Writing Strategies (part 5)

For the last year, I've been writing the script for a visual novel video game called The Star Legation. A method that has really helped me get some perspective is placing a section of my script in the game environment. When I read through the script with the art background, character sprites, message bar, and even the music activated, it gives me a better sense of flow, helps me to catch errors, and even reveals issues of nuance that I may have otherwise overlooked. Seeing the characters highlight when speaking their lines sometimes inspires ideas for their expressions, which can reflexively suggest modifications to the script that could further emphasize the moment. Hopefully, some of the ideas I've mentioned this week will be helpful in your quest as a writer, but above all, never stop working at it!

Writing Strategies (part 4)

Although this will extend the time it takes to finish your work, sometimes it helps to get some distance from your writing. If you don't have friends or family willing to spend time reading your work to give you an outside perspective (and you may not want their bias), you should try stepping away from your project for a few days. Come back and reread it to see if it still resonates with the impact you originally intended. Some people like to share unfinished projects online for feedback, and though this can be helpful, it can also be more discouraging than productive--not everyone is genuinely interested in giving useful feedback; some are just "trolls." Try to keep your sharing within a circle of writers you know and trust, or take advantage of paid services that provide experienced editors for feedback.

Writing Strategies (part 3)

Treat your writing like an athlete would treat his or her training--do it every day. Whether you're working on writing an epic, award-winning novel or you're just writing a blog post for the day, you need to exercise your writing muscles regularly. I recommend setting aside a specific time period each day to practice writing. Do it like it's your job, even if it isn't and you're not being paid for it. I also recommend reading a lot of other writers. You don't necessarily have to read an entire book-- although that would be ideal--but you can read a variety of writing styles in blog posts, articles, and even free short fiction and non-fiction on various websites. (Some people love to write and put their work online for others to enjoy for free!) It is good practice to sample a variety of writing styles, because it will help you consolidate your own style.

Writing Strategies (part 2)

If you sometimes find yourself struggling to write, you might diagnose yourself as having "writer's block." I believe that writer's block stems from the expectations we place on ourselves. If you're trying to start a story and just can't find the right beginning, try this: instead of trying to write the perfect opening, assume that you'll come back and rewrite it later, and just start typing away. Aim towards the part you know you want to write--the part you're excited to write. Along the way, you may find that your pathway to that moment actually generates more ideas that you can use. The point is, get moving. Don't stress about finding the perfect words for the perfect opening sentence. Just write it, move on, and remember that you can always come back later, probably with more momentum and inspiration, to fix that rough beginning.

Writing Strategies (play 1)

Have you ever enjoyed a story so much that you find yourself wondering how the author could have possibly written it so well? We might make the mistake of assuming that the author had every moment of the entire story already mapped out, fully imagined from beginning to end. Rarely, if ever, is this really the case. Most writers write and rewrite many times, inserting and deleting, revising and restructuring, even agonizing over plot points and dilemmas they've created for themselves that they don't know how to solve. It varies with each writer, and even with each story they write. The writing process is often a struggle. This week, I'll share a few strategies that I use to try and make writing less of a battle.

No Man’s Sky VR (part 5)

I followed a strange signal to a nearby planet and landed. Thankfully, no acid rain on this world, but...the temperatures were rather extreme. I needed to get out of the heat or my suit protection would fully drain and I'd cook inside it. After sorting through a few things in my inventory, my suit's system instructed me to build a shelter. On my left wrist I clicked through the holographic icons and discovered I could build things! I just needed a few raw materials, which I ran around collecting before hopping back into the safety of my starship to avoid the extreme heat and wait for my suit protection to recharge. Then, I jumped back out and got to work building floors, walls, and a roof for my little habitat. As soon as it was completed and I ducked inside, I was out of danger and the extreme temperatures were no longer a threat. I noticed there were many more options for building that I'd like to try out, and I'm already thinking about tunneling under my little house to make a large basement with an extensive network of tunnels so I can easily move around on the planet without worrying about the heat. I look forward to building some of the vehicles I noticed were possible, such as little land rovers and hover vehicles. The developer, Hello Games, has added tons of new content since the initial release 3 years ago, and the game keeps you going by prompting you with goals. Not to mention, this was incredibly fun to play! I think VR made a huge difference for me, too—I felt like I was playing an immersive, scifi version of minecraft, but with lots of goals beyond those I created for myself, too! I'm looking forward to exploring some more!

