Some thoughts about writing and getting things done

I've decided to share with you some thoughts that came to my mind recently. It's almost a year since I've thought about this game, and it seems that I somehow became one of those guys who can keep their projects running for months. And I do this in a damn foreign language!

As the communities like that around tf games are the communities of the creators (I bet everybody here at least thought about writing the own game and most of you probably tried to do it), maybe you'll find this text useful.

Anyway, there was a conversation between Stephen King and George R. R. Martin on some convention (you can find it on YouTube), where Martin asked this question: "how do you write so damn fast?" and it quite inspired me to write this text. "The Parity" is the longest text I've ever written. For now, it's 177k words, so is longer than J. J. R. Tolkien's "The two towers". And it's about 35% of the planned game. And I wrote this amount of text and code in 9 months. It's my personal goal. I had to ask myself: "how do you write it so damn fast?".

The job for the one-man army

And the answer is complex. In Polish there is a term "the straw enthusiasm" that means starting things, making them with great enthusiasm for a while, and abandoning them for a new project. It was my burden for years, yet I think that it was my blessing. As I have a really good memory, I gained a lot of different skills thank my restless creativity. I can be "the one-man army". I've tried many things and I can use my own experience.

I have some experience in writing long texts too. I am an author of two books (one of them was even published 4 years ago), so I know that waiting for the inspiration to write is bullshit. Of course, it's great when I want to write, but I need to keep writing even I hate every second spending on it. So I write.

Of course, what's helping me is the script - or better to say - the draft. Of course, it has no crucial details. There are notes like: "the transformation takes place in chapter 3", "the concert is in chapter 5", "if you follow Justin's path, in chapter 9 you can become his girlfriend" (ups, a little spoiler ;) ).  I know which events occur besides Paul(ine)'s actions. So, when I write, I have in mind which elements of the story I have to introduce to keep the action flowing.

For writing The Parity I already see a scheme. I make the chapter in Twine that is between 70-85 passages. When it's finished it should be about 18-25k words. Then I write the scenes which I've had in my head since the very beginning. It's usually just after publishing the previous chapter, so I see your feedback, I get a lot of money, and likes in my entry on TF Games, you write private messages to me, etc. It's a cyclic honeymoon that is enough for me to write about 20 passages. 

Then the rough time comes, when I hate writing. I write then the shortest and less important passages. As my everyday goal is to write 10 passages daily, at that moment 5 are victory. When I finally have around a half passages written, and I see the deadline ahead of me, I have the last stage, where I'm just writing. I wake up at 7:00 or even 6:00 in the morning and write. Sometimes I even write 13 or 15 passages during one day (my personal record is 19 passages written in one day in chapter 3). Then I release the update, the feedback flows, and so on... 

Usually, I write the longer passages in the morning, so if you see something you need to scroll it was probably written around 8:00 AM. Luckily, I don't need to write in the sequence of the events, so I jump through the scenes. Usually, I start with one of the reactions before writing the actual scene. It's hard for me to write different paths at some time. There are days when I focus on some character, for example, I'm writing all dialogues between Paul(ine) and Olivier, or write most of the scenes with Martha. Some scenes are generally hard for me, so I write them in the end.  

Around the places and people I know

I think that the keys to my success are the setting I know and the characters I like. I'm glad that I place the story in Poland, however, I'm aware that maybe I have a narrower audience. But I know American high school only from pop culture, and even I'm good at pop culture, it's weird to me to write about the country I've never been to. It reminds me of an anecdote about H. P. Lovecraft and some young author that wrote to him a letter with the request of some information about New England because he wanted to set his story there. Lovecraft simply advised him to place the story in his neighborhood, and I think that's decent advice.

And well, the characters. There is no character strictly based on me, but there is a lot of me in all members of the main cast (well, not in Robert, Carl and David, I hope). There is a lot of me when Paul(ine) is being laughed at for listening to "unplugged" music. There is a lot of me when Justin switches off the emotions and thinks that he isn't trying enough to be "normal". There is a lot of me when Olivier argues with Claudia about religion. And there is a lot of me in Paul(ine)'s father's behavior when he put bread in the fridge because his mind is cloudy because of the project he tries to manage...

And of course, this story is some kind of tribute to the childhood friendship that allows us to survive the dark storms of growing up. I really cheer the main cast. I simply like those people and I want to see them grow and I appreciate their will to fight. So, even I am the only one here who knows how this story ends, I still wait for the finale. It's a weird thing to be a fan of my own work...

The support

But the greatest thing I have is the support I got from the people around me. My fiancee of course won't read it, but she knows that writing The Parity is important to me. My friends, even when keep repeating "but do you know how bad it sounds?", also talk with me when I need them. Of course, money helps. I mean, I earn from my work around $800 and as I inherited the flat I'm quite well situated. So, as you get me around $300 monthly, your support really matters. So yeah, I appreciate it.

But the greatest thing is that you are waiting for the next updates. That you send me those messages in which you ask about the paths and characters. I really appreciate that the comments aren't only about bugs you noticed and about sex between Paul(ine) every NPC I introduce to the story. As I follow the games that are primary inspirations for me (especially Vim's "You Throw Like a Girl" and tufty's "The Weekend") I have to say that I have a better audience. :)

Oh, and music of course. I like that "The Parity" is so full of good music I constantly listening to while I'm writing. I think it's important to have the old masters around. :)

Thanks a lot, really. :)