The Planning of the Stories Within Shorts of the Rula

Shorts of the Rula was set up to fill in for the Crazy Shorts section of my original location for uploading the free stories I wrote. Rather than keep the name, I decided to swap it for something more direct. And there’s nothing more direct than saying what kind of stories they are and who wrote them right in the title. But it serves its purpose for when I want to add to it, rather than creating a new story on Wattpad for each short.

I had considered porting the stories from Crazy Shorts to be the first set within Shorts of the Rula, but decided against it for two reasons. The first being that half of them featured real people (namely those of Halesowen College) and I didn’t feel it right to rename all those people again – so those stories remain as simple fiction that the Brandon Golden of the Alternate Halesowen and Beyond [AHB] series has or will write at some point. The other reason being that my writing had seen improvement since those stories, and while I could have redone them, I wanted to make a fresh start in terms of shorts.

The first short that featured was just a little extra something that had helped craft the dynamic between Jack and Darren of the AHB series. The idea being that the two were wondering London having been at Summer of Sonic the previous day. Part inspired by my own adventures during that weekend with Hayden, I wanted to see how I would get the two characters to react in that situation. It helped a lot in getting the original characters some identity, but the story itself would never be able to be used owing to their disappearance within AHB1.

To use the story, I invented two new characters who shared the same dynamic, but gave them a few differences in both actions and character. Craig and Henry were the names I settled on, wanting to use names that had never previously been used in AHB1 or planned names for AHB2. See, this short belongs in that universe, giving me two other characters to explore should I wish in the future.

The second short was added just under a year later, where I had been looking again at those Crazy Shorts, as well as two other stories I’d written but never published. Both of those also featured amusement parks, with one following a family throughout the day, and the other following a student day out. I looked at all three, and decided to base it on a family outing, but to focus on just one part.

At this point, I’d released Elemental Heroes, and had started to take a deeper interest in making alternate worlds that were completely manufactured but a person would still be able to fully explore on their own. So the golf course featured within Golf Dimension was one of those worlds. The course itself is clearly something that wouldn’t ever be able to be done within the real world, and how things work while within are different to reality. This was just the first step in exploring the idea of visiting alternate realities and the things that could be done within them.

A tamer use of such a thing was used for this next one. Just like Elemental Heroes and Space Race Championship, this was a story concept I’d had, but unlike the other two this one had never seen much development. All I’d had for it was that someone received a letter about a party on Halloween night, but that party wouldn’t be happening as someone had other ideas. It had been more than a year since the last story, so I wanted to write for Shorts of the Rula a bit more regularly than just once a year.

This was the first of the two (originally three, had Yogsimulated been included) planned to see the end of the year off. I had looked at that concept for the idea and decided to develop it into a full story. Again, I used the idea of two friends, who were opposites in this story in terms of their reactions to what was going on. Instead of being a creation of technology, the reality alteration this time was through magic and a part of the world rather than seeing a transport into and out of it. The original name had seen a bit of an alteration to reflect the story, though the location of Greenwich Hill still remained.

The second of the two stories planned to end the year off was Mountainous Change, and if you’ve been following the GTA concepts I’ve been posting, you’ll know that the state of Herzan featured within the story is from that and that the story is a base for a possible start of a game. That’s true, but the development goes a bit further than that. Or, at least, it starts to.

I’d had the name of Herzan down for the state within the GTA-verse since the middle of the year, but the fascination of using Michigan as a base for that state plays into one of the ideas I’d been developing for a standalone story outside of any of the three series I’d now established. Rather than directly use a location as I was for the AHB series, however, I wanted to develop an entire state to call my own.

The map you see developed for the GTA-verse Herzan is based more closely on Michigan than what the state is planned to look like. The counties within the GTA-verse concept are taken from the planned version, with the towns and cities within that concept filling in for states of the original. Once I had published Mountainous Change, however, it seemed wrong to be developing an entire state for just one story (that will be coming to the Kindle Store in the future). While there’s no name for the series yet, that standalone will be the second story within it, and will possible be the only non-short within it.

As for a bit more on Mountainous Change, it had gone through a few changes to get to what I wanted for it, with changes to the events that happen within changing slightly with each iteration. The main concept to get across was the act of being betrayed by a friend, which held the entire story together as more got added to it. I wanted it to be based on a ski resort as I like winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding even if I don’t follow much of the action.

