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| ===Previous Writing Experience=== | | ===Previous Writing Experience=== |
| I've never been published as a writer. But I do often post to poetry/prose forums and I have been known to keep a blog. That experience has made my sims a tad verbose at times about my characters' internal thoughts (indeed, one of my points for improvement going into this group was my lack of dialog with other players). I've also tended at times to make simming into a more laborious task than it needs to be. But that is probably also owing to the fact that I want to get out of this experience some practice writing. | | I've never been published as a writer. But I do often post to poetry/prose forums and I have been known to keep a blog. That experience has made my sims a tad verbose at times about my characters' internal thoughts (indeed, one of my points for improvement going into this group was my lack of dialog with other players). I've also tended at times to make simming into a more laborious task than it needs to be. But that is probably also owing to the fact that I want to get out of this experience some practice writing. |
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| ==The Modus Operandi==
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| I have approached this game with several major goals in mind. Broadly these goals include the intellectual and psychological edification of the players involved as well as myself, exploration of issues as they might evolve in the future (for example, religion and its role in society), and experimentation with literary styles. Let us examine each of these in turn.
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| ===Intellectual and Psychological Edification===
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| I have done my best to create in Breeman a character with a rich thought life. In writing his thought life I have tried to give my readers some food for thought (excuse the pun). I've given Breeman a good imagination that serves both him as a computer programmer and me as a writer. I have been able to capitalize on his imagination in creating extended metaphors by which to carry themes and story arcs through multiple sims. The major example I can think of now is Breeman's '[[Breeman Emotional Maturity Story Arc: Fears|crying issue]]' in some recent posts, in which the images of the planet Venus and of supersonic flight were presented as lines of thought supporting the main storyline.
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| The [[smiley]]s also served me as sources of interesting ideas, while also providing a readily deployable engineering task force to grant Breeman greater mobility (consider for example, Breeman's electing to join the boarding party aboard the [[USS Phoenix]] during the [[USS Independence-A]]'s retaking of that vessel).
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| In Breeman I have tried to create a voice of moderation. Whereas many of my PNPCs show some kind of extreme Breeman will try to correct these flaws. A good example of this occurred in a sim in which Breeman tried to bring Novak's excessive jubilance into check.
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| <blockquote>
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| <pre>
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| Breeman: Mr. Novak, I understand that for you this voyage is a practicum. But you still need to tow the line like the rest of us.
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| ::Sarah was starting to understand. She was coming down from her fun-loving undergraduate self and landing into a hardened shell of reality. It was
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| the shell which her mother and father had started to tell her about when she'd reached age thirteen and which the two had not stopped talking about
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| since.::
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| Novak: I-I understand sir.
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| Breeman: Look, I know how you're probably feeling right now. I joined starfleet because I didn't want to have the responsibilities that a life in the
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| world would have meant. But now I've got other responsibilities. I have to serve this team as best I can. Part of that was you and I testing out
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| this devil's garden so that I can now tell Lt. Cmdr Brice that our ship won't be destroyed by a rogue spatial anomaly.
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| Novak: Okay. Thank you sir. I will be more ... serious.
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| Breeman: That's good. ::He smiled:: Now let's go and get this report off to Commander Brice before he starts wondering what the holdup is.
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| </pre>
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| </blockquote>
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| When Breeman encounters flaws in himself I use the opportunity to produce interesting metaphors. It is my hope that through Breeman's voice I can provide inspiration to others both through the character's flaws and through his strengths. In short, for me simming is not only an exercise in entertainment but it is also an excercise in exploring the way things could be both in the world at large and in the internal world of the self.
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| ===Exploration of Issues===
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| I have devoted some posts exclusively to exploring social or philosophical issues. For example, a recent post concerned [[Jan Droogendyk]] attending a service at the 'chapel' aboard DS-17. I employed [[Patri Jia Kom]] in order to look at neuro-plasticity in greater detail, after having read Norman Doidge's book. I had her brain somewhat damaged by the effects of a botched [[Grendellai]] attempt at tagging her as a slave. The effects of this slave tagging included an almost psychic ability to sense the transmissions of data abroad and more generally it led to Patri's having a very unstable personality.
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| ===Literary Style Experimentation===
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| As mentioned previously, metaphor has played a large role in my sims. However, I have also employed dramatic irony. I worked with another member of my ship (Nickels) to produce a sim which explored the problem of occasional drops in self esteem as they are experienced by most of us. This sim made use of irony in that Breeman was attempting to hide his own emotions while the person with whom he conversed believed him to have been witness to a failure on his part.
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| ==Characters== | | ==Characters== |