Eating Words
Nov. 16th, 2011 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanticoEFFFFFFFF I just talked with J and we agreed that I need to dump the last 10,000 words from my Nano and move in an entirely different direction. Painful but necessary-- the second way gets to the action must faster, avoids info dumps, and eliminates useless side characters. Goodbye, special collections librarian. You might show up in Chicago instead, but I am not convinced.
The problem with writing something based loosely off a game, (aside from rebuilding the world so that things still make sense but aren't, you know, a total rip-off) is restructuring a story to work for a book. Because in a game, meandering and exploring the world is one of the awesome things about the first few sessions. It doesn't have to start off with a bang because we're at the table and exploring is one of the first things to do. But in a book, that needs to get compacted, shuffled around to other moments, and dissolved into the background in favor of character movement and plot. the world needs to feel solid, of course, but unless your novel is explicitly about said exploration (which this is not), it ain't gonna fly.
So off to the cutting room floor with all of you, chapter 2. Let that be a lesson.
*****
I'm no longer floating along made of euphoria. I either adjusted to the meds or life is a little more stressful-- I'm hoping it's the second one, though I wonder. I haven't had a lot of time off and it's starting to drive me batty. I have so many projects I want to work on and not *nearly* enough time to do them all. I'm looking forward to a relatively calm winter, when Nano is wrapped up and some of the bigger freelance things I'm working on, so I can get down and dirty with those. The ones that are most inspiring right now? An illustrated novel (Nano is starting me up on that) which I can update periodically on my LJ, for funsies, and the Oracle deck for myself that I've been perpetually putting on the back burner since 2006. Time to get that DONE.
Social stuff is looking up! Sadly, I just kind of want to hermit in light of too much work. Herp.
Need more Tumblr friends.
The problem with writing something based loosely off a game, (aside from rebuilding the world so that things still make sense but aren't, you know, a total rip-off) is restructuring a story to work for a book. Because in a game, meandering and exploring the world is one of the awesome things about the first few sessions. It doesn't have to start off with a bang because we're at the table and exploring is one of the first things to do. But in a book, that needs to get compacted, shuffled around to other moments, and dissolved into the background in favor of character movement and plot. the world needs to feel solid, of course, but unless your novel is explicitly about said exploration (which this is not), it ain't gonna fly.
So off to the cutting room floor with all of you, chapter 2. Let that be a lesson.
*****
I'm no longer floating along made of euphoria. I either adjusted to the meds or life is a little more stressful-- I'm hoping it's the second one, though I wonder. I haven't had a lot of time off and it's starting to drive me batty. I have so many projects I want to work on and not *nearly* enough time to do them all. I'm looking forward to a relatively calm winter, when Nano is wrapped up and some of the bigger freelance things I'm working on, so I can get down and dirty with those. The ones that are most inspiring right now? An illustrated novel (Nano is starting me up on that) which I can update periodically on my LJ, for funsies, and the Oracle deck for myself that I've been perpetually putting on the back burner since 2006. Time to get that DONE.
Social stuff is looking up! Sadly, I just kind of want to hermit in light of too much work. Herp.
Need more Tumblr friends.
