I wish a happy new year to dear Andy & all the authors who provided us with thrilling, enticing, or entertaining FF!!!

And here is the early morning newsletter article I read while waking up. Words of Wisdom:

New Years Writing Resolutions
Even people who say they don't make resolutions really do. But how can you make one that is achievable?

Everyone makes resolutions. Even people who say that their resolution is to not make a resolution... well, they just made one! They just don't want to make any promises to themselves that they know they can't keep.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Gym memberships rise, "diets" are started, ... all sorts of things start just because it is the beginning of the new year, and then two weeks later, all is forgotten, and people go straight back to their everyday lives.

I think there are some key things that are necessary to making goals that don't fade away in 2 weeks. Resolutions that will actually last, rather than resolutions that change your life for 2 weeks, and then are forgotten.

I am going to aim this toward writers, for today, but also try to write it in such a way that it can apply to other things, as well.

1. Don't make the resolution something your friends want, make it something you really want.

Who cares what your friends want? I mean, well, you might... but like larger goals, you have to want to change in order for the change to happen. Don't make a goal you don't want to, just because other people want you to.

2. Take baby steps.

Just as you can't just start running 5 miles a day if you've never run before, you can't suddenly start writing 5,000 words per day without some kind of build up. There need to be baby steps built in. Condition yourself slowly, gradually.

3. Prepare yourself for failure.

You're going to not make it sometimes. The key is not giving up with the first failure - keep on going. Take the failure, shrug, and move on with your life. Promise yourself not to do it again, knowing that you probably will, and keep on trucking.

4. Build in some rest time.

Don't forget that people get ill. Or they have overtime at work. Or there are vacations, or family and friend visits, all sorts of things that might slow you down. By building some rest or break time into your goals, it helps you better avoid failure, which only sets one backward.

So, now that all of that has been said, let me give an example of a reasonable set of goals for writing. Each is set in 2 week intervals, so each number stands for 2 weeks. Remember that this particular set is for BEGINNING writers, or at least, writers who are trying to begin writing every day. More experienced writers could start much later in the list.

Also remember that exceeding the goals is not a bad thing. One doesn't have to limit themselves to the goals, the goals are a minimum of what should be accomplished that week.

1: Write 15 minutes per day, 4 days a week
2: Write 25 minutes per day, 4 days a week
3: Write 35 minutes per day, 4 days a week
4. Write 45 minutes per day, 4 days a week
5. Write one hour per day, 4 days a week
6. Write one hour per day, 5 days a week

... and so on, increasing the time as you need to get to the goals you might have. Happy New Year!!!

Andrè Pietroschek
Wed Jan 1 15:06:28 2014

Greetings Andy, this one can be seen as a private note. I craft it in case it is public though.

Tales from Twitter Island is not for me. Neither could I find Tales from Bird Islands on the list of gamebooks here.

I have two links of contributions I made to Interactives, which are (simplified) as a FF done by several authors extending it, where & how they please:

http://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/996999-Dungeons-and-Dragons/action/view/chapter_map/11

http://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/1851765-Vampire-Life/action/view/chapter_map/1553

I checked the links to ensure that one can read without being logged in. No need for membership that far. On adult content that is limited though. You may not read all parts without being a member, for kids must be protected!

Andrè Pietroschek
Mon Jan 27 17:44:46 2014

Whoa, it feels weird. Last night I did my routine... babbling and bragging... just this time something weird happened:

I gave the link to FF project like plenty of times before. But this time the recipient checked the link and thanked me for it.

Weird, as if some etiquette dead for decades had just come back from the void. I go checking for signs of Zombie-Apocalypse now. ;-)

Yaztromo
Mon Feb 10 10:10:00 2014

See Ulysses Ai's interview (in Italian), with lots of references to FFProject: http://www.librogame.net/index.php/lglmag/lglmagok

A. E. Johnston
Thu Feb 13 03:34:45 2014

Thanks for the link, I read the interview after translating it to English. Ulysses really has some great gamebooks here, I initially was not too keen on more sci-fi orientated stories, but his are great, and manage to amuse as well as entertain. A lot of comedy infused with deep meaning, and very enjoyable.

