#9: Catching one’s breath
“You would know in words that which you have always known in thought. You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams. And it is well you should.”
Project update
On Wednesday (tomorrow) I have my 4th and final session with Ylaria Rogers of Heart Strings Theatre Co to wrap up the external review of my story’s 1st summary outline. This week marks the end of my paid grant work for now, which means that imbetween now and my next post, I will be updating my site with revised information about the game. Woo hoo!
It’s key to note here that my script is not yet made up of dialogue - it is the structural framework on which dialogue will be built very shortly. Does that mean I have no dialogue written? No, I most certainly do, but the dialogue created so far is a collection of streams-of-consciousness which have arisen in response to the overall framework of acts, chapters, scenes, locations, characters and events. Arranging where dialogue fits and belongs is a matter of matching the writing to its placement in the structure. Does that mean I have finished writing dialogue and it’s just waiting to be ordered? Not yet either, friends!
I’ve opined on this before, but for me, simply writing into the void until a story appears is not the way to go - I need to know how much dialogue is required before I write it, I need to know what I must create, because while simply writing forever and ever will produce a lot of material, there is no guarantee that that material will be directed toward the purpose or intention of a scene, or moment, and advance those toward fulfilling the purpose of the whole. While writing is fun, time is finite and I only want to be writing the material that is necessary to tell the story. What’s more, sticking to fundamental principles as the basis of writing helps me to make sure I am sticking to the purpose of the story, which is to tell a fantastical story of self-discovery, acceptance by one’s self and others and, ultimately, joy. If I already know what the point of the dialogue is, such as to be a callback to some prior moment for dramatic effect, I already know where that moment starts and ends before I’ve even written it.
I look forward to being able to share more of the actual material with you soon!
Personal reflections - Productivity
The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I missed my usual Monday post, due to a combination of both personal and professional busyness. As the year ramps up, I am doing my best to keep everything spinning, but this last week I needed to take more than one moment to simply exist, without being driven by the relentless pursuit of creating this, that or the other thing. Like most people, I find it hard to let go of a background feeling of guilt when I am not actively participating in the creation or maintenance of some achievement. The “time is money” ethos is buried so deep that when I stop to think, it echoes through my brain like a book dropped down a well in the mines of Moria. On that basis, it was kind of a big thing for me to put several projects down, even if just for 72 hours. It has meant that I’m a bit behind now on both my grant project and my textbooks, but it was necessary to take a moment.
In truth, I used even my downtime to do productive things like find a dress for a wedding, get drycleaning done, meal prep and put some clothing in for alterations… But it’s all about the attitude - I was in a place of relaxation and rest, and so felt rested despite performing tasks.
Games I played
Last week I didn’t get a chance to play any games due to my other obligations (I really need to carve out more time for this…). Bummer! Better luck this week.
Extracurricular game dev update
I decided to put down the first of my textbooks (a dedicated Role Playing Game textbook for use in the Unreal engine) because it had moved solely into combat systems. I’d like to look into this some day, but not at the moment because of its minimal relevance to my adventure game, as I’m not anticipating having a combat system of any kind in the game at this point. This doesn’t mean that there will be no “fighting” in my game, but a “combat" system” amounts to much more than people competing against one another in some way; the underlying systems that cumulatively amount to a “combat system” usually include a lot of arithmetic intended to repeatedly calculate predictable and fair outcomes that arise from the execution of choices and strategies. Put simply, you can create the illusion of ‘combat’ without actually simulating it, in the same way that a film director can create an illusion of something without actually executing the activity.
My new book is a generalised textbook about the Unreal engine, which I’m excited about because I haven’t used Unreal before - I have only used Unity (yes friends, I know the names are similar, no relation).
Until next week, lovely friends!
