writing

Geek As Citizen: More On Writing And Reposting

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Paper And Stars

As I’ve hinted at before, once I finish rewriting Way With Worlds over at Seventh Sanctum (and republished here) I plan to wrap it up into a book. Admittedly this could be quite a ways away since it is not just a rewrite but adding everything I learned in the last ten-fifteen years, so my guess is I may be doing this for up to a year longer. However, at some point I want to take it, re-edit it, maybe add a bit more, and do it as a book.

(Also possibly to take a break as this is pretty intense).

Anyway the reason I plan to turn this into a book:

  1. I think it’d be pretty useful.
  2. People who read the column in the past had commented on the value they got from it, and one had even printed it out.
  3. It helps preserve knowledge, which I wrote about previously.

I was discussing this with Serdar, and mentioning some of his past reviews and writings, and future plans. He’s quite adept at reviews and writing, and I thought maybe he should consider something similar. He noted he wouldn’t, as some writing is appropriate for a book, some isn’t, some things are good to put in print, for others being on the internet is enough. Plus some things aren’t appropriate to charge for.

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Way With Worlds: Pyramids of Power

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Classic Pyramids

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum and at MuseHack]

Have you ever read a story and things just seemed to work . . . wrong?

  • The hero defeats one guy and then the world is safe, the Evil Army is destroyed, he gets the girl, and his chin is still awesome?
  • The superpowered alien who somehow manages to release massive, colorful, well-animated attacks that just well . . . have no side effects, no source, and no real explanation?  I mean how do you release a “gravity buster” without messing up everything but the guy you aimed it at?
  • The villain who’s massive, connected, complex plot works perfectly while in the real world you aren’t even sure the game you’re working on will ship without a day one patch and an apology?

You know that feeling. Things happen easily in stories and games – too easily. Cause and effect apparently are having a trial separation and you worry they’re going to get a divorce before the book ends.. Simple actions have massive and unwarranted repercussions. We snicker, we laugh, we roll our eyes – and we’re out of the world because things just work wrong.

A lot of world building is about Power, in the non-Machiavellian sense.  It is about how something gets a result, and when you don’t make it work right in your world, then your world is no longer “real.”

Power, from super attacks to a clever cutting comment, done wrong makes a world unbelievable. If you’re building a setting, writing in a setting, you want to make sure that you don’t trip people up so they stumble out of your world. In building your world, you have to get the power of things, of people and weapons and comments and plans, right or the world is back to being words on paper or pixels in a game.

Fortunately I have a rule for getting it right. I call it the Pyramid Of Power. Which is a useful rule, and not the place Kephr-Ra, The Never-Dying, hid the Staff of Omens to keep it from Man-Cat and the Silvermasters.

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Way With Worlds: Character Creation

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Michaelangelo God Adam

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum and at MuseHack]

After spending last column talking about characters in continuity, in world building, it’s time to talk about creating characters themselves.

I held this off until talking about the role characters play because of all aspects of world building, Character creation is the one that can (and in my opinion, should) be the most complex. As noted, a character is in a way the summary of the setting, and in turn, extremely complicated. Because they’re complicated, a sense of where they fit is important.

Characters are your setting come to visible, relatable life. Or at least should be.

The problem in discussing “how to create” characters is the process itself is also unpredictable, personal, and unique for everyone – just as characters are unique. So I can’t give you a system or even a list of questions that’ll “do it for you.” In fact, I shouldn’t because we all do this differently.

What I can do is give a list of techniques i’ve used, I’ve encountered, and I’ve coached on to help you create characters. Some you’re doing. Some you aren’t. Some will work. Some won’t – but would work for someone else.

But you can find what works for you.

After all I said it wasn’t simple. People never are – and that’s what you’re creating.

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