Jimmy Maher was nice enough to play and review No Time to Squeal, a game I did with Mike Sousa a few years ago. Check out his thoughts here. There’s one part that I’d like to comment on – I would have had a take regardless of whether it was in a review of one of my games, it just would have, ah, taken longer to put together:
There's a saying in creative writing that every time you
introduce a significant character, object, or symbol, the
reader puts that in his metaphorical backpack. By the end
of the story, he should have emptied his backpack out again,
having disposed of everything in its proper place. (Or
alternately, see Chekhov's famous comments about the gun
over the mantelpiece in Act 1.)Â Â
I had heard this before, but just in the same way you hear about a lot of things on the Internet - poorly sourced and with bad fonts. I never gave it a lot of thought, in much the same way you wouldn’t spend too much time on the predictions of John Titor if someone wrote them out in Comic Sans. But it is important, isn’t it? People have been having this sort of complaint about my text adventures for quite some time.
For instance, In Pantomime, who gave Raif the liquid code that modified his eyes to show the presence of mimes? In Fallacy of Dawn, who authorized the attempt at blowing up the arcade? In Necrotic Drift, how did the Xbox get into the mall, I mean, physically into the mall? (OK, I am just kidding with the last one.) I had my own theories as to those questions, but I never believed in putting everything out there for the player to see – I have always tried to give the player something to think about and interpret themselves afterwards. I think it’s safe to say that I am pretty frigging bad at this.
Some of this horribleness stems from the fact that I interact with many of the same people who play these games, and if I get asked a question on the mud, I’m not this huge prick that is going to say, “HURRR, figure it out yourself!” It just would be impolite. In Necrotic Drift, there is convoluted process to save a character at the end that normally dies, and that became known because someone on the Interactive Fiction MUD asked if it was possible, and I said, “Ahhhh, er, yes, but it’s more an Easter Egg than anything else.” When that process became well-known and searchable, it seemed stupid and broke protocols between text game authors and their players. There are authors out there - of text games and static fiction - who, when queried as to a ponderable in their work, can ask you what you think with a twinkle in their eye and curled-up grin on their lips. But when I try to do that through an e-mail, the emoticon I have to use just looks like it has palsy.
That being said, I am coming to grips with the fact that there are expectations in static fiction that apply to text games. People want to see things resolved with Chekov’s Gun. I’ve never taken a course on creative writing, and it’s fair to say that I am left pondering many big issues when it comes to finishing a novel or seeing a movie that is in a genre other than horror or action. This is fairly troubling to me, because I have written seven text games in an attempt to get through the million words one must write before the real writing can begin, and I was completely oblivious to something that has a fair amount of acceptance among readers and writers of static fiction. I’m not sure if I have to start over, or what.
At the same time, the thought of joining a writing class or workshop or whatnot doesn’t appeal to me. I have always justified a lack of formal training by the fact that text game players don’t pull punches, and neither do the posters on one particular website that I admin. The happy compromise might be to read more books, books that are considered the classics of the English language, and make it known that I crave (and am extremely appreciative of) the kind of feedback that Jimmy wrote for NTTS. I can’t say I know what the end game of all this text game writing is – I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough to make a livable wage as a writer – but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get significantly better.
I might suggest an anthology of short stories where you’ll get the elements of writing including story arc in a shorter and more obvious play. And yes, the classics of literature; the more you read, the better writer you will become. Italo Calvino’s “If on a winter’s night a traveler” is one of the best novels for the writer to illustrate writing I’ve ever read, and, it touches (for me) on hypertext. I’ve review posts recently on it in my sister blog “Spinning” if that helps you decide if it can be valuable to you. I’ve played IF, though I haven’t written into it as yet and am looking forward to doing so very soon.
Thanks for dealing with a less than glowing review in such a constructive way.
Not to go all Stuart Smalley on you, but I think you are a very gifted writer. One of my complaints about NTTS was that the writing felt neutered — I wasn’t getting enough of what makes your voice unique. Whether that’s down to the pressures and compromises of collaboration or just you trying something that didn’t entirely work, I don’t know.
I just think that, as you’ve yourself described, you could work a bit more on bringing your natural talent under better control. I do think that many techniques of static fiction apply equally to IF. I’d encourage you to reconsider a creative writing class. I know you may be imagining a bunch of blue-haired biddies sitting around trying to write the next installment in Oprah’s Book of the Month Club, but a good class is not like that at all. It will have many different points of view and many different approaches to writing, and many different ability levels. If you were in Dallas, I could recommend a teacher or two, but since you aren’t you’re on your own if you choose to look for a course. If you choose not to, I’d still recommend picking up a book on constructing stories — Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern is an excellent one, very accessible and non-academic. All this is IMHO, of course. (Who the hell am I to give advice? You’ve finished 7 IFs and I’ve yet to finish one. :))
I agree with you totally about the whole Profundity through Obscurity trend, not just in IF but in modern writing in general. On the other hand, leaving a little something for the reader to ponder, rather than wrapping everything up in a neat little bow, is another of those creative writing axioms I’m so fond of quoting. Obviously there’s a balance to strive for here.
My complaints about NTTS don’t really hinge on that question, though. My problem was that you gave me this great, vivid introduction full of interesting characters, then suddenly veered off and did something else entirely. It just leaves the reader feeling confused and disoriented, carrying around (again, to use the backpack analogy) a bunch of baggage — characters, plot points, etc. — he doesn’t know what to do with.
Susan and Jimmy, thank you very much for the suggestions. I will take them to heart. (I will also try to figure out if this theme is missing a closing italics tag somewhere, but that’s this whole other thing.)
“If on a winter’s night a traveler†really sounds wild. I just did a quick Wikipedia search on it, and tried to do that thing where you scan the text to see if it gives you an idea of what the book is about, while simultaneously checking to make sure it doesn’t seem to spoil anything, since it’s the Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit, Badly. But I did gather that it seems to be an interesting piece, and I’m going to get it!
And Jimmy, thank you for the recommendation on the book by Jerome Stern. You also sort of nailed my mental picture of a creative writing class, heh. But yeah, getting in front of a teacher in one way or another would be great. Your point on NTTS is well taken. Working with Mike Sousa was very different, and I definitely want to give a collaboration with him another crack at some point. We had designed the game as several distinct scenes or mini-chapters. It would be great to give it another chance, especially since there is now the Spring Thing that allows longer games. Thanks for playing through NTTS and writing up your thoughts – it was very, very useful, and I think your points will be reflected in the game I am working on now.
Jonsey; this is what I’ve seen in the text games you’ve written, a kind of reinvention of grappiling with a problem, not knowing the answer, and then being forced to confront it and create a solution of your own. It is a form of invention, and what I’ve read through musings on the forum about your next game, I’d see your now looking for answers and there is an inherent danger in that because you may find yourself answering the questions that have driven your work to this point.
I’m empathetic to your plea in wanting to go out and search for these sorts of conventions, to have a deeper understanding of the topic, and the ability to appreciate the direction players come from, but if you had done that to any large degree, I seriously doubt you’d have written what you have and had to confront these questions in the first place.
Just a warning that if you try to change the function of your work, the form will inherently suffer.