If anyone needs help for any of the original Fighting Fantasy books, I may be able to help, although I am not familiar with Bloodbones

Yaztromo
Thu Mar 6 21:51:30 2014

...and this month is the turn of Gaetano's interview!
http://www.librogame.net/index.php/lglmag/lglmagok

A. E. Johnston
Sat Mar 8 18:28:24 2014

Another interesting interview- the Italian names of the rooms in House of Horror seem to make more sense now!

Yaztromo
Sat Mar 8 19:24:47 2014

...and thank you FF Project that made possible getting in touch with these people!!!

Jest
Sun Mar 9 09:45:30 2014

Very intresting.
Reading those interviews made me feel like I was meeting my own kind for the first time. :)
The two links for the Ulysses interview (from the tenth of Feb) and the Gaetano interview take you to the same interview (Gaetanos). I guess it was changed on there website. To read Ulysses interview I copied and pasted his name into what I guessed was the search engine 'Circa nel sito' (?) and found it that way.

Thanks again Yaztromo for pointing them out.

Yaztromo
Sun Mar 9 22:25:08 2014

here is where Ulysses interview has been archived: http://www.librogame.net/index.php/lglmag/lglmagarch/annata-2014/646-anno-9-nd1-77-febbraio-2014-in

G Mitchell
Fri Mar 14 06:13:43 2014

Hi Andy, don't know if you noticed but there's now a Titannica page for Outsider, don't know if you want to link to it? Hope you're ok. GM

Gaetano
Fri Mar 14 16:24:22 2014

@ Yaztromo

Interesting about Paul Mason and long playthroughs. I found that his last book, Magehunter has one of the shortest successful playthroughs of any book (I'd guest only 10 - 15% of total paragraphs), which means of course that there's a lot of the book that lies off of the true path, making it difficult to complete successfully.

Yaztromo
Sat Mar 15 12:25:19 2014

@ Gaetano
:-( I haven't got Magehunter :-(
I couldn't find it at a reasonable price anywhere, yet.

I recently looked a bit in depth at Black Vein Prophecy and Slaves of the Abyss and I think his gamebook building technique is quite remarkable in the sense that it is more like a puzzle where you put every piece in the right place (and at the right moment!), rather than a tree (where you can choose a branch rather than another branch), but, at the same time, you don't feel railroaded during the first readings, as it is like picking up one between many pieces of a puzzle, that is an operation that makes you feel quite free and not railroaded (like when you can choose left or right and on the right you will die anyway).

Robert Douglas
Sat Mar 15 15:30:42 2014

@ Yaztromo,

I understand what you mean. In some gamebooks, choosing the right path can prove to be a puzzle in itself - at times more of a complex spider's web than a 'tree' with branches of options. Sometimes, even if the path itself is linear, there can still be varied choice of using items, spells, dialogue options, etc. May not seem like a big deal at the time, but making the right (or best) decision may have serious consequences later on. Gives me a headache when planning my own adventures!

Not sure where you'd be able to find Magehunter. Perhaps the old Puffin series are available in e-book format? If not, then they should be, alongside Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and Freeway Warrior.

Robert Douglas
Mon Mar 17 03:15:19 2014

Hi Andy,

Thanks for including 'Any Port in a Storm' within the Downloads list - I was getting a bit worried whether you'd received it! Anyway, it's nice to have it on here.

Yaztromo
Mon Mar 17 18:10:57 2014

One of my favourites of last Windhammer round...

Volden Katanar
Tue Mar 18 11:08:25 2014

Did some of the old FF books get their names changed? Just wondering because there was a reference to "Freeway Warrior" a few posts up. This sounds like an older release of Freeway Fighter, which Wizard re-released a bit under a decade ago IIRC.

Yaztromo
Tue Mar 18 18:11:25 2014

@Volden
I don't think so.
The only gamebook that "changed name" for a recent publication is "Twist of fate" that became "Once upon a time in Arabia", but that's part of Virtual Reality, not Fighting Fantasy
However, I may be misinformed....

Robert Douglas
Tue Mar 18 18:42:48 2014

@ Volden,

No, sorry, I was going on about Joe Dever's 'Freeway Warrior' series, consisting of four gamebooks: Highway Holocaust, Slaughter Mountain Run, The Omega Zone, California Countdown. It was styled on Mad Max. Although Joe Dever is well known for Lone Wolf, his smaller series achieved something of a cult status. Hope it's okay talking about both series on an FF site!

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