Kara

More games again today. I’m a little late to the party on this one, but this video is a masterpiece from both a games perspective and even a writing perspective. A lot of the credit has to go to the artists, motion capture systems, and actresses who brought Kara to life, but much also has to go to a very tight, very spare, very powerfully simple story, brilliantly executed.

A commercial android is assembed and put through standard startup tests. Everything checks out until it awakens to consciousness and sentience, and betrays that awakening through independent thought and emotion. 

This is a new concept project from Quantic Dream, the studio that created Heavy Rain.

Inspiration is everywhere.

An Improbable Series

As regular readers know, last night I finished An Improbable Journey. It was a blast to write, it went quickly, it was short and I’m feeling a lot of promise in the concept. The execution will need more work of course, but that’s what editing is for. I’m thinking I’ll do several more in this series in the near-term, hope you’ll let me know what you think of them!

As I went through the story my conception of the main character changed several times. At first I thought he was going to be a tech-savvy customer who would face the Herculean task of salvaging parts to repair a dead hulk on his own, but then I started to realize that wasn’t going to make for super-exciting storytelling unless I added an external threat of some sort, but I really didn’t want to do that. Instead I evolved my thinking into what you see in the finished draft; he’s a history/antiquity buff who lacks the skills he’s going to need to get out of this on his own, so he has to strike a deal with the devil to get out. The consequences of this will definitely be felt in future stories.

In my mind now, he’s in a good place to become a sort of Han Solo/Indiana Jones hybrid character, which isn’t as natural a fit as one might think. Solo was a rogue with a heart of gold, in it for himself unless he can be brought around to Do the Right Thing.

Indiana Jones is neither of those things. He’s the more action-oriented example of what Corwin is right now - an intellectual and historian.  When he goes on a grand quest, it’s never about personal gain, nor is it about Doing the Right Thing. For him, the rallying cry is “It belongs in a museum!” That, or his dad is dying.

I’m not setting out to create a character that mashes together both of Harrison Ford’s most iconic personas here. It’s more like the Space Quest influence on the story was; a sort of coloring. Corwin isn’t Han, nor is he Indy, but I’d be lying through my teeth if I tried to tell you those two guys aren’t coloring my thoughts as I write him.

From Another Point of View

I must issue a correction to my post earlier this week entitled “From a Certain Point of View.” I incorrectly called Spellsong and various other books 2nd person present tense, when they’re actually 3rd person present tense.

It’s that present tense bit that gets to me, but I won’t go into all that again here.

Sorry for the error and resulting confusion! I am now adding point of view and tenses to my ‘must refresh memory about’ list, which continues to grow daily.

Thanks to L. E. Modesitt, Jr.  for taking the time to comment personally.

From a Certain Point of View

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about perspective and how it applies to writing, what I prefer to read, what I prefer to write, what other people prefer to read.

This was mostly prompted by discussions at Goodreads in The Sword & Laser’s discussion forums. The book they’re currently reading, Rule 34 (affiliate link), is done in the rarely-used second person form.

Second person is common in game-books, which is a form of writing I enjoy, but when it comes to reading a story or novel that I’m not in some way “participating” in, I just can’t enjoy it. More than anything it’s the synchronicity of the experience. Since I’m supposedly an observer experiencing this story of someone else’s, my mind rebels at the idea that it’s in present tense, happening RIGHT NOW. How can I be reading a record of events happening as I read them?

Some people can get past this, but I can’t seem to. I’d been eager to read the Spellsong Cycle by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. but when I realized they were second-person perspective, I abandoned them before I even started.

If you’ve checked out any of the fiction I write in the Fiction Fragments or Draft Stories sections of the site, it’s pretty clear that I favor 3rd person limited for the most part, though now and then I find myself drifting into 3rd person omniscient.

Do any of you have very strong feelings about particular points of view in writing? I know I’m not alone in my feelings on 2nd person present tense, I’ve discussed it with some others. Any of you disagree? Feel free to let me know, I’m very curious about how people get around the simultaneity issue and why it’s not an issue.

eReaders as Proofreading Tools

One of the beautiful things about the Kindle is that it’s fairly easy to put your own content onto it. Stick a USB cable in, attach it to your computer, copy and paste files into the documents folder, and as long as the document’s a supported format (of which there are plenty,) you’re golden! You’ve got your document on your Kindle.

This can be really valuable for any writer in several ways. Naturally the first use most people will think of is creating Kindle ebooks for distribution and/or sale, but that’s not the limit.

How about using it as a proofreading tool?

One of the best ways of self-editing a document (which we all have to do, no matter how many other people will be looking at our work too) is to change how you view it. If you wrote it on paper, get it on the screen and look at it that way. If you wrote it on a screen, put it on paper. Especially if that paper is coated with eInk.

When you proofread on eInk, you can change how you’re looking at the document in many ways, at any time, as many times as you like. You can make the font size bigger, change the typeface, the line spacing, the words per line, even the screen rotation. And those are just the Kindle options, other eReaders may have other options to explore.

Every change you make alters how your brain processes the words you’re reading, which helps combat the “too close to the work” issue that makes editing your own work such a challenge. When you’re too close to it, your brain remembers roughly what to expect, and our brains are far too good at seeing exactly what we expect, instead of what’s really there.

Anything you can do to change up the display counteracts the brain’s habit of filling in errors with expectations, and makes it more likely you’ll spot unexpected typos, missing words or awkward-sounding phrasings.

eInk is my preferred choice for this, but the same can be accomplished with any reader, and in fact it’s a good idea to use eInk and other readers in combination, if possible. Right now color eInk displays are uncommon, and color is yet another way to change things up. So grab your tablet if you have one, or a computer-based reader and get proofreading.