That’s four stories already released to Shorts of the Rula, and there’s more I’m planning to add soon. I also haven’t forgotten about Alternate Extras of Halesowen, with stories for that also being planned. That new book for the Kindle Store will be coming in the last quarter of this year, though it’s possible another short set in the state of Herzan will release before it does.

However, that is all for this look at some of the planning behind the current stories of Shorts of the Rula. I hope you enjoyed this bit of a look into the planning of them, and will look out for more additions to this and the others mentioned in the future.

The Planning of Yogsimulated

 

Exactly two months ago, I posted a fan-created story to Wattpad that put focus onto a well-known entertainment brand. Yogsimulated told the tale of ten members of the Yogscast getting to experience a new type of virtual reality and be the ones to make it public through the use of a video. Each of the four points of view explored the same events but with different experiences being felt.

And now, with this post, I’m going to give a bit of a behind the scenes look at what sort of ideas I had planned for, and why the things that went into it happened. If you haven’t read it yet and want to do so before reading this look back at its creation, you can do so by following this link. Now, let’s start at the beginning.

The time was around this point last year. The Jingle Jam of 2018 had finished, I’d been watching some of the regular streams over the month, and wanted to celebrate my appreciation of the Yogscast in the way I knew best. But what could I use as a story? Did I want to go wild with it or play it safe?

I eventually opted for the latter, but used a bit of creative licence when crafting the characters. All of that came in the last few months before release, however, since for most of the year it was just small bits of ideas that never really got put down in writing. The only thing I had really settled on was – as with all my fan-created works – an alternate reality that allowed me to be a bit more creative with the world.

So to start with I had a list of various members who could be used in whatever story happened to uncover. That list was always changing and evolving, and at one point I had considered adding original characters into the ‘cast – though I felt doing so wasn’t in the spirit of what I wanted this to be about. Then there were the events I wanted to happen. I had considered taking the ‘cast on an adventure of some sort, so for the first few months the label of Yogventures was applied to the folder of ideas.

Such adventures were to have referenced a few things from the then recent videos I had watched, though such ideas had never been put into data form. I just knew I wanted an adventure to happen. But then I started to think on something I like to say, and decided to theme the adventure around that. “Adventure can be found in your hometown” was something of a phrase I’d say near the summer, as I would sometimes just head out with end goal in mind. So with the Yogscast being based in Bristol, the adventure of Bristol started forming, with wacky antics being had as they travelled around.

That idea lasted a few weeks before I then decided on a new angle. Now in the second half of the year, the Jingle Jam would soon be returning for another December of festive-themed charity streams. I wanted something that would tie in – however loosely – with that event. So, what with the alternate reality in mind, I uprooted something from Elemental Heroes for use here. That being the virtual reality that was pretty much an alternate reality. A video game environment where you controlled every action you made.

The idea was that they had been invited by the inventor of the technology to be the ones to make it public. As for what they were doing within the virtual Bristol, I at first flavoured it as a Gmod-like experience, with game modes similar to those the Yogscast have played on the main channel. Rather than transferring them completely over, I started to develop similar modes to fill in for them. Only infiltration – the TTT-like mode – ever had ideas written down for it.

Infiltration would have been an objective mode, where the team have a goal that needs to be completed. However, there are infiltrators who aim to stop that goal being completed by killing the other members of the team. For every five players, one would be an infiltrator. Everyone would have a role which determined which weapons they had access to, independent of whether they were an infiltrator. The game would have been played with full communication off, which would have made for a more plot-focused section of the story rather than being character interaction based.

Then I added some racing to the ideas of games that would be played in the virtual reality, and since my heart lies with racing, that’s what the entire story became based around. Not only did it allow for character interaction to be at the fore of the story, it allowed for an expression of just how much could be got away with in this virtual reality. You’re not going to be able to zoom around the city streets without repercussions in reality, after all, and that’s something I made sure to highlight within the story, along with a few extra bits about the morality of actions even in a virtual world.

The list of characters had been finalised and I got to writing. The first pass at it needed some strengthening in certain areas. The introduction felt weak, and there was little in the way of true interaction. There also needed to be some world building and explanation of the systems at play within this virtual world. The second pass made sure to correct that weakness, adding in the world building elements, while still keeping it all told from Lewis’ point of view.

