Let the Game Begin! Part Two: Reaching the Summit

So, what was it Johnny Egg said to Fred? “I just want you to lead,” he said. “Share your vision with the team and we’ll make it happen.” (Yeeeeaaaah.)

Up ’til that point, Fred was doing a little bit of everything, very little of which had any practical application, and he knew it. But, he needed to see something happening, he needed to see forward progress. So, in addition to writing, he went out and set up a web site for Infinite City Studio that did little more than provide concrete evidence that the project existed. He was also doing a little artwork and buying office supplies for further validation. But, it was different now. He was thrilled that the project was now bigger than himself and anxious to see what the new group dynamic had in store. And that group kept on growing.

Enter Larry Laconic, Interwebs guru. Johnny Egg had him on retainer, had ‘hired’ him to build a web site for his own outside business venture, and recommended him highly. Fred was thrilled as he officially crossed off one of the big tasks from his long list of distracting things to do. But, Johnny Egg didn’t stop there. He had a writer acquaintance (a published author!) he thought might be interested in the project. Better and better. Lucy would join Ricky and Fred and a new, buffed writing team was ready to rumble.

But, the good news didn’t end there. Larry Laconic had a friend who was an artist. Let’s call him Benny Doodles. And while this was all happening, I was busy chatting it up with my 3-D modeling instructor, Droopy, to try and entice him into joining our growing squad. But, he was nobody’s fool. He agreed to come on board as a technical advisor but he wouldn’t commit to do any real modeling prematurely. Things were moving along swell-like and it was time to get the party started.

Meeting of the Minds

I think it was Johnny Egg who obtained the meeting room. The first official gathering of Infinite City Studio in professional surroundings! Fred continued to be thrilled. I can’t account for all the former participants but at their peak, ICS was ten strong. Fred stood at the head of the table on an upper floor of a New York City skyscraper basking in his teams palpable energy. It just didn’t get any better than this. (True. It never got any better than that.) On the opposite end of the table sat the ICS business manager, Johnny Egg. He was the one that was going to make it possible for Fred to realize his dreams. Around the table sat the new, enthusiastic team of artists, writers, and technical people who were going to turn nothing into something.

They went around the table and talked about responsibilities. Effective immediately, Larry Laconic would begin work on the new and improved web site. Fred’s clunky old misrepresentation of talent would be removed in its entirety in favor of the slick, new design done by a professional. A forum would be developed whereby the entire team could continuously communicate all the great things that were taking place. Benny Doodles would be our sketch artist supreme. His team would certainly have to grow but for now, he would be our sole contributor of conceptual art, putting a face on the project known as Station 12: The Machine. The writing team would continue to create story content and bring the game to life. Droopy took it all in but still played it close to the vest. Looking back, Fred suspected Droopy had seen this kind of thing before.

Tune in next week as Infinite City Studio formulates a fool proof plan for success only to learn that there’s no such thing as a fool proof plan.

Let the Game Begin! Part One: A Good Start

Names have been changed to protect the incompetent. I shall call myself Fred. The facts come from my memory so are questionable at best.

So, Fred is ready to take his idea to the next level. He knows he wants to build a new fictional universe, specifically a new game for the PC (and/or game console). He’s buying books on game design and reading magazines and Internet articles to see what’s involved. He even joined the International Game Developers Association thinking it would come with built-in support. He had a proper fire lit under him, now it was time to grow the team. Enter New School University.

Fred wanted to support his new hobby with knowledge acquired beyond self-study. His wife, Ethel, was employed at New School University in New York City which meant free classes. Fred thought it was an excellent start to keeping the budget down. He chose several supporting classes, among them 3-D modeling in Maya (because it made sense that the project lead with no previous experience was going to be doing a lot of modeling on the project, right?), web design (because it was never too soon to get the word out about a project that probably wouldn’t see the light of day for several years), and basic code writing (Fred thought this might come in handy some day even though he was pretty sure somebody else would be writing the game code). But, all was not for naught. It was through New School that he’d come to meet Ricky and Johnny Egg.