No Man’s Sky VR (part 4)

For those of you that have played No Man’s Sky before or have read about it, most of what I’ve detailed so far is nothing new. However, just to begin with, playing this in VR is so much more engrossing, especially when using the two Move controllers. I enjoyed hopping into the cockpit of my tiny spacecraft and seeing all the controls in front of me while shutting the harsh planet outside, watching the acid rain fall around me with a heavy pattering sound. When the rains ended, I literally reached over to the handle of the canopy and lifted it up. I could get my multitool out by reaching back behind my right shoulder to grab it. Once upgraded a little more, I could even use the terrain laser of my multitool to carve out a spherical chunk of earth in mere seconds. This actually became quite fun, because I could tunnel my way through the ground and go anywhere I wanted, popping up like a gopher from my tunnel when it was safe to emerge again after the rains had stopped. I finally gathered the materials and constructed the components necessary to fix my ship’s engines, so I hopped in and reached my left hand over to grip the throttle. I pulled and….woah! My stomach dropped as the planet fell away beneath me. I grabbed the right hand stick with my other hand and rotated the ship around, failing at first to adjust to the extreme sensitivity, though I thankfully got the hang of it quickly enough to avoid crashing. If you've played other space-flight simulators in VR, this isn't much different, but that's a good thing, because it's a truly amazing experience!

No Man’s Sky VR (part 3)

The acid rain on my planet wasn’t letting up, so I decided to explore the underground cavern. I pulled out my “multitool” and tried scanning the beautiful bioluminescent cave. A few familiar minerals were located, as well as a number of unknown plants and minerals. I held up my hand and saw a little holographic display, which I tapped and then discovered I could activate a flashlight. I also had some hints from my spacesuit’s CPU that I should collect certain minerals to upgrade my multitool and recharge my suit. My multitool had a laser that would break things down and absorb the contents, which I then used to construct the upgrades I needed. Soon, I had upgraded and powered my scanner and I could analyze and catalogue my discoveries. I was also able to read the location of a nearby signal, which I decided to follow once the acid rain had ended. I walked and used my jetpack for a little help with the steep slopes—the sensation of lifting off the ground was amazing! I was able to arrive at the source of the signal and found a radar dish, a few crates, and a damaged spacecraft. The message imbedded in the signal wasn’t entirely coherent, but I was able to gather that someone else had been here before me, and recommended I use their ship to leave the planet—a task easier said than done…

No Man’s Sky VR (part 2)

I do occasionally return to play old games, but often, I quickly remember why I abandoned them. I had heard over the years that Hello Games was extremely attentive to the complaints of gamers who felt they’d been let down, and I even tried one of their earlier patches to see if much had changed. Maybe it just wasn’t developed enough yet, or maybe I should have started the game over instead of using my past save, but I was really ready to fully abandon it until I decided to give it one more try, last Friday night, using the new VR patch. What a difference! I started a new game from the beginning, and found myself in a spacesuit standing on an alien planet. I immediately adjusted the VR settings so I could have smooth movement instead of teleportation (I got my VR legs last year and have been fine ever since) and then I started exploring. Odd plant life, strange minerals, and weird little scurrying creatures were all around me, part of the rolling landscape that I traversed. Then my spacesuit’s system alerted me that my environmental protection was depleting, due to acidic rain! I had to run and find shelter, the nearest being a small crevasse in the ground that opened up into a dark cavern…

No Man’s Sky VR! (part 1)

Three years ago No Man’s Sky released for the PS4. I bought it on release day and…was a bit disappointed. The promises of the developer, Hello Games, were exciting—a huge universe so big that each person playing began on their own planet in an infinitely procedurally generated galaxy. The open world universe included over 18 quintillion planets, each with their own ecosystems, vegetation and lifeforms. Once in a rare while, you might even meet sentient alien life that would either trade with you or decide to attack you. Speaking their language was another thing altogether, but during your exploration, you might turn up enough clues to piece together some of what they were saying with a few words you’d learned along the way. You advanced through the game by mining resources, upgrading equipment, and engaging in trade. Despite all this, I quickly tired of the original game’s repetitive and unexciting nature. However, last week a patch was released that upgraded the game to VR compatibility, and that plus a few other upgrades have changed everything…