Now, truth be told, it could have ended there, ready to be uploaded to Shorts of the Rula in November. But if this was a celebration, I wanted it done right. There were four groups in the introduction, and so another three points of view were written. Doing so allowed me to include the three journeys in the first half that would never have been told, along with some more world building opportunities. I could also put some focus to areas that wouldn’t have seen much under just the one point of view. Working on those other three POVs brought to light a few corrections and additions I made to the overall story.

Looking on what was created, I felt it managed to convey the usual banter and interaction that videos of the Yogscast have, but aside from the world building of the virtual reality technology, doesn’t stand as a massively strong story. It was something made by a fan to celebrate their appreciation of a brand. In this case, the Yogscast. And it does do that, but I’m left wondering what I could have achieved had I kept the larger ambition for the project I’d had at the start. Video content is what we love the Yogscast for, but – while certainly a unique take – doesn’t mean a story written about them has to follow that core foundation.

That game mode of Infiltration I have kept as an idea for another time. It won’t see anything major done with it, but it serves its use as a world building tool – whether for a continuation of this story (since I could theoretically make a second story based on the livestream during Jingle Jam I reference in the first) or for another of my worlds as a mode within a standard game.

What I do want to try is a story that takes those original ideas of an adventure and make something of them. If I feel the opportunity is there to make another fan-created story using the brand of the Yogscast, I will try to incorporate those ideas into such a story. I’d want such a story to have something unique to it, though, so will only use such ideas in such a way if it makes sense for what I want to achieve.

While what I said above does make it seem like I am disappointed in how this came out, I am anything but. As said, it managed to convey the banter and interaction videos of the Yogscast have, and that was what I set out to achieve once I had a goal in mind. I’ll leave it up to you to see if I managed to succeed at that, but I feel it has.

The Future Adventures of Halesowen Has Released

We are returning once again to the Alternate Halesowen and Beyond series for another short story collection. This time the students are at the college for their second year, looking into where they want to be heading. You can buy it for £2 on the Kindle Store or, as with all my books, borrow it from Kindle Unlimited.

The Future Adventures of Halesowen, just as with Alternate Adventures, is a book that looks at the students of the college in their activities. Dealing with a wider area of time, all of the students get focus with their arc detailing their own future. Opportunities arise for many of them in different forms, and there’s also some resolution to conflicts both old and new.

Phase one might have followed with the second in Alternate Halesowen and Beyond, but this time I’m going to leave the fourth in the series for a while and return to another series. As said during the advertisement of it, Elemental Heroes will be seeing five books building up to roughly 35 to 40 episodes in total. The second volume is named Invasion of the Kri’tirs, and sees the elementals dealing with the war that had been mentioned in the first.

You can get on Amazon UK here – Kindle Store – to look at more of The Future Adventures of Halesowen. I hope you enjoy reading, and give some thoughts about, this, past and future novels.

Second Preview: The Future Adventures of Halesowen

Before this second preview starts, I just want to remind everyone that the previous books in this series are currently on sale at £0.99. The Alternate Adventures of Halesowen is currently on sale until midnight on the 8th, where Secrets Behind the Truth will then be the one on sale until midnight of the 16th. Twenty-four hours later, this book then releases.

Below is the preview, taken from the fourth short of the collection. Enjoy.
__________

The rest of the game passed with him not seeing anyone else, and once again he’d found himself on the top ring just as his gun announced, “Game end. Please return to the armoury.”

The doors of the room were open when Brandon arrived. Walking through them, he quickly sat down. He had been unaware of how hot he’d felt while in the arena, and also how much he needed a rest.

Within a minute, everyone else had returned.

“Hey, Ghost Rider,” Ross called. “Careful you don’t burn anyone with that flame of yours.”

Brandon looked confused at that remark. He ran a hand over his head, and felt it was indeed hot.

“Look at that steam,” Ashley commented. “Have you turned into a barbeque?”

“Really?” Brandon asked. “I’m steaming?”

“Like a fresh cup of tea,” Oliver remarked.

Brandon gave a nervous laugh as he looked over at the other team. They were looking at him, all with laughter on their faces.

It had to have been funny to see. He wished he could see it for himself.

“I’ve got the results of this first game,” the host announced, coming out of the control room after a minute. “Team two earned themselves twenty-five points. Team one earned twenty-six. Good job, teams. Are you ready for the second game?”