One of the first things that Fred came up with was the banner under which everything Station 12 (the label identifying the new universe) would reside under: Infinite City Studio. It fit perfectly. Infinite City was a term used in the Station 12 universe and he was trying to build a studio. Fred spent a lot of time thinking up that name…like he had so many times before for other projects: Yankee Pictures, Filmmakers of New England, Small Town Players, and Off the Cuff, among others. It was never too soon to have an identifying brand. What was supposed to go on the web site, after all?

The studio name was in place, foundational learning was happening, some clunky version of a web site was on the Interwebs; it was now time to grow the team. One night after class or during a break, Fred asked Ricky and Johnny Egg if they’d like to get together to discuss an idea for a big project. They said yes and so it began.

It may have been the New School cafeteria where Fred first presented Station 12: The Machine, which was the official title of the game. Fred had no talent whatsoever for spotting other people’s understanding of a project or their motivation for participating in it or, apparently, for gauging their talent and their ability to follow through. So, based on this initial meeting, he was sure everything was going to be wonderful and that Infinite City Studio was well on its way to game-making success.

The team consisted of Ricky who was going to join (or be) the creative writing element. Johnny Egg was going to be the business manager. He was going to bring every ounce of his prodigious business acumen to bear on this ambitious project. He would soon handle everything business-related, Fred would no longer have to worry his self with little things like recruiting talent or organizing meetings. Finances would be handled differently taking more weight off his shoulders. “I just want you to lead,” he said. “Share your version with the team and we’ll make it happen.” Fred was ecstatic. He felt understood. It was the perfect scenario.

Fred continued to develop the story ideas and brought out a game design document that he shared with the new team. Johnny Egg thought there was enough material to warrant setting up a project time line and growing the team further. And so it was.

Tune in next week as Infinite City Studio continues to grow beyond Fred’s wildest expectations!!

A Full Plate

Good gravy, I am busy! If anyone ever advises you to not to move across the country in the middle of revising a manuscript, heed that advice. There are an awful lot of things to do during such a move and it wears you down and distracts you from things you’d rather be doing (or should be doing). Granted, it’s only a temporary setback, but when it comes to writing, whenever you get on a roll, you don’t want it to stop.

But, I’m not going to turn this into a moving blog. Let’s stick with book news.   Hey, maybe I’ll start a moving blog! A Hartford to Seattle diary with all the ups and downs that come with long distance moving.   Don’t be an asshole! Focus!   Right, right. Sorry.

As of this afternoon, Chapter Three is behind me and Chapter Four, being one of the easier sections of the book, shouldn’t take long to revise (ha ha). One of the things I’m enjoying about this process is that each chapter deals with different characters so it’s always new. It’s almost like reading several books at once which, as far as having to sit down and rewrite goes, ain’t too bad. I’m not sure I’d be enjoying this quite as much if I were following a linear line of continuity.   Guh.   I’m not sure how this style will be received by the average reader but, hey, it’s how my brain works.

As I rewrite, my main targets are continuity, character development, and of course, crap writing. But, I’ve also started to become aware of that quality that makes it so you never want to put the book down.   A real page turner!   Shut up.   Well, it’s true.   You’re just dying to understand the big picture and you really want to know what happens next.   Really? Please excuse me while I roll my eyes at the obvious.   You’re mean.   It’s really interesting when you read portions of your own material and get a rush of excitement. It makes you feel like you’re on the right track. Conversely, if it bores the writer, how can it not bore the reader?   zzzzzzzz   Excuse me, Bold-Faced Type, but I think you’re missing the point of this blog. Now, step off!

I think the scariest part of revising has to be knowing that every change you make is going to have an impact on what comes later in the book. Scary and exciting. Scary because it could lead to drastic changes in the end. Exciting because it could lead to drastic changes in the end. The whole point of revision is to make the writing better, to take your scribbling to the next level. I have to keep asking myself, is this something I would want to read? Is it a page turner? Am I getting my points across? Am I creating characters people want to know and follow? Did I remember to book the truck for the move?   What?   Damn!

