Constitution Writing Workshop 104
Anyone remember these?? It's been a bit of a longer sojourn than expected, but the Constitution Writing Improvement Workshops are back!
For those who need a refresher, and those who were not with the Constitution last summer, take a look at the sidebar on our wiki page. Go ahead, give it a (re)read, we can wait. We'll be here when you get back...
Now that you've refreshed yourself with the previous Workshops, you'll see that we placed a lot of attention on descriptions - the first two Workshops, in fact! There's a good reason for that. Unlike the universe that we base our writing off of, we don't have the benefit of the visual medium that the television series and movies allow. We can tell in an instant that we are meeting an exotic new species because they look so distinctive and dress so differently. We need to find a way to distill that momentary glance of clarity into our short-story collaborative roleplay style, and that's where descriptions serve us so well.
However, strong descriptions are only part of the story (pun intended). In fact, one could argue that they are NOT the story, that they are but enhancements, like the seasonings, to the story. So then, how do we improve the story? There is no one silver bullet, no one magic bean, that will miraculously make a story 'better'. And that is because writing is subjective, not objective. Even the best writers in the world know that, and they employ a full palette of different tools to try and 'up their game':
The overriding theme is to try and be empathetic to your reader. Put yourselves in their shoes as if you had received your sim in your inbox. Would it grab your attention? Would it keep you engaged? Can you recognize the characters and locations as fully-fleshed entities? Would it entice you to jump in and add to the story?
However, what we do in this game is vastly different than what novel writers or television/movie scriptwriters or graphic novel writers do, and that is because of the collaborative nature of our work. We don't get to decide how the plot, settings, and characters come together from start to finish ourselves, we have to share that and build it together as we go along. We can try to influence each other with ideas about plot progression and conversation progression through our writing style in our sims, but ultimately it is the unpredictable and exciting nature of collaboration that makes this fun (and makes it a game!). The one thing that we have ultimate control over is our character. Nobody else is allowed to make your character say or do anything you don't want your character to do... they can assume how they will think, speak, or act, but cannot impel your character to do such things. But how well do your fellow writers know your character? Do you give them enough information to make fair assumptions?
Yes, we have our character bios on the wiki, and yes, they are pretty and contain a wealth of information. However, those are but a snapshot of your character's stats and background. They do not convey the reality of your character the way your descriptions and mannerisms do in your writing. How do you make your characters more real, in that the other players 'get' them and know how they tick? By making them real, breathing, complex entities that others want to have their characters interact with. But it's not just your characters that the other writers are interacting with. It's with your settings and the scene that you're helping to build. Whether IC or OOC, you stand a much better chance of engaging and inspiring your fellow writers by being respectful, accommodating, and inclusive with your work.
It is incumbent on each of us to jointly build a scene that inspires each other to greater heights. The barest minimum, the skeleton of our sim style, is to answer tags and leave tags in return. But how inspiring is that? :) If you're looking for some more ideas on how to elevate your storytelling that are directly applicable to our game, check out these primers from our fleet website:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to examine your writing and that of your fellow shipmates and try to identify elements that make them more immersive. Not just descriptions, though they are very important, but what is the hook that draws you in and want to continue the scene? Is it something that was discussed in the links above, or something completely different? And unlike that famous action franchise, this message will not self-destruct, so come back and refresh your ideas regularly!