Thanks for your concern @JSB217118 . I'm fine, for the most part. I just have been unable to write like I want to, quality wise. Honestly, I just couldn't bring the last chapter together, at least not to my liking. Then I got to thinking all I have left to do and it felt overwhelming. So I just stopped for a bit. Clean break sort of thing to refresh.
I still have not had much luck with the chapter, but I have been messing around with future chapters and ideas, especially over the last couple of weeks. I wish I had an ETA on when I'll get it all together, but I don't at the moment. Apologies for that, and I thank anyone who is still waiting for their patience.
In fairness to Simon, Geoffrey I with his poor martial skill was also the Iron Duke's son. Simon is a bit of a stats failure compared to his parents though. His father remains a martial legend - the highest in the kingdom. And his mother quite talented in her own right. But sometimes that happens!
Ancel would make for a good spymaster, stats-wise. But he's completely untrustworthy and likely to murder everyone in line for the throne to get himself higher up it. Simon is talentless, so he's more "stick in an advisor/commander role" material. But since Berard is advisor, and for roleplaying reasons, remains in that role. Thankfully for Geoffrey, his marriage to Aines means he can't actually join in factions, and he's not likely to get far with his own plots.
There'll be other reasons why Simon may not be anxious to abandon Geoffrey too.
Well... Poitou's great-grandmother was Norman. Duke Guilhem VIII's first wife, Aines de Poitou's mother, was a Norman, if I remember correctly. So there's your answer!
Geoffrey has never been above hypocrisy! Though in his own rationalizations, he'd likely give a litany of reasons why he's better than Somerset. Beyond Foulques' indulgences, Geoffrey's bedded multiple aunts by marriage. It's not quite step daughter, but it's still really bad.
One of the big things for Geoff has been how his strength has influenced his cousins to fight amongst themselves than him. It would probably take a true leader of Geoffrey I's caliber to pull all those disparate groups together against the monarchy. And none of them are capable of that... especially since quite a few of them have behavioral flaws that prevent that.
Well those rebels certainly have stalled me! That battle chapter has driven me nuts with my inability to get it right to convey the larger importance I want. Thanks for your kind words.
It's hard to rise again if you're locked away in a dungeon... But we shall see how it all shakes out. And I sadly don't get control over prisoners post-war.
Geoffrey's kind of turned Knud into a hound, to be released when he needs someone/something put in their place. Which, I suppose is probably the best use for him.
There's truth to that analysis of Guilhem's war. Geoffrey, in theory stands to benefit no matter the outcome. It's just a matter of selling to Rome that Geoffrey himself had nothing to do with it. Which, thanks to his previous issues with Guilhem, actually makes it slightly easier.
Yes, when I actually finish this chapter, you'll see Geoffrey does command this battle in person. Though I decided not to do this battle from his perspective.
Thanks for your kind words. I have been trying, but that chapter is just a road block. And my stubbornness won't let me switch perspective because I think it's important to flesh out the conflict more.
A belated thank you! I wanted to have this chapter ready for that. But I couldn't get it right. Hopefully I get something together soon.
Thank you for your kind words! Hopefully I can get something in the somewhat near future.
I wish! I appreciate you think it's that good!
Or at least Ancel'd.
Thank you! And I hope to have something in the future. The only good thing to my unexpected break is a few people could catch up/read it in the meantime.
I play on either 2 or 3 speed. I actually don't take notes while playing and I never character switched during game play with one major exception - the Elf thing to get the marriages of Guilhem and Margo done, since it was stupid I had no control over them, but did over all the younger kids. I take a ton of screenshots and try to remember to save every year. Then afterward, I'll look back at the screenshots and make a chronology of the events. That gives me a general sense of the key things that happened to my character at that point.
Next, as I start to write a section, I'll go back to each year and look around. I'll check important characters for important life details/changes and glance around Geoffrey's immediate world to see any plotlines. And of course, I'm mindful of important upcoming events (character birth/deaths, revolts, Crusades, etc.) and try to make sense of when to start sliding them into text.
As I get near to the point, I might character switch to see if there's some insight I'm missing. But since I'm mostly doing third-person limited, it works well for Geoffrey not to know all that his lords are planning. With England I checked because Elf would know, though I use a bit of the fact that Geoffrey and Elf don't fully trust each other to limit Geoffrey's knowledge there too.
There's also the option to simply play from a save point if I think I messed up the outcome. I actually did that here - not because I ran into any great catastrophe (Geoffrey and Elf actually reigned longer in my original save), but because I didn't like how I handled the in-game choices. Once I had written more, I didn't like big choices I made - primarily in how I handled Geoffrey's relations with the papacy. As in, it didn't play a role! So I went back to when Emmanuel became Pope and started playing again.
The results were far more satisfying, even if, like I said, Geoffrey didn't quite manage to live quite as long in the second save (and the one I'll be using) as he did in the first!
