| L A W S O F C R E A T I O N |
The laws of
creation,
Never impede upon the reader's will, never force any actions, reactions,
emotions or thoughts. Only attempt to guide their senses of sight, sound, smell,
touch, and taste. Sight, in this circumstance, is the most important, while the
others are used sparingly to spice up the scene. Leave all judgement up to the
reader's interpretation. This does not mean that you cannot subtly guide them in
a specific direction, just exercise caution, and always give the reader more
than one option.
"You can lead a horse to water..", but you cannot force
them.
Some thoughts and/or suggestions on creation,
Every single room in every single area you write does not have to be a work
of art, but pay attention to your writing, don't waste the readers time. I hate
"brief" but I find that, at times, it's almost a blessing to have such a
command. Don't make your area one others would "brief". What you write is, in a
way, a reflection of who you are, so represent yourself well.
Brief is a command on many MUDs which allows the reader to turn off the
room descriptions. Basically, allowing them to focus only upon the "gaming"
aspect of MUDding, effectively closing their eyes to the story. I find both the
need for it, and the use of it, utterly disgusting.
You do NOT need a constant theme to write a good area. Let the idea and
story-line build as you write it, start out with one idea, then explore the
possibilities. Let your mind, and imagination wander, let your creativity
explode.
Write as if you were a tree, a friend of that infamous tree that fell in the
woods when no one was around. Describe the sound as if to someone who is deaf,
the sight as if to someone who is blind, and so on. In other words, step out of
your first person perspective, and forget your biases.
Don't be afraid to change your mind, if you create one map, and are unable
to fill out certain room descriptions, then they are not worthy of your time,
remove them, rework the map, skip over those rooms, you can use them somewhere
else later. I believe that the best writing stems from those things in life that
inspire you the most, use them!
The least amount of unnecessary words the better, consolidate the thought or
scene using as few words as possible, but be complete and precise in your
description.
Give additional descriptions to, or create objects with descriptions for any
interesting references within your room descriptions. Look at it from the
reader's perspective, what would grab your attention, what would you try to
investigate further? Seek advice from others on what they think is interesting,
proofreading and play-testing can be very helpful tools.
The word "you" should not to be used unless you are unable to find an
alternative. This is sometimes rather difficult, be patient. Do not use question
marks or exclamation marks, they only force the reader to react in a
predetermined way.
Give them something that they do not expect, surprise the reader with your
creativity and ingenuity.
Again, I must stress, represent yourself well, do not be sloppy or careless.
I know, and respect many Immortals, knowing of them only through their writings.
Many more have I forgotten.
Additional things that helped
me,
Check out the text based Zork
adventures, observe how they challenge the player.
Take long walks in the woods with your dog. ;)
Listen to music while you write!
Take it slow, be patient.
|
|
