NaNoWriMo update: failure!

[tuftears]

I got about 8.5k words done on the proposed Genies: Rocking the Cradle story.

I kind of bogged down though... The real world is too depressing for writing about a bunch of psychopaths. I'm trying to think of a replacement writing project, something that will be just more silly fun.

What do you guys think of the idea of a Starfleet Cooking Academy?

Comments

[xyzzysqrl]

I think the idea makes me hungry.

But it's an interesting concept, and reminds me a bit of Sisco's dad's restaurant in DS9. Why cook when you can replicate? You want to learn the skill, you want unique flavors, you want to make something from your distant family's personal history...

It's interesting.

[tuftears]

I was actually going to use Star Trek circa Enterprise, i.e. before technology becomes magical. :)

It's a valuable shipboard profession for a wide range of reasons -- keeping up crew morale, preparing dishes for a wide variety of alien races while controlling your workspace so you don't accidentally kill your crew with cross-contaminants, working with life support systems that have to recycle materials for long voyages with very limited space, and of course a range of alien dining habits and cultures that should be satisfied.

[xyzzysqrl]

Aah. I admit "cooking for necessity" is less interesting to me than "cooking as an affectation" but if it inspires you, run with it.

[tuftears]

I was actually pondering whether to use the 'battle with cooking' trope, and how to structure it if so. Since this would be an academy story, it's natural the protagonist(s) are going to be challenged on how well they can actually cook, within a set of constraints, and competing against one another would be one way to settle that issue.

I really enjoy the cooking-competition genre and the 'cooking in weird settings' genre -- for examples of both, see Food Wars (Shokugeki no Soma) for the former, and Delicious Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) for the latter.

[xyzzysqrl]

I have NOT in fact seen those and after some cursory research I can only ask WHY NOT. I'm going to have to see more of those later.

[tuftears]

Hope you enjoy them! Game-wise, I also recently finished playing Battle Chef Brigade, which is a fantasy take on cooking battles. :)

[jordangreywolf]

Oh! I remember seeing that on a Steam preview! I had to show that one to Gwendel. She thought it was cute, but she's got quite a backlog of "cute" games she's gotten in Steam sales that she's not even PLAYED yet. (And I'm not so much into side-scroller-hopper games, though the concept looks adorable.)

[tuftears]

Yeah, I'd love there to be a Battle Chef Brigade anime. ^_^

[xyzzysqrl]

I'm intrigued by it myself!

It may end up somewhere in the Eternal Backlog Engine at some point.

[zhora]

You'd also have to consider how dishes for one species might look to another, and whether it could be offensive or disturbing. Like, if a dolphin-type species had a sacred food that they ate on holidays that happened to resemble relatives of a co-worker's species, to use your above example.