December 2019 - Week 13 - Prologue Cancelled

Summary

• Prologue writing cancelled
• Starting on Will Wright's Masterclass

Detail

Is trite OK? If I want the game to produce meaningful stories it's definitely not. So, what do I know about? 

• Programming

What do I have first-hand experience of?

• Religious fanaticism

What do I want to say?

• Fanaticism is bad

Which seems overdone post 9-11. Overdone to the point where fanaticism's enemies are fanatical? Aha! The Twist.

Something more subtle: Not everyone in a crowd of fanatics is fanatical.

I thought I was making good progress by Friday lunchtime then realised I'd taken four hours to write 500 words. That's an improvement on last week and I'll be happy if I get that much done every day. Maybe, depending on how fast the plot moves along. I watched Margaret Atwood's masterclass in the afternoon and went to bed early hoping my subconscious would absorb everything she'd said. 

There was a larger group at Konbo on Saturday and I changed the story from present to past tense. I'd started with present tense to make the action more visceral but decided to change it because I was feeling I had to write every moment and I'd read this was a problem with using the present tense. Weirdly, I said out loud "That was boring" when the process was actually interesting and kind of fun. 

On Sunday I managed just over 650 words. I tried writing from another character's perspective, something recommended on the Masterclass courses, and the story took a dark turn. Not sure how to continue with that one. I'm finding that I can make decent progress in the morning but slow down in the afternoon. I'm going to try writing in the morning and designing the mechanics I will need for the first in-game story in the afternoon. Just designing, no programming yet, as it's likely to dominate my thinking if I do.

The dark turn has made things more difficult. The new character is bipolar. I am not bipolar but I did live with someone with the condition for a number of years. Can I write about it from their point of view?

The dark turn has put me on a bit of a dark turn to. Three days of lying in bed until midday, smoking for two days and generally feeling bad has convinced me writing the story is not something I'm capable of doing well. It's definitely not something I'm willing to sacrifice my physical and mental health for. Maybe it's something I'll revisit in the future.

So, what's next? I'm going to do Will Wright's Masterclass using the Dwerg Saga game engine to do the exercises as much as possible. If any of them are playable I'll make a release.