It’s Up To Me Now

Oh, my goodness, this is crazy!

I am now learning the vast difference between writing a novel and revising one. Especially in regards to a first novel. When one sets out to write a novel, and by ‘one’, I mean me, there is a semi-transparent goal in play. That is to say, the goal is to begin and end the writing process until there’s a completed manuscript to show for it. But, the timeframe for completion is a bit fuzzy. There are good days and bad days during that stage of the writing. Sometimes you get on a tear and you’re just typing away (and by you, I mean me), filling the pages, and before you know it a chapter is done. It’s a good feeling. But, just as often, you get nothing. More to the point, you do nothing. Hey, what are ya gonna do? Sometimes there are PC games to play or movies to watch or other people’s books to read. It’ll get done eventually. It’s not like I’m getting paid. (We’ll get into art vs commerce some other time.)

Then something odd happens, something wonderful and, frankly, unexpected: you type The End on the final page. That’s it, complete, finito. And just as you get comfortable with the elation of a job well done, it’s ruined with thoughts of publication and success. As soon as you place that last page of the manuscript into your paid-too-much-for-wooden-inbox, you start imagining the artwork of your limited edition hardcover novel. You think about your dedication page and your grateful acknowledgments. At the very least, you think about the compliments and back pats from your new agent. (I realize there are some aspiring writers who think opposite thoughts about how crappy their work is and how sure they are about its impending rejection. I’ve never been one of those people. Besides, who would want to read that blog?)

Now, here’s the big difference between writing and revising: Where the writing is an endeavor of abstract thinking, what if’s, could be’s, and maybes, the completed manuscript is a tactile reality, an object, it’s that thing you’ve always dreamed about but never finished….finished. Oh, boy, now what? I’ll tell you what; Now, you get yourself an agent, who gets you a publisher, who publishes your book and it becomes a best seller. Oh, wait, there’s just one problem…the book sucks!

I exaggerate to make a point. I hope. But, the reality of your novel is now sitting on your desk as a constant reminder that the only thing between you and publishing success, at least at this stage, is you and your red pen. (I actually use blue.) That fuzzy timeframe isn’t so fuzzy anymore. Every minute you’re not working on the revisions is a minute wasted. You’re so close to the end you can taste it. Your whole life could change with the publication of this novel and you’re not sitting at your desk day and night? Your eyes aren’t glued to your 22″ monitor round the clock? You’re not taking your manuscript into the bathroom with you? Don’t you take yourself at all seriously as a writer? Come on!

I guess what I’m saying here is that it’s difficult to complete your revisions when one decides to move oneself from Hartford, Connecticut to Seattle, Washington. It slows the process down somewhat. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. Write a novel and then, during your revisions, move across the country. Tricky, right? I told you!

But, still, I managed to put that nasty chapter two behind me and jump in head first into chapter three. And I thought chapter two was bad. Yikes. I’ve got so much rewriting going on my pages look almost solid black. I get so mired in my edits I often have to stop and update the manuscript in Word just so I can print a clean, updated copy to work from. But, really, I feel good about the process. It’s going to take a little longer than paragraph three suggests but that’s okay. I’m good with it. And by ‘I’, I mean me.

Death and Life

Get ready to get your geek on.

I owe a huge debt to Rand Miller and Cyan Worlds , and to all those who contributed to an ill-fated MMO computer game called Uru, for setting me on the path to creating a fictional universe of my own. Released in 2003, Uru was both genius and flawed. The genius was all Cyan Worlds. The flaws may have been due to the itchy trigger fingers of their then publisher. For some reason, they wanted a return on their sizable investment after a considerable amount of production time had passed. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s killer out there in the business world. The point is, Uru didn’t make it that first time around and by February of 2004 it was all over and for many of us who had participated, it was a devastating loss.

