Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Personal introduction:

The first time I put a pen to paper happened when I was 14, more than 20 years ago. When life was simpler, and I have just discovered the passion of reading and feeling novels. The first few stories I have written were trash, absolute trash. I have suffered from a huge ego and would think that my writing is the best thing in the world. 

But fear not, we all experience this. The ability to create is both a blessing and a curse, because you see, we get overwhelmed with that power, and it is an amazing power to have. 

I have been incredibly lucky to have a group of honest friends who would always give me all support I needed but, also harsh and real criticism. Trust me friend, there is nothing worse, a writer can get than false positive criticism. My friend group would play out fantasy writing sessions, which would play as follow: one of us would be the narrator and others would play out their chosen characters. All this would happen based on a selectee theme and genera of literature. Everyone was responsible for doing their own research and getting into the role. It was amazing, wonderful, creative and also kicked my creative ass incredibly hard. 

At the age of 19 I sent my first story for publishing in a Fantasy magazine in Germany, and… I got completely slated, dragged through mud.

But, I was 19 and trust me friend I though exactly what you would think: I’m an amazing writer and everyone else is stupid and don’t know what they are talking about. Because my Ego was super huge. Why not right? My stories are amazing, smart, my characters great, it must be definitely those jar-headed publishers from the magazine who had never seen a good story before. 

Gods I have been so stupid, and arrogant back then. But, bear with me I’m getting to the point. After I finished university in 2009 I got an amazing opportunity to become a junior writer for a major AAA gaming company and work with them for almost 10 years. Not a big deal right? Writers time to shine. Incorrect, you see in the gaming industry you are surrounded by highly educated and talented writer veterans. Who yes will guide and support you, but also will be the worst possible, most harshest critics of your literary work 

The sad truth about being a writer is many people resign when faced with the harsh reality of the world. 

The point of the article is to share some of my experiences that may prepare you for the unexpected and learn, maybe, hopefully just a bit. I have been learning how to be a writer for 20 years and I don’t know if I’m there yet, but it’s a journey anyone can take if they are patient and willing enough.

The actual good stuff:

Therefore, grab a snack and get uncomfortable because some things you may not like.

