Recipe for Success: World Ember 2020
World Ember is coming!
Step 1. My Workplace
WE2020 is just around the corner. And, in accordance with Homework Week 4 suggestions, I give you...My workplace, circa a week ago, from dawn of time (around 2017, actually) and up until 24.11.2020.
Just look at this abysmal display! Three screens, all different sizes. One of those is even 4:3 Aspect Ratio, for the sake of sanity! Well, this setup was great to work with, actually, since the TV was used sporadically, and mainly to watch Netflix, even though it basically functioned as a third screen and an external source of sound. At least it was so warm, it actually managed to heat up the room a bit! :D. Well, not anymore. Behold the new setup!
It's actually a part of a broader upgrade that cost me... Well, my salary for two and a half months xD. But this is now a top-tier workplace, writing place, gaming place and TV-watching place all-in-one. This is what I need for WorldEmber, and a multitude of other tasks ;)
Step 2. Word Sprints
Yeah, I've done those while in crunch, and it was a great distraction from work stuff. Let's see my results!Word Sprint 1, Saturday night.
It was all about just looking at my Pledge and freeforming text on the go. I had just 20 minutes for this one, so the result might be a bit polluted. The text is available inside the spoiler. So, the result is 632 words in 20 minutes. Just once I had to look up a word in dictionary. Extrapolating from average words-per-minute, we get 948 words per 30 minutes.Word Sprint 2, Sunday night.
This one is all scripted. I've decided that I'll write what I remember about D&D races adapted to my setting. I just went in chronological order, starting with Ancient Mesopotamia. Since I had a clear plan in my head, it went way faster. 1042 words in 30 minutes.Word Sprint 3, Monday morning.
And this one is the most unscripted one. It doesn't have structure or any preparation. This is the truest of freeforms I ever wrote: just my thoughts. No rush at all. It went pretty much as I anticipated: 940 words in 30 minutes.All right, let us count! The total is 948+1042+940 = 2930. Words-per-minute is Total/90 = ~32,5. Words-per-hour is WPM*60 = 1960 And Words-per-hour adjusted to distractions and time needed for additional planning (taking not 25%, but 35% here, just in case) is WPH/1,35 = 1444. Woah, this is Europa Universalis IV starting date, btw :-D. As per the formula provided by Janet, let's go for counting how much time do I need to complete WE2020. 10000 words divided by 32,5 (my WPM count) = 308 minutes. 308 minutes is 5 hours 8 minutes, or, adjusted by 35% more time, it's almost 7 hours. I can actually do it in one sitting with 6 smoke breaks, but I'm not going to push myself this far, cause I've got a bigger goal. The math isn't over. I've got 74 articles planned for World Ember, right? Is it just going to be 2,4 articles a day? No, because all of these are different in size. Well, I've assigned predicted wordcount to each an every article in Excel and made this happy donut:
I consider myself to be a reasonable person, and it looks like 2 hours per day will put me around 25 days to complete this stretch goal. The remaining time I'll leave to rearrange the articles and to make it all look pretty. I've also got a ton of post-production to do, and December 15th my RTX 3080 arrives, so I'll be doing some Cyberpunk 2077 as well :-D.
Timetable and Musical Inspirations
For me, this December is divided in three parts:DEC 1 - DEC 13
: Before my vacation. I'm going to do standart 2 hours a day writing WorldEmber articles, maybe less. This is the period I'll be writing with some tea or coffee, minimal smoke breaks and metal or industrial music. These are some examples:
The HU
Eluvietie - my favorite band ever.
Triarii
DEC 14 - DEC 20:
This is my vacation week at work. I'll spend at least 2 hours a day on World Ember, the rest going to post-production of Vicissitudes of Time and R&R. This is the time I'm going to work as swiftly as I can, cause I'll have to juggle multiple projects. This is dubstep/norse music time. Maybe some energy drinks, too, but doubtful:
Dubstep Motivational mix that got me through last years of journalism
Danheim - music with norse stylistic... ish. Very ish... But it's fun, though!
Another dubstep mix I know almost beat by beat
DEC 21 - DEC 30:
The final stretch. I don't celebrate Christmas since I'm in Russia, but I am celebrating New Year. December 31 is strictly a day off from all activities if they are not cooking. I'm the main cook in the house, and the dinner is on me xD This is the time to start slowing down the pace. This is the soundtrack week:
The new AoE2 sountrack. I've written a 150-page screenplay in just 5 days once with this.
Spellforce 3 sountrack - a lot of ambience that reminds me to slow down.
A soundtrack to my favorite game of all time - Europa Universalis IV
Other inspirations
Since my project is a cryptohistorical one, I want to share some of history channels on YouTube I fervorously watch:
Kings and Generals
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Extra Credits
Video introduction
Last but not least, here's my video introduction. I'll probably stream some World Ember 2020 in a form of reports and just try to communicate with those who's interested, but, well, those who are should know at least something about me ;) This is it. It's 2 hours until WE 2020 starts and I can't wait!
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