writercises | Entries tagged with interactive

Original posting 2021/6/5

Over at https://writingexcuses.com/2021/05/30/16-22-scenes-and-set-pieces/ this week, they are talking about writing scenes (and set pieces?) for role-playing games and interactive fiction. This week, they recommended thinking about several key elements for a scene. The elements they suggested are setting, challenge, adversaries, rewards, and story development. Basically, where are we, what is the problem or task, who is opposing us, what are the stakes (or maybe consequences?), and how does this scene fit into the overall story.

Now, an interesting question is just how well do these elements play in writing scenes for ... what should I call it? Regular fiction? Short stories, novels, and so forth? And did they miss some things? I have to admit, they seem to be focusing more on providing a background, a stage set, where the players can then act out their version of the scene. They didn't really talk much about the steps in the action, what I guess you could call the fine structure of the scene. That may be a difference between writing for RPGs and writing fiction, of course.

Anyway, something to think about. What are the pieces you put together to make a scene? We talk about them as the building blocks of stories, but what are they? How do you build one?

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 05:47:05 -0400

Always interesting, and more often than not a bit challenging...

Taking the technological simplicity of listserv (join the list, get copies of postings, and repeat! Simple, no?) and somehow trying to hang our humanity (or perhaps our inhumanity?) on that web of bits.

How do you think community forms in f2f (face-to-face) groups? What does it take to turn a melange of strangers into someone that you would trust to comment on your writing? How do you define the edges of the motley crowd? Or do you need to?

And then, if you will, contemplate a bit on what the electronic parallels might be. Remember that the owner of this list has some other things to do, that all the participants gathered here are volunteers, and that no one has to do anything in this collation of imagery and light.

Something to contemplate on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

(what does this have to do with writing? Welladay, if one considers writing as being something that happens between and betwixt some people -- at least a writer and a reader? -- then perhaps considering the ins-and-outs of list formulation might aid that. Even if one focuses a bit finer, perhaps the way that people think and form communities might inform your writing, eh? Or, if you want to, you might do a piece based on the odd little interactions out here on the edge of cyberspace -- just don't call it "You've Got Mail" okay?)

Oh -- if you want to franticulate about how a list like this might best be a writers' workshop, feel free! That's always a fascinating gear to grind.

(Franticulate? Frantic speculation, I suspect, although it might also be be articulating frantics?)

"My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality" Oscar Wilde

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mbarker.livejournal.com

Original Posting: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 11:42:50 -0400

(some of you may remember this. Let's see how the tale twists this time around...)

Okay, this is how the game looks...

The interactive revolves around three items: a note, a $100 bill, and a box. Of course, there may be something in the box, so perhaps we should count that as the fourth item?

And how shall we play this game?

First, one person (called the instigator? :-) does a little backstory. Tell us (or show us) someone putting the box (with a $100 bill and a note stapled or otherwise affixed to it) somewhere. It could be the middle of Times Square, it could be behind Lincoln's right foot in the Lincoln Memorial, it could be in the overhead bin in an airplane, it could be almost anywhere. Feel free to tell us a little about what the person looks like and so on. Do avoid telling us what's in the box at this point, okay? Just tell us about the box being planted. You may (and probably will) tell us about the note -- what does it say?

Next, another person (call them the interactor? why not!) will kick off the interactive with a scene where the protagonist finds the box. They read the note, look at the $100, and perhaps consider opening the box.

Scene two, three, four are the protagonist having trouble with the box. These should be done by three other interactors. What kind of trouble? Well, for example, perhaps the instigator called for the box to be taken to Grandma, without looking inside. Obviously, the protagonist may have trouble simply getting to Grandma, but there may also be active interference -- who are those strange men with the dark moustaches who want to buy the box for large sums of money? What, someone is shooting at us? And so on and so forth, complications, conflict, and problems mounting.

Next, let's have a volunteer ask the instigator for the secret of the box. Just what is in the box, anyway? And yes, the instigator should tell our volunteer what is inside so that they...

Can happily regale us with the climax of the tale, the final scene when we all find out what's inside!

Simple enough, right? Just a little five-part story, starting with the finding of the box (and money and note), then working through complications, and resulting in a wonderful revelation!

Write!

"Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I'll tell you a story." Francis Scott Fitzgerald

stor.............................................Y!

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Entries tagged with interactive

TECH: Scenes

EXERCISE: How Do You Make A Mirror A Community?

EXERCISE: the box (five part interactive? Or is it six?)

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