Alien life from Earth? (part 5)

It has already been debated many times whether or not life on Earth may have originated from somewhere else, delivered through impact ejecta. Some believe that our universe might be in a perpetual state of cross-contamination. Perhaps it could also be seen as cross-pollination? We should expect that landing on an alien world will involve some sharing of microbes, even if we make every effort to sanitize the process. I always chuckle when I see scifi movies with people returning from an excursion on an alien planet, and then go through “decontamination” rooms before boarding their ship. Why do we assume that our decontamination process will work on all alien life? Plus, considering impact ejecta, if there is any alien life out there in the cosmos, there's a chance it might reach us on Earth someday, too! Maybe it already has?

Alien life from Earth? (part 4)

Did you know that we have already put microbes on the moon before the recent Israeli lander crash? From the Apollo landings, there are about 100 bags of astronaut poop that were left behind! This pales in comparison to what might happen with the planned SpaceX missions to Mars and the possible colonists that will live there. Imagine what we microbe-infested humans will contaminate next? Even despite our best efforts to sanitize, our probes and landers that have visited other planets may have already left a biological deposit behind. It is inevitable that we will be sharing our microbes every place we explore beyond Earth.

Alien life from Earth? (part 3)

Nature itself has quite possibly already cross-contaminated other planets with microbes from Earth. When an asteroid impacts something, it sheds surface material from a planet at high velocity into space. It is very possible that resilient organisms like the tardigrade can withstand the temperature and pressure extremes, riding along on the Earth fragments as they are launched at high velocity into space. Computer models suggest that impact "ejecta" could travel to the planets and their moons in our solar system, with places like Mars and our own moon receiving the bulk of the ejecta. That doesn't excuse some of the acts we have already committed, however...

Alien life from Earth? (part 2)

One problem with the recent biological deposit on our moon is there is a general consensus that we don't want to alter any alien ecosystems, especially in delicate environments that might be vulnerable to invasive life. Another problem is that scientists don't want to encounter false-positives, thinking that they've discovered extraterrestrial life only to realize that the life originated on Earth. Since the beginning of space travel, we have had strongly scrutinized protocols regarding planetary protection. However, it is inevitable that human exploration will inadvertantly introduce micro-organisms from Earth to other worlds. In fact, it is very likely that this has already happened, even before humans occupied Earth...

Alien life from Earth? (part 1)

Very recently, an Israeli lander crashed on the surface of our moon. The lander had been carrying thousands of microscopic organisms called Tardigrades, and these little creatures can easily survive in space. Humans have just biologically contaminated the moon! The lander, called Beresheet, is owned by a non-profit Israeli organization called SpaceIL. Tardigrades, also called "water bears," are incredibly resilient organisms able to survive for a year without food or water that are capable of resisting extreme temperatures and atmospheres. The intentional contamination of our moon has been met with a lot of scrutiny...

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 10)

The characters in the Star Legation visual novel will visit 6 or 7 different alien planets, and I still needed at least 3 pieces of art for each location (planet as seen from space, planet surface, and the alien leader's room.) However, since the story does not involve extended time on the alien planets (in most cases...depending on your choices!), probably 50% of your time will be spent aboard your own starship. There are several different rooms you'll visit on your starship, but a lot of your time will be spent on the bridge, interacting with your crew and having different encounters in space, which you'll see through the window of your starship. The starship itself is a setting that keeps the focus on a very character-driven story, and thankfully, it serves as a plot device that allows me to make this epic adventure possible, without the budget for the project becoming overblown.

Background art: Alexis Rill

Space Background art: Lee Madison

Character Sprites: John Fell

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 9)

The fact that the Star Legation visual novel involves a journey across the universe meant that the characters would be spending a lot of time together. But where? Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is a plot device in itself that allows us to accept the idea of people traveling to different planets, different solar systems, and even different galaxies. Yet, despite FTL being a plot device that allows interstellar travel, in science fiction there are a number of opinions about how long these journeys actually take. In some stories, a pilot will “go to hyperspace” and arrive wherever they want in a matter of minutes or hours. In others, the entire crew enters into some kind of cryo-freeze suspended-animation to make the long journey, waking up when they finally arrive, years later. I chose something closer to the middle—traveling to different star systems could take days or weeks, adding up to a few months total. That in itself became a sort of plot device that helped with my art budget. How? Because my characters would be spending much of their time interacting aboard their starship!

