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June 18th, 2009
11:40 am
It happens to everyone. Really. At first the project is a bright, sparkly land of possibilities. You design and develop, energized by the act of pure unbridled creativity. It is fun, perhaps the most fun part of the creative process. At this point there are no limits, no drudgework. Just The Design.
But then comes The Work. Assembling. Writing. Coding. Whatever. Suddenly you have to make whatever it is you have designed happen. And this is where I have been lax. Sure, sometimes I get to write a particularly clever turn of phrase or it is interesting to see how the plot will be presented to the player, but I never feel more like a hack than when I am writing character sheets.
And they must be done. I have a deadline. A hard, fast, deadline if I want the players to get their characters two weeks before the game. There are 77 full characters to write, 6 replacement characters, and I-have-no-idea how many cast characters. Then there are the clue chases and side scenes, the information sheets, and the rule book. All told, we’re looking at, what? Over 500 pages of text? 600? 700? That’s a lot!
Right now, I’m about two weeks behind schedule. But I’m hampered by the fact that I don’t want to do this. This isn’t fun. It is work, hard, drudging work. The creative part is either done or I need to scrape the bottom of my creative barrel because a character has slipped through the vetting process without enough to do. Oh it’s rewarding work, sure enough. I get a lot out of the reactions when I give the character sheets to the players. But that won’t happen until September. Until then, it is work. Transcription. Converting GM notes to player readable materials. Blah!
I’ll get through it. I always do. But right now, I’m at the ebb of my excitement for Lullaby of Broadway Two. I know it will be a great game. I can see how busy people will be. I can see what they’ll be doing at the game and can predict to some degree the flow of the plots. I think the event will be a fun, rewarding experience.
But – wow – is it hard work to get there.
So, rather than this just be whining without anything constructive, I thought I’d talk about what I do to get past it.
First thing is I try to set a writing schedule such that it doesn’t take over my life. I’ve seen too many LARP writers go crazy the weeks before a game trying to get everything done at once. I spread out my pain over several months so that I only have a little bit of pain at a time, but I also have a life. Unfortunately, I have managed to have too much of a life lately and am behind in my writing. So now I need to play catch up. But I try to schedule it so that I can take breaks, breathe, and be with my family and friends.
Secondly, I track my time. I have a little spreadsheet that I keep updated to see how many characters need to be written (58, including replacements), how long I need to work on a character to meet the September 1 deadline (1.29 days/character at the moment), and when I would finish if I actually kept to my likely schedule of 1.5 days/character (9/13, about 2 weeks late).
I collaborate. Besides the other people who have written and are writing character sheets (thanks!), there are a number of people on the Lullaby of Broadway writers’ list. And I know I can go there and say, “ok I need a plot involving X, Y, and Z,” and someone will provide something useful. Sometimes I even get an overabundance of useful. It’s far better than trying to scrape the barrel when you discover that a character was less plotted than you originally thought.
Here’s an interesting thought: do you know who provides the best plot ideas for a character? The player of that character. That’s because the player is actively invested in the character and is thinking “wouldn’t it be cool if…” Many LARP writers want to spring plots on the player, but I can easily think of several examples where the player suggested plot ideas for their character that were just excellent. If you’ve got a resource that is that rich, it’s almost a crime not to use it. So what if the player knows a little of what is coming? You can always twist the plot here and there and make it a surprise if you have to.
And finally, I write. It has been said that if you want to be a writer, you need to write every day. Even when you don’t want to write. Especially when you don’t want to write. And so I do. I don’t have to worry about the blank paper syndrome. I have my notes. I know what needs to be written. I just need to do it.
So, what do you do to get through the writer’s blahs? How do you force yourself to put words on a page?
Character count: 25; Lola will be done before I go to sleep tomorrow.
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Comments:
I usually divide my workload into daily chunks (since "2,000 words" looks so much better than "200,000 words"). Then after I hit my quota, I stop unless I REALLY want to keep going, and I reward myself -- watch a movie, read a book, something like that.
Yeah, I do that too, although I count by pages rather than words. It's a good idea.
Gordon once told me a secret to writing lots of characters. I don't know if it would help you, but it may.