As for time period details, I did a lot of Googling, and I have a few books on the period. Some of it is no doubt anachronistic, because the Medieval period is reeeeeeeallly long in terms of what gets classified in it (I mean, some argue it's basically late era Western Rome through the Renaissance, which is 1000 years) and it can be hard to pin down what was happening in just the 11th/12th century at times.
A similar situation happens with the battles. I do a google search of the area where the battle takes place. I certainly understand much has changed over nearly 1000 years, but I figure the topographical details of terrain remain. The whole Siege of Forez was done by looking at the photos I could find of the area around the remnants of the castle.
My professional background is of a writer, but not a novelist. I am an editor/journalist, so I certainly have done a LOT of writing over the years. It's a different style of course, even if I've been doing creative writing as a hobby for years. I wrote out a whole 1000+ page fantasy novel at one point, but didn't think it was quality enough to get published. This AAR is probably the best thing I've ever written, I'd say.
Again, thanks for the questions and the interest. I hope to get things to my liking soon so I can continue.
Thanks! I do hope to get things going soon.
I would definitely not directly just take this and try to publish it straight from what's here. I'm torn between doing something like adapting aspects of plots into the real life Foulques (some of which could work quite well... others not), Foulques V (who did become king after all, just... not of Aquitaine) and then Geoffrey Plantagenet. My hesitation there is that while I have a decent knowledge of the period, I feel like I'd really botch certain aspects of it - and it would take a level of cost to research properly that might be beyond me at this point.
The other option is doing more of a fantasy, where I just took elements and combined it into a fantasy narrative. That would probably lean more heavily on the fantasy aspect with demons and the like as an actual part of the family. I'm less certain how that would play out.
But we shall see. Thanks for the support everyone! Hope to get back to posting soon.
I still have not had much luck with the chapter, but I have been messing around with future chapters and ideas, especially over the last couple of weeks. I wish I had an ETA on when I'll get it all together, but I don't at the moment. Apologies for that, and I thank anyone who is still waiting for their patience.
In fairness to Simon, Geoffrey I with his poor martial skill was also the Iron Duke's son. Simon is a bit of a stats failure compared to his parents though. His father remains a martial legend - the highest in the kingdom. And his mother quite talented in her own right. But sometimes that happens!
Ancel would make for a good spymaster, stats-wise. But he's completely untrustworthy and likely to murder everyone in line for the throne to get himself higher up it. Simon is talentless, so he's more "stick in an advisor/commander role" material. But since Berard is advisor, and for roleplaying reasons, remains in that role. Thankfully for Geoffrey, his marriage to Aines means he can't actually join in factions, and he's not likely to get far with his own plots.
There'll be other reasons why Simon may not be anxious to abandon Geoffrey too.
Well... Poitou's great-grandmother was Norman. Duke Guilhem VIII's first wife, Aines de Poitou's mother, was a Norman, if I remember correctly. So there's your answer!
Geoffrey has never been above hypocrisy! Though in his own rationalizations, he'd likely give a litany of reasons why he's better than Somerset. Beyond Foulques' indulgences, Geoffrey's bedded multiple aunts by marriage. It's not quite step daughter, but it's still really bad.
One of the big things for Geoff has been how his strength has influenced his cousins to fight amongst themselves than him. It would probably take a true leader of Geoffrey I's caliber to pull all those disparate groups together against the monarchy. And none of them are capable of that... especially since quite a few of them have behavioral flaws that prevent that.
Well those rebels certainly have stalled me! That battle chapter has driven me nuts with my inability to get it right to convey the larger importance I want. Thanks for your kind words.
It's hard to rise again if you're locked away in a dungeon... But we shall see how it all shakes out. And I sadly don't get control over prisoners post-war.
Well, you know when Knud is around, violent mischief cannot be far off!
If Guilhem’s border war can be kept at arm’s length and he can win it, then Aquitaine expands a little at French expense. A good outcome, n’est pas? If he loses, then he’s been taken down a peg. As long as it can be plausibly denied.
As for the rebels, they are likely toast. Though many a king has thought that before a decisive battle, only to inconveniently lose it and/or his life. Will Geoffrey be commanding this one in person, as is his habit?
Geoffrey's kind of turned Knud into a hound, to be released when he needs someone/something put in their place. Which, I suppose is probably the best use for him.
There's truth to that analysis of Guilhem's war. Geoffrey, in theory stands to benefit no matter the outcome. It's just a matter of selling to Rome that Geoffrey himself had nothing to do with it. Which, thanks to his previous issues with Guilhem, actually makes it slightly easier.
Yes, when I actually finish this chapter, you'll see Geoffrey does command this battle in person. Though I decided not to do this battle from his perspective.
Thanks for your kind words. I have been trying, but that chapter is just a road block. And my stubbornness won't let me switch perspective because I think it's important to flesh out the conflict more.
Before Plantagenet Happy 4th Birthday
A belated thank you! I wanted to have this chapter ready for that. But I couldn't get it right. Hopefully I get something together soon.
