The Planet Zoo Community Chit-Chat

[Swjosdotschka]

Hey favourite community!

So, after more and more threads get derailed in Small Talk and it really drowns some good stuff we all made in the game or want to say about the game, I figured we could use a thread to just... chit-chat.
This is exclusively meant for sharing stuff we'd like to share and discuss everything non-Planet Zoo related that is within the forum rules.

So, I'll start: I'm really in the mood for gaming, but committed to doing Nanowrimo this month. Nanowrimo is "National noel writing month", a writing challenge that has become very international now, with germany having one of the most participants. The goal is to write at least 50.000 words from 1 to 30th of novembre.
I have done and won Nanowrimo several times in the past and it helps me to get back into my normal writing habbit when I participate from time to time. I'm well beyond the daily goal this month, but not yet finished. 36.511 words as of posting this thread.

What are you guys doing? What's going on in your life?

EDIT: Dear Mods, I know we have a section for off topic discussions, but I humbly ask to allow this thread here, because... well, it's dedicated specifically to the PZ fam and almost none of us looks anywhere else anyway.

 

[Firestar97]

I already see the Link being posted when a Thread is being derailed with another Topic

So, I'll start: I'm really in the mood for gaming, but committed to doing Nanowrimo this month. Nanowrimo is "National noel writing month", a writing challenge that has become very international now, with germany having one of the most participants. The goal is to write at least 50.000 words from 1 to 30th of novembre.
I have done and won Nanowrimo several times in the past and it helps me to get back into my normal writing habbit when I participate from time to time. I'm well beyond the daily goal this month, but not yet finished. 36.511 words as of posting this thread.

How do People even write that much? I've had a few Ideas so far and for the last one I had a huge Burst of Inspiration and since then I wasn't able to continue even though the Story isn't even finished yet. I'll probably never be able to write a proper Book but only short Stories.
Got inspired by someone to maybe start a YouTube Channel someday (don't have the necessary Equipment yet), so hopefully I'll at least be able to write some Scripts for that. At least I do already have multiple Ideas for that

 

[Swjosdotschka]

How do People even write that much? I've had a few Ideas so far and for the last one I had a huge Burst of Inspiration and since then I wasn't able to continue even though the Story isn't even finished yet. I'll probably never be able to write a proper Book but only short Stories.

Yeah, that's exactly what Nanowrimo is for. You should try it next year. The stress forces you to silence the inner critique and just write that draft. Even if you're slaying words and write a lot of stuff you think isn't neccessary. You can always revisit after Novembre. Actually, there is also a month dedicated to that. It helps exactly with the problems you're facing.

 

[Firestar97]

Yeah, that's exactly what Nanowrimo is for. You should try it next year. The stress forces you to silence the inner critique and just write that draft. Even if you're slaying words and write a lot of stuff you think isn't neccessary. You can always revisit after Novembre. Actually, there is also a month dedicated to that. It helps exactly with the problems you're facing.

Already have enough Stress. Hope that'll change until then. At least I already know a Direction in which the Story will continue, so maybe I'll get enough Motivation to properly continue again

 

[Fabian]

So, I'll start: I'm really in the mood for gaming, but committed to doing Nanowrimo this month. Nanowrimo is "National noel writing month", a writing challenge that has become very international now, with germany having one of the most participants. The goal is to write at least 50.000 words from 1 to 30th of novembre.
I have done and won Nanowrimo several times in the past and it helps me to get back into my normal writing habbit when I participate from time to time. I'm well beyond the daily goal this month, but not yet finished. 36.511 words as of posting this thread.

Unfortunately, I have completely lost touch with writing stories, which I used to be very passionate about. I think my last NaNoWriMo participation was 2015, and I remember scratching the 100,000 word mark that month. Then more and more obligations came along and I never seriously returned to it.

But that's some impressive progress you've made so far! It really helps you overcome that critical part of yourself, right? Editing can come later. Which genres are you writing in, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Swjosdotschka]

But that's some impressive progress you've made so far! It really helps you overcome that critical part of yourself, right? Editing can come later. Which genres are you writing in, if you don't mind me asking?

