This Writing Game
By Lori A. Basiewicz
A friend and fellow writer has taken to sending me links to computer games. On
the surface, these games only have one thing in common: They're all addicting.
The first game he sent me a link for was
Virus which is a rather alarming link to send to someone you know only
virtually, but it is this perfectly innocent, completely mesmerizing game that
involves turning the game board all the same color in a steadily decreasing
number of moves. The next was
Boomshine, a nearly mindless game that involves creating a cascade effect
to explode a minimum number of dots, followed by two versions of the equally
mindless
Falling
Sand game. Finally, he gave me
Dolphin Olympics, a game where the only goal is to make a computer-image of
a dolphin perform as many tricks as possible in two minutes.
By the time I received the Dolphin game, I had had enough. I cornered him and
demanded to know, "What gives? Why do you keep sending me these games? Are you
trying to derail my writing efforts? Do you really see me as the competition?"
"No," he said, "I'm learning a lot from some of these video games, actually."
Since he wanted to share his findings, and his addiction, with me, he continued.
"Video games don't need to be objective based, or even anything beyond
interactive. Games like the Sand game and the Dolphin game flow. These are games
which take really simple-minded concepts and make them a lot of fun. They work
on a completely different school of thought than the mainstream video games you
would buy for the PS2, Xbox, et al."
As I listened to his words, I understood he was correct. I also understood that
whether or not he realized it, he was also talking about writing.
Short stories and novels don't have to have an over-arching point. They don't
need to have layers, themes, or symbolism imbedded in them. They don't have to
have a greater message. They can exist simply to entertain. They don't even have
display master craftsmanship. The worlds the writer creates, the graphics the
programmer uses, can be very basic and simple.
The story can have no greater purpose than allowing the reader to escape from
real life for a short while, because, sometimes, that's all they want or have
time for. Sometimes, the reader doesn't want to think nor does she care how an
explosion travels through a vacuum to affect a spaceship in orbit around a
celestial body. They're not interested in a political message about the future
of humankind if consumerism continues to prevail over the environment. They just
want to be entertained. They just want to be.
As writers, I think it is important that we remember this. While it is our job
to inform and enlighten, it is also our job to entertain. While we want to make
our stories believable so our readers will be able to lose themselves in the
worlds we have created, we need to remember that the majority of our readers
will not have all of the writer's carefully researched facts near at hand. Most
will not be experts in the fine art of poisoning or well-schooled rocket
scientists with published research on the nature of the universe to their
credit. This means, if the writer can tell a convincing story, if they can sell
the reader on the events as described, then the reader will not stop to question
if it is realistic or not. The story can just be.
Before my friend started sending my links to online computer games, my favorite
game was
Grow, a logic puzzle that requires the player to keep track of how each item
affects other items in the game until the proper sequence, which unlocks the
puzzle to reveal the final secret of the game, can be determined. It requires
concentration and thought. While it was fun and entertaining and I looked
forward to solving each unique puzzle, I was unable to just sit down and lose
myself in the game whenever I had a few spare moments. It took time, so I could
not just play it when I was between tasks. Also, I had to remember what I had
tried the last time, what had worked and what had not, so I could alter my
strategy accordingly. In short, it required mental focus.
If you think of this in terms of fiction, the easy-to-read stories, the books
that exist mainly for entertainment, are the paperbacks readers can throw in
their bags and take to the doctor's office or in the car when they're likely to
get caught by slow moving coal trains delivering ore from the mines to the power
plants. Those types of books can be read in short bursts. The reader doesn't
have to worry about stopping points, because it's easy to pick up and recapture
the feeling whenever they have a few odd moments. They don't have to read for
comprehension. They can just read and be entertained.
By contrast, novels with deeper meanings have to be budgeted for. Readers can't
settle in to read them shortly before a child's bedtime and, after a long day's
work, they may be too tired to concentrate on the layers and subtext. Because
these books, like Grow, require mental focus, the reader needs to block out time
and insure they will not face significant interruptions before they can settle
in to enjoy and appreciate the tome.
Think of this in terms of the Harry Potter craze which has swept multiple
continents. Many writers have criticized Harry Potter for poor form in
regards to storytelling, but from the perspective of the everyday reader,
someone who is not versed in the craft of writing or the storytelling arts, the
Harry Potter books are simply fun and easy to read. They sweep the reader along,
but if an interruption occurs, it's not a huge problem because it is easy to
find one's place again. Who cares about the logic of Quidditch-- what's the
purpose of scoring points with the quaffle if the team that captures the golden
snitch usually wins?-- because from the reader's perspective it's just a fun
sport to experience along with Harry. Because the story is entertaining, the
reader doesn't need for the game to be more. It doesn't need a greater meaning
or a better thought out purpose or logic. It just is.
In our quest to tell the best possible story we can, we writers often overlook
the fact that fiction exists first and foremost to entertain. It is its primary
purpose. This means, it is okay to write a story that just allows the reader to
pass the time while waiting for their next task. It is okay to just tell a story
without worrying about themes and layers and subtext. It is okay to just write
fiction.
That is not to say that the stories written strictly for entertainment shouldn't
have a goal. Just like Boomshine and Dolphin Olympics both have a goal for the
game player to achieve-- explode a certain number of dots or do as many tricks
as possible in the time allotted-- even the most basic stories need to have an
end goal in mind, but it doesn't have to be thought-provoking or globally
significant. It can be as simple as figuring out how the butler did it or
exploring how the hero and heroine finally get together or watching as the space
rebels win the big battle. All I, the writer, have to do is get the reader from
point A to point B and entertain them along the way. I don't have to change the
way they think or make a political statement or reveal a great injustice or
embed a message into the text. I just have to allow the story to be.
Even when writing deeper fiction, fiction that does have layers and subtext, it
is easy to forget that entertainment should still be the most prominent part of
the story. The Grow game, for all the interaction between the different
elements, for all the need to remember what affected what, was still fun to
play. Things happened in it. Sometimes, the consequences were unexpected or
surprising. Sometimes, they were good. Sometimes, they were bad. Sometimes, they
were thought-provoking. But they were always fun and entertaining. If it hadn't
been, I wouldn't have gone back to it time and time again until I solved the
puzzle and I wouldn't have wanted to replay the original a few weeks later to
see if I still remember how the different pieces interacted with one another. I
certainly wouldn't have played the sequels if the first had not been an
enjoyable experience.
When it comes to writing, it is easy to get caught up in the details, in the
research, in the adventure of writing, and forget about telling the story. We
want the images we paint in our readers' minds, the graphics we create for them,
to be captivating. We want them to be in awe at our mastery of craft and admire
how creative and real we have made the world for them to enjoy, but if we have
done our job well, they will not notice these details anymore than a game player
notices the bits of code that makes a character-player respond to the gamer's
commands when they are playing the latest action adventure game.
If we writers fail to remember this, if we fail to amuse our readers, if we
don't make the story fun for them, then they will find their entertainment
elsewhere, and without readers, there's really not much point to this writing
game.
Links:
Virus:
http://rfshq.com/forum/games/virus2.swf
Boomshine:
http://bored.com/boomshine/index.htm
Falling Sand:
http://chir.ag/stuff/sand/ and
http://www.addictinggames.com/hellofsandfallinggame.html
Dolphin Olympics:
http://www.rawkins.com/games/do/
Grow:
http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2002/02/grow_ver3.html
Lori A. Basiewicz has been sequestered in an undisclosed
location. Her writing group says it is for her own good until she succeeds in
marketing her first novel and finishing her Master's thesis. Periodically she
escapes protective custody in order to practice aikido. She can be reached at
Lori@QuoinCommunications.net.
