Gaming

What I'm reading: Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer; Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy; and Seduced by the Wealthy Playboy by Sara Orwig.

What I'm working on: The same fight scene as yesterday, but after fermenting it all overnight, I came up with something GREAT and it requires me to go back and add some to the middle, but I think it makes the middle way better, too. This is good. It means that at least for a few days, I know what I need to write.

New words today: 445

I attended a gaming conference and workshop to day with 60+ students from my favorite local high school. These weren’t computer nerd types. These were normal kids taking web design or programming for their graduation requirement of a ½ credit in computer science.

I brought along a book to read. I expected to be bored. I was a little. But I was also fascinated. I attended an hour long hands-on workshop with fifteen of the kids. (Okay, so I walked around and watched them but I was there.) They were building video games. Each student had a laptop and learned how to use the software provided to build several rooms with doors and passageways. Then, collectively, the class chose the zombie mode. They created zombies of varying strengths and powers with different kinds of weapons and strategically placed them in the rooms they built.

When they were finished they played their own games and switched with friends to play the games others built.

Inevitably, many went back to the drawing board to improve their zombies and add better weapons. They gave the players more weapons, too, eager to watch the different ways zombies could splat in the video world.

It struck me that this world building within the video game is not unlike writing – particularly the revising process.

…..so the zombie didn’t work right the first time…..

The students went back and edited and gave the zombie new powers or weapons or put them in different places. The shell was right. The placement and details needed tweaking.

I’m not sure it will help me to think of my book as a video game, but it’s comforting to know the process gamers use isn’t so different from mine.

Finally, as an aside.....
I’m still looking for more people to accept my writing challenge. If you know anyone else who would want to participate, direct them here. I’ll set some parameters by the weekend and we’ll write like maniacs!! (See my last 2 posts if you're completely confused.)

Happy writing.

Macy