Wow, 100.000 in a month is very impressive. My Nanowrimo record was hitting the 50.000 in 14 days, but I had little work back then and that helped obviously. My stories tend to get very long in general though.

Currently I'm writing book 5 of my family epos. The story accompanies two families that are very close throughout several decades, starting with the protagonist being 4-14 in book one and now being mid 30 with two teenager kids of his own. Ongoing topic in all books is his deep friendship with his very best friend. If I had to put it into a genre, I'd say soap, but my best friend, who is also my beta reader would kill me for that. It has a bot of everything. Comedy, drama, thriller. Hard to pinpoint.

I do have another project started and waiting for me to return which is easier to put into a genre: Urban Fantasy. Vampires, to be specific. What were you writing back then?

 

[yoav_r]

Nice idea man!

 

[Swjosdotschka]

Sorry @yoav_r , I know you didn't mean specifically, but there is no way I'm not using this gif whenever I can and I'm ususally not one for gifs. But this scene makes my heart happy.

 

[SanRazo618]

Thanks for the thread. I agree we should definitely keep threads more organized. I also found myself writing more recently! I’ve been writing a ton for a video essay project I’m making for a video on Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I wanted to make a video detailing how Disney is slowly abandoning the original conservation focus of the park and eroding it away to: “anything themed to animals belongs here” I was halfway through the script when my computer decided to delete a whole chunk of it I decided to try recording the voice over for what I do have and it sounded a little robotic so I think I’m going to go for a more bullet point style for each section of the video and see how it sounds. I think the more natural voice over will be more entertaining to audiences too

 

[yoav_r]

Sorry @yoav_r , I know you didn't mean specifically, but there is no way I'm not using this gif whenever I can and I'm ususally not one for gifs. But this scene makes my heart happy.

Lol, I usually try to default to the gender neutral Dude.

 

[Firestar97]

Thanks for the thread. I agree we should definitely keep threads more organized. I also found myself writing more recently! I’ve been writing a ton for a video essay project I’m making for a video on Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I wanted to make a video detailing how Disney is slowly abandoning the original conservation focus of the park and eroding it away to: “anything themed to animals belongs here” I was halfway through the script when my computer decided to delete a whole chunk of it I decided to try recording the voice over for what I do have and it sounded a little robotic so I think I’m going to go for a more bullet point style for each section of the video and see how it sounds. I think the more natural voice over will be more entertaining to audiences too

Sounds interesting. Hope they still care well for their Animals. Don't want another White Wilderness Situation from Disney after I started trusting them that they take good Care of their Animals

 

[SanRazo618]

Sounds interesting. Hope they still care well for their Animals. Don't want another White Wilderness Situation from Disney after I started trusting them that they care good for their Animals

They do have amazing care from what I’ve seen. They’re accredited and have the show on Disney plus about their keepers like secrets of the zoo. I mean more the direction the higher ups are going with new attractions

 

[Firestar97]

They do have amazing care from what I’ve seen. They’re accredited and have the show on Disney plus about theyre keepers like secrets of the zoo. I mean more the direction the higher ups are going with new attractions

Let me guess. Same idiotic Stuff as one of the SeaWorld CEOs. Focussing on Rides instead of the Animals in a Park that is supposed to be about them

 

[SanRazo618]

Let me guess. Same idiotic Stuff as one of the SeaWorld CEOs. Focussing on Rides instead of the Animals in a Park that is supposed to be about them

Eh kind of. The rides aren’t what bothers me (which yes they are doing) it’s more that they are losing their consistent conservation theme focus by for example announcing an area dedicated to zootopia (a movie using animals as an analogy to racism and human issues) to replace their dinosaur area which is completely dedicated to extinct species and fits with the original focus of the park. They even have a beautiful and depressing extinction mural showing how close some of our species are to extinction as well

 

[Firestar97]

Eh kind of. The rides aren’t what bothers me (which yes they are doing) it’s more that they are losing their consistent conservation theme focus by for example announcing an area dedicated to zootopia (a movie using animals as an analogy to racism and human issues) to replace their dinosaur area which is completely dedicated to extinct species and fits with the original focus of the park. They even have a beautiful and depressing extinction mural showing how close some of our species are to extinction as well

That Stuff sounds great. Sounds wrong to me to just replace it with something like that. How would such a Zoo Area even look?