"Players aren't allowed to show their character sheets. So copy and paste text when you can and put in a paragraph of original text". Saved me lots of time writing that way. :)
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/55821139/1291134) | | From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ambug666 |
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| Date: | June 18th, 2009 04:30 pm (UTC) |
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| | Re: Cheat | (Link) |
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Yup, I do that too (you can really see it in Tempus Frangit if you look). A warning: if you do it, you'd better proofread. I can't tell you the number of times I got a misplaced pronoun in my character sheet or a confusing set of paragraphs because the author cut and pasted without proofreading. In fact, the sheet style for LoB encourages that sort of thing because it is all short sections with headers rather than a continuous flow of character history. But you're deluding yourself if you don't think players don't share their character sheets with each other after the game.
Here's a trick we teach people with trouble getting motivated on the hotline.
First, take everything you have to get done. 700 pages of carefully-crafted characters. Break it up into component parts. Keep this list.
77 full characters to write (list each)
6 replacement characters (list each)
cast characters (list by category or plot, I guess)
clue chases (list each)
side scenes (list each)
information sheets (list each)
rule book (list chapters)
Break just one of THOSE into tiny component parts. Tiny, like "turn on computer and open new document" kind of tiny. You don't have to keep this list, but it's not a bad idea to. Why this works: The big picture is nice, but it looks really daunting; so stop looking at the big picture!
Then pick the easiest task on that list. Be a cop-out. It's cool. Just do that task. After that, if you feel like doing another, or doing another doesn't seem too hard, do another. Why this works: Finishing something, even something tiny, gives your brain a comparatively tiny chemical boost of that "sense of accomplishment" cocktail called norepinepherine and serotonin, and it's usually enough to make the next easiest task seem a little more do-able; and when the next tiniest task gets done, you get a slightly less tiny boost of go-juice; iterate until you start to get tired or something happens -- see below.
Repeat until something daunting happens. Something might. At that point, take a break for a specific amount of time (15 min, 1hr, etc.) and talk to someone about what happened to discourage you. It might get you right back on the horse. Why this works: You should stop when something happens that's daunting because you might have reached one of the things that's keeping you from working. Talking to someone may help you identify your frustration and its source, and may connect you with a resource that will assist you over the hump. It may also give you some insight into ways around the stumbling block. If not, then see below.
If it doesn't get you going again, all you need to do is quit for now (yes, I wrote that). Before you quit, though, you have to schedule the time and day you're planning to start again. Depending on the project, you may want to schedule a this time no further away than 24 hours or 1 week, etc. Schedule the start time only. Why this works: Sticking to this rule keeps you from indefinitely shelving the project, which is why sometimes days or weeks go by without a single word getting written. Schedule the start time only because looking the long way down a 4-hour time block is almost as daunting as looking at the big picture. Instead make sure you have 15 minutes or more available when you schedule the next start time. You don't commit to 4 hours, but you might be motivated to work for 4 hours. Or not.
We teach callers this technique. I also learned it when I was in therapy in grad school. I was facing massive procrastination and writers block issues with my thesis. It's a CBT exercise. Turns out the real problem was my adviser, not my neurotransmitters (so I changed advisers); but techniques like this one that I learned are still really useful for me.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/3966373/783573) | | From: | ferretd |
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| Date: | June 18th, 2009 08:51 pm (UTC) |
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Yah...I got bogged and I can see that. I'm in (what I see as) a hard place adn it's easier to put it off. I have all the stuff and tomorrow is the end...so no more time to put off!
Also, I have some Urinetown ideas...
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/67714165/4938056) | | From: | tafkad |
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| Date: | June 18th, 2009 11:14 pm (UTC) |
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Sorry I haven't gotten my second character sheet to you. I've been drained as heck between the new job, the surprise hospital stay, and the EXTREMELY tiring healing process. I hadn't meant to knock it to a low priority; it just happened.
Don't worry about it. I'm planning to send some reminder letters out at the beginning of July, but a surprise hospital stay and healing process trumps character sheets.
"How do you force yourself to put words on a page?"
I don't. Largely because:
"First thing is I try to set a writing schedule such that it doesn’t take over my life. I’ve seen too many LARP writers go crazy the weeks before a game trying to get everything done at once."
If only it were a 'few weeks of hell before the game'. The few weeks before the game _were_ hell, but that was largely logistical (printing, collating, packaging etc.). The problem was writing a game was 9+ months of hell. The two games I was a major force in ate most of the preceeding year for me and the rest of the team.
Running a game is a glorious rush. But it is still not a big enough payoff to justify the investment of the better part of a year of my life/free time.
This makes me sad, (I have several good ideas that I'd love to do) but it is what it is. |
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