What’s important here is that I felt I’d had the rug pulled out from underneath me. This was true both from a game-playing perspective as well as a social interaction perspective. I was infatuated with the D’ni universe, its rich history, its epic storyline (it’s directly related to the highly successful Myst series of PC games), and I wasn’t ready to give it up. In addition, I met some fantastic people in that virtual world and developed some friendships that continue to this day. Uru was my first MMO so it had left a great impression on me in many ways.

Enter “Uru: The Gathering”. This was a massive project begun by me in the Spring of 2004. I no longer remember all of the details about the project but I know it was going to recap some of the ‘story’ that had taken place in the mythical Cavern of the D’ni people as well as provide additional insight into the fringes of the game’s story telling. It was also going to semi-document how many of those virtual relationships were formed. But, let me stop right here before I derail this article with tedious, unrelated factoids. The bottom line is I spent the entire spring and summer of that year, writing, compiling resources (I ended up with two very thick resource guides), and Photoshopping, and all what not. It became a full time job.

And then it hit me. What was I doing? Why was I working so hard? It’s fun to play in someone else’s sandbox now and again but come on. And then another thought….I’ll make a computer game of my own! And I could make millions! Yeah, that’s it! Genius!

Cue the choir and the heavenly light.

By the autumn of 2004, I was taking classes at New School University in New York City for 3-D modeling, web design, and basic code writing. I was having fun and meeting some nice people. I would also meet a couple of people who would help propel my newly imagined Station 12 universe from something rattling around in my brain to something a little more concrete, if only briefly.

Next chapter: Infinite City Studio is (still)born! Here we get into the meat and potatoes or world-building and witness the start of a circuitous route to a finished novel.

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Slow And Steady Wins The Race

This has been crazy week. Revisions continued apace when possible and when I say continued, I mean I continued to wrestle with chapter two. Man, was that an ugly piece of writing. And guess what? Chapter three was spawned from the same misbegotten parent. And by that, I mean me, I wrote it and it’s…not so good. The good news, though, is it’s only going to get easier because the further along I got in the book, the more aware I became of what I wanted to have happen. Early on, I had a halfway decent idea of who the players were, and how I wanted them to behave, but not a clear idea of how everything was going to turn out. Hence, the slash and burn of the beginning in order to conform to what comes later.

My crazy week consisted of taking a little trip to Rhode Island on Tuesday to say goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean for awhile and for my wife and I to say so long to a departed loved one. It was cold and windy at the beach and almost 100% deserted. In other words, perfect. Though I would have liked to swim, honestly. Monday and Wednesday were normal work days. But, Thursday I flew out to Seattle to find us a new place to live, which I accomplished today. I’m writing this little entry from my bunk in the Green Tortoise Hostel waiting for my seven roommates to arrive. I feel so artsy fartsy here. Anyway, it’s back to Connecticut on Monday where the real preparations begin for this crazy, lunatic relocation.

So, not much to report this week. But, as soon as I finish uploading this article, I’ll begin my multi-part look back at 2004 when this project began. It’s interesting how many variations of this project there were and what was accomplished (or not) to get where I am now.

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Let The Rewriting Begin!

It’s been about two weeks since I completed the first draft of my book. It was very exciting…for about two days. That’s when I started the revision process and realized how much work was still ahead of me. But, those two days were glorious. Dreams of the perfect query letter floated in my head. (The query letter is a one page pitch of your novel to agents and/or publishing houses.) Within a reasonable timeframe, I would then hook up with the perfect literary agent who embraced my vision completely and who understood “where I was coming from and where I wanted to go”. He or she would then marry me to the perfect publishing house which embraced my vision completely and understood “where I was coming from and where I wanted to go”. And so the adventure would begin. Until I read my chapter two. God, what a mess.

It’s truly an amazing process to put your thoughts and ideas down on paper and watch them change into something else. If you didn’t understand that sentence, welcome to the process. If you did, you might enjoy my book. Seriously, rereading your own written work is a trip. In many ways, it’s like reading someone else’s material, which in the case of revision is a good thing. I guess.