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 8)

As the writer and producer of the Star Legation visual novel, I began with the idea that I needed to keep the number of locations down a little. In a lot of visual novels, characters will visit a number of different locations, including different rooms in a home, school, other buildings, outdoor locations, transportation, etc. This can quickly become quite expensive, because artwork for each location is necessary in a visual novel to help create an immersive setting. The problem for me was that my story idea spanned a massive universe, including a number of different planets that the characters would be visiting. To give a clear idea of how much art I predicted I'd need, art was necessary for the 9 main characters, a number of side characters, art for different starships, art for the interior of their own starship, art for the planets in space, art for the planet surfaces, and art for the “throne rooms” of the alien leaders, not to mention the different anomalies they would see as they journeyed through space itself. How would a plot device help me manage the projected budget for this game, despite so many different locations to visit?

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 7)

Sometimes a plot device can be used to make a movie or game possible. A producer is the person who manages the logistics and budget of a game or movie production. Consider that every time a producer is presented with ideas by the writers, designers, artists, etc., the producer needs to plan for the budget necessary to meet the project goals. However, the creative process can quickly get out of control as people imagine grandiose productions that their company might not have the funding for. It is the producer's job to set budget limits and encourage rewrites of the story in areas that would be excessive and expensive. A plot device can be used to better manage budget constraints in a movie or video game by limiting the locations and settings...

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (Week 2, part 6/10)

I'll admit it, I'm using a plot device in the story I'm writing for The Star Legation visual novel, and I'll share it with you. Visual novels, by nature, have less expository writing—descriptions of people, places, and objects are rarely given through text because these things are often represented through the art in the game. There is less of a need to spend time on description, and that results in a much faster novel-reading experience. Most, if not all, of the writing is dialogue between characters, so any descriptive text is usually included in their spoken conversations. However, the problem I ran into was that there were times that it wouldn't be natural to go into such descriptions at the time that something was observed. I found a way around this by using a character who communicates over long-distance with the protagonist, as a hologram. This long-distance character can ask questions of the protagonist about his observations, which allows me to enter more descriptive text as he tries to explain to her, in more detail, what the readers might not have been able to see represented in the art. Plot devices can be very effective techniques to help you get the most out of your story, so don't hesitate to use them...as long as you don't use them to write yourself out of a corner!

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 5)

Don't think that using plot devices is necessarily a bad thing—they are used all the time to great effect, but the best writers know how to use them covertly. The best technique is to manipulate the writing to advance the story without the audience even noticing what you're doing or how you're doing it. Sometimes plot devices are used to compensate for a situation that prevents certain types of information from being known, yet that information is crucial towards advancing the stoyr. If you're writing about a character who needs certain information but doesn't know it, a smartphone could be a simple plot device that allows the character to access the information needed. Using a plot device needs to feel organic to the story you're writing, however, and should feel like your characters were involved. Passive, convenient provisions to solve problems should be avoided. For example, a newspaper floating around on a windy day that blows up to the character and catches on his foot is not the way to deliver the exact information he was struggling to find!

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 4)

Another interesting plot device that you may be familiar with is known as the “plot voucher,” which involves something that a character finds or receives in the story that has some later, important significance. This is similar to the deus ex machina device, except that the audience knows about it much earlier in the story—they just didn't realize what it was for until it saves the day. Somehow, this has become slightly more accepted and doesn't ellicit the loss of suspension of disbelief in an audience quite as much. Often, these magical objects are found in fantasy or science fiction stories, and the protagonist doesn't realize the power or capability of the item until a dire, possibly life-threatening moment has arrived. Perhaps the reason we accept this plot device over the deux ex machina is because we knew about the object before the crisis, and might have even been yelling for the protagonist to try using it to save himself. When the character finally does use it, we feel relieved, possibly smarter because we realized it before the character—we saw it coming.