Oncoming Displacement

I think the reason I’ve had so much with Corwin’s latest story is that while I have a good idea of what exactly it is that he wants, that he’s invested in, I’m not nearly as sure about how it comes into play within the story itself. I might need to break from this one for a bit and work it out.

I’m not going to go on another big break from fiction though. I have another story in mind that I think is pretty strong right from the outset.

The cost of living these days sucks, and it’s only getting worse. Imagine how expensive it’s going to be by 2030. Wouldn’t it be great if you could go back in time when rent and food were crazily cheap, but not sacrifice your connection to the present in the process? Sure sounds great. But would it really be great?

Displaced, starting soon…

This Mass is Effecting My Writing

This new story is really being uncooperative these last few days. Yeesh. Back to games and another blog post I guess. This time I’ll tackle Mass Effect.

I’ve played Mass Effect before, and I got part way through Mass Effect 2. For those who aren’t aware, Mass Effect is a series of science fiction role playing games for the PC and consoles put out by Bioware, the creators of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Mass Effect 3 came out, and so it’s time for me to finish the other two. Or to replay them as the case may be. I lost my original game data for them.

While playing through the original Mass Effect I was reminded of just how good these games are. Of course for me “good” means strong story, and that has caused me to sink large amounts of the last 3 days into playing.

The stories are rich and peppered with minor stories for variety. The characters are fleshed out and convincing, and the amount of thought that’s gone into the themes and background information on the world of Mass Effect is nothing short of remarkable.

There are flaws, of course, but those mostly have to do with the game mechanics and level design. Since I’m writing about story, I’ll ignore those. They’re minor quibbles anyway.

A part of me had hoped that immersing myself in this great story would give me some insight into getting past this part of the story I’m writing. So far that hasn’t happened, but there’s always tomorrow; who knows. I am coming up on a part of the game that I remember only vaguely from my first play through, and it does contain a situation similar to the corner I’ve written myself into. I won’t be able to copy anything from the game—the scenarios are far too different—but maybe it’ll give me an idea.

It is also striking all kinds of chords for stories I could consider later in the series, though I didn’t really need to play Mass Effect for more ideas like that. I’m planning another post some time on how the act of writing will, itself, generate more ideas than you could possibly need.

The takeaway I intended for this piece is one I’ve expressed before; don’t be afraid to look outside of the traditional world of books for examples of fantastic storytelling. Film, theatre, even television and video games can all provide fantastic examples. Mass Effect certainly does.

You Know What's Not Fun?

Trying to write while both inspired yet uninspired. I’m having a lot of difficulty with the part of the new Captain Koell story I’m writing, and I’m also drugged up on Neo-Citran due to being somewhat under the weather. So I’m doing my due diligence in writing up this post, and I think that’s about it for the day. I’m going to get to bed at a slightly less unreasonable time and try to sleep.

Maybe this’ll help me get my sleep schedule back on track. Anyone who’s been watching the time I publish posts may have noticed it’s getting kind of crazy, given that I’m in the Eastern time zone.

An Improbable Series

As regular readers know, last night I finished An Improbable Journey. It was a blast to write, it went quickly, it was short and I’m feeling a lot of promise in the concept. The execution will need more work of course, but that’s what editing is for. I’m thinking I’ll do several more in this series in the near-term, hope you’ll let me know what you think of them!

As I went through the story my conception of the main character changed several times. At first I thought he was going to be a tech-savvy customer who would face the Herculean task of salvaging parts to repair a dead hulk on his own, but then I started to realize that wasn’t going to make for super-exciting storytelling unless I added an external threat of some sort, but I really didn’t want to do that. Instead I evolved my thinking into what you see in the finished draft; he’s a history/antiquity buff who lacks the skills he’s going to need to get out of this on his own, so he has to strike a deal with the devil to get out. The consequences of this will definitely be felt in future stories.

In my mind now, he’s in a good place to become a sort of Han Solo/Indiana Jones hybrid character, which isn’t as natural a fit as one might think. Solo was a rogue with a heart of gold, in it for himself unless he can be brought around to Do the Right Thing.

Indiana Jones is neither of those things. He’s the more action-oriented example of what Corwin is right now - an intellectual and historian.  When he goes on a grand quest, it’s never about personal gain, nor is it about Doing the Right Thing. For him, the rallying cry is “It belongs in a museum!” That, or his dad is dying.

I’m not setting out to create a character that mashes together both of Harrison Ford’s most iconic personas here. It’s more like the Space Quest influence on the story was; a sort of coloring. Corwin isn’t Han, nor is he Indy, but I’d be lying through my teeth if I tried to tell you those two guys aren’t coloring my thoughts as I write him.

My Favorite Kind of Writing Research

This is only tangentially related to writing, since I’m doing it in preparation for my next story, but it is SO good to play these games again.

A huge part of my early gaming life was taken up by Sierra adventure games. King’s Quest, Space Quest, Willy Beamish, and similar series from other publishers took up more hours of my life than I care to think about these days.

There was always something especially quirky and fun about the humor in Space Quest and the many send-ups of the sci-fi I grew up on that drew me in to those games. The sad part is I never played any of the series after the third. I tried, but many of the games from that era were buggy, and I never got IV, V or VI to run until now.

I’m working through both Space Quest I and IV as research, or “research” if you prefer. Thanks to the magic of ScummVM, I’ve been able to get past the first bit of Space Quest IV for the first time ever. It’s a real delight to have new Sierra games (new to me, at least) to play. There’s still one or two King’s Quest titles I never got through …

I’m not sure exactly at this point what direction I want the Space Quest inspiration to take me in. I’ll probably have to let it decide that. It certainly won’t be a carbon copy, or an attempt to write a story in the Space Quest universe. In my mind’s eye, it’s more a matter of colorings and shadings of humor and weird situations.

Thanks to ScummVM I’m able to finally(!) play the game after all these years, but there are still some issues because it’s such an old game. Wish me luck getting through the whole thing!