They all affirmed they were, even Brandon, who felt he’d have plenty of opportunity to rest while eating. Although for this second battle, he’d certainly try to not overdo it – especially since there would be a third game no matter who won this second.

The second game breezed by, with Brandon having made some faster attacks, though he would still be caught off guard by someone barrelling around a corner and freeze up, allowing that person to get the attack in.

After returning to the armoury, and having received yet more comments about his steaming head, the host announced that they had won the round twenty-two to eighteen. The third match would decide the overall winner, and Brandon felt they stood a chance of winning.

Within the arena again, Brandon found his way to the ramped overlook as fast as he could, and intended to stay there for as long as he could. One of the other team had obviously thought of the idea before him, as when he appeared at the lower end, someone was already there.

He fired a shot and disappeared back the way he had come, found someone else in front of him, and managed to get a second hit before diving down the nearest ramp and hoping he could quickly get across the open area without being hit himself.

He managed to hit a few more of the other team during the third game, though sometimes expected a hit to be confirmed but instead got hit himself. Often he would run into Ross or Oliver, and once they all happened to be caught in the open area, getting hit from all four sides before his sister managed to open a route up for them by managing to hit three of them from the very top overlook, which had made the three blocking the routes retreat into the depths of the arena.

In the last five minutes of the game they had managed to claw back enough points to hopefully win. Brandon wasn’t expecting it though, as they had been caught in that open area for about a minute.

When they all met back at the armoury, Ashely stated, “You know there are more than three ways out of that open space, right? You could have saved yourself instead of being sitting ducks.”

Brandon hadn’t known that, and evidently the other two hadn’t either.

“That was an interesting one,” the host called as he entered from the control room. “It didn’t have too much of an impact on the points, though. Team one managed thirty points, but team two managed to just get ahead with thirty-one.”

They all cheered at that, with both teams shaking hands.

“Well done team two,” the host said. “Get those packs off and I’ll take you back down to the lobby where you can get the results slips of the three games.”

With the packs off and hooked back up, all eight followed the host through the briefing room to a door on the middle of the left wall. Walking down the ramp that followed the wall, they were back in the lobby. The host waved them off and headed back up, with the eight heading to the reception desk, where the receptionist handed out the results slips and pulled the boxes that held their belongings from underneath the desk.

Having collected what was theirs, all eight shared more good games and goodbyes, with the other team heading out before Brandon’s group. Once out, Brandon inhaled deeply and let out a long breath.

“That was fun,” he stated. “We heading off to eat, now?”

“Yeah, we are,” Ross said.

Starting to walk, the four turned left at the end of the road.

“I still can’t believe you didn’t know about those other exits from that open space,” Ashley exclaimed. “You could have at least tried to hide instead of looking like you’d been lassoed in place.”

“We obviously forgot to check in the heat of the moment,” Brandon said with sarcasm.

“It should have been obvious with how open it was.”

“Thanks for the save, anyway,” Ross said. “But it was fun, and that’s all that matters.”

“Indeed,” Oliver stated.

“I really did love it,” Brandon added.

“Speaking of love, I think that one with the blue hair wanted to talk to you,” Ross teased. “Might have been a connection.”

“Nah,” Brandon said. “She might have been laughing at the Ghost Rider comments, but they all were. Besides… Elizabeth…” He faltered on that last part. Ross seemed to know exactly what he was thinking with that.

“Let it go,” he said. He continued in a very pointed tone. “It’s been two months and you’ve barely talked to her. Either get friendly with her again or give up dreaming anything will happen.”

Brandon remained silent at that, unsure exactly what to think.

He wanted to be with Elizabeth. He wanted to be friendly with her, continue talking normally to her. But fear had gripped him, and he had shut himself off from her. He didn’t even know what he feared, but it was there.

He hadn’t even considered that if he wasn’t wanting to be her partner he might once again relax around her.

“Who is this Elizabeth?” he heard his sister ask the other two.

“Someone in our group,” Ross stated. “Someone he’s been pining for pretty much since we started the first year.”

“I haven’t,” Brandon burst out defensively, even though he knew it to be the truth.

Ross grunted with laughter. “You haven’t exactly hidden it. You were all over her in the first year.”

“And now he’s stopped trying to get her to notice him?” Ashley asked.

“I expect there’s a bitterness that she rejected him when he finally did ask her.”

“There isn’t,” Brandon defiantly said. “I just- I don’t know. Can we leave this?”