Motivations for Writing

I am curious about the drive behind the writing in irrationals games , both past and present. I am in college for the first time in my life and after 6 years in the Air Force, I have developed an Interest in writing short stories and fiction. And while I enjoy it , its hard to find motivation when you feel like your ideas have already been done to death. Does Irrational and its writers, specifically Ken Levine, run into this problem?

My fiction professor had a good answer to this (common) question. It went something like this: "A story may have been told a million times before, but it is yet to be told by you." The simple interpretation of this is everyone has something new and unique to add to a common story idea, but I think his real point was never to limit or censor yourself (or worse, stop altogether) simply because it sounds familiar. We're always going to be influenced by what came before us, but it is our own innate creatively that's going to have our story grow into something that's ours -- personal, unique, and new.

It's always important to realize that a story is always going to have a mind of its own and is going to grow into something unexpected. You want it to, because that's your subconscious creativity taking over, which doesn't give a shit about influences. I can pretty much guarantee a game like BioShock is the result of years of evolution and turned out nothing like what they'd planned, which is why we're posting on this forum and not on that of much more contrived game. They were able to wear their Ayn Rand influences on their sleeves, yet still created something that's never been done before.

So if you're worried about encroaching on an idea that's been done before, imagine if Irrational had stopped what it was doing for that same reason.

I feel like it's natural, the hesitation that comes from working with particularly classic themes. I think that it's also natural to want to work towards something new and different. I couldn't agree with you more, though, Proggle, when it comes to breaking down that hesitation and using that reservation for new content to your advantage - in terms of making something explicitly "yours", that is.

On one hand, it's great to push for something new, but I like the idea of making something out of one's own interpretation. I find myself, as a fan, gravitating more towards stories that feel personal and brought up from a history, rather than ones that have been pushed too far out of the way for the sake of being original.

The penultimately obvious thing beside a cliche idea is the denial thereof. That kind of thing!

Wait, what was I talking about...?

Andrew Marathas
Illustrator

Thanks for the reply's, I defiantly agree with the idea of interpreting something in your own way , to be honest I had never really considered that side of it. I always figured if I were to ever get published, which I am trying, that my work would be labeled a patchwork of a thousand other different things and not worthy because its just a collection of thefts from other material. Thats a weird fear to have, I know, especially from someone with no published works but it has bothered me in the past couple of months. Even going as far as to sometimes cripple my productivity altogether. But I do continue to work and I am nearing a self imposed milestone of two completed chapters.

I think one thing you might consider is that the whole, "keep your ass in the seat" advice isn't meant for everyone.

There are prolific and acclaimed writers who only publish a novel every ten years--and they get way more respect or credibility than some that pump out two books a year like clockwork.

So, I'm all for milestones if the reason you're not producing is a general drifting mind (one of the common jokes in our program is that wikipedia and facebook are research for our novels).

However, pushing something out is rarely the healthiest way to write if you intend to create art. Much like Elvis died on the toilet, straining too hard to get something out when you're not in shape--it can ruin you from the inside out. Guys who pump out tons of material usually do it after they've trained their sense of craft and voice like literary marathon runners.

There are others who say, "Just get 200-500 good words a day out and you'll be ok."

The problem with that advice is that it's hard for a newcomer to appreciate because--well--we're all impatient. We could be dead tomorrow and damn right we want to write the great novel before we keel over--who can write that in only 200-500 words a day?

Then again, the average novel is about 80,000 to 120,000 words--so the answer is pretty simple--it takes less than a year to finish a novel if you can manage 200-500 words a day.

Take your time, make what you say simple but how you say it moving. And, as I've heard my mentor (poet Bruce Bond) say hundreds of time: cultivate the strange. In other words, take the familiar and make it unusual. Don't be afraid of imagery, but hesitate to use "like" when invoking metaphor.

I could platitude all day long--but it's hard work to get good at this--it's damning as well--it's a curse and you will bleed for it if you're any good. Either your fingertips will crack, your eyes will go bloodshot from staring, or you'll rip open some forgotten wound at your core that'll have you staggered on the brink of a deep black well.

And that's only if you're fortunate enough to be on the right track.

Best wishes. Consider this a postcard from the land of shared turmoil.