I have been working on the setting pieces for this game for close to a week now. I have to say, not loving it. I sit down to write; I know what I want to write. When I get the moment of truth, when fingers hit the keyboard, I can't figure how to present it. I can write stories, I know this, as Ihave in the past. I can work out histories and background. Yet I have no idea on how to present the information that is interesting.
Here is an example of what I have been working on, take verbatim from my notes:
There is a god king. Beneath him are his scions. He maintains his immortality by transferring his consciousness to a new body. Each of the Scion legacies, is descended from a child of one of his bodies. They have been bred for centuries for specific purposes. Below the scions are the Monitors. They are the group of men and women dedicated to rooting out and solving problems. There are also Heralds, who serve as both missionaries and special forces.
See! It doesn't even really make sense outside of my head. I know I want one of the cultures to be ruled by an immortal god king, and his semi divine progeny. This allows for a an interesting pseudo-feudal government. But as you can see the presentation is severely lacking.
The other issue come down to the language of myth. I want there to be this sort of Ur-myth of Earth. Mankind left Earth so long ago that they no longer remember anything about it, it has been a legend for thousands of years. I was going to do a bit of fiction about it, of someone telling the myth of earth as he learned it. It didn't turn out quite-well, here see for yourself:
My grandfather told me the story, when it was my time to learn. He told me the story of Earth. How we came from there, and to there we will return. One day, we will return. Earth was the land of the gods, immortal capricious and cruel. Some of the gods looked around at their people and said, “ This is not right. It is wrong that our people suffer from the whims of the other gods!” Gathering up the faithful, they tested them. Those that passed the test were taken. They flew through the sky in a chariot made from fire. But the gods of Earth were angry at the betrayal...
I sort of stopped there, with good reason I think. The reason being, its shit. I did not think that it would be the writing aspect of this game that would give me the biggest trouble. Yet here I am, lost. Trying desperately to steer this hulk away from that damnable iceberg that is writers block(lack of talent? Inherent stupidity?).
I would appreciate any thoughts. I will continue to work on what I can, and try and push through. Sometimes I wish I were like the writers you see in the movies. Were they can just lock themselves away and write nonstop. Not thinking about eating or sleeping, the writing just sort of takes over and they merely channel the creativity. In my experience that has never happened. It is real work to be creative, you gotta go down a great many blind alleys before you can find a workable path.
No comments:
Post a Comment