The Write Way
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
Inspiration, for me, is like opium for the soul. When you can get it, things are very, very good. When you can't, then every night is the night of long sharp knives. The pen may or may not be mightier than the sword, but it can still make a good ballistic weapon in the right hands.
So, inspiration being lacking this afternoon, I thought I'd write a bit about how I usually write DoD posts. With this timeline, I have a very rough sketch of what events will be covered over the next twenty posts or so, and anywhere from the next five to ten posts are being worked on at any given point.
"Worked on" can cover everything from having a title (or a large blank space where a title should be) and a few bullet points about what will be covered in the post, and the ever-so-common abbreviation MRR (more research required), through to a post which is nearly finished and only needs a final polish. In any given evening when I have time to spare to work on DoD, I may be doing some research on a half-dozen topics, usually online since I don't have convenient access to a good library, write bits and pieces of two or three posts, or if other inspiration fails, spend a lot of time editing the draft posts or re-reading the old posts to see if I've forgotten something important.
At the moment, for example, there are 8 posts in varying states of completion, with provisional post numbers. These often change, depending on which posts I finish first, although even if a post is complete, I won't release things too much out of sequence. So, for now, I have:
Post #82: The Spear of St. George
This is a more or less direct continuation of post #81 (these were originally going to be #81a and #81b), dealing with the second half of the Second Napoleonic Wars. This is nearly half-finished, although I find that the second half of any post is much quicker to write than the first part, since most of the "thinking about it" stage has already been done.
Post #83: Smooth Operator
The title of this post, like a lot of the DoD post titles, is the name of a song. (This one is a song by Sade). This post is getting quite difficult to write, but it will be about the culmination of the Third Mexican War, with Cpt. James Fisher (of posts #64a, #64b and #71) of the Jaguars as he tries to eliminate the Mexican guerrillas, particularly General Jose Ramon Juarez.
Post #84: (Untitled)
This post covers some South American history, primarily Brazil, with how things have changed given that there has been no War of the Triple Alliance, but with Brazil having an increasingly militaristic outlook.
Post #85: The Sword and the Mind
This post's title is a reference to one of the sayings of Napoleon I: "There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." It wraps up the history of the Second Napoleonic Wars and the peace settlement. Most of this post is already written, but it obviously won't be released until after #82.
Post #86: Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Another post title from a song (from Tears For Fears). This is another of the "global" tour type posts, with a brief overview of the world and how it stands after the end of the Second Napoleonic Wars (1885 or 1886).
Post #87: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them
This is the story of a planter's daughter who establishes herself in Honduras and what she does there. It gives some social insights into how the U.S. system of bonded labour is being established, and the effects on the language.
Interlude #3: Bittersweet Kandy
This post is the third of the alt-CIA "World Factbook" entries, this one covering the People's Kingdom of Ceylon, circa 1953. The title, besides being a very bad pun (is there any other sort?), is a reference to Kandy, one of the major cities of Ceylon/Sri Lanka.
Interlude #4: Welcome to Frankfurt
This post is a virtual tour of the government buildings in Frankfurt. Credit for inspiration for this post goes to William Baird and Faeelin, for their own excellent posts on alternate architecture. There's still a lot of reading to be done before this post can be completed. European architecture is not my strong point, and I've never even set foot in Frankfurt (or indeed, anywhere in Germany).
Beyond these current working posts, some sections have been written far in advance of when I expect to release them (including one from the 1910s and a couple of the end-posts set in the early 1930s). I don't always write in chronological order.
After these posts, I expect that the next couple of decades will be covered in reduced detail, for a variety of reasons. The eighth decade will have roughly 15 posts, many of them quite lengthy ones, and if I don't pick up the pace a bit, this timeline will never get finished. But it's also because the 1890s won't see anything like the major wars of the 1880s, with Europe in particular being quite peaceful.