“Station 12: Novus Vera” is basically a literary tale with science fiction elements. People who will read this story will probably transpose that description but I don’t know yet how far I’m willing to commit to the sci-fi genre publically. As a novel, I want it taken seriously but as a potential movie…Boffo! But, for now, I’m trying to bestow some big ideas and I don’t want it diluted by the fantastic. On the other hand, the fantastic is truly fantastic and big fun. Ultimately, such distinctions will be up to the readers. But, no matter how fantastic the tale, I’m trying to root it in the reality we know which is actually kind of a challenge for me. Particularly in the area of dialogue. It makes me laugh to reread a lot of my dialogue because people just don’t talk like that! Now, this could be a good thing in some cases but not all. Or, it could be a question of style. Ah, now there’s an interesting statement. What’s my style, I wonder? Do I have one? Am I forming one as I write? Only time will tell.

Anyway, I’m a little ways off from writing that perfect query letter and I’m glad you’ll be along for the ride. The book is twelve chapters long plus a Prologue and I’m now diving into chapter three. It’s a complicated story in terms of the compact timeframe, the number of characters, and the intricate plotting and surprise reveals. Reaching the end of the manuscript was a milestone but it also impacted greatly the writing that came before. Fortunately, that impact shined a light on the problems of the earlier chapters and the revisions are coming fast and easy. (Did I just say easy?)

I plan on updating this blog every Friday or any day I’ve completed a milestone. The first milestone is behind me; I’ve completed the first draft. That version has been boxed and archived. The next milestone will be the query letter I send to the literary agents. As soon as I’m comfortable with the revision, that letter is going out immediately (pending its creation). Next Friday I’m going to delve into the history of this project (and when I say project, I’m not just referring to this novel) which dates back to the autumn of 2004. Believe me when I tell you, it’s an interesting tale.

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It’s a Launch!

Welcome! Well, this is it, the official launch of a personal blog that’s been created specifically to track my progress in building a multimedia franchise from the ground up. It’s a lofty goal, yes? I’m nothing if not a dreamer. Unfortunately, I’m not particularly ambitious and that tends to slow projects of this magnitude down a wee bit.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Of immediate concern is the publication of my first novel, “Station 12: Novus Vera”. After six years of behind-the-scenes world-building, building up and tearing down a small computer game project in record time, starting a related novel and stopping, and writing scripts for a series of short Internet films and creating only a trailer, the universe of Station 12 will finally see the light of day. That is, if I can land an agent and convince a publishing house that we’re sitting on the next best-selling book series which would lead to the production of summer tent pole films, comic book offshoots, a TV series, and of course, lunch boxes. In other words, sliced bread.

Here’s where we stand: The first draft of the manuscript is complete. For an extremely brief synopsis of the story, visit my web page at http://www.station12universe.com/library. I’ll eventually elaborate on the story either here or at the site for you early adopters. For now, let’s just call it a literary, genre-bending novel and leave it at that, m’kay? Currently, the book runs 410 manuscript pages but that will increase when I adjust the margins (you learn something new everyday) and again when I complete the revisions (goodbye summer).

The number one goal of this blog is to allow interested parties to follow along, observing the process of having a book published. This, of course, is risky because I may not know how to write one. But, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Assume let’s that I can and press on. The number two goal is to get feedback and advice from those who wish to provide it. I’m always ready to learn and to shoot down any ideas that take me out of my comfort zone. So, have at it! In the words of Frazier Crane, I’m listening. And finally, and very obviously, I’m trying to build grass roots support for my project. Share and Subscribe is the mantra I’ll be pushing. I have two sub-reasons for this point: First is to garner mass support for the project and gain the attention of would-be publishers. (Duh!) They like to know that a  project has a built-in platform. Second, I really want to see first hand how these viral marketing schemes take off on their own. Should I have used the word scheme?

There are a lot of blogs in the world. Why should you read mine? Because I really check for typos. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any distracting spelling errors in my work. It’s a pet peeve of mine.

So, again, welcome! It’s nice to have you here. There’s lots more to come. I hope to post every week with a combination of progress updates, historical look-backs at how the project came to be, and various supposin’s. Always feel free to comment, I like a good conversation.

-Danny-