Tom's Brain

Not to be confused with Spock's Brain.

So, this morning I found myself looking at my web-presence, specifically blogs, and what I would like to do.  Right now I have two blogs, this one and Fighting Man's Fitness.

This blog is more or less a dumping ground for all the crap that goes through my brain.  Here you get a slice of my life, some of my musings, my ideas, my dastardly (and not so dastardly) schemes, and generally just all kinds of stuff that interests me.  I try to keep these posts focused, at least a little, on writing and associated interests.  But I know I stray a lot.

Fighting Man's Fitness started out as a way of holding myself accountable for getting myself in better health, and better shape.  To that end, it was a bit cathartic at first to purge myself of a few demons, and organize my thoughts on the whole idea.  But now it has fallen off my radar, for the most part.  And whenever I open my Blogger Dashboard, I find myself wondering why I even have it.

So, I'm thinking of getting rid of the exercise blog, and substituting it with a Gaming blog.  This new idea would be where I discuss the gaming that I do (or want to do, or wish I could do) in all forms.  From Tabletop RPGs to Video Games to Online MMOs.  It would also be a place where I talk about one of my other passions, game-designing (specifically for Tabletop RPGs).

Oddly, this would be about the fourth blog I have started here, aside from my main one (which you are reading now).

Anyways, in other news, I am working on some ideas for writing Pulp Adventure stories.  Not specific stories, or even characters yet, but rather the methods and mechanics of what makes a good story.  Lester Dent, creator and prolific writer of Doc Savage stories back during the late Pulp Era, was famous for using a "formula" for all of his stories.  This is what allowed him to crank out literally dozens of stories in a relatively short period.

I have taken his formula, and boiled it down and defined it in terms that I can get around, personally.  My next step is to come up with a cool Hero, a cast of recurring characters and villains, and some plot devices.  Then I plug that all into the SuperComputer, and presto! PULP ADVENTURE!!

Ok, I'm not going to actually do "paint by numbers" stories.  But the idea intrigues me, and I think it would be a good springboard for some dashing adventure fiction.

I also have a 250-word Abstract on my Term Paper due on Sunday.  I suppose I should get started on that whole mess this week too.