1. Loose your Ego, your arrogance, loose the thinking you are amazing and incredibly talented. Stephen King doesn’t live in his mind thinking he is better than everyone else. He constantly works on himself, growing and developing his skills. Arrogance among young writers is a huge problem because very often it doesn’t get tempered down, and spirals out of control and when they finally they hit the wall it ends up in life changing disappointment, hate to the world and people which then saps into their ability to create and overtakes their confidence. Once its there they don’t recover. Writers or creator arrogance is a huge problem, because it combines with anxiety, anger, self doubt and eventually a creators block and fuels a burnout. People who have been working on this can easily temper their own limitations and reach out over any plateau they hit. 
2. Research your work. The mind ins a wonderful tool on your disposal, the more information you feed it the better it works. The more ideas, colours, words, images, sounds and other you feed it the better results you will have. Writers read a lot, reaching beyond their own comfort zone exploring new avenues. They try new ideas, they search for inspiration, new fascinating roles to explore. And once you start creating the world of your choice you need to really put the work in. If it’s a fantasy work, you have to thing of the economy, people, races, magic, wars, history, current event, names, and so, so, so much more. But, here is a shocker you will only use about 3% to 5% of everything from this huge library you have created. Any less and your world will fall apart like a domino showing gaps and holes, any more and you will send your reader to sleep and bore them to death. Also, research new words and ways of writing and describing objects, places, people, anything. Don’t let your brain be lazy.
3. Plot. I am going to be extremely honest here, you need to have a plot. Even if it’s a short story. You have to create a reason for the events to be happening. Even if it’s just Susan going to see Brenda, and things happened along the way, and she gets kidnapped by space cows, there needs to be a reason why she is going to see Brenda. Secondly, your main character has to have one thing that makes them different from everyone else. Not a super power, not being a saviour. Sometimes the best characters are the people who are the brother or sister of the chosen one. Or how they become a villain. More complex stories will require side plots that tie into the main storyline. Thus, when writing always make sure you have the beginning, middle and the end. Never create a story without knowing where and how it’s leading.
4. Be open to change. The mind of a writer is a living thing, your writing, your characters and the world you create will surprise you and do their own things if you just let them. That’s why once you start writing let the flow take you, and you will be surprised how the story grows and evolves. Be open to fix things, come back to earlier parts of your story and change things. Be open to change. 
5. Characters are complicated. Somebody once told me every character a writer creates is a reflection of the writer, just changed, different gender, different world, but at the core they are mostly the writer. Which is often very true, it’s a part of our ego to put as much of ourselves into our creations. But, it’s important to try to break out of that mould as much as possible. Be great at what you do, don’t just settle at a miserable boring, flat character. Watch a movie, read a book, observe your friends and family and bring that unique perspective into your characters.
6. Dialogue is hard. One of the best and harshest comment I have ever received about dialogues in my writing when I was young was from my brother who said my dialogue sounds like Beth and Tiffany are chatting over a pint of beer. That was his only comment. And it stayed with me all those years. Your dialogue isn’t supposed to be super realistic. In real life people would never talk like they do in books. Nobody has life changing monologues, evil charismatic threats, heroic peep talk with the army. And that’s why books are wonderful, we can in words express the unseen, unspoken feelings and truths. Don’t wast that. Use this power for your advantage. 
7. Know when to end a scene, finish a dialogue or stop the descriptive narration. This skill is probably the most difficult one to master, and it will take you time and a lot of practice. Every writer needs to know how to balance story building, world building, dialogue and scene completion or transition. Remember your novel is not the Matrix, characters don’t magically appear from one location to another. Things don’t magically appear or disappear. Everything you write needs to happen in a logical order. Practice until in your own mind it sounds perfect.
8. World building is key. No matter if you are writing a story about a fantasy kingdom, spaceship opera, horror, thriller, comedy etc. you need to balance your storytelling with skilful world building. Encouraging and engaging the reader with your vision of the world you are presenting to them. Don’t overdo with the descriptions, don’t bombard them with useless ideas or facts. Don’t spend 2 pages describing why the characters forehead is square. Balance it.
9. Working with words is hard. But the general rule is, for slow passages in the story you will use longer, more descriptive sentences. For dynamic action you will use short snapshot sentences. If you want to transition from one state to another you can use a dynamic transition from long to short sentences or create an increasing or decreasing effect by changing the length of your sentences creating a staircase effect .
10. Learn about tonality in writing. It will help you to create different moods in the story, allowing to write better more saturated scenes, with the use of vocabulary that is more fitting. Dark and gloomy scenes will feel different than warm and sunny ones. Also, it will help you with understanding the rhythm in your own writing. Which is a great thing because it will highlight to you what words don’t fit and spoil your sentences.
11. Check your work and revise. Spelling mistakes are not a huge problem, easily fixed. However, plot holes, gaps in dialogue, sudden appearance of important story facts can crash and burn all of your efforts. That’s why it is important to revise and proofread your own work.
12. Be humble and kind. Anyone in this world can be a writer, and with great sadness I can say some shouldn’t. It’s not Because they are not talented, it’s because they are not ready.
13. Have an idea bin, where you write down your weird, crazy and fantastical ideas and put it away. You will find that when you come back to them in a few weeks or months they will inspire you to create someone new and better. Because your mind had the time to process and create something new out of those. 
14. Practice, practice, read, read and be open to learn. Because, once you do you will grow and become better and better. 

Being a writer is like being in school until you are old and tired of writing. Because you never stop having to learn, and experience new things. As my literature professor once said to create a good story you need to go through a thought pregnancy which ends up with a birth of a new idea, new world, new hero or villain.

Robert G. Aka Spaceguybob 

Advanced Game Writer for BioWare and CD Project Red game studios