19  Anarchy Is Forever
Feb 24  Hero's Sacrifice
Feb 25  The Crystal Weenie
Feb 25  Alien Space Bats
Mar 09  Killer Asteroid
Apr 09  The Apocalypse Meme
Apr 24  Your Stupid, Stupid Minds
Apri 24  Never Give Up, Never Surrender
Apr 29  Throw Me a Trope
Apr 30  Timey Wimey Ball
Apr 30  Time of Your Life
May 05  Gone Again
May 25  Take Me Back to Constantinople
June 05  The Chef That Time Forgot
June 05  Maid Service
June 06  Endangered Species
June 06  Patent Troll
June 15  The Ferver and Furor of the Führer
June 15  Retirement
June 17  An Inconvenient Airship


That's 37.  I need to finish a few of these....

Mid June Update

It's the third Saturday of the month of June, and that means Writer's Night, which I will be headed to in just a few minutes.  I had planned to write something this week at least, but I haven't really written anything.  All I've really managed is to create more Grandpa Anarchy "story ideas", some of them with actual dialogue or fully-formed plot ideas, some just titles:

May 05  Gone Again
May 25  Take Me Back to Constantinople
June 05  The Chef That Time Forgot
June 05  Maid Service
June 06  Endangered Species
June 06  Patent Troll
June 15  The Ferver and Furor of the Führer

I also did a bit of work on Miles To Go Before I Sleep.  Of the above, I have a solid idea for Miles To Go and a fully-formed plot for Patent Troll (needs a better name), and pretty much a full idea for Endangered Species.  The others, not so much.  The last title is nothing but a title suggested by a Twitter post from my friend Gene, I don't know where I might take it.

But at least I've written down ideas, if I haven't really worked on them.

End of May Writing Update

There's very little to say as I haven't been doing a lot of writing the last two months, but even that little bit I've done I've failed to document so here were go.

2013 Goals:

Goal 1 - Write a Grandpa Anarchy Story a Week:

January 2013

Jan 19:  DarkFireDragonNinja  (begun several years ago)
Jan 24:  OmniGen Again  (begun Jan 23)
Jan 25:  Veteran of the Bone Wars  (begun Dec 30)
Jan 29:  Nemesis  (begun Dec 10)

February 2013

Jan 31:  Turncoats (begun Dec 8)
Feb 3:  There Ain't No Justice  (begun Nov 29)
Feb 5:  City of the Monkey God  (begun Nov 26)
Feb 7:  Future Me  (begun Jan 31)

March 2013

Feb 10:  Roll of the Die  (begun Feb 10)
Feb 11:  Trouble Focusing  (begun, Nov 21, in theory)
Feb 19:  Dead Again  (begun Feb 18)
Apr 24:  Most Dangerous  (begun Feb 09)

April 2013

Apr 27:  The Thing in the Suitcase  (begun Feb 16)


I completed no new stories in May.  :/   I'm about 7 stories behind in my goal now.

Goal 2 - Write a Tai-Pan Story a Month:

Feb 16  The Pilgrimage of Ian St. Ritz  (January Tai-Pan story, 10,000 words)
Feb 23:  Space Miner Blues
Feb 23:  Banker Blues
Mar 07:  Hair of the Throug that Bit Me
Mar 17:  Cursed Be Ye Who Moves These Bones

Nothing new to report here, I've toyed with Chance Encounter most recently.  But technically I'm not behind in my goals.

Goals 3 & 4

No progress on my other goals.  As for the Grandpa Anarchy book... I've reworked a couple of stories, that's it.

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I keep writing down new ideas for Grandpa Anarchy stories.  Here's the full list of ideas I've come up with since 2013 started:

Jan 15  Grandpa Anarchy and the Fiendishly Foul Fetid Frog
Jan 24  OmniGen Again  (complete Jan 26)  824 words
Jan 26  Toolbar Wizard
Jan 30  Thunderbird Blues
Jan 31  Hackernaut
Jan 31  Future Me  (completed Feb 7)  1,508 words
Feb 03  Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Feb 09  Most Dangerous  (Finished April 23)
Feb 09  Gutbucket Magic
Feb 10  Roll of the Die (completed Feb 10, same night)  875 words
Feb 12  Brothers and Sisters
Feb 13  Stronger
Feb 16  Dead Again  (finished Feb 19)
Feb 16  The Thing in the Suitcase  (Finished April 27)
Feb 16  Mister Buffalo
Feb 17  Pandora's Closet
Feb 19  Anarchy Is Forever
Feb 24  Hero's Sacrifice
Feb 25  The Crystal Weenie
Feb 25  Alien Space Bats
Mar 09  Killer Asteroid
Apr 09  The Apocalypse Meme
Apr 24  Your Stupid, Stupid Minds
Apr 24  Never Give Up, Never Surrender
Apr 29  Throw Me a Trope
Apr 30  Timey Wimey Ball
Apr 30  Time of Your Life
May 05  Gone Again
May 25  Take Me Back to Constantinople

Take Me Back to Constantinople is virtually the only story I did any work on in May.