See that? Even our kitten likes games. I thought I’d take a moment of your time to remind you that no gamer exists in a vacuum, and tell you about what some of the other important gamers in my life are up to and blogging about.
Epixaricacy has been playing Mass Effect. I’ve talked about the game before and now find myself drawn back towards it, despite the fact I haven’t finished Dragon Age yet. It’s something she regularly reminds me to do, and if I can plow through it I should get a review up for that as well. In the meantime, check out what my better half has to say about Mass Effect. Her perspective is interesting, to say nothing of how liberally she sprinkles curses into her words, and it’s nice to have her writing about something she enjoys.
Scionical has posted a review of Bayonetta. I doubt I’ll be picking this one up. I wasn’t that much a fan of the Devil May Cry series, and if Bayonetta mostly serves as eye candy while pretending she isn’t Dante, why not just download pictures of her and leave it at that? Apparently, Scionical went the extra mile and rented the game, and like Epixaricacy, serves up his thoughts with a huge helping of lovely profanity. Why, you might ask? So you don’t have to.
So what about games that are even newer? Perhaps those still in the testing phase? Surely I have no insight into that part of the industry…
But, lo! What is this? The Gamer Panda is more than willing to share her thoughts and experiences in being a tester of games. She’s also a masterful herder of cats, well-trained in the use of a pen, and I even hear she makes soap and sells it on the Internet. She may or may not also live on Paper Street.
Time for me to be off and slay some dragons. Excelsior!
I’m sitting here waging a pitched battle against a sore throat, aching muscles and a tract that occasionally lets me know it’s not terribly happy at the moment either. I had to sortie out to gather reinforcements – chicken noodle soup, orange juice and toaster strudel. What? It was on sale. Seriously.
Anyway, this sojourn to the shop had me wondering what happens when a writer gets sick of writing. You can plow through thousands upon thousands of words only to start feeling groggy in the brain. You try to sleep it off, but when the morning comes you’re just as sick of the work as you were the night before. So what do you do?
One of the things I like to do could be considered ‘comfort writing.’
It’s not dissimilar to all the things that one can do when you run out of steam. I guess the Farraday counts. What it boils down to is that while writing is a job, and occasionally an arduous and thankless one, it’s also a form of art, and art should never feel more like a punishment than it does a joy.
I’m probably thinking more of writing fiction than I am non-fiction, as journalists and reporters write every day for the sake of informing rather than entertaining. However, many of the journalists I have met are vivacious people who still enjoy a good turn of phrase and often craft their articles to have a broader appeal than simply being informative. If you can’t take joy in what you do, it’s time to do something else. Life is too short to waste being miserable for extended periods of time.
Anyway, it was just a thought I had. Feel free to dismiss the preceding as the addled ramblings of a guy hopped up on Progresso, Minute Maid and DayQuil.
Some time ago I posted about dry spells in writing. I would like to take you, if I may, into another metaphor for the things that can happen to a writer that don’t really fall into the category of ‘writer’s block’. A writer or other artist may have no shortage of work or ideas, but when the time comes to sit down and produce, nothing happens. The ideas are in the brainpan, jumping around and screaming to get out, but the gates just won’t open.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you run out of steam.
In the aftermath of a project’s completion, the end of a workweek or the conclusion of some sort of trip or activity, there can be a dearth of energy that works counter to any plans or ideas one might have. “After I finish this project/get home from work Friday/go see so-and-so, I’ll be sure to sit down and bang out a thousand words!” It’s an optimistic statement, filling the endpoint of the timeline with hope and promise. Then, when you reach the end of that timeline and clear your decks for action… nothing happens. The engine grinds to a halt. Something has gone wrong, somewhere, and despite one’s deep desire to move forward, there’s no motion whatsoever.
So what happens next?
Rekindle the Fires: Go Back To Your Sources
A lot of artists take notes or make sketches. Rarely does a work spring fully-formed from the mind of the creator, shining with goddess-like beauty and clad in armor that is both practical and beautifully revealing. More often than not they need to be stitched together and zapped into life by some Frankensteinian alchemical process. This means you had raw material to work with before you began refining it into a coherent, singular idea.