Cheers,
Kaiser Wilhelm III
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
Inspiration, for me, is like opium for the soul. When you can get it, things are very, very good. When you can't, then every night is the night of long sharp knives. The pen may or may not be mightier than the sword, but it can still make a good ballistic weapon in the right hands.
So, inspiration being lacking this afternoon, I thought I'd write a bit about how I usually write DoD posts. With this timeline, I have a very rough sketch of what events will be covered over the next twenty posts or so, and anywhere from the next five to ten posts are being worked on at any given point.
"Worked on" can cover everything from having a title (or a large blank space where a title should be) and a few bullet points about what will be covered in the post, and the ever-so-common abbreviation MRR (more research required), through to a post which is nearly finished and only needs a final polish. In any given evening when I have time to spare to work on DoD, I may be doing some research on a half-dozen topics, usually online since I don't have convenient access to a good library, write bits and pieces of two or three posts, or if other inspiration fails, spend a lot of time editing the draft posts or re-reading the old posts to see if I've forgotten something important.
At the moment, for example, there are 8 posts in varying states of completion, with provisional post numbers. These often change, depending on which posts I finish first, although even if a post is complete, I won't release things too much out of sequence. So, for now, I have:
Post #82: The Spear of St. George
This is a more or less direct continuation of post #81 (these were originally going to be #81a and #81b), dealing with the second half of the Second Napoleonic Wars. This is nearly half-finished, although I find that the second half of any post is much quicker to write than the first part, since most of the "thinking about it" stage has already been done.
Post #83: Smooth Operator
The title of this post, like a lot of the DoD post titles, is the name of a song. (This one is a song by Sade). This post is getting quite difficult to write, but it will be about the culmination of the Third Mexican War, with Cpt. James Fisher (of posts #64a, #64b and #71) of the Jaguars as he tries to eliminate the Mexican guerrillas, particularly General Jose Ramon Juarez.
Post #84: (Untitled)
This post covers some South American history, primarily Brazil, with how things have changed given that there has been no War of the Triple Alliance, but with Brazil having an increasingly militaristic outlook.
Post #85: The Sword and the Mind
This post's title is a reference to one of the sayings of Napoleon I: "There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." It wraps up the history of the Second Napoleonic Wars and the peace settlement. Most of this post is already written, but it obviously won't be released until after #82.
Post #86: Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Another post title from a song (from Tears For Fears). This is another of the "global" tour type posts, with a brief overview of the world and how it stands after the end of the Second Napoleonic Wars (1885 or 1886).
Post #87: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them
This is the story of a planter's daughter who establishes herself in Honduras and what she does there. It gives some social insights into how the U.S. system of bonded labour is being established, and the effects on the language.
Interlude #3: Bittersweet Kandy
This post is the third of the alt-CIA "World Factbook" entries, this one covering the People's Kingdom of Ceylon, circa 1953. The title, besides being a very bad pun (is there any other sort?), is a reference to Kandy, one of the major cities of Ceylon/Sri Lanka.
Interlude #4: Welcome to Frankfurt
This post is a virtual tour of the government buildings in Frankfurt. Credit for inspiration for this post goes to William Baird and Faeelin, for their own excellent posts on alternate architecture. There's still a lot of reading to be done before this post can be completed. European architecture is not my strong point, and I've never even set foot in Frankfurt (or indeed, anywhere in Germany).
Beyond these current working posts, some sections have been written far in advance of when I expect to release them (including one from the 1910s and a couple of the end-posts set in the early 1930s). I don't always write in chronological order.
After these posts, I expect that the next couple of decades will be covered in reduced detail, for a variety of reasons. The eighth decade will have roughly 15 posts, many of them quite lengthy ones, and if I don't pick up the pace a bit, this timeline will never get finished. But it's also because the 1890s won't see anything like the major wars of the 1880s, with Europe in particular being quite peaceful.
Cheers,
Kaiser Wilhelm III
posted by Jared at 6:00 pm
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