Writing and Superspeedway Design

I started working on actually writing Cruiser City for Heroes Unlimited. I got as far as the commercial sector when I wanted to work on the race track design for a superspeedway that will be depicted in the book. Compared to Cruiser City's map (last blog post), this one was a bit more difficult. I had to figure out how Arcs worked and figure out a way to line them up to the back and front stretch. The front stretch is a reverse dog leg while the pit lane on the back stretch. The track in the book has a track inside for Formula 1 and GRAND AM racing, but it is not depicted on the map (that would be way too difficult/time consuming)

Good and Bad News

First the bad news. My PC is having problems, and I think I have narrowed it down to bad memory. I have submitted an RMA request from Patriot Memory, so hopefully I will not have to buy new memory. If I do, it will only cost around $57. As for the good news, I was able to create a drawing program in Visual Studio to create a map for a source book I plan on writing for Palladium Books.

Creative Writing Tips: Diction

I thought I would touch on diction in terms of writing. What exactly is diction? To put it simply, it is the level of speech one uses in their writing. There are different levels of diction from refined legalize down to Vulgate language. Obviously there is no wrong diction, only appropriate diction. That is to say depending on how sophisticated or learned a character is will determine their level of diction. For example, there is a difference between a character saying "I did not do it" rather than "I didn't do it" or worse "I din't do it." Contractions can be used to emphasize a person's lack of knowledge or simply social etiquette. This is not to say that only stupid characters use contractions, but there is a notable difference between a character who uses and another who does not use contractions.

What is Justice?

Maybe I have been watching too much Star Trek Voyager that I am adopting a Vulcan attitude, especially towards the Casey Anthony trial, but many people have become too emotional and more importantly irrational towards the verdict. This happens a lot with other issues that if you do support one thing, then you must support the other thing. For example, you either support health care, or you hate children and old people. In the case of the Casey Anthony trial, you are either outraged at Casey Anthony going free, or if you are opposed, you hate little two-year-old girls and have no feelings that she was murdered.