Step 34: Revive another short story

I found an old story of mine that I quite like. It never got that many readers, so why not post it here? 

Castles and Dragons (3k words, 10-14 mins read)

I have seven more days until the 30th, at which point I will have two months left to finish the other two books.

The motivational image from my wallpaper below relates both to the short story and to the process of writing these novels. I feel like a power-plant for makings things up. Ever since I was a child, making things up has been, aside from video games, my primary source of fun. Or even what makes me come really alive, I suppose. It's funny, when we are young we are taught that the imaginary is not real and that to grow up is to leave that all behind.

Now I know that it's quite the opposite; all that is real exists in our minds and I was born to make shit up. 

I would go so far as to echo a conversation I had with a friend recently, about the coming AI revolution, or the automation revolution that might be somewhere on the scale as the industrial revolution. At the time of the industrial revolution, 95%+ of people were working simply to produce food, almost solely through agriculture. Now it's some ludicrously tiny number.

The automation revolution (or whatever you would like to call it), may again lead to a massive change in the work people will do. The same fears are being echoed as back then, of redundancy and jobs wasted, and now the implementation of a universal basic income is being seriously considered in many western countries. 

What comes next? Creating things. Video games, stories; the childish toys of my upbringing are becoming things of astounding value. Not monetarily (especially in my case), but just in the sheer joy caused, and the amount of time spent by people consuming such things. It has already begun, with things like Patreon and YouTube stars.

As humans, we were made to play, even if our consciousness is just a side-effect of hunter-gatherer honed traits.

It turns out there will be just about 100 posts by the deadline. In which case I am one-third of the way through it all. It seems to have all passed quite quickly, and I am still unsatisfied with the amount of work I've put into the books. But let's see.

With the fantasy novel, I'm about 50-60k words in, which should be about halfway through. 

Balancing work with writing the book is a bit tricky. I keep thinking that since I work part-time, I should have enough leeway every day to do more, but including commuting and all the rest (and my penchant for waking up at 9:30) the time does get eaten up on the regular.

Nonetheless, I have 7 days and when I am on fire I can churn out some real volume, so let's see.

The linked short story is about children's games. The exact playground I was picturing was the one I grew up around, in Upper Baggio, Pokfulam. The slide there truly was a tower, though it was only my brother that I had for a companion. We would make up rather intricate games, as far as I could remember. The language the narrator uses is, of course, not the sort children use- but that is deliberate, as the story is being narrated from a certain point in time.

I have 3-4 hours till I'm off to work. The plan is to meditate to maximise productivity, then blast ambient music.