If that idea is having trouble taking shape, go back to your source. Look over your notes, and make revisions if you want. Do more sketches. Jot down peripheral ideas. Something you thought of in passing during the early stages of the project might blossom into the sort of idea that gets your engine running again. That minor character you wanted to write out of your story, or a color that you didn’t think would work in the final product? Take those in a new direction.
Fix The Pipes: Edit Existing Constructs
If you’ve run out of steam partway through a project, you’ve already established some things with which you’re relatively pleased. But can they be better? Can you improve upon what you’ve already done to make what you’re going to do possible? Go back to the beginning and critically observe the work.
In addition to helping put you back on track, you might catch something you otherwise might have missed. You might get a new idea that channels through to the unfinished portions, again taking the work in a new and interesting direction. And you might just shore up a part of the work that was a bit wobbly. Either way, it’s a better use of your time than staring at the work and drumming your fingers on the desk waiting for that nubile junior goddess to chisel her way out of your skull.
Change The Water: Dabble In Other Projects
This might be the procrastinator in me talking, but I think it’s a bit rare for an artist to only have a single item on their plate. I have a few irons in the fire and I suspect some of the people I consider artists are in a similar situation. So, if you’re finding yourself in a logjam with one project and there’s no pending deadline, work on something else. Brew up more creative energy that can then be redirected to the ‘problem child’.
It could be something as simple as character notes for another work or even a game, a new story idea that you begin to develop, fresh sketches of something you’ve seen in your mind’s eye, or one of those pedantic “advice”-filled blog posts that ramble on for a bit before coming to a final focal point.
The bottom line is, you’re not chained to any one work. Art is about creative freedom, by and large. You should exercise your right to think and create without a net, try something new and maybe build up enough momentum to plow through the difficulty you’re experiencing.
Or maybe you’ll get lucky and that goddess will burst from your cranium to end up in your lap.
Wait, am I the only one who thinks that wouldn’t be a bad thing? Sure, your head will hurt like hell while she’s getting out, but once she is, you have a goddess in your lap.
We all study at the feet of giants. Even if they are only giants in our own minds, we get from where we are to where we want to be by studying others. As an aspiring writer, I look towards people who write and are not only enjoying a measure of success, but have what I consider to be an accessible method. Instead of admiring folks who are successful but come off as either completely selling out or being a pioneer in their own cult of personality without doing so with their tongue embedded in their cheek.
Here are the people I’m checking out to make sure I don’t wander too far from the path of good writing.
It’s the Magic Talking Beardhead. Need I say more?
I do? Okay, it’s this guy Chuck. He writes lots of things. He writes things well. In fact he writes so well he was recently at the Sundance for a screenwriter’s workshop and rubbed elbows with greats. It was kind of like the experience of meeting cool folks at GameX, only Chuck got really good feedback from others already in the industry. I got a couple signatures and some compliments on my clever handle. Anyway, if you’re not already reading Terribleminds, you should be. So go and do.
Will Hindmarch is somebody else I’ve met. It was years ago at an event called NEGLECT in Chicago. It was in the embryonic days of Vampire: The Requiem and he ran some of us through an example module. It was an absolute blast. Will is a friendly, creative guy, and to this day the only Requiem item I own is the storyteller’s screen he signed which I won on a random die roll.
I confess I don’t comment on his blog as often as I should, but he’s always got good ideas on writing and insightful meditations on other writers. It’s like the stuff I post here, but better.
This guy might be one of the coolest cats on the planet. Seriously. What’s that? You thought Wesley Crusher sucked? Well, so does Wil. In his Memories of the Futurecast he not only takes the piss out of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation in general but himself in particular. I really want to pick up his book, as it sounds like a fantastic mix of nostalgia and facepalming, as he puts it.
To say that Wil is an inspiration would be a gross understatement. Here is a man who spent many of his formative years in the public spotlight but never got too far ahead of his own shortcomings. He’s had his share of interesting journeys both across the country and into himself, and the result is a surprisingly humble and humorous man who isn’t afraid to be a nerd, never hesitates to laugh at his own failings and is deeply thankful for being where he is now. Go read his blog, listen to Radio Free Burrito, and brew up some Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.