Thank you for your kind words! Hopefully I can get something in the somewhat near future.
I wish! I appreciate you think it's that good!
Or at least Ancel'd.
This has been my nighttime reading for quite a while, until recently when I finally finished reading it all. Extremely impressed, it really does read like a high-quality, standalone novel, and it's really impressive that you manage to create all this from a simple game of CK2.
A couple of questions have popped in my mind while reading it, and now I finally have the chance to ask:
What speed do you play on, and how do you keep track of everything? Are you taking notes, switching characters constantly, etc? The attention to detail just in the interactions between characters within the game is quite striking - I assume you must have a lot of notifications turned on. Particularly now that you're not only paying attention to Aquitaine but an AI-led England as well. (And by the way, I think the whole Aquitaine secession made for a very interesting dynamic politically! I'm really surprised there hasn't been any sort of major war with France ever since that happened.)
How did you come to learn some of these more obscure details about life in the time period? Certain details like the birthing chairs or marriage/courting rituals were quite interesting to read about just for their real-life historical context.
And finally, what sort of writing experience did you have before this? This story easily has quality rivaling a professional novel, and even the beginning reads quite well which is unusual for a first-time AAR. I definitely agree with the idea I believe you said your wife mentioned of trying to novelize this story when it's finished, because it's easily doable, particularly given the extra pass of editing and such that would go on during the process.
It's been quite a pleasure to read over the past months(!), and I look forward to what continues from here.
Thank you! And I hope to have something in the future. The only good thing to my unexpected break is a few people could catch up/read it in the meantime.
I play on either 2 or 3 speed. I actually don't take notes while playing and I never character switched during game play with one major exception - the Elf thing to get the marriages of Guilhem and Margo done, since it was stupid I had no control over them, but did over all the younger kids. I take a ton of screenshots and try to remember to save every year. Then afterward, I'll look back at the screenshots and make a chronology of the events. That gives me a general sense of the key things that happened to my character at that point.
Next, as I start to write a section, I'll go back to each year and look around. I'll check important characters for important life details/changes and glance around Geoffrey's immediate world to see any plotlines. And of course, I'm mindful of important upcoming events (character birth/deaths, revolts, Crusades, etc.) and try to make sense of when to start sliding them into text.
As I get near to the point, I might character switch to see if there's some insight I'm missing. But since I'm mostly doing third-person limited, it works well for Geoffrey not to know all that his lords are planning. With England I checked because Elf would know, though I use a bit of the fact that Geoffrey and Elf don't fully trust each other to limit Geoffrey's knowledge there too.
There's also the option to simply play from a save point if I think I messed up the outcome. I actually did that here - not because I ran into any great catastrophe (Geoffrey and Elf actually reigned longer in my original save), but because I didn't like how I handled the in-game choices. Once I had written more, I didn't like big choices I made - primarily in how I handled Geoffrey's relations with the papacy. As in, it didn't play a role! So I went back to when Emmanuel became Pope and started playing again.
The results were far more satisfying, even if, like I said, Geoffrey didn't quite manage to live quite as long in the second save (and the one I'll be using) as he did in the first!
As for time period details, I did a lot of Googling, and I have a few books on the period. Some of it is no doubt anachronistic, because the Medieval period is reeeeeeeallly long in terms of what gets classified in it (I mean, some argue it's basically late era Western Rome through the Renaissance, which is 1000 years) and it can be hard to pin down what was happening in just the 11th/12th century at times.
A similar situation happens with the battles. I do a google search of the area where the battle takes place. I certainly understand much has changed over nearly 1000 years, but I figure the topographical details of terrain remain. The whole Siege of Forez was done by looking at the photos I could find of the area around the remnants of the castle.
My professional background is of a writer, but not a novelist. I am an editor/journalist, so I certainly have done a LOT of writing over the years. It's a different style of course, even if I've been doing creative writing as a hobby for years. I wrote out a whole 1000+ page fantasy novel at one point, but didn't think it was quality enough to get published. This AAR is probably the best thing I've ever written, I'd say.
Again, thanks for the questions and the interest. I hope to get things to my liking soon so I can continue.
Thanks! I do hope to get things going soon.
I would definitely not directly just take this and try to publish it straight from what's here. I'm torn between doing something like adapting aspects of plots into the real life Foulques (some of which could work quite well... others not), Foulques V (who did become king after all, just... not of Aquitaine) and then Geoffrey Plantagenet. My hesitation there is that while I have a decent knowledge of the period, I feel like I'd really botch certain aspects of it - and it would take a level of cost to research properly that might be beyond me at this point.
The other option is doing more of a fantasy, where I just took elements and combined it into a fantasy narrative. That would probably lean more heavily on the fantasy aspect with demons and the like as an actual part of the family. I'm less certain how that would play out.
But we shall see. Thanks for the support everyone! Hope to get back to posting soon.
- 5
- 2
