Okay, quick question time.
How many of you would like to see me start a Fallout 4 playthrough?
I was originally against the idea, because I'm not as happy with the game as I am with Skyrim. It's not a bad game, by any stretch, it's just sort of... bland. There's nothing really engaging about it, from a writing perspective.
At least, I thought so. I figured I'd not start a Fo4 playthrough because:
1. I haven't finished with Mace Raiden yet.
2. It would end up being one big nitpick fest.
Now, #1 isn't a problem. I have no intention of abandoning this story even if I start another one. The end is near, but "near" is relative, and it may take another 30 or 40 chapters before I say done.
#2 *might* be a problem. Or it might not be after all. I do tend to get bogged down in all the details, and gods know this Skyrim playthrough is often quite nonfunny in the way I address what I see as flaws. There's only so long you can sit and read the same basic complaints over and over before you get bored, so just think about how irritating it is to write that dross. Yet I can't seem to help myself. It's a terrible mental aberration, and the electroshock therapy doesn't help.
But I've decided that if I do start a Fallout 4 playthrough, I'll not be quite so damning. I mean, obviously I'm going to poke a bunch of fun at the game and all its myriad faults, but not as much, even though in my opinion there are a lot more faults and those faults are a lot bigger.
For one thing, Fallout 4 lends itself well to a third-person narrative instead of a first-person narrative. That may seem counterintuitive, considering the way Bethesda did the whole "voiced player dialogue" bit, but after writing the first chapter (yes, the first chapter is already written, and so is a lot of the second), I can see it being a lot of fun to write. The third person also allows me as the player and writer to not get quite so irritated with it - a subtle psychological difference here, but effective. If I'm writing in the first person, I must be emotionally engaged in what my character is doing. If writing in the third person, I can distance myself from it, even though nothing in the actual gameplay or story has changed.
Example: here's a small excerpt from the first part.

 

I'm really getting ahead of myself, aren't I? The point is, she's a violent person, but only in response to other violence directed at her or the people around her. She's also supposed to be quite bright and personable, but to be honest she's actually quite dim. Personable, perhaps, but very, very dim. Not the brightest berry in the bunch. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. And other aphorisms appropriate to her status as a low-watt bulb. I don't know why; she made it through law school and has a high intelligence score according to Vault-Tec's dossier.

See? I can poke fun at the main character now, which I couldn't do much of with Mace. It allows me greater leeway in writing both positive and negative things, and the way I've got it structured is funny (to me, at least).
The point I'm getting at is, a Fallout 4 playthrough is certainly possible. I'm going to keep writing Skyrim for a while, but there's nothing actually stopping me from writing Fallout 4 at the same time. One may take precedence over another from time to time, but considering my writing schedule to date (i.e. long periods of silence), maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Regarding Mace Raiden - in any event, after I post the next chapter, which I might as well do right now, I'll also be putting up a straw poll for what happens next in his story.
I put a chapter (which is a stupid name for essentially two pages of text, but I started it that way and I'm going to finish it that way) up a couple of days ago, one more is written but not posted.
The truth is, I'm sort of at a point with Mace Raiden that he could go a number of different ways, and I'm thinking of putting up another poll to see where he goes next. I'm pretty much easy with anything at this point, I just need some direction, because without it I'd go and play a different character.
This isn't my story any more, it's Mace's story, and he's so damn reactive rather than proactive (a word I absolutely despise, by the way) that I've got no real plans for him. I've got a bunch of ideas for various things that I do eventually intend to do before bringing his story to a close, but none of them are immediately accessible - for example, I've got a some stuff written on the main questline, and some stuff for the Civil War, and some stuff on various side quests, but they all require Mace to drop the Dragonborn expansion and go back to Skyrim. Which I'm fine with, but I've no impetus to do that. Frankly, I also have no impetus to do much of anything else with him right now - the way Chapter 44 (little blue men) turned out, the story is at a crossroads, and Mace has no clear path before him.
Basically, I need direction. I'm hoping that you, Loverslab readers (all five of you!) will provide.
Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and post Chapter 44 now, and hopefully get a few responses to this poll before I start writing the next thing.

Next: Chapter 44