 

[SanRazo618]

That Stuff sounds great. Sounds wrong to me to just replace it with something like that. How would such a Zoo Area even look?

In the concept art it looks like the city in the movie.

 

[Firestar97]

In the concept art it looks like the city in the movie.

Sounds stupid to me. If they need to make a City they should do something like City Wildlife with Animals like Coyotes, Red Foxes, Raccoons, Pigeons, Wild Boars......

 

[Captain Callum]

Eh kind of. The rides aren’t what bothers me (which yes they are doing) it’s more that they are losing their consistent conservation theme focus by for example announcing an area dedicated to zootopia (a movie using animals as an analogy to racism and human issues) to replace their dinosaur area which is completely dedicated to extinct species and fits with the original focus of the park. They even have a beautiful and depressing extinction mural showing how close some of our species are to extinction as well

That's sad news, I loved the dinoland area the last time I was there. To scrap that for a movie theme with forces human problems into the animal kingdom is disappointing at the very least

 

[DarthQuell]

Never been to any Disney park, and I may never will. The only park I've been to was Legoland California, and it was quite nice, especially the miniland area. But I'm not into theme parks, really; I mean, every year we have the Livestock Show and Rodeo, and I haven't been to it in years. And when I did go to it, I didn't go.om any rides except for maybe one of the 3 Ferris wheels they had (it's quite big. It's set at NRG stadium, including the whole parking lot where the carnival is set, the stadium itself for the rodeo, which I've never attended, and a nearby building for the livestock show, which was my favorite part)

But anyways, yeah, I'm not looking for an adrenaline rush anytime soon, in fact never, which is why I prefer to go take walks in the forest or go to the zoo or go to some nature park

 

[Fabian]

Wow, 100.000 in a month is very impressive. My Nanowrimo record was hitting the 50.000 in 14 days, but I had little work back then and that helped obviously. My stories tend to get very long in general though.

Currently I'm writing book 5 of my family epos. The story accompanies two families that are very close throughout several decades, starting with the protagonist being 4-14 in book one and now being mid 30 with two teenager kids of his own. Ongoing topic in all books is his deep friendship with his very best friend. If I had to put it into a genre, I'd say soap, but my best friend, who is also my beta reader would kill me for that. It has a bot of everything. Comedy, drama, thriller. Hard to pinpoint.

I do have another project started and waiting for me to return which is easier to put into a genre: Urban Fantasy. Vampires, to be specific. What were you writing back then?

I just looked it up again, my record was when I managed 95,000 words in November '14 when I finished my last really long story that ultimately hit almost a million words after three years of writing. But that was never meant for publishing anyways, so I never really spent any significant amount of time editing it down.

Interestingly – I also wrote what could probably be called a family epos. It was about a family with a business of their own and the struggles for power and the associated conflicts arising within the family, with several POV characters and different subplots that took the story into different genres, notably thriller, romance and drama. "Soap opera" would probably be a fitting description too, although that word alone is accompanied by so many prejudices that no author would probably like to have their story described that way. I ultimately finished the actual story and even started a second part because I was so invested in the world and the characters, but abandoned that one rather soon when I hit a writing slump. Other than that, mostly short stories and novellas, some of which I published online even. I've been developing ideas for "normal-length" books ever since, but none of them made it past that idea stage, mostly because of time restrictions and the motivation never settled long enough. The past few years, all my writing energy goes into writing movie reviews for Letterboxd as a hobby, but who knows, maybe one day I'll get back into it after all.