This is hot stuff, dear readers. Like fresh off of the presses stuff. I just came across Kung Fu Monkey today. This morning. And it’s all thanks to Wil Wheaton. He told his listeners about Jon Rogers, writer for the TV show Leverage, doing cool stuff over on his blog. I went over there, and I’m glad I did.
Wil Wheaton: Giving you the mad nerd hook-up and reminding you not to be a dick.
Anyway, Rogers talks about writing for the show, and does post-mortems of the episodes where he takes the questions of the audience. It’s really fascinating, to peek into the mind of a creative work in progress that is already successful. It’s worth your time to check out.
Did I mention Wil Wheaton’s an inspiration? Well, he is. He’s inspired me.
“What’s he inspired you to do, Josh?”
Oh, you’ll see. You’ll see.
Stay tuned. There’ll be something of a special announcement during tomorrow’s IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! which I am really looking forward to doing – it’s something more recent per request from fans at the Escapist – so please cruise by tomorrow and give a listen. Thanks.
Don’t run, don’t run! I’m not going to talk about religion! I’m going to talk about that whole planning thing I mentioned. Remember that list that I posted, of things to do in order to achieve that level of great success that others will note? Here’s how it looks now:
Get plot points vetted.
Generate dramatis personae document.
Work out rules of languages & magic.
Write the damn thing (target word count:125k)
Find a publisher.
After some tweaks here and there, all five people with whom I shared my plot points have said, “I’d read this” in one form or another. This means that the project (and that’s what I’m going to call it, at least for now – “The Project”) now has a definite course plotted, and I can set that bit of planning aside. This sort of thing happens when major endeavors are being planned in other forms of media, like television shows. Reference documents like that one are called ‘bibles’.
So my plot points shall hereafter be called the ‘story bible’.
Moving on, next we have the ‘character bible’. What’s in a character bible, you ask? I’m glad you did.
Origins
Everybody comes from somewhere. Parentage, homeland, education – all of these are contributing factors to who the character is when the audience is first introduced to them. Establishing origins before the story begins helps put everybody in a particular place along the plot’s path, like pieces on a chessboard. Though I doubt most characters will move in a completely straight line – that’d be kinda boring.
Personality
The aspects of a character’s personality encompass both good and bad things. A protagonist might be courageous or clever but will also have parts of themselves that they are unaware of, know they must overcome or might not even see as flaws – arrogant people don’t often admit to having failings, after all. Likewise, a villain who is nothing but malevolence and savagery is just boring. Unless his minions are all abysmally stupid or no more intelligent than a vicious dog, they’ll need to have some way of either concealing their villainy or downplaying it with charm or dispassion. This, like a character’s origin, should be established ahead of time.
Goals
We all want something. Some people want to rule the world (not everybody, Tears for Fears. Seriously.), some want to build a better mousetrap and some just want to get laid. If you clearly define a character’s goal before the story begins, it will be easier to keep them on track during the course of the plot. The better the definition of a character’s goals, the better your chances of having that character’s behavior remain consistent throughout, unless you plan to have them change goals. If that’s the case, make sure the change makes sense. Don’t just drop a hat and have it happen. Even if you are dealing with the fantasy genre, as I am, “A wizard did it” can really only get you so far.
Fears
If being around my wife while she plays the Sims has taught me anything, other than her delight at the various affairs of her simulated plaything, it’s that everybody is afraid of something. The fears that should get jotted down in the character bible should be large things, like losing one’s home, the death of a loved one or the ruining of a relationship or career, rather than flubbing a homework assignment or burning the roast. Sometimes these fears will be unrealized in the course of the story, and sometimes these will be major plot points. Which brings me to my final point…
Growth
In conjunction with the story bible, ask yourself how the character is going to change over the course of the story. What goals, if any, will they realize? What fears of theirs will come true? When change comes, will they have new goals, new fears? Will there be any change in their personality? Like the story itself, it may behoove you to plot the course of the character’s own journey.
Of course this is all just part of the procedure I’m attempting to make sure I remain motivated and get this right. Sometimes you might have no plan at all when you sit down to right, just letting the story grow organically out of the fertile grounds of your imagination. That’s okay, too. It just seems to me that the bigger the scope of your project, the more planning should be done before hand. Sort of a ‘measure twice, cut once’ thing. And this project that I’m brewing up? It’s going to be huge.
