Rewriting a novel like playing an open ended video game?

MythMonger · Oct 9, 2012

Anyone else ever get the sense that there are similarities between rewriting a novel and playing an open ended video game?

For example, when I played an open ended game like one of the Elder Scrolls games, I'd remember things like where I put a particular weapon or maybe the location of where a quest started or was headed. With the Elder Scrolls I could tuck away hundreds of details like this in my (albeit imperfect) memory.

As I rewrite my novel, I also find myself drawing from my memory in a similar fashion. For example, I may have a character do a specific action. With a rewrite I not only have to remember that they did this action, but might include some kind of foreshadowing of the event. The same with dialogue. If I don't remember where a character said something I might end up repeating it in another part of the novel.

Am I alone here?

jeffo20 · Oct 9, 2012

I have a great tendency to repeat myself, sometimes almost word-for-word, when I'm drafting. It's not something I'm aware of at the time it happens, but when I re-read in preparation for the first rewrite, I'll usually know. So I'll be on page 38 and I'll think, "Hmm, I think I use that exact phrase later on". Sure enough, I'll find it 100 pages down the line. My favorite new phrase scrawled in the margins on my latest work is 'pick and stick.' As in, "You also used this phrase/image/event on p. x; pick one place and stick with it."

ccarver30 · Oct 9, 2012

Yes, I am sure I do this. I think this is especially true the longer a novel takes to write. You have an idea and aren't sure you have conveyed it yet. Kind of annoying when you find it (the repeats).

kkbe · Oct 9, 2012

Alas, I've never played an open-ended video game. Is my response therefore moot?

On the outside chance it isn't, are you asking because you think it's a problem, or because you find it interesting? I don't think one can help but pluck from memories when writing, nor do I think it's odd to turn to the familiar when writing. Of course, you don't want to repeat yourself verbatim, so you need to be watchful of that. . .

leahzero · Oct 9, 2012

I think it's just an observation, kkbe, not really a problem. It's a good analogy.

This phenomenon is happening to me right now as I revise a manuscript. I'll run across a detail or line of dialogue or something and think, "Is this from the current draft...or draft #3, or #6? If it's new, did I remember to foreshadow it? If it's old, did I accidentally remove the foreshadowing during an editing pass?" Etc. etc.

The more drafts you go through, the more you have to mentally juggle different versions of events and shifting details. It can get messy.

kkbe · Oct 9, 2012

Yep, it can. If you're writing in Word, you can do a search of a fragment, see if it's been used already. Sometimes I question something and I jot it down right then, make a point to go back later and skim through. You know what else you can do? If you reach a passage you're uncertain about, type 3 or 4 of one letter, I use kkkk, then later, if you want to quickly find that passage, do a search for that letter string. You'll go right to it. Not sure if that's helpful to you. Maybe?

MythMonger · Oct 9, 2012

leahzero said:
I think it's just an observation, kkbe, not really a problem. It's a good analogy.

This phenomenon is happening to me right now as I revise a manuscript. I'll run across a detail or line of dialogue or something and think, "Is this from the current draft...or draft #3, or #6? If it's new, did I remember to foreshadow it? If it's old, did I accidentally remove the foreshadowing during an editing pass?" Etc. etc.

The more drafts you go through, the more you have to mentally juggle different versions of events and shifting details. It can get messy.

Yes, exactly. Sometimes I wonder how much of my book is just in my head and how much has made it onto the page.

Alas, I've never played an open-ended video game. Is my response therefore moot?

On the outside chance it isn't, are you asking because you think it's a problem, or because you find it interesting?

kkbe-- I think it's just interesting. I used to play a lot more video games than I should have, but dropped most of that when I started to write a few years back. At least this hobby is more artistically fulfilling.

Anninyn · Oct 9, 2012

As a fan of the open-world, open ended video games, I find just writing the thing is a bit like playing one. Perhaps because I'm a discovery writer. But with both the games and the novel I:
- come into a strange new world
- discover characters, places
- find a main quest line (my plot)
- find the side quests (subplots)
- have several very enjoyable months discovering the whole place.

When I rewrite it it's more like replaying. Some of the sense of discovery is gone, but everything is more efficient - I know what to do and how to play, and because I do I can put everything in the right order and not mess up. No wandering off into areas full of Deathclaws at level 5. Yet, still, I'll discover new places I never found on my first time through and I'll still have moments so amazing and wonderful it leaves me speechless.

Rewriting a novel like playing an open ended video game?

MythMonger

Willing to Learn

jeffo20

Tyrant King

ccarver30

Nicole Castro

kkbe

Huh.

leahzero

The colors! THE COLORS!

kkbe

Huh.

MythMonger

Willing to Learn

Anninyn

Stealing your twiglets.